Authors: Tasha Black
F
inn soaked
in the sight of the boy’s smile and Darcy’s soft look of happiness. As strange as the whole night had been, something about that very moment felt like home.
He followed Darcy’s gaze over his shoulder as the front door opened and a man approached their table.
He was a big guy, taller than Finn, which, at six-foot-three, wasn’t something Finn was used to.
The stranger was long and lean. A bolo tie hung down a faded chambray shirt tucked into dark blue jeans. A day or two of scruff shadowed his tanned cheeks.
The heels of his polished boots clicked on the vinyl floor of the waitress’s station as he cut through it unapologetically on his way to their table.
All he was missing was a damned cowboy hat and he’d look like he just stepped off a cigarette billboard.
Who was he trying to impress, looking like that?
A half-sigh from Darcy answered Finn’s question.
He found himself more than a little annoyed.
“Hey there, folks,” the man said in a slow drawl, extending a hand. “Oliver Blake, Child Services.”
“Darcy Harkness,” she replied, somehow sounding like she was purring, rather than barking out all the r’s in her name as she was prone to do when she tried to sound tough.
Blake turned his attention to Finn.
“Finn,” he offered, extending his hand slowly, a power move showing he didn’t really want to shake.
“Hey, there,” Blake said, nodding absently before turning his attention back to Darcy and the boy, and leaving Finn’s hand unshaken. He sat himself beside Darcy in the booth.
The man smelled of pungent cologne, like oiled leather and spoiled fruit, and Finn noticed Luke wrinkling his nose in distaste and glaring suspiciously. He knew he liked this kid.
“I’m glad you could come right away,” Darcy began. “This little guy is really shaken up. We’ve figured out that his name is Luke.”
“Hold on a sec,” Blake said. “Can he tell me what happened himself?”
Darcy turned to the boy, wrapping a comforting arm around him.
“He’s having a hard time talking right now, but I’m sure he’ll be feeling okay to explain when he’s rested up and comfortable, right, Luke?”
The boy didn’t respond.
“Finn and I were at the casino, in Philadelphia,” Darcy told Blake.
“Which casino is that?” Blake asked.
“The Stackhouse,” Darcy replied. “We both work there. Anyway, we were in the dining room and Luke came out of the back room. Someone had taken his clothes away, that’s why he’s wearing Finn’s stuff now. A small woman and a big, blonde guy came up to take him away, but he was scared and he dashed off. Then security came.”
Blake leaned in, listening to her intently, nodding in all the right places. Good looking bastard seemed like a stand-up guy.
“I went out to the parking lot for a little fresh air,” Darcy continued. “And found him there. Then I texted Finn and he came to help us figure out what to do. We were afraid to bring him back inside after he had obviously been abused by someone there.”
Finn nodded and swallowed the instinct to wink at her. She had done just right not revealing the whole truth.
“You made the right decision, even though it must have been scary,” Blake assured her. “Do you know anything about the woman or the man with her? Do you have any idea where the boy fits in?”
“I’d never seen them before tonight. I have no idea who they are, or where Luke came from,” Darcy admitted. “I just knew something was very wrong.”
Blake sat back, seeming more relaxed.
“Well, I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I can take Luke with me now. We have a secure location for him and we can protect him there until we get to the bottom of things.”
“Oh, okay, that’s great,” Darcy said, obviously thrown. She must have realized the boy would be taken away.
“I suggest we get going as soon as possible,” Blake continued. “That way the boy can get some sleep and I can get to work on the case first thing in the morning.”
Darcy nodded her head but didn’t respond or move to get up.
Finn studied her, trying to figure out her reluctance. Was she just worried about Luke? Or was it something else?
He’d learned over the course of the last few weeks that Darcy had great instincts. He hoped she would follow them now.
“All right then, let’s get out of here,” Blake said brightly, hopping out of the booth as if he were hopping off a quarter horse in a black and white movie.
No, something was definitely off. This was too easy. Shouldn’t they at least be filling out some paperwork or something?
But they were already moving through the diner and out the front doors, Luke sticking close to Darcy’s side.
Blake led them across the parking lot to dimly lit corner near the edge the nearby woods, where he had parked his car, a nondescript tan SUV.
“I’m sure we’ll have this all straightened out in no time,” he offered. “I mean, how hard can it be to track down a big blond guy with an eyepatch?”
Darcy froze, pulling Luke close.
She hadn’t mentioned anything about an eyepatch.
F
inn stopped
with Darcy and Luke as Blake opened the back door of the SUV, unaware of his blunder.
“Hop on in, buddy,” he said lightly to the kid, turning to find the three of them ten paces behind.
Darcy took a step back, wrinkling up her nose as though she smelled something terrible.
“He’s not going anywhere with you,” Darcy said.
What the hell was going on?
Blake let out a small sigh of resignation, as the driver’s side door of the SUV opened, and a familiar figure emerged.
“Draven,” Darcy spat the name like a bad piece of meat.
“Get in the car, you damned idiot,” Draven ordered Blake.
The tall man did as he was told, slipping in the passenger door and shutting it behind him, leaving them alone in the dim light of the parking lot with Draven.
Finn felt his stomach tighten - this wasn’t going to end well. He focused his concentration, ready to do whatever he needed to protect their small group.
“You have no idea what you’re getting into,” the blond man warned, leering at them with his one good eye.
Finn couldn’t help but notice the white tape binding the first two fingers of Draven’s left hand. He was still hurting from his run in with Darcy earlier.
Good.
But that also meant he wasn’t likely to underestimate her again.
“My employer has authorized me to offer you this one chance.” Draven’s voice was like a serrated blade. “Hand over the boy, and we can just pretend none of this ever happened.”
“Go fuck yourself,” Darcy replied coolly.
“If that’s the way you want to do this,” Draven replied.
Finn caught the movement and the glint of steel from behind a nearby car a second too late.
A sharp pinprick just under his ear caused him to reach up involuntarily. He pulled a small feathered dart from the side of his neck. He fought the grip of panic as his vision began to double.
He looked to Darcy. An identical dart protruded from her shoulder. Only instead of getting woozy, she seemed to be getting mad.
Draven stepped toward them.
Darcy put herself protectively between him and the boy.
Finn’s knees buckled, and he slumped to the ground.
The last thing his muddled senses registered before darkness overcame him was a deep growl from a huge, furry shape that suddenly crashed into Draven.
F
inn floated
in the kind of oblivion generally reserved for sleeping dogs and breastfed babies.
Consciousness slammed in on him like a truck hitting a leaping deer.
One moment he was weightless. The next he was filled with wet cement and everything hurt.
Eyes squeezed shut against the blistering light, he felt the hum of tires on the road reverberate through his bones, right to his skull.
Something had happened. He struggled to grasp the slippery memory.
The car.
No - the SUV.
Draven…
It came crashing back to him like a wave on a beach full of broken glass.
He felt the energy skitter across his skin, unbidden, but he opened his eyes before it went any further.
Oh.
He was lying on his side in the back of his own Jeep, his head wedged awkwardly against the door.
A streetlight sped past in the darkness.
He sat up fast enough to smack his head against the ceiling.
“Morning sunshine,” Darcy’s voice rang back to him from the driver’s seat.
Darcy?
He’d never been happier to hear someone’s voice.
Luke sat belted into the passenger seat. He peered back at Finn worriedly.
Finn tried to blink away the cobwebs and reassure the boy.
He took quick inventory of himself. His head throbbed, and his tongue felt like a wool sock someone had used to clean a chalkboard. Otherwise he felt okay.
“Here,” Darcy said, handing him a large, fast-food drink cup. “We hit a drive through. I thought you’d need this.”
He took a long pull and the sugary-sweetness made his back teeth ache. He coughed, sputtering droplets down his shirt. Smooth move.
But Darcy was right. The drink was melting away the cotton candy stuck in his head.
Finn took another long sip, more carefully this time. Then he dared to open his mouth.
“How long was I out?” he rasped, sounding like his two-packs-a-day granda.
“Couple hours,” Darcy said matter-of-factly.
“Hours?” he asked, peering out the window. It was too dark to see much except trees. A lot of trees. “What happened? Where are we?”
“We’re fine,” she answered. “On our way to a secret little spot I set up.”
A third gulp of soda and his head was on straight enough to pay attention. Details started to come back to him.
Draven.
The ambush.
The dart.
No. The darts.
“You got hit, too,” he blurted. “How come you didn’t go down?”
“Must have missed the vein or whatever,” Darcy shrugged. But she didn’t sound too convincing.
Finn pushed his memory back.
A flash of silver, a dart in his neck, a dart in her arm. He had fallen, she had stepped in front of the boy…
And then there was that growl. That huge shape.
“What the hell was that… thing that took Draven down?” he demanded.
“Oh,” she said lightly. “That was just my old history teacher.”
“What?” he asked, thinking the drugs must not have worn off yet. “I though you said—”
“—It’s kind of a long story. I’ll fill you in on everything when we get there. For now, just rest,” she told him firmly.
“How can I rest at a time like this? I might never rest again,” he groused.
But she was wearing her cooler face, the one that said she couldn’t be bargained with.
Knowing he was beaten, Finn put the cup in the console holder, and leaned back. He might as well try and conserve his strength.
The boy peeked at him again and gave him a tentative smile.
Finn smiled back and winked. The effort exhausted him, so he decided to rest his eyes for a second.
As the world receded, he decided he didn’t mind falling asleep again. He was in good hands.
D
arcy sliced
a fat tomato on the wooden cutting board. Juice and seeds oozed out enticingly. Luke watched every movement of knife on tomato from his perch on the stool across from her.
At first she had pushed bits of what she was preparing to him, thinking he was watching her prepare the food because he was hungry. But he hadn’t shown much interest in snacking.
She was left to conclude that he was following her movements intently because he was afraid she might leave him. Because he had been abandoned and abused before.
Darcy wasn’t much for crying, but the idea of it brought a lump to her throat.
Well, she wasn’t going to let anything else happen to him. And they were certainly in a safe place, at least for now.
She hoped that feeling safe would help him relax enough that he could communicate again.
Soft light filled the A-frame cabin, making the pine floors glow. It smelled like wood fires, which reminded her of home though she’d never been here before. This place was Derek’s, from a time when his success was new and he’d bought vacation homes all over the country. When he realized he was more the indoors-y type he’d handed the keys to the cabin over to a management company who took care of maintenance and had someone in to clean regularly.
Darcy had borrowed the keys, wanting an out of the way place to hole up for her 300th moon. Little had she known how much she would
need
a hideaway.
Fretting a bit about Draven, Darcy reminded herself they were far enough out that her cell phone was barely working. No way would he figure out they were here.
The creak of the bedroom door told her that Finn was awake.
He wandered in, still pulling a T-shirt over his head and inadvertently showing off tawny skin over rippling muscles. He’d tried to restrain his long hair by tying it back in a messy ponytail.
He looked like he was recovering from a night that was a lot more fun than it actually had been.
“Hey, sleepyhead, we were starting to think you didn’t like our company,” Darcy joked, trying to stop noticing his gorgeous body. The poor guy didn’t feel well - she should not be ogling him.
He grinned, but it quickly turned into a wince.
She hid her smile as he took a seat at the counter next to Luke, who was examining him unabashedly.
“Hey, buddy,” Finn said, clapping the kid on the shoulder. Darcy waited for the kid to shrink away and was happy to see him lean imperceptibly closer to the magician instead.
“Here you go,” she said to Finn, offering him the glass of OJ and bottle of Advil she’d readied for him.
“Thanks,” he croaked, downing a few pills and chugging the juice.
Darcy watched Luke watching Finn. The big guy took down a quart of juice in about three seconds.
He put the glass back on the counter and looked around, seeming to have perked up already just from the sugar rush.
“Nice place,” he observed, as if he had only just noticed he wasn’t in his own kitchen. “Where are we exactly?”
“We’re in the Poconos,” she told him. “My brother bought this house years ago. It was supposed to be a getaway for when he came to visit. Turns out he’s not really a fan of the great outdoors. So it doesn’t get used much.”
His eyebrows went up in surprise.
“You mean we’re actually in the middle of the woods somewhere?” he asked.
“Somewhere, yeah,” she agreed.
Finn’s jaw tightened. He didn’t look like he was in love with the idea. But it wasn’t like either of them had to get back to work or anything. Panchenko would fire them both for sure.
No point crying over spilt milk.
She turned her attention back to the sandwiches, laying the tomato slices on top of the tuna salad she’d made.
The cupboards were certainly well stocked. There were the usual canned goods and emergency provisions, plus, since she’d been planning to spend all month up here, the management company had stocked the place with fresh groceries.
Of course, the plan had changed. She just wasn’t sure to what.
“What do we do now?” Finn asked, as if reading her thoughts.
“Well, we’ll lay low for a couple days at least. Try to get things sorted,” she said noncommittally, not wanting the child to see her uncertainty.
Luke’s eyes were bigger than ever. She smiled down at him.
“Let’s take this outside. Can you hold the door open for me, Luke?” she asked brightly.
He hopped off the stool to comply.
Darcy carried the tray of sandwiches while Finn grabbed the orange juice and three glasses and they headed out to the deck.
The rich scent of moist soil and greenery filled Darcy with a sensation of rightness.
The simple wooden structure of the deck was overhung with a large trellis that dripped with climbing hydrangea. The picnic table in the center overlooked a fire pit and the abandoned grape arbor behind the cabin. Fat, juicy grapes pulled at the formerly cultivated vines.
They sat in silence, a hungry trio. Luke ate a sandwich and emptied his glass. He shook his head when Darcy offered him more.
She noticed he was looking intently at the arbor.
“Want to pick some grapes?” she asked him?
He turned back to her, his eyes dancing.
“Grab a mixing bowl from the kitchen to put them in, okay?” she wondered if he would willingly go back inside without her.
For a heart wrenching moment she watched him weigh his options.
Then he smiled and hopped up, heading into the kitchen.
Finn smiled at Darcy, his mouth too full to talk. He must have been thinking the same thing. She smiled back.
A moment later, Luke was back with a big metal mixing bowl. He waved and headed out into the arbor. Darcy heard the first grape hit the bowl with a satisfying plunk.
Finn was nearly finished with his second sandwich.
Which meant that he would soon start asking questions, and Darcy would have some explaining to do.
“Okay,” he said softly, leaning forward. “What the hell happened last night?”
There it was.
All kinds of lies flitted through Darcy’s head.
But Finn was in pretty deep. And he’d put himself on the line for them.
No lies. He deserved the truth.
Out in the arbor, the steady sound of grapes hitting the metal bowl sounded so homey.
“Can you keep a secret?” she asked.
“I’m a vault,” he answered.
She studied him. For once his hazel eyes weren’t dancing.
“It’s going to be hard to believe,” she began.
“Try me,” Finn said, leaning back.
“You’ve seen werewolves in movies and books. But what you don’t know is that shifters are real. What you saw last night, the animal that attacked Draven, it was a wolf but also a man - a friend of mine,” she blurted without stopping for breath. She waited for him to laugh.
He studied her solemnly.
“I’m a wolf too,” she ventured.
He nodded slowly.
“I know you don’t believe me. I would offer to shift, but I don’t want to scare Luke,” she said, trying to think of a way to show him.
“No, I believe you. My granda told me stories about real shifters, but I wasn’t so sure. After what I saw last night, I stand corrected.”
Interesting. Darcy made a mental note to find out more about Finn’s grandfather another time. Finn was taking it well, and she was on a roll. Might as well get it all out on the table.
“Most wolves come from families of wolves, and they don’t shift until puberty,” she continued. “My birth parents weren’t expecting me to be a wolf at all, so when I shifted into a wolf pup as a toddler they were terrified.
I was too little to remember, but they brought me to my mom, Kate. She runs a foster home, for kids who shift young. It’s on a farm near Tarker’s Hollow, where we went to the diner. There were a lot of us kids there, and still more are brought there every year or so, but we’re all very close. That’s my family.”
She studied him.
“And I would do anything for my family,” she added.
He nodded. She liked that he didn’t ask a lot of dumb questions or pretend to be sad about her birth parents.
“As you can imagine, little kids who shift into animals whenever they feel excited can be a problem. The secret would be out in no time if we shifted in front of anyone, and our kind would be in danger. Mom had to teach us to control our shifting. And she had a friend who helped her with that.
“Mrs. Cortez would come and sing over each of us when we arrived at the farm, what she sang was a magic spell. We don’t know for sure, but we believe that it repressed our shifter animals, making it easier for us to live as humans. We all trust her implicitly, she’s a good lady. And that trust is a big deal because wolves and magic usually don’t mix,” Darcy explained, in what might be the understatement of the year.
Finn raised an eyebrow.
“Not you.
Real
magic—oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” she tripped over herself.
“It’s okay,” he smiled. There was that wink again.
Somehow it seemed less infuriating than before.
“Anyway, the spell only lasts for 300 moons,” she explained. “This month is my 300th moon. I was planning to come up here and be alone. Spend some time with my wolf, to be sure I wouldn’t lose her.”
She decided not to mention the shadow creature she’d seen in the parking garage. It was just too crazy. She hadn’t really had time to process it herself.
“Anyway,” she continued. “That explains Mr. MacGregor, who you saw last night in wolf form. He bought us time to get away. But I don’t know what the deal is with Draven or Miss Sharp. Or why they have someone at Child Welfare on the payroll. Or how Luke fits in. He must be important, for them to go to all this effort. And I’m not about to let them get their hands on him.”
Finn considered for a moment. She expected he’d need some time to get his head around all of that.
He didn’t.
“So what do we do next?” he asked, already including himself in the plan.
She’d half-expected him to bail when she laid it all on the line, and was surprised at how much relief she felt when he didn’t even consider it. It was an odd feeling. Darcy usually preferred to work alone.
“That’s a good question.”
“These people are serious,” he said. “And they obviously have connections. They’ll figure out where you went. They’ll come for us.”
“I’ll be ready for them this time.” A protective growl began in the back of her throat.
“I’ve seen this type,” Finn warned. “If you turn them away, they come at you harder. And you’ve come out on top twice now.”
“Then we might have to go on the run until we can find someone to trust,” Darcy said, resolute.
Finn studied her.
“Me and Luke, I mean,” she said quickly. “You’ve already done too much.”
He continued to study her in silence, and Darcy felt a connection between them, a light disturbance in the air, like the sizzle of electricity before lightning strikes.
She was drawn to him suddenly, her wolf scratching at her from the inside, ready to leap over the table to get to him, to pin him down, drink in his heady masculine scent, and sink her claws into those gigantic biceps…
She forced herself to look away, to think of the child instead. This wasn’t a love story, it was a rescue.
The plunking of grapes in the arbor had grown fainter.
“Either way, we’ve got some time. Might as well make the best of it,” she said as lightly as she could, hopping off her seat to head out into the vineyard. She felt the increasing space between them already, as if her heart were a rubber band, stretched taut between the man and the boy.
It was absolutely beautiful out here, rich with the scent of living things. Too bad she couldn’t shift and run off these intense feelings.
As she stepped off the deck and into the grass, she sensed Finn rising to follow her and her heart sang a quiet song only she could hear.