Fierce Player (Sierra Pride Book 4) (6 page)

No, she’d feel too exposed if she went to retrieve the phone. Besides, who could she call? The police? They’d show up and find a mountain lion in the library. Maverick would be shot by them if he wasn’t shot by the guys who had come after Kate.

She stood in the doorway to the restroom, trying to calm her breathing. It was too easy to remember being helpless and scared. This was like when her mom had gotten all those threats, and Kate would wake up shrieking from nightmares of men in black masks standing over her bed. Usually the men just wanted to hurt her mom, and in the nightmares, her mom would beg Kate to come to her rescue. Kate hadn’t been able to do anything to help, not in any of those dreams.

She could do something to help now, though. Maverick wasn’t going to save her all by himself.

Chapter Eleven

Maverick stalked out of the Clark room on silent feet. A blond man stood in the entrance to the library, wearing a nondescript black jacket and dark jeans. He was directly in front of Maverick, skulking around a corner into another room.

Leaping, Maverick landed square on the man’s back, knocking him to the ground. The man screamed. A gun skittered across the floor, out of their reach. The man looked toward it and hit at Maverick’s front legs and head.

Maverick got low into the man’s face and snarled.

There were sounds as the two other men came running, so Maverick pushed off the man. All he could think of was Kate—staying alive, so he could keep her alive and safe. With two more men on their way, it wasn’t smart for Maverick to hang around. He loped past the gun, while the blond man gasped for air, pointing at him with a shaking hand.

It would be too dangerous to pick up the gun in his teeth, so Maverick kicked it across the room with a hind foot. It came to a stop beneath one of the study tables.

The man looked as if he wanted to follow the gun, but Maverick turned, pushed his ears back, and snarled again.

Footsteps behind him, two pairs. He bolted into the next room and listened.

“A cougar,” the man said. “J-jumped on me. Couldn’t believe it.”

“Not possible,” a second man said. “How would one get in?”

“Fuck if I know,” the first answered, “but I know what I saw.”

“How about seeing
the girl
?” a third voice asked. “She’s gotta be taken out so the mom will know we’re serious.”

“How can you be worried about the girl when there’s a fucking cougar in the fucking library?” The first man’s voice was high-pitched with stress.

If Maverick were in his human form, he’d have smiled.

“I’m outta here,” the first man continued. “No payoff is worth this shit. You guys can split my share. Are we cool?”

“We’re cool,” the third voice said.

A single gunshot, softer because of a silencer, but unmistakable. The sound of a body crumpling to the floor.

Assholes. Couldn’t even let their partner out.

Besides, if they got blood on a single book in his library, there would be hell to pay.

Maverick got low to the floor and peered around the corner. The guys were facing away from him, and away from the body.

He had to get them outside, away from Kate. Once outside, he could savage them to his heart’s content.

No one would be able to tell what killed them when he was through with them.

Then he heard
her
. No, he couldn’t focus if his mate was anywhere near the danger.
Go, Kate. Get back. Go.

But her footsteps grew louder as she approached. Too faint for human ears, so she was safe for now, but not for much longer if she continued to advance.

Whirling around, he went back to her. She hadn’t made it out of the Clark room yet. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, and he lowered his head, then jerked it past her, toward the restrooms.

“No,” she whispered, squatting down next to him. “I can’t bear being in there, not knowing what’s going on. Let me help.”

You’re safe in there
, he wanted to say. He pointed a foot, to emphasize his point, but she shook her head.

“You can’t chase them off in here,” she said quietly next to his ear. “But I could lead them outside.”

He shook his head emphatically. They had guns. He would not let her do this.

Smiling at him, she stood to walk past, but he gripped the edge of her sweater in his teeth and tugged as gently as possible.

“Maverick,” she hissed. “Let me
go
.”

She wasn’t going to listen to reason. Huffing, he held up a paw. Not a “no,” but a “wait.” She seemed to get what he was saying.

Then he led her to the Clark room’s emergency exit. This wasn’t a perfect plan, but it would have to do. He held up his paw in the “wait” sign again, and Kate looked at him expectantly.

The emergency exits were alarmed, and the alert would go to the campus police substation even if the power was cut. It would also draw the men outside, after her, and then he could keep them from following. He didn’t want to kill anyone—well, he
wanted
to, but he wasn’t a murderer.

Thinking ahead, he gathered his clothes and backpack, and rejoined Kate by the doors. She reached out. “Do you want me to take those?”

He pressed them toward her hand, and she grabbed them, clutching them to her chest.

Then he nodded. It was time.

Chapter Twelve

The door flew open, and the alarm howled as Kate jumped outside, rushing to hide behind some trimmed hedges lining the perimeter of the library. She turned to see Maverick right behind her, and she held his clothes and backpack against her chest, breathing in his comforting scent.

He bolted to the other side of the hedge, and two men ran outside. She recognized one as the guy who’d been looking into a store window the other day. She couldn’t believe herself—why hadn’t she listened to her instincts sooner? Instead she’d brushed the whole thing off as silly and self-absorbed.

Now they were here, threatening her, and her…Maverick. Boyfriend wasn’t strong enough. She wondered what he’d been trying to tell her about mates.

Crazy as it sounded, the word “mate” felt about right for him.

Maverick snarled, and the men looked in his direction. It was too late. He was already lunging at them.

Sirens wailed in the distance.

One of the men dropped his gun in panic, and the second was flailing underneath Maverick. One of Maverick’s paws held the man’s gun hand, and Kate could see the man’s flesh turning red, then white, as the blood circulation was cut off under the pressure.

But the second man had bent down to pick up his gun, and Kate knew it would only be a matter of seconds before he held that gun to Maverick’s head.

She dropped his clothes and ran forward. “Hey, asshole!” she shouted.

He whipped the gun up and took aim, but Maverick swiped at the man underneath him—that gun slid away on the slick cement, a few feet away from Kate.

A snarl on his face, Maverick turned to the guy aiming at Kate.

The guy turned to see what Kate was smiling at, and saw Maverick. He stumbled backward.

Maverick leaped, but the gun went off.

“No!” Kate screamed.

There was blood, and Maverick yowled, and Kate couldn’t reach them fast enough. She stopped to pick up the second gun and aimed it at the man on the ground, and the guy underneath Maverick. Maverick was holding him down, and he’d swiped the first gun away, too—Kate rushed over to pick it up.

“You, over there,” Kate said to the first guy. She had never shot a real gun before, but she’d do it to protect Maverick. Carefully, she set one behind her on the low courtyard wall. She held the other one steadily, aiming right at the guy’s chest. “Go stand by your friend.”

The man hesitated. “Not by the fucking cougar.”

“What cougar?” she asked, pretending not to see Maverick. “I will
end
you if you don’t go now.”

The sirens were deafening—the police were here. She could hear car doors slamming, and shouts from the officers.

“We’re back here!” she shouted. “Do it,” she growled at the man. “Over there, now.”

Kate turned to look at Maverick. She could see the pain in his eyes, but he still looked strong. He’d be okay.

“I’ve got this,” Kate said. “Now go.”

The men looked confused, as if they thought she was addressing them. One of them moved to stand, but she said, “I don’t think so.”

Maverick bounded off toward the bushes.

The police were there suddenly, shouting at Kate to drop the weapon. She did, setting it down carefully next to the other gun, keeping it pointed down the entire time. Maverick came out from behind the hedge, fully clothed, his hands up. His right arm was raised a little higher than his left, and his deep blue eyes were full of pain.

It had been too close. He could’ve been hurt, really hurt.

Police officers put the men into handcuffs, and Kate and Maverick would have to give all kinds of statements, Kate guessed.

When Maverick got close, Kate whispered, “Are you okay?”

“I will be. I heal faster than humans. It’ll be okay. We came here so I could pick up a book I’d left behind on my shift yesterday. The men followed us in. Got it?”

Kate nodded.

The men were babbling about a cougar, but the police looked at them skeptically.

“There’s a body inside,” Maverick said. “They shot him.”

A police officer explained how the rest of the day would go—a trip to the station for prints and a check for gunpowder residue, and, she warned, hours of interviews.

Kate reached for Maverick’s hand. At least they were safe.

Epilogue

Maverick watched Kate put her chocolate cake on the kitchen counter. She had to elbow her way through his brothers and their mates, and Chloe had practically been attached to Kate’s knees since Kate came in the door, but she’d managed.

He grinned at the chocolate cake—it had been a miracle she even got it made, because he’d been so “helpful” in her kitchen. Both of them had been naked more often than not over the past three days, and he’d been tempted to blow off Thanksgiving entirely so he could have another day of Kate all to himself.

But she wanted a family—she wanted to meet his crazy brothers and their mates and be a part of the Fournier clan. Besides, she was his mate, and his family wanted to meet her as soon as possible.

Hera waddled over to greet Kate. “I heard you two had some excitement over on the NCCAS campus, huh?”

“There were these guys who wanted to take me for leverage or something, to get my mom to stop helping on a case.”

“And Maverick didn’t kill any of them?”

Kate looked at Maverick with pride, and he felt his heart grow to at least twice its normal size. “Nope. Best of all, the police found all the evidence they need to link the hit men to the corporation. So now that corporation is facing two trials at once.”

“I’m glad you’re both okay,” Hera said, pulling first Kate into a hug, and then Maverick.

Maverick pulled back, alarmed, because Hera’s eyes were so teary.

“It’s the baby,” Blake stage-whispered from behind her. “Over-emotional.”

“I heard that, you…” Hera trailed off when she saw Chloe attached to Maverick’s leg. “I’ll tell you what you are later,” she finished.

Blake grinned. “Can’t wait.”

Kate’s phone rang, and she stepped away from the craziness in the dining room to answer. “It’s Trina. I’ll be right back,” she said to Maverick.

He watched her worried expression slowly turn into a happy one. “I’m thrilled, and I just knew they would love her! They love you, and so does she, so how could they not love her?”

It sounded like Trina’s family was accepting of her girlfriend, after all. Kate ended the call and returned to his side.

“So you owe me a coffee and a scone,” he said.

“Yup. That’s one bet I’m glad I lost.”

After the turkey was carved, Kate leaned over to whisper to him, “I bet if you brought up your sisters with Gabriel today, he’d let you call them.”

“I’ll take that bet.”

“Winner gets first choice of orgasm.”

“Um…Kate? Did you forget about a lion’s keen sense of hearing?”

“Shit.”

“Um…Kate? Chloe’s a lion—she’s got good hearing, too. Ixnay on the wearsay ordsway.”

Across the table, Jude laughed. Kate looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and pretend to be dead, so Maverick leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“It’s okay,” Maverick said. “She’s too busy telling Miranda about dissecting owl pellets in class.”

“I heard every word, though,” Gabriel said from down the table. “What’s this about calling the sisters?”

Maverick frowned. “It’s nothing.”

Kate elbowed him—hard.

“Doesn’t sound like nothing,” Gabriel said. “Spill.”

“Fine,” Maverick said. “I think it’s time we got in touch with them.”

“Nan thought it was too dangerous,” Jude said. “She wanted them to be able to really join the families she sent them to.”

“Yeah, well, Nan’s gone now, isn’t she?” Maverick asked. “I don’t understand all that stuff about them joining other families. Exchanges are always allowed to stay in contact, aren’t they? And I’m tired of following the orders of a dead woman. I loved Nan, too, but you, Jude, of all people, should know that she wasn’t always right.”

Jude nodded. Nan had talked Jude into breaking up with his mate, Ava—and they’d been apart for six lonely years before finally reconnecting.

Maverick frowned at Gabriel. “So?”

“I don’t think you understand what this all means, but I agree. We haven’t heard from Justine or Cora in three years, and it’s time to get in touch. I miss them too, you know.”

The rest of Thanksgiving dinner was full of tense silence. Chloe, even, seemed subdued until Maverick started making funny faces at her, and then she relaxed. He wished he was six again and didn’t have to bear any of this responsibility.

After dinner, Gabriel set his phone in the center of the table and they crowded around it. The brothers and their mates were close together, shoulders touching, eyes alight with anticipation.