Hounded (Shifter Town Enforcement) (31 page)
“I’m sorry,” Lennox said softly and Kanon turned to see her looking at Bree, the woman kneeling by the body of her husband. Bree shook her head, grief trailing tears down her cheeks.
“No. You were right. This was not the man he was. I’m just sorry I didn’t see this sooner.”
Lennox squeezed her eyes shut briefly. “Me too.”
Bree leaned over her husband, long red hair falling to hide her face, splaying over the blood spilling through his shirt. Her soft, quiet sobs the only mention of her grief. Lennox laid her head back against Tegan’s shoulder, her one good hand finding Kanon’s. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“For?”
The barest hint of a smile touched her face, fond. “Saving me.”
Kanon smiled back, leaning forward to brush a kiss across her forehead as Tegan lay one against her temple. “We’re even.”
Her chin dipped in a small nod before she passed out in Tegan’s arms. Kanon simply kissed her again, his gaze locked on his partner’s. “Just don’t leave us.”
Lennox hated waking in hospitals. She’d done her best to avoid waking up under the bright, white-washed walls throughout her career and now squinted up at the room, the sterile air burning down her lungs like bad whiskey. With a grunt she squeezed her eyes shut and wished she could go back to sleep. Sleep had hurt a heck of a lot less.
Her right shoulder throbbed, pulsing in time with her heartbeat. Her arm was in a sling, but it did nothing to ease the gnawing pain on that side. Her stomach felt seared, scorched. The silver no doubt. A grimace flashed over her face.
“Lennox?” Mel’s soft voice startled her and she blinked into the brightness. Mel was hunched over her bed, her arms wrapped around herself as she stared down at her. “You’re awake.”
The relief in those two words ate at her heart. Lennox forced a small smile on her face. “Yeah. Mostly. Damn lights.”
She closed her eyes again under Mel’s happy laugh. The last thing she remembered... A soft groan slipped from her as Mel’s hand found hers. Torres. Bree. She sucked in a hard breath. She wished she’d seen that one coming. The signs, there had to have been signs that Torres had been losing it. He’d been withdrawn, standoffish, but becoming a killer?
A bitter laugh flung from her lips and Mel tightened her grip on her hand. “You okay?”
“No.” She rolled her head to look at Mel. She looked fine. Tired, with deep bags under her eyes, but unhurt. “You?”
Mel gave a fast, bouncy nod, but the worry in her eyes belied her answer. Physically, maybe she was fine. Emotionally, she was still worrying. There was one way to fix that. Lennox let go of Mel’s hand and reached behind her, using her good arm to push herself up. “Help me up.”
“Are you sure that’s—”
“Of course I’m sure. I feel fine. A little battered.” A hiss squirmed out between her teeth as she wriggled her way up to a sit. Make that more than a little. She felt like a damn battering ram used to knock down a castle. Every muscle in her body screamed loud and hard with protest. “Nothing rest won’t cure.”
“Which is why you’re not resting?”
Lennox grinned. “I’m sitting. That’s resting. I just wish I’d known.”
It probably wouldn’t have fixed much, but maybe she could have stopped him before he’d killed so many people. Maybe she could have even gotten him help.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Sure felt like it was. Between her and Bree, someone should have known. Torres had never been alone. She’d been his right hand lady, Bree the woman he came home to every night. When had he had time to plan mass genocide?
Settling herself back against the pillows, finally upright without the fear of face planting in her lap, she held out a hand for Mel to take out the IV. Her friend slid the needle out, a familiar lecturing look in her eye as she did it. “You probably shouldn’t.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Two days. Drugged up most of it. The silver poisoning did a number on you.”
“Everyone else, they’re okay?”
Mel nodded, reaching behind her to pull her chair up next to the bed. “Kanon and Tegan have been here huffing and puffing over your bedside since the medics brought you in. They nearly split skin again when there wasn’t room in the ambulance for two extras.”
She could see that. The last thing she remembered, they’d been wound so tight they’d almost charged Bree and another Hound, tails twitching like beasts ready to throw down over turf.
“In the end, Tegan rode with you, while Kanon rode, unhappily so, with a Hound. They had to do the whole Shifter Town Enforcement sirens, flashing lights and all so they could keep pace with the ambulance. The poor Hound was sheet white and shaky by the time I got here. I think Kanon probably gave him a few good scares on the ride over.”
She glanced over to Lennox. “They are head over heels, chica.”
Lennox warmed at that. She was head over heels for them. She glanced at Mel and found they were both grinning, ear to ear. “About time, girl.”
Yeah, Lennox guessed it was. “So how’d you get them out of here? Tranq-gun?”
“Ha. Was looking like it, but no. Exhaustion got the better of them and I reminded them I’d been taking care of you, scrapes and all, for far longer than the both of them combined.”
Lennox would give her that. Mel had been there when they’d both been falling off bicycles and busting kneecaps. She’d been there when Lennox had vaulted off a swing at recess and broke her arm.
“I don’t expect them to stay away long though.”
“And Bree?” she asked, hating the way her voice quivered over the name. Bree didn’t deserve to be alone, but Lennox wasn’t sure her boss would welcome her. She busied herself shimmying up the hospital grown so she could get a good look at the wound on her side.
“She left. They cleared Torres’s body too. She stopped in to see you and then hit the first plane out of here.”
Lennox paused, the gown bunched in her fingers. “Did she look okay?”
“She looked like a woman who’d just lost her husband after he murdered eight people and tried to kill four others, including her close friend.” Mel touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Lennie.”
“I know. He...” She shook her head and pulled up the gown, revealing the white gauze of a bandage. One handed, she tugged at the bandage until it loosened enough she could tug it down. Mel leaned over and helped unwrap it. They both paused, staring down at the small, angry, puckered line of stitches where the bullet had grazed her side. The skin was bruised, irritated still from the silver.
Then again, a good deal of her side and abdomen was bruised. She’d only fallen and been knocked around a half dozen times. Lennox scrunched up her nose and let the gown fall back over her hip. She’d live. Now, all she needed to do was get out of this damned bed.
Mel pressed a hand against her shoulder. “Don’t even think about it.”
“I’m not going to get any better sitting in a damn hospital bed.”
“That is
exactly
how you’re going to get better. That’s the whole point.”
There was a creak to her left as Kanon appeared in the doorway, a soft grin on his face. He lifted his eyebrows. “Need back up?”
“Yes,” both she and Mel answered at the same time, drawing a soft chuckle from both men as Tegan stepped up behind Kanon.
“I think he was talking to Mel, but it’s nice to see you awake. Alive.” Dark brows drew down over his face as Tegan crossed the room to lean over the side of her bed. He laid a kiss against her temple and Lennox tilted her head up to snag his lips in a kiss before he could pull away. She didn’t need to be babied.
But one touch of his mouth against hers and she could feel him hard, hungry as he leaned in. One hand cupped around the back of her neck, Tegan held her to him, drinking her down as if he hadn’t thought he’d ever kiss her again. Maybe he hadn’t.
He pulled back and the soft, cat-gold of his eyes slammed into hers. “Let’s try not to do that again.”
“What?” Lennox grinned, trailing fingertips down his jaw. He had a half day’s growth of beard peeking out from his skin, making him look rough. She fought the urge to lay her cheek against his and rub. “This?”
She slipped her hand up to catch the loose strands of his hair and she tugged him back down to her, kissing him slowly. Leisurely. The gentle press of lips, the silken, wet caress of their tongues sliding against each other.
A hand wrapped around the back of her neck, fingers entwining through her hair then with one small tug Kanon pulled her back, taking over where his partner had left off. There was a wicked glint to his eyes as he deepened the kiss, a low rumble of a growl sparking deep in his gut.
“No, sweetheart,” he answered when he pulled away. “He meant try not to get kidnapped and shot by a madman and then leave us trekking all over the state.” Then with a sly wink he added, “Besides, I thought you were supposed to be saving me. Not the other way around.”
Lennox slugged him once in the shoulder. “I did save you. Your ass would have been in jail on night one if I hadn’t.”
“Please.” Tegan shook his head. “You were outnumbered. You’d have been in a body bag.”
Like hell she would have. Her snort echoed through the small room and Melody tossed back her head in a laugh, one arm snaking over her belly. “What they’re trying to say, is they’re happy you’re alive.”
Tegan leaned down, catching Lennox under the chin with one hand, the other wrapped around Kanon’s waist. “What, we didn’t say that yet?”
Kanon smiled. “We’re happy you’re alive, Lennox.”
“God, me too. Now when can I get out of this bed?”
“That’s my cue,” Mel said, stepping towards the door. She paused, one hand on the wall as she glanced back towards the three of them. “I’ll get the doctor. Try not to do anything while I’m gone.”
She gave the bed a pointed glance, eyebrows wiggling before she disappeared out the door, heels clicking down the hall.
“Shame. I kind of wanted to test out the bed.” Kanon nudged it with one leg. “Though I don’t think you’re quite up to anything extravagant.”
“Please. I have a broken arm. Nothing serious.”
Tegan huffed softly. “Did you see the hole in your side too?”
“I’m alive. The question isn’t and will never be, whether or not I can take it.” Her chin jutted up a notch.
“Oh, we know.” Kanon said, lips pursing for a second. “I suppose we should also say something along the lines of, we love you.”
Lennox blinked up at Kanon, then Tegan. They both shrugged, almost perfectly in sync with one another. Like the night at the club, when they’d edged in for a dance. They moved together, acted together. Mel had been right all along. Lennox had guessed it somewhere along the way, especially after they’d started sharing her, but looking between them now, it was obvious.
They weren’t the type of men who could only have a woman love one of them.
It was a good thing then, that she loved them both.
A sly smile edged over her lips and she gave a nonchalant shrug. “Ditto then.”
“Cheater.” Tegan ran a thumb over her lips.
“I love you. Both of you. Though, for the record, I think your pride females are going to get rather cranky. I don’t share.”
“Good. You don’t have to.”
“Besides,” Kanon slumped against her bed, his hip braced against the mattress. “We’re applying for rogue status again. I’m not much of a pride male type.”
“Neither of us are.”
“So we’ll need to go house hunting. Which we can totally afford because of your new job.” Lennox blinked between them.
Her
new job? Kanon brushed a strand of red hair from her face, his fingertip trailing under the edge of her jaw. With one simple touch, they could light her afire. “Bree wanted to know if you’d take the pack.”
Oh. Her heart squeezed at the thought. She’d been next in line after Torres, it made sense, but the thought of going back into work every day and have him not be there... When would it ever feel normal again?
“She also wanted to know if you’d be willing to run the Idaho office for awhile. Sounded like she needed a bit of a vacation. When you’re feeling better, of course.”
“Which, from the sounds of it, Ms. Donnelly already is?” A Latino man poked his head in through the doorway, white lab coat billowing out at his knees. “Up and ready to go home.”
He saw the IV laying beside her bed and frowned. “And helping herself out of here already. Well, let’s see if you good enough to go, shall we?”
Lennox submitted to the man’s incessant poking and prodding without complaint and when he finally issued her out the door, insisting on bed rest, she was more than ready to go.
“I was serious about the bed rest. No strenuous activity for a while now. You need time to heal.”
She wasn’t so sure about the no
strenuous
activity part, but she had no qualms about the bed rest. Kanon grinned from his spot beside her bed. “No worries, Doc, we’ll make sure she takes everything very leisurely.”
He drew the word out, one corner of his mouth hitching up in a smile. Tegan more than happy to play along added, “Scout’s honor, but she won’t leave that bed for at least a week.”