Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

together . They dragged her to the side where they propped her up.

“Oh, little girl,” Special Ops man said, stroking the side of her face with his thick hands. “This is how it is going to work. You are going sit here until the meeting tomorrow. And if you are very good, we might let you go—if he comes for you. If he doesn’t, you die. Understand?” 

They truly were insane. How in world could people assume others were monsters when they did stuff like this? Tears filled her eyes. Rick would come, but she was sure they would not let her live. The air around these men was the same as around that Chinese demon who had bitten her. The exact same.

“Nod if you understand.”

She nodded. She understood better than they realized. She was dead.

*

“What’s that?” Vincent pointed to something flashing on Michael’s fancy cell phone.

Michael was in Vincent’s apartment that second evening. He, Tommy, and Vincent had been using the time in New York to reconnect with those in the city. They had been visiting with Dr. McAllister, going over his work with Doug. It had taken up most of the day. Their test subject, Keith Vicar, had been in his office, showing off his healed wounds. Their new therapy was working.

But now back home, thinking of what they needed to do next as Audry had left a decent text and had called her mother to smooth things over, Michael had proposed they visit with Rick to discuss any input he wanted with their pamphlet/reference book. He was their werewolf expert after all. He had that extremely useful blog. It would only be fair.

Michael picked up his cell phone, looking at it. His brow immediately wrinkled. “It’s a ping. A new one.”

“A ping?” Vincent was confused.

But Tommy practically leapt over the couch to get to Michael. “Who is it pinging on?”

Michael looked up to Vincent. “It says Audry Bruchenhaus.”

Vincent sprang over. Grabbing the phone, his eyes raked over the screen. There was a map, a location and a flashing light. His cousin’s name was there. “She has one of your key tags too?”

“Someone probably gave it to her,” Michael murmured, pulling his phone back. He looked to Vincent. “Call her. See if it is real or just a bumped button.”

Nodding, Vincent rushed to where he had left his phone. It was next to his keys on his front table. Plucking it up, there were no new texts or calls. So he dialed her.

It rang once. Then twice. Then someone dismissed the call.

Shivers ran down him.

He pressed dial again.

It rang twice then dismissed the call.

He did it a third time, only this time it did not connect.

“Oh crap.” He turned, holding the phone up. “She’s in trouble. She usually keeps her phone either on vibrate or silent when she’s busy, but someone else has it.”

“Are you sure?” Tommy hurried over to him. Michael already was preparing to go, looking for his shoes.

Vincent nodded. “She’d let her phone ring and ring endlessly, but she’d never dismiss a call. And someone just shut it off.”

Nodding, Michael dialed his phone. It rang a few times before someone answered.

<< Hey Boss. What’s up? >>

“I need you to trace a phone.” Michael looked to Vincent. “What’s her number?”

Nodding, Vincent gave it to him. Michael passed it along. The guy on the other end said, sounding alarmed, << This is Audry Bruchenhaus’s phone number. >>

“You have it already?” Michael’s eyes widened.

<< Are you kidding me? >> The guy on the other end laughed sardonically. << Howie made sure I had it, just in case. >>

Michael nodded, peeking to Vincent. “So you can already track it?”

<< Yeah. Is that who is pinging us? >>

Nodding, Michael said, “Somebody must have given her a tracker.”

Vincent nodded, “Audry had seen Jessica yesterday. She probably did.”

Breathing more easily, Michael murmured, “I’ll call her next.”

<< Hold on…. Ok. The phone is in transit. >>

“In transit?” Michael looked to the map where the ping located Audry. “Well, her tracker isn’t.”

<< So either her phone was stolen. Her keys were. Or both, and they have gone separate ways. >>

Nodding more, Michael looked to Tommy. “Suspects?”

Tommy cringed. “I can guess.” He looked to Vincent. “Do you know if Audry has ever met any SRA agents?”

Vincent shrugged. “I don’t know. Possibly. I’ve never met any until you guys. She knew about them, though, so maybe?”

Closing his eyes, Tommy murmured, “It would not surprise me if they have been tracking her for a while. I think as long as she had remained a skeptic, they didn’t think she was worth the bother.”

Paling, Vincent shook. “You mean… they were just waiting for when she might believe Rick was a werewolf?”

Both men nodded.

“It was inevitable,” Michael said with a cringe. “From what I’ve seen about your cousin, it was only a matter of time before she figured it out. She might be utterly grounded in this world, but at the same time—from what you’ve said and what Robert said—she seems uniquely intuitive. And that is a dangerous combination when the supernatural is involved.”

“Oh damn.” Vincent felt sick. “What can we do?”

Thinking, Michael said into his phone, “You still there?”

<< Yeah. >> But the man sounded breathless.

“Track the phone. We’ll go to the pinged location.”

<< Got it. >> He hung up.

Michael looked to Vincent. “One more call. You get your keys. You’re driving.”

He called Jessica. The conversation was quick. She and Andrew were already on their way. They would meet them there.

“Let’s go,” Michael said.

Vincent had pulled his shoes back on. Tommy was already at the door. All three rushed out.

*

Jessica found Audry’s keys in a curbside gutter not far from NYU. Clutching it inside a handkerchief, she looked to her husband Andrew. “Not very many people know about our alert fobs.”

He nodded. “Someone one threw it away.”

“Which means their fingerprints could be on this.” She held it up.

“Unless they wore gloves.” Andrew peered down the road. “Where did Audry say she was going today besides NYU?”

“Silvia’s.” Jessica pulled out her phone. “I’ll call. She can find anybody.”

Andrew nodded. “And I’ll call Matthew. Audry was kidnapped.”

A car pulled up to the curb. Michael and Tommy climbed out, while Vincent remained in to maneuver the car out of the street. When Vincent had parked and got out, they showed him what they found.

“Oh no.” Vincent grabbed for the keys but Jessica held it out of his reach.

“We need it for prints!”

“Prints?” Vincent stared at this woman whom he barely knew. He had only ever seen Jessica in passing. Same with Andrew. Them together, they were oddly intimidating. “My cousin had been kidnapped and you think those keys will—”

“We’re going to find her, but we need prints. Prints are evidence.” Jessica made sure the key fob stopped signaling so others would not be drawn there then she stuffed the keys into a plastic bag and put that in the satchel she was carrying.

Pulling back, Vincent nodded. “Ok, fine. But if we don’t find her soon evidence will mean nothing.”

Jessica stepped up to him, her husband lingering back with whispered words with Michael. “Audry is one of my best friends. There is no way I will let whoever took her get away with it.”

He nodded, winded by her intensity.

“Ok, this is what we are doing,” Michael said. “Sir Cooly is tracking her phone. But Red says there might be another way to find her.”

Vincent glanced to Andrew, trying to remember who Sir Cooly and Red were. Michael had told him their nicknames once, but he had forgotten. He had a feeling Andrew was Red, though.

“We’re going to go over to Randon’s place,” Andrew said to them all.

Jessica looked to him, briefly confused. But then she took in a sharp breath. “That’s right. Silvia.”

“She can scry for Audry,” Andrew said. “I’m sure she has enough personal stuff of Audry’s to find her.”

“Scry?” Vincent stared at them. “What does that mean?”

“Witchcraft,” Tommy whispered in his ear. “It’s a searching spell using a map and often DNA from the target.”

Vincent paled.

“If this Silvia does it, I’m sure Audry would know about it,” Michael said.

“We need to call all the other members of the Seven in the area,” Andrew said.

“I’ll do that,” Michael lifted up a hand. He then gestured for Vincent to get into car again. “We head back to your place. And we’ll need a map.”

“Got it.” Vincent looked to Jessica and Andrew. “Find my cousin. Please.”

“Hey, what about, you know—Deacon,” Tommy asked looking to them all. “Should we call him?”

They exchanged looks.

“No way,” Michael said, shaking his head. “He’d freak out. We can do this without him knowing.”

“For his sake, yeah,” Andrew nodded, looking a little pale. “He’d go all wolf if he finds out—and that would be bad.”

“All wolf?” Vincent murmured, imagining Rick transforming and killing over this. Were his feelings for his cousin that intense?

Andrew nodded earnestly. “Yeah. I don’t ever want to see him lose it. But he might over this.”

“Let’s go,” Michael said again.

They nodded, rushing off to their cars.

Sweet Bait

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Seventeen

 

Matthew had called Rick that morning and arranged for them to have lunch together. It was and odd occurrence as he was sure Matthew had been taking Deidre out for brunch on an almost daily basis. Today they met at a small café where Rick felt at home—mostly because the menu was generally allergen free and the seats were in the open air.

But when Matthew greeted him, Matthew seemed agitated, trying (with difficulty) to hide it.

“Tough case?” Rick asked after Matthew peered over his menu for the thousandth time. “You wanted to talk to me? Well, talk.”

Sighing, Matthew glanced to the road. “Ok…. Um. Something’s been on my mind lately. Uh, have you heard from Audry recently?”

Rick shook his head. “We don’t have that kind of relationship. I’m sure she’s back in Idaho working on her PhD.”

Matthew sighed, almost twitching.

“What’s up?” Rick asked. “Did Audry contact you?”

Matthew shook his head. “No. But… I heard a rumor she had actually gone to Africa.”

Rick rolled his eyes. “Africa. She’s always going to Africa—but her doctorate is supposed to be about American wildlife. What gives?”

Matthew shrugged. He peeked to the road again.

“Stop it,” Rick said, looking that way also. “You’re making me nervous.”

Shaking his head, Matthew sighed. “Sorry. Let’s get breakfast.”

“How’s Deidre?” Rick asked, prying for the reason his friend was acting funny. “Is she getting cold feet?”

Matthew looked to him. Rick’s mind was asking other words. He was asking, ‘Why are you being so weird? Is something up that you can’t say out loud.’

Sighing, thinking, Matthew replied, “Deidre is great. These days, though, she’s busy watching Ivy while Jessica and your buddy, Andrew, are out doing stuff.”

Rick lifted his head. Andrew and Jessica had to leave Ivy with Deidre? They only really did that whenever they were on business as the Seven. Something was up. And apparently they were indeed being spied upon.

So, keeping up the image, Rick smiled. “So you miss her, huh?”

Matthew nodded. “But I figure I can see her once this is all over. How about you? When are you going to get back into the dating game?”

“Never,” Rick muttered. He knew he would never find a girl as good as Audry, nor one whom he was equally attracted to. Fact