Timber Valley Pack: Lynx On The Loose( A Paranormal Romance With Shifters) (6 page)

              “She’s not actually kidding. I wouldn’t want to piss her off. She’s the kind of kid who’d gut you in your sleep,” Isadora said. Dash detected a decidedly admiring tone to Isadora’s voice.

              “We’re watching you, buddy! Nowhere you can run out here!” Thomas shouted.

              Dash suppressed a smile. “I like them. They’ve got moxie.”

              Then he shook his head at her reprovingly. “What were you doing with these kids?”

              “We were going hunting for lunch. Caught us some rabbits.” Isadora patted her stomach with satisfaction. “A wild meal’s actually kind of nice, now and then.”

              “No, I mean what are you doing hanging out with kids at all, under these circumstances?”

              She actually looked guilty at that. “It’s a long story. I didn’t mean to end up hanging out with them. The hyena kid’s uncle just got in town, and he’s going to take them north to some construction job that he’s got with a pack near Canada. I’ve just been hanging out here, keeping an eye on him and making sure that he’s an okay person.”

              “And is he?”

              “So far, he seems good. I mean, he’s their best option.” Isadora didn’t look completely convinced.  “Finding them an adoptive family wouldn’t work. I don’t see them fitting in too well with a traditional family. They’re basically decent, but kind of semi-feral.”

              “What else are you doing out here?” Dash looked her in the eye. “I’m well aware that we’re not too far from the lab that we raided.  That can’t be a coincidence. Why did you end up here of all places?”

              “Dash, I really can’t tell you right now,” she said wearily. “I wish that I could. I tell you what, I need to get these kids back to camp and then we can talk, all right?”

              “Fine.” He suspected that she thought that she was going to run off as soon as she’d gotten the kids safely back to the camp, but he had a little surprise for her. He’d come prepared.

              They walked back to where Sally and Thomas were standing.

              “Let’s go,” Isadora said, and they headed back towards the Hobo camp.

              “Why do you want to arrest her?” Thomas demanded, glaring at Dash through narrowed eyes.

              “I don’t want to arrest her at all. She and I just need to go have a chat. I don’t mean her any harm. We’re pals,” he said, and put his arm around her slender waist. He felt a surprising jolt when he touched her, and a strange warmth spreading through his body.

              Down, boy, he told himself.

              The camp was in a cleared area, with some makeshift tents slung on ropes, and clothing hanging off a clothing line.  Thomas and Sally trotted towards a campfire where a dozen shifters were sitting.

              While they weren’t looking, and before Isadora could say a word, Dash quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on Isadora’s wrist and then cuffed her to his wrist. He managed to do it so quickly that nobody at the campfire saw, and then he moved Isadora’s bag to cover the cuffs.

              “We’ve got to get going!” he called out to everyone. “Bye, guys, I’ll bring her back later!”

              “What do you think you’re doing, idiot?” Isadora said, while maintaining a smile for the campers. She waved at the shifters with her free hand, smiling brightly, as she let Dash lead her away. Dash could see the looks of disappointment on Thomas and Sally’s faces.

              “They needed more of a goodbye than that,” Isadora said through gritted teeth. “They’re already too used to being abandoned.”

              “This is better than me swarming down on this camp with dozens of cops, isn’t it?” he snapped.

              “Yes. Why didn’t you?”

              “Because I genuinely want to get a chance to talk to you, and I am really hoping that you’ll finally come to your senses. Just tell me what the hell you’ve done, and why. Why were you meeting with humans? Why did you give them samples that you stole from the clinic? Come on Isadora, I’m begging you.”

              “I must say I like the sound of that,” Isadora said as they slogged through the woods.

              He couldn’t help but smile, and he tried not to inhale her feminine scent, with a hint of cinnamon mixed in with her female musk.

              “Really. This is me, Dash Battle, asking nicely. When does that ever happen?”

              “Under other circumstances, I’d love the fact that you’re begging me. And I might even give you what you were begging for – if it were anything but this,” she said. “But I can’t. I’ve got to go now.” She made a sudden gesture with the handcuffs – and then looked surprised and angry when they didn’t fall off.

              He permitted himself a smug smile. “Oh, did I forget to tell you? I have specially designed handcuffs made just for you. Pick-proof. Come on, Isadora, I’m not an idiot. You would have shook those handcuffs off just now, shifted, and shot straight up that tree.”

              “Fuck you.” She scowled for a minute as he hurried her along, but finally a tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “All right, I’ll give you props for thinking outside of the box, for once.”

              “Ouch.” He pretended to clutch at his heart. “That really hurt, Isadora. Come on, I had handcuffs specially designed for you. That’s got to count for something.”

              She actually laughed out loud. “Are you flirting with me, Dash? This is a whole new side to you.”

              He sighed. It was, wasn’t it? Under other circumstances, this could be the hottest thing he’d ever experienced. 

              But it was time to get serious.

              He stopped and fished his phone out of his pocket with his free hand. “Last chance. Isadora, please tell me what’s up or you give me no choice. I came here with a group of Wardens. I’ll have to call Warden Kerrigan. Cody’s here with us, he’ll compel you to talk.”

              She shrugged. “Call, already.”

              He sighed, and dialed the number. “It’s Dash,” he said. He described where he was. “I’ve got Isadora.”

              “We’ll meet up back by the cars, then,” Kerrigan said. “It’s going to take a little while; we’d headed off in the opposite direction.”

              “No hurry. She’s not going anywhere,” Dash said.

              Isadora stuck her tongue out at him.

              Really? Even now, she couldn’t be serious for one minute?

              “Warden Redthorne wants you to call him,” Kerrigan said.

              He hung up and called Warden Redthorne as he and Isadora walked.

              “I’ve got Isadora. I’m heading back to meet up with the other Wardens, so we’ll have answers soon,” he said.

              “Good job! I knew I did the right thing by sending you after her. I’ve got to tell you, I was a little concerned that you might be sweet on her, but you came through for us,” Warden Redthorne said.

              “She can hear everything you’re saying,” Dash said. Isadora was quietly snickering. “I’m not against a little police brutality when it’s called for,” he told her, shoving her with his shoulder.

              “Ooh, baby. Don’t stop,” she said loudly.

              “That lynx won’t be laughing when I get my claws on her,” Warden Redthorne said. “And by the way, the Timber Valley Medical clinic just informed us that one of their nurses has disappeared.”

              “Kidnapped?” Dash said, alarmed.

              “No. The day after Isadora broke in, the nurse apparently said that she was going on vacation. The clinic owner happened to mention it to me in passing.  As soon as he told me that, we started doing some checking.  We went to her house; she’d cleared out.  Turns out she goes on vacation a couple of times a year, and when we checked with shifter authorities on the Caribbean island she’s been visiting, it’s clear that those vacations were way too expensive for the salary that she earns.”

              “She’s in the wind then,” Dash said.

              “Yes. We have an APB out on her the same as we did on Isadora.  We’re working on trying to find any secret bank accounts she might have.  We’re also trying to figure out what she was up to.”

              Isadora was pretending not to listen, but she was clearly eavesdropping.

              Dash shot her a reproving look. “Thanks for the update. I’ll call you to discuss it in more depth after I turn over the prisoner.”

              “Hey, can we start with the police brutality now?” Isadora asked hopefully, as he hung up the phone.

              Colonel Bradwell looked out the window of the cabin, twitching with impatience. He couldn’t wait to get out of the country so he could stop looking over his shoulder. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a month. Every sound he heard outside the remote cabin made him jump out of his skin, sure that the shifters had finally found him.

              He’d hoped that if he laid low and kept his head down long enough, the shifters would start to lose interest and the hunt for him would die down. However, his source had kept him informed on what was happening, and that was not the case.

              He wasn’t giving in to despair. He’d come too far, and the prize was too tempting.

              Once he’d succeeded in developing a formula that would change humans to animals, he’d have the world in the palm of his hand. Everybody would come to him. He’d be the only source. He could turn humans into ultimate weapons. 

              Damn it, it had been done once. It had worked, and he’d seen the proof. Those idiot scientists he’d hired hadn’t been able to reproduce it yet; he wasn’t sorry they’d been wiped out. He’d been on the verge of terminating them all with extreme prejudice and starting over anyway.

              Soon, he promised himself. He’d have another lab, in a country where the laws were laxer than in the U.S. They’d capture more shifters. They’d start over. They’d managed to save a lot of their research; it wouldn’t be like starting from scratch.

              Right now, though, he was on edge, nervously checking out the window all the time and jumping at every noise. 

              He had half his men here with him. He wished that he could hire more men, but he didn’t dare trust anyone new at this point. From what he’d been told about the raid on the lab, two of the newer mercenaries that he’d hired had betrayed him, shot his own men, and helped the shifters break out. He had a pretty good idea how they’d gotten the fake credentials that led to their hire.

              Nicholas Almassy.

              He blamed Zador for this. The stupid bastard. Unfortunately, he still needed Zador if he wanted to be able to continue to work with the arms brokers – for now, anyway.

              Zador should have warned him about Almassy. How much he hated Zador, how he’d never stop hunting him, which meant that everyone associated with Zador was in Almassy’s crosshairs as well.

              It was all right. Once Zador had developed the formula, Bradwell wouldn’t need him any more.

              A sound outside the cabin made him start. A wolf’s howl. It was long and high and eerie, twisting up through the air.

              Bradwell tensed and glanced at Alan Robinson, one of his mercenaries.  Alan met his gaze, chewing on his lower lip. They were both thinking the same thing.

              Shifter, or just a wolf? It was impossible to tell.

              He cursed his luck. He’d fled his home and was hiding in this remote cabin in Idaho for two reasons.  Firstly, it came with its own private landing strip, and secondly, because it was too dangerous for him to stay in any city, even under a fake ID. The advantage of being here was that there were no prying eyes out here, nobody to stumble on him accidentally, but the disadvantage was that the woods were crawling with wildlife.  It meant that he never knew if the animal sounds that tormented him came from a human or a shifter. It was still possible that they could find him out here. The shifters had turned out to have access to technology and tracking skills that he never could have dreamed off.

              He still had a couple of spies in the shifter community, and as far as he knew the shifters still didn’t know where he was staying. 

He was paying his shifter spies massive bribes to keep the information stream flowing to him.  Once the lab had been raided and he’d been forced to go on the run, they’d jacked their price up outrageously. It infuriated him. Some day, he would have them killed, but for now he needed them.

              Another howl drifted through the air, long and drawn out. He groped at the AK-47 that lay on the table near him, clutching it for reassurance.

              “I doubt it’s a shifter,” Alan said. “They’d have attacked us already…wouldn’t they?”

              “Maybe not,” Colonel Bradwell said, panic swelling in his throat. “Maybe they’re gathering their forces.”

              Alan swallowed hard, his face pale. He wasn’t a coward, but the prospect of going up against dozens or hundreds of enraged shifters was enough to frighten even the most stalwart soldier.

              He grabbed his walkie talkie. “Delta Echo 3, this is C1, are you hearing that wolf howl?” he radioed, talking to one of the men they had stationed outside.

              “C1, I hear it, but I’m not getting a visual. If it turns out to be anything I’ll give you a holler. Over,” the man replied.

              Alan stifled a yawn. He hadn’t been sleeping well either, obviously.

              “I’ll go brew us some coffee,” he said.

* * *

              As they jogged through the woods, headed back towards the rendezvous point, Dash tipped his head back to sniff the air.

              “That’s the third time that you’ve done that,” Isadora said, as they emerged from the tree line and Dash rushed her towards his car. “What do you scent?”

              “Humans. Headed our way.” He yanked open the car door, uncuffed her, and shoved her in the passenger side. Then he cuffed her to a metal bar that he’d fixed by the side of the seat, and ran over to the driver’s side.

              “Are they friends of yours?” he asked as they slid in.

              “Doubt it,” she said coolly.

Dash cursed to himself. He would have liked a more definitive answer.

He glanced around the parking lot; the Wardens and Pride Patrol weren’t back yet. They’d all headed out to the Hobo camps.  When he’d called them, they’d turned around and headed back, but they still hadn’t arrived. They’d probably be there within minutes, but the humans were getting closer every second; their smell was getting stronger and stronger.

He couldn’t wait.

              He started up the truck and sped out of the parking lot.  He headed east.

              He pulled out his phone t to call Warden Kerrigan, but the sound of another car on the road interrupted him. He glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping it was the Wardens or Pride Patrol returning, but no such luck.

              He didn’t recognize the big black SUV with the tinted windows. He went around a sharp curve, and then accelerated. The car behind them sped up too.

              Isadora twisted around to look. “Seriously, no clue who that is,” she said. “They really seem to want to get to know us better, though.”

              “I’m not in the mood to make new friends.” There was a long straight stretch of road ahead, and they were coming closer to a small town. If he could just make it there, their pursuers would drop off, he was sure.  He pushed his foot down on the pedal, and roared down the road.

              The SUV accelerated too, and rammed into the back of the pickup truck, sending him fishtailing.

              “Fuck!” he cursed. He barely managed to stay on the road.

              They rammed him again as soon as he was back in his lane.  He heard the crack of gunshots.  The truck left the road, plowing into an overgrown field. He heard the sound of a tire popping.

              Quickly, he uncuffed Isadora, and scrambled out of his truck, pulling his gun out.

              Isadora followed him, standing by his side, as the black SUV pulled over on the side of the road and four humans scrambled out. They were dressed in black, and all were armed.

              “Isadora, run for it,” Dash said.

              The thought of her being hurt filled him with panic. It surprised him how much the idea scared him.

              “No way.”

              “You stupid, stubborn, lynx, run! I’ll keep them here and you escape!”

              In response, she growled, unsheathed her claws, and her face began to shift. Her fangs descended, and her eyes glowed with anger.  She let out the loud, angry hiss of a cornered cat.

              Was this the way a traitor would act? If she’d sold out her own kind, shouldn’t she be running off to leave him to die?

              Just then, an 18 wheeler truck came down the road and slowed to a stop.   The men hesitated, then ran back to the SUV, hopped in and drove off.

              The driver of the truck leaned out of his window. “Are you all right?” he called.

              “We’re fine, thanks!” Dash yelled to him. “Appreciate it!”

              The truck driver waved at him and drove off.

              Dash saw Isadora glancing around the field, and before she could shift and run off, he slapped the cuffs on her again.

              “Are you kidding me?” she snapped. “What is your obsession with handcuffs, you kinky bastard? And why didn’t you ever bring this up at a time when we actually could have had fun with it?”

              “Ha ha, that’s funny.  And the answer is, because you were always making sure that I was royally pissed off at you. Now why is that, do you think? Maybe you were afraid that if you didn’t keep pushing me away, something might actually have happened between us?”

              “Don’t flatter yourself!” she yelled at him, as he shoved her back into the passenger side and cuffed her to the metal bar again.

“I’ve got to change the tire. Sit tight,” he said.

He changed the tire and was back on the road in record time.

              “Has it occurred to you that after you called your people and told them where we were, humans suddenly show up on the scene and start following us?” Isadora said irritably. “You know it’s not something that I did. You were with me the whole time.  They were there half an hour after you called. That would have given somebody on your team time to tip off those humans.”

              “Yes, it has occurred to me. It’s also interesting that they were close enough to get there that quickly.  That was a squad of mercenaries who almost certainly were working for Colonel Bradwell. Why were they in this area?”

              “Damned if I know.”

              “Or, damned if you’ll tell me,” he growled.  Then he looked at her suspiciously. “You had a couple of bags with you earlier. Where are they?”

              “I ditched them.”

              “Why?”

              “So you can’t go through my stuff,” she said coolly. “Where are we going right now, by the way? What’s your plan?”

              “I don’t know, damn it. For the first time in my life, I’m winging it.”

              “No effin way. How does it feel?”

              “Sucks,” he snapped. He was driving aimlessly, just trying to put some distance between him and the humans.

              After a little while, he actually saw her smile, and then start to laugh.

              “Please tell me what about this situation is remotely funny,” he said.

              “You. Me. Patrol car,” she laughed. “Feels like old times, doesn’t it?”

              His mouth twitched in a smile, but he forced himself not to laugh. Couldn’t the lynx ever take anything seriously?

              Then again, that had always been part of her charm, hadn’t it? She could find humor in the bleakest situation, and somehow, lighten a dark mood by doing so.

              Wait, he told himself angrily. Since when did he find Isadora charming? He didn’t. He definitely didn’t.

              He needed to get his mind back on his duty, to protect the welfare of shifters, and stop thinking about Isadora and how deliciously sweet she smelled, and how maddeningly adorable she looked when she laughed.

              He grabbed his phone and called Warden Redthorne, who was at headquarters back in Timber Valley. He told them about the men who’d chased after them. Redthorne let out a stream of curses.

              “Where are you now?” Redthorne asked.

              “Getting as far away from the rendezvous point as possible.  Who knew where we were?” Dash asked. “Somebody put a call in to those humans.”

              “Hold on a minute. I’m just going to step outside my office,” Redthorne said.  Dash waited while Redthorne walked outside.  “After you called me, I called a number of people to update them that Isadora had been taken into custody.   I’m going to start making a list of them now. I need to proceed cautiously. The people that I told were people that I thought that I could trust absolutely. Is it possible that Isadora was the one to tip the soldiers off, and she was just playing coy when they showed up?”

              “I really don’t think so,” Dash said. “I’ve been with her continuously.  Listen, sir, I trust you, but I frankly don’t know who else to trust out here. I’m going to bring Isadora back to Timber Valley by myself; we’re too exposed out here.”