Bitten By Deceit (3 page)

After he watched her reluctantly head into the trailer, he stalked over to the rusty tool shed and used Pete’s key to unlock the door. The confines of the tool shed didn’t provide shelter from the heat. It only created an oven which baked him as he assessed the gear inside. Beyond the tools lay row after row of weapons. If Liam wanted to unleash the demons from hell on his doorstep, he’d be happy to greet them with this kind of shit.
 

Suddenly, his knee throbbed from the memory of their last encounter, the blasts of white-hot pain that shot up his leg when he’d taken a shot at Liam’s head. Not long before his fight with Liam, everyone assumed he’d be the clear winner. But he’d had it taken away when Liam and his posse of pissants held him down and crushed his knee the night before.
 

Kyle pulled a shotgun from a rack and stuffed a box of cartridges into a canvas satchel. Before he tucked the gun into a holster, he loaded it.
 

Let them fucking come
. He had plenty of bullets to put rabid dogs to rest.
 

A shadow passed the front of the tool shed.

Kyle whipped around and listened. The only noise was the faint sound of the door squeaking from the wind pushing it. He crept toward the entrance, ready to expect anything. Had their time run out?

A smile curved the side of his mouth. Strangely, he couldn’t smell the man waiting beyond the door, but he sensed him, curled and waiting to attack. It had been much too long since he’d released the wolf to fight and hunt. He perched right outside the door and then reached around to grasp the intruder by the neck. They fell to the ground in a heap, scrambling and stirring up the desert dirt.

The man’s breath smelled of rot and death. Kyle’s attacker hissed, leaning in close to open his mouth to bite. It was almost too much to take in. The incessant growls. The blank, yet wide eyes. The wet lips stained red from whatever the man had killed previously.

Kyle locked his hands around the bastard’s neck, trying to gather the best position to bring him down—but the guy kept moving around with no rhyme or reason. Almost as if both the man and wolf part of him was gone and nothing but madness remained.

Was this guy even running plays on the field?

The man managed to use his claws to slice through Kyle’s shirt and kick up, but with a twist of his wrist, Kyle broke the poor man’s neck. Hopefully, he’d find peace now. When the dirt settled and the desert grew quiet again, Kyle stepped back and waited to see if anyone else lingered nearby. The property was still. Too still.

His breath caught.

He’d left Emma alone in the trailer.

Kyle sprinted to the trailer and stormed through the door. The only sound was very faint. Like running water in some other room. Nothing was amiss in the living room. Milly and Pete kept a clean home. The tattered couch was empty. To the right, nothing lurked in the kitchen.
Where the hell’s Emma?
His nostrils flared. The scent of a stranger lingered in the air—like the foul stench of rotting meat. Someone else had been here. But were they
still
in the trailer?

He was about to call for her when the faint scraping of a scuffle in the bathroom caught his ear. He leapt over the couch and raced down the hallway. The bathroom door didn’t budge, but it wasn’t locked. More hard thumps. Growls and hisses. The clatter of small objects falling from cabinet. Someone leaned against the door as Emma fought with whoever was inside.

“Emma!” Using his shoulder, he rammed the door. Anger stirred in him, and the need to shift into his wolf skin spiraled through him.

He shouldn’t have left her alone.

He rushed at the door again. This time, the cheap wood busted apart. The movement pushed a heap of bodies towards the shower. Arms reached all around him. A swath of black hair fell in his face. As quickly as he’d fallen on Emma and her attacker, they rolled off him and continued to fight. Em twisted her body to slam the balding man into the sink. In the narrow space of the bathroom, he lunged toward them, but stopped cold. The crazed werewolf turned her toward him and clenched his arm around her neck. His forearm rose sharply, closing her windpipe off in a deadly vise.

Damn it.

The bald man stared down Kyle. He’d been bitten on the jaw. The torn, purpled skin made his wicked grin all the more shocking. “If it isn’t the good officer…Here to rescue the pretty bitch.”

Kyle flinched, but the man moved to further tighten his grip. There was something about him that was painfully familiar, but now wasn’t the time. Em’s eyes fluttered as her clawed fingers dug into the man’s flesh. The need to act grew painful with each passing second. He could fight. He could shoot. But Em was too close to the target.

“Thought I smelled…a coward…outside,” the man hissed. His wet and broken voice stirred memories and brought a name to mind: Taylor. But this couldn’t be the same man who’d joined the pack in Hadley a few years ago.

“Yeah, your friend outside reeked of it.” The moment to make his move was brief. A sliver of time. Kyle’s hands snaked out to wrestle Emma away. She fell toward him, and they switched places, almost like dancers changing partners. Now that Kyle was up close and personal with Taylor, he remembered how much he had hated the greasy bastard. Another one of Liam’s flunkies.

Kyle slapped viciously at Taylor’s arm with one hand, while his other one grabbed Taylor’s throat. He shoved the older werewolf backward out of the room until Taylor rammed the far wall outside the bathroom.

Even with Kyle’s hand slowly closing around Taylor’s throat, the man chuckled. His eyes blinked too rapidly. “I’m coming,” Taylor said, his voice resembling Liam’s all-too familiar timbre. “For her. You’re both gonna die.”

The fury prickling Kyle’s skin bubbled forth, and he surged forward for the kill. Before he pierced Taylor’s skin with his fangs, he stopped himself. Oh, no, he wouldn’t fall for that trick. There were a million reasons not to bite the infected prey on his plate.

The man was done for anyway. Kyle realized that no matter what he did for Taylor, the infection from the bite would only lead to insanity—like the other man he’d killed outside. In one swift movement, he pulled the .45 from the back of his pants and ended Taylor’s suffering for good. No matter how badly Taylor had treated him in the past, the man didn’t deserve to live like that. Behind him, Em’s soft breaths assured him of her safety. But for how long? How long until Liam’s bite eventually did her in? The water continued to run in the sink, but he didn’t move to turn it off.

Instead, he mumbled, “I’ll be waiting for you, Liam.”

Kyle’s warm hands grabbed Emma under the shoulders and pulled her to standing.

“We need to get out of here.”

Emma nodded numbly. Her throat burned. Every painful swallow made her wince. Those infected werewolves had grown strong. Too strong for her comfort.

They left the house and walked to the car. Nothing stirred among the shadows along the cacti. They were alone for now. She took a seat in the car while Kyle finished packing up the weapons. She leaned against the head rest, wishing she could close her eyes and zone out for a bit in peace. Beside her, she heard Kyle slide into his seat and shut the door. The car should’ve started up, but all she heard was low breathing. The sound of a hand rubbing rough skin. It had to be Kyle massaging his brow again. When things stressed him, he used to rub his forehead as his headache came on. Based on everything they’d been through, he probably had a migraine by now.

She sensed a pair of eyes on her profile but refused to look at him.

His heated body warmed her side. There wasn’t much distance between them. Just one foot at the most.

When he suddenly took her face in his hands, she gasped.

“You okay, Em?”

Somehow, she managed to nod. The injured werewolf living under her skin leaned toward him. She wanted to stop herself. Tried to stop herself. Hadn’t he told her earlier he didn’t want to get wrapped up in all this?

He leaned closer, brushing his nose against her cheek. How she missed this. Heat pooled under her skin as her core vibrated with urgency. His mouth drifted near hers, then stopped. So close. He’d never hesitated before. When Kyle Benton wanted something, he took it. And she’d always been eager to give.

Her breath quickened and her nostrils flared. Maybe if she held her breath, she’d smell the same raw need from him to touch her, a need so strong it shook her.

His hand drifted down to snake around her waist. Before she could turn her head to kiss him, he made the first move, placing a featherlight kiss at the corner of her mouth. The sweet kiss became fiery as he nibbled along her lips. He lingered there with his nose brushing against hers. The anticipation of what was to come made her fists clench.

More
.

Locked in a tight embrace, Kyle kissed her as if they’d never been apart, as if she’d never turned away from him. Hot pleasure coursed through her body as their kiss deepened. One of his hands drifted up her back. Her breath fled as he pulled back the thick strands of her hair in order to reveal her neck. The other hand gripped her hip. She wanted him to continue. She didn’t want the rain of kisses along the sensitive part of her collarbone to end.

But then he stopped. She froze as well—certain that he’d remembered what had separated them in the first place.

Yet he didn’t release her. “We’re not safe here,” she whispered. What more could she say?
Kiss me again? Forgive me?
But she couldn’t think straight with him so close.

He let her go and quickly added space between them again. Her sigh emerged as a soft moan. The fire in her hadn’t died, but did he still desire her the way she did him?

From the corner of her eye, she noticed his gaze drifted to her breasts where the nipples poked through her thin shirt. “I know where we can face them a few miles outside of town. But I need time to prepare.”

His voice was hoarse with need, but Kyle was all business again. Of course. She searched his eyes and wondered if he’d forgiven her. But a single kiss wouldn’t guarantee such a thing. Not after he’d left town banished and shamed by his own pack.
 

They had a job to do. And then he’d probably leave her behind again.

After switching to Kyle’s SUV, they headed out of town. The road toward Hadley seemed to stretch forever. Each mile made her anxious. He’d packed the back of his SUV full of weapons. She didn’t recognize half of them. He’d been adamant about about one thing, “Don’t touch the explosives if you value your body parts.”

In the backseat, he’d added a few things from the trailer: water, food, and blankets.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“An abandoned ranch twenty miles outside of town. We’ll leave a trail for them to follow us, then we’ll face them.”

Emma.

She glanced in the backseat before peeking out the window. The voice had skittered down her spine like black ants. Unsettling and creepy.

“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did you say something?”

“We’re headed for the Sawyer place.” Kyle’s eyes narrowed. “What’s got you spooked?”

Her mouth went dry, but she couldn’t explain what happened. “I thought I heard something, but it’s nothing.” She touched the gauze and looked at her arm. The discoloration had crept up toward her elbow.

Oh, shit.
The infection was spreading. How long did she have before she’d succumb to Liam’s will?

“Get some rest. We have a long night ahead of us,” he said.

She nodded and turned to face the window. She closed her eyes as the tiny voice murmured again and again. Fluttering over her skin in relentless waves.

Kill him, Emma. Kill him.

Chapter 3

By the time they drove through the tattered gates to the Sawyer ranch, Kyle wasn’t sure about his plan. Everything was based on Liam picking up the trail off the highway. And now he noticed Emma acting strangely again.

She didn’t speak as he pulled onto the gravel road leading to the house. The Sawyers had abandoned this property before he’d moved here—and it showed. The wooden planks haphazardly hammered together could barely be called a fence, weeds poked out between rocks along the driveway, and the sign marking the property was about two feet from falling over. But the ranch was the perfect place for a final stand. Kyle would see them coming before they saw him.

He glanced at Em, then the soft lips he’d kissed. Still ached to kiss. He should’ve just checked her face. Made sure she was okay. Wasn’t that what nice guys did? But he couldn’t help himself, merely thinking about that bastard’s hands on her brought back a possessiveness he thought he’d buried. Evidently, he hadn’t buried his feelings deep enough.

Damn, he needed to focus on the task at hand. He had a lot to plan before Liam knocked on his door.

“The inside doesn’t have much,” he said, “but you can rest for a while. I need to place these explosives and leave the car along the highway.”

Emma chuckled. “You mean you plan to leave the car by the road and piss on a few trees to leave your mark?”

“Hey, this is
my
territory now.”

She had such smart ass tendencies
.
She smiled briefly, and Kyle recognized the old Emma who came to his father’s motorbike shop every week to hang out with the guys. Those had been better times. In a small desert town, there wasn’t much to do except party or run in wolf-form through the wilderness. Instead of cruising around town with other girls or guys looking for a good time, she’d picked up tools and showed the boys in the shop that she knew how to handle herself. He’d fallen in love with that girl.

He sighed and stepped out of the car. This time, she followed.

“Would it be a problem if I tagged along when you leave the car by the road?” she asked.

“Go right ahead. It’s not like I can stop you.” He sighed. “Although I might need to be careful. Trouble seems to be wrapped around your tail.”

She snorted. “You’ll be fine either way.”

His voice turned serious. “Have you heard from Meg?”

As they carried the first load of supplies into the house, she replied, “Only a brief text message while we were on the road. Apparently, Liam’s control lessens the farther he’s away from the other werewolves. The ones he left behind in Hadley aren’t as sick anymore.”