The Protector (22 page)

Chapter
Fifteen

Josh
stood waiting for his strange client. He was really paranoid about his
identity, and would show up with some crazy mask, or hide.
 
The guy was a nut job, but Josh didn’t care.
He wanted his fucking money, and he wanted out. He was going to deliver the
message, and be done, after he killed his secretary. She was a fucking traitor,
spying on him for the Montrose family.
A fucking spy.

He
had trusted Jennifer, and that was what he got for trusting anyone. She had
been working for him all this time, and she betrayed him. He’d paid her when
she took care of her sick mother. He’d paid her while she buried her mother.
How did she repay him? By helping that family that was hell-bent on seeing
him
put in prison because their whore of a daughter died of
a drug overdose. It wasn’t his fault. It wasn’t his fault the bag exploded. She’d
agreed to do it saying she was tired of fucking clients all night. He was
nowhere near her when she died. She was in an airport in Afghanistan.

When
the man walked in with the kabuki mask over his face, Josh struggled to keep
himself from laughing. The man looked ridiculous in that thing.
 
“I did everything you asked. I need to get
going.”

He
stood there, staring at Josh for a moment. “I notice you are having troubles
with your assistant.”

Josh
looked at him, surprised. How could he know about that?
Fuck, if he knows then who else?

His
employer
laughed,
a short, humorless kind of laugh.

“You
should see your face right now.”
 
He gave
him a cold smile
.“
I know everything going on around
here. This is my territory.” He held his hands out wide. “I could take down
Ilithyia
. I will one day, and then all shifters will have
no choice but to obey me. I won’t be so fucking weak.”

Josh’s
mind was working fast while the crazy man ranted. He thought he had done well
to keep it a secret that he knew what Jennifer was up to, so he could deal with
her when he was ready. “Does anyone else know?”

“No,
not even that pretty assistant of yours. She just sent a message that she will
be home soon.” He
tsked
him
like a naughty child. “You killed that girl, and made it look like she was a
whore and drug addict.”

Josh
shrugged trying to look unconcerned. His heart was racing though. This man
seemed to know everything.
“ She
was. Those stupid
girls always believe me when I tell them I will take care of them. By the time
they figure out it isn’t the dream they expected, it’s too late.” He paused for
a moment. “None of that is murder though.”

The
distorted voice made the man’s laugh all the more chilling. “Do you really
think I am concerned with your involvement? I researched you, and your
involvement with her death. It is why I hired you."

Josh’s
body grew tense. A suspicion dawned on him that made him start to plot this
crazy asshole’s death. The Montrose family had been trying to nail his ass with
a manslaughter charge for a while. "Are you trying to blackmail me?”

“In a way.
I have all the information I
gathered ready to send to the girl's family. “You may not have forced that girl
into anything, but because of your illegal activities, a girl died. In Colorado
that makes you eligible to be charged with felony murder. Even if you didn’t go
to prison for the rest of your life, the family would sue you, and get
everything you own. Families can sue over wrongful death and win millions.”

 
Josh blew out an angry breath. “What the fuck
do you want?”

"Insurance.
You cross me, and you will find
your life ruined."

 
“Look, I don't give a shit what you’re doing
here. I came here because I had no choice. I just want my money, and you will
never see me again.”

"You
are going to leave, without any money from me. If you want to be a dick about
it, I will see that these files are passed on."

Josh
felt his anger boiling. This guy had him by the balls. If he tried any of his
usual tactics, he would lose everything.
"Fine.
Whatever, I’m fucking out of here."
 
Josh turned to storm away.

"Oh, Josh, one more thing.
I
suggest you dump Jennifer in Bears Creek Canyon. Every year unfortunate hikers
fall to their deaths there."

Josh
was unsure why he'd be helpful now, but he nodded. "Thanks."

****

Blair
woke up to the sound of Mandy crying. The upholstery of the seat was rough on
her skin. By the vibrations and sounds of a motor, she could tell they were in
a car. She cracked open her eyes to see she was not in a car, but a van. She
could make out the doors, and saw it had grown dark outside. She closed her
eyes to try to ease the pounding pain in her head. She had to think. With them
being in a car, no one could track them. She had to find a way to get out of
here. She tried pulling her arms free, but the twine was too tight. She
couldn’t get her hands free. Her legs were bent and were attached to the rope
holding her wrists together. There was no way she could shift and not fracture
bones. She needed to find a way to help Mandy, and not kill them both in the
process.
Now I just need to keep my head,
and not accidentally shift.
That was a pain she never wanted to experience
again.

Goddess, what am I going to do?
Cole can’t find me with the trail broken.
Her head throbbed in time with
her heartbeat, making thinking clearly hard for her. She closed her eyes to try
to form a plan.

Blair
jerked awake, realizing she had fallen asleep, and they had stopped. She heard
a slap. Then Mandy screamed in pain. “I didn’t get a chance to finish with you
before your freak friend showed up.”

“Don’t
touch me.” Mandy’s voice was high pitched and shook with fear.

Blair
heard thrashing around and forced her eyes open. The man that hit her had Mandy
pinned in the back of the van. He looked down at Mandy with a look of hatred.
“Are you one of those freaks that turns into an animal?”

“They’re
not freaks.” Mandy thrashed around trying to break free.

He
held her down easily. “You’re a little bitch.” He raised his fist, preparing to
slam it into her face.
 

“Don’t
you touch
her!
” Blair screamed. “I will kill you if
you put one finger on her.”

He
turned and gave Blair a grin that was full of malice. “You’re finally up.
Good.” He let go of Mandy and stood, crouching over in the van, and walked over
to Blair. “Come here, freak.”

Blair
tried to move away from him, as much as being hogtied allowed. Fear made her
heart pound. He looked insane as he stalked her. “So, is this the only way you
can feel like a man? Beat on defenseless women who can’t fight back?”

He
glared at her. “As long as you’re dead at the end, I don’t care if you can
fight back or not.” He rubbed his crotch. “This makes me a man, not how I kill
animals.”

“My
mate will kill you if you harm me.”

“Your
mate is going to be too busy crying over your dead body to worry about me.”

Blair
shook her head. “Why are you doing this to us? We have never done anything to
you.”

 
“You’re a fucking liar!” Silas picked her up,
and Blair feared he was going to kill her. He pulled out a knife and moved it
close to her throat. He was going to cut her open, right here in front of
Mandy.

Blair
heard Mandy screaming and closed her eyes. Blair should be braver, but she did
not want to watch his face as he murdered her.

****

Cole
walked into the room at the city hall expecting to find Blair and her friends
going through magazines. He was stunned when he walked into an empty room. He
pulled his gun. There was the strong scent of fear in the air. There was a
chair knocked over and magazines on the floor. His wolf’s hackles rose instantly.
He walked around the room to the closet and opened the door, while keeping his
gun ready. The closet was empty, so he moved to the next room. He flipped the
light on and did a sweep of the room. After he went over the building and knew
it was clear he picked up his cell phone.

Michael
picked up on the third ring. “Hello, Cole.”

Cole
cut through the pleasantries. “Blair is gone, and there has been a struggle
here at the hall.” Cole paced like a caged animal. His instincts roared at him
to go and find his mate.

“Shit,
hold on.”

Cole
waited as he heard Michael talking to someone else. If this was a joke, he was
going to spank Blair’s ass until it glowed, but then again he knew his fox.
Blair knew better than to scare him like this. Something was wrong.

Michael
came back on the phone. “Cassie says when they left Mandy was on her way.”

“There
is no sign of Mandy either.”

“I’m
sending Lucas to help you find them.”

“Ok.”
Cole wanted to bang his head on the wall. He wasn’t thinking clearly. If he
were he would have already called Lucas. Cole was a
Kelach
,
but Lucas was a stronger tracker than anyone. His fear for Blair was clouding
his judgment. What would Warren do? He thought about that as he paced. Then he
knew. Warren would make his
cholan
to search, and he
would stay close, but not too close. He was too emotional to be an effective
leader at this point, so Cole would have to rely on his highly trained
cholan
to do this job.

Cole
paced the building while he talked Travis, his
cholan
second in command, on the phone. Aaron had come as soon as Cole called him. He
tried several times to call Mandy, but she never answered.

Aaron
hit the wall with his fist. “This isn’t fucking good at all."

"Thomas
and Brad are searching around the building for clues, and Lucas is on his
way." Cole was torn. He wanted to be out there searching for Blair, but he
also wanted to stay close in case she escaped and came back here.

Cole
looked over when Lucas walked in. “Thank you for coming, Lucas.”

Lucas
scowled at him. “I was in town watching that human woman.”

Cole
was confused. Maybe it was all the anxiety for Blair.
“Who?”

“Jennifer
McCallen
, I tried to scare her off. Most human
females would have run away, but it only made Jennifer ask me questions. I
decided to watch her.” Lucas looked sheepish. In another time and place, Cole
would have laughed. He'd rib him later, but now he had more important things
than thinking about Lucas's stalking.

Lucas
had to focus was on Blair, and, he hoped, when he found Blair he would, in
turn, have found Mandy, too. Blair had a good head on her shoulders and would
do her best to keep Mandy with her. “Can you get a scent here?” Cole asked.

Lucas
took a long sniff,
then
scowled at Cole. “The fucker
is trying to mask his scent. He knows about our weaknesses. But I can tell it’s
the same human that attacked Mandy.”

Cole
scented the air. He could smell the heavy perfume of body spray, but nothing
else. He closed his eyes,
then
finally caught a trace
of it.

“Son of a bitch!”
Cole yelled. "I can't
believe I missed it." Once again he felt like he had no business in this
position. He should have never let his guard down.

“Stop
feeling sorry for yourself, pup.”

Cole
snapped his head up to see Warren had come in. “Uncle Warren. I really messed
up.”

“Yeah,
I heard about it. Listen, you may be the
Kelach
and sheriff,
but you won’t catch everything. You are also
very
stressed. That is going to affect your tracking sense, which is why we always
pull shifters off a trail when it involves their own family. That is what the
other
cholan
and Guardians are for. Lucas is not
emotionally invested and more sensitive to scents underneath the cologne that
was used.”

Cole
knew he was right, but he just needed to think. He looked over at Warren. “Can
you track them?”

He
shook his head. “Not reliably. They are in a car.”

Cole
gave him a stricken look. Without being able to track them, they could be
anywhere. They would have to search the human way, and the longer Blair and
Mandy were missing the more likely it was that they would not find them in
time.

Lucas
cleared his throat. "I can though. I can track the scent of their fuel. It
smells like he's added some gas cleaner to it.”

Cole’s
eyes widened. He could scent the gas, too, but then if he came across another
car, he wouldn’t know which trail to follow. “You can scent the additives?”

Lucas
nodded. “Different companies use different chemicals. I can make out the
differences and follow the scent.”