Enduring Retribution e-book (18 page)

The information wasn’t about me, but about the people I’ve worked for. The queen is…was one of my employers, as were many other beings. Over the years, I’ve completed many hits for her, both magical and human. Your father was another person I worked for.”

“You lie! My father was a good man, and has been dead for nearly ten years. He would never stoop so low as to hire someone like you to kill another person for him.” He struggled to stand, but Griff simply growled a warning.

“Does the name August Sheppard ring a bell? I was hired to just target him, to gather information on him and bring it back to your father. Bradley Senior thought Sheppard was into drugs, selling to the younger pack members and making a profit. It wasn’t until I was on his tail for several days that I found it went much deeper than that.” Bailey shifted on the rock and continued her tale. “He was also selling the younger females, some wolf and some human, to another country to be used as prostitutes. I couldn’t come back and let your father know about the crime without leaving the others still at his mercy. The young girls with him were dying. So I killed him. Cut his throat and freed the women. Several days later, before I could let Bradley Senior know what had happened, he was killed in that car accident with your mother.”

Bradley did remember something about the man and his father’s involvement. He had been killed not long after the grisly discovery was made. There had been ten young women dead in an abandoned building on the estate, and twenty more starved and ill. It had taken weeks to get them home again, some of the deceased never claimed.

He looked at the woman before him. That had been over ten years ago. She didn’t look any older than some of the pups in his pack. She could have only been in her mid to late teens when she had done this for his father. Then something occurred to him.

“Were my parents’ deaths in any way connected to this Sheppard?” He had never thought of the two being connected before, but now that he did, he was terrified of her answer.

“No,” she told him, sorrow evident in her voice. “Your parents’ deaths were just as it was thought, an accident. I looked into it personally just be sure.” He heard her moan deep and then Griff move to her side.

“You’re bleeding. What’s happened?” He stood now, but Griff blocked him from getting close to her.

“Your brother is a good shot. I…he was armed and I didn’t see it until too late. He couldn’t harm Griff or you wouldn’t have survived.” She moaned again, and the smell of fresh blood permeated the air.

“How bad is it?” Bradley knew it was bad. He could hear her heartbeat and it wasn’t strong.

If she didn’t get medical treatment soon, she’d die. He realized that they both knew this as well.

He looked at Griff and the other man shook his head sadly.

“Sit down, alpha. I don’t have a lot of…I need to explain to you why you were targeted. You have to tell…The contract was to take you out, kill you within seventy-two hours or she would kill Tristan. But I didn’t bite at that. Something in her voice told me that she wouldn’t hurt him.

But then she targeted the MacManus children and the adults. While I don’t know them, contrary to popular belief, I’m not so cold hearted as to have children die, even by my hand indirectly.

I’m sorry it had to be you, but you were the easiest to target. And that proved to be harder than I hoped.” She gave a short bark of laughter and then winced.

“So you faked my death, brought me here. How long will I…Christ, my grandfather! He must think I’m dead. I have to let him know. He’s an old man. This could kill him.” He moved toward what he had spied as an opening and was blocked by Griff again.

“You don’t get it, do you? There’s more to this than you remember. Think, Mr. Wolff, think about what happened.” She moved to the opening that was being blocked until she moved out. “I have to go out. I’ll be back in about an hour.”

“Mistress, you should really wait, or let me…” The rest of what Griff said was cut off from the door closing. There was no lock, but he knew that he wouldn’t make it very far.

Bradley leaned back against the wall and thought about the last thing he remembered. He’d been at the pack house. His grandparents had walked over from their house for dinner. They were walking around, just talking. He closed his eyes as it washed over him.

“Bradley, my boy, this is the best this house has looked in a coon’s age.” He and his grandfather were walking around the old gardens. Bradley had just pointed out the new ones that the new cook had insisted on having put in.

“What the hell is a coon’s age anyway?” He grinned at the old man. “Yeah, it does look good, doesn’t it? Martha is saying that this little project will save the house several hundred dollars a month during the summer months. She said I was to tell you if you pick one tomato, she’ll beat you with her broom.”

Martha had said more, but he hadn’t shared that with his grandda. She hated that he’d pick the biggest green ones for fried green tomatoes. Bradley thought they were nasty tasting when they were ripe, much less green and fried in cornmeal.

“That woman always did have a mean streak. And you tell her I’m not afraid of her old broom. I’ll just have your grandma have a little talk with her again,” his grandfather groused.

They had walked around some more, ending up on the front porch. That’s when David came by, right before supper as always, he remembered now. He and David had fought over escorting their grandmother inside. Good naturedly, of course.

The table had been groaning from the weight of all the food. Martha, even with her taking exception to his grandfather’s snitching vegetables, set a great table. He could almost taste the roasted beef and potatoes again. There was green beans and corn on the cob. Plus, she had made homemade noodles, Bradley’s favorite. The tea his grandmother made that was so sweet most of the pack shied away from drinking it and given no choice, would dump it in a potted plant or over the rail if they were lucky enough to be outside.

He tensed now, remembering David saying something about Tristan being mated to a woman no one had met. And wondering what kind of person she was. It was said that she was giving him a run for his money, and Aaron was enjoying the hell out of it.

He felt the presence seconds before the creature—he knew it was Griff now—appeared on the table, standing in the middle, growling at everyone there. He had his clawed paws, swiping at anyone who got close enough to try and stop him. Then his hair…someone pulled his hair hard, had grabbed a handful and yanked his head back, exposing his neck. The blade, holy good Christ, she had slit his throat. He felt his blood, warm, running down his chest. He’d tried to hold it, stop the flow, but he was fading fast. The room became fuzzy. He remembered the gun now; he’d heard it at least twice and someone screaming. Then nothing. He knew he had died. She really had killed him.

~~~

She had killed Bradley. Her contract was to kill Bradley, the alpha wolf of the largest pack in the United States. No wonder she thought she wouldn’t walk away, every being in the United States was looking for her.

That thought had been circling around Tristan’s head for the past three hours and he was no closer to believing it now than he had been when it started.

She had said that she had had no choice. Why? Why didn’t she have a choice? And even if she did somehow live through the gunshot wounds, the entire wolf population was out to get her, not to mention every vampire within the realms Aaron knew. That must be what she meant when she said she wouldn’t live through this, that she would be killed.

And she had been shot. No one was sure how many times, or where the bullets had entered her. But there was enough blood to indicate that she had taken at least one, maybe as many as two. David had said that she had stepped in front of his gun when he went to fire at this large creature that had come before she killed Bradley.

But Griff was an immortal. The bullets wouldn’t hurt him. Maybe weaken him, but not kill him. He sat up. Griff couldn’t be weakened, he realized then. Bailey needed him at full strength.

Why?

He went to see Mel. He would get answers or else.

“I don’t care why you’re here, but I want you to go back where you came from. Why I gave you free access it beyond me.” He hadn’t even spoken yet and Mel was already fussing at him.

“Tell me where she is, Mel. I need to find her. I’m in love with her and I want to find her to tell her.” She was in the estate room. Her mother was there too. Tristan knew Bailey needed him, but without her help, he couldn’t go to her.

“No, no, no! Damn it, Tristan, didn’t you ever hear that word as a child? No!” She was pacing the floor and kept looking at the side door, and now that he noticed, so did her mother.

“I don’t remember, damn it. That was nearly forever ago. What’s going on?” The door opened and in stepped her father. And the relief was evident on her face.

“Oh thank goodness. Now, Tristan, ask me again.” She looked so happy, he nearly missed what she said. “Ask me, damn it!”

“Melody! Was that necessary? Poor man has been through enough. His poor mate is the target of a viscous man hunt. Is it a man hunt when it’s a woman? I don’t know that I’ve ever run into that before. I’ll have to look it up on the Internet to see if there is a difference in gender hunts.” James pulled out a small pad of paper and wrote himself a note before sitting on the sofa.

“Tristan St. James, ask. Me. The. Fucking. Question. And yes, it is necessary. Dad, please, I love you, but please be quiet.” She was growling at him, he thought.

“Mel, where is Bailey?” He didn’t know why now was any different, but he asked to keep her head from exploding.

“I made a promise not to tell anyone, and I can’t break my promise. I can’t tell you where Bailey is.”

She had put enough emphasis on the word “I” that even a dead man would hear it, he thought, but he was pissed about it all the same. But her staring pointedly at her father had him confused.

“What the fuck? Sorry, ma’am, but what was all that about? You are by and far the most exasperating woman next to Bailey I’ve ever met. Ask me again, ask me again! I don’t…” He had nearly missed what James had said and jerked around to him. “What did you just say?”

“I said that I made no such promises. I can tell you where she is. I assume this is why you asked me to come in here as soon as Tristan came back. Good thinking, my dear. You get that intelligence from my side of the family. Why just the other day I was telling Phillip…”

Tristan put his hand over James’ mouth to stem the flow of words. He had been with him before and knew how the man could go on for hours about nothing at all.

“I’m going to remove my hand and you’re only going to tell me where she is, all right?” He was staring at him and could see the mirth just brimming to get out. He moved his hand.

“She’s in a cave in the Netherlands. A red dragon troll is sheltering her and Bradley until the woman reveals herself.” He put his own hand over his mouth this time. He was holding back what Tristan could only assume was either more information, or laughter. He was betting the latter of the two.

“Woman, what woman? The woman! Shit, the hit person. How do we find her?” He was moving a little slow, but was very happy that he was catching up now.

“Ah, Tristan, I’m so very glad you asked. This is something I can tell you.” Mel actually rubbed her hands together and Tristan was suddenly afraid.

~CHAPTER NINETEEN~

Bradley had been pacing the small cave for about two hours now. A lot of things were still unclear, but he was starting to put the pieces together. One thing that he couldn’t figure out was why him? He knew why she had killed him, and he shuddered every time he thought about that, but why had he been targeted? Why had he been picked out?

“We are trying to figure that out now. Once the woman who ordered your hit comes forward, then we will know. My mistress wasn’t given anything other than you were to die or others would in your place.”

Bradley didn’t hear him come in. For a big animal, he could move with stealth. “Where is she? Is she all right?” He had been concerned for her health too. He could no longer feel her so he couldn’t hear her heart beating either.

“Your host would like to meet you. He wants you to call him Todd. He doesn’t really have a name, but he likes the name. So if you would please call him that, several times, it will make him happy.” The door behind him opened and there was a horrible smell first, then a large, no, very large troll walked in, a red dragon troll.

“A wolf, ah, she said he would be tasty, but I wasn’t to touch, no, not to touch, not even a nibble was I to take. Are you the friend of my Printer, the Printer who plays so well?”

“Hummm, yes, Todd, the Printer is my friend, yes, she is my good friend. Yes.” He suddenly felt like Yoda. He looked at Griff when he snorted a laugh.

“My mistress, she said much the same thing the first time she meet Todd too. She also said something about green eggs and ham as well.”

“Yes, Dr. Seuss. I remember those stories. I thank you for your hospitality, Todd. I will mention to all I know about you and your accommodations.” He remembered enough about trolls to know they were very vain and extremely stupid. He preened, just as Bradley knew he would.

“Where is she? You didn’t answer me.” He noticed the shake of Griff’s head, well, the feathers really, and decided that he didn’t want the troll to know.

“The Printer is a good friend to me. She has said that I am the best troll that she had ever known. I will be envied for years to come. First the Printer and now the great alpha. Yes, Todd will be very much envied.”

Bradley tried breathing though his mouth and discovered that the smell was now on his taste buds. His belly rolled and he was sure he was going to be sick. Suddenly, he could smell…fresh flowers? Apple pie? Bradley looked over at Griff.

“I would not have you be sick, my lord. Our host would not understand and my mistress
would be most embarrassed. You will only smell what gives you most comfort when Todd comes
to visit.”