Wild Fire (The Kingson Pride Book 2)

by Kristen Banet

“I didn’t say it was but the body count… nine when she was kidnapped. Ten with Cameron. Now two more?” Troy sighed. “We’re making a mess, and it’s going to catch up with us.”

  “I know,” Zachary threw an arm around his friend’s shoulder. Troy was sensitive. Both the leopard brothers were. They felt deeply, even if they didn’t show it. Gabe covered his emotions in drugs, and they were just getting past that when they came back to Wild Junction. Troy would just go wild. Parties, drinking, whores. “But we also can’t let anything happen to her.”

  “Fuck. Yeah, I know, and shit, she’s handled herself so well through all this. The nightmares are going to come back now, though. I know it.” Troy leaned down, putting his hands on his knees.

  “Later. We need to look through the hunters’ truck,” Zachary pulled Troy along. They had to figure out what to do with it. Dumping it in the middle of nowhere seemed like the best plan, maybe crash it into a tree so it worked with the ‘lost in the woods’ story.

  Zachary yanked the driver’s side door open. They had left it unlocked, so they weren’t planning on failing. Riley was right, they were arrogant, thinking they chose an easy target. Hitting her in public, at a popular place.

  He grabbed papers off the seat as Troy went to bed of the truck and climbed in.

  “They have camping gear and cameras and shit back here. Hunting rifles, tranquilizers, all of it.” Troy hissed. “They came prepared. Even have Kevlar back here though they fucked up and forgot to put it on.”

  “They didn’t think they would need it,” Zachary growled. The papers told him the entire story.

  Dossiers on all of them. Riley’s was on top. She was described as a skittish little thing that hid behind the rest of them. Getting her alone would make her an easy target. Pictures of her from the last month all over town, but none near the mansion, meaning they weren’t brave enough to get close to the pride’s property. They didn’t know her type of cat, but they assumed she wasn’t a fighter due to her size. Most shifters reflect their animals in size, look and temperament, so they had gotten that a little right. Cheetahs weren’t really a brawling cat, too skinny and lightweight to hold their own against other big cats.

  It noted that they never saw her with a weapon, but that was because she was smart enough to keep it in her purse and only practiced at home with it. None of them, like Sheriff had noted, had ever publicly carried around firearms.

  He gave a quick glance to all the guys’ dossiers and shook his head. It wasn’t good. They knew full names, their positions in the pride. Pictures from all over town when they had errands to run. These guys had done research and Zachary felt there might be more than just the two of them.

  The pride had been targeted. The entire pride.

  Everyone was leaving the diner now, and Zachary hissed at the files again. He shoved them at Brenton, who glanced over them and cursed. Then they were with Gabe, who sighed.

  “Well, this is bad.” Gabe groaned.

  “They don’t know about Sheriff,” Brenton pointed out, “so, you’re covered, old man.”

  Riley was trying to look, but Gabe wouldn’t let her. Zachary just grabbed her and pulled her away.

  “We’ll show you later,” he mumbled in her ear. “We have more important stuff to take care of. Wait until we get back to the house.” When she nodded, he released her, and she wrapped an arm around his waist. It made him purr.

  “I’m generally ignored by hunters since I hold an important position in town,” Sheriff shrugged. “Even if they did know about me, it would be a nightmare for them to kill me. An officer of the law is a bit different than the runaways they normally go after.”

  “They ignored us to for a long time since we’re powerful,” Brenton growled. “Taking someone like me on for a hunt would set the entire feline shifter population on the planet into a rage. Not because I’m Brenton Kingson but be-”

  “Because you’re a high ranking and very rich Alpha. Your death would bring attention to everyone.” Sheriff nodded. “It’s why this town has never had a hunter problem before. All the targets here are just too risky.”

  “Then why come after me?” Riley asked angrily. “It’s a known and public fact that I’m in the pride!”

  “It’s not just you,” Gabe said. “It’s all of us. They have dossiers on all of us, and, once we get home, we’re going to look through them. But first, like Zachary said, we need to figure out the rest of this.”

  “Andrew, hook up the truck, get it out of here. You know all the best spots to drop it. Troy, take out all the memory cards in those cameras and make sure nothing about us is left behind. Gabe, keep those files handy. The diner’s locked up and secure with a sign saying it will be closed for the next three days.” Brenton ran a hand through his hair, and Zachary knew he was stressed out. “Once Andrew is gone with the truck, we have to head out.”

  Andrew was gone ten minutes after Troy was done. He ended up just throwing all the cameras in a bag, along with any other electronics that weren’t physically attached to the hunters’ truck, and keeping them for Gabe. The bag was then thrown into Brenton’s SUV. They decided to leave Riley’s Porsche for the night.

  “So now we nee-” Sheriff stopped and looked out to the road. Another truck was pulling in and Zachary shoved Riley into the SUV and shut her in. She knew to get down between the seats and already had her gun out and ready.

  The truck stopped across the parking lot and two guys were sitting in the bed. Two more were in the cab.

  “I’m Sheriff Johnson, can I help you boys?” Sheriff angled himself in front of the rest of them, the biggest and most intimidating. He was also the fucking sheriff, so he was a statement in his uniform for the guys not to cause trouble.

  “Maybe, sir!” One called back. “We were supposed to meet a couple friends here. You seen ‘em?” Zachary forced back a growl. Oh yeah, they saw their friends alright. “They were in an old blue pickup.”

  “Nope,” Sheriff called back. “Have any of you?” He looked to all of the felines and Zachary put on a confused face, shaking his head.

  “Nah, Sheriff. Andrew didn’t say anything before heading home either,” Brenton did his best good ‘ole boy act and Zachary stopped a smile. They could play the game just as well as the hunters.

  “Sorry boys. I’m going to need to ask you to leave. The diner is closed, and this is technically private property.” Sheriff smiled.

  “Y’all are here,” one of them sounded a bit indignant and Zachary could smell the anger.

  “We own it,” Brenton smiled back. “Sorry but you need to leave.”

  “If we see your guys, where should we say they can find you?” Sheriff inquired. If this were any other night, it would have been an innocent gesture. The hunters looked between each other and then at the pride. They didn’t know about the Sheriff, but they were uncomfortable giving away their hiding place in front of the cats. The hunters knew exactly who was telling them to get gone.

  “They know where we’ll be,” and with that, the truck drove off.

  Once it was out of sight, Zachary still wouldn’t let Riley out. He had to make sure there was no one coming back. They all stared at each other for a long moment, and Sheriff shook his head.

  “Well. Two dead hunters, six more in town. This could get ugly.” Sheriff looked between them until his eyes landed on Brenton.

  “Sheriff,” Brenton hissed, “I’m putting my pride on lockdown.”

  “Yup. I’ll handle the bodies from here. No worries. You get home and get secure.”

  They parted, and Zachary climbed in with his… girlfriend? In the months that they’d had this arrangement, none of them had put a word to it. It was a lot of sex and hanging out, but other than the close ties of pride, it was also fairly casual. Pride made them family, and they kept it in the family. Maybe they didn’t need labels, Zachary thought, as Riley curled into him. He knew how he felt about her and was secure in it.

  But damn, he would love to hear her say
how she felt.

  GABE

  The moment they got home, Gabe went to his security center which was tucked into a room behind the workshop. All of them followed, pulling in chairs and taking seats to watch him work.

  The files were bad news. Riley’s was the most innocent. It was the others he was most concerned with.

  These hunters knew a lot. Too much.

  For Brenton, they knew his entire family line and how he inherited Kingson, Inc from his father, who got it from his grandfather. They knew that he only had humans working in his highest positions now, having fired all the shifters who worked for the company under his father. They had the addresses of all Brenton’s properties and knew which hanger the private jet was stashed in at Denver’s main airport. They had office phone numbers, but not any of their cell numbers, thankfully. They knew he was the Alpha and a large male lion who was experienced in a fight.

  Zachary’s file had him looking like a piece of hired muscle. Second in the pride, intimidation being his number one job outside of protection. He was written as a dumb piece of muscle that Brenton must keep around for his strength. Gabe silently laughed at that. It was nice to see that the files were wrong about some things. They knew Zachary was disowned by his family before their deaths and that his only work was with Brenton and his companies. They questioned Zachary’s intelligence level to handle the work. Dumb-ass hunters didn’t know they were seriously underestimating the white tiger. Oh, Gabe growled to himself. They knew his feline form as well.

  Andrew’s was the shortest. They considered him to be just another standard cougar shifter that was needed to fill in a hole for the pride. He owned the diner and they could take him out there, if needed, just to get him out of the way. They didn’t know anything about Andrew’s upbringing, though.

  He and Troy though… well, those files were a bit too much for him to deal with.

  “They know about our problems, Troy.” Gabe growled, shoving the files to his brother.

  “What?” Troy glared at the papers. “How the hell do they know about this?”

  “They must have bribed someone for the files or broken into the facility and stole them,” Gabe hissed. He looked to Riley, who was confused.

  “Troy and I have had… some issues in the past. We didn’t think anyone would be able to dig up the information,” he felt guilty. They had never told her about his drug problem or Troy’s drinking. They were past it, and, if they never relapsed, Brenton respected their privacy. “We… We’ll tell you about it one day, but…”

  “I understand,” Riley whispered. “You don’t need to say anymore. I trust you.”

  She shouldn’t, Gabe thought. There was time when even Brenton didn’t trust Gabe and Troy. They had fucked up so much that he’d locked them in a house and wouldn’t let them leave until they dried out and sobered up to leave for… rehab.

  But he nodded to her.

  “Most of the files just have a lot of personal information. Our most frequent places to visit in town, the pictures, our work, our shifting forms and our pasts. The ones on Andrew and Riley are actually the smallest and least damaging.” Gabe pointed to the stack. “A lot of this can be looked up, but some of it? Someone is either very good with a computer and has a lot of time, or… someone gave them the information.”

  “They don’t know Riley’s form,” Zachary pointed out. “Which means they aren’t watching our property to see it. But they do know a lot of her past. The only thing they’re missing is her mother’s real identity. Their research on her ends when she left for Montana with…” Trevor Laursen. None of them talked about that guy anymore. “And obviously they know when she moved here.”

  “I want us only shifting indoors now,” Brenton growled. “If they decided to hit our property, I want them to have to enter the mansion and take us head on. We’re on lockdown until they leave, or we kill them.”

  Brenton stood up and glared at them.

  “This is not up for negotiation. We can all handle taking a few weeks off. Andrew, the diner can run itself. Tell them that you had a family emergency and need some time away. Riley will be ‘with you’ and not going in. You have three other managers. They can handle it.”

  “I should set up times for them to come here and-” Andrew started, standing up.

  “Do what you need to, but you aren’t leaving the property.” Brenton snapped. “Same goes for everyone here. I’ll keep in contact with Sheriff about the town and if he sees anything. He’s on our side for this one, and we treat him like an ally through this.”

  With that, he walked out, and Gabe let a breath out as he left. This was bad. This indicated that they were targets of a big hunt. With eight hunters in town, two of them dead and hidden by Sheriff, it was already a deadly one. They had tried to go for Riley in the middle of town, and the pride was lucky no one called in state patrol to check it out.

  “Riley, stay here?” Troy asked softly as she stood up. She nodded and walked over to him. He pulled her into his lap and kissed her soundly. Zachary and Andrew retreated, and Gabe readjusted the hard on he got from the sight.

  He fucking loved watching his brother with her. Hell, with any woman but Riley was something special. She had fire and she had claimed them permanently over her own mother.

  She ended up straddling Troy, and Gabe groaned at Troy’s hands cupping her ass. When the kiss finally broke off, Troy’s eyes were dilated and glazed. Riley turned to Gabe and frowned.

  “Are you both okay?” She asked, and her husky, sensual voice made Gabe melt with its warmth.

  “Yeah, just a bit freaked out by this,” he told her, trying to smile.

  “Okay, well if-” she was cut off by another kiss from Troy. Gabe knew his brother didn’t want to do any talking right now. He noted his brother’s cock pressed into her and chuckled.

  “Troy, she’s had a long day.” Gabe grinned at his brother, who only growled into Riley’s mouth as he kissed her. “She might want to get some rest.”

  “Then let’s take her bed,” Troy growled, smiling over Riley’s shoulder at Gabe. The scent of Riley’s arousal hit Gabe, and he held back the groan he wanted to give in response. Troy stood up, wrapping Riley’s legs around him and began to walk to the door.

  Gabe jumped up to get the door, and they moved quickly through the mansion, passing Brenton and Andrew whispering angrily at each other. Gabe gave them a two-finger salute and knew their eyes were locked on to Troy and Riley, who were still making out as they walked.

  Gabe opened Riley’s door, since they always put her to bed in her own room, and let Troy walk her in.

  Troy dumped her on her bed, pulling off his shirt before he growled and went back to kissing her.

  Gabe locked her door, smiling. He decided to strip all the way down before prowling to her bed where Troy had her moaning underneath him. Fuck, it was hot. He climbed onto the bed on his knees, and Riley broke from her kiss with Troy to kiss him. He groaned at the kiss, only stopping to help Troy strip her down.

  Once she was only in her bra and panties, he and his brother sat back and admired the view.

  She was up against her headboard, pale skin stark against black lace. She was gorgeous, and Gabe couldn’t stand it.

  He grabbed her ankles and pulled her down to him, lowering himself between her legs. He loved to eat a girl out, and she was his favorite dish. He didn’t bother removing her panties, just tore them off with a satisfied growl. Her gasp was music to his ears as he began.

  He heard a second moan, and a quick glance showed him that she was sucking Troy off. He could appreciate a girl who liked to suck cock, and Riley was one of those girls.

  He wondered if that was one of the reasons she got her lip pierced, not once, but twice. Those snakebites were hot. So were the shaved sides of her head. God damn, she was a punk, both in appearance and in attitude.

  They didn’t have sex that night, instead they feasted until Riley was content and asleep between them. They had taken turns going d
own on her, giving her multiple orgasms while she sucked and stroked the other.

  “Gabe,” Troy whispered to him in the dark. Gabe turned to him and raised an eyebrow. They could both see perfectly well. Every feline shifter had decent night vision. It was a neat perk of being feline. They had the best vision of all the shifters, except for the rare birds.

  “Yeah, Troy?” He was spooning Riley while she was curled into Troy’s side.

  “She almost died tonight.” He watched Troy swallow and saw the haunted expression in his brother’s eyes.

  “But she didn’t,” Gabe whispered. He knew what was riding Troy, and it wasn’t good.

  They had a fucked up past. Even after settling with Brenton, Zachary, and Andrew, shit kept happening to them. They hadn’t done serious relationships until Riley because they had tried once. Caroline had been a shy thing, so different from feisty Riley and her fire. They were all teens and the brothers were figuring out who they were, and she had been a sweet girl along for the ride.

  And she was dead because of them.

  “And this wasn’t anything to do with who we are. It’s because of what we are.” Gabe kissed Riley’s shoulder gently. “Hold it together, Troy.”

  “No one was trying to kill her before we met her,” Troy hissed.

  “He did,” Gabe snapped back softly. “Now get some sleep. We don’t need to wake her up.”

  He closed his eyes and buried his face into Riley’s soft waves of hair. Troy sighed and curled in as well, keeping Riley’s head on his chest.

  RILEY

  “So, did anyone learn anything last night?” Riley stepped into the kitchen for breakfast.

  Troy and Gabe had woken her up, then left to get cleaned up and dressed in their room that they shared. It was double the size of Riley’s with a bed in the center, and each side of the room belonged to one of the brothers. They literally did everything together.

  “No,” Zachary growled, slamming his hand down on the counter top. “Other than the hunters who showed up and what we got out of the truck, we’ve got nothing.”