Page 90 of What a Wolf Wants
Ethan texted Ty to tell him about this tunnel and where he thought it might lead to, though it could angle off in another direction. When he reached the next ladder, he was disappointed that they hadn’t found anyone in the tunnel. The men had escaped.
As soon as he opened the hatch, he breathed in the chillynight air and the men’s scents. He climbed out and the others soon joined him. There was nothing out there but vacant land, trash that people had illegally dumped, and wooded acreage. The men had scattered to the wind.
Ty and the other officers joined Ethan. “What now? The cars that left the auto body shop were stolen. They’ve been stopped, and the men arrested. Only the drivers were in the cars and the wounded officer is on his way to the hospital. He’s in critical condition.”
“I hope he pulls through.” If for nothing more than to charge him for criminal misconduct and put him in prison for his crimes. Ethan didn’t want him to die for his greed and stupidity. Baker might testify against Kroner and the others after one of them had attempted to kill him, which should help the DEA’s case. “Keep searching the area. I’m going to head this way.”
The police officers were using flashlights to look for the culprits. The wolves weren’t.
Ethan and his friends searched in the direction that they smelled Elias Davis, the bad cop, Max Ryerson, the bad DEA agent, Oakley, and Kroner’s scents. The four men had separated from each other to avoid being captured together.
Josh and Noah had gone after Oakley’s scent. Adam and Tori went after the bad cop, Davis. They had to rely on the other officers to capture Agent Ryerson and the rest of the men who had been involved in Kroner’s business.
As if Renault knew Ethan was hot on the trail of one of the men, he stayed close to him. Ethan finally realized Kroner was headed to the coast.
Chapter 26
For the first time since Charlene had left the police department as a homicide detective, she wished she was still working at the job, only in Oregon so she could be with the guys and Tori out there to help bring down the rest of the men. Kroner was bad news for everyone decent. Charlene hated not knowing what was going on with Ethan and the others.
“They’ll get them,” Maverick told her as she went back to the kitchen to get everyone some more coffee. “You rocked when you went after the driver of the getaway vehicle while the rest of us were here with the guys we had captured. Not to mention that you guarded the one guy until we could get him wrist-tied and ready for transport.”
“Yeah, but I wish we could be out there helping Ethan and the others,” she said.
Brad shook his head. “If you hadn’t gotten that driver, we might never have ever caught up with him. By being here, we got more of Kroner’s men.”
“I agree with the other guys. You were amazing. We only just learned you had been a homicide detective in Destin. You didn’t even give any of us bachelor males a chance to get to know you.” Quincy winked at her.
Pierce smiled and agreed with his brother.
She was glad that she had helped the men take down a couple of the bad guys.
“So Ethan wouldn’t tell us how he met you exactly,” Pierce said.
“He raided her house,” Brad said. “Ethan was just lucky as hell that she forgave him for that.”
Pierce and Quincy laughed. “If we had done that, she probably would have given us a piece of her mind and never had another thing to do with us,” Pierce said.
“And Leidolf would have been all over our cases,” Quincy said.
Ethan texted Charlene:In pursuit of Kroner. Love you.
Charlene texted back:Love you back. Stay safe.
She wanted to tell him not to take any unnecessary risks, but she knew him, and truthfully, he was a lot like her. To get the job done, they did whatever it took. She relayed the information to the men staying with her. She was sure Maverick was worried about his brother just as much as she was worried about Ethan.
***
After a short while, Ethan heard gunfire off in the distance behind them. It sounded like the other officers had found someone to pursue. Ethan just hoped none of the officers would be injured during their search for the criminals. Ethan and Renault couldn’t disengage from their pursuit of Kroner to join the firefight. He knew the rest of his friends would also continue to trail the men they were after.
Renault looked like he wanted to go to the other officers’aid though. “Should we help the other men? Maybe the ones we’re after went that way.”
“I smell Kroner’s cologne wafting this way,” Ethan said.
“All right. You always steer us in the right direction, though I don’t know how you do it,” Renault said.
They got quiet again. Ethan was certain Kroner and the others would keep moving. They might not have a car anywhere close to the woods, but if they could reach any place that had one, they would steal it for sure. He and his team just had to stop them before that happened. Ethan was afraid if they didn’t, Kroner would finally leave the state or the country. Though Ethan wondered if the reason he hadn’t left already was he was trying to make this one last score at the warehouse before he could ship out.
In the direction they were headed, Ethan smelled the scent of the ocean and heard the waves splashing at the bottom of the cliffs. To the north, Kroner would find beach homes along the coast, and Ethan worried Kroner would try to break into a home and take hostages. He’d done it before. Ethan had to stop him before that could happen.
