"Not like your one. That man is pure ice. Sexy ice but still ice."
Brenna had a moment's pause. "How do you know we're involved?"
Lucy's laugh was open and honest. "Did you hit your head or something, Bren? You smell like him, silly."
"Oh." But she shouldn't, not that deep. A scent layer only grew ingrained - unable to be washed off - between lovers. Something she'd never become with Judd if he got himself executed for killi - Stop! "Lucy, I need a favor. Can you get access to a vehicle?"
"Sure. So can you."
"Not without Riley finding out. Um, I'm kind of under den arrest." She was going to break the rules, but she wasn't going to be stupid about it.
"Riley's got some burr under his bonnet," Lucy muttered. "He chewed me out yesterday for nothing. I'll sneak you out and it'll be my pleasure. Where are we going?"
"Miss Leozandra's Beauty Parlor." Smack bang in the middle of Chinatown.
He was going to take care of unfinished business this morning. The den grapevine had confirmed that the bitch was finally alone and unprotected. All he had to do was lure her to one of the dim corners of the garage.
She'd come. If she had remembered his face, she would have squealed by now. It didn't matter. She had to die - he couldn't take the chance of her memory returning. They'd rip open his stomach and pull out his guts while he was still alive if they learned what he'd done. The drugs and Timothy's murder were nothing compared to his first crime.
He bit down the fear. She'd come. She trusted him. He was one of the good guys.
Once in the garage, he'd overdose her with the Rush already loaded into the pressure injector, shove her into the trunk of one of the Pack cars, and drive out. No one would ever figure out where she'd gone. Or they'd blame Judd Lauren. Yes, that would work. He'd make it look like Judd had killed her, maybe leave a knife coated with her blood in the Psy's room.
He smirked, fear buried under sick excitement.
His first surprise came when he got to her apartment. The door was covered with the cool, dangerous scent of the Psy she was undoubtedly fucking. He backed off without touching anything. The scent could be there because Judd had spent time inside, but he was certain the Psy had done something, set up some kind of weird psychic trap.
"Hey, you looking for Bren?" A smiling face, a packmate. "She's gone off with Lucy. Saw them leave."
"No." He couldn't have her finding out he'd been looking for her. It might serve to trigger her memory. "Drew actually."
"I heard something about war games."
"Thanks." His gut churned as he walked away. He could do nothing now, would have to wait until the grinning fool who'd interrupted him forgot he'd ever seen him outside that door. But he couldn't wait forever. Brenna might remember.
Chapter 21
To Brenna's surprise, they made it out of den territory without a problem. She crawled out of the backseat and asked Lucy to stop once they were no longer in any danger of being spotted by scouts. "I can take it from here."
"Sure?" A friendly question, nothing more.
"I need to drive."
"Have at it. I'll run back and pretend ignorance if Riley grills me."
Brenna returned her mischievous smile. "Thanks, Lucy."
"Anytime." She got out and Brenna moved into the driver's seat. Waving, she watched her friend disappear into the woods. Then she took a deep breath and the wheel. Her lips stretched into a huge smile. This felt like freedom.
The drive from the snow of the Sierra to the cold but dry bustle of San Francisco was spookily smooth. No traffic jams, no wolf sentries racing to stop her, no red lights. Perfection. She should've known it was too easy. After finding a vertical street park - her car being slotted up into the third level - she began the trek to the beauty parlor. Trouble struck less than a minute later.
A tall male with amber-gold hair materialized out of nowhere to lean on the wall in front of her. "I thought you were supposed to remain at the den."
"I don't believe this!" Folding her arms, she stared at the DarkRiver sentinel. "They snitched me out to the cats?" Who might be their allies, but were not yet friends. However, she trusted Vaughn. He'd come for her - she might've been unconscious at the time, but her wolf remembered. Vaughn was safe.
Of course, at this moment he didn't look particularly happy to see her. "The situation's volatile. Some of our people aren't feeling friendly."
"Oh." She'd failed to take that into account, an inexcusable mistake with what was going on. All she had wanted was to get out and fix this one thing she could fix, even if her mind was splintering into a thousand pieces. "I should go back, huh?" She couldn't hide her disappointment.