But he believed in her. He did. Finn believed her when she talked about school and everything that happened at the construction company, and he wanted to hear her thoughts. He never told her to shut up. He liked her. He told his friends he liked her, and he was excited for them to meet her. She’d never heard that in her life.
Lauren straightened her shoulders. Shecouldbe brave. She didn’t have a choice. The least she could do was try to save Finn’s life, since the scary dude stood over him with that rifle and looked threatening, even if his voice sounded semi-friendly and only slightly overbearing.
She tried not to think about how much she needed to pee and instead strode out of the trees and into the meadow right where they had to see her, and did her best to look like she was relieved to see them and not about to barf from nerves. “Finn? There you are!”
All of the men froze, the ones standing over Finn swinging their guns around like they meant to shoot her on the spot. Lauren ignored them other than a friendly smile and wave—though it took all her strength not to react to the weapons and the shadows that were dead bodies—and kept her focus on Finn. It would have been funny, how stunned he looked, if she hadn’t been distracted by a dark, wet spot on his chest that had to be another injury.
She didn’t wait for the men to speak and instead relied on her nerves and defective brain to fill the gaps. “I packed everything up but there are still some of the trail cameras out there. We’ll have to use the GPS to pick them up before Simon and Kira get here. They said they’re about ten minutes out.”
He stared at her in silence, for once at a loss, and Lauren really hoped he got it together long enough to save them both.
FINN
He’d never liked Richardson or his two cronies, but he never expected the fucker to shoot him and try to plant evidence to frame him for killing the drug runners. There wasn’t any reason to kill the criminals; there was overwhelming evidence to get them convicted. It was possible Richardson, and maybe Shotgun, just didn’t want to do the paperwork. Maybe the druggies had killed some of their friends and Richardson wanted vengeance. It didn’t really matter. They knew Finn well enough to know he wouldn’t have put up with that bullshit.
Which left him in a very dangerous position. As the bullet in his shoulder made clear.
He was just getting ready to shift into his bear form, which would require killing the three men to ensure the shapeshifter secret didn’t get out, when the voice of an angel said his name.
It was also possible he was in shock from blood loss and getting shot the third or fourth time in as many days.
Finn thought he hallucinated Lauren, but no matter how much he blinked, she was still there, pink-cheeked and cheerful and apparently completely fucking oblivious to the three cops staring at her in shock. She just smiled at them, like they weren’tholding rifles on her, and said something to him about trail cams and Simon.
His brain clicked along too slow, which wasn’t new when he tried to keep up with her lightning-quick thoughts, but she waited for a response and he had to act before Richardson did something stupid instead. Finn pushed up on one elbow, his fingers numb and still too far from his rifle he’d dropped trying to avoid Richardson shooting the criminals. She held the shotgun loosely, casually, and wouldn’t be able to get the drop on the cops anyway. “Uh, how many of them?”
He didn’t even know what he asked. He couldn’t fathom what the fuck she was doing out there, confronting the three men. Did she realize what happened? Was she going to see the bodies and flip out? If Richardson tried to hurt her… Finn wasn’t going to be responsible for his actions. The fucker would be reduced to pink mist and nothing more.
Lauren beamed at him as she tapped the small black GoPro on her pack, very clearly pointing at the three cops. “I got the six on the trail from that way, and three from there,” she gestured vaguely behind him. “But there are still half a dozen in the meadow.”
And she very clearly pointed out a few areas where small orange flags made it plausible, in fact, that there were cameras. Cameras that would have conveniently captured Richardson’s threats as well as him shooting the drug runners. Finn wanted to kiss her and send her running at the same time. Those guys didn’t leave messes behind. Which included witnesses.
Lauren didn’t wait for him to react, though, and instead turned that bouncy smile on the stunned, silent cops. “We’ve been tracking Bigfoot. There are cameras all over the trails through here, but we didn’t get much other than some hikers and shadows and stuff, but there are tons of bears and mountain lions. There’s so much, in fact, that we have to send that datain real-time to some colleagues who are helping us with the research. It’s all stored in a couple of locations, and people are going over everything to identify any…odd activities.”
Her tone went kind of flat toward the end and something about it sounded vaguely threatening, which was completely at odds with her cheerful smile. It was the sweetest, nicest way of threatening someone he’d ever seen, and if he hadn’t been in love with her before, that would have sealed the deal. Easily.
Even if he doubted whether Richardson and his cronies were smart enough to pick up on it.
Finn sat up more, despite the pounding pain in his chest and the building pressure that made him question whether one of his lungs was actually punctured. “Good. Help me up, babe.”
“Not so fast.” Richardson managed to snap out of his surprise, and he glanced between Finn and Lauren as he licked his lips. He adjusted his grip on the rifle, no longer directly aiming at Lauren but still too close for Finn’s comfort. “That’s all bullshit, and neither of you is going anywhere.”
“I don’t think you heard me.” Lauren practically sang it out like a cartoon princess. Maybe it was her being so friendly and happy that threw the cops off, since Finn himself had trouble reconciling the meaning of her words with the tone. It was a mind-fuck of epic proportions while standing in the snow next to dead bodies. Lauren didn’t seem to notice as she turned her attention to Richardson. “Everything you’ve done since you showed up here is on camera. It’s been recorded and sent to two different satellite locations for processing and analysis. I’m sure you don’t have very high opinions of cryptid researchers, but I don’t think they’ll take kindly to video proof of you shooting people in cold blood in the forest where Bigfoot is supposed to be. This kind of disturbance is going to set our research backages, thank you very much. Your best choice is to get the fuckout of the way and hope I delete the footage before it gets sent anywhere else.”
Finn definitely loved her. If she didn’t want to marry him, he would just follow her around like a puppy for the rest of his life. It took all of his focus to remember anyone else was in the trees with them, even though the fuckers had guns. He would shift to his bear form to deal with them, then he and Lauren would find somewhere nice and warm to hibernate for a few months.
He was just about to change forms and throw caution to the wind when the bushes rustled loudly and someone barked, “What the fuck is going on here?” and his heart sank.
Shotgun.
LAUREN
She had to focus to keep from doing a pee dance from sheer nerves. She hadn’t had to go before she started threatening the scary dudes, and yet the second she had to stand up for herself, all she wanted was to pee all over herself like a nervous puppy. Lauren hoped it didn’t show on the outside, otherwise she and Finn were both screwed. The three guys were even scarier up close. She hoped Finn helped her start walking once they left, because she didn’t think her knees would work. And it seemed like her boots had frozen to the ground under her no matter how she tried to move them.
Everything was mostly okay until someone else crashed through the undergrowth in the trees and started swearing. He did not look in any way like someone who spent time in the woods or liked hiking, at all. Atall. Iron gray hair and masses of tattoos were the most defining features of the rather petite man. He wasn’t much more than an inch taller than her, and Lauren wasn’t particularly tall for a woman.
He eyed her and leaned to spit something gross off to the side, then sniffed and studied Finn where he lay on the ground. “What the fuck is going on here? Who killed these assholes?” And his boot collided with something next to Finn.
Lauren absolutely did not look. As long as she didn’t look, in her mind she saw a fallen log or a pile of leaves or something like that. Definitely not a body.
