Hot Pursuit (22 page)

Wolf held on to the theory that the assassin was either in Zounds or close enough to use the town for his mailing address. He didn’t trust Ben any further than he could throw the young kid when it came to fully disclosing what he knew. Wolf now also believed the assassin had either stumbled onto the knowledge of Cortez or known about him all along. It was well documented that the hired gun didn’t assassinate without being well paid first. It was doubtful anyone in this town could afford the Mulligan Stew assassin.

So the assassin sat, possibly living quite comfortably, under the radar of the oppressive tyranny of Cortez, without the fucking crime lord knowing he was here. Wolf’s mood almost returned to the cheery state it had been after he left the bookstore. No one else had closed in on the assassin yet. Wolf needed to tread carefully. If the Mulligan Stew assassin kept close tabs on Cortez’s activity, and of course he would, he probably already knew Ben and Wolf were in town. Wolf had to find a solid lead before the assassin decided to pull up camp and relocate.

Wolf whistled along to the song on the radio as he maintained the speed limit and drove through Zounds. He picked up his cell phone to call Ben just as it rang. It was a local number, Zounds area code, but not a number Wolf knew.

“Hello,” he grunted, navigating with one hand while holding the phone to his ear with the other. Another thought, don’t break even the smallest of laws. Cortez probably owned the police department and would look for any excuse to harass Wolf. His grin didn’t fade as he searched for his Bluetooth.

“What are you doing?” a woman asked.

Wolf pulled off the road into a gas station parking lot. “Checking out some prospects and following up on a few leads,” he said, recognizing Angel’s voice.

It was the line he’d given Rebecca during their four-year relationship. Rebecca had always accepted the answer, and Angel did, too, with a laugh.

“You sound like some seasoned TV show detective,” she told him, a smile in her voice. “I have a small favor, if you have time,” she continued.

Wolf picked up his Bluetooth, noticed it was dead, and hooked it to the charger on his dash. “What can I do for you?” he asked gallantly.

“Well, I don’t have my car right now.”

Wolf’s mood lifted even further. It was the perfect way to go through Zounds, with Angel at his side. “I just left the bed-and-breakfast. I’ll be there in a minute.”

“I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you simply because we had sex last night.”

“I could offer a few suggestions on ways you could take advantage again.”

Wolf hung up with her laughter ringing in his ears.

There wasn’t any point in telling Angel that he was no longer staying at the bed-and-breakfast. He didn’t want any weird complications between them if she felt obligated to offer him a place to stay. Casual was best. There would be no more Rebeccas.

Dialing again before reaching the bookstore, Wolf informed Ben, who sounded a bit sleepy when he answered, that they were no longer staying at the bed-and-breakfast. Ben didn’t say anything about where he was, and Wolf didn’t ask any questions. He trusted his phone, but a good scrambler would be smart attached to both their phones. Wolf told Ben he was headed to the bookstore, planned on running some errands with Angel, then would touch base later.

“No rush, man. Talk soon.” Ben hung up without another word.

Wolf’s radar shot up.

*   *   *

Angel rang up her customer and smiled as he headed out the door. Tourists helped keep her bookstore open, even when they made ridiculous purchases. It wasn’t her place to complain if the customer would rather buy a book on the Painted Desert in Arizona instead of their own magnificent red wood trees. Angel carried books on the wonders around the world. She always tried to encourage tourists to enjoy the marvels surrounding Zounds.

“Just here for a reunion,” the college kid, who was more boy than man, told her with a wink. “But I’m hitting the road and seeing the sites after I leave here.”

She smiled, nodded, wished him a good day.

Then daring to lean on her counter, she exhaled and surveyed her store. When wasn’t there a day when the children’s section needed to be organized? Angel had learned many things growing up in this store, one of them being when there were no customers in the store, take a break. Putting books back on shelves could be done while customers browsed. She glanced toward her back room, when Wolf entered through the stone room door.

“What are you doing?” She paused in the doorway with her back to the store.

It had been busy since she’d opened, and Angel didn’t dare sit for fear the bell over the door would ring again. But leaning in the doorway counted as a break.

Wolf glanced up from where he studied her door leading to the alley. “You’d be smart to put a better security system in back here.”

“I’ll put that right on top of the list,” she told him, smiling. It wouldn’t surprise her if Wolf used spy gadgets in his line of work, but he probably had no idea how expensive installing a top-grade security system would be in this store. “In the meantime, would you mind getting me something to eat?”

Wolf entered the store and smiled. God, that grin, and those eyes. And well, the whole damn package. Angel was deep in trouble with this man. He approached her, his hazel eyes, which she already knew were laced with streaks of green and brown, were currently heavy with a smoldering haze as he closed the distance between them.

The man didn’t just walk; he swaggered with so much packed muscle he could have her drooling in just the few paces it took to reach her. Angel had to fight not to suggest something completely different for lunch than she had on her mind a moment ago. She barely managed her relaxed expression when he stopped in front of her.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked with that sexy, raspy baritone of his.

“You tempt the bookstore owner when she can’t leave her post,” she chided, but grinned up at him.

Wolf tapped her nose, the look on his face pure male satisfaction that his allure was effective. “And I might tempt you again later. I happen to know this place isn’t open twenty-four hours.”

“Good thing,” she muttered, laughing. It would be all too easy to fall for this man. It was reassuring and made time with him all the more fun, she told herself, knowing that once he caught his man Wolf would leave. The last thing she needed was to complicate her life with a relationship. Everything was just fine the way it was. “The Burger Stand down the street makes some awesome burgers. Tell Ernie the sandwich is for me. He knows just how I like it.”

“If he does, I might just have to kill the man,” Wolf rumbled, and waved off the bills she pulled from her pocket. “Lunch is on me. I’ll be back soon.”

“Definitely smart not to fall for the man,” she whispered under her breath as she watched his backside when he walked into the storeroom to leave through the door which he came in.

The bell tinkled over the door in the store, and Angel turned. “Maggie,” she said, delighted to see her friend and get her mind off rippling muscle through a T-shirt hugging way too much man.

“Hi there.” Maggie glanced around the bookstore before walking up to the counter.

Angel met her on the other side and resumed her position of leaning against it. “You look tired.” She remembered the decorating books she’d sent Maggie off with the other day. “Oh! Are you starting to remodel?”

For a moment it seemed Maggie didn’t know what Angel was talking about. “Yeah, the books.” She nodded but then frowned and shook her head. “How is Zoey doing? I heard through the Zounds grapevine that her daddy is on the warpath right now.”

Angel didn’t want to think about Brutus and Julius’s recent visits. She didn’t like any of her customers thinking their bookstore might be in trouble at the hand of the notorious Cortez. And as much as she liked Maggie and liked thinking of her as a friend, there was another rule Angel had learned over her years working in the store. Really good customers weren’t the same as really good friends. People like Maggie and Zoey, who meant the world to her, thought of Angel as the means to an escape from their everyday lives. Zoey’s reason for escaping was obvious. Angel had never been able to politely pry anything out of Maggie about her personal life, other than apparently she wanted to remodel rooms in her home. Other than that, Maggie was a pro at turning a conversation away from herself and on to someone else.

As she had done just now. Angel didn’t press Maggie about her remodeling.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me telling you,” Angel began, straightening and heading for her coffeepot. “She showed up here last night. Her father hit her.”

“The asshole,” Maggie sneered.

“He’s the devil,” Angel conceded. “Zoey met a guy. She left with him and I’m pretty sure her father doesn’t know where she is.”

“Do you?”

Angel shook her head and brought two cups of coffee to the counter. Maggie took hers and blew over the brim, her blue eyes bright and a lot more alert than they’d been when she’d entered the store.

“So who is this guy she’s met?”

“His name is Ben.” Angel decided not to mention Wolf. It was probably wise to keep the conversation off herself as well. She was definitely not the kind of woman who slept around. People talked, just as she was doing now, she mused, but they wouldn’t talk about her if she didn’t give anyone fodder to do so. “He seems pretty levelheaded, is definitely good-looking, and seemed quite taken with our sweet Zoey. She deserves the best man there is.”

“Yes, she does. This Ben doesn’t happen to drive a motorcycle and just came into town from L.A.?”

“I’m not sure where he’s from,” Angel admitted. “But—”

Maggie exhaled as if she’d been holding her breath. “Angel, Ben and the man he is with, Wolf Marley, are not to be trusted. They are here for one reason, and one reason only, to collect a bounty. They are going to use anyone in this town, and all means at their disposal, simply to get a fat check by turning someone over to the authorities. They don’t care who gets in their way or whose feelings they might trample.” By the time Maggie had finished hissing out her words, she was gripping Angel’s wrist.

“They are both bounty hunters?” Angel questioned, and freed her wrist only to pat Maggie’s hand. Her skin was damp with perspiration, and once again clouds of worry shrouded her pretty eyes. Angel gave her hand a squeeze. “I’m pretty sure Zoey is safe.”

“You’ve met both of them.”

“Well, briefly.” One day didn’t count as a long time to know a person.

“Stay away from them.” Again Maggie let out a breath. She looked at her coffee but then shook her head once as if denying herself the extra jolt.

The way she was worked up, extra caffeine probably wasn’t a good idea. “Do you know anything about them?” Angel asked, and hesitated, refusing to let her curiosity best her. “You haven’t had a bad experience with bounty hunters, have you?”

Maggie noticeably relaxed, although she glanced around the store, shooting a look over her shoulder. “No, not personally,” she said, and looked toward the street. She started toward the door. “They aren’t hard to research. Especially that Wolf Marley. He’s obsessed with money and, according to what I’ve read on him, doesn’t care who he uses to get a cash reward.” She opened the door without looking back. “He doesn’t even care about the person he’s hunting.”

The door closed behind Maggie. Angel stared after her. “Now that was really strange.”

*   *   *

Wolf slipped around the side of the building. His heart pounded so hard in his chest he could barely breathe. When had he ever had such good fucking luck?

He’d even thought to back his Escalade into the service alley. Jumping into it, he fired the engine up, loving more than ever its quiet purr when he accelerated, then braked before entering the street. He leaned forward on his steering wheel.

There she was!

Maggie O’Malley, the Mulligan Stew assassin’s woman, climbed into a small, newer-model Honda. Silver, just like Wolf’s SUV, and as nondescript. It would be hard to pick the car out of congestion on a freeway. The car also stressed humble and definitely did not speak of money, when Wolf was positive the assassin had tons of cash.

He endured the tightness inside his SUV as well as the hard pounding against his chest. Nothing would take his attention off that small car when it pulled from the curb and adhered to the speed limit through town. When Maggie reached the edge of town and accelerated, Wolf ignored the tall pines that grew taller and closed in over head from both sides of the road. The giant trees accentuated his tunnel vision, which at the moment was putting her license plate to memory. Wolf would put down a wager right now that the tag was fake.

Would she take him straight to the Mulligan Stew assassin? Wolf needed to prepare. He’d walked up to dangerous criminals before. A few times he’d ended up face-to-face with the assailant he tracked, surprising them both. To date, not one fugitive he’d hunted down had ever slipped through his fingers.

But this was the big one, as big as it would ever get. Wolf needed a clear head, to be ready for all possible outcomes and be ready with a game plan for each. He would bring in the assassin today if he played his cards right.

“You’re just a man,” Wolf murmured, using the California license plate on the little Honda in front of him as a focal point. He exhaled and took a moment to loosen his grip on his steering wheel and try relaxing as he drove. “Your skills are exceptional, off the charts even, but that doesn’t make you too good to catch.”

The road curved to the right. Incredibly tall pines closed them in, making it impossible to see the sky. Wolf wouldn’t take time to lean forward and try seeing the tops of the trees. He knew this was one of the most beautiful parts of this state, of the country, and he would miss the spectacular beauty of it because of the hunt.

Wolf had made sacrifices before. He had no idea what information Maggie O’Malley thought she had on him. It shouldn’t surprise him that the assassin would know he was close and learn all he could about Wolf. There might have been a time or two when Wolf took advantage of situations to make his hunt easier. He wasn’t heartless, though. Not once had he used a woman to further his pursuit of a criminal. He would never put anyone in harm’s way, especially with them not knowing harm existed.