Cougar's Luck (Pacific Northwest Cougars Book 2) (15 page)

E
verett tried
to shake himself awake. Damn, he’d been sitting there for almost forty-five minutes.

“Time to try on clothes!” Layla said, clapping her hands. For her, it was fun and exciting. For Everett, it was like pulling teeth. But to see his mate excited and happy, he’d try on clothes as long as she wanted.

Getting up, he reluctantly entered the room that was in no way a standard dressing room. It was a suite, with empty hooks lining the walls.

“Shouldn’t there be clothes in here to try on?” he asked, turning around looking for the garments.

“We’ll hand you in whole outfits. Just put on everything together then come out,” Layla explained.

There were worse tortures Everett guessed. Although he was glad his brothers weren’t here to see him.

An hour passed as outfit after outfit was passed through the door. He would come out and model each one. The doorman/security guy, who by the way was named Kurt, started weighing in with his opinion of the outfits too.

The stack of yes’s were outweighing the stack of no’s. Everett trusted his mate that he needed all of this junk.

Finally when the ladies were satisfied, they sent Everett back to his chair. Kurt joined him, since it looked like the shop was shut down for their visit and there were no other customers.

Layla came strolling over looking pleased as punch, which made him and his cougar happy.

“We are all set, they will send everything off to the hotel. Do you want to do lunch before Gucci? I can move our appointment,” Layla suggested.

Everett was starving and he needed a clothes break.

“Good plan, food then suits.” That at least should be easier. A suit was a suit right?

Thanking the staff and giving Kurt a handshake, they made their way to the door.

Walking into the sunlight, Layla turned and wrapped her arms around Everett’s neck. “Thank you for being such a good sport. I know this isn’t your favorite thing. But just think, I won’t make you do it again for at least a year,” she said laughing.

“What the hell am I going to need in a year?” he asked. He didn’t think he could wear clothes out in a year. He wasn’t six anymore.

“Fashions change, handsome. You are now part of one of the trendiest hotels on the strip. We have an image to maintain. But at home you can always be shorts and gamer shirt Everett,” she said giving him a soft kiss.

“Good, cause I like my clothes. They are comfortable and easy, like me,” he grinned.

Everett looked over her shoulder for their car, it was getting hot out in the sun. He could see the car down the road coming towards them. He also noticed a white van in front of their car. The van niggled at his memory. It looked like the one from their road trip. The front grill was even damaged.

As the van got closer, Everett’s cougar got his hackles up. The thought to go back inside to await their car flashed through his mind the same time as the door on the side of the van slid back. A man with what looked like a nylon stocking over his head pulled out a handgun and started firing towards the front of the store.

Everett spun his body, trying to shield Layla from the incoming barrage of bullets. Everett’s mind counted off six shots and depending on the clip there could be seven more coming their way.

He crashed down onto the blistering pavement, covering Layla’s body with his own. He’d felt the sharp sting of a bullet hit the fleshy part of his torso. He quickly realized it was close to the outside and unlikely to be more than a graze.

As the screams of the bystanders and the screech of the van speeding away faded, Everett’s focus was on his mate.

“You okay?” he asked, seeing her bright eyes looking up at him.

“That. Fucking. HURT!” she said with a groan.

Everett pulled back and saw there was blood pooling around her stomach area and another line of blood running down her thigh. The bullet that grazed his side must have hit her.

“Shit, fucking hell! Everett pressed his hand over the wound on her stomach and look over his shoulder to see their car pulling up to the curb. The driver jumped out and Everett recognized Joseph.

“We need to get her to the compound, we can’t risk her going to a hospital,” he said to Joseph.

“I have a medical kit in the trunk, we’ll get her home,” he said, helping Everett lift her. They didn’t have a lot of time. Someone surely had called the cops and the hospital wouldn’t understand a shifter’s healing ability.

Loading her into the back, Everett left the door open so Joseph could toss in the large medical kit. Shifters often had to deal with their own injuries. They got good at being temporary trauma medics.

Digging through the triage kit, he found scissors, scalpels, and forceps. He’d placed Layla on the seat and was kneeling as best as he could beside her.

“Dude, you really didn’t want to go shopping,” her voice quiet.

“Don’t joke, Duchess. I need to focus,” he said, cutting through the fabric of her dress. Ripping it the rest of the way. He apologized as he had to roll her to see there was no exit wound. He probed the area and could feel the bullet.

Layla hissed loudly, “Fucking hell!”

“I know, baby. I think this was the bullet that grazed me. I slowed it down so it’s not deep. But I need to get it out before you shift. You’ll heal faster. I’m sorry, but this is going to hurt like a bitch,” he warned as he grabbed some alcohol and gave her no warning before soaking the wound.

Her yell was more of a howling yowl as the fluid burned over her skin. While she was distracted, Everett used the scalpel to widen the wound. This brought on another long line of cursing.

Joseph was honking as darting through traffic, the engine revving and maxing out as he blew through stop lights and dodged tourists trying to get out of the way.

Grabbing the forceps, Everett eased them into the wound and immediately felt the clink of the metal hitting the bullet. He grabbed it gently and pulled. Layla had stopped breathing and Everett was trying to work as fast as he could.

Pulling the bullet free, he tossed it to the floor and grabbed a bundle of gauze and pressed it against the wound.

“Baby, can you press down here hard? I need to check your leg.”

Layla used the strength she had left to hold the pressure against her stomach. She’d reached a pain level that she didn’t think could go any higher, so she was just in management mode.

“Through and through, Duchess. No bullet to dig out,” he said leaning up to give her a quick kiss on her forehead.

“Layla, baby, I need you to shift for me. You’ll heal faster. Your cougar wants to come out and help you. You need to let her.” This was more of an order than a suggestion and Layla was ready to hand over control right then.

Her cougar was at the ready to take over. The shift was hard and hurt unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Her cougar let out a loud roar as she pushed through to lie on the seat of the car.

“Thatta girl,” Everett said giving the cougar a brief rub over its head. The cat pushed back then laid its head on the leather seat.

E
verett kept
pressure on the wounds as Joseph drove. The bleeding had already slowed, Everett watched as the cougar’s eyes slid shut. Her breathing was steady and she would occasionally mewl quietly. It broke Everett’s heart every time she did it. His cougar wanted to shift and take off after the van, rip the man in the doorway out and shred him. The anger and fury at being shot at was raging inside him. He could feel the slight burning at his side, glancing down he saw it wasn’t bleeding much so he dismissed it. He focus was on Layla and her wounds. He didn’t want to risk checking them and disturb any clotting that had started.

The drive felt like it took forever. As they pulled into the driveway at the house, Everett knew the family was waiting for them. He heard Joseph call into the pack on the way.

The door swung open and Russell was the first one in the space.

“Shit, Leelee, what the hell happened to you?” Russell growled.

“We were shot at outside the store. White van, masked man, looked like the van that hit us the other day.” Everett said, as he held the gauze against the wounds as Russell reached in for the cougar. Both men managed to gently shift her off the seat and out the door. Layla’s mother was standing on the step wringing her hands. Behind her was Lilibeth looking properly shocked.

They made it into the house and up to her bedroom. Laying her gently on the bed, Everett was worried that she hadn’t opened her eyes during the move. Her mother was over his shoulder laying out more supplies and he slowly ran his fingers through the fur on her cougar.

Everett had moved and given the first aid duty over to her mom. She was the matriarch of a cougar pack, she’d dealt with wounds before. Probably gunshots even. Humans loved to shoot at cougars that they thought were on their property.

“Baby, you’ve got to wake up. Come on Duchess, I know it hurts, but you’re healing fast,” he said quietly. Looking over to her mom as she was pulling up the gauze, she nodded her head at him. Shifters healed fast and he was thanking the fates for that right now.

Layla could hear him inside her mind. Her cougar was fully in charge and honestly she was tired. The wounds hurt, but the blood loss is what did her in. It wouldn’t take long and she’d be up and running, literally. Right now, she needed sleep. She told her cougar to tell her mate off and slipped back into the dark.

Everett saw her cougar slowly open her eyes, she barely opened her mouth with a small, “rowr,” then closed her eyes again.

“I guess that means they are both going to rest,” Grace said, with a small, but still nervous laugh.

Everett finally noticed how many people were standing in the room. “Guys? Let’s let her sleep,” he suggested. Even though it wasn’t really a suggestion. He wanted to be alone with his mate, he wanted to watch over her and he didn’t need to watch his own back while he did it. It was irrational and over the top but he didn’t care. He was trying to hold down his anger.

“You heard the man,” this came from Russell. “Leelee will be fine, let’s give them some space.”

The room emptied until it was just Everett and Layla’s cougar. “My poor girl, I’m so sorry this happened to you.” He whispered this to the sleeping cat.

He felt like a monumental failure. He knew something wasn’t right, all of his instincts had told him that he needed to be more on top of her safety. Not that he would have guessed that a drive by shooting would have been one of the things that was even possible.

He’d been her mate for only a short time and he’d failed her. His most important job outside of loving her was protecting her. And now she was lying on her white bedspread, blood staining the fabric. Her cougar breathing staggered breaths as she slept through the pain. Why hadn’t he gone back inside? Would there have been enough time? He could have pushed her to the ground faster, covered her better. He’d gladly taken the shots to spare her.

Now he wanted blood. His cougar wanted to shift, track down that bad cologne that had covered the notes left by Vincent Domolo. He wasn’t sure how he wanted to kill him. Fast and brutal or slow and painful. His fury was so high, his thoughts were turning dark fast. He didn’t blame his cat for wanting to rip into this man’s flesh. He deserved it for hurting their mate.

Knowing she was going to rest for a while, Everett let his cougar slide out. He hopped up on the bed beside her and curled up next to her. His cougar gave her a lick along the back of her head and rested against her neck. He’d watch over her as she slept. No one was going to hurt his mate again.

Layla woke up to being wrapped in Everett’s arms. At some point, she’d shifted back although she didn’t remember doing it.

Everett had checked her wounds and there were small puckered spots on her stomach and thigh that still look angry and red. He urged her to rest some more.

“Can you send my mom up?” she asked, sleepily.

“Of course. You hungry?”

“Not now, later,” she murmured.

“Okay, rest, I’ll check on you in a little while. I’m glad you’re okay, Duchess. I don’t know how I’d live without you,” he said, squeezing her gently in his arms.

“Hmm, probably hooked up with a showgirl within a week,” she teased, her voice weak.

“Yeah, that sounds like me,” he said mockingly. “I’ll be back.”

Everett grabbed his clothes off the floor where he’d tossed them before shifting. Pulling them on, he turned at the door and saw she was already asleep again.

M
aking his way downstairs
, Everett sniffed his way to the den. Russell, Grace, Will, and Joseph were all standing around the desk in the middle of the room. Another man he didn’t recognize was sitting in a leather chair in the corner. An older man that looked a lot like the Kleins. They all turned to him and the yellow cats were flaring in every set of eyes pointed at him.

“Something I need to know?” The vibe in the room was hostile to say the least.

“You might want to sit down for this,” Will suggested, pointed to one of the empty ones across the room.

Everett reluctantly sat down. This was going to be bad, his gut and his cougar were screaming at him.

“I decided to bring in our Alpha on this,” Will said, pointing to the one man in the room that Everett didn’t recognize.

“Alpha,” Everett said with respect. He wasn’t his alpha, but he was still this pack’s top dog so to speak.

“I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to have Leelee attacked again. And I do believe this attack was directed at her,” Will stated.

“I agree, they hit their target,” Everett growled.

“So on a hunch and in the effort to smooth relations, I made a call to Anthony Domolo,” Will said, then paused as he let that news sink it with Everett.

Everett was shocked. This was not what he expected at all. They had no solid proof who was behind any of this. The package at the hotel was delivered by a service that said they were paid in cash and the driver had no memory of what the originator looked like.

But calling the head of a well-known mob family was a ballsy move.

“I had a nice talk with Mr. Domolo. I expressed my concerns that his son’s interest in my sister was no longer welcome as she was happily married. I also explained that we’ve had some unfortunate incidences where Layla was concerned since her refusal of him. His father was not totally surprised by this information and told me he’d look into it. That was a few hours ago, he just called back.”

“And?” Everett pressed.

Rubbing his hand over his forehead, Will looked at Everett hard before saying, “His father apparently applied some pressure to Vincent and he folded.”

“Folded?”

“Yup, told his dad that he was the one that sent the heart, rammed your car and put the hit out on Layla. Apparently he thought it would hurt his ‘cred’ being rejected by her,” Will explained.

“So did you call the police?” Everett asked him, annoyed at the speed of this conversation.

Will looked around the room before continuing. “Anthony wants to keep this in the family. He said he would ‘appreciate our discretion’ in this situation.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Everett yelled, his cougar coming out. He was not in control of emotions yet and knowing for sure that Vincent was the person who almost killed his mate, made his cougar homicidal.

“It means, that Anthony Domolo does not want this turned in to the police. He wants this handled between our families. He has Vincent and he’s offering him up with a condition,” Will said calmly.

“The condition?”

“We can’t kill him,” Will said flatly.

Everett let out a loud low growl. “He almost killed her! If she wasn’t a shifter, she probably would have died on the sidewalk. And we are supposed to just let him get away with it?”

“Think about it, Everett. How are we going to explain to the cops that Leelee was shot, but is healed a few hours later? This is an opportunity that means we can exact some revenge. I’m not against killing the fucker personally. But we have to think of the big picture. Anthony Domolo assures us that Vincent will be on the next plane to Hoboken and will never step foot in Nevada again,” Will said calmly.

“Everett, I know this isn’t the best resolution. But it might be the best for the pack. It would also keep Layla out of the spotlight,” Grace said. She was speaking quietly even though her voice was shaking.

Everett thought about the possibility of this man being alive and breathing, living out his life. His mate was terrorized, injured, and almost killed. Letting this scum live was not part of his plan.

“What do you think, John?” Everett asked the quiet alpha in the corner.

“I can tell how you feel, son. You want blood, you want him to suffer for hurting your mate and you have every right. If it wasn’t my granddaughter, I would still have the same opinion. I don’t like it, but I think handling this between our two families will be the best for everyone,” John said.

Everett looked around the room at the angry faces, the faces of family that wanted to hurt the one that hurt one of their own. They also looked like a family that wanted to protect their secret and their future. They were all torn and the decision came down to him.

“Fine, but Will, I want you to come along with your father,” Everett said, looking at both men.

“Why us?” Russell was fine witnessing it, just unsure of his involvement.

“Will to keep me from killing him and you to make sure I do enough damage,” he growled.

“Fair enough, do we tell Leelee?” Russell asked looking at the group.

“Yes, she needs to know,” Everett said immediately. “I’ll go see if she’s awake.”

Nodding to the group, Everett got up and left Will to make the call back to the Domolos.