"I wouldn't have dreamed of being left out of this little adventure."
That's when Cameron suspected Gavin had seen Faith shapeshift on the trail. So his partner had truly already known.
Leidolf gave Gavin an evil smile. "He'll make a good pack member." Then he turned his attention to the Dark Angel passed out on the floor. His hand was bleeding, but Leidolf hadn't crushed the bone like he could have.
"Are you sure he's one of us now?" Faith asked, pausing to pull on her parka. "What if he isn't?"
"He's one of my kind, I should say," Leidolf said in that arrogant way of his. "Which means I'll either have to eliminate his sorry ass if he causes me any grief, or take him back with me and make him part of my pack. Although there is a slight chance I didn't change him. He still won't be sure either way. So he's ours, pliable once we revive him."
"I'll get some ice," Faith said, but Gavin stopped her.
"I'll get it."
Faith looked at Cameron as if she feared Gavin was getting ready to run. But Cameron knew his partner better than that. He handed him the ice bucket. "Fill it to the top."
Kintail knew they were getting closer to finding Lila, Elizabeth, and Cameron's partners. He smiled at Trevor, unable to hide his own deviousness. He still had it in mind that Faith would be his if Lila wouldn't change her tune and David and Owen would remain with the pack, although he couldn't stop thinking about Lila and how his taking Faith would affect her. Some distant niggling kept warning him he couldn't do it to her, that he had to give Lila more time.
But as far as Leidolf went, he didn't believe the red would interfere in his plans, being that this wasn't his territory, he was a red, and he wouldn't want to mess in Kintail's pack business.
Cameron and Gavin were another story. He didn't believe he could let them live if he wanted to keep Faith and their partners.
"So we've found six leads, but this looks like the best one yet?" Kintail asked Trevor, raising the list of leads he'd scratched off.
"Yeah. Just waiting for your go ahead."
"Let's go."
"What about letting Cameron and the others know?"
Kintail smiled again and Trevor shook his head.
"Kenneth O'Malley saw Lila shift, didn't he?" Kintail asked Trevor for the hundredth time.
"At the time, I didn't think he had."
Finally, his pack member was being honest with him. "That's just what I thought."
They climbed into his truck, and Kintail glanced into the backseat of the King Cab. Hilson was sound asleep. Whitson was dozing and snapped his head up. "We got a lead?"
"Yeah, this time, it's got to be the right place." But how to kill the bastards without the residents of Millinocket believing Kintail's wolves had done the deed?
Owen figured if they could maintain their wolf form, he and David would be a hell of a lot more intimidating than as naked humans if the men tried to come into the basement. Armed with guns though, the werewolf killers would be a hell of a lot more menacing. Still, they had to chance rushing them, if nothing else. Somehow, they had to get upstairs and out of this place. Once they did, he figured they could hightail it back to Charles's cabin resort, meet up with Cameron and Gavin, and take it from there.
Lila was standing at the top of the steps, her ear to the door again listening. She looked back at them and shook her head. "But Kintail will be here soon to rescue us," she said, her voice hushed and more hopeful than trusting.
For the first time, she seemed vulnerable, and Owen thought a little bit frightened. He knew this could all go badly for them in a split second. He didn't have any illusions. The werewolf killers were trigger-happy nutcases and if he and David didn't do what they needed to do to make the outcome right… they could all be dead.
"Someone's coming," she whispered, her voice half excited, half worried.
Showtime.
Sarge, so named because he'd been in the army before he had been dishonorably discharged for illegal drug use, held his injured hand, now wrapped in a hotel hand towel, the blood spotting the white terrycloth. His face wore a scowl, but he was trembling hard as he climbed into the SUV seat between Leidolf and Gavin.
"You didn't have to bite me, damn it," Sarge said to Leidolf. "You were only supposed to growl."
"I growled, and you weren't talking," Leidolf said, his voice darkly amused.
"Yeah, but hell, now I'm one of you."
"Yeah, you are. So now your buddies will want you dead," Gavin said. "So start talking. Where'd they take them?"
"If I tell you, they'll kill me."
"You're alive with us, so far. It's the only chance you've got," Cameron said, glowering at him from the front seat. "Either start talking, or Leidolf will bite you again."
Sarge looked at Leidolf, probably figuring he wouldn't dare change in the vehicle.
"Windows are darkly tinted, Sarge. Better do as everyone says," Faith warned.
Sarge tightened his wounded hand against his chest. "Two-hundred East Dover. I can't guarantee that they're there. I told you that already. Chris said they'd move them after a time."
"Which way?" Cameron asked.
"Take a right at the next light. Head straight for six blocks, then turn right on Amy."
Cameron roared off, then made the six blocks in record time. Faith wanted to tell him to slow down or they'd get picked up by the cops, and then what? But they reached Amy without incident and after turning right on the street of little brick homes, Sarge said, "Next street is East Dover. Seventh house on the right."
"Whose home is it?" Faith asked.
"Matt's. He lives with his girlfriend, but she's working late at a hamburger joint tonight."
They pulled up six houses down from the brown brick house. Then, with Sarge in tow, although Cameron wanted Gavin to wait in the vehicle with Faith—she opted to stick with the group—and they headed for the house. Gavin had a gun, and they might need all the firepower they could get. She didn't need to be protected in the SUV.
Cameron didn't argue with her, although he didn't seem to like it that she'd go along. Gavin did argue with her, but he wanted Cameron to stay and protect her. Leidolf didn't say a word. And Sarge started to say something about staying behind with her, but all three men cut him a glare and he shut up.
Cameron and Faith went around the back where birdbaths were covered in ice, and bird feeders filled with snow were hanging in a number of trees. Gavin went to one side of the house. Leidolf took Sarge to the front door and knocked.
The place looked dark and quiet. No lights, no chimney smoke, no movement, nothing.
Faith was pretty sure no one was home. Which meant that either Sarge was lying, or Chris had moved their hostages like Sarge said he would.
Within minutes, Leidolf was opening the door to the backyard. "No one here. Why don't you come in and see if you can get a clue."
Faith, Cameron, and Gavin hurried into the house and began searching the place. In the basement, she and Cameron got a whiff of Chris and his companions. And they smelled wolves. But since Faith and Cameron had not smelled David and Owen since they'd been changed, they couldn't tell for sure that it was them. Although they suspected it was.
"Wolves have been here," Faith said, lifting a couple of white hairs off the cement floor.
"Where to now?" Cameron asked Sarge, glowering at him as if he was ready to change into the wolf himself and bite him somewhere new.
"I told you—"
"Where!" Cameron snapped.
"We can check Chris's house. It's on the other side of town," Sarge rattled off really quickly.
"Let's go." Cameron grabbed Faith's arm and hurried her up the stairs.
Barely able to keep up with his long stride, she said, "Might be easier if you just tossed me over your shoulder and hauled me to the car."
Gavin chuckled.
In a deviously sexual way, Cameron smiled at Faith. "If you're asking me to do it, I'd be happy to oblige."
"No, it was a subtle way for me to say, 'Slow down,' so I could keep up."
But he didn't slow down, and she had to run to keep up, although she couldn't blame him. She didn't want him telling her she should have stayed in the vehicle.
Suddenly, the headlights of the SUV flicked on and the vehicle drove in their direction. When it stopped, she wondered how in the world Leidolf had gotten to the rental vehicle that quickly. Then she recalled he had already left the basement before Cameron began drag ging her up the stairs.
"Where is Chris's house?" Cameron growled.
Sarge hesitated only a second before he began giving the directions in a hurry.
The door swung open into the basement, and at that instant, David and Owen jumped from the top steps where they were waiting in rabid anticipation and knocked down the blond-headed man who was in their direct path. He didn't have time to squeal or shout, his blue eyes round with shock when Lila came out of the opening and swung a cane at him, striking him in the head, either knocking him out cold or killing him. Owen didn't have time to check him out or even care. David made sure Elizabeth stayed behind him, protecting her as if she were his mate already.
Freedom loomed in front of them, the door to the outside just down the long hall that opened onto a living room. Before Owen could navigate it, a redheaded man stepped in front of the door, wielding a damned gun.
Owen didn't hesitate. Kill or be killed, and he leapt, farther than he ever thought he could manage. Only leaping and dodging bullets was another thing. The weapon discharged and Owen felt the damned projectile lodge in his chest at the same time he slammed into the redhead. At least Red couldn't shoot David or Elizabeth or Lila.
He grabbed the man's raised arm and bit before his mind faded into darkness, his last thought, he saved them. He'd saved his friend and the two women. Then his thoughts dissolved into oblivion.