Twin Wolf Trouble (Shifter Squad Six 2) (5 page)

He turned back and Madeline knew he was about to say something. But she never heard the next vile thing he wanted to call out. Instead, she was immediately showered in blood and bits of tissue as his head exploded like a pumpkin hitting the ground. His body stood upright for one gut-wrenching moment, as if contemplating whether or not it had really lost a head, before collapsing to the side.

Madeline’s eyes were wide as saucers and the world seemed to stand still for a second. Her body was as if frozen in time, but when she saw the men in the chopper, so close to the train car and still clearly visible through the open door, adrenaline took over. She tossed herself to the side when they lined up their guns, aiming at her now that Devs had fallen to the floor, gushing blood.

As she scrambled to hide in the blind corner to the left of the open door, she could see the broad, powerful figure of Tex pounding down the corridor, his assault rifle drawn, his face contorted in rage. Before he could come in range of the helicopter, the chopper peeled up and back in time to avoid a narrow collision with a tunnel. Suddenly, the light was sucked out of the compartment and Madeline could only see the little red light blinking on the top of the rifle. It didn’t seem to slow Tex down one bit, though.

He came right to her, kneeling down in front of her, one hand on her shoulder, shaking her out of her stupor.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Madeline, talk to me.”

His words were calm, like the sea before a storm. The light flickered back as they made it out of the tunnel and Madeline could once again see him, his handsome face so close to her, his green eyes shining with worry and something else she couldn’t quite place.

“I’m okay. But, they’re all… dead,” she stuttered, stunned, looking around at the four dead men she was sharing a compartment with.

“Don’t worry about them. One problem at a time, okay? Let’s get out of here,” he said, flashing a grin like this was great fun and nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

When his eyes flickered a deep, amber kind of gold for a second, Madeline thought she was plunging straight into hell. A second later, she passed out, soft darkness blissfully claiming her.
 

CHAPTER FIVE

Tex

“Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakens!” Tex cheerfully called, putting his rifle down mid-cleaning and getting up.

Fuck, I’m sore. Need to talk to the lieutenant about upping those damn resistance classes again,
he thought, stretching his legs as he stalked over to the bed that housed their most prized possession.

“You want something, Miss? Something for the headache, a brown paper bag to heave into, a strong shoulder to cry on?” Thatch called from the kitchen area of the apartment they were currently occupying, which was one-room with an open kitchen-living room-bedroom.

It was the best they could do on short notice. Even The Firm didn’t keep that many safe houses in fucking Arizona of all places! Tex grinned at his brother, the kettle going off at the right time and giving him a second alone with Madeline. He knelt next to the couch she was curled up on and instinctively brushed a lock of hair out of her face. Touching her was damn near electric and he felt a straight buzz go through him.

She blinked the sleep out of her eyes, the small shot of medication they’d given her after she’d stirred the first time, kicking and screaming, having apparently worked wonders. Thatch had insisted on checking with Grant before they administered her anything, even though both Tex and his brother had gotten extensively trained on most simple procedures and common medical equipment and drugs for their field work. But that was the kind of guy Thatch was—careful to a fault. A polar opposite of Tex in many ways.

“Hey, sugar. How was the sleep? Did you dream of me?” he asked, grinning.

Shit, she’s gorgeous
.

And it wasn’t just the adrenaline talking, or the fact that he’d watch her almost take a bullet and still keep her head on her shoulders. Madeline was no pushover, and with those legs, eyes, and body, hell, Tex would have bought anything she sold. By the glances Thatch kept sneaking at them, his brother seemed to share that sentiment.

“Where are we?” she asked, sitting up on the couch sharply and then wincing, grabbing her head. “And why do I feel like a truck ran over me?”

“We’re in Arizona. That’s all you get to know, sorry. And we had to sedate you a little. Whoa now, calm down!” Tex called, catching her mid-leap as she was trying to make it off the couch like a tiger throwing herself across a chasm.

He threw her back on the couch as gently as he could and then stood up, raising his hands apologetically.

“Madeline, listen to me. We’re the good guys. You’re safe. I can’t tell you anything about where you are for your own benefit. The less you know the better, okay?”

His lips thinned in worry as he heard Thatch close in on them from behind, holding two cups of steaming hot chocolate. They exchanged a look amongst one another, that good old twin telepathy getting them on the same wavelength pretty easily. Mission objectives: calm down the smoking-hot redhead by any means necessary. Lock and load.

“You drugged me, you took me to an undisclosed location and you won’t let me leave! I don’t know if you sound like good guys to me! I saw you shoot a guy for God’s sake!” Madeline mewled, her lovely voice breaking a little in the first throes of hysteria.

It had started out much the same the first time she came to, but then they’d had the unfortunate additional problem of being stuck in an armored vehicle The Firm had sent to the scene. They couldn’t exactly spend a lot of time calming her down when they needed to put as much distance between themselves and the train as possible, so the sedative had been the only option. By the looks of her now, she at least didn’t remember that little tidbit. Though he could definitely still feel the way her tight, curvy body had squirmed against his chest as Thatch administered the shot, whispering comforting words in her ear as he did so.

Tex found the two hot chocolate mugs unceremoniously shoved in his hands as Thatch kneeled down so he could be eye-level with her. Tex hid the eye-roll. Thatch and his smooth talking. He could talk their way out of the final reckoning if he had to.

“Madeline, look at me. Look at me,” Thatch said, taking her hands in his and holding them just firmly enough so she couldn’t yank them away. When she looked at Thatch, Tex could see that there were tears in her eyes. His grip on the mugs tightened. “I know this looks bad, but you have to trust us. You were very brave. You walked in on some very dangerous men doing horrible things, and you kept your head when under pressure.”

“That other guy sure didn’t,” Tex joked, receiving scathing glares from both Thatch and Madeline. “Sheesh, tough crowd,” he muttered, sitting down with a plop next to Madeline. He made a point of not being too far from her.

“Madeline, they saw your face, they’ll find you from the passenger list. We can’t let you walk out of here for your own good, and for your family’s sake. We’ll set you up with a new identity, and you’re going to have to keep away from your parents and everyone else you know. Long enough at least so we can find who those men were and catch them. I promise you, we
will
catch them.”

Tex watched as Thatch rubbed his thumbs over Madeline’s hands and her eyes flicked down to watch the motion, her lips parting a little. Spirits above, she was perfect. Even disheveled, nervous, and wound up like hell, she could get his blood pumping a mile a minute and his cock straining against his pants. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but Tex had been watching her sleep the whole entire time, and it had nothing to do with being tasked to do it.

“But my mom and dad… I can’t disappear on them like that! They’ll look for me.”

Tex shared a look with Thatch and his stomach twisted. He hated that part. But Thatch was cool as a cucumber, always in control of the message. The epitome of a comms guy.

“No, they won’t. There were explosions on the train. You saw the Marines, and the guy who Tex took care of. There were a few other victims. What your parents know is that you were one of the half-dozen victims from a freak engine explosion on the train. They’ll get your remains, cremated, and that’ll be that. They won’t look for you. It’s to protect them too, so the guys after you won’t have any reason to go and talk to them.”

Tex could hear the sob before it rolled over her lips. But Thatch was there, cuddling her up in his arms, setting himself to sit on the couch while she heaved teary gasps into his chest. Tex raised the hot chocolate mugs at Thatch and mouthed “Seriously?!” at him.
He
could have been the one with the pretty girl in his arms, letting the confusion out.

Tex knew as much as Thatch did that her crying had little to do with the actual outcome of the situation. Yes, Madeline had every right to be shaken and Tex was sure that the boys at The Firm would grill her relentlessly before they let her get on with her new life somewhere certainly not in Louisiana. But it was mostly the pent-up fear and wealth of emotion that had to come bursting out. They’d seen it plenty of times. Usually the one doing the crying didn’t make his pulse quicken, though.

When she pulled back from Thatch’s chest, nestled between the two of them on the couch, Tex gave her the mug and threw his arm over the back of the couch, beating Thatch to it by a few seconds.

“Drink that, you’ll feel better,” Tex said sagely, sipping on the other one before handing it over to Thatch.

“It all sounds so… impossible!” Madeline finally said, the glassy look in her eyes clearing. “Who
are
you two and how did you… why were you… um. Explain, please,” she finally said, obviously flustered.

The annoyed little blush she got on her cheeks was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

“We belong to a private military operation,” Tex said, going for the rehearsed tale they sometimes got to tell when the target was about to go into questioning anyway. Though he wouldn’t have been surprised if those gray eyes of hers would make him spill all the details of their past that he shouldn’t tell anyone. “We were on a job on the train. No details, simply told to keep an eye out. Guess this time it meant ‘be prepared for bombs and terrorists.’”

He grinned, an easy smile that came naturally to him, keeping Madeline’s gaze.

“And how do I know you’re actually the good guys? I mean, no offense, you’ve got a
great
little setup here, but all I know is that I saw you blow some guy’s head off and then I wake up in a place I don’t know. Great hot chocolate though,” she finished, nodding appreciatively at Thatch.

Smug bastard, he smiled right back.

“Well, a few things. You’re still alive, so that’s a good sign. If I remember correctly, the other guy tried to shoot you. I didn’t. So one point for us. Secondly, everyone that wasn’t dead on the train by the time we found you is still alive. We don’t have a TV here but trust me, if we did you’d be seeing news coverage of a horrific train accident where dozens of people walked away unscathed.”

“And we make great hot chocolate. Ever known evil geniuses who put cinnamon in their hot beverages? I don’t think so,” Thatch chuckled.

“That was my idea,” Tex grumbled.

“Sure it was,” Thatch jabbed back, making Madeline giggle between the two of them.

“Okay, all right already! So maybe you two aren’t complete maniacs.”

“Oh, I’d say we’re maniacs all right. Just the good kind,” Tex announced with a wide grin, winking at Madeline.

She shook her head, making her lush red curls bounce a little and sweep across her freckled cheeks. She was so hot that being alone near her was making Tex turn into some weird werewolf supernova. He’d never felt so damned attracted to anyone in his life, and the way Thatch kept staring at her like someone had sent her down from the heavens told Tex that he wasn’t alone in his fascination.

“So what happens now?” Madeline asked, finishing up her chocolate.

Her shoulders were relaxed now and she was breathing more evenly, easing into the madness. It was inevitable, usually. Shock, then acceptance. The real repercussions of everything that had happened and would happen would hit her later. But Tex, unfortunately, would not be there to help her through it. He knew the drill, though. If The Firm got involved, she’d be picked up from the safe house as soon as it was reasonable to do so, driven to a new location, information pumped out of her and new knowledge fed into her so she could take on her new identity. And then? Then Tex would never see her again.