Page 92 of What a Wolf Wants
Ethan texted Ty:Renault and I have Officer Davis. We’re by the cliffs at the coast. There’s a cottage just north of us with a van out front and porchlights on. If you can have a patrol car sent there, you can pick him up.
Ethan gave him the coordinates to their location.
Ty texted back:We’ve caught four of Kroner’s men. We’ll have a car sent your way.
Ethan texted:Thanks. We have to cut him out of some brambles, but we’ll be there shortly.
In truth, Ethan wanted to leave Davis in his thorny bed until the police car arrived. As big as Davis was, it would be better to have more officers to help. Though Ethan had pulled three guns off him, he might have a knife or another gun on him that he hadn’t been able to reach because they were concealed on his back.
Renault glanced at Ethan, waiting for him to give him the go-ahead to get Davis out of the mess he was in.
“Ty’s sending a police car to pick him up. We’ll wait until the car is at the beach house. Davis is so heavy and because of the odd angle he’s at, it will probably take four of us to get him out of there.” Whether or not that was true didn’t matter. Ethan just didn’t want to take any chances with the guy.
Renault nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
While Ethan and Renault waited for the police backup, Ethan got text updates from the other wolves. Oakley and Ryerson were still at large with Noah, Josh, Tori, and Adam in pursuit.
Ethan heard a car coming along the road and he saw it was a police car. Relieved, he waved his flashlight at them. They couldn’t reach their location by vehicle and parked, then two officers got out of the car and headed toward them through the woods.
Ethan had a flash of apprehension crawl across his skin as he worried that these men might be on Kroner’s payroll like the two DEA agents and the two Portland Police Bureau officers.
“Hey, thanks for helping out,” Ethan called out to the two men.
“Yeah, we’re glad you got this one. Others are still out searching for some of his men,” the one officer said.
Ethan, Renault, and the two officers worked on cutting Davis out of the blackberry bush. Once they freed him, they took him to the police car and the officers drove off with him. Ethan noticed a white-haired woman, a bystander, glance out the beach house window, a light behind her showing her highlighted between the curtains. He didn’t blame her. With the police car’s lights flashing, she had to worry that something bad had happened.
Ethan said to Renault, “Oakley, Kroner, and Agent Ryerson are still on the run. Are you ready to hunt them down? Ty said they’ve caught four of Kroner’s henchmen.”
“It’s going to be getting light out soon and that will help us to find them,” Renault said.
Unfortunately, Ethan couldn’t run as a wolf when it grew lighter out.
Chapter 27
Ethan and his team headed back in the direction they had come, hoping on the way back to come across Oakley, Kroner, or Agent Ryerson’s scent trail before the men had split up and the wolves had taken different paths to search for them. The sun was beginning to rise, and Ethan smelled Renault’s own scent change from being more anxious to relieved. Ethan was glad he had such great night vision. He couldn’t imagine how hard it would be to fumble around in the dark otherwise.
He heard someone coming and motioned for Renault to get down. Both of them crouched behind some shrubs as they watched and listened. He was certain Renault hadn’t heard anyone coming yet.
Then Ethan saw movement off in the distance. He frowned. It was Noah and Josh. They were still some distance from him and Renault, scouring the area. Ethan motioned to Renault that it was their guys out there. Ethan and Renault remained hidden in case Noah and Josh chased one of the guys they were after in their direction and they could ambush him.
That’s when Ethan heard someone moving low in the brush closer to them. Whoever it was had been hiding, but he must have heard Noah and Josh coming up on him, so he had to move. Hell, good news. It was Agent Ryerson.
Ethan indicated to Renault that their prey was headed straight for them, to keep down low until it was too late for Ryerson to change course. Noah and Josh would also be closer and the four of them could take the agent down.
Agent Ryerson was practically right in front of them when Ethan jumped out of the brush with his gun at the ready, Renault following his lead. Ethan shouted, “Down on the ground now. You’re under arrest.”
“What? You’re making a mistake. I was searching for Kroner to arrest him. I was sure he went this way.” Agent Ryerson was sweating profusely, despite the chilly morning air, and he smelled anxious.
“Sorry, not buying it,” Ethan said, disarming him. “Grainger put me in charge of the operation, and he would have told me you were joining us.”
Renault shook his head. “Not to mention we watched you go inside the warehouse with Kroner. Care to tell another story?”
Not that Ethan or Renault would believe anything he was going to tell them.
Josh and Noah ran to join them, now that they didn’t have to worry about the agent ambushing them.
“He’s playing the innocent, that he’s just one of us trying to catch Kroner,” Ethan told them while Renault zip-tied the agent’s wrists and read him his rights.
