Terra swallowed at the manic shift in the redhead’s personality. “So, uh, now that you’ve heard the good news, I guess you feel better now?”
“You have no idea.”
“So you’ll let me go?”
The smile dropped. “Hell no.”
“But you just said the weight’s off your shoulders.”
The giddy mood dissolved in seconds. “Blaise was the driving force behind that pack of freaks, but they acted on his orders. They’re just as guilty for what happened to Jayson.”
Terra tried to imagine just what orders the deceased alpha had given to warrant the woman’s quest—and what part Connor had played in carrying them out. “Who’s Jayson?”
The woman pressed her lips together. “My brother. He’s lost to me now.”
A small twinge of pity joined the butterflies in Terra’s stomach. “I’m sorry. But maybe the others didn’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice.”
“Like you choosing not to involve me in your vendetta.”
“Or you choosing to get involved with a violent animal.”
Terra wondered. In some ways, she felt powerless to resist the inexplicable pull that drew her to Connor. She hadn’t chosen love. It had come crashing down on her.
“He hasn’t been violent with me,” she said calmly, “and you won’t even tell me what he supposedly did. You won’t even tell me your name. So I don’t see why I should change my mind about him and come on over to Team Redhead.”
A muscle in the woman’s jaw twitched. “My name is Jayel. And you have a bizarre definition of nonviolent if you don’t count him ripping into your neck with his teeth.”
Terra’s fingers brushed her shoulder absently. “What, you’ve never gotten a little wild in the sack? Never had a guy give you a hickey?”
The woman’s full lips curled in disdain. “You mean, am I a giant slut like you? That’d be a never-in-hell.” She rose from her chair again and sighed. “Time to shut up now. I need to think.”
Terra had more questions, and had really hoped she could find out more about the woman’s beef with Connor. At least she’d learned the woman’s name, if it was even her real one. Probably not. What the hell kind of name was Jayel? In any case, keeping Jayel talking would at least have meant less time to plan out a strategy for trapping the men. Not that they were anywhere near here.
Then again, the silence would give Terra time to think, too. Time to plan her way out of this. Connor and Nash weren’t about to bust in and save the day, so she’d have to save it herself.
Minutes passed by on the wall clock, each tick piercing the thick silence that descended. Ideas came and went just as quickly, ticking off one by one as she rejected each plan. Even if she could figure out a way to distract the woman long enough, what could she do? She didn’t have access to her car keys. She couldn’t outrun Jayel, let alone a bullet. She could get to the phone, perhaps, and dial 911, but the woman would get to her before anyone would pick up. Then what would she do to Terra?
Terra glanced at the woman as she paced back and forth, appearing lost in thought. Her ass sashayed back and forth as she walked, but her gun was held at steady attention. She would be such a beauty if not for the whole obsessive, murderous hatred.
Another minute’s thought popped up with a highly unoriginal, yet potential solution.
“I have to go to the bathroom,” Terra announced after bouncing the idea back and forth in her head until she couldn’t take it anymore. Besides, it was true.
Jayel kept pacing. “Tough shit. Hold it.”
“Seriously? Come on. Even kidnappers have to let their hostages pee.”
An aggravated sigh followed, and the huntress stopped. “Fine. Hurry the hell up. And don’t try anything. Where is it?”
Terra nodded toward the hall. “Right by the kitchen.”
“Let’s go.”
The gun pointed at Terra’s back as she made her way down the hall. Please don’t let her check, please don’t let her check, echoed through Terra’s thoughts incessantly as she approached the door. She paused in the doorway and turned before the woman could get a look inside. “I suppose I’m not allowed to lock the door.”
Jayel snorted. “Lock away. I’m coming in there with you.”
Terra’s brows shot up. “Like hell you are! I can’t pee with you standing over me, waving a gun around.”
“Like hell I’m letting you go in there alone.”
Frustration poured over the hope that had been peeking out from Terra’s dire circumstances. “Give me a break, will you? Just let me have one minute alone. I couldn’t even use the potty chair with an audience when I was two. Mom had to wait outside. I won’t lock the door. Feel free to bust in on me if it sounds like I’m peeing funny.”
Charcoal eyes rolled. “Oh, for fuck’s sake. Just hurry the hell up.”
“Thanks.”
Terra’s heart pounded as she closed the door. Her wide eyes shot straight over to her potential salvation—the frosted glass window beside the tub. First things first, however. She sat down and did her business, which despite her protests, was no problem at all. She’d spent weeks after her coma with strangers getting her on and off a bedpan. On-command performance was no longer an issue.
As soon as she finished, she raced to the window and used the whoosh of the flushing toilet to cover the sound of her raising the sash. Then she turned the sink on loud enough to hopefully mask her exit.
Getting over the sill proved harder than it should have been thanks to her stiff body, but she scrambled out the window as fast as she could.
Chapter Eleven
As soon as Terra was out the window and had landed on the narrow strip of side yard beside the house, she heard Jayel call through the door. “That’s enough, Goldilocks. Dry off or I’m coming in.”
Terra wasted no time. Rather than head toward the front, which her captor would no doubt expect her to do, Terra dashed for the rear yard. She crossed behind the patio furniture and past her mother’s vegetable garden, making it to the back wall at her best dead run. The cement block wall was high, but not too difficult to hoist herself up with a running head start. She scraped her palm on the way over, but ignored the stinging burn and dropped into the Fulsoms’ yard. She landed hard, however, and felt her bad knee give. She went down on hands and knees in a patch of petunias.
That’s when she heard the gunshots start.
“Jesus,” she whispered, automatically flattening herself on the ground with her hands shielding her head. Could bullets fly through a block wall? She shouldn’t hang around to find out.
“Jack! Stop!” she heard a frantic voice shout. A familiar frantic voice.
“Mom,” Terra said, pushing herself upright. Her parents were home? “Oh, God.”
The gunshots weren’t necessarily meant for Terra, then. The crazy woman was after her parents.
Terra moved away from the wall, tightening the robe that had fallen open during her flight. She intended to give herself another running head start to try to get back over, but her limp had returned with a vengeance and the yard on this side was lower, meaning a greater climb. She’d have to circle the block barefoot to go back home, and by then it would be too late. Not that she could do anything, anyway.
Maybe the neighbors whose yard she’d just invaded would let her use the phone. If they weren’t home, she’d have to add breaking and entering to her trespass charge and explain it all when she called the police. They wouldn’t arrest her. It was an emergency.
A woman’s shriek pierced her chaotic thoughts, and Terra knew it wasn’t Jayel screaming. There wasn’t time to get the police there. Limp or not, she had to get back over that wall.
Backing up with an awkward step-hop motion, Terra gritted her teeth and prepared for more pain than she’d had in months. She was crouched and ready to spring when the sounds of vicious bark-growls stopped her. Seconds later, amid snarls and more gunfire, a furry body leaped gracefully
over the top of the wall.
Her mouth agape, Terra watched the animal’s perfect arc as it landed in the grass behind her. She stared at the wolf that turned toward her, and even if she hadn’t remembered the unique color differences between the men’s animal forms, she somehow knew which of her cowboys was gazing up at her with wild gold eyes.
“Nash!” she exclaimed. “You came. But how did you even shift? Connor said you couldn’t without a full moon.”
The wolf didn’t answer, not that he could. Instead, Nash was busy eyeing her up and down, as if ensuring she was all right. Then he backed up and glanced at the wall, clearly planning on jumping back over.
“You can’t leave me here,” she said. “I hurt my leg.”
His head whipped around at that, but he was still poised to hurl himself back to the fight.
“I have to help my parents,” she said, louder. “Don’t you dare strand me here.” When he lowered his body to spring anyway, she hop-limped in front of him. “No way, Nash. I will never forgive you if you leave me here.”
For a moment, it almost seemed as if he would try to leap over her head, but with an obvious growl of frustration, he turned his back and waited. His growl turned to an impatient bark when she didn’t move right away, and she soon got the hint. Favoring her throbbing leg, she stepped beside him and hesitated. As wolves, both Connor and Nash were large, but not incredibly so.
“Are you strong enough to carry me?” she asked.
His reply was a disgusted, snort-like sneeze.
“Fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
She mounted Nash’s back and sat down, circling his furry neck with her hands and holding on tight. She’d barely gotten a firm grip on him when she felt his body lower, and then he sprang up. Terra gasped and shut her eyes tight, burying her head against the animal’s neck as she prayed silently that they weren’t about to crash into the cement blocks. Surely he would have needed a running head start to carry both of them safely over the wall?
For a few miraculous seconds, Terra felt like they were flying, soaring to the heavens and beyond. The descent came quickly, however, and with her eyes closed there was no way to tell whether or not they’d made it across. When Nash hit the ground feet first, the jolt jarred her grip loose. She flew off his back and began an awkward roll over what thankfully turned out to be soft grass. When her momentum halted, she groaned and fluttered her eyes open to see Nash already sprinting for the house. He leaped right into the bathroom window she’d come out of.
“Damn it,” she muttered as she pushed herself up.
Minor scrapes and cuts from the ungraceful landing were easily ignored, but the protest from her knee was less so as she made her way to the house. She knew the back slider door was locked, so she hobbled around to the window Nash had disappeared through. With her knee as it was, vaulting into it seemed unlikely. As fast as she could manage, she made her way to the garage.
The roar of blood thundered through her ears as she stole quietly through the darkened space. Both her parents’ vehicles were there alongside hers in the triple-car garage, and her hand slid over the warm hood of her mother’s sedan as she approached the door to the house. Why had they come back? Had they not believed Jayel’s story that Terra had run away? Or maybe they just decided not to do anything about it.
Once at the door, she paused and pressed her ear against it to listen. Two pissed-off wolves, a gun-waving psycho, and her shocked parents should make it anything but silent inside, but she heard nothing.
Gritting her teeth, she popped open the door and slid inside.
The garage door led into the laundry area off the kitchen, and she snuck through both to emerge into the hall leading to the den. That’s when she finally heard Jayel’s voice. It was quiet, but no less menacing despite a quiver that hadn’t been there when she’d held Terra hostage.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” the woman was saying. “Shut up.”
“Where’s our daughter?” Terra’s father asked.
“You were the one who called me, aren’t you?” her mother added. “She didn’t really run away.”
“Oh, she ran off, all right,” Jayel snapped. “But she’s not the one you should be worried about right now. She’s not what I’m after here. And if you’d have been smart, you’d have steered clear until I finished my business with these two.”
Terra made it to the edge of the den and peered around. The redhead’s back was to her, facing the four others in the room with a gun trained on the wolves. Her parents were standing in front of the TV, their hands raised in front of them with their eyes bugged wide. Nash’s eyes glowed with murderous rage as he glowered at the woman from beside a chair that contained the other wolf. Connor had the chain Terra had seen earlier around his neck, and he didn’t look good. His head rested weakly on his paws.
“It’ll be over quick,” the woman went on. “Then I’ll be out of your life.”
Nash snarled at her and took a step forward, placing himself in front of Connor. The threatening pose stood the hair on Terra’s arms on end, but Jayel just laughed.
“It won’t do you any good,” she said. “The first silver bullet will end your attempt to protect your alpha. The next one will end him.”
That got Terra’s feet moving. “No!”
Her parents’ already wide eyes bugged larger still when they spotted her coming up behind the woman. The redhead swung around, bringing the gun to bear, but Terra met her halfway and grabbed her gun arm. They struggled and spun back, the gun pointed precariously at her parents.
That’s when the deafening pop of a shot went off.
Her father made a grab to pull her mother out of the way, but there was no way he could do so in time. Nash was already on the move when the gun fired, however, and with a dramatic, graceful leap, his body caught the bullet in midair. He went down hard at her now-crouched parents’ feet.
“Nash!” Terra cried, and she let out a wail of despair that sounded inhuman, especially through the shrill ringing in her ears.
The huntress took advantage of Terra’s momentary shock and yanked free. She turned the weapon on Connor, who was struggling to get off the chair. The gun clicked, but didn’t fire.
“Fuck,” Jayel spat, and she raced to the other wolf while pulling something Terra recognized from a sheath on her belt. Terra ran after her with an uneven gait, although at the moment she couldn’t even feel the pain in her knee. All she cared about was saving her mate.
Connor was struggling against the metal chain around his neck, but somehow he wasn’t able to move away. The glint of the wicked silver knife flashed in the light of the nearby television as the woman’s arm came up. Terra launched herself at it, but it was too late. The knife plunged down until the hilt struck the fur of his shoulder and Terra stopped dead. So did her heart for a brief moment.
“God, no!” she shouted, but the clink of something metal clattering to the ground caught her attention. The blade had snapped clean off and glinted on the floor.
“What the fuck?” Jayel asked in obvious shock as she held up the broken hilt.
Terra jumped forward again and grabbed the woman, and her father was right there beside her. Between the two, they took hold of her arms and held her fast while she struggled to pull away.
“Call the police,” Jack barked at Lilith. “Hurry.”
Lilith glanced down at the bulk at her feet, which was no longer in the form of a wolf. Nash had shifted human and was lying there naked and bleeding, his face contorted in anguish as he pushed himself up.
Jayel gasped as she goggled at Nash. “You’re alive, too? Why the hell can’t I kill you?”
“What do I tell the police?” her mother asked.
“Anything,” her father said. “Just get them here.”
She nodded and stepped around the man who had taken a bullet for her before disappearing into the hall. Meanwhile, the redhead had gone completely wild and was thrashing like an animal betwe
en Terra and her father, who was letting out a string of profanity.
“Get her to the floor,” her father cried, and together they tried to drag her downward. A sharp kick caught Jack in the ribs, however, knocking the wind hard enough from him to send him to his knees. That’s all it took for Jayel to wrench free, and although Terra tried to lunge after her again, the redhead bolted for the front door and flung it open. Terra hobbled to the door as fast as she could, but she saw no trace of the woman.
“Which way did she go?” her father asked through raspy, wheezing breaths when she came back.
“I don’t know.” Terra bent over and helped him up. “She’s just gone.”
Connor had managed to slide himself off the chair and was trying to drag his body to where Nash lay groaning. Terra bolted to Connor’s side and unwound the chain from his neck. The wolf shuddered and immediately morphed back into human form.
“Thank you,” Connor said, sounding weak and out of breath. “She got that silver chain on me the second I chased her in here. I couldn’t do a damn thing to save any of you. I’m sorry.” His strength seemed to rally after she released him, and he straightened on shaky legs to rush to Nash’s side.
“Jesus,” Connor said as he examined the bullet wound.
Terra stood over Nash, her eyes wide. A hole was bleeding freely from his chest that was far too close to his sternum to believe he’d survived. Nash was trying to stand, but Connor held him back.
“Don’t try to move,” Connor said. “The bullet might still touch your heart, and it’ll be all over.”
Terra’s veins iced over at that.
“I’m okay,” Nash said, though the pain evident in his voice sounded otherwise as he clutched at his chest. “The bullet ain’t in me. I felt it go all the way through.”
Connor looked behind Nash’s back while Terra’s gaze lifted to see that he was right. There was a neat hole in the wall above the television, right where her mother’s head had been. Had the bullet not been slowed down by traveling through Nash first, her mother would likely be dead.
Allister, J. Rose - Displaced Cowboys [Lone Wolves of Shay Falls 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 16