Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (13 page)

She
waited for him to speak, her brow raised in question when she met his eyes.  He
nodded the all clear but checked her once more before he moved his eyes to the
men at her feet.

"Did
you keep anyone alive?" she asked knowing from the cold look in his eyes
that he did not.  She asked on the off chance but was not surprised when he
shook his head.

Damn
it.

"They
were a hit squad.  Doubt they knew anything useful, and they came here to kill
you.  Not fucking around with prisoners."

"The
house?" she asked, wiping the blood off her baton on one of the bodies,
before she slammed it straight down to close it.  The gun she shoved into the
back of her pants.

He
grunted his disgust.

They
both heard the distant sound of Logan's telephone ringing in the house.  A
second after it stopped.  His house phone started clanging. 

"Shit,"
he muttered.

She
knew, because he had told her before, that only Lionsgate had the phone number
for his home phone, and they would only use it in an emergency.  Something told
her their time at Logan's ranch would have been at an end even without the
gunman showing up and proving they had been found and the place no longer
secure.

Without
a word, Logan took her hand and they headed back to the house.  "The
bodies?"

"I
have someone who will take care of it." He said darkly, his hand hard and
claiming on hers.  His jaw was clenched, his eyes cold, but his hand on hers
was warm.  “They'll board up the house as well.  I'll have Donny take the
horses to his spread for now.  And I'll make sure he's protected while he does
it."

It was a
solid plan. No sense getting Donny killed should someone else come after them,
after they were gone.

"You
think Eli has something?"

"Doesn't
matter," Logan answered darkly.  "I was willing to wait because it
was council business, and we needed to go careful.  Done fuckin' waiting.  They
sent humans to my home, shot my fucking house with every intention of killing
my mate.  They just declared war."

Xena
sucked in a breath at the quiet rage behind his words.  "What does that
mean
exactly
?"  But she already knew.  He was not the only one with
a home and a mate under fire.  Her own anger was a seething tumult in her
belly.  Some of that had settled when Logan took her hand, but not all of it. 
So when she spoke she was more than a little in agreement, even as she worried
what it would mean for Lionsgate and Logan.

"Time
to go hunting."

The
phone was ringing again when they stepped into the house.  They made their way
carefully through the broken glass and wood splinters to the phone, and Logan
picked up the receiver.  It sat on a small side table, one of the few things in
the room that had not been knocked over or demolished in the hail of gunfire. 
Xena also had the bad feeling that there would be more water damage on this
floor after the next rain came through, what with all the holes in the walls.

"Talk
to me."  Logan answered the phone, and then his eyes went from the damage
to his house to Xena. 

Since
she could hear both sides of the conversation, Xena snorted when Eli said they
might have some trouble headed their way.

"No
shit," she muttered, looking around them again.  The only good thing that
she could see was that it had happened before the renovations and not after. 
'Cause that would suck.

"Demon,
Ben and Mac are on the way," Xena heard Eli say and raised her eyes at
that.  She knew who they were of course, Lionsgate shifters.  "They’re
bringing Clytie, Cassandra, Crow and Roxy to Lionsgate and picking you up on
the way.  Lucas is calling everyone in."

That
did not sound good
,
Xena thought, and watched as Logan's jaw hardened even further.  If he bit down
any harder, he was liable to do damage.

"We
were already hit," he said coldly into the phone, and Xena heard the
cursing on the other end of the line.  "Two human hit squads, some
training but no fucking idea what they were up against.  Whoever is behind
this, they’re not Council."

"Yeah,
as to that," Eli said, his voice hardened at the knowledge one of their
own was already targeted.  "I'm closing in on the fucker, but besides
that, your girl has been marked."

"Come
again?" If she thought his voice was cold before, it went arctic now.

"Marked. 
A new wrinkle.  There's a bounty on your girls head, found out twenty minutes
ago, but it's been up for three fucking days.  These fuckers are not messing
around.  It's enough payout that Lucas wants you both locked down."

"Fuck!" 
The controlled rage in the word had Xena catching her breath.  Logan spoke
through gritted teeth before she could comment on the new wrinkle.  "Tell
me you fucking have a name."

"For
the hit.  I do," Eli assured him his own voice uncharacteristically grim. 
"But it's a human, drug lord out of South America.  No way is this the end
game."

At the
words:  Drug lord out of South America, Xena hissed out a breath. 
"Augustine Santo," she gritted out.  Her own anger simmering now.  She
looked at Logan when Eli affirmed her words.  "I was a ghost for that
job.  He never even knew someone was there until I was already gone.  No way
could he know about me unless someone clued him in."  Xena felt her anger
build.  "It was a council job and should have been confidential.  It was
sure as hell top secret.  If he knows anything at all, someone fed it to
him."  She blew out a breath when Logan looked even more grim. 

"I
have narrowed down where the original e-mail was sent from, and you won’t like
it."

"The
council?" Logan asked.

"Not
official, as far as I can find, but someone wants your girl handled without
doing the dirty work themselves, and they are branching out."

"The
good news," Xena said, her own lips turning up just a bit and knowing her
eyes probably looked as cold as the smile felt.  "Is now we have a lead,
and I know where to find Augustine Santo."

Rather
than being put off by her expression, for the first time since they were
interrupted that morning, Logan smiled.

***

The
private jet looked vaguely familiar; though the pilot, an older wolf shifter no
one took the time to introduce to her, with his military bearing and matter of
fact way of talking, was definitely not Cleo, the jet itself was the same. 

It just
seemed smaller with the addition of a gargantuan stomping wolf shifter who
looked like he could chew through the walls of the plane in his human form; a
wolverine with steel grey eyes that saw everything; the obnoxious leopard shifter
that cracked jokes with a Lothario’s smile that hid how truly dangerous he
really was; the young, broody teen crow shifter; and the quite wolf shifter
girl who wore purple jeans and a sparkly unicorn on her pink t-shirt.

All in
the same confined space.  Not to mention the pretty human mates, Clytie and
Cassandra.

And all
of them might be under fire because of her.  She could hardly blame them all
for looking at her with open suspicion in some cases, and avid curiosity in
others.  

Where
Xena was from, and most definitely in her work with the insular council, she
had only seen highly segregated gatherings.  Even the criminals tended to mix
only with their own animal groups.  Having so many different types, not only
working together, but clearly family, was eye opening.  Even more so than her
brief time at Lionsgate.  She had seen it there, and seen for herself the bonds
between them, but somehow this group put the exclamation point on that
particular statement.

"Why
the fuck are you going after this guy alone?" Demon growled.  Seven feet
tall and broad as a barn, the man was solid muscle from steel-toed boots to
stubbled head.  Intense, with normally brown eyes that were glowing a pissed
off wolf gold, he was the stomping wolf. 

If all
that was Demon was not enough, he had a wicked, jagged scar across his face and
a snarling wolf tattoo on his neck.  Next to his petite, smiling, pregnant mate
he seemed even that much more fucking scary.  She, on the other hand, had a
sweet smile, a killer rack, a lush figure and a belly bump that Xena could not
help but stare at, thinking of this enormous man’s get growing in such a small
area.  Clytie, as she was introduced, had child bearing hips there could be no
doubt, but she was still a teeny tiny thing, in comparison to her mate. 

Excuse
me, wife,
Xena
thought to herself.  They had married recently.  Apparently, the honeymoon had
been delayed for one reason or another, and now this set it back further.

Xena
almost felt bad for the guy, he looked like he could use a vacation, that was
for sure.  And as big as he was in the small plane, it was a bit like having an
angry grizzly in a box.  Something was going to give, and Xena was very much
worried it would be the plane.

Logan
raised a brow.  From his casual sitting position next to Xena he said,
"I'm not going alone.  Xena is going with me."

Demon looked
her over, and Xena was only slightly insulted by his snort of derision. 
"She's what?  100 pounds soaking wet?  Ian's right, she looks like the
fucking little Indian girl from Peter Pan."

Xena
raised a brow at that.  Not sure if it was more surprising that Demon had seen
Disney's Peter Pan, or that no one had thought to call her Tiger Lily before
now.  It was a new one for her, but at least he didn't say a black Tinker Bell,
which she had heard before.  She decided to see the humor, rather than take
offense.

"We
can't all be big like mountain," she said in an exaggerated movie Indian
speak.

Clytie,
Cassandra and even the little wolf Roxy all giggled.  Demon turned his glare briefly
their way, and Xena watched as they completely ignored the ferocious glare. 
Clytie rolled her eyes, while Roxy looked at Xena with big blue eyes as if she
was seeing her for the first time, and now she was interesting.  It was not the
look one would expect from a child.  Xena forced herself to look away from the
little girl’s too direct gaze, and returned her eyes to demon, who was glaring
down at her with a look that normally would have had her preparing to defend
herself.  Since no one else seemed worried about it, she very carefully kept
her hands off her weapons and hoped he would look at someone else soon. 

Xena
looked at Logan and gave him big eyes.

He
snorted, and tipped her a half smile, clearly not worried she was about to be
mauled.  He did speak, drawing those angry wolf eyes away from her so she could
breathe again. 
Yowza.  "
She's good," he finally said low and
to the point.

Demon
looked from Logan to her and back again.  "How fucking good could she
be?"

"I've
seen her take down a full grown Gerent Lion without breaking a sweat."

Xena
blinked, and remembered the island and the Lions of the Gerent Pride she had
taken out when they came looking for Cleo. 
Oh, yeah.
She smiled at
him.  "Good times."

Logan's
smiled flashed but he kept his attention on Demon, who grunted in what could be
either positive or negative, such was his ambivalence to that. 

"Fuckin'
Pussies," Demon muttered drawing an immediate glare from his mate.

"Demon,"
Clytie snapped, looking pointedly at the young girl and teenage crow shifter. 
"Roxy and Crow are sitting right here," she hissed.

"Fuck,"
Demon muttered low, probably too low for his human mate to hear him but just
barely, certainly the two shape shifter children would definitely hear him and
you could see he realized that when he looked up at them and glared.  Then he
trained his eyes to Clytie, and Xena watched them softening until she had to
blink at the change. 

Demon
cleared his throat.  "Sorry baby."

Xena
would not have thought it possible, but when he spoke in that growly warm tone
to his mate, his eyes soft and even warmer on her, he was actually, if not
handsome, certainly sexy.  Seriously sexy.  Y
owza, again.

Clytie
softened slightly, but still motioned to Ben, looking miffed.  "You should
apologize to Ben too," she muttered, giving the leopard shifter an
apologetic smile and then speaking directly to him.  "I don't think he
meant to insult cat shifters as a whole," she explained to Ben.

It took
Xena a moment to figure out Clytie was referring to the term pussies, and then
had to laugh herself.  Ben, Xena could see, also found the whole thing funny. 
He controlled his reaction other than the spark of humor in his eyes, and his
face was serious and grave when he turned it to Demon.  "I will accept
your apology, for all pussies everywhere," he said gravely making his mate
Cassandra snort her own laugh and turn to speak to Clytie, laughter in her
voice.

"Demon
wasn't talking about the whole cat nation," she assured her cousin, and
that made Xena snort out another laugh at the term 'cat nation'.  "He was
just saying the Gerent lions were pussies."

"As
in, weak and without balls," Xena added, by way of clarification.  Her
words drew the eyes of everyone there.  She shrugged.  "Just to
clarify."

Cassandra
bit her lip trying not to laugh again.  "Exactly," she said.

Clytie
rolled her eyes at her cousin.  "I know that, it still sounded insulting
to cat shifters."

Demon
was now giving his mate a less soft, more growly look, that had her staring
expectantly back at him.  "I'm not fucking apologizing, to fucking Ben,
for fucking insulting, the fucking cat nation, since there is no such fucking
thing!” he growled out.

When Ben
started laughing, losing his straight face, Clytie transferred her glare to
him.  Then huffed when Roxy giggled, and even Crow let out a chuckle.  Then she
hissed on a whisper to Demon that no one missed.  "Stop saying
fuck
in front of the children!"

He just
growled at her and turned to stomp the other way.  Which gave him about two
steps of room in the formerly spacious jet before he had to turn his big boots
and stomp the other way.

"What
has you in such a tizzy?" his mate finally asked with exasperation.

Demon
glared at her again, probably at the term tizzy, which Clytie ignored.  "I
don't like this," he finally barked in answer when she just gave him big
inquiring eyes.  "Not one fu.." He stopped on his next fuck, mid
bark, and skipped ahead, with an eye to his mate.  "Not one thing about
this.  Not that you finally had your shows work done and we could finally go on
our all-expense paid vacation to the beach; and if not to the beach, then we
could be home fu.. At home where I know the territory.  I don't fu.. like that
someone with council ties is gunning for Logan's mate, and attacked his fu..
Home.  Not that he plans to go after some f..drug lord with only a teeny tiny
midget female at his back.  I don't like that she is an unknown, or that the
people after her are good enough to hide from Eli's fu..computer.  None of
it."

Jeez,
Xena thought. 
That
man really likes to say the word fuck.

"It's
like I always say," Ben said mildly into the silence that followed while
Demon glared at them all collectively. "Demon needs to learn to express
himself.  No good can come from him holding everything in the way he
does."

 He was
talking to Mac, on the other side of Cassandra who sat between her two mates
looking highly entertained.  Cassandra had long golden brown hair, hazel eyes
and smooth cream skin.  Mac's arm was on the back of the chair behind her,
Ben's legs tangled with her long denim clad ones.