Page 17 of Chased

She pulled out a candy bar, unwrapped the top, and took a bite. “Ohhhh,” she said, drawing it out ecstatically. “I totally needed this.”

“You might not want to go around moaning like that,” he said. “Or you might get eaten by a wolf after all.” His half-boner had already come back and was getting ideas.

She gave him one startled look, and then looked away, trying to hide her smile. “You’re dirty,” she said.

“All the time. Better get used to that too. If you’re easily shocked, you’ll die of heart failure the first week at the Ridge.”

The smile peeked out for a second. “Even when the other women are around?”

He snorted. “The girls in the office are the worst. You’ll see.”

Madison finished her candy bar in silence. There were four left—Matéo had eaten one of them. She said to Sanchez, “Want one?”

“Are you kidding? I’ll never fucking get it out of my teeth.”

“That’s half the fun.”

She started to put the rest of the pack in her shopping bag, and then stopped. She put two of the bars in her purse, and left the package with the other two on the seat.

“For Cisco,” she said, when he looked at her quizzically. “He didn’t mean to scare me. And I think they probably were his Butterfingers.”

Well, hell. Maybe she’d survive Outlaw Ridge after all.

Chapter 8

Madison’s calm lasted until they got to the entrance of Outlaw Ridge, and then the anxiety hit again. Because no matter what Sanchez said, she’d been raised in a place where you paid for your mistakes. Even if they weren’t your fault.

The good news: Outlaw Ridge had a gatehouse, complete with an armed guard, and one of those huge iron gates that had to be lifted to let any vehicles in. So if she was allowed to stay here, the Renards couldn’t come for her that way.

There wasn’t a wall attached to the gate, though. Just thick woods on either side—too thick to drive through, but easy for a fox to penetrate. So the gate didn’t really keep people or shifter animals out—just cars.

Still, it made her feel a little better. Wolves were notoriously territorial, and if this was a military base, it probably had some kind of wolfy perimeter patrol.

She was safer here than almost anywhere else—from Henri and her family, anyway. She still wasn’t sure about the wolves. Even though Sanchez and the others had turned out to be nicer than she expected.

Sanchez stopped the truck at the gate, and the guard walked out of the gatehouse. He was also scruffy, with ragged fatigues and hair almost down to his shoulders—and an obvious attitude.

“Boomer,” Sanchez said, rolling down the window. “What the hell are you doing on gate duty? Shouldn’t you be blowing shit up?”

“Subbing in for my brother. His wolf is in a mood.” He gestured toward Madison. “Who’s the girl?” Then he looked at the empty back seat and did a double take. “And what the hell did you do with the other two stooges? Forget them in the shopping cart? ‘Cause I saw you all leave together.”

“The girl’s a ninja assassin,” Sanchez said, deadpan. “Her job interview was to take out Cisco and Téo. Guess she passed. You want to open the fucking gate?”

Madison waved at the guard. “Hey,” she said. “I’m Madison Fontaine. The new administrative assistant?”

He leaned down and peered through the open window to get a better look at her, checking out her disheveled state. She could see his nostrils flare as he took in the fact that she was wearing a shirt that smelled like Sanchez. Madison waited for the judgmental look, but he just grinned. “Sheeyit. I really want to hear this story.”

Sanchez growled.

The guard—Boomer?—got out his phone, tapped a couple of buttons, and waited. “Hey, Breanna,” he said. “Good news. The new admin assistant isn’t dead after all.”

Madison could hear the faint reply from the other end. “Hallelujah. For the love of god, send her up. She’s okay, right?”

“Oh, yeah.” His grin broadened. “But the Hounds got hold of her, so you might have to bribe her to stay.”

“Oh, shit. Tell them to apologize for whatever they did. And whatever they might do, for good measure. Also, if we have to give her a bonus to not run away screaming, it’s coming out of their pay.”

Madison bit her lip, not knowing if she should laugh or not. It sounded like Sanchez was right and she still had a job, anyway. That was a relief.