the pet shop before emptying out the place.”
Thank fuck for that. If the human hadn’t come in here and gotten Reese, she very well could have died from dehydration and starvation. The thought of that makes a fist squeeze my chest in a stranglehold. Way too close. Way too fucking close to losing her before I even met her.
“I wish Rick wasn’t dead so I could kill him myself.”
Instead of Reese looking nervous or put off by my sentiment, she smiles. “I would’ve liked to see that. Your vulture would’ve kicked his bat ass.”
“Damn right.”
She continues smelling around for a few more moments, but then shakes her head. “I don’t smell anyone else I know. No mongoose or rat scents at all.”
Igor nods. “Alright. We picked up two other shifter scents here, but they’re faint, and we wanted to see if you recognized them.”
Reese sniffs again just to be sure. “Nope. I don’t recognize those at all.”
“Alright. If that’s all, then we’re done here.”
Like Reese was just waiting for the go-ahead, she practically sprints out of there. A full body shudder overtakes her as soon as she’s outside.
I walk up beside her. “You okay?” I can hear her heart racing.
She blows out a breath. “Yeah. It’s just...being back there…”
“It’s a trigger.”
Reese nods. “Yeah. Bad memories and defensive muscle memory. My rat did not like it. She was panicking the entire time. Just smelling Rick Dick makes her uneasy.”
I tug her close to my side and kiss the top of her head. “You did good. I’m proud of you.”
Keeping my arm around her, we head back to the parking lot. We get into our cars, and I see the enforcers in the other car pull out and lead the way back to the compound. Igor pulls onto the highway behind them, and Reese visibly relaxes against the seat, no doubt glad to be getting away from here.
A small smile kicks up the corner of her mouth.
“What’s that look for?” I ask, nudging her.
She turns to look at me, her eyes glittering mischievously. “I just love the fact that Rick Dick got his ass thrown in jail. I love that he had to be in captivity for a while.”
Damn, her vengeful little smirk makes my cock hard. If we were alone, I’d bend her over the seat and fuck her right here.
“From what we dug up, the prick got his ass beat by a bunch of humans a few times, too,” Stinger supplies.
Her eyes fucking light up at that. “Good. He was never someone who could take as good as he gave. He liked picking on people smaller than him, but he couldn’t handle a dose of his own medicine.”
That statement right there tells me that he didn’t just keep Reese in filthy captivity and not feed her properly. If I’m reading between the lines, the prick hurt her too. My animal puffs up angrily. Yeah, he’s lucky he’s already dead, or I would’ve made the fucker pay for a long time.
“He’s dead now, and you don’t have to waste another single second on that piece of shit,” I tell her. “And now that we locked onto Sid’s scent, we’ll find him too.”
She nods. “I wonder if—” Reese’s words get shoved out of her chest when our car suddenly gets slammed from the side.
Everyone jolts violently in our seats, my neck snapping back hard enough to get whiplash. A roar of engines, shattering glass, and screeching tires fills the air, and then gravity is gone.
The SUV starts flipping over and around and over again. Each rotation is like spinning on a rollercoaster ride that’s jumped off its tracks. Igor started to shout something, but his words are cut off when his head slams against the steering wheel. Red trickles from his forehead as his body whips around like dead weight.
Stinger is gripping the dashboard, trying to keep from being jostled all over the fucking place, but with us still flipping, that’s nearly impossible.
Everything is happening way too fast. Glass is flying, and Reese is screaming, and when I try to reach for her, we’re tossed violently away from each other again, and then her head smacks against her window. Her entire body slumps lifelessly as consciousness leaves her, and my animal goes fucking berserk.
He rushes forward, trying to force the shift on me, and I’m barely able to fight him back.
When the SUV skids to a halt on the left side, my animal is pounding beneath my skin, hissing shrilly in panic.