Saving Autumn (3 page)

Chapter Three

AUTUMN WOKE TO early morning light drifting through the drapes. Beside her, the expanse of Blake’s smooth brown back met her sleepy gaze and she reached out to run her palm over his heated skin. White, round circles—scars from the bullets that had passed right through his body—were the only blemishes, other than his tattoos. Autumn had a feeling the scars would vanish soon as well. As she’d learned, he healed quickly.

He moved in his sleep, and she smiled and snuggled closer, pressing her face against the plane of his back, inhaling the sleeping scent of him.

Other than the times they’d been called in separately to answer questions about what had happened at the government building, they’d not left each other’s side. Their story was that they’d been working at the building, only to accidentally discover the captives in the cells beneath ground. Frightened, they’d run, but then had come back to help. They denied all knowledge of the animals in the building, saying that they found the rumor of their presence as confusing as everyone else.

They’d gone back to Autumn’s apartment and stayed there. Autumn had wanted to be able to keep an eye on Mia, realizing her friend had been through a trauma, but in the end, Mia had made her excuses and gone to stay with her parents for a few days, allowing Autumn and Blake time alone.

The footage of Chogan shifting and calling for all shifters to rise and unite had been played multiple times on television, and the last time Autumn had checked, had several million hits on YouTube. There was much speculation about whether or not the footage had been doctored, but the large number of eyewitnesses was calling that theory into dispute. Others tried to claim the sightings to be a form of mass hysteria, but again, with the combination of what had happened in the building, people were struggling to find a rational explanation. Of course, Autumn knew there was no rational explanation. What they’d seen had been real.

As for Chogan, he’d vanished right after his debut television appearance, and despite Blake searching the city, they’d not seen or heard from him since.

The government had been left with a veritable nightmare to clean up. The boy, Toby, had made nationwide news. The kidnapping of a child was apparently even worse than the holding of the two adults. But the government department had managed to blame everything on Maxim Dumas, claiming the General had been suffering from a mental illness causing delusions and had believed both Toby and the two adults, Michael and
Kasa, to be part of a terrorist ring and had taken them captive for questioning. Dumas’s cause of death had been declared suicide, the fall from the window being no one’s fault other than his own.

Blake stretched in bed, elongating his muscles, distracting her from her thoughts. She couldn’t help herself and ran her hand from the top of his ribs down to
his waist and hip. Blake swiftly turned to her, flipping her onto her back so he towered above her. At five-foot-eight, Autumn had never exactly felt like a delicate  flower, but being held beneath his huge form made her feel petite for once in her life. His dark eyes bored into hers, and a smile touched the corners of his mouth.

“What do you think you’re playing at?”

“I thought you were sleeping,” she said, returning the smile.

“I was. Someone woke me.”

“Is that a problem?”

“It wouldn’t have been, but then, you, Doctor Anderson, interrupted my stretch. I hate when someone interrupts me mid-stretch.”

He lowered his face to hers and she thought he was about to kiss her mouth. Instead, his lips skirted her jaw, hot kisses feathering their way down her throat and across her collar bone, making her squirm.

She wanted the events of the last few days, with the exception of meeting Blake, to disappear into her distant memories and stay where memories should be—in the past.

Blake slipped the straps of the tiny black slip she’d worn to bed from her shoulders and lowered the top, exposing her small breasts. Her nipples crinkled on exposure to the cool air of the morning, but she gasped in delight as the cold was replaced by the heat of his mouth. He enclosed one sensitive peak and laved the pebble with his tongue, before moving across her body and paying the same attention to its neighbor. She ran her hands over the moleskin soft top of his head, down the back of his strong neck, and across his shoulders. She still struggled to believe that what she felt beneath her palms didn’t always exist this way. Sometimes, his smooth skin was covered in a soft, thick fur.

She sighed and twisted her face to the side, her eyes closed, losing herself in his attention. Blake seemed to know exactly how to make her body sing, playing her with every flick and strum of his fingers and tongue.

A shrill buzz signaled someone at the door.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” she groaned.

Blake lifted himself back up above her body and paused with their faces level before he lowered his forehead to hers. “Leave it.” He closed his eyes briefly. “It’s probably reporters.”

She hesitated, tempted to take his suggestion, but then the buzzer sounded again, and she turned her face to the direction of the door and groaned. “I can’t. It’ll drive me crazy all day, not knowing who was at the door.”

Autumn squirmed out from beneath him, and he lifted an arm, rolling to one side to let her go. She got to her feet and grabbed her clothes from where she’d discarded them on the easy chair. She started to pull on her jeans, but Blake put out his hand.

“You stay here. I’ll get it.”

He’d been fiercely protective of her since the incident. Autumn wasn’t used to having someone watch out for her. She’d been fending for herself ever since her mother had died. She wasn’t someone who hid behind others, even if this particular someone made for quite a figure to hide behind.

She pushed his arm away and continued to get dressed. “No, you won’t. This is my apartment and I’m capable of opening my own front door.”

Even so, he followed close behind as she left the bedroom and headed to her front door. She was about to hit the intercom to see who was waiting, but a knock came at the door. Her visitor must have been let up by someone else in the building. Blake hovered at her shoulder, his arms folded across his massive chest. Unlike her, he hadn’t bothered to put on a shirt. Not that she minded about that too much.

Autumn approached the door and peered through the peephole. She was surprised to find Peter
Haverly standing on her doorstep.

She stepped back and swung open the door. “Hi, Mr.
Haverly?”

“It’s Peter, please.”

“I suppose you’re looking for Blake?”

He peered over her shoulder, an almost hopeful expression in his gray-green eyes. “Err, no, I wasn’t, at least not completely, though I guess I would have found him. I actually wanted to see how Mia was holding up.”

“Mia? Oh, she’s gone to her parents’ house for a couple of days. I think she needed some home comforts after everything she went through.”

The man’s shoulders slumped. “Oh, right. Of course. I hope ... I hope I didn’t frighten her, did I? She seems so young and— ”

“Peter?”

Blake’s voice came from over her shoulder, and she remembered her manners. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be keeping you standing in the hallway. Come in, please.”

He offered her a wan smile. “Oh, no. I don’t want to interrupt.” He caught sight of Blake’s half-naked torso and his eyebrows lifted. “And it certainly seems like I am.”

She stepped out of the way. “Not at all. Please, come in. I’m sorry Mia’s not here, but I’m sure we all still have a lot to talk about.”

His expression darkened. “I hate to say it, but, yes, we do. It would seem Chogan’s little television appearance has stirred things up somewhat.”

They walked through to the living room. Blake threw himself on the couch, his arm hooked over the back of the cushions. “You can say that again. As soon as I left the hospital, I searched for him, but there’s no sign. He seems to have done a vanishing act.”

Peter chewed his lower lip. He took a seat on the separate comfortable chair, but perched on the edge. “There’s something else.”

Autumn didn’t like his tone. “What is it?” she asked, her stomach sinking. “What’s happened?”

“I don’t know for sure if this is connected to your cousin,” he said, addressing Blake. “But an incident occurred last night in a disused industrial building downtown.”

Blake frowned and folded his arms, a gesture Autumn had come to realize was one of defense. “What sort of incident?”

“A shooting, and a couple of people were stabbed.”

Blake’s eyebrows lifted. “This is Chicago. The city has one of the highest gun crime rates in the country. What does a random shooting have to do with us?”

“I have a friend in the Chicago PD, or otherwise I wouldn’t know this. They’re not releasing these details for the moment …”

Blake’s lips thinned. “Just spit it out, Peter!”

“As well as the shooting, several other people were killed. Apparently, the police found signs of an animal attack on a couple of the bodies. A big animal. They’re saying possibly a very large dog or even a wolf. There are also rumors that different animal claw marks were found, but it’s all being hush-hushed for now.”

Blake’s shoulders slumped. “Chogan.”

Peter looked between them. “We don’t know that for sure, but I think we can be pretty confident that shifters were involved. Whether Chogan was directly involved or if this was initiated by his shift on live television, I can’t say. One thing I think we can be sure of is that this isn’t going to be the last incident we hear of.”

“Damn it. I knew something like this was going to happen.” Blake leaned forward, elbows on his knees, fingertips pressed against his temples. “We need to find Chogan.”

“But you’ve already been all over Chicago,” Autumn said. “He obviously doesn’t want to be found, and this city is huge. If one man is hiding, how are you supposed to find him?”

Blake exhaled, a slow measured breath. “I’ll have to widen my search area to take in some of the outer suburbs. I’ll also go down to this industrial building and see what I can learn.”

“Be careful,” Peter warned. “It’s a crime scene, remember. You don’t want to be associated with any murders, especially not after all the publicity you’ve just gone through because of Dumas and
Operation Pursuit
.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. I can keep my distance. I’ll use my wolf to try to pick up on his spirit guide. Sometimes they can leave a kind of aura that another spirit can detect.”

He was explaining this to her, rather than Peter, Autumn realized. Of course, Peter would already know about these things. She didn’t like the idea of Blake going into danger again.

She wasn’t going to let him go alone. “I’m coming with you.”

“You don’t need to do that.”

“Would you rather I stayed here on my own?”

He hesitated then said, “Okay, we’ll stay together. But we’re out of there at the first sign of trouble.”

She gave a nod. “Agreed.”

Blake reached a hand out, and his fingers entwined with hers. She glanced at him gratefully, pleased to have the reassurance of his touch. She didn’t like how this was all sounding. Her earlier wishes for keeping things in the past didn’t seem to be coming to fruition.

Peter cleared his throat, and Autumn tore her attention from Blake’s handsome, pained face. “So, I know Mia has been through a lot, but do you think she would mind if I called on her at her parents’? I thought I would follow up on how the young shifter, Toby, is doing, and obviously she already has a connection with his folks.”

Autumn smiled inwardly. She didn’t doubt Peter’s concern for Toby, but figured it also made for a convenient excuse for him to see Mia again. Not that she minded, of course. Despite the ability to change into a mountain lion, Peter was all steadfast male, with his intelligent eyes, salt and pepper hair, serious demeanor, and intelligence. She couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather see Mia with.

Blake’s colleague got to his feet and dusted imaginary dust particles from the front of his charcoal gray suit pants. He cleared his throat. “If I could get her parents’ address …”

His mind was still on Mia, then, despite all the other worries. Autumn suppressed a smile and let go of Blake’s hand, getting to her feet. She headed over to the console where a small pad of paper sat beside the phone. She scribbled Mia’s folks’ home address, tore it from the pad, and handed it to him. “Tell her I miss her and she needs to come home soon.”

He gave a shy smile and her heart warmed even more to him. “Sure. Will do.”

Autumn hoped Mia wouldn’t be coming home to trouble when she did.

Chapter Four

MIA LOOKED AROUND her childhood bedroom and sighed. She was too old to run to her parents when things got hard, even if life had become harder than she’d ever imagined. While she’d enjoyed her folks fussing over her for the last couple of days, she thought it was probably time to move out of the single bedroom and back into the apartment with Autumn. She’d told herself she’d been giving Autumn and her new guy, the big Native American, Blake, some space, but having her mom fuss over her had been great too.

Will I
get in the way if I go back?

No, don’t be silly
. She heard Autumn’s voice in her head.
You live there too.

She’d been offered counseling by the police for her ordeal, to talk through any residual emotions she might be harboring about the abduction. Though being taken from the apartment with a gun pressed to the back of her head and being tied up and locked inside a closet had given her nightmares, she wasn’t sure how much use therapy would be. After all, it wasn’t the kidnapping side of the ordeal that had left her brain feeling as though part of her was living in some kind of dream world. She could hardly sit down and tell a therapist that the bit she was struggling to get over was witnessing a man change into a mountain lion before her very eyes.

The doorbell rang and Mia groaned and threw herself back down on the bed. She hoped it wasn’t going to be another reporter. In the last couple of days, every time the phone or doorbell rang, it was pretty much guaranteed to be someone working for a paper who wanted to hear her side of things. As she had no idea what to tell them—certainly not the truth—she’d started off with “No comment” and ended up hiding like a little girl in her bedroom.

“Mia!”

Her mother’s call made her sit up. Her mom knew she wouldn’t speak to any more reporters, and something about her tone got Mia’s attention.

“Someone is here to see you.”

She swung her legs off the side of the bed and stood, quickly checking her reflection in the mirror, using her hands to try to mold her short, dark hair into some kind of style. Her face was free from makeup, but she didn’t have time to apply any now.

She headed out of her bedroom and trotted down the stairs, coming to a stop at the bottom, one hand on the wooden banister as she peered around her mother to see who was waiting for her.

Her mom stood in the doorway, smiling in a knowing way. Her eyes flicked between her daughter and the handsome, well-dressed, somewhat serious-looking man standing on the doorstep.

Peter
Haverly!
How the hell had he found her here?

“You have a visitor, Mia.” Her mom grinned, her cheeks flushed in excitement.

Mia widened her eyes in warning at her mother.

“This is Peter
Haverly, Mom,” she introduced. “The man who rescued me. Peter, this is my mom.”

“Veronica, please,” her mother gushed. “Now don’t just stand there. Come in, come in.”

Her mother ushered him inside, her hands flapping like two flippers on a pinball machine.

“I hope you don’t mind me coming here,” he said, a line of worry appearing between brows flecked with the same hint of gray as the hair at his temples. “I stopped at your apartment, and Autumn gave me this address. She said she didn’t think you’d mind.”

Mia smiled. He’d gone out of his way to track her down! “Of course not. It’s good to see you again.”

He’d stayed with her in the aftermath of everything that happened, during the police reports and even her medical checkup, holding her hand. She’d been so grateful for his presence, feeling like she was in a movie and he was her superhero protector.

Her mom led them both into the living room, where her dad was sitting on the couch, an opened newspaper held in front of his face. Upon noticing they had company, he lowered the paper and folded it, placing it on the floor and getting to his feet.

Autumn introduced them. “Dad, this is Peter
Haverly. The man who got me out of the government building.”

Her dad made eye contact with Peter and reached out and gave him a good, solid handshake. “It’s a pleasure, and please, call me Gene.”

Peter smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Gene. It’s good to meet you, too.”

“Take a seat,” her dad said, gesturing to the spot beside him.

Peter sat down, but leaned forward, his forearms rested on his thighs, appearing slightly awkward. Mia felt sorry for him, like he was her prom date and her parents were about to give him a grilling.

“We can’t thank you enough, Mr.
Haverly,” her dad continued. “We’d always worried Mia’s work would get her into some kind of trouble.”

“Dad!” she exclaimed, her cheeks heating with embarrassment.

Her mother reached out and covered her hand with her own. “It’s okay, honey. We understand why you do your job.” She lifted her eyes to Peter. “Mia lost her twin brother when she was young. She’s been searching for him ever since.”

Peter shook his head. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you,” said her dad. “But the truth of the matter is, we’ve already lost one child, and we can’t stand the thought of losing another one.”

“I’m not a child, Dad!” Mia said, mortified.

Her mom patted her hand again. “You always will be to us.”

Peter’s awkwardness deepened. “Actually, I’m sorry, but it’s because of one of Mia’s cases that I’ve come to see her.”

She tried to ignore the disappointment dipping in her chest.

“I’d like to check up on Toby, one of the other—” He seemed to catch himself, “—people, abducted.” He glanced at her and smiled. “Mia already knows his parents, and so I thought she might like to come with me.”

Mia jumped to her feet, eager to have an excuse to get out of the house. “I’d love to, Peter. Thank you for thinking of me.”

His shoulders relaxed and he returned the smile. “You’re the one doing me a favor.”

She put a hand up. “Just wait here one minute.” She ran up to her bedroom and hurriedly swiped some foundation beneath her eyes, hoping to hide some of the dark marks caused by the last couple of nights of restless sleep. Then she added a couple of brush strokes of mascara to her lashes and a dab of lip gloss. She stepped back to check her reflection. Far from perfect, but she’d pass for semi-human.

A bit like Peter
Haverly,
a voice in her head echoed.
Semi-human?

She hesitated again and chewed on her lower lip. She would need to ask him about what happened in the closet when they’d been held captive together. Turning into an animal wasn’t something she could just brush over and pretend had never happened, even though a large chunk of her brain wanted to do exactly that. If it hadn’t been for Autumn also having seen what happened, all of the television reports on Blake’s cousin shifting into a wolf, and all the sightings of oversized wild animals, she’d have thought she was losing her mind. Hell, part of her still did wonder if she already had.

No, she knew what she’d seen had been real, and how could her curiosity not be piqued? Plus, she had to admit, even though she was a little frightened of him, she wanted to spend more time in Peter’s company.

Forcing a smile that felt more relaxed than she actually was, she headed back downstairs into the entrance hall, where she found Peter standing with her mother and father beside the front door.

He looked up at her and smiled as she approached. “Ready?”

She returned the smile. “Yep, good to go.”

Her father opened the door to reveal the street beyond. At the curbside sat a big BMW sedan in black. Surely that wasn’t his car? The car alone put their modest three-bed house to shame.

She kissed her mother and father goodbye, her mom still sending her excited grins with raised eyebrows, especially when she saw the size of the car Peter drove. No amount of frowning or glaring at her mom seemed to make any difference.

“Take care of our girl,” her father called out to Peter.

Peter’s eyes flicked from her father back to her, and she felt her heart quicken. “Oh, I will.”

He opened the passenger door for her, allowing her to climb in before shutting it gently behind her, as if she were a child and he was worried about her getting her fingers trapped. She couldn’t decide if the gesture was old-fashioned and gentlemanly or just plain old-fashioned. She couldn’t remember the last time anyone had opened a car door for her.

Peter slid into the driver’s seat, the movement causing a waft of leather scented air to fill the space, and turned to her. “So, where are we going?”

He’d thrown her. “I thought we were going to see Toby.”

Peter laughed, a deep throated chuckle. “Yes, we are, but I don’t know the address.”

“Oh, right.” She shook her head at herself and fumbled around in her purse for her phone where she’d stored the home address of the West family.

She read out the address and Peter started up the engine and pulled away from the curb. The drapes in the front room of the house flickered as her parents peeped out of the window at them as they left.

“I’m sorry about my folks,” she said. “They tend to be a bit … over-enthusiastic.”

He glanced at her as he drove. “Not at all. I don’t blame them for being protective of you. I would be.”

His words made her heart flutter again, her cheeks flushing. She glanced away until they went back to normal.

“You know,” she said, “I haven’t really had the chance to talk to anyone about what happened that day. About what happened … to you.”

“You mean the whole animal thing?”

“Yeah. I should have talked to Autumn, but she’s been kind of tied up with this Blake guy.”

Peter grinned. “They did seem a little busy when I went around earlier.”

She pressed her lips together, her eyebrows lifted. “So you understand my point?”

He reached out, the tips of his fingers making contact with the back of her hand. His skin was so warm, hot even, and even though the last thing she wanted to do was snatch her hand away, she couldn’t help herself, almost feeling like she’d been burned.

Peter couldn’t have failed to notice her reaction. “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“You didn’t, but you feel like you’re running a fever!”

“Part of shifter make-up, I’m afraid. We always run at a hotter temperature than anyone else.”

“Really?”

Her looked at her, smiled, and nodded. “Really.”

“So what else?” she asked, her stomach flipping with nervous butterflies, unsure how much she actually wanted to know. “How does it work? Are you like a big cat version of a werewolf?” She felt ridiculous even saying the words. “Do you change with the full moon?”

He chuckled again, causing lines of amusement to crease the corners of his eyes. “No, the moon has no effect on us, at least no more than it has on any other person. Our gift varies between each shifter. Some people, like Blake, Chogan, and myself, bonded with our spirit guides at birth, and that makes us strong and able to shift at will. Others only connected with their guides during adulthood, so they may struggle to control the times they shift. Others can’t shift at all, though they still have the advantage of having an animal guide to help them through the dark times in their lives.”

“Wow. It’s all so hard to believe, you know?”

“Yes, I guess it must be. But you do believe, don’t you?” His gaze flicked over to hers, taking his eyes off the road briefly.

Mia nodded. “How could I not?”

They sat in silence until they reached the street the
Wests’ apartment block was located in. Peter pulled the car up along the curb and shifted into park. “Let’s hope there are no street cleaners due today. It would be just my luck to come back and find the car towed.”

She grinned at him. “Wouldn’t be the first time, I’d imagine.” Almost anyone who drove in Chicago had had their cars towed at some time or another.

Mia glanced up at the tall building, remembering the confusion surrounding how Toby West had been getting out of his room in the middle of the night when the front door had been locked. Now she understood how he was able to. What kind of creature was he able to shift into? And how were his parents coping with such a discovery? She guessed she was about to find out.

They climbed out together, Mia not allowing Peter time to do the whole chivalry thing. Too much would make her uncomfortable. She led the way to the apartment building and pressed the buzzer for the intercom.

“Hello?”

“Hi, it’s Mia Henderson. I hope I’m not disturbing you. I brought a friend with me.”

“No, no. Of course not. Come on up.”

The buzzer sounded and the latch opened on the door. They went in and caught the elevator up to the fifth floor.

Dana West was waiting in the doorway and swept Mia into her embrace. “Mia, how lovely to see you. I hope you’re well, after everything you’ve been through.”

She untangled herself. “Yes, thank you. I’m fine. I wanted to see how you guys were holding up. You’ve been through a lot yourselves.”