Indirect Lines: Halle Shifters, Book 5 (6 page)

Chapter Eight

Barney was scared shitless. While he was in Arizona meeting with Carl, his mate had been shot, gone into shock and had to have surgery to repair the damage. Now he was back in Halle and ready to pound someone’s head in. His Bear was in a rage, ready to tear apart anyone who got between him and Heather.

Fuck this shit. Fuck it to hell and back again. Heather was his to protect, and no one would lay a paw or claw on her again. He’d been an idiot to leave her behind without proper protection. He should have had Apollonia assigned to Chloe and Artemis watching Heather. But no, he’d foolishly believed Heather was safe so long as he didn’t mark her as his.

That was about to fucking change. Heather would be his before he headed back to Sedona.

The overriding need to be near her and confirm that she was safe had driven him to the airport, leaving Casey Lee and Derrick to continue the investigation in Arizona. They would get back to him at some point, but for now his place was here. They were more than capable of working with Carl while Barney dealt with the threat to Heather and Chloe. It was the only option open to him. Leaving Heather alone and hurt?

Not gonna happen.
He didn’t care how many of her clan surrounded her. She’d been hurt while with a Hunter and the white Fox. If they couldn’t keep her safe…

Grr. His Bear was riding him hard, eager to find the one who’d made Heather suffer. If he had the fucker’s scent, he’d be out there right now, making sure he’d never hurt anyone else ever again. Ripping the guy’s head off was his number two priority, number one being Heather.

He strode through the hospital doors like death himself rode on his coattails, ready to send the Smith twins through a wall. They were the ones who had been tasked with guarding Chloe, and they’d failed him miserably. He was going to skin them both for making Heather bleed, and then he’d kill them for almost losing the white Fox.

Barney tried to smile at the receptionist, but it was damn near impossible. From her reaction, a terrified lurch, he’d failed miserably. “Heather Allen?”

“One of the gunshot victims?” She blinked. “Um, are you a relative?”

“Fiancé.” His voice was beginning to turn, to pick up the rumble of his Bear. That wasn’t good. He understood now what Ryan Williams had gone through when Glory Walsh had been shot. No wonder Ryan had gone on the hunt for her attacker. Barney’s Bear was ready to do the same thing. Considering he had far more experience than Ryan, he had no doubt he’d be covered in the blood of his enemy in no time.

The tapping of keys forced him to focus once more on the receptionist. “Room 311.”

“Thanks.” Past the receptionist, take a left, and he was at the elevator. He’d spent more time in this hospital than he cared to remember, but never before had he been this pissed off.

He strode through the open elevator doors and punched the number three, scowling so fiercely that an elderly woman actually backed away from the doors. “I’ll take the next one.”

He felt bad for, like, two seconds before the memory of Gabe’s voice floated through his mind.
“Heather’s been shot.”

Heather’s been shot.
Those three little words had sent him scrambling so fast even Carl had been stunned.
They were going to echo in his mind until he saw for himself that Heather was whole, that she’d suffered no lasting damage from her brush with death.

Getting off the elevator was no better. He stomped toward Room 311, his gaze stuck on two people who seemed to be guarding the door. One of them was going to decorate the floor of his apartment. “Apollonia!”

“Shit,” he heard her mutter. She straightened up. “I tried, boss.”

“Not hard enough.” He grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off her feet. His claws were extended, his fangs dipping over his bottom lip. “She nearly died.”

Odd. Apollonia wasn’t fighting him at all. If anything, her head lowered, almost like a subordinate shifter to an Alpha.

“Put. Her. Down.”

Barney shivered as a deep voice rolled over him, forcing him to put Apollonia back on her feet. He’d heard that voice before, been forced to obey it as he was being forced now. His Bear refused to fight that voice.

Julian DuCharme was here and wasn’t going to allow him to kill Apollonia. Damn it.

“Now step away.”

Barney was driven to obey. He did as told, putting a little more than an arm’s length of distance between himself and the Tiger shifter.

“Look at me. Focus on me.”

His feet shuffled him around without any input from him. Terrified, he stared into the silver eyes of the only Kermode Bear in Halle, Pennsylvania.

“Good.” Julian’s hair was pure white, his silver gaze demanding. “Now calm down. Heather’s surgery went very well, and she’s awake and waiting for you.”

He felt his Bear calm at the command of the Spirit Bear. “I fuckin’ hate you.”

Julian patted him on the cheek. “I know, dude. Now go in there and kiss Heather’s boo-boos.” Julian winked, his silver eyes turning their normal brownish-black. “But don’t bite her yet. She did lose a lot of blood.”

At that, Barney’s Bear tried to rise once more, ready to strangle Apollonia.

“She did the best she could,” Julian said softly. “Look at her. She’s beating herself up enough for both of you.”

Barney took the time to really look at Apollonia. Her shoulders were slumped, her usual carefree smile gone. In its place was a weak frown. Her skin was bruised and cut, and there was a powder burn on her right hand. “Who did this?”

She shrugged. “Dunno. Bounty hunter, I think. He offered to share half the reward with me.”

“What reward?” There was a fucking
reward
now? Jim Woods was going to go ballistic when he found out. Barney wasn’t sure if he should tell him or not.

“Again, I don’t know.” She pushed off the wall and glared at him, her shoulders finally square, anger overriding the earlier despondency. “He got away from me when we heard the sirens. I couldn’t let any humans catch us fighting.”

“Since there was no way for her to know it was Gabriel who would show up on the call, I think she did the right thing. She stayed with Heather and Chloe, making sure no one else got to them except Gabe and I.” Julian got in-between them, as if afraid Barney would start fighting Apollonia again. “He’ll show his face again.”

“Or another one will.” Barney shook his head and stared at Heather’s door. “This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it?”

Julian sighed. “Tell me about it. Canada is nice this time of year, you know?”

“Thinking of going back?” Since the Kermode Bears lived out on some island in British Columbia, going back there was always an option for Julian since he wasn’t officially a citizen of the U.S. Carl was working on that, but even with the backing of the Senate these things took time.

“Nope.” Julian’s smile was wistful. “Cyn would hate it.”

And that was all the Bear had to say. His mate would hate it, so Julian would stick around this crazy-ass town until hell froze over, because Cyn would never leave her friends. “Gotcha.”

Barney was afraid he was going to share Julian’s fate. He’d stay here for as long as Heather wished, no matter what the Senate said. She would need her family while he was out Hunting, and he wouldn’t take that away from her, or the friends she’d found at Cynful Tattoos.

He opened the door and stepped inside. “Heather?”

She turned, smiling as she saw him. She looked so pale against the white sheets that his Bear rose once again. He could practically count the freckles on her face from across the room. The urge to heal had never been so strong.

The relief on her face when she saw him staggered him. Her sweet, welcoming smile nearly floored him. “Barney.”

He smiled and entered the room. “Didn’t I tell you to keep your little Hobbit ass safe?”

“A girl’s gotta shop when a girl’s gotta shop.” She shot him a weak, yet cheeky grin. “Besides, Apollonia offered to pay for lunch. Couldn’t pass that up, could I?”

He shook his head, reluctantly amused by her. The fact that she was smiling at him was the only thing that kept him from ripping the damn room apart. “What happened?”

“Someone nearly got Chloe. Came up from behind and grabbed her around the throat. He pointed a gun at us and told us he’d let us go if we let him take her.” Heather shuddered, wincing a bit. It must have tugged on her IV. “I…froze.”

“Froze?” He took hold of her hand, gently caressing her fingers. They were so small, so delicate. His own thick fingers were almost sacrilegious against hers. Heather’s hands were the hands of an artist, made to create, not destroy. His had shed more blood than he ever wanted to admit to her.

“Yeah.” She plucked at the blanket with her free hand, refusing to look at him. “I just…stopped. I couldn’t move. It was like being ten all over again. I even saw those men, the ones who attacked me back then.” She shuddered so hard she nearly shook loose of his hold. “I couldn’t help Chloe or Apollonia.”

“Look at me, Heather.” He tilted her chin up, forcing her to lift her head. “Everyone, and I mean
everyone
, has a moment like that.”

“Sure they do.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Bet you haven’t.”

Between that cute little pout and the way she said it, he was once again reminded of exactly how young his mate really was. He sighed, feeling like an ogre. “I have. First time I faced off against a Tiger rogue.”

“Yeah?” Heather glanced at him through her lashes.

“Yup.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “When that fucker shifted into his other form, I damn near shit a horse.”

“A horse?”

Man, that soft little giggle was going to be the death of him. “It was way too big to be a kitten. And considering how hard my ass was kicked, I’m pretty sure hooves were involved.”

“I bet that made it difficult to fight.” Her gaze had gone distant. He just bet she was picturing a horse-shaped turd in his jeans.

“Smelly too.”

She played with his fingers. “I managed to get Chloe in the car, though. Tried to find the keys, but Apollonia must have still had them on her.” She grimaced. “I wasn’t thinking clearly, or I would have just ducked down, locked the doors and called 911.”

“You trusted Apollonia to protect you.” Something Barney would have to thank the Tiger for, damn it. He still wanted to be pissed at her, but she wasn’t the one he needed to fight. He had to discover who’d put a bounty on Chloe’s head, after he was certain his little Hobbit was safe and sound.

“I did. Or if not me then at least Chloe.” She stared into his eyes, her own pained. “I was shot while looking for the keys so I could get Chloe to the hospital.” She shook. “I haven’t been that afraid since I was ten.”

The scent of her fear filled the room. His Bear reared, ready to eviscerate the threat.

“Shh.” Dainty hands curled around his arms. “Please, Barney. For me?”

He blinked, his Bear backing down immediately. “I will keep you safe.”

She smiled and snuggled against him despite wires and medical tape. “I know.”

And that was all she wrote for James “Barney” Barnwell. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had leaned so trustingly against him. When was the last time someone had been genuinely glad to see him? His parents, who’d died three years ago? No one was ever happy to see him. He was their pain in the ass trainer, the one they called only when they were in trouble. He wasn’t invited to family barbecues, he was asked to join Hunts gone bad.

Barney stroked her hair, listened to her content little sigh, and fell down a hole he’d never intended to even see in his lifetime.

Damn it. It was bad enough he had a mate, but to fall in love with her? That sucked big hairy donkey balls. “I’ll be here every day, so don’t go dancing without me.”

“Can you?” She tilted her head back, the dark circles under her eyes more prominent now that she was so close. “I mean, you have to work.”

“Nothing can keep me away from you.” He kissed her, careful to keep it soft and sweet. She was hurting, and he wasn’t going to add to her pain. “Now. How about a rousing game of Tic-Tac-Toe?”

She shook her head, her smile weary. “I think I might sleep some more.” She lay back down with a tiny yawn.

This wasn’t how he’d envisioned seeing her hair spread out beneath her for the first time, but he wasn’t going to complain. She was alive, and that was all that mattered. “Sleep. I’ll be here when you wake.”

Her bloodshot eyes closed on a sigh, but one of those small hands of hers had a grip on his arm stronger than steel. She might as well have wrapped it around his heart, because from now on it beat only for her.

Chapter Nine

Heather flipped channels on the hospital TV, bored out of her mind. She’d been in the hospital for two days now, and each successive day made her want out in the worst way. But until the doctor cleared her, no one would let her leave. Even Julian was coming down on the side of the doctors, refusing to take her home no matter how much she begged. Cyn wouldn’t allow him to come to the hospital more than necessary. Once they’d made sure that neither Chloe’s nor Heather’s lives were in danger he’d waited around long enough to deal with Barney’s Bear before heading for home and some rest.

She understood, since she had family who were Bears. For a normal Bear, being in a hospital made them…itchy. They wanted to help, to heal, even though they could only heal minor wounds. But for Julian, that itch was unbearable. If left on his own he’d go from room to room, draining himself to death taking care of the sick. He’d almost killed himself more than once healing those he cared for. Cyn was the only one who could stop him, and she did, demanding he save his powers for those truly in need.

But it didn’t make Heather’s situation any better. The wound ached and itched at the same time, and her boredom was about to reach new heights. Her parents, aunts and uncles visited all the time, but they worried over her until she was ready to pull her hair out in frustration. Keith and Tiffany were bearable but didn’t stay long enough to counteract their parents. Those visits were usually accompanied by some minor healing from her Bear relatives, but it would still take time for her to be fully functional again.

To make things worse, the shot was to her dominant side, so she couldn’t even draw. The desire to put pencil to paper was a worse itch than her wound.

“Knock knock.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Barney.” Finally, someone who wasn’t going to fuss over her and make her feel worse. She grinned, eager to see what her mate had in store for her today. The day before he’d brought Yahtzee and played with her until visiting hours were over, chatting casually with her family as they came in and out of her room. When he was there, they barely fussed at all.

If she could, she’d strap him to the bed and never let him out until they released her.

He held up a deck of cards and a wooden board. “Think you can play Cribbage?”

She frowned, intrigued. “What’s that?”

“It’s easy, but it takes some strategy to win. Interested?”

She shrugged, wincing a bit at the pull in her stitches. “Sure, why not?”

“Good.” He pulled the hospital table over her lap, then sat down on the bed, facing her. He opened the cards first, shuffling them. “I deal out six cards. You choose two to take out of your hand, and I choose two. This forms the crib, and gives the dealer extra points.”

“Well that’s not fair.” She pouted up at him and wiggled the fingers of her right hand. “I’m not sure I can deal.” She was in a sling to keep her shoulder still.

“I’ll shuffle and deal for you.” He dealt out six cards. “This is called a Cribbage board.” He placed four pegs into the board, two silver, two gold. The pegs were placed one behind the other. “You’re gold.”

“Okay.” She didn’t care what color she was. She could be chartreuse if he got rid of her boredom.

“So, here’s how you play…”

Heather frowned in concentration as he explained the rules. It was all about counting and points and moving the pegs around a wooden board, with extra points awarded for different things like a run of numbers or making fifteen. “You’ll correct me if I make a mistake?”

He shrugged. “The first couple of rounds, sure.” He shuffled the cards quickly and efficiently. “After that, you’re on your own.”

She eyed him for a moment as he started doling out cards. “You play this a lot, don’t you?”

He nodded. “Sometimes the job is to babysit someone, like when I trained Gabriel. It helps to have different games you like to play that can be done with two players. And this one I really enjoy, so I talk everyone I can into playing it.”

She smiled, pleased that he wanted to share one of his favorite pastimes with her. “Then let’s play. I want to learn how to kick your butt.”

He chuckled. “You can try, newbie.”

They played quietly for a while, Barney correcting her as she learned the game. Heather was enjoying herself more than she wanted to admit, groaning when the cards didn’t go her way and laughing like a lunatic when they did. Barney watched her with open affection, touching her hand or stroking her hair and making her blush. By the time they’d finished the first game, she could picture doing this with him on quiet nights, sipping wine and just enjoying each other.

“What has you smiling like that?” Barney’s tone was soft as he reset the pegs.

She shrugged, unwilling to share her vision of a happy life with him. “Nothing.”

“Mm-hm.” He shuffled the cards, dealing them out deftly. Barney was turning out to be remarkably gentle despite his size and growly exterior.

But that didn’t mean he wasn’t without his own worries, and it was her job as his mate to try and ease them. “How’s the investigation going? Have Derrick and Casey Lee gotten back to you?”

He grimaced. “Yeah, but they’re having a hard time getting anything out of anyone. Since they aren’t Hunters, they don’t have instant access to people the way I do, so they have to do things differently. Add in the fact that they can’t tell anyone
why
they’re questioning them, and it gets awkward fast.”

“What do you mean they’re doing things their way?” Heather had barely met the mercs, and what she’d seen made her uneasy. Chloe trusted them, but Heather wasn’t so sure. Casey Lee was funny, but Derrick? He looked like he ate babies for breakfast and drank kitten smoothies just because.

“They’re probably doing things I’d rather not know about. I prefer to do things the legal way, or at least legal by shifter standards.” He sighed, putting his cards on the table. “I feel like I’m running around in circles, and all the answers are somewhere in a square or an octagon.”

She bit her lip, uncertain what to do for him. He looked so frustrated she wanted to help in the worst way. “Is there anything I can do?”

His gaze bored into her. “Just talking to you helps.” He made a disgruntled face, glancing away from her. “That sounds so fucking lame.”

She patted his hand. “I liked it. Very suave.”

He chuckled and turned back to her. “I try.” But the humor didn’t last long. “I keep thinking that if I can figure this all out then everything will be fine, but I know that’s wrong.”

She squeezed his hand, hoping to convey her feelings, confused though they were. “Gabe and Alex both told me this thing with the white shifters has been going on for longer than any of us thought. This goes deeper than just Chloe or Julian.”

He stared at her intently. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

She blinked, startled. “Me?”

Barney nodded. “What’s going on in that little Hobbit brain of yours?”

“I keep telling you I’m not
that
short. And I swear my toes aren’t hairy.” She made sure the blanket covered her feet, just in case he decided to check. There might be a
little
fuzz on her big toes, but he didn’t need to know that.

He smiled, but didn’t comment.

“You sure you want to know what I think?”

He nodded firmly. “Give it to me.”

She took a deep breath. “Why are they going after white shifters? And why children of mixed parentage? What’s the connection between them? They’re killing kids, Barney. There has to be a connection there somewhere.”

“You think there’s something linking white shifters and mixed blood?”

Heather shrugged. “You have a better idea?”

“It’s something to look into.” Barney freed his hand and scratched his chin. “It’s definitely something I can have Derrick and Casey Lee look into. I’ve had the same thought, but I didn’t want to focus all my attention in that direction in case I was wrong.”

She could understand that. It made sense not to get hooked, only to find out the trail you’d been following led to a dead end. “Birth and death records should be easy to access.”

“If there’s a greater instance of white shifters among those of mixed parentage it would explain why they’re going after those kids.”

She held up her hand. “There’s one problem, though. Chloe’s of mixed blood, but the Kermode are not.”

Barney held up his finger as if making a point. “But not all Kermode have Kermode children. They bite their mates, and if they’re human the spirits determine what kind of shifter their mate becomes. They might not even become a Bear.”

“Really?” She’d never heard of such a thing. As far as she knew, if you bit a human, they became the same kind of shifter as you. A Fox created a Fox, a Bear created a Bear. “Does that mean that Chloe could bite someone and have them become, say, an Ocelot?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

“Then maybe we should find one.”

He gently tapped her forehead. “What’s this ‘we’ shit? Your Hobbit ass is sitting right here and recovering, end of subject.”

“I can still use my brains, big guy. Trust me, the last thing I want to do is face another gun.” She shuddered, remembering last night’s nightmare. She’d been frozen, staring at the barrel of a gun that seemed the size of her head. There’d been no one there to save her, to keep her from—

Heather gasped as Barney pushed aside the hospital table and grabbed hold of her. He hugged her tight, his chin resting on top of her head. “Nightmares again?”

She nodded, unwilling to speak.

He grunted. “Would it help if I told you how brave you were?”

“Nope.” She snuggled in, sniffing at his shirt. His scent soothed her, driving back the memory of the nightmare. “Just…hold me for a sec.”

His grip tightened. “Can do, sweetheart.”

Barney sat with her, silent and still, the only sound his heartbeat and the hum of the machines she was hooked up to. The quiet, patient care he was showing her touched her far more deeply than any growl or snarl of protection could ever hope to. This contentment was something she’d thought she wouldn’t have with him.

She’d been wrong, and she couldn’t be happier about it.

“What are you smiling about?”

The smile she hadn’t even known she had widened. “It’s a secret.”

He grumbled a bit, but even that was somehow adorable. And that, too, was a secret she’d never tell him.

“I have to wonder, was the attack on you when you were a child meant to kill you?”

“What do you mean?” She didn’t understand what he was saying, but a shiver worked its way down her spine.

“When you were attacked and Alex saved you. Is it possible you were targeted because you’re mixed blood?” Barney’s arms tightened around her, making it difficult to breathe.

“That’s…scary.” She pushed against him and he eased his hold. “That’s super scary.”

“Yeah.” He rested his chin on her head and began rocking her. It wasn’t clear to her if he was comforting her, or himself. “Adrian has set guards on your door. Chloe’s too.”

“I saw.” The Pumas had waved to her, both of them ensuring her that they were volunteers. One even mentioned having protected the Poconos Pack Luna when she’d been severely injured saving Adrian Giordano’s mate, Sheri, from being run down. “So Max knows what’s going on.”

“And if Max knows, then the Little General knows too. Don’t be surprised if you get a visit from her.”

She laughed at Barney’s description of the female Alpha of the Puma Pride. Emma Cannon was known for her bossiness, but she had a heart of gold. “I’m looking forward to it.”

“Lord help us all,” Barney muttered into her hair.