Avenging Autumn (3 page)

Despite her mother having died years ago, her father had never removed the ring.

She didn’t want to have to touch his severed hand, but then chided herself. She had nothing to be frightened of. It was just a part of her father—or at least had been—it couldn’t harm her. It was no more than flesh and blood.

Tears blurred her eyes and she reached into the box and touched the back of his hand. The skin was cold and hard, and didn’t feel human. She needed two hands to pull off the ring, so she used her other hand to hold the back of his steady while she tugged at the metal. The ring didn’t give way to the finger too easily. He’d worn it for years and the change in the texture of the flesh meant it had sunken in slightly. But Autumn swallowed her revulsion and pulled again, and the ring came loose. She slipped the jewelry off his finger and held the cool metal circle in her grip.

Warm hands met with her shoulders, making her jump, but then she realized it was Chogan pulling her backward, away from the box.

“It’s all right,” she said, her voice choked. “I’m all right.”

“Why would Vivian send that?” said Mia, her hand at her mouth.

Chogan shook his head. “That woman is one sick puppy.”

Blake’s deeper voice came from where he’d wheeled himself into the doorway. “That’s an insult to dogs.”

Mia stepped toward the box. “What’s that?” She pointed to a slip of paper, folded into squares and stuck in plastic to the inside of the top.

“Looks like our sick puppy sent us a note as well as a severed hand,” said Chogan. He moved forward and reached down and tore the small plastic sleeve from the cardboard. He looked to Autumn and held it out to her. “You want to read it first?”

Her fingers were still curled around her father’s wedding ring. She shook her head. “No, you do it.”

Chogan nodded, swept his long hair away from his face, and then tore the plastic and unfolded the piece of paper. It was small—a couple of inches wide by an inch high—and contained only a few lines.

He read out loud, “Doctor Autumn Anderson, I suspect you already know who the hand used to belong to. Of course, he has no use for it now, but dismembering him and sending him to you, piece by piece, will entertain me. I will keep sending him to you until you find me, and then you can entertain me yourself. Vivian Winters.”

Chogan folded the note again. “Well, how the hell are we going to find her?”

Autumn pressed her lips together and steadied herself. She remembered what Blake had said about not responding emotionally, though it was hard. “Vivian is playing a game with me. She’ll have left some way of tracking her, or at least a clue until she sends me her next one. This is her idea of fun.” Autumn didn’t even want to think about what Vivian’s next gift might contain.

Commotion came from the forests to the south of Wenona’s property. Shouts came, followed by a crashing through the bushes, and branches snapping. Several birds burst up from the undergrowth at the noise.

Autumn turned toward the noise. Within minutes, a couple of her shifters appeared from between the trunks of the tall pine trees. Between them they held another man—young and with a slender build, with buzzed short hair and a clean jaw.

“This is the guy who left the package,” yelled Tocho from where he was pushing the new arrival toward the house. “He almost gave us the slip, but of course he didn’t take into account that several of us now have spirit guides to give us extra vision.”

Anger rose inside her, anger that should have been directed at Vivian, but, in her place, focused on the man who had done Vivian’s dirty work. Autumn’s jaw tightened, her body stiff with unleashed hatred. She left the box and walked down the porch steps toward the man who had delivered her father’s hand. The closer she got, the younger the man appeared. His shoulders hunched, his head ducked into his neck. His face was pale and he shook in Tocho’s grip. She didn’t want this. She wanted someone who would stand up to her so she had someone she could take all her pain and anger out on.

Tocho and Sahale shoved the man to stand before Autumn. She remembered what she’d thought about Vivian giving them a way to track her.

“Are you our clue?” she demanded of the new arrival.

The man’s eyes flicked from side to side, at the big men who stood at her shoulders. “Clue? I don’t know ...”

“Are you what we’re supposed to use to find out where Vivian Winters is?”

He shook his head, frantic. “I don’t know where she is! I swear I don’t. I just work for her, and was told to deliver a package here, that’s all.”

“No, there must be more. Is this what she wants, for us to torture someone else to get more information on her?”

Chogan stepped forward. “If that’s what she wants, I say we comply.”

She pressed her lips together. “By torturing an innocent man?”

“He’s not innocent if he works for Vivian.”

“Please!” the man begged. “I barely know the woman! She gives orders and we all do as she says.”

“So you work for a private military company?” Autumn asked.

He nodded, apparently thankful to be able to tell her something. If Vivian had wanted someone to keep her secrets, Autumn didn’t think she’d chosen the right person.

“Yeah, I work for WestCorp. We were moved from Chicago a couple of days ago. Most of us have gone home, but a few are working on a private project for Vivian Winters.”

“What sort of private project?”

“I don’t know. I’m no one. All I do is make sure perimeters are secure, and protect property. I was asked to run that package, that’s all. I don’t ask questions, I just do as I’m told.”

Chogan’s eyes narrowed. “Maybe you should start asking a few more questions, or you wouldn’t be delivering a man’s severed hand to his only daughter.”

His eyes flicked to the ground. “Aww, damn. I figured it was something bad from the smell.” His cheeks flushed, making him appear even younger. “Sorry about that.”

Autumn arched her eyebrows, incredulous. “Sorry about that? That’s what you say when you run into someone’s car and dent it, or maybe step on someone’s foot. You delivered me my dead father’s hand!”

He must have realized another apology wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, his lips twisted and he stared down at the ground.

Chogan’s voice came from over her shoulder. “What are we going to do with him?”

“Maybe we should turn him,” Tocho suggested. “Bring him over to our side?”

The man’s eyes widened again. “No! I don’t want to be a freaking animal!”

“You know what we are then?” Autumn asked.

“Yes, of course. Everyone knows now. It’s the hottest news to happen, like ... ever!”

Autumn put her hands on her hips. “So you know what we’re capable of doing to you if you lie to us. We have wolves, and big cats, and some damn huge birds of prey with talons the size of machetes. You can imagine the sort of damage they could cause to someone of your size, and the big cats are just plain mean. I’m sure you’ve seen how domestic cats like to play with mice?” The man’s face drained of color. Autumn continued, “Well, now imagine the cat is more than a hundred times that size, and you are the mouse.”

He nodded franticly. “I get it! I do! I’ll tell you everything I can.”

Chogan gave him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Knock us out.”

The man released a babble of information. “Vivian has a team of people at a house several hours north of here. She’s working on something to do with the shifters, but I don’t know what.”

“Does she have laboratories there?” Autumn asked.

“Not that I know of, but I only patrol the grounds.”

“Can you take us there?”

He nodded. “I guess so.”

A hand touched her arm and she turned to see Chogan and Peter behind her. Chogan jerked his head to one side, and she moved away from Vivian’s guy so they could talk more privately.

“This is all too easy,” said Chogan, keeping his voice low.

Peter nodded. “I agree. It’s a set-up. Vivian wants this guy to lead you to her.”

“Which is exactly why you’re not going to go,” came Blake’s voice.

Autumn realized he’d wheeled himself down the makeshift ramp placed across one side of the porch steps.

She shook her head. “You can’t expect me to sit here and wait while some of you race off to confront her. I don’t care if this is a set-up. I want to come face to face with Vivian and end her life once and for all.”

“What if she ends yours first?” said Chogan.

“You won’t let that happen. I trust you.”

“We don’t know enough to promise we can keep you safe,” he replied.

“She killed my father.” Sudden tears filled her eyes, and she blinked them away. She needed to be strong, at least until Vivian was dead. It was because of Vivian that Blake was in a wheelchair, and so many others had died. She wouldn’t rest until that woman had been dealt with.

She noted Blake, Peter, and Chogan exchange glances. Her tears angered her. She didn’t want them to pass her off as an emotional woman.

“I love you all,” she said. “But you don’t get to make this decision for me. None of you do. I’m going to find Vivian, and the only thing you can do to help is figure out the best way to protect me while I do this.”

A silence fell among them, but Blake broke it. “I can’t protect you, Autumn. You have no idea how frustrated and useless I feel sitting in this thing. I can’t stand the thought of you leaving to walk into a set-up that’s going to get you killed while I sit here twiddling my thumbs.”

“You said the same thing when I had to go to Chicago, and I came back safe then.”

“This is different. What happened in Chicago was about society. This is personal.”

“Maybe, but I won’t be walking in there unarmed. Plus, I have the others with me—Chogan and you, too, Peter?” The two men looked at one another and nodded.

But Blake’s hands clenched around the arms of his wheelchair. “It’s not the same. I should be the one at your side.”

Her heart broke for him. The last thing she wanted was for him to withdraw into himself again. She wanted to do everything within her power to help him heal, even if that healing was only mentally, but she couldn’t do this for him. She couldn’t let Vivian go. Autumn knew she would never be able to lead any kind of normal life—or at least as normal as life got these days—without watching the woman die.

Autumn dropped to a crouch in front of him and took both of his hands. She lowered her face to his big, strong hands and kissed them both. “Baby, I’m so sorry if what I’m about to do is going to cause you pain, but if I don’t do this, I’m going to live the rest of my life hurting. Can you understand? And even if you can’t look after me during this mission, you’re going to have the rest of our lives to take care of me. Okay?”

“Only if you come back alive.”

“I will. I promise.”

“You’d better, or you’re going to leave me with no reason to carry on.”

“I’ll come back. There’s no way I’m letting that bitch get away with this.”

She got to her feet and leaned in to kiss him on the mouth. “I love you,” she whispered against his lips.

Blake gave a half smile. “I love you, too.”

She turned back to the man, still held between Tocho and Sahale. “So you can take us to Vivian’s place?”

“Will you let me go when we get there?”

“Sure. I can’t promise your people won’t shoot you anyway when they see you with us, but we’ll let you go.”

“Great,” he muttered.

She turned back to the others, and faced numerous sets of concerned eyes.

“Sorry, everyone,” she said, “but it looks like we’re on the move again. Let’s find Vivian Winters and put the bitch to bed.”

––––––––

A
UTUMN HAD CALLED everyone together, and Mia went with them. Peter sat in one of the armchairs, while she perched on the armrest. His fingers rested lightly on the base of her spine, and she took pleasure from the contact. It seemed she and Peter were joined at the hip. She’d never been totally sure if she believed in a soul mate before she’d met him, but she did now.

Autumn stood before them all, her face taut with pain and anger. Mia hated that her friend was so unhappy when everything seemed to be falling into place for her. At least Autumn had Blake back, but even that brought challenges. They would both need time to adjust to the changes that, because of what had happened to Blake, would affect their relationship as well. The future Autumn might once have imagined for them was now a different landscape.

Autumn announced, “I can’t, and won’t, force any of you to come with me to kill Vivian. What I’m about to do is personal, and it’s wrong of me to even talk about it to you, never mind ask you to come with me and put yourselves in danger once again. But at the same time, so many of you have been there for me and supported me over the changes that have happened recently, and it would feel equally wrong of me to disappear without giving you all the full story and letting you make your own decisions.”

A sense of pride for her friend swelled within Mia. Autumn had come so far. She’d gone from being a social recluse who only cared about her work, to leading a whole nation of people who loved her. These people would stay by her side, whether Autumn invited them or not.

Blake’s sister, Tala, spoke up. “I’m coming with you. You saved my life and gave me my dream. No way am I going to let you face this psycho bitch alone.” She gave a shrug. “Besides, we’re practically sisters.”

Autumn smiled. “Thank you.”

“Me, too,” said Tala’s friend, Nadie. “We stick together.”

“Peter and I have already said we’re coming with you,” said Chogan. “We owe you that for what you’ve done for shifters.” Then he added, “And for my cousin.”

Blake gave him a half smile and a nod.

“I appreciate that,” said Autumn.

“If Peter’s going, then so am I,” said Mia. She hadn’t mentioned as much to Peter, but they were equals, and if other female shifters were going, so was she.

Peter’s hand moved to take hold of hers and he gave her fingers a squeeze. He didn’t argue with her, and she was thankful for that. She noticed Autumn hesitate though, and wondered if she’d try to persuade her to stay here when the others weren’t all standing around.