Lessons in Purrsuasion: BBW Paranormal Werelion Surprise Pregnancy Mob Romance (Chicago Catastrophe) (13 page)

“
W
hy would Richard take Selina
?” Stone shouted, feeling like he was losing his mind.

“I don’t know!” Kate snarled back, eyes shiny with unshed tears.

Stone had never seen Kate come anywhere close to tears. The sudden rush of guilt only made his reactions more visceral.

“He’s
your
head of security,” Stone countered, struggling to lower his voice as his lion was threatening to jump out of his skin.

His animal side was in full-on ‘someone needs to die’ mode, and he was having trouble pushing it down or distinguishing likely targets. Thinking rationally, he knew what happened wasn’t Kate’s fault. She had helped them so much and didn’t deserve his ire.

“Okay. Let’s try and think about this calmly,” he muttered, more to himself than to Kate.

He found it difficult to concentrate on what she was saying. All that was going through his mind was
I have to find her.

“Richard has been with me for five years now. He is the most loyal employee I have ever had,” Kate said, exasperated.

Stone paced back and forth, trying to make sense of the situation. It wouldn’t do anyone good if he fell apart now. Selina’s smile danced in his mind’s eye, and he was determined to see it again.

“We have to assume Parker is involved. He must have been more suspicious of you than we thought. Could he have blackmailed Richard somehow?”

“You know how thoroughly I screen my men. I don’t see how that’s possible,” Kate answered, pinching the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger.

A cold feeling swept through Stone’s gut.

“If Richard took Selina to give her to Parker, then Parker knows you’re involved.”

“I’ve already told my team to be on high alert,” Kate replied, seconds before gunfire erupted outside.

Stone and Kate exchanged a look before running to the armory. They both grabbed guns and plenty of extra magazines, Stone opting for the biggest damn rifle he could find. Kate stopped to rummage in a nearby drawer, pulling out two bulletproof vests. She threw one to Stone and they rushed to the front door.

Men’s shouts mingled with roars and gunfire outside. It sounded like an all-out war.

If I have to fight through an army of shifters to get to Selina, then that’s exactly what I’m going to do
, Stone thought with grim determination.

Stone knew their best bet was to flank the entrance and take down anyone who got through. If Parker’s men came through the door, they would be bottlenecked in the hallway, giving him and Kate the advantage.

Suddenly, the basement door opened and James stepped into the room.

“What’s going on here?” he asked, looking at their drawn guns.

The roaring and gunfire from outside must have answered his question, as he got out his own weapon and joined them.

Stone glanced at the basement. His whole plan for Parker hinged on the element of surprise. If Tom and Will got rescued, it all fell through.

“Stay here with Kate, I have to get the prisoners,” Stone told James, beginning to regret that he hadn’t killed the two twerps when he had the chance.

He ran down the steps to the cellar, eager to get back up as soon as possible.

Will was pressed against a wall, looking around wildly. Tom on the other hand was grinning.

“Time to face the music,” he jeered, sounds of the battle drifting in to the room through the open door behind Stone.

He dragged both men to their feet and up the stairs, shoving them to the floor when he arrived. Neither one was in any state to put up a fight against him, not when he was this obviously pissed off and just looking to take someone’s head off.

“What are you doing? They’re only going to slow us down,” Kate hissed, barely audible over the racket outside.

She was right, of course, but there was no other way.

“We can’t leave them behind, they know too much.”

Kate rolled her eyes as the huge door before them started to shake. The hinges popped and it crashed to the floor with a massive thud.

Men rushed through first, tigers lingering behind. Stone, Kate and James were tucked behind the walls of the hallway, laying out as much fire as they could without putting themselves in the gunmen’s line of sight.

A short, stocky man managed to barrel through the hail of bullets and into Stone, knocking him to the ground. His rifle fell out of his hand and went sliding on the floor.

“Hey, cut me loose!” Stone could hear Tom shout, as he struggled beneath the intruder.

The man’s form started to ripple, the shift beginning to take over. Stone would be stuck under a 400-pound beast with sharp claws and even sharper teeth if he didn’t act fast. Stone started mercilessly punching the man in the face, over and over, feeling his own animal fight to get to the surface.

The tiger shifter became disoriented enough for the shift to pull back, the choice between self-preservation and the desire to shift being a hard one to make. With one final blow, Stone struck the guy’s temple and he went limp. Stone rolled the man off of him, scanning the floor for his weapon.

The loud
pop
of firearms still pierced the air, but Stone noticed a good amount of Parker’s men now piled unmoving on the hallway floor.

Fucking hell. He’s brought an army.

James’ shoulder was bleeding and Kate looked a lot less put together than usual, but otherwise they seemed to be alright.

Roars ripped through the air as the remaining goons shifted with the gunfire dying down. A row of tigers padded towards the living room, mouths curled in snarls, tails whipping.

Kate was reloading her Glock, James was out of bullets and Stone still couldn’t find his damn rifle. James rushed the men closest to him with a desperate cry, letting his weapon fall to the ground. The lion inside Stone was gnashing and snarling, begging to be released.

“Kate, stay back,” he warned.

Let’s do this
, Stone thought as he let his own shift take him.

Kate ducked behind one of her priceless armchairs, shooting at everything that moved. But a fully grown shifter could take a lot more bullets than a man could, so her shooting wasn’t having quite the effect she probably wished for.

Stone leapt into the action, teeth first. He got hold of a tiger’s back on the sidelines of the pack and sank his fangs in, blood spurting into his mouth. As he was busy ripping and tearing, he could feel claws rake across his back. Releasing his current prey, he turned, paw already swiping at the animal snarling behind him.

A third opponent jumped into the mix, clamping his jaws around Stone’s hind leg. He roared in pain, but kept fighting, swiping at anything that got too close. He was surrounded by a sea of orange and black, the tiger shifters cornering him.

“Stone, get low!” he could hear Kate shout over the bedlam.

He crouched as a bullet whizzed by, ripping through the skull of the tiger in front of him. Stone pulled away from the animal that still had his teeth around his leg, his flesh shredding in the process, but at least he got free. With no time to waste, he went straight for the big cat’s throat, severing the jugular and adding another layer of blood to the walls.

Stone looked around as his opponent went limp, quickly assessing the situation. James was on the ground, a gaping wound where his neck used to be. He fought bravely, but had been no match for tigers.

Another life he could chalk up to Parker’s actions. Another waste.

The entrance to the living room was littered with bodies, both men and tigers. Kate was painted crimson with slash marks running down her vest. Will was splayed out on the floor with a hole in his head. And most troubling of all, Tom was holding his gun.

Stone was already leaping towards Tom when he raised the weapon and aimed. Stone’s teeth buried in the man’s neck just as the gun went off. That’s when he realized, it wasn’t him Tom was targeting.

Kate!

W
hen Selina pulled
up to Kate’s house, she knew at once she had been too late.

The villa’s façade was littered with bullet holes. Bodies of Kate’s security team as well as unknown men lay scattered on the lawn and the front door was blown clean off its hinges.

Stone!

Without even thinking, Selina jumped out of the car and ran into the house. She had to find him, to see he was alright. And he
had
to be alright, there was just no other option.

The hallway was in bad shape. The walls were so shot up, she wondered if the whole thing was just going to crumble into a pile of dust at any second. She had to step over piles of dead men and tigers, blood seeping through her pink socks. She looked at all of their faces, to see if Stone was among them.

This is going to give me nightmares,
she thought feverishly.
How could Joe and Stone live with themselves after seeing this for years on end?

By the time she entered the living room, she could barely breathe. All those faces, all the carnage, there didn’t seem to be any survivors. It was an all-out bloodbath.

Please, they can’t be dead
, she thought, not even sure who she was pleading with.

The slaughter continued, the once white walls of the living room looking like a gruesome Jackson Pollock painting. Tom was sprawled on the floor, a pool of coagulating blood beneath his torn-up neck. Will was also dead, but by a bullet to the head. With a shock, Selina noticed Tom’s fingers were still curled around a gun.

Stone would never give him a gun. And who was he shooting at?

Selina ran around the house, checking every space she could, frantic in her need to find Stone.

Maybe he and Kate are injured and are hiding in one of the rooms?

She slipped and almost fell more times than she could count, her bloody socks sliding on the floor and leaving macabre footprints behind.

“Stone! Kate! It’s me!” she shouted, hoping none of the bad guys were still sneaking around somewhere, waiting for her.

She hadn’t really thought of that as she rushed inside, her figurative guns a-blazing, forgetting all about the very literal ones that could be waiting to mow her down.

I guess Richard is not the only one love has made stupid,
she thought, shocked by her own rashness, and the thoughts that came with it.
I’m not in love with Stone, that’s impossible,
she assured herself, even managing to believe it a little as she held her breath, scouring through the rooms.

Her shouts got no answer and there was only one place left to check. She made her way back to the hallway and reached into one of the guards’ pockets, pulling out a key card. The man’s eyes were wide open, staring into nothing. A shiver ran down Selina’s back as she rushed back inside and used the card to open the door to the armory.

Drawers were pulled open and magazines spread everywhere, but no Stone and no Kate. Tom’s phone was on the floor, still in its little mesh bag. Without even thinking, she grabbed it and shoved it in her pocket. Looking around, she also picked up a gun. Thanks to her brother’s firearm obsession, she knew how to use it.

She only wished she’d gotten hold of one the first time she’d been in there.

Circling back to Stone’s room, she rummaged around his suitcase until she found one of his burners. Slipping off her socks, Selina continued to her room and got a fresh pair, along with new shoes. Before leaving, she quickly peeked in the garage. One of the cars was missing.

She was acting out of instinct, her head suddenly devoid of thoughts. Just a nauseating need to do
something
kept her moving, devising a plan she wasn’t even consciously aware of.

So they must have gotten out,
she thought, relieved.
Or someone took them.

Whatever the case, more men could be coming soon and Richard probably wasn’t far behind, either. Selina sprinted outside, trying to ignore the horrid images around her. She hopped in the Ford and drove off, heading back into town.

They’re alright, they’re alright, they’re alright,
she chanted in her head.

She had to admit, stepping into that house and having to come face to face with the possibility of Stone being dead was the scariest thing she had ever experienced. However rational she tried to be about whatever it was between them, emotions kept taking over. Even amidst total madness and deadly danger, all Stone had to do was wrap her in his strong arms and she felt safe and all the insanity fell away immediately.

Not to mention their explosive chemistry.

Oh, how she wished to step into that embrace now and forget that the rest of, well, everything had happened at all. But to do that, she needed to find Stone. And he needed to be in one piece.

Selina pulled into the first populated parking lot she came across and dialed the preset number in the burner. It rang and rang to no answer. In what was definitely not one of her proudest moments, she pressed her forehead against the wheel and just cried until there were no tears left. They seemed to pour out of her and she wondered after a while how she even managed to make herself stop.

Okay, get it together,
she thought after a while, wiping her cheeks.

She needed to come up with a course of action.

A knock on the window made her jump. She pressed the ‘lock doors’ button as fast as she could once she saw who it was.

“Please, I just want to talk,” Richard said, holding his hands up.

Selina turned the keys in the ignition, ready to drive over his foot if he didn’t back up.

“I went to the house. I saw… everything. You were right. I’m so sorry.”

Richard had the face of a dead man walking. He was pale and practically shivering, which was an oddly comical sight on a man with his build and deadly capabilities.

He looks genuinely torn up, I’ll give him that.

“I have to make this better. Let me help you,” he continued.

Since his deal with Parker had obviously fallen through, Richard had no reason to hurt her. But that didn’t mean he could be trusted. Selina grabbed the gun she’d taken from the house and aimed it at Richard before unlocking the doors and getting out.

Her hand only trembled a little. Joe would be proud.

“Fine, but you’re driving, so I can keep an eye on you,” she said, holding the man at gunpoint as discreetly as possible.

The last thing I need is someone to call the cops on me.

Richard did as he was told and got in the driver’s seat as Selina climbed into the passenger side, gun still trained on him.

I can’t believe I’m doing this. This day can’t get any crazier.

But she quickly discarded that thought. So far, she’d gotten abducted, held against her will, witnessed the murders of too many trained warriors to count, and was now holding a man at gunpoint. The day could
definitely
get crazier if the current trend was anything to go by.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“We have trackers on all the cars. I accessed the data from the house computer,” He said, a bit of color returning to his expression.

Hope bloomed in Selina’s chest.

“So you know where the other car missing from the garage is?”

By the look on Richard’s face, she could tell they weren’t going to be that lucky.

“No, whoever took it, they disabled the tracking system.”

Figures.

“So you lied. You can’t actually help me at all!”

Richard looked down, face twisting with shame and anger.

“I know most of Kate’s safehouses and hiding spots, but she’s probably figured out I was involved in your disappearance so she wouldn’t go to any of those places.”

“Then tell me, why exactly should I keep you around?” Selina demanded, waving the gun in his face.

Richard was saved from coming up with an answer by the burner phone’s buzzing. Selina jumped to answer it while not letting Richard out of her sight.

“Selina, is that you?”
Stone’s voice flowed into her ear.

The relief flooding through Selina’s body almost made her tremble. Richard seemed to perk up as well.

She kept her finger on the trigger and the gun aimed squarely at his torso.

I don’t trust you,
she thought, looking at the man beside him.
But I do trust you,
she added, hungering to hear more from Stone.