Page 45 of Reclaiming Quinn
“What about you?”
“I’m okay,” Deke promised, flexing his fingers. “We need to keep your arm immobile if we can. Your leg is another matter entirely. How bad is the pain?”
“It’s fine.”
“One to ten it for me, and don’t try to sugarcoat it.”
“Fifteen. Like I said, I can manage. I got shot in the stomach once. The leg is nothing compared to that pain, let me tell you.”
Deke peered intently at Zach. He wasn’t kidding about being able to handle the pain. In the hospital, Deke had smelled people in pain, and he could tell those were overwhelmed by their injuries. Though Zach was hurting, he didn’t have the scent of someone in agony. “Yes, but we can’t let it set weird or you might not be able to walk right after.”
“I’ll tell you, if we can get these people out of here, then it’s worth it to me. After the Army, I needed someone to protect, and being a cop lets me do that.”
Army and a cop. If he wasn’t human, this guy would make a great Alpha. “How’d they catch you?”
Zach scowled. “I had worked a sixteen-hour shift, and my ass was dragging. I should have gone home, but instead I went out for a drink. One of my buddies was there and he bought us a round, which turned into two, then six. By the time we were done, not only was my ass dragging, but the rest of me too. I decided to leave my car parked and take a taxi home. They jumped me at the cab stand. I fought back and managed to take one guy down. I don’t know if I only hurt him or if I killed him, but the other guy used that moment to blindside me. When I woke up, I was in the back of a car, and then dragged out and thrown into a room with a bunch of other people.”
Killed a wolf with his bare hands? Was that even possible for a human?
“The one I’m most worried about is the little girl,” Deke said.
“She’s a cutie. Her mom is a sweet thing. She’s refused to let the girl go and is always cautious about their food. And now that you brought it up, I feel bad that I thought about running, so thanks for that.”
“That wasn’t what I—”
“I’m kidding. You were right. I doubt I would have been able to leave.” Zach peered intently, his gaze boring into Deke. “So what’s your story? I know you weren’t with us when they brought us in.”
Lying wasn’t in Deke’s nature. He hated when it was done to him, and he never wanted to do it to someone else. Still, Quinn’s safety overrode everything else.
“They thought I was someone else. A… I guess you could call him a friend. He’s trying to stop Klein and the rest of them. They took me, thinking I was his brother-in-law, and they’re using me as a bargaining chip to keep him from looking for them.”
“And is your friend a cop?”
Well, Garethwasa law unto himself. “I think it’s safe to call him that.”
Zach tilted his head. “Y’know, I like to think I’m good at what I do. I listen without judging, but in the end I can usually tell when someone is being less than honest with me. Care to guess what I noticed about you?”
That steely gaze had Deke wanting to confess to having stolen that stick of gum when he was six. “I’m not being completely honest with you, I admit. I’m leaving things out, but I’m doing it to protect someone very close to me. I know that’s probably not good enough, but it’s the best I can give you. There’s too much at stake for me to say more.”
For a moment, Deke thought Zach wouldn’t be swayed, but in the end he gave a terse nod. “Good enough, for now anyway.” He winced. “So what are we supposed to be doing here?”
“Cooking. I hope you know how.”
Zach waggled his brows. “If I hadn’t become a cop, I would have opened a restaurant. Yes, I have mad kitchen skills and—do we have anything we could use to poison them?”
“I thought about it, but that went off the table, because I can’t guarantee they’re not going to feed it to the others first.”
“Oh, that makes sense. They really have us over a barrel, don’t they?”
“For now,” Deke replied. “The winds of fortune can change at any moment.”
Though Deke had to wonder, could he save not only himself but Zach and the others and still make it home to Quinn? And now he needed to figure out a way he could he do it without exposing what he was.
A SLOW,deep breath. It had been too long since Quinn had seen Deke, and as much as he hated to admit it, he was fraying at the edges. He snapped at every little thing, refused to eat, and when Lyram tried to talk to him, Quinn turned and stormed from the room.
“What’s wrong with me?” he whispered into the darkness.
It wasn’t as simple as missing Deke. Deep down, Quinn knew there was more than that. In truth, he felt like a limb had been taken from him, and he could feel the phantom pain. How important was a mate? His parents had never cared if one or the other was gone for an extended period, but for Quinn it was a burning in his gut that he didn’t understand.
