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“Ma, don’t do it!”
“I’ve told you before that I’m not your mother.” I could imagine the old woman puffing herself up the way she used to when I trailed into the Arena on my father’s heels, a lanky teenager with dreams even larger than my sword. Ma Scrubbs had doled out tough love then, but there was no affection mixed into the harshness of her voice when she continued now. “I’m looking out for number one. About damn time you did the same.”
Then the cell phone was no longer pressed up against my chilled cartilage. Gunner had snatched the device away, transferring the call over to speaker phone in the process. “Where is Kira?” he demanded.
My companion’s words were so full of alpha electricity that they would have easily compelled a werewolf to reply. But Ma Scrubbs merely laughed. “Hey there, boy scout. Whatcha gonna offer me in exchange?”
“What do you want?” I couldn’t believe it, but Gunner was negotiating with the woman. Was apparently willing to offer any of his rather astonishingly large array of assets in exchange for my sister’s life. Within my belly, the milk-money debt grew into a dragon...and I willingly allowed its foothold to increase.
Ma Scrubbs, unfortunately, was less impressed by the offer. “Naw, naw, I got what I wanted. The client’s funding my retirement. I’m off to the Caribbean. Or maybe the Mediterranean. Never could keep those warm-water oceans straight....”
“Ma!” I couldn’t help myself. Because Kira was in the hands of someone who’d used kitsune magic to murder at least two people recently. Given the obvious danger of that situation, Ma Scrubbs couldn’t just offer a vague warning then hang up on me....
Unfortunately, the only response I came up with beyond her name was a strangled growl. So it was probably a good thing Gunner continued his negotiations without any loss of steam. “But think of how nice it would be to live in a mansion rather than in a straw hut during your golden years. Give me a routing number and I’ll transfer over a million bucks. All you have to do is tell me where Kira is right now.”
“Money first,” Ma countered. “And you’d better hurry. The client is already on his way to pick her up.”
Nails bit into my palms, but I forced myself to remain silent. I wasn’t helping matters by emoting. Somehow the werewolf beside me was able to able to speak the old woman’s language better than I could, so I might as well let him continue blazing the path.
“You give me an address and we’ll transfer funds during the drive over,” Gunner replied smoothly, proving my point even as he began pushing me toward one of the waiting vehicles. Without requiring nudges of their own, the alpha’s three underlings slid into seats while pulling on clothes soppy with melted snow. Tank and Crow got in the front, Allen aimed for the third tier, and the middle row sat open and waiting to thaw my frozen skin.
But rather than joining the other werewolves inside the steaming vehicle, I found myself shifting from foot to foot in ankle-deep snow while Gunner completed the deal-making aspect of the morning. “I’m a boy scout, remember. You know I’ll keep my word,” the alpha growled when Ma Scrubbs’ silence proved her unwillingness to pony up before she was paid.
“Better hold him to that, girlie,” Ma said after one last moment of endless consideration. And I could hear in her voice that she, at least, understood the secrets I didn’t want revealed.
“Yes,” I answered, voice catching in a way that caused all four werewolves to eye me oddly. But then Ma Scrubbs was rattling off an address that was far too familiar, giving me something new to worry about.
Because the old woman hadn’t stashed Kira anywhere easy to access. Instead, she’d stuck my sister in the Warren, where Jackal’s riled-up wolves ruled the roost.
***
THERE WERE SO MANY zeros on the screen of Allen’s cell phone that I gulped. Still, I’d accepted the debt already. So I busied myself pulling my leather jacket out of the star-ball-turned-fanny-pack, hoping no one noticed that the space was far too small to contain such a bulky object without the assistance of magic. Meanwhile, I promised aloud what my kitsune nature required as recompense to the alpha pressed far too close against my side. “I’ll pay you back.”
Was I just imagining the faint smile quirking up the corner of Gunner’s lips as the debt within my belly ballooned from draconic to sea-monster size? Probably. Because all he said was: “Let’s worry about that later.” Then his eyes widened as they returned to the road.
“Stop,” he ordered, his alpha command causing the male behind the wheel to slam on the brakes before easing up his foot and pulling into an empty parking space.
“Boss?” Allen asked from behind us, leaning over the seats to peer over his alpha’s shoulder. “I thought we were in a hurry....”
“Cops,” Gunner noted succinctly. And now that he mentioned it, I could just barely make out the taillights of stalled traffic three blocks ahead. Still, the leap from there to a police barricade...wasn’t really that great once I remembered that every policeman in the city was likely staring at pictures of Kira’s and my faces at the present moment. A fact Gunner now knew as well as I did since I’d clued him in to all relevant details during the five minutes we’d spent on the road.
“The weak are meat. The strong eat,” my mother murmured inside my head. And even though I only narrowed my eyes slightly, I was pretty sure Gunner didn’t miss the fact that I’d just been graced with another missive from my maternal spirit. Instead, his eyes bored into mine like icicles. And despite the heat blowing out of the vent above my head, I felt very much as if I was back outside, standing naked in the snow.
Yes, I hadn’t mentioned my kitsune nature or the dead-mother-voices-in-my-head during the hurried debrief. So sue me. At least I wasn’t actively running away.
“We can park here and get there easily as wolves,” Tank noted when no one else suggested a game plan. “The destination is only four blocks away.”
For a werewolf, the idea was a good one. But for a kitsune.... I needed to arrive two-legged if there was to be a single sliver of hope that Kira and I might survive our upcoming meeting with skins intact.
So I pushed open the car door without speaking, preparing to make tracks away from the werewolf who represented both my greatest asset and my greatest weakness wrapped up together in one overbearing package. I had no plan. Just an instinctive urge to reach my sister before anyone could threaten her further.
But I wasn’t actually able to force a single foot outside the vehicle. My debt was holding me far too strongly within its grip.
“No, we’ll walk there two-legged,” Gunner decided after what felt like an eternity. “Crow, you take point. Allen and Tank bring up the rear. Whatever happens, your top priority is to protect Kira and Mai.”