Dodge had traveled in his wolf form, the miles disappearing under his paws. He didn’t want to deal with leaving a vehicle behind, as it would just invite questions, and the less attention on Persephone’s hopefully short-lived disappearance, the better. He changed back into his clothes and carefully re-hid the knives he always carried, ducking behind a set of massive cargo containers.
There wasn’t much advertising for the place and very little information available on the charity that seemed to be running it, which gave him an uneasy feeling in his guts. They had a lot of gear and equipment around, but not many people to staff the place. Most of them seemed to be sitting around doing nothing, while Persephone – looking adorable and annoyed and informal in cargo pants and a t-shirt – hauled around landscaping. He watched her but stayed out of sight as the other workers knocked off later in the afternoon. Dodge expected her to also throw in the towel, but she kept working with a single-minded determination that started as damn impressive but grew into rather worrisome.
He nearly jumped out to help her a couple of times, particularly when she banged her shin and muttered in pain. Each time, he questioned his sanity for continuing to just observe the girl instead of grabbing her and getting the fuck out of there. He kept getting text messages from Evershaw asking when he would return, but ignored them like he usually did.
His superior shifter hearing alerted him to the arrival of at least two SUVs or trucks, possibly more, and several males. Persephone remained unaware, focused on her work. Dodge wanted to immediately swoop her up and disappear, but hesitated as he glanced around. She was in a separate building and unlikely to run across the men unless they sought her out, and if they did... His wolf bristled. It was late and dark outside. There was no reason for anyone, particularly several large men, to show up out there unless they had a very specific reason.
If Persephone herself was their reason for arriving, those bastards were about to run into a buzzsaw called Dodge.
He eased out of his hiding spot to investigate the new arrivals. Three large SUVs with blacked out windows and armored doors. His hackles rose. Not good. The scent of blood and death lingered in the air and almost made him sneeze. Dodge stayed in his human form, since he figured guys like that wouldn’t hesitate to shoot a wolf but might wait a second before they shot a man.
Only a second, though.
He rethought that assessment the moment he caught sight of them: massive bruisers with tattoos, badly-fitted suits, sidearms, and fake Rolexes. Dodge’s upper lip curled in a silent snarl. If that hadn’t been enough to give them away as connected to organized crime, the three corpses they dragged out of the SUVs, wrapped in tarps, would have pushed it over the edge.
Dodge retreated, having seen enough, and went to retrieve Persephone. He needed to get her out of therefast. Those bruisers clearly weren’t aware that someone else was on the property. The moment they figured it out...
He shook his head and used all of his stealth to return to the massive building where she’d been throwing around trees and shrubs, and froze. Panic closed his throat. Where the fuck was she? He couldn’t breathe as the wolf wanted to immediately burst into his hunting form to track her down, but the man managed to hold onto sanity. She couldn’t have gone far. If the intruders found her, then he had half a dozen men to kill. Not a record by any means.
He found her as she moved toward the boxy building where the intruders had gone, and clenched his jaw against an immediate curse. The girl had no sense of self-preservation. Surely she had to realize that investigating mysterious people at night in a rural location –alone– was dangerous to her health? She’d run away when confronted with a witch and a wolf-man, so why the fuck did she feel obligated to sneak up on armed mobsters?
Dodge moved as quickly and calmly as he could, not wanting to startle or scare her, and found her pressed against a wall near an industrial kitchen. The sound of bone saws and heavy knives whacking into flesh made it clear someone was butchering... something. He winced and pushed down a hint of nausea. He’d seen a lot of nasty shit in his life, but somehow the thought of butchering some poor son a bitch to feed to wild animals... It was just a bit too much. Give him an honorable death and toss his body on the trash-pile if necessary, but don’t chop him into bits in a kitchen.
He knew the moment when Persephone realized what was going on, because she took in a wobbly breath and nearly fell backwards onto her ass. Every part of her started shaking and he caught the scent of her sweat. Panic. She was close to sheer panic. Hysteria. Screaming. Even the most cold-blooded men he’d worked with probably would have needed a second to compose themselves after witnessing what went on in the kitchen, so he didn’t blame her a bit. He just needed to make sure she didn’t give them away.
Dodge moved fast to cover her mouth and restrain her against him, so she wouldn’t scream or bolt, and told her to stay still. She went rigid with fear, the smell of it practically pouring from her. Dodge didn’t like thathecontributed to her fear. There was enough of that already, but there wasn’t another choice. He started moving backward, keeping his attention on the doorway in case the mobsters reappeared to fetch the last body in their trucks.
His lips brushed her ear as he breathed, “This is the worst bit. Just a few seconds. Be brave for me, just a bit longer.”
She still dangled in his grip like a broken marionette – disjointed but still tense and unmoving. Her legs started to flail just a touch, like she meant to help him back up, which he appreciated. Dodge kissed her cheek absently but didn’t remove his hand from her mouth.
They retreated one soft step at a time. He strained to hear what the men were doing, but the saws andthwack-thwackof cleavers combined with jolly laughs helped to conceal whatever noise Dodge made. He tried not to be grateful that disposing of a body was a noisy business that required a great deal of concentration, but there it was. The small gift the universe threw his way.
He’d rather be lucky than good any day.
He started to breathe a little when they got to the door to outside. He hadn’t seen anyone else at the trucks but carefully checked the area for any lingering meat-heads. When nothing else stirred – except for a distant roar from one of the animals – he dragged Persephone out into the open and hiked her up against his side so he couldrun.
Moisture on his hand almost distracted him before they reached her car. It was only when they could hunker down behind the engine block that he thought to investigate. Tears. She wept silently but intensely, and tremors had taken over her entire body. He swallowed guilt and a bit of grief for her, that she had to witness something so cruel. She should have been protected from something like that. A girl like her didn’t need to know that sometimes bodies got chopped up and fed to animals to get rid of them.
Hell,hedidn’t like knowing it.
Dodge crouched in front of her as she leaned against the front tire. He didn’t remove his hand from her mouth but edged close, wanting to comfort her in the cool night air. “I need you to listen to me.”
Her eyes, still shining with tears, found him. His heart ached for her. God, what a mess. But he couldn’t afford to let her emotions distract him. He waited until she nodded before he went on, occasionally glancing over his shoulder to see whether the mobsters had moved. “Did they see you? Does anyone know you were working late?”
She blinked at him several times, then made a muffled noise. Dodge hesitated before uncovering her mouth, even though he needed to hear her answers. He cleared his throat and murmured, “Don’t scream, Persephone. Okay? Nod if you understand.”
She rolled her eyes in irritation, which he took as a good sign, but she nodded and waited as he slowly removed his hand. Dodge held his breath, just in case he had to tackle her if she started hollering.
The architect sniffled a little and wiped at her cheeks, trying to brush the tears away. “What’s going on? Who are those men? Why are you here? Were they really – really ch-ch-chopping up...”
Her tone went high and wobbly at the end and Dodge tensed, easing closer. “We can talk about it later. We have to get out of here fast. Does anyone else know you’re working late?”
“I d-don’t think so.” She shook her head and stared over his shoulder at the kitchen of horrors. “Geordie told me I had to move the delivery, so I did, but he said he had a meeting at four and wanted me gone by then. I didn’t realize...”
She took a shaky breath. Dodge nodded and carefully cracked the driver’s side door. “Okay. We can sort that out once we’re clear. You steer the car and I’ll push.”
He helped her up and into the car, but lunged to catch her hand when she went to automatically put the keys in the ignition. He took them away and shoved them into his pocket. “They’ll hear the car start. I’ll push it out of here and we’ll start it down the road.”
