Horse (Rolling Thunder Motorcycle Club Book 6) (10 page)

Horse

It was nearly four in the morning before everyone was back at the clubhouse safe and sound, and we all collected our cellphones from the bar across the street. We’d used encrypted radios for the op, and I had no idea anything had happened with my Gabby.

I saw the text first, and noted the call from another number and a voicemail, but tried to call Gabby’s cellphone first. When there was no answer, I listened to the voicemail with my heart in my throat.

Brain was still there, thank goodness, and I went to him straightaway. He had me follow him to the control room, where he pulled a signal blocking box from a locked drawer, retrieved a smartphone from the box, and then put a battery in before booting it.

“This is the only phone with Drake’s app still on it,” Brain explained.

It looked a lot like the one we use, and within minutes we saw Ranger’s face as he turned a light on. He was shirtless and in bed, so we’d awakened him, but I didn’t apologize.

“Where’s Gabby?”

“Hang on, let me go into another room,” he said before aiming his phone at the ceiling as he walked.

A handful of seconds later we saw him again and he said, “I trust only the two of you can hear me?”

Brain had situated us with a blank wall behind us, so Ranger wouldn’t see any of the control room equipment. “Yes,” I said, impatient.

“She’s at Aaron Drake’s house. He’ll be taking her to his office tomorrow because Randall was brought in and he wants to question Gabby. You should wait until tomorrow to try to see her. She’s likely asleep by now, and she needs her rest.”

“What happened?”

I listened as he gave me a breakdown of what happened, including the fact Randall had found Agent Baker and was waiting to be sure the Concilio didn’t want him before he killed him. Randall hadn’t given him permission to be in his territory, and any wolf who runs wild down a college campus on a weekend night has to know they’re going to be in deep shit — especially slobbering and yelping, and glowing with yellow paint so he looked truly demonic. Ranger said there were pictures and video of him all over social media.

“Does Randall know about the other agents in his territory? The other FBI wolves?”

“He does now. Aaron talked to the other agents and they weren’t aware Baker was going off on his own to get her. They’re on their plane back to Quantico, and they’re aware they aren’t welcome back until they’ve had a sit-down with Randall.”

Gabby

Sophia had welcomed me with open arms the night before, and Aaron had looked me over before telling me Jonathan and Ranger were in charge while he was gone, and then he’d driven off.

I’d showered and changed, and Sophia had brought me a fruit and veggie platter, knowing I was too wired to sleep.

“I can just watch TV or something,” I’d told her, figuring she needed sleep, but she’d sat with me and talked, and snacked with me until I’d started to get sleepy.

Now, it was nine in the morning and Aaron and Sophia’s preschool-aged daughter, Emmie — short for Emerald — had crawled into bed with me at some point during the night. Her long blonde hair framed her beautiful little face, and her eyes opened as I looked at her, thinking what a little angel she was.

When she saw I was awake a smile lit her face and she sat up, talking ninety-miles a minute as if she hadn’t just awakened. “Mom said I could come lay down with you as long as I didn’t wake you, and I didn’t! Why are you here? I didn’t think rabbits came here?”

Aaron had taken his triplets to Faerie for regular visits, and I’d watched them grow from a distance. I’d met them a few times when I’d been with my aunt and she’d seen Aaron, but I was surprised little Emmie remembered me.

“Most of us don’t, but I’m going to college here.” I touched her nose with a smile and said, “I’ll be right back.”

I went to the bathroom and relieved my bladder, and then brushed my hair and put it in a ponytail. I’d washed it and then gone to bed, and the only thing that would make it look presentable would be washing it again and then blow-drying it into submission.

All three triplets were in my room when I came out, and I was glad I’d put a bra and clothes on while I was in the bathroom.

“The cook is making some kind of spinach-and-carrot something for you for breakfast,” Hunter told me, his face clearly telling me what he thought of my breakfast. “We’re supposed to tell you to come upstairs when you’re ready to eat.”

Emmie climbed onto me, and I followed Hunter and Sapphire up the steps with a smile on my face. Sophia gave her children a stern look as we topped the steps. “I told Emmie she could go in Miss Gabriella’s room, not all three of you!”

“They’re fine,” I told her. “Emmie was the only one who came in when I was asleep, the rest waited until I was awake.”

She gave her children an affectionate grin, and then her face sobered a little as she told me, “Nathan’s on his way, and he’ll take you to Aaron’s office. I believe your grizzly bear will meet you there, and Randall’s going to want to talk to you, as well.”

“I don’t really want to talk to the Wolf Alpha.”

“He’s Duke’s twin brother, if that helps.”

“Duke scares the bejeebers out of me.”

She tilted her head. “Really? He helped protect me back before Aaron and I were together, and he taught me martial arts. He’s never scared me, but I guess I can see how he might be scary if you’re wary of wolves in the first place.”

She walked me to the kitchen and pointed me to a seat at the island as she brought me some orange juice and a fruit tray while the cook set a platter down with a carrot and spinach soufflé.

“Bears eat a lot of berries and nuts in the wild, so most of them eat a pretty varied diet in human form, too. Right?” I nodded and she rolled her eyes. “Aaron is
such
a meat eater. Drives me crazy.”

“The first time Horse took me out to eat, he found a farm-to-table place with all organic greens and veggies. It was heavenly. He had duck, but he ate lots of veggies with me, too. It was nice.”

Nathan turned out to be a lion, and the instant I saw him my libido kicked into high gear. Embarrassed, I tried to apologize but he only chuckled and said he was flattered, but there were rules against that sort of thing when he was playing bodyguard. I smelled his arousal as well, which just amped mine up all the more. I did my best to ignore it as we made small talk on the way down the mountain, but
damn
I wanted to be under him in the worst sort of way.

Horse was pacing the parking lot when we arrived, and I jumped out of Nathan’s SUV and ran to my big Bear as fast as I could without giving away the fact I’m not human. I leapt as I neared him, and he grabbed me under my arms mid-air and pulled me to him. My heart soared as I wrapped myself around him and felt his arms enclose me in his warmth.

“I was so worried, Gabs. I didn’t have my phone with me so I didn’t see your text until four this morning.”

Nathan herded us inside, and Horse chuckled as he smelled our mutual arousal when Nathan touched my back to direct me into the lobby area. I rolled my eyes and told Horse, “Something about the big kitty cat calls to me, but apparently he can’t play while he’s working.”

“He’d be a good choice. Different energy than mine, and we both know you’ve taken on more of mine than is probably healthy for you.”

I looked at him in surprise and he said, “I’ve asked around and done some research. I know it isn’t healthy for you to only take on energy from one shifter type if you go outside your own species, and it’s especially bad to go long periods of time only having sex with one person.”

I’d kind of hoped he wouldn’t find out, but he was right. Still, having so much of his energy was probably what let me stand my ground and defend myself last night, and that couldn’t be a bad thing. Could it?

We’d stopped in the lobby area, and I turned to him to say, “I shot him.” My voice was more firm than I can usually make it, and it gave me the confidence to go on. “Sure, it was just a paintball gun, but still,
I shot him
, and kept shooting no matter what form he shifted into. Without so much of your energy in me I’d have probably jumped out of the window and ran all the way to the RTMC compound in nothing but shorts and a thin t-shirt.”

He grinned. “And wouldn’t that have been a sight?” He cupped my cheek in his giant palm and I instinctively leaned into his warmth. “I’m glad you defended yourself, but we’re going to have to make sure I’m not the only one in your bed, Gabs.”

Nathan had walked into another room while we talked, and he came out with visitor badges for us to clip on our shirts. He handed Horse his, and secured mine onto my shirt as he said, “Once we get you past the danger and I’m not protecting you anymore — I’m game for it, but I play rough, even rougher than most cats. No strings attached, and I’ve been with rabbits before so I know what I’m in for.”

My heart dropped a little at his words, and I told him, “Oh, sorry. I’m okay with getting rough at the end, but I usually need it a little nice at the start.”

He glanced at Horse, must have gotten what he needed from him, and then looked back to me and put his finger under my chin so I couldn’t look away. “If you’re in my bed, you’ll do as I say or there’ll be consequences you won’t like, but I’ll make it good for you as long as we both know I’m the one in charge. I know what soft little bunnies need, Gabby. Talk to Horse because I don’t want to do anything to cause problems with what the two of you have. Anything between you and I will be just sex and friendship, nothing more.”

He didn’t give me a chance to respond, but put his hand at my back and moved me down the old school hall. “Randall and Aaron are in a conference room. Let’s not keep the Alpha waiting.”

Horse

I hadn’t known how to talk to her about her needs. I was afraid she’d think I was pushing her away if I suggested she needed to be having sex with other people — plus, our relationship was new and I’ll admit I was enjoying having her all to myself for a little while.

Most of the wolves of the RTMC likely wouldn’t consider fucking my woman. Some of the other non-monogamous species might, but wolves would have issues with what they’d see as breaking a sacred trust between soul mates.

And I
do
see Gabby as my soul mate, but that doesn’t mean neither of us can have sex with another person for the rest of our lives, just because we’ve found each other.

Dawg is somehow involved with Bash and Angelica, but apparently only when it’s the three of them. I’m not opposed to a three-way, but Gabby needs to have orgasms when I’m not part of the energy exchange.

However, I had to put those thoughts on the back-burner as we entered the conference room and I made sure Gabby was okay as she met the Wolf Alpha. She wasn’t okay, but she faked it pretty good and managed to speak without stuttering. Everyone smelled her fear, but no one mentioned it, and Randall kept his movements slow and easy to try to keep from scaring her even more.

Aaron explained the bare necessities of Gabby’s situation to Randall, meaning one more person now knew she was part of the Witness Protection program, though Aaron didn’t tell him her old identity. He only told him she’d seen something as a teen, and keeping her safe had meant giving her a new identity.

Randall already knew Agent Baker was part of a special serial-criminal unit, tasked with finding the worst of the killers and rapists. It was possible Randall had pulled on his Alpha powers to get every bit of the story from the FBI agent already, but if so, he didn’t let us know.

He already had a plan though, and as I listened, I approved.

“Gabby was smart to say there was a man and a dog, as that helps explain the pictures of him in wolf form. She put the idea out the dog was a shepherd/husky hybrid, and law enforcement is going with the description as well. If she’d called him a wolf the story might be totally different at this point.” He gave her a brief nod of approval before looking back to Aaron. “I’ll trap him in human form and we’ll pelt him with the same pellets Gabby used, and I’ll use my energy to force him into a heart attack, and keep forcing it until he’s dead. We’ll do what it takes so time of death looks like last night, and put him in the old confederate cemetery, so it looks like he ran there before keeling over. He’s in shape and healthy, but the stress of the capsaicin on top of running that far could conceivably push even a fit human over the edge.”

“Do you have to kill him?” Gabby asked, her voice meek, and I reflected again on how brave she is. No matter her fear of the Wolf Alpha, she still asked the question.

Randall spoke quietly, likely also aware of what it had taken for her to ask. “I usually allow law enforcement into my territory without question, but they didn’t notify me they were coming. FBI agents merely need to email or text me if they arrive under emergency situations — I don’t make it difficult for them to do their job, but notification is the
bare basics
of courtesy. Even so, under normal circumstances this team coming without notifying me would’ve merely warranted a conversation and a token gift on their part. However, now that one of them has run down a college campus in wolf form in such a public manner? I have to make a statement. I’m not killing him for you, or because of you, but because I need to remind everyone that this territory is
mine
, and wolves can’t come here without my permission.”

She nodded and asked, “And the dog? You aren’t going to have to kill an innocent dog, are you?”

Randall shrugged. “I think it’s okay if the dog is never found and identified. The pictures and video of him back up your story, and there’s no telling how far a dog might run when he’s that scared. He could be anywhere.”

“How do we keep her safe going forward?” I asked. “The other agents are going to have to explain why they were here, and I worry the investigation into this is going to make her former identity known to even more people.”

Aaron shifted in his chair and you could almost see the Dragon’s lethal grace as he moved. “The team was officially in town to question someone on a different case, and the story will be that Baker took off on his own to go after Gabby. The rest of the team left town without him last night because they were afraid of Randall, and that’s going to help the story because they manufactured communication from Baker saying he had family close and was going to spend a few days with them before paying his own way back to Quantico. The investigation will show that he paid someone who has since died to give him the information. She isn’t around to dispute the charges, and she died in jail after she was convicted of selling secrets to the highest bidder, so it works.”

“So, Faulkner isn’t going to try to strong-arm me into taking on a new name and moving?” Gabby asked, her voice full of hope.

I reached for her hand as Aaron said, “We all want to keep you close, Gabby. You’ll need to move out of your apartment and into one not even Faulkner is going to write down in the official record, but we’ll find a way to keep you safe without making you start over somewhere else. If we can prove only a few people who would want to bring harm to you know of your old identity, and they’re all dead, we can keep you with us.”