Wolver's Rescue (34 page)

Macey’s grin widened. “Can’t. The bitch lives
inside of us. It’s in our nature. I just decided to pattern myself
after a good one.” The smile turned shy and the girl’s face turned
pink. “You know, like you.”

“
Oh God, I think I just went
from liking you to loving you.”

With Macey’s faith in her as inspiration,
Tommie made another decision. She would try to make amends for her
harsh judgment of Bull... if he gave her the chance.

~*~

They ran as wolves and when they’d picked up
a scent strong enough to tell them that Eli passed that way often,
they ran back to the truck, reformed into men and returned to the
spot with a cooler of meat.

“
Why?” Bogie asked on their
trek back to the truck.

Not for the first time, Bull wondered what
life was like between Bogie and his mate, Louise. The wolver’s
conversation consisted of one word questions and answers.

Though he complained and teased her about it,
he liked listening to Tommie’s chatter and for the most part, she
was easy to talk to. Except for tonight. He could have put it
better. He could have explained, but it was so damned hard to say
aloud what only he and Eugene Begley knew.

Bogie was watching him, waiting for an
answer. Asked as they were, the wolver’s questions sometimes needed
interpretation. It was like taking a shot with your eyes closed.
This one was easy.

“
Eli’s gone wild, but he’s
not feral, at least not completely. I can’t find anything, other
than the bastard doctor, that says he’s drawn human attention. I
want to keep him fed until I see evidence he’s hunting
game.”

Bogie raised his eyebrows.

“
I know. He broke Primal Law
when he attacked up at the shack, but the Law also says to protect
his cub. Which Law would you obey?”

“
Cub.”

“
Me, too. I’ve only seen it
once before, when I was a cub. It left an impression. I can’t
condemn a guy for doing what I’d do.” They walked in silence for a
few minutes before Bull spoke again. “You up for a different kind
of run?”

Bogie’s eyes lit up with interest. He
nodded.

“
I chose you because you’re
a man who can keep his mouth shut.”

Bogie didn’t see the humor. He nodded.

“
And because I couldn’t find
Tommie’s keys.”

Bogie got that one right away. His eyes
lit.

They left Bull’s truck where he’d parked it,
and went instead to one of the SUVs that were still parked by the
showers. Bull found the key under the front bumper right where the
wolver had stashed it before the moon rose. Bogie stopped to pee on
the rear tire.

“
Jesus, the fucking
bathrooms are right there, man.”

Bogie shrugged. “Habit.”

Bull shook his head. Tommie had two
bathrooms. There was no guarantee they’d use them. Her neighbors
were going to love it.

“
She’s determined to take
you all there tomorrow,” he said, adding no urinating outdoors to
the list of orders he would give them before they left. “I want the
place checked out. You’re the breaking and entering guy. I figured
you’d be the one I needed.”

“
B and E, and
clean-up.”

“
Yeah.” Whatever the hell
clean-up meant. “I need to know if it’s being watched, and by how
many. I need to know if the place is rigged.”

Bogie nodded and there was nothing left to
say. They rode in silence for the rest of the thirty mile trip,
Bogie thinking whatever Bogie thought, and Bull thinking about
Tommie.

He would have to tell her the truth about
what he did and why he did it, and pray she understood why he did
it and why he would continue to do it. If he could get her that
far, then he would then try to find a way to keep her without
bringing her into Begley’s all male pack.

He’d like to talk to his Alpha about it,
would have to sooner or later, but except for the snide little
messages, the little bastard still wasn’t answering or returning
his repeated calls.

They spotted the stakeout immediately. A
non-descript sedan was parked across the street and two doors down.
The lower speed limit on these residential streets made it easy to
check the car out. Coffee cups and balled up paper wrappers on the
dashboard confirmed it, though the two men inside didn’t give the
SUV a second glance.

“
Later,” Bogie said and Bull
agreed.

He parked another two doors down and he and
Bogie walked up the short drive like they owned the place. A small
dog yipped and the kitchen light went on, but that only added
authenticity to their ruse and they were over the fence before the
owner peeked out the door.

They found another watcher at the back,
brazenly sitting in a lawn chair in the rear neighbor’s yard,
pouring coffee from a vacuum flask. A cigarette dangled from his
mouth and he looked bored.

Bogie tugged on Bull’s sleeve, grinned and
flashed to wolf.

“
Shit,” Bull hissed and
hissed it again when Bogie started to bark like a dog and growl
loudly.

The flask flew one way, the mug another, and
the cigarette showered sparks down the watcher’s shirtfront as he
jumped to his feet. With any luck, he’d think the light was from a
flashlight and the curse because it no longer worked.

“
What are you doing out
there?” Bull called menacingly. “Get out of here before I call the
cops.”

The startled man fled without saying a
word.

Bogie flashed back to man.

“
Next time, could you at
least give me a head’s up?”

“
Did.” Bogie said. He hopped
the fence into Tommie’s yard and walked up one side of the house,
then back and across the back of the house almost to the narrow
driveway. There he stopped, tapped a small black box attached to
the siding and grinned.

“
Cheap.”

In less than two minutes, the alarm was
disabled and the backdoor was opened.

Bogie signaled that he would go check the
place out. He soundlessly disappeared through the door to the rest
of the house.

Bull took in the kitchen. The place was a
shambles. Dirty dishes filled the sink. Empty bottles and bags
lined the counters. This wasn’t Tommie’s mess. It was all too new.
Too late, he realized that the house was occupied. He hurried
through the door after Bogie to tell him they had to get the hell
out. He was too late.

There was a crash and Bogie flew from the
stairs leading upward, to land on his back on the dining table. He
was followed by a mountain of a man, roaring profanity and dressed
in Gantnor Clinic grey. The table groaned beneath their combined
weight.

Bull grabbed mountain man by the shoulders,
spun him and let his fist fly. The man staggered back, shook his
head, and charged at Bull. It was Moses, the patient from Ward B.
As before, the giant grabbed a chair and charged. As before, Bull
grabbed the chair in a tug-of-war over his head. Unlike before,
Moses let go of the chair and grabbed Bull in a bear hug powerful
enough to crack ribs.

Wolvers were stronger than most humans, but
Bull had doubts about this guy’s heritage. He didn’t even flinch
when Bull crashed his flat hands against the man’s ears, a
resounding blow that should have caused enough pain to the man’s
eardrums to force him to relax his grip.

A cord appeared around Moses’ neck and Bogie
climbed up the man’s back like a monkey climbing a tree. Using the
giant’s back for leverage, the small man pulled and twisted the
cord. Moses’ eyes bugged, his face turned purple, and he began to
thrash from side to side, an angry bear trying to dislodge the
annoyance on his back. He loosened his grip on Bull, but Bull hung
on to give Bogie a chance to finish the job.

Moses faltered. His tongue came out and his
eyes rolled back. Bogie was torn away. Moses had a friend.

Bull had no time to warn Bogie there was
another friend somewhere in the house. He finished the job the
little wolver had begun. Bogie looked like he was holding his own,
dodging and darting to avoid his attacker’s blows. The third
Gantnor inmate came for Bull.

He was as big as Moses, but not nearly so
adept at fighting hand to hand. Bull pounded on him, pounded and
pounded, to the face, the abdomen, to the solar plexus. The man
grunted with each blow, but wouldn’t go down. When Bull heard
cheekbones crunch beneath his fist and the man showed no pain, he
wondered if drugs were at play. If he raised his hands in
surrender, he didn’t think this guy would stop. Like Moses, he was
overtaken by rage. Bull had no intention of surrendering or getting
killed. He finally managed to maneuver around his opponent and much
like Bogie, practically climbed the inmate’s back to get the proper
hold.

He wrapped his left arm around the man’s
thick neck. It was a stretch to bring his left hand to his right
biceps and fighting against the inmate’s thrashing and spinning to
dislodge him, Bull wrapped his legs around the guy’s middle. Bull’s
right hand went to the back of the neck, elbow forward and
squeezed, bringing pressure to both sides of the neck. He’d used a
blood choke often enough to take down a feral. This one took longer
than most.

Blood loss to the brain brought his attacker
down. A swift twist to the vertebrae killed him.

He turned to help Bogie, but the slightly
built wolver needed none. What at first looked like simple dodging
to avoid attack, was really moving to a position where the wolver
could attack. One second he was standing on his feet, the next he
was standing on his hands and driving his heavy boots into the
man’s chest. Bull had practiced the move, but never tried it.
Supposedly, the force of the blow stopped the heart. Bogie’s
victim’s eyes went wide and the man dropped like a stone.
Apparently it worked. Bogie, however, wasn’t taking any chances. He
followed the move with a crushing blow to the throat.

The smaller wolver grinned and Bull grinned
back, but had no time for praise. He motioned to the door.

“
Let’s get the hell out of
here.”

Bogie yelled, “Duck!”

Bull did, but too late. A sharp pain pierced
is back below the shoulder blade. He felt the drug seeping into his
body. It didn’t make sense. Human drugs had little effect on
wolvers. He vaguely remembered Tommie saying Gantnor had drugged
her, too.

He tried to yell, “Go!” to Bogie, but he
wasn’t sure if he said it aloud. His vision was clouding and the
room began to spin. He closed his eyes and melted into
blackness.

“
Where are they?” Tommie
worried. “Why aren’t they back?”

After talking with Macey, she’d gone to the
tent and straightened things as best she could. She brought his
pillow to the fire not to warm, but to dry, then put it back in
place with her last chocolate bar on top. It was the only peace
offering she had.

She waited and waited for him to return.
Hours passed and there was no sign of Bull or Bogie.

The others were worried, too. Stretch and
Shorty had shifted and gone off to see what they could find. Samuel
insisted he accompany the women on their nightly trip to the
bathrooms.

“
I’ll go with them, sir,”
Travis volunteered.

Samuel was suspicious, but Cora told him to
hush. “If it’s the Alpha’s men come looking for him, we’re all dead
anyway. Travis has as much at stake as the rest of us seeing he’s
still alive. Wake the cubs up and get them into the trees. At least
they can give a whistle and let us know when to start running.”

Boris, who was far from recovered but
insisted on checking his supplies, complained that a cooler of meat
was missing.

“
We ate it while you were
napping,” Helen snapped at him. “Who the hell cares what happened
to your meat. We ate good while you were out. Nobody slapping our
hands when we looked for a second helping.” It was an unfair
accusation and Tommie wasn’t sure if it was Helen’s grouchy nature
or a result of taut nerves. With Helen, it was hard to
tell.

Stretch and Shorty came back with nothing to
report except that Bull’s truck was where they’d left it. Travis
and the women came back with more.

“
One of the SUVs is gone,”
Travis reported.

Louise was smiling. “And Bogie peed on the
tires.”

All except Tommie looked relieved.

“
Okay, explain to me why
you’re all smiling because Bogie, um, urinated on tires.” She
shivered a little at the thought. When Tinkles had used her tire,
Tommie had run her car through the carwash twice.

“
Bogie’s a little more
talented than the rest of us,” Samuel explained. “The jobs they
send him on are, how can I put it...”

“
You can put it where the
sun don’t shine, you old goat. Tommie knows what we are,” Cora
snapped. To Tommie she said, “Bogie does B and E, breaking and
entering,” she clarified. “He’s small and he’s got nimble fingers.
He can get in and out quick and he don’t make noise. Some say he
does a little more, but like I said, he doesn’t say it himself.”
She looked at Louise, but the woman only shrugged.

“
A couple of times when
things looked like they were going bad,” Bogie’s mate took over,
“his handlers left him and he had to find his own way back to camp.
One time it was twenty miles. Later, he found out they’d gone to a
club instead of looking out for him. After that, he peed on the
tires so he could follow the scent. When they came out of the club,
he’d be in the car waiting. It got to be a habit. He never gets in
a car without peeing on the tires.”