by R. J. Blain
“Dad!” Nicole squealed from the safety of the cabin’s front door.
Bob’s hand closed around the back of my neck and squeezed. When I snarled, he firmed his grip, tight enough stabbing pain zapped up and down my spine and froze me in place. “Good morning, Nicole. How are you?”
“Hey. I’m good. Declan made me brownies, and they’re really good. Please don’t kill my father. He’s stupid sometimes, but I like him. Oh, it’s Amber. Hi, Amber.”
Amber sighed. “Nicole, what do you think you’re doing?”
“Eating brownies. Watching Bob keep Declan from killing my father. We’re fighting over who gets to keep the stray. You really should have one of these brownies. They’re amazing.”
“Dante, why is Declan calling you Bob?” Desmond asked, picking himself out of the snow. Shaking his head and sighing, the werewolf brushed the snow off his bathrobe.
I growled. With far more strength than I expected from his tall and slender body, Bob gave me a teeth-rattling shake. “I figured you might need my help with Richard, so I asked Amber to kidnap me. Since she wasn’t comfortable leaving Elliot behind, she kidnapped him, too. Amber was happy to help; she figured you might need her help with Nicolina.”
“Aren’t you supposed to have a protective detail?” Desmond growled again, and I answered him with a snarl and snap of my teeth. “Where are they?”
“Damn it! Relax,” Bob ordered, giving me another shake.
My wolf whimpered and abandoned me. Without his influence and energy driving me forward, exhaustion flooded through me, and I slumped to the snow-covered ground, forced to obey a human’s command.
Chapter Eighteen
“Damn it, Desmond! Stop snarling at me already. I already accepted the blame. What else do you expect me to do?”
Several facts asserted themselves all at the same time. First, I wasn’t cold, and the last thing I remembered was being outside and falling into a snowbank. Second, Bob—no, Dante Anderson, negotiator and black-market specialist—was pissed, and when he was pissed, bad things happened to someone. He’d shaken me like a rag doll, demanded obedience, and had gotten it.
Third, someone was petting my hair, and I was torn between enjoying it and succumbing to the urge to bite. My wolf loved every bit of attention, and when I was ready to launch myself upright, he took over and forced me to endure with someone pawing at my head.
Traitor wolf.
“Fix him,” Desmond snarled.
“Mr. Desmond, the poor puppy will be fine. He’s exhausted. It’s not Dante’s fault he’s used to working with Richard, who is really difficult to bring back in line.” It took me a minute to realize the woman speaking was Amber. While I understood each word individually, they didn’t make much sense when strung together.
What did she mean by working with Richard?
My wolf wanted me to play dead, listen, and learn, and I obeyed. Intel was supposed to be my specialty.
Unfortunately, when it came to my own kind, I was about as ignorant as they came.
Did Amber really have to call me a puppy, though? I couldn’t argue with her on the exhausted part; bad habits were hard to break, and I had a tendency to run myself into the ground during a job.
“These brownies are amazing,” Nicole announced. “Dad, you should have one. Eat the fucking brownie and stop snarling at Dante before you tick Elliot off. Remember what happens when you tick Elliot off? Elliot tells Amber to deal with you. Do you remember what happens when Amber is told to deal with you? You get shot at. When you get shot, because Amber doesn’t miss her targets, Mom gets mad. When Mom gets mad, I get mad. Do you remember what happens when I get mad? That’s right. You get shot at again, although I remember I’m not supposed to hit you. Then Lisa gets upset, and she starts shooting, too. Once someone starts shooting, people expect me to fix the walls. Do you know what happens when people expect me to fix the walls?”
Desmond sighed. “You get angry and start shooting again.”
“That’s right. I start shooting. Again. So, what are you going to do? You’re going to eat that fucking brownie and shut up, Dad.”
Somewhere nearby, my phone pinged with an incoming message. A moment later, I heard Nicole blurt, “What the hell is this? Hey, Dad. Read this.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s gibberish. Why is Declan receiving gibberish on his phone?”
“Let me see,” Amber demanded. “Hellschwandbach? What’s the E mean?”
“Direction,” Dante said, and I realized he was speaking somewhere over my head.
“Swiss name and direction,” someone corrected, his voice a curt version of Dante’s. “Mountain, road, or town; not sure which. Definitely sounds Swiss, though.”
Dante had a twin brother, and I didn’t like it. Twins smelled the same. They sounded the same. Twins confused me, my nose, and my eyes.
Things had been so much simpler when I had called Dante Bob. It was probably Dante’s fault Desmond had found me. Once my wolf relented, I needed to introduce Dante’s face to a snowbank.
Someone stroked their hand over my hair, and my wolf basked in the attention, not caring who was doing it, so long as it didn’t stop.
Desmond muttered something under his breath before saying, “You probably want to wake him up and fix whatever you did to him before the SEAL in the other cabin figures out his charge has been floored. The SEAL does not like when anyone touches his charge.”
“What SEAL?” Amber demanded.
“Declan’s. Declan’s programmer and general conspirator is also sleeping in the cabin next door.”
“Declan’s a stray,” Nicole announced, and the sharpening of her tone intrigued me. There was a challenge in her statement, and my wolf’s curiosity piqued.
“A stray?” I couldn’t tell if the question came from Dante or his brother.
“He made the cutest expression when Dad slipped and said Fenerec. Absolutely confused. I don’t think he’s seen one of us up close and personal before. Poor pup has been about ready to crawl out of his skin trying to keep Dad out of his territory. He’s pretty sensitive when it comes to Lane and Anthony. Watching Declan snarl and commandeer Dad’s new SUV was a treat, though.”
“Can we not talk about that?” Desmond asked. “He still has my keys.”
Amber made a thoughtful noise. “Risk factor?”
“Do you think I would let Dante anywhere near him if I thought he was a risk? It’s my fault his temper was fraying. I was pushing him into slipping off and taking a run. He was anxious and stressed. I thought an early morning hunt would do him some good. I didn’t know you three were on the way. He didn’t shift tonight at all. He hid in the other cabin and cooked the night away. Don’t know if it’s because he didn’t trust us or what.”
The hand on my head stilled, and Dante sighed. “Him being a Fenerec explains a lot. I’ve known him for almost a decade on and off, and I never saw a single sign of him being anything other than a really clever Normal. He broke into one of my smuggling rings and tracked me down. Rascal offered to help me tighten up my operations if I supplied for him and hooked him up with work.”
“Declan tracked you down from one of your rings?” The shock in Desmond’s voice pleased my wolf. “I test your rings for the fun of it at least once a year, and I’ve never busted one of them.”
“He’s that good. When I heard he had gotten picked up by the Navy, I started laying the groundwork for you to get him out. Once we’re done with this, I’m going to set him up so he disappears into my network. He’s mine. Hear that, Elliot? Mine.”
Why did everyone want me? Before I could sigh, my wolf snapped control away from me, determined to hear the conversation without tipping off the other werewolves we were awake and listening to them.
“I’ll make the arrangements, Dante.” I disliked how I struggled to tell Elliot’s voice apart from Dante’s. Dante’s twin sighed. “I’ll browbeat the military for you. Just undo whatever you did to him before Desmond jumps out of his sk
in and you have to tame him, too. No fighting, no murders, and no international incidents. It’s bad enough Amber stole my phone, my laptop, and everything else—including my fucking watch—and shipped them back home. My watch. She stole my watch.”
“Dad, don’t you say a word.”
Desmond grunted and otherwise kept quiet.
“Declan’s orders. He said no tech or we go home, and I wasn’t going to argue with the nice Marine who found Patricia for us. Now all we need to do is find Richard.”
My phone rang, and my wolf relented control enough for me to reach for it, wiggling my fingers. “Give.”
“Good morning, Declan,” Amber said, and the cool glass and metal of my phone was set into my hand.
I cracked open an eye enough to figure out how to swipe my finger across the screen to answer and held the device in the general vicinity of my ear. I made sure its volume was on its lowest setting so no one could overhear the other end of the line. “McGrady.”
“We’ve dropped our tail, at least for the moment,” Richard informed me.
“Good. What’ve you got for me?”
“I’m on a cell. Belongs to a nice pair of tourists headed the other direction. If someone tracks it, should lead the other way.”
“Give me one of the other phones,” I ordered, holding out my other hand. A moment later, one was handed to me. “Sec.”
“Sure. Don’t be long. Don’t want to upset the nice folks who own the phone.”
“Coords?”
Richard spelled out the name of his location, and I plugged it into my phone and let the app chart the most direct route.
If my phone was correct, we were less than an hour away. “One hour.”
“Got it. We’ll stay put unless our tail shows up.”
“Perfect.” I hung up, sighed, and groaned at the stiffness in my neck and back. I sat up, aware of everyone staring at me. I shook my head to clear it. “Gotta run a quick errand. I need two people to come with me. Whoever the hell drove that little SUV coming in and one other. I need the space for the goods and the hands to get things loaded quick.”
Amber dug her hand into her pockets, pulled out a set of keys, and jangled them. “I’m your driver, Declan.”
“Take Lane. He’s fresh,” Desmond suggested. “You sure you’re okay to drive? You won’t be long, will you?”
“I’ll be fine. Won’t be long. Just need to pick up a few supplies for the main operation.”
It wasn’t a lie; for the main operation, I needed Richard, his partner, and the seven ladies. I also needed to make sure his tail was dealt with once and for all.
What Desmond and the others didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them.
“I don’t know how you have so many contacts in Switzerland, but I owe you for this, Declan,” Desmond said. “Get the rest of your gear and get your ass back here so we can find my sons.”
I eyed the werewolf warily. “Just how many sons do you have, anyway?”
“Four now.”
Neither my wolf nor I appreciated the predatory gleam in Desmond’s eyes. I glared and retreated, refusing to turn my back on the man until I was out the door.
“He’s so shy,” Desmond said, his tone amused.
“You’re terrible, Dad.”
Military training had Lane already awake and fumbling for coffee in the kitchen when I went to retrieve him. It took him less than five minutes to get ready while I made us all coffee for the road.
I delayed long enough to grab my sniper rifle, take it out of its case, and make sure it was assembled and ready to go. I grabbed the ammunition and headed to the SUV, where Amber was waiting.
“You’re the lucky bastard who gets the AMW? Nice. You know how to handle that bad boy?”
“You’re armed?”
“Knives, two guns, a couple of grenades, and some plastics. Do I need more?”
“That’ll work. Follow close. When we arrive, we load fast and hit the road back to here.” I handed her one of my cells. “We’ll keep in contact with this. I’ll call you once you’re to your car; put me on speaker and toss the phone on the seat while we’re driving. Lane, you’re in charge of the other phone in case my contact calls.”
The SEAL grunted and got into Desmond’s SUV. I set our coffees in the holders before I handed over my sniper rifle and hopped in, buckling up. Before I used one of the spares to call Amber, I waited for her to get into the other car. “We’re doing the extraction now. They dropped the tail, and they’re an hour away.”
“Sounds good. Let’s not waste the window. Are we making a run for it once we have them?”
“We’re going to regroup, go over the gear, and eliminate the tail.”
Lane coughed. “We’re going to what?”
“Aren’t you supposed to be a SEAL?” I glared at Lane, and he glared back. “We can’t afford to leave them loose, so we’re going to make the opportunity. We’re going for the kill shot. Whoever’s behind this needs to disappear—permanently.”
“Isn’t this a little outside of your normal specialty? I hope you know what you’re doing.”
I glanced in the direction of the cabin. “Desmond’s not the type to let something like this go, and Richard’s important to him. Those two are important to the United States. The tangos go down. I have a feeling they’ll end up tailing all of us if we try to give them the slip. I’d rather lure them onto my territory and take them out. The last thing we want is those men falling into enemy hands.”
If Desmond didn’t go on a murderous rampage, I had a feeling his daughter would. Something about both of them set the hairs on the back of my neck up on end. While I didn’t think they were a threat to me, Anthony, or Lane, I wouldn’t want to be the target of their ire.
“Your call, sir.”
I dialed the phone Amber was carrying, and she answered on the first ring. “I’m ready.”
“Good. This should be a very quick pick up. Sorry to drag you out at dawn after such a long drive to get here.”
“I can handle two hours. Then I’m out for eight minimum.”
“Sounds good. Not going to lie; I have similar plans.”
I eased the SUV along the cliff road, careful to keep away from the edge without scraping the rock face. Once beyond the most treacherous stretch, I picked up speed, determined to shave off minutes, aware of the seconds ticking by.
An hour was too long in the grand scheme of things; the tail could reappear at any minute, and I wanted to have my marks safe in my custody. If I had to engage, I would.
Anyone capable of tailing werewolves with such finesse worried me. The worry of what would happen if I killed anyone came second to my job—and protecting those who were being hunted.
I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and I knew it. My wolf did, too, but he was more inclined to hold out hope than I was.
Desmond, Dante, and the others had supplied us to kill if necessary, and they trusted me to make the right decision. It’d been a choice I’d made before, although I usually didn’t have to execute the kill order myself.
But, sometimes I did, and I had a feeling I’d be drawing my lines with the werewolves. Something warned me my decision would make or break me with them.
Did I want to make it with them? My knee-jerk reaction was to make my break the instant I had secured the safety of my marks, disappearing off the radar before Haney could get his hands on me again.
“So, what’re we picking up?” Amber asked.
It was tempting to leave the woman hanging. “Who.”
“What?”
“Who, not what.”
“We’re picking up someone? An associate?”
“Nine someones. Discreetly. Not enough room in the SUVs for everyone and the gear if we brought Desmond, his daughter, and Anthony. Richard dropped his tail, and I’m taking advantage of the opportunity.”
“You found Richard?” Amber’s voice went up an octave.
“I knew where he was the entire time, Amber.”
>
“And you didn’t tell us?”
“I didn’t tell anyone. The last thing I need is that loose cannon back there barreling off to perform an extraction he has no business being involved in because he’s one of the targets. I got three prime targets named Dante, Elliot, and Desmond, four if you count Nicole, in that cabin, at least one more on the way, and a bunch of ladies who have been hostage for God only knows how long. It’s called security, Amber. It’s been compromised enough.”
I took several breaths to calm my frayed nerves.
“You’re right. Desmond would have gone through the roof and you wouldn’t have been able to leave him behind. He is very unreasonable when it comes to Richard and Sanders. He’s overprotective to begin with, which is why he came across the pond.”
I focused my attention on the twisting Swiss roads descending out of the Alps and into the foothills. If the satellite imagery of the area was correct, Richard had holed up near a valley between mountains, an ideal place for wolves during the full moon. “Sanders. That’s Richard’s partner, correct? Tell me about him.”
“Sanders is a good guy. Steady as they come, decent shot. Good to have in a fight but will avoid them unless necessary. He’d rather be in his greenhouse taking care of his plants. But, Richard’s like a brother to him, and when Richard asks for help, Sanders is usually the first in line.” Amber paused, making a soft noise in her throat. “You’ll like them, I think. Just be wary of Richard when he’s around Dante.”
“Why?”
Amber chuckled. “Richard had a scare a while back, and he’s still touchy about it. If he wants to tell you about it, he will. All you need to know is this: Richard’s an overprotective idiot. Desmond’s an overprotective idiot. Sanders is an overprotective idiot. Birds of a feather. Just ignore their posturing.”
One thing I appreciated about Switzerland was the long stretches of empty road. I drove as fast as I dared on the snow-dusted roads descending the mountain. “You’ll be our first contact, Amber. They know you. They’ll cooperate with you. I need you to get them in, and I’d like to be burning rubber within a minute of spotting them. They’ve been dodging a tail long enough I don’t want to take any chances on friendly fire. We’ll be covering your six when you’re doing the pickup.”