If Bree slowed, he slowed. If she stopped, he stopped. If she sped up, he sped up. All of which confirmed that her instincts were not misleading her. She had indeed picked up a tail. And it was time to get rid of him.
Halting near the mouth of an alley, Bree rooted through her purse as if in search of something. She sensed him closing in on her and picked up a faint smell of wolf, but she kept her eyes on the contents of her purse.
Sidling up to her, he cleared his throat. “Excuse me?”
She looked his way and frowned at the cell phone he offered her.
“I just need you to take this call,” the wolf told her, his voice polite and calming. “He said you’d know him as John Jones.”
She stilled, and her feline let out a long hiss. “Did he now?”
“It’ll only take a minute.”
Curiosity pricked at her. Well, she was a cat. “Okay.” She lifted her hands as if to placate him, but it was code to any enforcers watching that she didn’t want them to immediately intervene.
Bree took the cell—a very old model that she hadn’t seen in a long while—and put it to her ear. “Hello?”
“Ah, Miss Dwyer,” said a voice she recognized. “I had hoped to speak to you in person. But after hearing about the recent attack on you, I suspect your pride mates would surround me in an instant if I were to come near you again, despite meaning you no harm.”
She wasn’t entirely sure she believed that last bit. “If you’re simply going to repeat the questions you asked last time we spoke—”
“I have information I think you’ll want.”
She felt her brow furrow. “Information about what, exactly?”
“Come to me, give me the answers I want from you, and I’ll tell you. My friend, Frasier, will bring you to me. You and I can have a little chat, and then he’ll return you to your pride.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth that you have info for me?”
“I give you my word, Miss Dwyer, that I’m in possession of information you’ll very much want. I also give you my word that you will be returned home alive and unharmed.”
Not freaking likely. “All right.”
“Good,” he said, his pleasure clear in his tone. “I look forward to seeing you.”
He shouldn’t. The line went dead, so she handed the phone back to the wolf.
He gestured at a Civic that was parked across the road. “My car’s right over there.”
She folded her arms. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere.”
His face went hard. “I’m afraid I can’t accept that answer. I have strict orders to take you with me.”
She’d suspected as much. “You can take me … if you can catch me.” She raced down the alley, sure he’d follow. He did, obviously thinking it would be an excellent way to corner her.
Reaching the rear of the alley, she swerved to face him.
He pulled out a gun, the motherfucker. There was a click as he took off the safety. “I really don’t want to use this but—”
The homeless people sprang into action, leaping from their cardboard shelters and surrounding him in a blink. He struggled, but it was useless. The two disguised enforcers quickly snatched the gun out of his hand and forced him through a black door that led to what would have been one of the florist’s storerooms if Vinnie didn’t use it as a place to “question people.”
Bree followed them into the dark, dank room. Her nose wrinkled. The empty space reeked of mold and mildew.
The enforcers pinned the wolf to the wall like a butterfly, ignoring his curses, protests, and pleas. They just stared at him as if they did this shit every day.
Bree nodded at her pride mates in thanks as she crossed to the panting, wide-eyed wolf. “You thought you’d trap me, huh,” she said to him. “It turns out that the one springing the trap was me.” Tate had drummed the if-anyone-comes-for-you-run-to-the-alley plan into her head a thousand times, convinced the hyenas would strike again one way or another.
Hearing footsteps and the muffled voices of Vinnie, Tate, and Luke, she sighed. “Shame you and I don’t have more time to chat, canine.” The Alpha and his sons would take over now for sure, which meant she’d have to step back and simply watch. But first …
She slammed her fist into his jaw, making his head snap to the side. “That’s for pulling a gun on me, you little shit.”
Entering the room, Vinnie sighed. “Pallas cats are so unforgiving, aren’t they?” His eyes sharpened on the wolf. “Well, well, well. It’s been a while, Frasier. You may not remember Frasier Banks, boys. He’s not only a latent, pack-less wolf shifter who poses as a human and once worked for the police force, he was also once on a mobster’s payroll.”
Bree felt her brows lift. Vinnie had rubbed up against enough crime syndicates to know such things about people.
Tate tilted his head, his unblinking stare fixed on Frasier. “You do like to live dangerously, don’t you?”
“My question is,” began Vinnie, “why would a dirty ex-cop who has virtually nothing to do with shifters suddenly come at my pride like this?”
His skin clammy, Frasier replied, “It’s not about you. I just wanted the girl.”
“Because?” prompted Vinnie.
“Because some people will make my life very uncomfortable if I don’t take her to them to be questioned.”
“Questioned?” The Alpha echoed. “When you say, ‘powerful people,’ do you mean those mobsters I mentioned?”
Frasier shook his head hard. “These guys are shifters.”
“And you’re on their payroll?”
“No, they promised me protection if I did the occasional favor for them. People like me don’t last long without some form of protection.”
“Who are they?” Vinnie exhaled heavily when the wolf didn’t respond. “Please do something new and different and simply just give us the information. If you don’t, I’ll have to pass you on to someone who’ll make you feel like talking and, well, I’d rather not watch a wolverine eat yet another person alive.”
“Think of it this way,” Luke said to Frasier. “It’s their fault you’re about to die. Do you want them walking the Earth while you’re six-foot under it?”
“Die?” echoed Frasier, eyes wide. “I never hurt her. Hell, I didn’t even touch her.”
“You pulled a gun on her,” Luke reminded him.
“To scare her into leaving with me, that’s all.” Frasier’s gaze darted back to the Alpha. “I don’t hurt women, Vinnie. That’s not me.”
“I’m not sure I believe him, Vin,” said Bree.
“He is known to be a liar.” The Alpha hummed. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, Frasier?”
“No, of course not. Look, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, I will. Just promise to let me go afterward.”
Vinnie’s eyes slid to the wall and narrowed. He nodded. “All right, I promise not to kill you if you give me the answers I’m looking for.”
His shoulders slumping, Frasier closed his eyes. “Thank you. The Alpha hyena’s name is Dale Bray. He never introduced his Beta or Head Enforcer. They’re from the Silva Clan. I don’t know where their territory is, and I’ve never met anyone who does—they keep its location secret on purpose. I just know it’s underground somewhere.”