Page 16 of Wolf
As I stand there, I catch a glimpse of the morning sun reflecting off a piece of glass or metal on the distant second floor. It sends a sparkle of dancing light that moves in a vertical pattern. My eyes track the light for a moment, and something about it causes me to look down my body. Then Ifreeze.
That son of a bitch has just pointed his red laser sights right at myheart.
God, I hate thisman.
I swear, if The Hunter doesn’t kill me right goddamn now, I’ll fucking endhim.
Nice andslow.
The curtains, the laser sight on my body… he’s doing this to scare me. To make me feel off balance and vulnerable. To keep putting me in my place. But he doesn’t know who he’s dealing with. As soon as Grams, Luke and Trish are at a safe distance, he’ll find out thetruth.
He’s about to meet his match. But sadly, he won’t live long enough to appreciateit.
I raise my straightened index finger at one side of my neck and slowly drag it across my throat, mimicking how I’ll slash his throat, which I promise is exactly what I’ll do next time I see him. No one will ever threaten me and mine again. Not without severeconsequences.
* * *
Just as I planned, within a couple of days of coming face to face with Thorne Pierce, I’m ready. Grams is thirty thousand feet in the air, her flight more than halfway to her brother’s. Trish and Luke are on a Greyhound bus to the Lake of theOzarks.
The people closest to me are safenow.
It’stime.
9
Thorne
Rose doesn’t know who she’s dealingwith.
She thinks she can taunt thewolf.
But she’s about to find out that most of the time, the wolf bitesback.
I come home to find that she has tagged my stakeout spots with booby traps. Simple pressure-mounted little trip wires she probably made from scratch. Some are hooked up to cans of rusty nails. Others are half filled with gasoline. As I disarm them, I have to smile. She’s a scrapper, that’s for sure. She promised she wasn’t going down without a fight, and she wasn’t kidding. The thing is, I’m not here to hurt her. My employer only wants me to watch her. My orders haven’tchanged.
I step between two traps and as my foot lands on a creaky floor board that was solid the last time I was in this spot, I freeze. Fuck, I missed this one. I hardly move a muscle, but from above me, a metal tin tilts downward and a rain of ashy gray powder cascades down into myface.
I have no idea what this compound is, but I’m not afraid to die. If I’m about to take my last breath, I’ll only regret that I didn’t take my chance to sink my cock into Rose before she endedme.
Five minutes later, I’m still standing. The ashy gray powder is probably just that, something she whipped together as a feartactic.
Nicelydone.
The second I safely dispose of the rest of the booby traps Rose left for me, I know exactly where my next stop will be. Her bedroom. I don’t expect to see her there. She’s supposed to be at work soon. But no matter where I find her, she’ll pay for toying with me like this. I’ll make damn sure ofit.
Tucking my Glock into the back of my waistband, I leave the house and climb onto my ride wearing the same pair of blue jeans and dark gray vest, with only a black button-down shirt covering my weapon. I’m covered in dust, but I don’t give two fucks right now. There’s no car in Rose’s driveway when I get there, so I turn around and head for the Speak-Easy. When she’s not at home, she’s working, except for Saturday mornings when she does her grocery shopping, or Wednesday afternoons for her visit to the hair and nail salon. Her routine is thatpredictable.
A smile rises on my face when I make it to the parking lot where she works. I don’t even have to look. She’s here. I can feel it in my bones. I’ve been watching this girl for less than two weeks and I’m already synced to her. Glancing around the packed parking lot, my eyes land on her car and I see her taking a pair of black stilettos out of the trunk. She’s wearing a midnight blue version of that skimpy scrap of material they call a uniform, but she still has her canvas loafers on her feet. That means she’s only been here for a little while. I’m sure now that she stuck around at her house to find out what happened to me before coming towork.
Good. Now she knows. In addition to the satisfaction it gives me that she now knows her little gift didn’t do two fucks to me as she’d hoped, I’m glad that I don’t have to walk into the strip club and stand out like a sore thumb. If they’d let me in at all looking like this. As soon as I lower my motorcycle stand and dismount my ride, I see her scrambling for her keys. It’s no use. I’m between her and the club entrance. If she tries to return to her car, even better. Either way, she has to go throughme.
She gives me a scathing look. “You’d better leave before Iscream.”
“Really? That’s what you’re going for? The damsel in distress?” I can’t push down the grin on myface.
“Whatever works to make you go the hell back to wherever you camefrom.”
“That’s not happening, little girl,” I tell her. “Get used toit.”
