“Before or after the one guy slugged me?” she asked. Hell, she was lucky to see that the truck was pale blue and had tinted windows in this snow. And now a bullet hole with a spider web of cracks trailing out from it in the center of the windshield. If they didn’t replace it, she would recognize it anywhere.
Hunter chuckled darkly. “Yes or no would have sufficed.”
“What are we going to do about them?”
“End their pathetic existence.”
Rourke moaned.
“Can you hear me, Rourke?” Meara asked.
Tessa leaned over the seat again to get a look at him, keeping her hand still planted on the hat over Cara’s wound to stem the bleeding. He focused his eyes on Meara and gave her a devilish smile.
Meara leaned away from him and folded her arms. “He’s going to live.”
Hunter looked in the rearview mirror and caught Tessa’s eye. He hadn’t thought Rourke would be all right. But now his shoulders relaxed, and he concentrated on the road again.
She took a deep breath of relief.
“Did you at least shoot one of them?” he asked.
“I shot the windshield. I wasn’t sure the truck was theirs.”
“It was them.”
Rourke said, “I… got… a… call… just… before—”
“Shh, let Ashton tell the story,” Meara said.
Ashton cleared his throat. “The Department of Transportation sent out the word that the coastal highway was closed because of downed electric lines, flooding, slides, and fallen trees and—”
Tessa looked up from pressing the cap on Cara’s forehead to see why Ashton had quit talking.
Hunter pulled to a stop in front of a Douglas fir blocking the road. “Unless anyone thought to bring along a chainsaw, looks like this is the end of the road.”
“How many miles left before we get to Tessa’s place?” Meara asked.
“Two.” Hunter shut off the engine. “Ashton and I can go back and grab your chainsaw, Tessa, and cut up the tree, then we’ll drive home.”
“No,” Tessa said. Everyone waited for her to speak further on the matter. She had expected Hunter would just ignore her response. She straightened her shoulders. “We can’t wait here like proverbial sitting ducks. Unless you think Cara and Rourke are too injured to move, and then we’ll have to take our chances.”
“Not me,” Cara said.
“I’ll be all right. Just someone help me up.” Rourke tried to sit up with Meara’s help.
“I’m thinking of you, Tessa,” Hunter said.
“Well, I’m perfectly fine.”
“We’ll discuss this stubborn streak you have later. If everyone is agreeable, we’ll all walk back to Tessa’s place.”
Both Rourke and Cara looked paler than normal, but they put on stoic faces and began the trek home. Tessa had planned to somehow walk on her own, but Hunter lifted her in his arms.
“You can’t carry me all that way.”
Everyone chuckled.
“If I didn’t have a lupus garou’s strength, you’d probably be right.”
“I don’t think I’ve heard anyone question Hunter’s strength before and get off that easily,” Meara said, her voice amused. Rourke stumbled and she took hold of his arm and kept glancing at him as if to make sure he was okay.
Ashton had his arm around Cara’s waist, and she snuggled under his arm.
“About the driver of the truck, I couldn’t kill him. I was afraid he might not have been the same guy who was stalking me. And even if he was…” Tessa let her words trail off. She couldn’t have murdered him in cold blood. If he had tried to run her over with the truck again, she wouldn’t have hesitated then.
Hunter shook his head. “The bullets wouldn’t have killed him.”
“Unless they were silver?”
“So legend says. I don’t know of anyone who shot a lupus garou with silver bullets. But it could have happened. That’s often how legends get started.”
They all grew quiet. The snow fell around them, the wind still blowing hard, and they slipped as they walked on the icy road. After a mile, Rourke had slowed his pace even more, and he seemed to be leaning on Meara’s strength. Ashton finally lifted Cara and carried her. But before they reached the house, Tessa saw a black Hummer parked in the driveway. Her heart tripped.
“Leidolf,” Hunter said, his voice couched in annoyance.
“The red lupus garou is back for the redhead,” Meara said. “Don’t you think?”
“Back for me?” Not that there were any other redheads in their little party. “Red lupus garou?”
“There are red and grays,” Meara explained.
“Better not be the reason why he’s returned,” Hunter responded.
Tessa didn’t see any sign of Leidolf in the Humvee, then observed him looking out the picture window.
“How’d he get in my house?” Her frigid skin turned icier.
Leidolf opened the front door and came outside. “Back door was unlocked. Road was blocked by downed wires the way I was headed. Looks like you ran into some trouble, too.”
Tessa felt sick to her stomach. At least she was pretty sure she had locked the back door. Unless someone had gone out that way and hadn’t relocked the door.
“Rockslide our way. Then on the return home, a tree had fallen across the road,” Hunter said.
Leidolf dropped his gaze to Tessa as if he had only now noticed her in Hunter’s arms. “Is she injured badly?”
“No, she is not injured badly.” Tessa frowned at him.
He didn’t have to act like she was a child or didn’t exist.
He smiled and then looked at Hunter. “We need to talk about the woman.”
Woman, as in her? Hunter didn’t respond, just carried Tessa into the house and headed for her bedroom. The red lupus garou was so intolerably arrogant.
“I guess I’ll play nurse,” Meara said. “Not my favorite role, but I can muddle through.” She followed Hunter into the master bedroom.
“I’m fine, Meara. Go take care of Cara,” Tessa said.
“I’m sure Ashton will want to look after her,” Meara said.
Hunter lay Tessa on the bed, and then pulled off her gloves. “I need Ashton to play guard, and I’ll take Leidolf with me to cut up that tree so we can return with the SUV.”
“What if they come after you?” Tessa asked, not liking this one bit.
“They won’t mess with two alpha lupus garou males, guaranteed.”
“Can you trust Ashton to stay put this time?” Meara asked.
“To protect his injured mate? I think so. Besides, I don’t trust Leidolf to stay here with Tessa.”
Meara laughed. “You know what, dear brother? I don’t either.” She headed down the hall and spoke in Michael’s bedroom. “Here, Ashton, let me take care of Cara. Can you talk with Rourke for a minute? Make sure he’s lying down in the guest bedroom? I’ll see him after I bandage Cara’s head.”
“Did we really leave the back door unlocked?” Tessa asked Hunter. “I know for sure I locked the front door, but we were all busy getting stuff for the trip, I just don’t know about the back door.”
“Either we did, or we didn’t. Don’t worry about it, Tessa. They won’t try to get in with as many of us as there are here now.” He got her a glass of water and some medicine. “I’ll be right back.”
She leaned against the pillow and unbuttoned her parka, trying to ignore her throbbing ankle or the fact the house was frigid.
Hunter soon returned with an ice pack from the freezer. “Good thing you had this handy.” He pulled the boot off her uninjured foot, and then carefully slipped the other off as she gritted her teeth in silent suffering.
“Broken or sprained?” she asked.
“Bruised and swollen. We won’t know whether it’s broken or sprained without an x-ray.”
He placed the ice pack on her ankle, and then helped her out of her coat. Pulling the comforter off the bed, he moved it over her so that it didn’t cover her foot. “Your socks are wet and cold. Let me get some dry ones for you.”
As soon as he pulled open the top drawer, she opened her mouth to tell him where he should have gone. He held up a handful of colorful silk panties and smiled. “Wrong drawer.”
She cleared her throat. “Try the one below that.”
He pulled out a couple of pairs of pastel fuzzy socks and closed the drawer with his hip.
“They don’t match.”
He chuckled and pulled off her wet socks and then slipped on the dry ones. “The way to avoid spending hours looking for matching socks is to have all the same color.”
“How dull.”
“Works for me. It’s either that or wear nothing at all.”
She smiled. Yeah, she could see Hunter like that—in nothing at all.
“How’s that feel?”
“Much better.” Awful, really, but maybe the medicine would kick in soon.
“You’re a terrible liar. Don’t ever play poker.”
“I play poker very well, thank you.”
“Not with me. I’d insist on strip poker and I’d have you naked in record time.”
She laughed.
“I’ll be back after a little while.”
She saluted him.
“Wrong hand. You’d never make it in the Navy SEALs.”
“They don’t salute when they’re undercover. Remember?” She raised a brow.
“I’ll take care of her,” Meara said, walking into the room. “Cara’s sleeping. Rourke is lying in bed. Ashton’s working on a fire. Go talk to Leidolf.”
“I’ll be back.” Hunter kissed Tessa on the lips, hot and wanting, pressing for more, until he pulled his mouth away with reservation, and she wanted to drag him back and devour him whole.