In the Shadow of the Wolf 3 - Splintered Lies (8 page)

Considering the elbow Rob would send into the senator's gut, Nick knew the answer was no, but the baby gave a little hiccupping cry, drawing Jamie's attention. The young man glanced down at the bundle in his arms and his mouth tightened as he soothed the child. His conclusion was obvious; he couldn't keep the baby safe and move fast enough to save Rob. Shifting his feet, his eyes returning to the senator, Jamie held his ground.
Senator Vaughn-Hyland watched them with interest. "Well, very smart of you." His congratulations to Jamie sounded like a man holding a conversation with a favorite pet. "It's good to see
some
of you can exercise restraint when properly motivated."
Jamie's jaw clenched and he growled again but he didn't move. Nick took a deep breath and considered how to get the man's attention off Jamie. The kid had the heart of a lion but that, added to his impulsive nature, made him unpredictable.
"As I was saying." The senator's voice drew Nick's attention back to him. "This gentleman has proven quite the thorn in my side."
Rob looked like he'd be glad to be more than a thorn to the man with the gun at his head.
"Imagine my surprise when I got a call to say a couple of shifters from the wolf-squad were poking deep into my business. This necessitated disposing of all information, and people, connecting me to Ardenvale. Doing so has been time consuming and annoying." The senator gave a little moue of distaste and Nick concluded that meant the woman running the place had been killed and every file deleted that linked the senator to her, or the business to underhanded dealings.
Fuck
. He wondered briefly whether Sam could retrieve deleted files.
The senator continued. "To top it off, I'm told that a certain cop's shifter-toy was here at the hostel. You've all become quite famous. Everyone working for me has memorized the faces of the cops and the boys who've brought us such trouble and cost me valuable, and sometimes irreplaceable, resources. It will be a relief to be rid of you."
"What are you going to do, shoot us all?" Nick rolled his eyes. "You'll understand the word trouble when you have to explain three dead cops to the authorities." He could play for time with the best of them. Dan was still outside in the car. SOP was to call in backup, and Dan would make the call regardless of how much trouble they'd be in after the fact.
"You see, that's what makes your breaking and entering so beneficial to me. The way the three of you came barging in, threatening my poor darling girls." The senator tsked. "So sad the way you wolf types just lose yourself to that monster nature sometimes, the way it takes you over. There's no reasoning with a mad wolf, no one would expect me to have done so." His smile glacial, the senator looked from one to the other of them.
"Girls? Your girls? There aren't any other girls, just this one, where are they all?" Nick demanded. Keeping the deranged man talking was the only strategy he'd come up with, maybe they'd get a chance to act but it wasn't the senator who answered.
Her voice quivering with fear, the young prostitute spoke up. "Everything is okay, Officers. The others are gone. After the baby is born we get a new start. School, a job, a decent place to live. It's why we came. They help us while we are pregnant and promised more after the baby is born." She looked troubled. "The other babies all died before they were born. Only my baby lived, that's why I'm still here. She's strong and healthy. I'm going to move and start my new life as soon as an adoption is arranged."
A twinge of pain shot through Nick's heart at the sweet, trusting look the girl gave the senator. It relieved him to know the kids had been treated well as they waited for their babies, children born mutilated at the DNA level. Sadly from past experience he doubted the other young women had moved on to better lives after being involved in the senator and Ardenvale's experiments. Leaving the victims alive wasn't a hallmark of the way he did business.
"Thank you, my dear," the senator said. "I appreciate the vote of confidence. You see, boys, all this excitement was for nothing. From the mouths of babes, as they say." A smile curled one side of the senator's mouth into a smirk as he glanced at Joe.
Joe was crouched low to the floor, eyes fixed on the senator, his fangs bared. A look of distaste marred the senator's previously controlled expression. Nick noted it. As they suspected, Senator Chase Vaughn-Hyland despised wolves—beyond reason.
"She is right about one thing; they are all gone, all except one."
During her speech the girl had edged out from behind the protective shield of Jamie's body. The senator made a gesture with his free hand and a gun fired. The bullet made a relatively small hole in the girl's forehead, the exit wound was much more dramatic, and she dropped where she stood. The cat yowled and leaped from her lifeless arms.
"And now so is she. I do feel talk is highly overrated." The man's eyes took on a manic gleam. Nick realized that despite his ability to function and appear normal, the senator was insane. "Kill them all."
The words were barely out of his mouth when Rob's elbow took him sharp and hard in the gut, cutting off the senator's air for a brief second. It was all he needed as the man doubled over.
"Down!" Rob yelled and Jamie dropped to the floor, body wrapped around the baby. Rob jerked away from the senator, and with the next breath leaped for the man who had his gun trained on Jamie. Joe had already made his move for the other, circling around in a blur of motion. Sharp teeth tore into the back of his leg, tearing through the hamstring. The huge guy dropped to the floor screaming loudly.
In the ensuing bedlam Nick saw the senator targeting Joe. With no time to retrieve his gun from where it lay under the pack Nick leaped, putting himself between the man he loved and the bullet. It tore into his chest with an explosive pain like nothing he'd ever known. He tried to scream but couldn't draw a breath. Falling to the floor, he had no choice but to watch, eyes unfocused and not comprehending the blur of movement between him and the senator. When the haziness of fur and teeth was gone the man who'd shot him dropped to his knees. Gun forgotten, the senator was screaming and struggling to hold in his guts.
Joe, what did you do…?
Words that remained unspoken. Nick couldn't breathe. There was no air, no pain, nothing at all.

Joe tugged harder on skin and bone until the senator was little more than meat on the floor. The haze of red that had hold of him didn't abate as he leaped from the senator to a goon struggling under Rob's grip. His large bulk forced Rob away and with a snap of jaws the guy went down in a mess of blood. Rob shouted at him but Joe couldn't focus, the scent of blood and death filled in his lungs, fury and despair churned in his gut. Another innocent had died just as Mara had, disposed of like garbage with no value. Hands twisted in his fur and he snarled and snapped, rounding on Rob who was shouting and pulling at him. Rob's panic registered through Joe's blood lust and he paused, scenting the air. He sorted the smells, by instinct recognizing the scent of blood, torn bowel, fear, and death without reacting but through the smell of wet fresh kill came Nick's scent. Nick's blood. Too much blood. Panic seized his chest and Joe's wolf melted away, leaving behind the naked, vulnerable man.

As he crawled to Nick's side the shouting began to make sense, words emerging from the blur of sound his rage had muted their voices into. Dan was there. Shouting. So much shouting.

I called for paramedics
Rob, it's too late, the wound is too much.
He can't breathe.
When Joe reached Nick's side and saw the extent of

"No!" The hole in Nick's chest was huge, the blood pooled around him a grotesque sheet of red. Joe found himself covered in Nick's blood but the horror barely registered. He knew something about chest wounds. A "sucking chest wound" they called it in his first aid training. They'd all had the classes, but details were easier to remember when the person bleeding out was a stranger. He paused breathing deeply, trying to calm enough to remember.

And then he did, slapping one hand over the hole with desperate hope but terrified it wouldn't be enough. He needed something better—plastic.

"We have to wait for the ambulance, Joe. Anything you do might make it worse," Rob was saying as he gripped hard on Joe's arm.

"Fuck you," Joe snarled. "How in the hell can it be worse?" He shrugged off Rob's concerned hand, looking around desperately and spotting the diaper bag just under the edge of the bed. He grabbed it and upended it, emptying the contents. He howled his success. Sitting amidst the pile of diapers and baby paraphernalia was a Walmart bag stuffed with trash.

"That, empty it," Joe ordered Rob, and turning back to Nick, Joe pulled the burned and shredded material of his shirt and jacket away from the gaping hole in Nick's chest. Joe couldn't contain a small whimper at the sight. A howl of rage demanded release and he ached to tear the senator into pieces so small they'd never get him put back together. The press of the plastic bag into his hand helped Joe keep his sanity. The plastic turned slick in his bloody hands, sliding seemingly uselessly against Nick's skin.

"Come on," Joe begged, blinking tears out of his eyes. "Goddammit, I know this is right, come the fuck on!" And miraculously the thin plastic over the wound dipped in as Nick's lungs filled. The sound of his breathing was wet and unhealthy, but he could breathe. He had a chance.

"How in the hell did you remember that?" Rob moved to hold Nick's head. He smoothed the dark hair back from the too pale face of their friend.

"I don't fucking know," Joe snapped. "They stuff our heads with so much crap in those classes. You know what they say. 'You'll remember when you need it.' I always thought that was a bunch of crap but…" He couldn't tear his eyes away from the way Nick's chest rose under his hands.

"Are you sure that's right? We should wait, let the paramedics deal with it—"
"Rob, you know he'll be dead before they're here. If he's going to die anyway… "
"Joe, please—"
Joe tore his gaze away from Nick's chest to meet Rob's eyes and then dropped them to look at Nick's quiet face. "I won't lose him as well, not without a fight."
"He's right, Rob, it's working." Jamie joined them, falling to his knees in the blood, baby still cradled against his chest. "But what about the air already in his chest, Joe?"
Joe glanced at the young man, but had to look away. There was something obscene about him holding a baby and kneeling in blood.
"Get that baby out of here," he managed to grind out. He knew Jamie was right, it wasn't just a matter of blocking the hole. Air had to get into and out of the lung; he just had to remember the rest of the lesson. His brain whirled but he spared another glance for Jamie. "You keep that baby safe, you hear me?"
"I will." Jamie scrambled to stand.
Joe remembered. With a sigh of relief he slid his hands so a small portion of the plastic was no longer held tightly against Nick's skin. When the plastic fluttered slightly with Nick's next exhale, Joe felt like collapsing with relief but letting go was not an option. The only thing standing between Nick and certain death was a thin piece of plastic and Joe's ability to keep it there. Nick moved under his hands and Joe realized with a sense of panic his friend was edging toward consciousness.
"Rob! Keep him still."
Rob was already reaching for Nick's shoulders. Joe's heart pounded. They had to keep Nick still; he'd lost too much blood already and worse than the worry was Joe's knowledge of the pain consciousness would bring Nick. There was nothing he could do. Nothing at all but watch Nick's eyes flutter open and then close again.
And then a solid hand came down on Joe's shoulder.
"Paramedic," a strong, sure voice said. "You've done a fine job here, but please move away, sir."
"Shifter or human?" another voice asked.
"Wolf." Rob's voice.
"Stats," the other voice added, "shifter, fitting, sucking chest wound."
Joe couldn't make himself let go of Nick. He knelt there, eyes locked with Nick's pain-filled gaze, unable to move. Nick's hand came up and covered one of his without the strength to even squeeze.
His lips moved.
"I love you."
Nick's eyes closed. Oxygen-filled blood bubbled at the corner of his mouth. What strength there had been in his hand fled as it slipped away from where it covered Joe's.
"No." Joe gasped his protest, fingers fisting in Nick's shirt, refusing to be urged away. Unable to let go. Hands tugged at Joe, but he resisted, hunching his shoulders against the pull and clinging tighter to Nick.
"Sir, you're in the way." The angry exasperation in the medic's voice made no impression on Joe, but Rob's hands coming down strong on his shoulders, Rob's voice ordering him away, made a difference. Somehow Joe forced his fingers to let go as Rob pulled him away. The paramedic replaced him instantly.
"No pulse."
Those words pierced the fog in Joe's mind and he jerked, almost pulling out of Rob's hold before the other man realized his intentions.
"No," Joe breathed, his gaze fixed on Nick's pale motionless face. "Nick, no!" Oblivious to everything else Joe fought Rob to get free, but Rob held fast. When Joe shifted between one breath and the next Rob went to his knees, fingers fisted in thick, heavy fur. He didn't blink when Joe's teeth snapped in his face not a centimeter from his nose.
"No, you can't help him this way." Rob remained stoic, an immovable force, showing the fortitude that made him alpha of his small pack of police wolves in the strange way of modern shifters.
Joe shredded Rob's shirt with sharp teeth, grazing skin more than once, growling and howling in desperation. Rob pulled Joe slowly but firmly away from Nick and the emergency team struggling to save him.
"We have to check the other remains. Our call indicated Senator Vaughn-Hyland as being on site." The second group of paramedics stood back looking warily at Joe. The man Joe had hamstrung had already been removed from the scene. That there were no other survivors was obvious, but they had jobs to do. Joe snarled at them. Rob's fingers tightened in his fur. The paramedics' attention was torn between the blood bath the bodies lay in and Joe's attempts to get free.
Rob cocked his head to a lump of bloody flesh lying not far from them in a puddle of bloody carpet. "That one was the senator. As you can see, his guts are no longer contained inside his body. I believe that's his liver. He's dead. He'll wait." Exasperated, Rob's temper slipped a notch. "Now get the hell away and give us a fucking minute here."
Joe reacted to Rob's loss of control with another lunging attempt to break his grasp. The emergency techs hurried away to find something else to do. Somewhere deep inside Joe regretted his actions, but couldn't stop fighting. Nick was dying in front of him, his last reason to live slipping away. Everything else was done, they'd rescued Jamie, avenged Joe's wife and son, and the bad guys were well and truly dead. For them there'd be no slipping through the usual technical loopholes of the rich and famous going to court. For Joe, without Nick there was nothing. Breathing took more effort than Joe felt able to keep expending and he sank to the floor, uncaring of the blood that immediately soaked his fur.
"We've got a pulse!" the paramedic working beside Nick yelled and they bundled him onto a stretcher, working frantically to keep him breathing and his heart beating. Knowing how slim the thread of hope was, Joe still clung to it as the sirens faded in the distance. Jamie had the baby outside, the police arrived to analyze the scene and take photos. Rob never let him go. People tried to make them move, offered to sedate Joe, and threatened them when nothing else worked. Rob remained unflappable, unwilling to move Joe before he was ready.
Rob talked a steady stream, reminding Joe that Nick had been alive when he was put in the ambulance. That the idiot had put himself between a bullet and Joe, and he was a hero. Joe had probably saved his life; it had been a hell of a thing with the bag and the chest. It was all words and more words. They echoed and danced in his head without meaning; he was in shock.
"We need to get out of here now, Joe." Finally Rob's voice became more forceful and Joe shifted back into a man. He tried to focus, blinking at the red that seemed to cover everything. "I want to get you to the hospital."
"I don't need a hospital," Joe insisted. The first words he had spoken since Nick had been taken. He looked down at his hands covered in red and flexed his fingers, wincing at how sticky and stiff with drying blood they were. Joe realized he was coated in dark red. It covered him like a second skin. He thought he should be upset but it seemed oddly appropriate. He stopped staring at his bloody skin and made himself listen to Rob.
"The hospital isn't for you," Rob said simply. "You have to get cleaned up and put on some clothes so you can be at the hospital when Nick wakes up."
Joe understood. Nick needed him but Joe couldn't face the memories of Mara that lingered in every single thing at their house while feeling as out of control as he did. Joe gripped Rob's arm. "I can't go home."
Rob placed a hand over his reassuringly. "I'll take you to mine."