by Anna Lowe
Todd nearly let his claws out again. If this Roy guy turned out to be the one who’d threatened Anna last week, he’d kill him, no questions asked.
He caught up with Soren, whose brow was heavily furrowed. “Christ. If it wasn’t Roy, we have a problem. We still don’t know who the rogue was.”
Todd sniffed the air, suddenly glad Simon had gone after Anna. If that rogue was still in the area, he didn’t want Anna out there on her own.
“But, shit,” Soren went on. “If it was Roy, we have a problem, too. The wolves of Twin Moon Ranch won’t like us hunting down one of their own.”
Not even a rogue who ambushes our women in the woods? he wanted to protest.
A police car pulled up at the end of the alley, and the man driving it looked equally grim. It was Kyle, a Twin Moon wolf who was also a state cop.
“Get in,” he said, nodding them into the back. “I’ll take you to the spot where Zack picked up the trail. You think you can tell is if it’s a match with the wolf who stalked Sarah on that hike?”
Todd’s bear growled. The wolf who stalked Anna on that hike.
“If it’s the same wolf, I’ll know.”
Soren motioned Kyle back onto the road. “Let’s go track this bastard. Now.”
Chapter Fourteen
Anna sped down the main road out of town, as angry with herself as she was with the situation. God, she hadn’t overreacted, had she?
She sat straighter in the driver’s seat and dug her nails into the soft leather of the steering wheel. Okay, she’d definitely overreacted back there. Todd looked so hurt, so lost. Maybe she should have stayed.
But he’d hurt her, damn it. Did he expect her to sit and nod and say okay?
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she dug it out quickly, hoping it might be Todd.
The caller’s number was hidden so she clicked on the incoming text, switching her focus from the road to the phone and back again.
Car broke down. Can you come pick me up? — Janna.
Janna? Hadn’t she left the café earlier for an afternoon out with Cole?
Apparently, she had, and that beaten-up little Ford had died on her again.
Another text beeped through, and the red light she reached lasted just long enough to let her read.
Arizona Road 9257, it said. Mile marker 11.
Anna didn’t know the area well, but she was pretty sure she’d seen the turnoff to 9257 when she’d driven to the national forest with Sarah.
“There’s a reservoir down there,” Sarah had said, pointing it out. “Some bald eagle nests, too.”
She wondered what Janna was doing all that way down there. But then again, with Janna, you never knew. Maybe she and Cole wanted to check out the eagles?
The light switched green, and she made a last-minute left turn. She’d miss the salvage place by taking this detour first, but it could wait, she supposed. She did a double take in the rearview mirror as she turned. Was that Simon in the car four vehicles back?
But then a truck rumbled past, and she’d made the turn so quickly, the car disappeared from view. Was Simon on the way to help Janna? But if he was, he’d just missed the turn.
She shook her head. It couldn’t be. She was just imagining things.
At the next red light, she keyed in her reply. On my way. See you soon.
It didn’t take long to escape the busy central part of town and join the highway heading north. The turn to the side road was exactly where she thought it would be. She’d never been down that road before, and it turned out to be much narrower and rougher than she assumed. After two bumpy miles, the asphalt petered out to dirt, and she slowed to a crawl. The truck creaked around turn after turn, making the junk in the back rattle so loudly, she wanted to shout. She stopped to text Janna again, but she’d hit a patch with no satellite connection. And no wonder, considering the steep, rocky hills that hemmed in the road.
She counted down the miles, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. After mile marker 10, the road curved slowly, and when it straightened, she saw Janna’s car parked in a little pullout by the trailhead. Actually, there were three cars: Janna’s little Ford — that had to be it, even though Anna swore Janna’s car was yellow and not red — plus two other vehicles parked at the far end of the small pullout. One was a van with tinted windows left slightly open — and man, that must have had a hell of a time getting out this far. The other was a big rig pickup with Kansas plates.
She’d half expected to find Janna leaning casually against her car, but there was no one to be seen. Anna parked, got out of the truck slowly, and looked around. A hawk cried overhead. The wind stirred the parched grass on the hillsides.
“Janna?” she called, turning in a circle. Had she gone off bird watching while waiting for help?
The car looked okay, with no steam rising from the hood, so that was a good sign. But where was Janna? Where was Cole? The owners of the other vehicles were nowhere to be seen, either. Maybe they’d gone hiking for the day.
“Janna?” she called a little louder.
Her voice echoed faintly off the rocky bluffs.
“Over here!” the delayed reply came.
Anna walked a few steps and looked around.
“Janna?” she called, more quietly this time as uncertainty hit her. Why didn’t Janna come out? Why did her voice waver like that?
A thousand scary possibilities hit her at once. Maybe Janna had gone scrambling over the rocks in search of an eagle’s nest and fallen. Or maybe Cole had been bitten by a rattlesnake. Sarah had said rattlers weren’t that big a danger on the hike they’d done, but that was a forested area and this was drier, open space.
She glanced around. An open, eerie place.
“Over here!” the voice came again, choked and more urgent this time.
The hair prickled on the back of her neck, and she hesitated. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. But if Janna and Cole were out there and one of them was hurt, she had to do something. She checked her phone. Still no reception.
“Please!” the voice begged.
There was a rake sticking out of the heap of junk in the back of the truck, and she nearly pulled it out. But then she spotted an old set of golf clubs and took one instead. It seemed silly, carrying a piece of sports equipment through the scrubby landscape, but heck, if there were snakes out there, she ought to carry something, right?
“Janna? Cole? Are you okay?” She walked a few steps toward a cluster of rocks where the voice came from. A stand of thorny acacia blocked her way around the right side of the rocks, but a narrow path led around the left side, so she headed that way, picking her way slowly. The last thing she needed was a twisted ankle or a snake bite. Finally, she pushed aside a branch and came out into an open space, where she pulled up short.
A woman stood stiffly with her back to a tree, her face hidden by harsh shadows. But even in the mottled effect of the light, it was obvious that wasn’t Janna. This woman was shorter, and her hair was fairer than Janna’s. Anna took one more step then froze.
The young woman’s face was streaked with tears, and a red bruise marred the left side of her face. Her hands were behind her body, as if—
“I’m so sorry,” the woman whispered at the very moment Anna realized she’d been tied to the tree.
Anna jerked back a step and gaped.
“Where’s Janna?” she asked, confused.
“They made me do it. I had to play along to save the others.”
Anna gasped. Jesus, she’d been tricked. It hadn’t been Janna calling for her. It was this stranger, luring her out here. But why?
The young woman’s head jerked to one side, and when she looked back at Anna, her eyes were desperate and wide. “Run!” she called hoarsely. “Run! Get away!”
It took Anna a second to react, but when something started crashing through the bushes, she bolted back in the direction of the road. Whatever was happening, she had to get to the truck and get away. She had to get somep
lace where she could call for help.
Two steps before she reached the path around the boulders, the shadows overhead flickered, and a man leaped right into the path before her.
“Hold it!” he yelled.
She gasped and backpedaled, then froze as the man slowly straightened from the crouch he’d landed in.
“Don’t! Emmett, please!” the woman behind her cried.
Anna spun to see the young woman strain at her bonds, but then she turned back to face the man. Now that he was upright, he was an inch taller than her. In any other situation, she’d have thought him unremarkable in every way — except for the pale gray eyes and the scar running vertically from his lip.
“We meet again.” He grinned.
Emmett LeBlanc? The man who’d asked about Sarah back in Montana? The man who wanted to kill the bear?
“Now, you were supposed to tell me if you heard anything from your cousin or those Voss brothers,” he said, speaking as if in the middle of a conversation and not out of the blue.
She gaped at him. Was he nuts?
He tut-tutted at her, shaking a finger. “I told you to tell me.”
Jesus, he really was nuts.
She backed up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He didn’t acknowledge her words. He just went on in that menacing voice. “Now if you’d listened to me, you could have avoided all this.”
Her hand tightened around the golf club. All what?
“The others have to die, but you could have lived.”
A chill ran through her shoulders. He wanted her to die?
“They’re the ones who are unpure. You were innocent.”
What the hell was he talking about?
He sniffed the air and scowled. “But now you, too, have crossed the line.”
“Emmett, she didn’t do anything!” the woman begged from behind her.
Anna swiveled her head between them. Was the woman the man’s accomplice or his enemy?
He gestured wildly and screamed. “She’s whored herself to that bear! You can smell him all over her!”
“You’re crazy,” Anna retorted, shaking her head. He was bat-shit crazy, and he wanted her dead.
Think! Act! Flee! Alarms flashed through her mind, paralyzing her completely.
“Now, don’t think I’m not grateful to you for leading me to the others…” Emmett went on.
God, did he want to kill Sarah and Jessica, too? She could see the blood lust in his eyes. But why? What did they do?
He took a step closer, and Anna jumped back, raising the golf club like a sword.
Emmett laughed. Cackled was more like it, and the sound carried over the harsh landscape.
“Whatcha gonna do with that, honey?”
Club your brains out, she wanted to shout. But her hand shook and her knees wobbled, and he laughed again.
“You don’t want to mess with me, honey.”
“You don’t want to mess with me,” she barked through clenched teeth.
Anger flashed in his eyes as he studied her. “You know, I was going to go easy on you.” His eyes traveled the length of her body, making her skin crawl. “I was going to make it quick. But maybe I’ll teach that bear a lesson.” He nodded to himself, considering some new plan. “Wouldn’t it just drive him crazy to find out he wasn’t the last man who fucked that little human of his?”
“Leave her alone!” the young woman screamed.
Anna didn’t know whether to run or hold her ground or strike out before the madman did.
Do something! her whole body screamed.
The young woman sounded desperate enough to be an ally, but Anna didn’t have time to free her. The path out was narrow, so she couldn’t fake a move in one direction then dart in another to get around Emmett.
“Don’t bother. You’re gonna die,” he said in a flat tone. Like it was inevitable. Mechanical. Impossible to avoid. “And the others, too. Every single one of them.”
Her mind flashed with images of Sarah and the others. Jessica. Soren. Simon. Janna. Cole. And Todd, God, please, not Todd. Not any of them!
“And that baby. That fucked-up mongrel has to die.”
She froze, gaping at him. Surely he didn’t mean little Teddy. Surely no one was sadistic enough to want a child dead?
His eyes were cold and calculating, telling her he was.
Not the baby. God, not the baby.
Todd! her soul screamed, desperate for a connection with someone. Desperate to warn him so he could warn the others.
“You shouldn’t have gotten mixed up with that dirty Voss clan.” Emmett shook his head.
“What are you talking about?”
“They shouldn’t have crossed species lines!” he roared.
Anna rocked back on her heels.
“Leave her alone!” the young woman screamed.
“The hell I will!” Emmett yelled, turning purple with rage. “This is just what Victor worked so hard to stamp out.”
Anna shook her head. Who the hell was Victor?
Emmett’s tirade went on. “Bears mixing with wolves. Wolves mixing with humans. They dilute the bloodlines. They weaken us all!”
Anna shook her head. God, he really was nuts.
“Victor was just as crazy as you are!” the young woman yelled back.
“You’ll see,” he snarled back. “Someday, shifters of all species will thank us for our work.”
Shifters? A memory from the furthest reaches of her mind stirred. Bears…wolves… Like the stories Sarah had once told her about. Of men who could change shapes from human to animal. Of animals who could shed their skins and walk on two feet. It sounded so romantic at the time, but even as kids, they’d known the idea of shifters was ridiculous.
This man didn’t seem to think it was ridiculous. But clearly, he was out of his mind.
She turned the golf club in her hands, searching for a better grip. Where should she aim when he advanced? His head? His knees? His ribs?
“Run.” The young woman nodded for the hills. “Run!”
“Yeah,” Emmett said, grinning wickedly. “Run. That would make this more fun.”
He stepped forward slowly, motioning for the hills. God, he really meant it. He wanted to chase her down.
Todd! she screamed inside in spite of herself. There was no way Todd could hear her. There was no way he could help.
So help yourself, damn it! the other side of her mind yelled back.
“Go ahead. Run.” Emmett encouraged her with a wave.
She steeled her nerves and made the quickest, craziest plan of her life. The truck was her best way out, but to get to it, she had to get past Emmett. The only other way out was through thick scrub. But that would never work. She could already feel the thorns tearing at her skin and clothes.
Emmett grinned wider, and his teeth looked longer and pointier than before.
“Catch me,” she blurted, then turned and sprinted for the hills.
Chapter Fifteen
Anna knew she had only one chance to pull this off.
She ran, imagining little Teddy. Sarah. Soren. Todd. She had to get this exactly right. She had to get away from this lunatic and warn the others of his awful plan.
Behind her, Emmett cackled in glee and broke into a run.
Chase me, you bastard, she wanted to shout. Chase me.
Heavy footsteps thumped the soil behind her. In two more steps, she’d reach the thick scrub where it would be impossible to run at full speed.
Right there. She focused on a low, flat rock that lay at the edge of the clearing. That was her spot.
Something whipped through the space around her hair — Emmett grasping for her.
“Run,” he snickered. “Run.”
Oh, she’d run all right. Just not where he expected her to. She stretched her legs and made her next step a leap aimed at the rock.
The second her left foot hit the surface, she planted her right foot and whirled, swinging the club like a b
at.
Swing from the hips, she remembered her dad coaching her through softball. You get more power that way.
She swung her hips, followed through with her shoulders, then gaped as the golf club whacked into Emmett’s head with a sickening crack.
Emmett’s eyes widened the split second before the golf club struck his temple. He yelped — too late to dodge it — and crumpled to the ground.
She stared for a moment, sick to her stomach, then hurried to the woman and pulled at the rope.
“Go!” the woman told her. “Just go!”
She scratched at the ropes, but the worn fiber refused to slide loose.
“Go! You have to save them!” the woman cried.
“I can get it.” She tore with her nails, working at the ends.
Emmett groaned and stirred.
“Go!”
Every instinct told her to help this woman, but Emmett was slowly swaying to his feet.
“You bitch,” he said in a pained growl.
“Run!”
The young woman’s words spurred Anna into motion. She sprinted down the footpath around the boulder, desperately calculating her next moves. She’d left the truck unlocked. The key was in her pocket. She had to get in and lock the doors manually, then pull out the key.
Emmett cursed behind her. His boots thudded over rock.
She hammered as fast over the ground as she could. She’d get the key out and drive like a banshee. Then she’d try the phone until she got a hold of someone to come help. Some helpful hikers, maybe, or the police. Then—
She leaned into the bend, shot around the boulder, and screeched to a sudden stop.
Six men formed a wall in front of her, daring her to break through.
Help! She wanted to grab their arms and gesture behind her. There’s a crazy man who’s tied up a woman. He wants to kill me and—
Part of her mind continued composing the plea for help, but a sinking sensation in her gut told her there was no use. Those men were not hikers, and they were certainly not the police.
She sidestepped, putting her back to the story-high boulder as Emmett came teetering into view.
“Get her,” Emmett barked, and they all closed in.