Samuel (Samuel's Pride Series) (14 page)

“He was. I’d called him that morning and
told him what I was doing. By the time he’d gotten there, I’d been hurt. I’d
been…Sam had left me there lying on the floor and I couldn’t get up, couldn’t
move at all. Samuel came into the house to help me and found me in a mess at
the bottom of the stairs and his father gone.”

“He went to prison? Your husband?” Summer
shook her head. “Then where did he go? The police would have been called to the
house.”

“No. Pride takes care of pride, and by
then the males of our pride had found out about other things that Sam had been
involved in and had taken steps to have him ousted. Then there was the house.” She
looked out the window as she talked about what her life had been with her
husband. “He’d used the house as collateral for his drugs. Several times as a
matter of fact. By the time that Samuel had figured it out and paid it off, his
father was long gone and a wanted man by the pride and several banks. It took
Samuel nearly a year to get things straightened out and another one to get the house
and everything in his name. By then he had a buyer for it all and sold it the
very next day. We moved here the month before it was final and Samuel became a
nomad from the pride.”

“He’s alone then.” Kennedy knew that
there were no other lions around. She just didn’t understand that it was by
choice and not him having his own pride. “Will he join another pride then?”

“Doubtful. He can take over one or form
his own. It’s harder for a single male to do so, but it’s happened. Or he can
choose to live his life as he is. I think that given the things that he’s been
involved in lately that he might form his own pride, but not necessarily with
lions. He seems to be the leader of a great many different kinds of shifters.”

“Jimmy and the man they call Jonas?” Summer
nodded. “There are more, too. I met a deer in the woods that said she felt safe
here.”

“There are no deer shifters here.” Kennedy
explained to her about the one that had helped her the day she had shifted. “You
spoke to a non-shifter? Does Samuel know this?”

“Nay, I dinna think to tell him. I didn’t
know it was wrong.” Kennedy got up when the pot whistled and poured hot water
in the cup to warm it, then put the tea ball into the warmed cup and poured
more hot water over it. When she set the timer, she looked at Summer, who was
smiling at her oddly. “What?”

“You’re a true Irishwoman, aren’t you?” Kennedy
didn’t understand, but before she could comment, Summer continued. “The fact is
you can speak to other shifters because it’s something that Samuel can do. It’s
only right that you would be able to do so as well. But if what you’re saying
is true—and I’ve no doubt that it is—you’ve taken his gift and changed it to
something more. Oh my, Kennedy, the possibilities that have come to you are outstanding.”

Kennedy didn’t understand what the big
deal was and nearly said so. But then she nearly doubled over with pain and had
to lean hard against the table when another pain tore through her head and
dropped her to the floor. Samuel was in trouble.

Blood poured from her mouth and nose as
she tried her best to stand up. She needed to get to him, but she was being
held down and someone was screaming at her. Letting her lion talk to her, she
found that she was just as worried and wanted to be let out to get her mate. Kennedy
had to calm her before she could stand up again.

“It’s Samuel, isn’t it?” Kennedy nodded
and had to run to the trashcan to throw up. She lifted her head just as Summer
handed her a wet wash cloth. “Concentrate, love. Close your eyes and reach for
him. See if he can tell you where he is.”

She tried to do what she’d been asked
but all she hit was a wall. And it was full of blood and pain too. When she
tried to reach out to something else, anything that might know where he was,
she found a human nearby. Kennedy entered his mind to see what he knew.

“They’re no longer at the house. This
one is smaller, there are few windows and there seems to be….” The man turned
then and she saw Jimmy and Kaleb. “They’re hurt badly but tied up. Kaleb has a
knife wound in his chest and Jimmy’s face is bruised. Both of them are tied up.”

“Do you see Samuel?” Kennedy realized
that she was seeing what the man was and thought about Samuel to see if he’d go
look for him. There was nothing in the man’s mind about her mate, so she didn’t
know how to have him look for him.

“Nay. Nothing.” The man started to move
from one room to another and she saw the kitchen. “‘Tis no house but a
restaurant. The stove is gas and had…eleven burners on it. I see a walk-in
and…and there is an industrial dishwasher.” She came across something on the
floor, and the man looked at it long enough for her to see what it said. “They’re
at the Blue Diamond. Do you know where that be?”

“I do. It’s on Jefferson, but it’s
closed. I think the health department closed it up.” Kennedy still hadn’t found
Samuel, but she knew where the others were. She was moving to the door when
Butler stopped her.

“I’ll be going with you, missus. There
is a time when I was a soldier, but now I’m a cook.” He handed her a handgun,
and she handed it back. “You’ll take it and use it if you need to. Humans have
them, and if there are any in the house, then we’ll shoot them. If that fails,
then you can go to plan
B
.”

“And what is plan B?” He smiled at her,
and she felt a shiver run down her spine. He was sort of scary when he looked
like that.

“Then, My Lady, you eat them.”

Chapter 14

Samuel felt as if he was going to be
sick. His head didn’t just hurt but felt as if he’d been dropped on it several
times, and then someone had used a jackhammer on it. He lifted his head up when
he heard a noise. His arms were chained above his head and his legs were
shackled to the floor. He was truly fucked.

Reaching beyond the walls, he found that
other than the guard outside, there was no one else around. As he didn’t have
the strength to try much harder than that he decided that whoever else was here
could come on in and have at him. He was just too exhausted. And every time he
tried to get in touch with Kennedy, he felt his head start to hurt more until
he either had to stop or pass out. And being awake might keep him a little
safer. The sound of the lock being turned had him drop his head and go limp.

“I told you not to hit him the second time.
She won’t come if she finds out he’s dead.” Samuel knew that voice but for the
life of him couldn’t place it. “She’s a tad on the stubborn side, her brother
said, and if she figures out we’ve lied to her, she’ll hurt me.”

“Christ, do you always whine this much?”
The other man he didn’t know but listened to him because he seemed to be in
charge. “Alton said we were to get him at all costs, and that if he gave us any
shit, we was to break him.”

“What do you suppose that means?” Samuel
wanted to roll his eyes and chuckled to himself when the other man apparently
slapped this man. “That fucking hurt. You hit me again and I’ll break you.”

“You’re a moron, did you know that? To
break him means we do whatever necessary to get him to cooperate with Alton. We
have to get him to tell his wife that he wants her to come and get him.”

“I thought that we didn’t care if this
guy lived or not so long as we had the woman.” Another slap and the man must
have hit something hard this time. “I swear to Christ you hit me again and I’m going
to be pissed off.”

Samuel wished that he could see these
two. They had to be the dumbest two beings he’d ever had the misfortune of
being around. When the door sounded again, he waited for several minutes before
he lifted his head again. Thankfully, he was alone.

His body was healing itself but not as
quickly as he’d hoped it would. There was no way for him to shift because of
the chains at his wrists and ankles. His cat was bigger, but there was no way
for him to break the chains while shifting. He’d lose his hands and feet if he
tried it now. Trying to yank the chains out of the wall didn’t work either
because it was too noisy as well as he was still weak from blood loss. He
looked at the window when a bird suddenly appeared.

When it jumped down from its perch and
landed near him, Samuel was too shocked to do more than watch it. The little
robin seemed to be very nervous and kept looking back at the door, then at him.
Hopping back and forth on his tiny feet had Samuel thinking that there was
something wrong with it, and when he flew up and landed on his shoulder, Samuel
knew it.

You’re the master lion?
The voice in
his head nearly made him cry out because as surely as he was standing there he
was sure the robin had spoken to him.
I’ve not got all day, are you the
master lion or not?

I am.
The robin nodded once and flew
to the window and sat there.
The missus said that if you have any information
she can use she’ll come and fetch you.

Kennedy?
The bird
nodded.
You’re not a dream, are you? Kennedy actually sent you here to
question me about where I am.

Again the little bird nodded.
She
said to tell you that you’ve got to help her, that she can’t…no that’s not
right, canna she said she canna help you
.

He wanted to ask the little fellow if he
knew why she’d sent him a bird to help but knew that the blow to his head was worse
than he thought. He was conversing with a bird, and then he was going to help
him somehow.

I don’t know where I am. Can you go out
and look around and come back to tell me? If you see some landmarks I can maybe
identify them for you.
The bird took off when the lock on the door
sounded. Samuel didn’t bother trying to look weak this time. He’d been talking
to a bird. He was pretty sure he was off his rocker.

“Hello, Payne. I’m Alton Stockberry.” Samuel
didn’t say anything because he wasn’t sure that whatever came out of his mouth
wouldn’t be gobbledy goop. “You’ve been hurt badly, I’m afraid. It wasn’t my
intentions to harm you in anyway.”

“Then what the hell did you mean to
happen when you send in a bunch of goons to bring me to you? And what the hell
for? My wife?” Samuel snorted. “She’s mine.”

“Very unfortunate that you’ve married
her. I did intend to have her all to myself.” Alton leaned against the wall and
smiled at him. “I can pay you dearly for her. She’s quite a beauty, but not
really up to your usual standards now, is she?”

“I don’t have a standard.”

“Precisely. Which is why I think that we
can come to an agreement, you and I. I’ll give you four million dollars for
her. That’s just about what her brother owed me until his most unfortunate
accident. And you can walk away without any more bruises to your body. Or….” Alton
smiled again. “I simply take her from you, keep my millions, and you die.”

The bird came back. For some reason
Samuel was in a more open frame of mind. When the bird told him about the train
tracks and the waterways, Samuel had a better idea where he was but needed just
a little more.

The tracks, can you see if there’s a
restaurant there? It would be a tall building with a parking lot out back and
to the left of it. The name of it is Steak Tracks.

I can’t read or tell left from right. I’m
a bird, not a human.
Samuel
apologized and asked him if he could tell if the restaurant had a railing out
front. But before he could finish describing the place Alton hit him.

“I think you should pay attention to me.
Your life may very well depend on it.” Alton went back to where he’d been
standing and pulled out a gun. From where Samuel was he knew that the man
wouldn’t miss him. The bird came back and said yes there was. Samuel knew just
where he was.

“I think you’ve underestimated my wife.
She’s very resourceful and will find me.” Alton brought the gun up to his head
and pressed it between his eyes. “You kill me and she’ll tear you apart. And I’m
not making an idle threat.”

Samuel was surprised when the gun went
off. The pain radiating from his belly made him think that he’d been kicked,
but when he looked down, there was blood blossoming from his shirt and over his
pants. He looked at the bird and told him just where he was.

Tell her to hurry. Tell her that I love
her and want to spend the rest of my life with her
. The bird
nodded and flew away. Samuel watched as Alton stepped out of the room and the
lock clicked. Samuel called him back. “You’d better be ready for her. When she
gets here, she’s not going to be too happy with you that you’ve shot me.”

“You thinking she can get to me without
me allowing it? I’ve been in the business of keeping myself safe for a good
long time, Payne. I’m pretty sure I can handle one woman.” Samuel laughed, and
Alton suddenly looked a little less sure of himself. “You think I fear her?”

“You’d better. Because you’ve no idea
what kind of woman she is. And what she can do to you once she finds me. And she
will, make no doubt about that.”

Samuel sagged against the chains. He was
in such pain and was losing blood fast. He hoped that he’d not completely lost
his mind and that the little bird was going to help him. Glancing at the window
again, he hoped that in some way she’d been able to speak to the bird and was
right now coming for him. Samuel closed his eyes and did something he’d not
done in decades. He prayed.

~~~

They were moving as a group toward the
house where Samuel was. The rescue of the others had gone better than she’d
hoped. Only one dead, and both Kaleb and Jimmy were now up and about. They had
both shifted within seconds of having them untied and now they wanted
vengeance. Jimmy was driving the car they were in.

“He’ll be fine.” She nodded but didn’t
say anything. “You saved us; you’ll save him. He’s a lot tougher than he looks.”

“The robin said he’d been hurt. And he
thought that he’d been shot again before he came to me. How long can he survive
with a bullet hole in him?” Jimmy didn’t answer, but that was telling enough.

Shamus was dead. She’d come upon his
body before anyone else and had stood there staring at him rather than seeing
if he was really dead. When she’d been shoved out of the way by one of the
other men that had come with her, Butler had taken her into the hallway and
held her hand. She was sure he’d said something to her, but for the life of her
she had no idea what it had been. There was just so much damage done to him for
her to—

“Don’t.” She looked over at Jimmy when
he’d barked at her. “Don’t think about your brother. Shamus got himself into
this and he had to know that it was going to end about like this.”

Kennedy nodded. “I know that, and I
understand that he brought this all on himself, but he was still my brother.”

“Yes, a brother that sold you out along
with his own family.” Kennedy looked at Jimmy and knew that he’d been hurt like
Samuel had by his family.

“Who hurt ye?” He glanced at her, and
she saw the pain. “Who hurt ye from your family that turned you so bitter?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll never set
myself up like that again where a person can dig my heart and soul out without
a backward glance.” Jimmy slowed down to turn into the parking lot where they
were headed. “You keep with me. I know you want to find Samuel, but he’ll never
forgive either of us if you get hurt.”

“I’m going to find him, and then I’m
going to kill Alton. If the man is here, he’s mine.” Jimmy looked at her for
long moments after he turned off the car. She had no idea what he saw there,
but whatever it was he nodded to her. She slipped out of the car when he did.

The abandoned building was much bigger
than she’d thought it would have been from the pictures they’d found on the Internet.
It had looked like it was single storage, but it was actually three levels and
a basement. Robin had said that there was a window almost to the ground where
Samuel was and that he’d been able to see down into it. That meant that Samuel
was in the lower levels, not the upper. As the others entered the building, she
moved slowly from window to window, peering in to see if she could see Samuel.

A noise behind her had her still. She knew
that dressed the way she was no one could see her without a light. She turned
slowly, pulling the scarf up over her face until just her eyes were uncovered. She
saw the man before he did her.

Moving slowly across the lot, she moved
up behind the man and grabbed him around the head. She had only meant to shut
him up in the event that he tried to warn the others, but he’d struggled too
much and she had to work harder to hold him. She heard the snap and he went
limp in her arms. She nearly cried out when she realized she’d killed him.

What’s happened
? Jimmy’s voice
resounded in her head.
Where are you? Have you found Stockberry
?

No
, she told him, debating on
whether or not to tell him about the man she’d killed. In the end she told him
that she’d had to subdue a man.
I had to shut him up
.

Well you did that
. He was
laughing at her, and she wanted to smack him.
Stay out of trouble, will you
?

Kennedy decided to ignore him. She was
moving toward the building again when she felt someone else coming toward her. What
the hell was this? Grand Central? Moving deeper into the shadows, she tried to
think where the person was coming from when they said her name.

“Kennedy, is that you?” She moved deeper
into the shadows, not believing who it might be. When Tuck laughed slightly,
she came out knowing that laugh of his anywhere.

“Mr. Savage?” He moved toward her, and
then she saw Amy. They hugged her into their arms even as she saw the man
coming toward them all.

After telling her to be quiet, Tuck
moved away from her and shifted. He’d done that before to show her that he
really was a bear, but this time was different. She knew that he was going to
hurt someone.

He never made a sound as he swiped at
the man. Kennedy was glad it was dark, because she was sure that he’d sliced
the man’s throat open by the sounds of it. When he moved back toward her and
Amy, she could smell the blood.

“You’re a lion.” She nodded at Amy. “We
came when we heard about the woman that had been killed on the property. I don’t
suppose you know who she was, do you?”

“It was me. I wasn’t killed but…. Can we
please find Samuel first? And I have to kill a mon who tried to hurt him.” The
Savages looked at one another and then at her. “There’s a man, his name is
Alton Stockberry and he took Samuel from me.”