“Status report?” Ivan demanded. “And drive.”
The man who hopped into the passenger seat pressed a finger to his ear, listening intently. “They got the girl,” he said.
“The decoy?” I whispered.
Ivan nodded. “Has to be.”
“Wait—”
We heard gunfire, even over the squealing of the tires.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Ivan slammed his hand on the back of the driver’s seat. “We can’t go running into a shoot-out with a pregnant person.”
I pressed my hands against my stomach, feeling especially vulnerable now that Ivan had put it into words.
A red convertible buzzed past the end of the back road we were on. A red-headed woman leaned over the back of it, firing a rifle repeatedly behind her. As they sped out of sight, the gun fire stopped.
“Is everyone okay?” Ivan looked to the guard. “Check in!”
“A couple superficial wounds,” he said, finally. “Misha captured the woman, and our guys were coming in to help, but then the convertible came out of nowhere, hit George and Leo. Two big guys jumped out and got the jump on Misha, grabbed the girl, threw her in the back, and then took off again.”
“Dammit.” Ivan slammed his hand against the door. “So close.”
I stroked his cheek. “The important thing is everyone is okay. I’m safe. And you’re kind of squishing me.”
Ivan loosened his grip immediately, sliding me to sit next to him. “Did I hurt you?”
I shook my head and kissed his cheek. “I never thought I’d see you hit a woman, but if she had any part behind this mess that’s been going on, all I can say is she deserved it.”
Ivan closed his eyes and sighed. “We have to do something about them. Maybe this time we can get something off the plates. There had to be enough security cameras to pick up something.”
“Does it help that we saw their faces?”
Ivan rubbed his face with his hand. “Maybe? I don’t know. It’s nice to know who to look for next time, but they’ve been like ghosts until now. Who’s to say it won’t be another month and a half until they slip up again? At least I have a scent for the bitch, I just wish I could place it.”
“Is it her you’re smelling? That doesn’t make sense.” Aside from scenting whether another shifter is alpha or omega and what animal genus their beast is from, only mates could pick up on personal scents.
Ivan frowned, humming for a moment as he considered my question. “No… I’m not explaining it right. It’s on her, like… I don’t know, cigarette smoke or perfume? How those odors stick to a person? It’s something like that.”
Oh. Okay. Now it made sense. “I get it. You mean it’s an environmental odor. Like, something she lives around, eats, bathes in, shampoos with… stuff like that.”
Ivan stared thoughtfully out the window. “If I can figure out the smell, I feel like it will lead me right to those red-headed harpies. I don’t know who they are or how they fit into all this, but innocent people don’t act like they did. And we both heard that shit she said about our family already escaping ‘us’ once. The question is… who is ‘us’? My gut says that finding them will be the key to ending this shitstorm and bring some peace back into our city.”
In a month and a half our baby would be here. I didn’t want to bring my child into a world that was so dangerous we couldn’t spend a happy afternoon at a store.
I leaned against Ivan’s side. “You’ll find them. I know you will.”
12
Ivan
"Are we sure this was a good idea, Pops? I mean, I love letting my bear out to roam but this is gonna make for some interesting negotiations, just sayin'." Joey's bitching could be annoying sometimes, but the kid had a point. Still… it took brass balls to question our father's plans.
As if reading my mind, Pops stopped and turned. He got right in my brother’s face and stared Joey down. I had to give it to my brother, he didn't tremble, but stood his ground. The two bears—both brown, although the larger one had bits of gray around his snout and ears—looked like a matched set of stubborn bookends. The rest of us just held back and waited to see what would happen.
Nothing bad, I knew that much. As the baby of the family—and the only omega among us—Joey got away with things the rest of us couldn't. Pops finally chuffed and bumped his head against Joey’s. He stepped back and lifted his snout to sniff the breeze before turning back and continuing to lead us on the trail we were following through the woods.
Pops walked several steps before speaking his mind. "Do not question me again, Josef. All of the families are shifters, and nobody present will care that we are negotiating without clothing. This meeting is important and Vasily was using his head when he wisely suggested we do it this way."
"Thanks, Pops. Busse Woods were close enough for everyone and coming at this time of night protected us from any wandering humans out for a hike." Vasily sounded proud, as he should. The idea for the families to have a secret meeting in a place that could only be reached by shifting was pretty damn smart.
Misha couldn't resist letting his voice be heard over our mental link. "Kiss-ass. Pops already said you did good, what else do you want? A medal, maybe?"
I bumped my shoulder against Misha's big, furry ass. "Shut it. Vas is trying to do proud by Pops. You think it's easy being Pop's right hand? I know I wouldn't want the job. Just let me put in my regular hours and go back to Tanner at the end of the day, ya know what I mean?"
"Hush. I think we're getting close, I heard something in the trees up ahead." Pops stopped suddenly, his left ear twitching as he tilted his head to the right, listening for whatever foreign sound had caught his attention. "Yes, I hear a group of small animals. I would guess it's the O'Malleys. Boris, Misha, the two of you go check it out while we wait."
While my brothers lumbered off to obey his command, Pops moved to the side of the path to scratch his right flank against a tree. It had taken weeks to actually put this meeting together, to convince each of the families to agree to meet. We couldn’t afford for this to go wrong. Joey sniffed the air, no doubt wishing he'd been sent to scout the path ahead. He grunted after a few seconds and swatted the ground, scraping his claws through the rocks and dirt.
I moved to his side and bumped against him. "Calm down, Josef. What's wrong? You dying to get in on the action?"
Joey chuffed. "Maybe? I don't know. I just want this shit over with and I don't like meeting the other families with my pants off and no gun. Especially after my Tony took that bullet, ya know?"
"I get it. I’d be freaked out in your shoes too, if I’d seen my mate get shot.” I shuddered at the thought of something like that happening to my little cutie. “Hell, the no gun part probably makes you feel more naked than not having any clothes to change into." I knew that was true because I felt the same way.
"Do we even know which families are showing up? For that matter, why are the O'Malleys even here? I didn't think they ever left Lakeview."