Gage lifted his gun. “Don’t move,” he ordered as he stalked toward the blond male.
The hunter froze. “K-Kayla? What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry, Thomas, but those prisoners aren’t being transferred.”
Gage was less than a foot from him now. Could Thomas see the flash of fang? Probably. The guy was sweating. Trying to back up and—
Gage grabbed him and rammed the guy’s head into the wall. One hard rap, and Thomas fell.
Hell. Kayla raced across the room. “You weren’t supposed to hurt him!”
“And he wasn’t supposed to have shifter blood beneath his nails.” Gage’s nostrils flared and she knew he was pulling in the scent. His jaw tight, he growled, “The bastard’s lucky that he’s still breathing.”
He was still breathing. But Thomas was definitely out.
Gage’s gaze rose to the monitors. “Shamus.”
She stood slowly and followed his stare. He was looking at the redheaded male wolf shifter who had been brought in first for containment. She still didn’t know how an Irish wolf had wound up in the new Vegas pack, and from what she’d gathered, Shamus hadn’t exactly been the sharing sort.
Blood dripped from the redhead’s side. He stood just a foot away from the silver bars, and he glared straight up at the camera.
Shamus had put two hunters in the infirmary when he’d been brought in.
An animal. Lyle’s words drifted through her mind. See how wild? How vicious? This one will have to be put down before he can kill again.
“Has he killed?” Kayla asked quietly.
Gage nodded.
So have I. When had the line between good and evil become so blurry? Maybe it had just always been that way. “Has he killed innocents?” she pressed.
Gage’s stare slowly turned to her. “I’m getting him out of there.”
Okay, so that wasn’t the answer she’d been hoping to hear. Kayla grabbed his arm and stopped him. “If that guy is gonna get loose, then turn on humans . . .” She couldn’t let that happen. That would just be more death on her. Kayla swallowed. “I’ve seen what wolf shifters can do to humans. I won’t let him hurt innocent people like that.”
Gage stared down at her. “When will you stop judging us all, based on what happened to you?”
She felt that hit all the way to her soul. But Kayla didn’t let him go. “Is he a threat to the humans?” Lyle had said so, but now she knew Lyle was a lying sack of shit.
That I trusted for years. That I freaking loved. He’d been a second father to her, only the increasing icy certainty in her gut told her that the guy had quite possibly killed her real father.
No, not quite possibly. You did it. I know you did. Her blinders had been smashed to pieces now.
And I was with Lyle. I fought side by side with him for years and didn’t realize the truth.
She had to clench her teeth to hold back the scream that wanted to break free. She’d been so blind. So driven by rage and anger. Lyle had given her targets, and she’d been only too eager to attack.
“I trust Shamus.” Gage spoke softly to her. His body was tense beneath her hand. “Things . . . haven’t been easy for him. But he isn’t psychotic.”
As wolves were prone to be. Like you, Lyle?
“He’s in control, and as far as I know, Shamus never killed a human in his life, not even those who deserved death.”
Her breath rushed out. Okay, that was something.
“And the woman?” The female wolf. The one with the short, close-cropped black hair, the coffee cream skin, and the dark eyes that looked like she’d seen hell a time or twenty.
“Faye can’t shift.”
That surprised her. “She’s a hybrid?” She had heard about another wolf like that, once, but that wolf shifter had lived way down south.
“No. She’s full-blooded.” His gaze darted to the screen that showed Faye’s image. “But when she was thirteen, a sick prick got hold of her. A doctor who said he could cure wolves. Faye’s parents wanted her cured.”
“Why?” She’d thought wolves loved their beasts.
“Because they didn’t want to be monsters. Didn’t want her to be one.”
Kayla flinched.
“The doctor pumped liquid silver in her veins. Burned her from the inside out. She’s never been able to change.”
Her eyes squeezed shut. She couldn’t even guess the agony a procedure like that would bring to a child. “Wh-what happened to the doctor?”
“The human who got off on torturing wolves?” Fury burned in his voice. “Don’t worry. He’s not ‘curing’ anyone. Not anymore.”
No. She bet he wasn’t.
Not good. Not evil.
Where did Gage really fall on that scale? Where did she?
Her eyes opened. Determination fueled her blood. “Let’s get them out of there,” she said. “Before the next guard shift comes to check on Thomas.”
She grabbed the key cards. Headed for the woman first. Faye stood in the middle of her prison. Her head was down. Her body held perfectly still.
But when Kayla and Gage entered the narrow corridor that led toward the caged wolf, the woman’s body tensed. Her head snapped back. “Alpha.” Hope and fear twisted the one word.
Gage hurried toward her. “We’re getting you out, Faye.”
Faye’s dark gaze—her eyes almost looked pitch black—locked on Kayla. “The hunter? She . . . smells of you.”
Great. Shifter noses. Kayla swiped the key card and jerked open the cell door. “Come on.”
One wolf down.
One to go.
But Faye didn’t move. Her gaze stayed locked on Kayla. “Is this . . . a trick?” she asked. Her eyes narrowed. “You hate me. Why would you help us?” That gaze slid back to Gage. “Even if you’re fucking the alpha . . .”
Yeah, I am. And with shifter senses, well, hell, she might as well be wearing a giant neon sign that said, Hi, I’m Kayla, and I just screwed the alpha.
“Why go against your own kind?” Faye demanded and her soft voice was laced with steely anger.
“Cause they’re not my kind.” Lyle wasn’t. He wasn’t Gage’s kind, either. He was just a murdering sick bastard. That kind.
He’d told them all that Faye was psychotic. That she’d sliced open five men in Vegas. Kayla had seen the pictures, but hadn’t talked to the men. Lyle had told her interviews weren’t necessary. Now she wanted to know . . . “Why’d you do it?”
Faye held up her hand. Claws broke from her fingertips. “The bastard doctor didn’t totally kill my wolf.”
Were the claws supposed to scare her? Think again. “Five men are now walking the streets of Vegas with your mark on their faces. Why.”
Because Kayla had to make sure she was doing the right thing. She was going against years of training. Everything she’d ever believed.
Faye’s delicate face hardened. “Those men,” the word was a curse, “got off on hurting women, and they made the mistake of thinking they’d hurt me, too.” Faye’s lips thinned. “No one hurts me and just walks away. Those days are long gone.”
There was no missing Faye’s intensity. Or the pain that echoed in her voice. Kayla stared at her—and believed.
Not evil. Not good.
Was the whole world a shade of gray these days? Everything had seemed to be in such big, bold colors just days before.
Kayla turned away from Faye. Staring into the she-wolf ’s eyes, it was a little too much like . . . looking in a mirror.
Same rage. Same pain.
“Alpha?” She heard Faye ask. “Shamus . . . I heard him yelling . . . is he . . . ?”
“He’s next,” Gage said, voice flat. “You’re both coming home.”
Home. The word caused an ache to lodge in Kayla’s heart. Did she even have one anymore?
Don’t think about it. Not now. She just needed to do the job. Get them all out of there with minimum bloodshed, yeah, that was priority number one for her. She slipped aroun
d the corner, punched in the code for the next holding room, and tried like hell to keep her control in place.
Time to face the big beast. Shamus would hear her coming, no doubt, but it wasn’t him she was worried about. Well, not too worried. Not with Gage having her back.
We just have to hurry.
Lyle was too confident. He thought the silver was all he needed to contain his captured prey.
Guess you never thought one of your own would turn on you.
Time for Lyle to think again.
“Come near me . . .” Shamus bellowed and she flinched. Hell, did he have to yell? Did he want to bring all the other guards his way? “And I’ll cut you open!”
Actually, that was pretty likely. So she’d better stay far away from those razor-sharp claws.
“I’m trying to help you,” she muttered as she rounded one more turn and came face-to-face with his cage—and him.
Big Red was freaking huge. Had to be at least six-foot-three, maybe six-foot-four. His shoulders were like dang mountains.
“If you so much as scratch her, Shamus,” Gage snarled from directly behind her. Soft moving wolf. “You’ll answer to me.”
Silence. Shamus’s stare drifted between them. “A hunter?” Disgust dripped from the words.
“I’m the hunter who’s here to save your ass.” She used the key card and his cell door swung open.
Shamus didn’t move. “Is this a trick?” His claws were up. Before Kayla could answer, he lunged forward—and those claws came right at her neck.
She jumped back, but Gage was already there. He leapt in front of her and locked his hand around Shamus’s thick throat and slammed him back against the silver bars.
Faye cried out as the scent of burning flesh filled the air.
“I warned you,” Gage growled. Then he yanked Shamus away from the bars and dropped him on the floor. “She’s mine, and you don’t ever go at her with your claws. Got it?”
Shamus lifted his head. “G-got . . . it, alpha.”
Right. When a lesson was burned into you, it was kinda hard to misunderstand.
Psychotic tendencies. That had been in Shamus’s file. His gaze cut to her. Oh, yeah, white-hot fury and—
“Faye,” Shamus whispered the woman’s name like a prayer. The fury vanished from his eyes and was replaced by a look of longing so intense that Kayla felt damn . . . uncomfortable.
Faye had crept near her. Then the smaller woman paused, and moved nervously from one foot to the other.
“I caught your scent on the hunter,” Shamus said. He rose to his feet in an instant and didn’t even seem to be aware that his back was still smoking. “I-I thought he’d done something to you, that—”
“Later.” Gage’s snarl. “We’re getting the hell out of here now.”
Kayla got the picture. Big Red was sweet on not-so-delicate Faye. But Faye wasn’t even looking at him. She was looking everywhere else. The cage. The ceiling. The floor. The floor had to be real fascinating the way she was staring so hard at it.
Shamus had been captured when he’d charged at the hunters—coming straight in for a direct attack against them.
“You came at us because we had her,” Kayla said, understanding now. That was almost sweet.
Shamus threw her a fast glance. Wow, wait, his cheeks had just heated. He didn’t look quite so fierce then.
Gage caught her hand. “There’s movement two hallways over. Guards.”
Crap. Okay, the weird love thing between the wolves could wait.
She pulled out her weapon. She’d taken the liberty of snagging it when she’d taken the uniform from the locker room. “I’ll get us back to Curtis.” Then she’d leave Gage because her work wasn’t done. Not yet. “You just stop me if you hear guards, or if you smell ’em.”
No way would she walk into an ambush. Not with her wolf by her side.
Her wolf? Now she was definitely getting all possessive on him.
She was in such trouble.
Gage stopped her twice as they headed back to the garage. She knew he could have just killed the guards they passed. Knew that Shamus wanted to slice them open, but Faye’s light touch on his arm seemed to calm the wolf. Right then, they were all focused on escape. But judging by the glint in Gage’s eyes, the fight would come soon enough.
She just wondered how many lives would be lost when the hunters faced off against the whole Vegas wolf pack.
Not Jonah. She’d have to make sure he didn’t get caught in the crossfire.
Though it seemed to take forever, they were soon back in the shadows of the garage. When it came to stealth, no one beat the wolves. Just get them away from that silver, and they were good to go.
Lethally good.
“How the hell are we getting out of here?” Shamus wanted to know. “There’s a fortified fence out there, patrolled with half a dozen armed guards.”
Once you got in, you weren’t supposed to get out. Unless you were a hunter.
Curtis stood next to one of the SUVs. The guy was rocking back and forth on his heels.
Could the wolves smell him sweating?
“You’re just gonna drive out,” Kayla told Shamus and saw Gage’s head snap toward her. “Easy as pie.” Not exactly.
She glanced at Gage and found herself caught in his stare. “We’re gonna drive out,” he corrected. Right, ahem, he would have caught that bit.
But now wasn’t the time to hash this mess out. Curtis had seen her and he lifted his hand, indicating the coast was clear. They hauled ass, staying low and in the shadows, as they headed for the vehicle. Shamus and Faye jumped in the backseat, and kept their bodies near the floorboard. For such a big guy, Shamus could sure cram in tight. If anyone looked over, they wouldn’t even see those two in the back.
Since she and Gage were dressed like hunters about to head out on a mission . . . no one would give them a second look, either. Everything was working as she’d hoped. Now if her racing heart would just settle down.
“They’ll track us once we leave,” Curtis said. His voice broke at the end. Fear was definitely getting to him. He must have gotten too nervous waiting alone in the garage. “As soon as they figure out what’s—”
She shoved him out of the way and ducked her head under the dash. It took her less than sixty seconds to disable the GPS tracker. Piece of freaking cake. “They won’t track you now.”
She popped her head up, and found Gage staring down at her.
And didn’t the wolf look all solemn and determined?
“We’ll come back for him,” Gage promised her. “We’ll get Jonah out, too.”
She blinked. Okay, she hadn’t been expecting that.
“Your brother’s safe. He doesn’t realize what Lyle is yet, so the shifter isn’t going after him.”
Curtis had run off and was punching in security codes, trying to get the gates open. And since no one knew he was supposed to be dead, he was schmoozing his way past the other hunters who’d just appeared. Feeding them some BS line about how he was off on another mission. The hunters were buying every word he fed them, and they were all just seconds away from a clean escape.
An escape that didn’t include Jonah.
No.
“When Lyle finds out that I’ve escaped, he’ll turn on my brother.” She knew it. “I can’t leave him behind.” She wouldn’t. She’d freed Gage’s wolves. Done her part. Now they could get out of there. She and Jonah, well, they’d find a way out, too.
I won’t leave my brother. Not even for Gage.
Gage lowered his head. “Yes, I figured you’d say something like that.” His voice was calm. Weird. She’d thought he would fight with her. Do . . . something. The wolves in the back were dead quiet.
She stepped away from the SUV. “Go.” She cleared her throat. “When this is over . . .”
What? She’d find her hubby and they could live happily ever after? That wasn’t the way things worked. A hunter and a wolf didn’t have a shot at forever. Besides, she w
asn’t even sure he wanted to stay bound to her.
Kayla pulled in a deep breath. So maybe she wouldn’t offer any lines about what would happen when this mess was over. She could just say, “Go take care of your pack.” Then Kayla turned her back on him. Dammit, was she actually tearing up? What in the hell was happening to her? She was a fountain these days.
She took one step, then found her body hauled back against Gage’s rock-hard chest. “Before I found you in that cage”—his breath whispered over her ear—“I made a side trip by the infirmary.”
Kayla tried to jerk free. No give. “Gage?” Now she was afraid because his low voice had been so angry. So . . . determined.
“While all the medics were busy stitching up the wounded hunters, I borrowed a few supplies from their office,” he growled the words.
Her heart seemed to stop even as a dark suspicion grew in her mind.
The heavy garage door was opening with a groan and shriek of metal. Curtis was rushing back toward them.
“Sorry, sweetheart, but I’m not risking you,” Gage told her and shoved something sharp—a needle!—in her arm.
No. Jonah! She opened her mouth, but Gage put his hand over her lips, smothering her instinctive cry. Her feet kicked back at him. Landed a hit. Another. But he didn’t let her go.
And she could already feel the drug slipping through her system. First her brother, now Gage? Why was everyone drugging her?
“When you wake up, you’ll be safe.”
And he’d be a dead man.
Jonah. Her eyelids fell closed and a tear slipped down her cheek.
CHAPTER EIGHT
She was still out.
Gage paced beside the bed, shooting frowns at Kayla’s unconscious form. Just how long was the woman gonna stay that way? They’d gotten away from the compound. Made it back to the safe houses he’d set up for the wolves.
He’d met with his aides. Gotten extra guards to start patrolling.
And she was still out.
Had he drugged her too much? He put a knee on the bed and leaned over her. She was breathing okay. His hand lowered to her chest. Her heartbeat was good. Steady. No, um, actually, it was picking up now and—