"Lucy" - she stopped her friend in the corridor near Hawke's office - "you seen tall, dark, and silent?"
"Which one?" the other woman deadpanned. "Your one's playing war games with Andrew and some others."
Bren felt her face pale. "What?"
"Don't worry," Lucy called out as she headed off. "He's a big boy."
But Drew was bloodthirsty, especially with men who dared be involved with his baby sister. And after the way Judd had faced him down yesterday..."Calm, be calm," she told herself. "He's Psy. A very strong Psy." Oh, God. What if Judd killed Drew?
She thrust a hand through her hair. Inspiration struck. She could either go mad worrying or...Turning on her heel, she ran after Lucy. Her friend smiled and opened her mouth to speak.
Something crashed in Hawke's office. They both looked up as the door was wrenched open and Sienna Lauren came striding out. The door slammed shut after her, as if it had been kicked. The seventeen-year-old didn't see them - she was heading in the opposite direction, head down, fists clenched.
Lucy raised an eyebrow. "That one doesn't act Psy, does she?"
"No." Brenna thought about going after the clearly upset girl, but Sienna didn't know her and would probably not welcome the interference.
"Not like your one. That man is pure ice. Sexy ice but still ice."
Brenna had a moment's pause. "How do you know we're involved?"
Lucy's laugh was open and honest. "Did you hit your head or something, Bren? You smell like him, silly."
"Oh." But she shouldn't, not that deep. A scent layer only grew ingrained - unable to be washed off - between lovers. Something she'd never become with Judd if he got himself executed for killi - Stop! "Lucy, I need a favor. Can you get access to a vehicle?"
"Sure. So can you."
"Not without Riley finding out. Um, I'm kind of under den arrest." She was going to break the rules, but she wasn't going to be stupid about it.
"Riley's got some burr under his bonnet," Lucy muttered. "He chewed me out yesterday for nothing. I'll sneak you out and it'll be my pleasure. Where are we going?"
"Miss Leozandra's Beauty Parlor." Smack bang in the middle of Chinatown.
He was going to take care of unfinished business this morning. The den grapevine had confirmed that the bitch was finally alone and unprotected. All he had to do was lure her to one of the dim corners of the garage.
She'd come. If she had remembered his face, she would have squealed by now. It didn't matter. She had to die - he couldn't take the chance of her memory returning. They'd rip open his stomach and pull out his guts while he was still alive if they learned what he'd done. The drugs and Timothy's murder were nothing compared to his first crime.
He bit down the fear. She'd come. She trusted him. He was one of the good guys.
Once in the garage, he'd overdose her with the Rush already loaded into the pressure injector, shove her into the trunk of one of the Pack cars, and drive out. No one would ever figure out where she'd gone. Or they'd blame Judd Lauren. Yes, that would work. He'd make it look like Judd had killed her, maybe leave a knife coated with her blood in the Psy's room.
He smirked, fear buried under sick excitement.
His first surprise came when he got to her apartment. The door was covered with the cool, dangerous scent of the Psy she was undoubtedly fucking. He backed off without touching anything. The scent could be there because Judd had spent time inside, but he was certain the Psy had done something, set up some kind of weird psychic trap.
"Hey, you looking for Bren?" A smiling face, a packmate. "She's gone off with Lucy. Saw them leave."
"No." He couldn't have her finding out he'd been looking for her. It might serve to trigger her memory. "Drew actually."
"I heard something about war games."
"Thanks." His gut churned as he walked away. He could do nothing now, would have to wait until the grinning fool who'd interrupted him forgot he'd ever seen him outside that door. But he couldn't wait forever. Brenna might remember.
Chapter 21
To Brenna's surprise, they made it out of den territory without a problem. She crawled out of the backseat and asked Lucy to stop once they were no longer in any danger of being spotted by scouts. "I can take it from here."
"Sure?" A friendly question, nothing more.
"I need to drive."
"Have at it. I'll run back and pretend ignorance if Riley grills me."
Brenna returned her mischievous smile. "Thanks, Lucy."
"Anytime." She got out and Brenna moved into the driver's seat. Waving, she watched her friend disappear into the woods. Then she took a deep breath and the wheel. Her lips stretched into a huge smile. This felt like freedom.
The drive from the snow of the Sierra to the cold but dry bustle of San Francisco was spookily smooth. No traffic jams, no wolf sentries racing to stop her, no red lights. Perfection. She should've known it was too easy. After finding a vertical street park - her car being slotted up into the third level - she began the trek to the beauty parlor. Trouble struck less than a minute later.
A tall male with amber-gold hair materialized out of nowhere to lean on the wall in front of her. "I thought you were supposed to remain at the den."
"I don't believe this!" Folding her arms, she stared at the DarkRiver sentinel. "They snitched me out to the cats?" Who might be their allies, but were not yet friends. However, she trusted Vaughn. He'd come for her - she might've been unconscious at the time, but her wolf remembered. Vaughn was safe.
Of course, at this moment he didn't look particularly happy to see her. "The situation's volatile. Some of our people aren't feeling friendly."
"Oh." She'd failed to take that into account, an inexcusable mistake with what was going on. All she had wanted was to get out and fix this one thing she could fix, even if her mind was splintering into a thousand pieces. "I should go back, huh?" She couldn't hide her disappointment.
"What the hell - I'm around to provide personal bodyguard service." He gave her a look that could've come from either one of her brothers. "Where to?"
Wanting to hug him, she grinned. "Miss Leozandra's."
Brenna left close to sunset, after having been fed both a late lunch and an afternoon snack by Miss Leozandra's personal chef. She couldn't remember what she'd eaten, she was so excited with her shoulder-length look. The gen-synth extensions were flawless - even she couldn't tell where her hair ended and they began. And she had bangs!
Nothing could put a damper on her happiness, not even the knowledge that she'd been spotted returning by several sentries. Riley would know in minutes. She didn't care. Her joy increased with each exclamation that met her on the way to her quarters - the reaction was unanimously positive.
She didn't know who was more surprised when she turned the corner and found Judd leaning outside the door to her rooms. His face, of course, didn't betray anything, but she saw a flicker in his eyes, somehow knew she'd caught him unawares. As had he.
"You look fine." Disbelieving, she gave him the once-over. It was plain he'd showered and put on a fresh pair of black jeans and a black T-shirt. But the skin she could see was clear of bruises.
"Why shouldn't I be?"
"Because you were out in the forest with my brother." She unlocked the door and let him prowl in behind her, very aware that for all his determination to restrain his emotions, he'd come searching for her. He kicked the door shut as she fought to contain her joy.
"Hmm." Walking forward, he fingered a strand of her hair. "So soft."
She didn't say anything as he stroked the strands through his fingers over and over, as if attempting to figure out where the high-tech fibers joined her natural hair...or maybe he was simply indulging himself.
"Perfect." He let the strands slide away.
"Do you like it?" she found herself asking despite her better judgment.
"I already told you."
Perfect.
What she'd taken as a comment on the quality of the extensions had been about her. "Oh." Feeling a little shy, she nonetheless reached out and hugged him. He went stiff and she suddenly knew it wasn't a reaction to her touch. Pulling back, she began to push up his T-shirt. "Let me guess, broken ribs?"
"Brenna." He tried to stop her, but she swatted away his hand.
"Oh. My. God." The entire left side of his chest was black and blue. "Why aren't you taped up?"
"I don't need it."
She shoved down the T-shirt. "Fine. Be all macho about it." Then something else occurred to her. Her blood chilled. "Judd, what does Drew look like?"
"Worse."
"Is he dead?" she forced herself to ask.
"No."
Relief made her a little light-headed. "I thought you guys played with lasers."
"We made some new rules." It was obvious he wasn't going to tell her any more.
She threw up her hands. "You're not dead. Drew isn't dead. That's good enough for me." She turned to grab a couple of ice packs from the built-in cooler. "Sit."
"I said - "
"Sit."
He sprawled into a chair. When she wrapped the ice packs in a small towel and placed them against his ribs, he didn't protest. "What is it with men and testosterone?" she muttered, standing in the vee formed by his outstretched legs.
"I don't think you'd like us without it." He held the ice packs to his side by pinning them with his arm. "There was no need for this."
She was about to snap a comeback when she realized he'd come to her precisely because she'd fuss over him, no matter what he must've told himself to the contrary. Her throat tightened. "Humor me," she said, stroking his hair off his forehead. "You need a haircut." He'd always worn it very short, a sharp military cut.