He berated himself for not having gone after the men sooner, yet he wouldn’t have forgiven himself if Brooke had been injured worse and he hadn’t ensured she lived. It didn’t matter that his brother had been there. As a police detective and the older brother, Josh felt it was his responsibility to make sure she was okay.
He couldn’t catch up to the men, no matter how hard he tried. They had way too much of a lead on him. If he’d been in his wolf coat, they would never have escaped him. He yanked out his phone and alerted Adam that he was in hot pursuit of the two shooters, but it didn’t look like he was going to catch up to them on foot. “One of them is bleeding. I thought it would slow him down, but it doesn’t seem to be.”
“I’m sending men after you. I’m pulling into the parking lot of the store now.”
“Good. Brooke’s going to be fine. We have to get these guys.”
“We will.” Adam was running up the stairs in the shop, his footsteps heavy on the wooden floor.
“I’m turning onto Fern Street, headed north.”
Adam directed men on a radio to meet up with Josh. “They’re on the way.”
“All right. Talk later.”
Sirens sounded in Josh’s direction, and he knew the officers would at least be chasing the shooters down in cars. When he reached Fern Street, he heard a car peeling off around the corner of Fern and Oak, headed away from him, so he couldn’t see the vehicle. He was certain the shooters were driving off in the vehicle. He rounded the corner, and three patrol cars rushed to meet up with him. The car was gone. No sign of the men. Josh listened for running footsteps, looked for more drops of blood like a bread-crumb trail, but they stopped right where he imagined the car had torn off.
Damn it!
Then he realized the one man’s scent seemed familiar. He remembered he’d been concerned when he’d first met Brooke that she had set out boxes to be recycled and a man had been looking over them. Later, the boxes were gone, but the trash collector might have picked them up by then. Still, the fact that one of the men who shot up her attic had been looking over her boxes earlier made Josh suspect the man had been looking for something of hers.
One of the officers gave Josh a lift back to the shop, while the other patrol cars searched for the vehicle.
He glanced up at the full moon hanging in the night sky, and he prayed to God Brooke hadn’t bitten the man and that was why he was losing blood! He could just imagine the bitten man turning and then him biting the other man. They’d have two brand-new lupus garous on the loose in Portland. And not the kind of men they’d want in the pack either.
* * *
Someone was knocking at the door when Brooke managed to get the sweater sleeve off her good arm, and she was silently swearing as she struggled to pull off the other sleeve.
She hoped the person at the door wasn’t the police sketch artist.
Maverick called out to Brooke, “It’s just Josh.” He unlocked the door. “Hey, Brother, we were worried about you.”
“I’m fine.” Josh sounded disgruntled.
She was glad Josh had made it back all right and hadn’t been injured.
“Did you get them?” Maverick asked.
“Hell, no. They had a ride before I could reach the street where they took off. Patrol cars are still out looking for them. I wanted to get back here and make sure Brooke’s okay. How’s our patient?”
“Struggling to get out of my clothes.” Brooke figured Josh was asking his brother the question, not her. Before she knew it, Josh was entering her bedroom.
“Here, I’ll help you. Maverick is making the fire.”
Like Maverick wouldn’t have offered to assist her and then return to finish making the fire.
“Did the EMTs see to you?”
“They did, and a policeman took pictures of the injuries, but I want to get into something more comfortable. I can’t get out of my things.”
Josh was gentle with her, while Maverick had been rushed while attempting to get her dressed in the attic. Josh slid the sweater off her injured arm, then unbuttoned her skirt while she held onto his shoulders to keep her balance.
He sat her down on her chair and pulled off her boots and socks. “What do you want to wear?”
“I was going to