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Patrick nodded before inhaling slowly and turning to Keith. “Return with him.”
“That wasn’t the plan,” Keith reminded him, his voice colder now than before. “I’ll fight by your side, Rick.”
Patric
k shook his head slowly. “This is my fight. She was my wife. My mate. Too many have paid the price already for her deceptions.”
“Then I’ll fight by her side.” He nodded to Cassa. “You have enough blood on your soul, brother.”
Patrick turned away from them long seconds before finally nodding. When he turned back to them, she warily tried to step away from him. The spare light of the moon caught his eyes, and the animal was indeed loose. His eyes flashed red, and she swore his facial features had tightened, turning more animalistic than they had been moments before. Cruel purpose slashed across his face and drew his body taut as he bent closer to her.
“Your friends are in place, your mate isn’t. Good luck, Ms. Hawkins. If you survive, remember one thing. We are all a product not of our environment or our training. We are a product of the deceit of man.”
With that he turned from her. Walt stood aside as they moved forward, and she swore she saw a tear in the old man’s eyes.
Swallowing past the panic welling inside her, Cassa moved between Patrick and Keith through the thick underbrush and heavy boulders. Minutes later they stepped to the edge of a large clearing.
“We’re here, Watts.” Patrick’s voice echoed through the valley.
They were still sheltered by several thick, ages-old oak trees. Patrick Wallace was no man’s, or Breed’s, fool.
“Did you bring the Bengal’s whore?” A light illuminated deeper into the clearing.
As Cassa watched, a figure stepped into the beam of light. As he moved closer she recognized the arrogant swagger of the walk, and then the form of the man she had once called husband.
“I’ve brought our lovely reporter,” Patrick corrected him. “Do you have what I require?”
Douglas came closer, and only then did Cassa see the two Coyotes that walked with him. Her eyes widened in recognition of the one at his left.
Brimstone. The second-in-command of the Coyotes that had only recently sought asylum in Haven, the Wolf Breed compound.
What the hell was he doing here? At Douglas’s other side was another Coyote she recognized. Mutt, part of Dog’s team. She looked between the two Breeds, her throat tightening in dread.
“Hello, wife,” Douglas drawled as he moved closer.
His steps were a bit stiff, his expression furious.
Cassa lifted her head and smiled. “Wife?” she asked. “I much preferred widow.”
He sneered back at her as she noticed the large envelope he was tapping against his thigh.
“Send her over here,” Douglas snapped.
“Not yet,” Patrick drawled. “I believe you have something for me first. Let me see the proof, then we’ll see about the trade.”
“Do you think I’m a fool?” Douglas snarled.
“I do,” Cassa forced the insult past her lips. Nothing was guaranteed to incite his rage faster than her smart mouth. She remembered that well from their so-called marriage.
“You little bitch.” He slapped the envelope into Brim’s hand. “Take it to him. Then bring that little whore to me.”
“Once a whore always a whore I guess,” she quipped. “Really, Douglas, that insult doesn’t have the power it used to have. You should have learned something new in the past eleven years.”
“Locked up like an animal in that cage your lover stuck me in?” His voice throbbed with anger now. “You’re spreading your fucking thighs for a damned animal. You can pay the price for that now.”
“Whatever your price, Cabal was well worth it,” she snapped. “A man for a change was a pleasant upgrade from the monster I thought I was married to.”
Brim stepped closer and handed Patrick the envelope. No one was paying attention to her except Douglas. No one cared if she ran, if she fought to escape. Patrick wouldn’t come after her. She didn’t think Keith would. Brim might, but she was starting to wonder about that one. He was an enforcer under Jonas’s command. Could he be undercover now?
