Hounded (Shifter Town Enforcement) (10 page)

Except she was working really hard on trying to save Kanon.

“Lennox.” Kanon chucked a pillow at her and she whirled, catching it before it hit her. Her slim shirt hitched up over the side of her jeans with the motion, revealing a sliver of skin.

Damn. Tegan rolled his head back into the comforter and stared at the ceiling. As much as he wanted to wrap hands around her hips and drag her over, run his tongue over that bare patch of skin and taste her, he couldn’t risk it. They needed her.

“The carpet is beat down enough, don’t you think?” She scoffed and Tegan grinned, letting his partner deal with her. If anyone could woo a restless, crabby as hell dog, it was Kanon. “Come here.”

“No.”

Or not.

Kanon sighed. The bedsprings creaked, shifting under his partner’s weight and Tegan didn’t have to look to know Kanon was getting up. The soft thud of bare feet over carpet confirmed it.

“Don’t,” Lennox started and the footfalls stopped. Tegan waited, not moving, not wanting to break whatever was happening between them, when he really wanted to watch.

“Don’t
what
exactly?”

She gave a grumpy growl and turned away, the short, choppy strides of her pacing resumed. She made it one full turn before Kanon moved, Tegan rolling to his side to watch as his partner caught her by the waist. One touch to her hip and she stopped, pulled up as surely as if he’d noosed her and dragged her against him.

Her chin jerked up a notch, damn near defiant.

Hell, he couldn’t take it anymore.

Tegan rolled off the bed and strode right for her. Her shoulders drew back, breath hitching in her throat when he slipped a hand around her other hip. “Someone’s framing you for murder,” she whispered to Kanon. “You should let me think.”

Kanon swept her hair back. “Honey, you’re thinking so hard your brain’s about to bust.”

Tegan had never been much for redheads, especially not the orangey color of most, but the rust gave hers more flavor. Made it vibrant. Or maybe it was just the woman all that hair was on. And the length. He’d always loved a girl with long, long hair and hers stretched down to mid-back. When they stretched her out over the bed, her hair would splay over the pillows.

Tegan lifted a hand and ran his fingers down the length of it, fingertips trailing over her back like a shiver. She trembled. “Relax.”

She swallowed. If he didn’t know better, he’d have called that fear. A grin edged its way to his lips. She was supposed to eat men like them for dinner.

“I don’t think that’s smart.”

“Why’s that?” Kanon stepped into her, lifting one hand to her neck, keeping his other hand on her hip.

Lennox made an impatient sound low in her throat and stepped away. Carefully putting distance between them and her. She looked spooked, edgy. And as wrung out as dirty dish rag. “Letting my guard down with the two of you in the same room. Doesn’t really read as the smart thing to do.”

She’d given them her all today. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, Lennox needed a break.Kanon moved to intercept her. There weren’t many places to go in a two bed, one bath hotel room, except the bathroom or out the front door. They were each blocking an escape, but if push came to shove, Tegan knew they’d both move and let her go.

They couldn’t risk losing her.

“Kanon,” he whispered.

And as tired as she was, she looked ready to bolt.

His partner glanced to him and that was all it took. Lennox ducked past him and disappeared into the bathroom, the door clicking shut behind her. “Fuck,” Kanon muttered, shoving a hand through his hair.

One glance at the raw grief etched over Kanon’s face and Tegan sympathized. “Yeah.”

“Lennox,” Kanon called. “You okay?”

“Fine. Gonna take a shower or something.”

Hell. Like they needed that image, though at the moment, it beat the bloody replay currently running through his head. She was a distraction, a much needed one too. The groan that slipped from Kanon told him his partner was thinking the same thing. It’d been a rough enough day already, and Tegan wanted nothing more than to tug Kanon down on one of those beds and love him until he couldn’t feel anything else. Love them both, he realized with a quick look at the bathroom door. He wanted Lennox sprawled on those covers just as badly as he wanted Kanon.

Sex was a damn good way of beating out the pain.

Except, with or without Lennox, anything naughty they did between the covers would send her packing. Tegan shifted uncomfortably as the weight of the day settled along his shoulders. He’d never thought someone would die for them.

A pained hiss ripped out of him and Kanon squeezed his shoulder.

“Maybe we’ll go grab food,” Kanon called out, already reaching for the keys. “We could use the distraction,” he added quietly.

That they could. Tegan knocked on the bathroom door. “You want anything special?”

“No.”

Fabric slipped against skin and they both froze, eyes locked on the door. Something scuffed over tile and he pictured her kicking her jeans aside, bare legged. He curved his fingers at the thought of slipping them under her underwear, dragging that thin piece of fabric down her legs. She paused. “Just food.”

“Run,” Kanon muttered and shoved him out the door.

No shit. If he stuck around he was either going to end up wallowing in grief on the bed, or beating down the bathroom door. Neither idea spoke well. One just made him sound pitiful; the other would have him trussed up in silver cuffs no doubt while Lennox debated whether or not to shoot him.

He didn’t think she was the kind of girl who’d take a bathroom break-in nicely.

Out of the apartment was about the only option left, so Tegan hustled out the door, leaving it open behind him Kanon to follow. He made it as far as the car, grief and frustration twin roars inside him, threatening to burst. But screaming in the parking lot didn’t read like a sane thing to do either.

Kanon’s shoes slapped the pavement behind him and he spun, wrapping one hand in Kanon’s shirt. With a jerk, he yanked his partner close and crushed his mouth over Kanon’s, drinking him down in a kiss. The warm touch of Kanon’s lips on his eased the building need to scream, it drove back the desire to rip claws into the concrete under his feet. Tegan ran his hands up and down Kanon’s chest, feeling the muscles bunched under the fabric as he clung to him, letting Kanon hold him up as the world crumbled around them.

“I can’t believe they’re dead,” he whispered as he broke the kiss, only to rest his head against Kanon’s shoulder, the faded scent of spicy cologne, mingled with the lingering taste of death in the air. It made it impossible to forget. Impossible to erase the sight of Caro and Tristan, their brutally slaughtered bodies burned into the back of his memory. It wasn’t something Tegan thought would ever go away.

Kanon’s hands tightened on his hips. “I know.”

“I keep picturing her face at Metro.” He didn’t have to say who, Kanon would know. He always did.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Kanon murmured, pitching his voice higher so that it sounded more like Lennox, but the real grief in those words mimicked the heartfelt sympathy she’d offered them there. “Or when she stepped out of the house. God.”

Just the memory of the sorrow in her eyes socked Tegan in the gut. He’d wanted to hold her too. Cling to her. All she’d offered them all day today had been strength, and right now, Tegan needed that. Kanon needed that. He didn’t really want to stand on his own two feet. What he wanted to do was burrow under the covers, curl up with Kanon and Lennox in his arms. Let her be the strength for all of them tonight.

Except, Lennox wasn’t about to curl up between them.

“I’m not even hungry.” Kanon sighed and slumped against him, pushing them both back against the car. The metal frame groaned under their joint weight, the only thing holding them up. Tegan wasn’t either, but they hadn’t eaten all day. And Lennox, she definitely needed food.

“Yeah, but she’s got to be starving. She used a lot of magick to save you, us. And we need her.” Tegan thunked his head back against the car. “Don’t know if you’ve realized that yet or not, but shit. All that voodoo-juju shit she does? We need that. Her nose? Need that too.”

Kanon gave him a sly look, the teasing turn to his grin marred only by the sadness still lingering in his eyes. “I can think of a lot of things I need from her right now.”

“So can I, but I think she’s given us about all she can today.”

And that had to be enough.

He remembered holding her, kissing her. For a woman who hadn’t signed up for any of this, who seemed pretty damn determined not to like them, she’d given them a hell of a lot more than Tegan had thought possible. The least they could do was take care of her tonight.

As if he were reading Tegan’s thoughts, Kanon stepped away, reaching for the driver’s side door. “Let’s get her some food then.”

They rode in silence, only the flash of street lamps and neon signs to illuminate the darkness lingering in the car. Kanon ordered for all of them, his voice numb and clipped, but the angry rumble that snarled out of their stomachs at the scent of food told Tegan they were hungrier than they felt.

Three ten-packs of tacos later, they had food, drinks, and were carrying the boxes back up to the hotel room. Kanon swiped the keycard to let them in, boxes cradled in one arm, while Tegan shouldered the door open, the cups grasped in his. They set them down on the small, circular table between the two beds.

The water wasn’t running so he called out, “Food’s here.”

“Be out in a sec.” She gave a low groan that had them both focused on the door. “Man that smells delicious.”

“Tease,” Kanon mouthed, trying for playful and failing. He slumped back against the headboard, his first taco halfway unwrapped.

They were both two for two by the time she came out. She scrunched up her nose, while she wrapped her long red hair up into a pony tail. Her shirt clung to her skin, wet lines from her hair dribbled over her breasts in a trail that left nothing to the imagination.

“The crappiest thing about showering when you have no clean clothes? You feel dirty the moment you slip back into them.” Lennox paused at the foot of Kanon’s bed, glancing between them as her hands fell to her sides. Color crept up her neck, but she shook it off.

“Knock it off. Eat,” she said, waving at the boxes before snatching up a taco for herself and plunking down at the end of the bed. “And stop staring at me.”

A rivulet of water trailed down her neck and slipped under her shirt. Tegan swallowed.

“Do I have to eat in the bathroom?”

Tegan couldn’t help but grin. “You’re keeping our minds on pleasanter things. Not a bad thing, right?”

Her face sobered. Lennox crumpled up her empty wrapper, tossed it in the waste bin, and dug out a second taco. “I know. Here’s the deal though. We’re off the hook here, but we also have two bodies in Utah, and technically, I’m still supposed to be picking you up in Idaho for assaulting a Hound. I have no idea what happened to the written testimonies I gathered...”

Her tongue darted out, tracing her lips.

“In other words, where do we go?”

Tegan eyed the taco in his hand. Kanon had had his ass jumped by a Hound in one state, two bodies dead in the next. “Someone might be trailing us...”

Lennox nodded. “That was my next thought.”

“So what? String me up as bait?”

She jabbed a taco at Kanon. “Enough out of you. Smart ideas or zip it. And I don’t know. But I...shit.”

Lennox darted off the bed and snatched her cell phone off the table at the end of the room. She winced at the screen.

“Missed call?”

She nodded.

“My boss. Was going to call her and clear Kanon’s name.” She cringed. “Two of his character witnesses ended up dead and the testimonies are gone now.”

Kanon winced. “We can’t even prove they were witnesses on my side, not the Hound’s.”

Tegan frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. Kanon had roughed up that Hound pretty good, but maybe he was after them now? Or a relative, maybe a pack mate?

Lennox was already shaking her head by the time he looked up. “It was Nick Jensen that Kanon beat the shit out of. And no one I know of close to Nick has even half the amount of power to do that kind of wiping. It’s either one heck of a Hound after you, or a witch. My money is on a witch.”

“Maybe this Nick hired a witch?”

She shrugged. “Could be, but as friendly as I am with my boss, Bree won’t take your side over one of her Hounds. Not without proof.”

Which they were awfully short on.

“Fuck,” Kanon whispered, low and raw. Tegan turned, but his partner was already up and moving. He grabbed Lennox’s phone from her, ignoring her startled protest.

“Pick up, pick up,” he whispered.

“Kanon...”

“Aiby, please girl, pick up. It’s Kanon, if you’re there, come on.”

Tegan’s heart sank. Shit. No.

“Aiby.” Kanon glanced at him, eyes wide. Angry.

The same answering furor flooded Tegan. He chucked the taco back in the box as Lennox snatched up her car keys. “Come on,” she said, but he already knew.