Hot Pursuit (29 page)

“And I don’t have my phone.” Angel followed Wolf’s movements as he paced the length of the damp stone basement. When he turned, ignoring the other people with her, his eyes were black with fury. “My guess is Brutus slipped it out of my purse when he brought it to me. I had the service shut off on it and reported it stolen once I got here.”

“Brought what to you?” Wolf demanded, stopping in front of her.

Angel stared at his broad chest. His entire body was thick with anger.

“My purse,” she clarified, remaining relaxed in the office chair she’d been offered when Bob Williams had “rescued” her after she’d come to the grocery store when Betsy had denied her a room at the bed-and-breakfast.

Angel had hated imposing but didn’t know where else to go. She’d decided to go through the motions of being practical and had come to the store for a few groceries. After she informed Bob and his wife, Cecilia, about her store being closed, they had told her their basement had a good signal for the Internet. All of them had agreed it was time to start fighting back. Angel had been empowered by the Williamses’ willingness to help her take on Cortez.

“Where is it?” Wolf asked.

His tone made Angel think it wasn’t the first time he’d asked the question. She gave herself a mental shake. She wouldn’t be able to take down a monster if her brain remained rattled.

“Where is what?” she asked.

“Your purse.”

Angel leaned forward in the office chair and picked her purse up from the floor under the small metal desk where she’d been researching laws on evictions on the old, bulky home PC the Williamses were letting her use. The list she was making on notebook paper next to her of the laws Cortez had broken concerning just her store seemed to be endless.

“Why do you want it?” Angel frowned, setting her purse on the desk.

Wolf grabbed her purse from her and dumped all contents on the desk next to the dusty keyboard. Pictures of the Williamses’ four children, now grown, rotated in a slide show as Cecilia’s screen saver kicked on. Joanie Williams had been one of Angel’s good friends all the way through school. A picture of the two of them hugging and laughing at the camera on the day of their high-school graduation flashed on the screen as the contents of her purse rolled all over the desk. Angel flew out of her chair in time to save two pens and a ChapStick from rolling to the floor.

“What the hell?” she shouted, fisting the items she’d just grabbed and raising her hands in protest.

Wolf fished through the contents of her purse, using his finger to move each item so that more of the contents rolled precariously toward the edge of her desk.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, getting seriously pissed.

What had she been doing drooling over his finely tuned body with all of that muscle and swagger? Now he was being a complete jerk.

She’d been glaring at him and not his fingers as he pried through items from her purse. Wolf used her fingernail clippers to pick something up. He held it at face level between them, and she stared at it. Her focus moved to his face when he held one finger up to his lips. Wolf turned to Bob Williams and his mother-in-law, Melba, still holding up the small, flat disk that looked like one of those tiny batteries so both of them could see it. He continued pressing his finger to his lips, silently telling Bob and Melba to not say a word.

“What?” Angel began.

Wolf flew around, frowning at her, and with a look silenced her. Her anger simmered, and she scowled at him for thinking he could take command of her room. She took a half step back when he moved around the desk and into her space. In front of Bob and Melba, who Angel knew were watching her and Wolf closely, Wolf put his arm around Angel’s shoulders and pulled her up against him. In spite of the jerk he’d turned into in the past few minutes, her body instantly reacted. Instead of pushing him to arm’s length, which was what she should have done, she arched just enough to enjoy his muscle-packed warm body against every inch of hers.

“This is a very high-tech bug that can pick up any conversation easily, even while buried in the bottom of your purse,” he whispered into her ear. “Give me something to smash it.”

Apparently, he’d whispered loud enough for Bob to hear. That or her friend had moved closer to the desk when Wolf had wrapped his arm around her. Angel didn’t dwell on his reasons but stared in shock at the tiny, flat disk that Wolf continued to hold up with the fingernail clippers. A high-tech what?

A bug. A damned spy tool used to eavesdrop. Angel stared in shock at the small thing, her anger no longer simmering but igniting into full-blown rage. She shifted her attention when Bob moved quickly, hurrying to the dark shadows against the basement wall and returning with a brick in his hand. Wolf placed the flat disk on the desk. Angel leapt against the desk, reached across it, and yanked the brick from Bob’s hand.

She smashed the small disk. The things from her purse bounced on the desk. Angel hit the disk again—and again.

This time it was Wolf scrambling to prevent everything from tumbling off the desk before grabbing Angel’s wrist.

“Good job,” he said softly.

“I’d say she shattered the thing into dust,” Bob said, laughing.

“And possibly pierced the eardrum of anyone who might have been listening,” Wolf added.

“Good,” Angel snapped. How dare Cortez have his henchman bug her purse. He had no right to listen in on a damn word she said—ever! “I’m going outside,” she announced to no one in particular, and dropped the brick where the disk had been on the desk.

It felt good exerting a bit more energy when she pushed open the old garage door that the store had once used for deliveries. The Williamses had built onto the store back when Angel had been in school, and a new garage entrance on the other end of the store made it much easier for trucks to pull up to for deliveries.

Angel tugged on her blouse when she walked into the icy chill of the night. She didn’t even have her coat. The nightmare her life had become in less than a day continued unraveling before her as she thought about the many items she didn’t have access to any longer. Her nightgown, her toiletries, her entire home! She shivered uncontrollably against the night air, and her eyes watered. No way would she cry, though. Cortez wouldn’t have the satisfaction of making her cry.

Angel heard cautious footsteps behind her. She crossed her arms against the cold and her unwanted emotions. She couldn’t ask to be alone. This wasn’t her place.

A warm leather coat, strong with Wolf’s rich scent, descended on her shoulders. Capable hands came around her and zipped the coat up her front.

“I just found out this grocery store sells locks,” he grumbled next to her ear.

Instant warmth wrapped around her. Angel was intoxicated by Wolf’s thick scent that held a primal quality to it and was all male.

“They have a small hardware section, nothing major,” she told him, her thoughts still jumbled and now distracted. Wolf being close did something to her that she didn’t always appreciate. She couldn’t even fuck him if she wanted!

“How would you like to break into a bookstore?”

Angel turned around slowly, her heart making a hard thud against her chest. “What?” she whispered.

“I happen to know how to pick a lock and change a lock. Are you game?”

*   *   *

Wolf shuffled things around in the back of his Escalade. Stacking two supply boxes on top of each other, he was finally able to move the vehicle’s panel and open the area where the spare tire was.

“What’s that?” Angel asked, completely dwarfed in his leather jacket yet still managing to look sexy as hell.

“A box of tricks,” he told her, grinning.

The woman always managed to do more than warm his blood, especially when she stood this close to him. In spite of all the leather wrapped around her, he still managed to pick up on her own personal fragrance. It was the strawberry smell of her hair, the musky, female smell of the soap she used, and something unique to Angel. It was a fragrance he could breathe in and never grow tired of.

Wolf scowled, definitely not liking the direction of his thoughts. “Go sit in the passenger seat.”

“I want to help,” she said, her gaze trained on the box in his hand. “I want to learn what you’re going to do.”

“No, you don’t. And you aren’t.”

Angel narrowed her brow when she tilted her head back and looked at him. “It’s my store.”

Headlights snapped on and lit part of Angel’s face. Instinctively Wolf shut the rear hatch on his SUV and shoved Angel behind him and toward the curb. A vehicle had been parked opposite them on the other side of the courtyard and even now was partially concealed by the statue pointing to the ocean between them. Even with the glare, Wolf saw that the car had been parked at the far end of the delivery alley between the shops on the other side of the courtyard.

“What are you doing?” Angel almost tripped over herself jumping back when he pushed her with a bit more force so that his Escalade was between her and the street.

“How often do cars flash headlights at you in this town after midnight?”

Angel squinted to see the car through the Escalade’s dark tinted windows. “Not often,” she said softly.

Wolf’s attention returned to the car when it began driving toward them. He should have made Angel stay at the grocery store. She would have been as stubborn about staying there as she was being now. The car came to the road and turned to come around the circular drive. Wolf put his hand on Angel’s arm, intending to toss her inside his SUV if he had to. A sudden piercing zing through the calm dark night had him shoving her at his Escalade. He pressed himself against her. An explosion followed the zing.

At least it sounded like one as it erupted the silence in the dead of the night. A terrifying moment passed where Wolf feared he’d frozen from the sound. Not once during his career had he panicked during an ambush. He’d been shot at before and each time his instincts had kicked in and he’d come out of the situation unscathed.

Angel screamed. Wolf pulled her against him. He’d never been in a crisis situation before with someone he cared for so much standing right next to him, either.

“Get inside my truck,” he whispered into her hair, his words dull and raspy like an old knife. He heard the desperate edge to his voice. It was as if all that mattered was keeping her safe and he wasn’t sure he was man enough to do it. “Don’t argue, sweetheart. Lock the doors and lay down on the seat. Here are the keys.” He pulled them from his pocket. He wouldn’t add if things got ugly to leave, hoping she would figure that part out for herself.

A car skidded to a stop with its tire blown out. That unmistakable flapping rubber sound of the destroyed tire followed in the wake of the gunshot. The car quit moving when it was half on the grass in the middle of the circle and its rear still on the road. Angel no longer argued. She yanked open the Escalade’s door and shut it behind her just as fast, disappearing from his sight behind the dark windows.

Wolf searched the direction from where the shot had come from as a spew of expletives filled the frigid night air. Not that he felt the least bit cold. As the men in the car started yelling, a warped satisfaction warmed his insides. He wasn’t the only one to get his tires shot out in this county.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Brutus roared, leaving the car where it was as he marched toward Wolf. There were shadows of other men behind him.

Oh crap. Wolf didn’t doubt Angel would stay in the Escalade. He wasn’t positive she would stay on the floor as he’d told her, though. And he really didn’t want her witnessing opening fire on these men. He wanted her even less to see him get shot. He pulled his gun from the holster he’d put on before they’d left the grocery store.

“Angel Matisse, get the fuck out of that crap hole right now or tomorrow that building will be demolished, with everything in it being destroyed!” Brutus bellowed.

Wolf didn’t have time to yell for Angel to stay where she was when several more zings whizzed through the air. His attention spun from Brutus and the three men with him, to the area where the shots were fired, then back to Brutus. All four men held their hands up before them. Even without direct light shining on their faces, Wolf could tell all of them were stunned. Hell, Wolf was stunned. For all the research he’d done on how incredible a shot the Mulligan Stew assassin was, it was still impressive as hell witnessing it in person.

“I’m not afraid to shoot to kill,” Wolf warned, understanding dawning on him as to why the four men had been unarmed, each of their guns shot out of their hands.

If the Mulligan Stew assassin had killed them, word would travel. Cortez would eventually figure out who had killed his men, especially since Wolf didn’t carry that kind of firepower. Cortez would go after the assassin himself. The people of Zounds wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of damage.

“Tell your buddy to get out here where I can see him!” Brutus roared loud enough a few of the businesses nearby upstairs lights popped on. Brutus ignored how he’d just rudely awakened some of the town folk and glared into the darkness beyond the edge of downtown where the shots had been fired.

Wolf took advantage of Brutus ignoring his threat and aimed. He might not have the assassin’s skills, but he was a pretty good shot. He found his target and pulled the trigger. In the next instant Brutus howled and fell to the side. Wolf would give it to the asshole, he was to the core mean. Instead of falling to the ground, he captured his weight on the foot Wolf didn’t shoot and let out a spew of profanity loud enough to wake the rest of the downtown merchants who lived above their shops.

“I suggest you ruin that rim and drive back to hell where you came from,” Wolf informed Brutus, aiming higher this time as he started toward the four unarmed men.

The three behind Brutus took Wolf’s advice and hurried to the car. Brutus, in all of his evil glory, remained where he was.

“Should I allow your goons to come back and carry you to the car?” Wolf taunted.

Brutus stared Wolf down, but Wolf wasn’t intimidated. If the asshole only knew how many heartless men, just like him, Wolf had put behind bars in the past. He didn’t stop walking until he was face-to-face with the prick.