Kick Back - Susi Hawke Page 0,32

somewhere. I sat up a little straighter and tried not to show how eager I was. Gil was just twisted enough to tease me if he decided it might be fun.

Gil glanced at Nathaniel. "You were caught red-handed. Some asshat took pictures of you escorting some of your rescues to a boat a few months ago. I don't know who that person was. Yet. My brood is still looking for that information. The person who took out the contract is none other than the SPTA director herself, Adrienne Powell. My source inside the SPTA told me she got the intel from a friend of hers at COME."

My puma was so agitated he was ready to take over and go find this Adrienne bitch and take her out. Fuck breaking the contract, I’d deal with that later. She needed to die. I had to admit, my puma made a good point.

Gil was smiling as he watched me turn this over in my mind. When I calmed down, he merely lifted a brow and inclined his head. I felt like he had read my mind when he spoke. "Exactly. We need to take her out. For now, how about I help you get your mate and his family back to your place in Portugal? Taking down someone like Powell will take some planning. We need to keep you safe in the meantime." He grinned when he saw the waitress headed our way. "But first, let's eat that shepherd's pie. Get ready to have your taste buds writhing in ecstasy."

Marcel burst out laughing. "My goodness, that sounds like a mighty potent shepherd's pie."

8

Nathaniel

After what was, I had to admit, the best shepherd's pie I'd ever eaten, Gil took charge. I could tell that Dearest wasn't thrilled, but he went along with it.

I didn't know whether Marcel and Tony were dying for adventure or didn't want to risk leaving my side, but Marcel called his pilot with instructions to return to Slovenia and they came along for the ride while we were secreted back to Portugal by car and ferry. And by car, I mean that we switched off into five different cars between London and the ferry that took us from the UK to Spain.

Then there were three more switches while we seemed to drive around with no real destination other than changing cars to throw off anyone who might be trying to follow or track us. Then we took another ferry. Eighteen long hours later, we finally made it to Portugal. At that point, we’d been on the road for over two days.

We arrived in a small town that I didn't even get the chance to catch the name of before someone pulled up in another vehicle and swapped with us. We changed cars another three times after that before Gil made us stop and shift. After all that time shut up in vehicles or traveling on slow-moving ferries, it felt amazing to go the rest of the way on foot.

And didn't that turn out to be the best moment I'd had in days? Dearest's golden puma was sleek and fast. He kept flirtatiously flipping his tail at me and slowing down just enough for me to catch up before he took off running again. I could’ve done a better job of trying to catch him but I was enjoying the chase. Plus, it was good to see this playful side of him.

I had seen Marcel's gray wolf several times by now but watching him run along with a handful of oversized bunnies bounding along beside him was a sight to see. Even while I chased after Dearest, I was still trying to stay connected to the rest of our group.

I was amused to see bunnies popping out of the bushes left and right. They must’ve felt safest with Marcel’s wolf because they all kept flocking to him and giving a wide berth to us jungle cats. Tony hung back with me and even though his beast was smaller than mine, it felt good to run beside another lion again. And not just any lion, but my brother.

We hadn't had a chance to do flat-out running like this in the mountains where he lived. It was impossible there because the hills were far too steep. Running across the open meadow with the wind in my mane made me glad to be alive. That and my frisky mate.

Gil and his brood escorted us all the way to the Moreno family home. They watched