Chapter 21
brOOKE
“You’re going to be able to get him out, right?” I asked Mark. I’d called him as soon as I climbed in Roy’s van and met him in the police station parking lot. I was so freaked out I barely remembered the ride there.
I’d never wanted to break someone out of jail before. I was antsy. Anxious. Freaking out.
I’d known Roy for less than forty-eight hours. At some point during that time, I’d really started to care about him. Not just because he’d saved my life twice and I owed him. But I felt that same connection he described when he met me. He felt right.
Familiar.
Like we belonged.
Or was that a shared trauma response? Could I trust my instincts with this guy when they’d failed me in the past?
I wanted to believe I could. Roy had given me no reason not to.
Mark nodded, a little too calmly. “Yes. It will be okay. It’s just that…”
I frowned when he paused. “What?”
Mark hesitated then shook his head. “Nothing.”
Nothing?
“What do you mean, nothing?” I snapped because I couldn’t keep doing polite. “That’s worse than saying calm down to a woman. What is it? Tell me.” I grabbed onto his arm then realized what I’d done and let go. “Is he going to be in trouble?”
I started to pace. The station’s lot had so many lights it was like daytime, except the sky was pitch black and the streets were quiet.
“This is ridiculous. I should’ve come out from beneath the desk and identified myself.
Roy was being paranoid and made me stay hidden.
He protected me, but now he’s in jail! This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. ”
I’d already told Mark this on the phone, but hysteria was making me repeat it.
Roy had been arrested! For no good reason. If I’d been given a chance to show the officers my ID badge and that I worked in the office and was allowed to be there and that Roy was my guest, then he wouldn’t have been arrested.
I wanted to kick Roy and also Mark too for not acting quickly enough.
“I should be able to get him out,” he replied. Why was he so dang calm? “Especially if you got me the evidence I need?”
I blinked, not remembering what he was talking about.
“Oh. Yeah.” I pulled the thumb drive out of my pocket and started to give it to him, then stopped. Stared at it. Roy hadn’t trusted the cops who arrested him. He’d hidden me from them for exactly that reason. How did we know Mark could be trusted? I pulled my hand back as he reached for the drive.
I shook my head. “After you get Roy out,” I said stubbornly. I wasn’t below bargaining or even blackmail.
I thought it might piss him off, but instead, the corners of his lips quirked. “You’re protective, too, eh? That’s good. Roy will probably need you to be strong when he gets out.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, panicking again. Had he been hurt? Did they know he’d been recently shot? Although that wound had healed, which was crazy. Maybe Mark had been right about arm wounds bleeding a lot.
Mark shook his head. “Nevermind.” He led me up the steps and into the building, holding the door open for me.
An eerie howl–like a wolf howl–sounded from somewhere in the back of the police station. The hairs on my arms raised.
“What was that? ” If it was a police dog, he sounded trapped. Or in trouble.
“Shit,” Mark muttered and took a deep breath. “Wait here.” He pointed at one of the plastic chairs that lined the wall. “I’ll get things straightened out.”
I sat down, trying to calm the patter of my heart. My knee bumped up and down.
Another frantic howl echoed through the station, startling me.
“What is that?” I demanded, looking to the front desk guy. He was behind a tall counter, computer beside him. The American and Colorado flags were in a stand off to the side.
He shook his head and rolled his eyes. “Some nut job they picked up. He’s been howling like a wolf for the last twenty minutes. Maybe he thinks it will get him out or something. Or sent for a psych hold.”
Minutes ticked by, and my knee kept bobbing. Another wolf howl made my scalp prickle.
Finally, Mark emerged from the back, escorting Roy.
I leaped up from my seat and ran toward them. “Roy!”
But then my leaping heart tumbled because he looked terrible. White-faced. Sweaty. Eyes haunted. He was shivering like it was freezing inside the station.
My stride broke at the shock of it. Oh no! Oh God. His claustrophobia! It probably killed him being in a jail cell again.
Relief crossed Roy’s face when he spotted me, and he opened his arms wide, sweeping me into a giant bear hug without stopping his long strides that carried us straight out the doors.
I heard him suck in several deep breaths outside as he held me in a death grip. I straddled his waist and wrapped my arms around his neck, holding on to him like a koala. “Are you okay?” I murmured, kissing his sweaty neck. “That must’ve been so hard for you.”
He didn’t answer. His breath rasped in my ear in heavy pants. I placed another kiss on his temple. “It’s okay. You’re out now,” I murmured.
“The charges have been dropped. He’s free to go.”
Thank God. Tears smarted my eyes.
Roy didn’t put me down until we’d moved away from the building.
“How?”
Mark shrugged. “I met with the police chief and got it all squared away. He’s been helping the DEA with this, so once I told him it was all part of the investigation, he let him go.”
I sighed in relief.
“I’m gonna give you directions and the key code to my cabin, so you can get out of town and let things calm down while I get a warrant to pick up Lazano,” he continued. “You’ll also be safe up there. No more men coming after you.”
That sounded like a great idea–not being shot at.
“Roy might need to run around a bit to work off some of his energy,” he added.
“Okay–here’s the thumb drive. I put the accounting spreadsheet on there with the wire details.” I handed it to Mark. He’d gotten Roy out, so this was my end of the deal. “Wait, your… cabin?”
Mark nodded. “It’s up in the foothills about forty-five minutes from here. Better than that hotel suite.”
He was probably right. Roy definitely didn’t need to go near an elevator again.
I smiled at Mark’s consideration. “Thanks.”
“You need me to drive you?” Mark asked Roy.
Roy didn’t answer, only held me tightly with his nose buried in my hair.
“You need to get to my cabin, Roy. You can run out there. Okay? Lots of good places, too. Let’s get you out of the city. You hear me?”
I didn’t know why he was talking to him like he was dense. Or a child. And run? It wasn’t gym class.
But Roy grunted and slowly released his grip on me, lowering me to the ground. He held my waist as I settled. “Yeah. I need to run,” he agreed then ran a hand over his face.
I glanced between them, my neck crooked up to do so. What in the hell were they talking about?
Mark must’ve seen my look of confusion because he scrubbed his hand across his jaw and said, “Sometimes people with claustrophobia need to run off their excess energy when they get free. He might need a few hours out in the woods, but he’ll be okay.”
Huh. I never heard of running off claustrophobia but whatever. Maybe it made sense to get up into the mountains where there was a lot of space, a lot of distance from the jail cell he’d just been in. Away from everything… but me.
He needed to get away from everything that triggered his PTSD. A cabin in the woods sounded nice.
“Okay, well, I parked the van over there.” I pointed further down the line of cars, and we walked that way.
“There’s plenty of food up there. I’m dropping a pin with the address, and I’ll text you the key code information,” Mark said to Roy as we stopped in front of the van.
Roy’s eyes still seemed glazed, so I thanked Mark.
“I’ll be in touch about the Lazano situation,” he promised then held up the thumb drive.
“With this, we should have what we need to get an arrest warrant for Lazano. I’ve got the judge on speed dial, and everyone’s itching to get this case closed and the fucker behind bars. It should take a few hours. Hopefully.”
“You can bother a judge at this time of night? On the weekend?” I wondered. I wanted the man arrested as much as Mark.
The agent grinned. “With your new evidence? He won’t mind for this case. Lie low together. This should be over soon.”
“Thanks again.” I gave Mark a smile. “For everything.”
“Other way around. It’s you I have to thank. Without you, we wouldn’t have what we needed to bring him down.” He glanced at Roy then back to me. “Call me if you need anything. Ah…there are wolves up there around the cabin, but they’re friendly. Don’t be scared if you see one, okay?”
Wolves? Friendly?
“Um, okay. Sure,” I said, not sure what to answer.
Mark nodded then walked off with purpose.
“You okay?” I asked, turning to face Roy and setting my hand on his chest.
He set his big one on top of it, holding it in place.
He shook his head then leaned down and tucked his face into my neck. Breathed me in.
“Fuck, sugar, I missed you.” His hand came up and stroked over my hair.
“Feeling better?” I wondered. I wasn’t sure if he could drive like this.
“Mmm, yeah. Give me your mouth.”
I turned my head, so our lips touched. Then it went feral because it seemed we both needed the connection. Roy groaned and pretty much devoured me. He turned us so my back was pressed into the side of his van. I had no idea how long we kissed, but I whimpered when he pulled back.
When I blinked my eyes open, his were clear now and filled with need. His coloring was better, and there was his lethal smile.
“I’m feeling better, yeah. But I’ll feel amazing when we get to Mark’s cabin, and I can sink in your sweet pussy.”
I looked left and right. “Roy,” I chided, a smile tugging the corners of my lips.
“No one’s around to hear the little sounds you make when I kiss you. I wouldn’t let them. I don’t share.”
“I thought you needed to run.”
“I do. Yeah, I’d better run first, or else I might mar–I might be too rough.” He stroked the backs of his knuckles across my cheek like I was precious to him.
My pussy clenched at the thought of him getting rough with me. What would it be like to have my giant mountain man totally unleashed?
I wanted to find out.
“Let’s get going, then,” I murmured, smiling up at him.
He gave me another kiss and helped me into the van.
Thirty-five minutes later, we were in the pine trees, heading down a dirt road that dead-ended in front of a little cabin.
I had navigated while Roy drove, but he had been twitchy the whole drive, occasionally starting to breathe hard again or succumbing to full-body shudders.
Each time it happened, I would reach for his leg or hand and talk to him, and it seemed to calm him down.
“We’re here. Now you can take that run,” I said when he parked because he seemed to be in another episode.
He threw the door open and tumbled out. “Yeah. Good.” He yanked open the snaps on his flannel shirt.
Weird. I guess he liked to run bare chested?
“Don’t look, okay, baby?” he said. Was he taking off his boots?
“What?”
He wasn’t making any sense. There was a wild look to him. Not frantic, but…enervated. Electrified.
“You have the key code to the cabin door.” His eyes glowed bright green in the darkness. “Go inside. I’ll come back soon. Just, uh–I gotta go.” He took off at a sprint in his bare feet, his shirt on the ground.
I stared after him as he rounded the corner of the cabin, and then I saw something–
Weird.
Wait–what?
I dashed after him, but when I rounded the corner, all I saw was his jeans and boxers, like he’d melted into the earth. No, they were ripped. Like he’d burst out of them.
The sound of a wolf’s howl split the night, and I shrieked, my gaze jerking forty yards up the mountain to the most enormous wolf I’d ever seen. Bigger than a lion. Black fur shining under the light of the full moon.
At my shriek, the howl broke off, and the wolf looked right at me with glowing green eyes.
I gasped, gooseflesh rising on my arms. The wolf wheeled around and took off running into the woods as I stood there in shock.
Oh. My. God.
Roy was a wolf.