Protection (To Love And Defend Book 5) Page 4

  Chapter 3

  The first thing that Adrian thought of in response to her absurd question was that she was crazy. Being the reasonable man that he was, Adrian instead said, “That’s crazy.”

  A slight distraction. She versus that. In this case, both Kiera and her idea were crazy.

  The cop opened her mouth, but Adrian continued, “I’m just a banker, remember? And you already said I’m not a strong wolf.”

  She raked her gaze over his muscles. “I don’t know how you aren’t considering you go to the gym more than most jocks and you are just a banker.”

  “If you want me to even consider your crazy scheme, you might not want to insult me.”

  Kiera whipped out a pad of tickets and began to write.

  Was she serious?

  “I know it’s not on board. I know it’s asking a lot of you. I know I shouldn’t ask you. Clearly, I’m desperate. We’re short-handed. We’re doing the best we can, and I know you’ll never be pleased with our efforts, but do you realize that there are now only five werewolf police officers? Several have died in the line of duty. We’re trying to keep that hush, hush so that thugs like Peter don’t try stupid shit, but we can’t keep an eye on everyone. Everyone knows all of the werewolf police officers, so it’s not as if we can have one of them go undercover. While I do trust the humans we work with, I’m not about to put them in the line of fire when they have no idea what they’ll be going up against, who they’ll be going up against.”

  “I understand that, but why me? Just because Peter tried to recruit me or because you actually think I can do it without getting myself killed?”

  “I’m a cop. I’m in the business of helping people, not putting them in danger.”

  “That’s exactly what you’re asking of me!” Adrian slammed his palm against the steering wheel.

  “I realize that,” she said quietly. “The world’s gone mad. Five years now we haven’t had an alpha. I’m surprised other packs haven’t tried to come by and take us over.”

  “It’s not like we’re a huge city,” Adrian muttered.

  “I realize that, but a lot more than just the werewolves in our pack are at stake. This is serious.”

  “Can’t you just arrest Peter?”

  “On what charges?” She paused in her writing.

  “Anything. Pin a murder on him. There’s no way his paws are clean.”

  “I’m not a dirty cop,” she said, scowling.

  “Even though that lie could save countless lives?” he countered.

  “Would it though?” she asked quietly. “He would never take being arrested easy. He could very well kill more cops. I don’t know who his followers are. Any one of them could take his spot and go ahead with the plans. If he’s still recruiting yet, then he doesn’t feel like he has enough control of the situation to take over the town. We might have time to make an organized move against not only him but his true followers. It’s not just Peter we’re up against. Bringing him down isn’t going to solve the issue.”

  Adrian was silent. She had brought up a lot of good points.

  “At this point, the entire pack will be dead—” she started.

  “Before someone is wolf enough to take charge and be a real alpha,” he finished with her.

  Scowling, she narrowed her eyes. “I don’t understand why someone hasn’t tried to.”

  “Plenty have tried. They’ve all been killed.”

  “It’s not about fighting to the top. It’s about being a leader. Someone who can unite everyone again.” Kiera tore off the ticket but didn’t hand it to him. “Will you at least consider it?”

  “No.”

  “You’re nothing more than a coward, Adrian. That’s all you were before. That’s all you are now. I get why you lift weights. You want everyone to think you’re a big, bad wolf so they’ll leave you alone. Peter doesn’t realize that he’s recruiting a lap dog instead of a wolf.”

  She tossed him the ticket, which fluttered to his lap.

  “Don’t worry about it,” she continued coolly. “I’ll find another way to stop him.”

  Her boots stomped against the pavement as she returned to her car. Within a few seconds, she drove away.

  Adrian turned around and drove back home. He was not in a good place right now. All he had wanted to do was try to make sure there wasn’t any riffraff going on. Now, a jackass was trying to recruit him in a dangerous power struggle that could result in a war between humans and werewolves. Worse, a cop was trying to get him, a civilian with no training at all, to go undercover and try to learn all the details about it.

  Once Adrian parked in front of his house, he picked up the ticket. She had written her phone number on it.

  In case I change my mind.

  What had Kiera been thinking to ask him to do something like that? He wasn’t a hero.

  As Adrian slowly climbed out of his car and walked to his front door, he realized something. He might have made a terrible mistake by killing Melvin. Yes, he might have died from his wounds. That would have forced the Hazel Park werewolves to either accept Alexis’ lover as their new alpha or else kill him. Obviously, preventing that had been ideal, but maybe Melvin should have survived. Then, Adrian and the others could have confronted Melvin together as a unified front. They could have chosen someone to fight him.

  Then again, Melvin had been challenged once more. Melvin had won. He had brutally attacked and savaged the rival. The alpha had wanted to put on a show so that no one else would dare to rise up against him, and no one had.

  “Kiera hates me,” Adrian muttered as he entered his house and locked the door behind him. “But if she only knew that I was the one to start all of this mess. All of those deaths are on me.”

  Adrian should be going to bed. Instead, he went to the kitchen and grabbed himself a beer out of the fridge. He needed something stronger, but for now, this would have to suffice.

  Chapter 4

  Kiera Turner couldn’t recall the last time she had been this upset. She had thought Peter was trying to organize something, but she hadn’t been sure. Spotting Peter talking to Adrian had struck her as odd. As far as she knew, the two weren’t friends.

  Now that she knew what Peter was planning, Kiera didn’t have time to be appalled. She had to act, yet her hands were tied. For years, she had been trying to follow the law, but the law wasn’t enough, not when the werewolves were doing whatever the hell they wanted.

  There had been a few other alpha-less packs throughout history, and the results had always been the same. Without an alpha, werewolves tended to be more basic, more bitter, more animalistic, angrier, less kind and caring.

  Every night for years now, it was always the same, breaking up fights. Every two to three weeks, she had to bury another werewolf. It was disheartening.

  But she couldn’t give up, wouldn’t. Her mother had been an officer before Kiera. Her father had been one too, but he had died before Kiera was born. A domestic violence case between two werewolves had ended when both the husband and her father had been killed.

  Justice was all Kiera had ever wanted. Not revenge. The female werewolf who had killed her father and her husband had gone on to kill herself, which wasn’t an easy feat for a werewolf.

  Justice. Maybe that was just a fairytale. Maybe they were too far gone that even a new alpha couldn’t bring them back.

  No. She refused to give up hope. Things would get better.

  That damn Adrian Hawkins. Kiera didn’t understand him. He had seemed like he could be a good guy, but he didn’t quite take that extra step. She had been keeping an eye on him. How couldn’t she? She had the night shifts, and he was often walking the sidewalks. If she hadn’t noticed him, she wouldn’t have been doing her job. He tried to break up fights, which was good and all, but the one time he hadn’t, two werewolves had ended up dead. Why those werewolves weren’t the best of people, they didn’t deserve to die. Killing each other wasn’t the way.

  Kiera turned the corner and s
niffed. She tended to keep her windows rolled down at all times. Her enhanced sense of smell alerted her to the faint scent of fur. It was a subtle scent unless the fur was wet, and she had to sniff some more to be certain that she was smelling a werewolf and not a dog or car. Yes, a werewolf.

  She pulled over and killed the engine. If she strolled along in her patrol car, the werewolf would be scared off. Slinking into the shadows, Kiera followed her nose from a busy street full of open bars and nightclubs toward the poorer section of town. One of the closed stores had graffiti painted on the side, and the next store over had a busted window.

  Kiera darted across the street to an alley and hesitated, listening, smelling.

  “You think you can mess with my girl?” a low voice grumbled.

  The reply was too muffled for Kieta to hear.

  “The hell she ain’t my girl!”

  Kiera shook her head. A fight was brewing, yes, but she had smelled a werewolf. Both of these fools weren’t werewolves, or if they were, they were in their human form. She sniffed again. Yes, a wolf was on the prowl yet.

  The cop turned around in time to see a body drop. It collided with the ground, flat on its back. The stench of blood nearly overwhelmed her, but Keira had the sense to look up and caught a glance of fangs and a furry snout.

  The werewolf was on the roof.

  Kiera dashed over to the fire escape and pressed a code into her walkie-talkie that alerted the werewolves on the police force to her location. They would arrive and have to take care of the body while she handled the werewolf killer.

  By the time she reached the roof, the werewolf was gone, but she didn’t stop running. She raced to the edge of the roof and jumped onto the next one. So long as the killer remained a werewolf, she could track him.

  It wasn’t until she jumped two more roofs that she spied him up ahead. He was racing along, yet his paws hardly touched the roofs with any weight. He was silent. A silent killer.

  He had shoved a human off the roof. Most likely a werewolf in human form, but a human regardless. Why? Most werewolves fought each other either as their humans or their wolves. That had been an unbalanced fight.

  Had it even been a fight? Had the human a gun? What if the human had actually been a human?

  Then, by global werewolf decree, the human would have to die. No human could know about the existence of werewolves and live. Although Kiera did not approve of that, she could not deny that it was necessary for the betterment of their species. Humans would hunt them down if they knew.

  Kiera jumped two more roofs, gaining on the werewolf, but then, the werewolf disappeared. She lost the scent. He must’ve turned back to human, and since he had led her back toward the bars and the hordes of people, she couldn’t pick up his individual scent.

  Kiera gritted her teeth and made her way back to the body. Her partner and best friend, Pamela Howe, stood there, taking photos.

  “Any idea who it is?” Kiera asked.

  “No wallet. No ID. We’ll have to try for a dental match.” Pamela shook her head. “Another one bites the dust.”

  “You mean another one meets the claw.” Kiera sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. Sometimes, she really hated her job.

  As they soon discovered, the dead werewolf was a grade school gym teacher. Why anyone would have murdered him was anyone’s guess. Hazel Park was definitely not a haven, that was for sure.

  Chapter 5

  The next morning, Kiera woke from the harsh sound of frantic knocking at her door. With a groan, she grabbed her gun, tucked it into the waistband of her underwear, tucked her long t-shirt over it, and went to the front door. After she peeked to see who it was, she groaned again.

  “What do you want, Hawkins?” she demanded as she opened the door.

  He opened his mouth but then gave her a slow once-over before snapping his gaze back to her eyes. She slept in a shirt that went a little past her ass. It wasn’t the tightest, but it did show off her boobs, and she was cold, so her nipples were hard enough to cut glass. That he looked didn’t make her embarrassed. He could look, yes, but he couldn’t touch, couldn’t have.

  “Cat got your tongue?” she finally asked to break the silence.

  “I wanted to ask you for tips on going undercover.”

  Not impressed, she opened the door and allowed him to come on in. Then, she shut the door. When she turned around, he blinked and glanced away. Staring at her ass most likely.

  “First tip? Simple. Don’t show up at a cop’s house. That might be a good start, especially when it’s an uninvited visit. And how the hell did you learn my address?”

  “It is a small town,” he said. “And Google is my friend.”

  “You know what?” She shook her head and ran her fingers through her hair. “I don’t think this is a good idea anymore.”

  “Why not?” he demanded. “You said so yourself that you can’t move against him yet, and you need to have info on his plan. This is more than just Peter. This is more than just Hazel Park. I can do this. I want to!”

  “Why?” she countered. “What makes you think you can handle the pressure? Being undercover isn’t for the faint of heart, and you have no training.”

  “I might’ve failed Dallas and Dexter, but I did manage to talk a few down from fighting each other to death. I can get people to calm down. You don’t get to be vice president without having to stand up to people. The best way to handle a potential client is with a winning smile, a no-nonsense attitude, and a desire to do whatever it takes to reach that end goal. It’s the same thing here.”

  “A winning smile will get you nothing from Peter,” she protested. “You’ll be found out as a spy the second you step foot into their lair.”

  “But even if you only learn their lair, wouldn’t that help?”

  “Only if they wouldn’t move it after learning about your betrayal!”

  “Trust me.”

  “I was wrong to ask you to even consider this.” She snorted.

  His gaze fell to her breasts. She crossed her arms over them.

  “Dude, if you’re that easily distracted, how the hell can you make it work?”

  “I’m not distracted. I was thinking!”

  “About my cup size?” she asked coolly.

  “No.” He blushed with embarrassment. “I bet you won’t believe me, but I have a tendency to stare off into space when I’m thinking. I honestly wasn’t looking at you. Well, I might’ve been, but I didn't actually see you.”

  “And just what were you thinking about?” she demanded.

  He shook his head.

  Kiera rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t be able to hack it. These are dangerous werewolves. Peter’s most likely killed several werewolves. His associates might’ve too. You wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

  “Promise you won’t arrest me,” Adrian said after a long moment of silence.

  “I’m not a nun or a priest. I don’t listen to confessions and absolve you of sins. If you broke the law—”

  “I did. I’m the one who did it.”

  “Did it? Did what, Hawkins?”

  “I killed Melvin.”

  “I think you better explain that statement,” Kiera said. She sank onto her love seat, casually pulled out her gun, and laid it on her lap.

  “He was dying, and I… Okay, let me back up. Do you know Alexis Luna?”

  “Yes. Melvin was asking about her a lot shortly before he died… was killed.” Kiera eyed him suspiciously. She knew better than to jump to conclusions, but it was hard not to. How could he have kept this to himself for so long? How could no one have known?

  And if he had killed the alpha, why wasn’t Adrian Hawkins their leader? Their alpha? Fury seared through her all over again at the thought of all of the werewolves who had been killed because of the anarchy that reigned since Melvin had died… since he had been murdered.

  Adrian was nodding. He hadn’t sat yet, and he made no move toward her couch now. “He wanted to find Alexis since she was missing
. I and a few other werewolves went with him. We found Alexis in Detroit with another werewolf. Melvin tried to say she had been kidnapped, but she hadn’t. She ran away and fell in love. She wanted to leave. Melvin didn’t want to let her. He… I don’t know if he loved her or just lusted after her, but he drugged and raped and others.”

  “Fuck,” Kiera breathed. “That was why you nearly bit my head off about that all those years ago.”

  “Yeah. Alexis and I had been close, but I had no idea. He and Alexis’ love fought, and Melvin was wounded badly. He fled, and we followed him home. He might’ve died from the wounds. He might’ve recovered.”

  “You wanted to make sure no one went after Alexis’ werewolf.”

  Adrian nodded.

  “And you wanted revenge for your friend.”

  “Maybe,” he muttered. “But I knew I wouldn’t be a good alpha. I don’t want it.”

  “Too much of a coward then. Admit it. You were afraid everyone and their brother would come after you.”

  “I didn’t want to be alpha. I still don’t,” he said angrily. He glanced away, and when he finally spoke again after a long pause, his voice was quieter, more subdued. “All the deaths are on me. I will do whatever it takes to bring down Peter. He can’t be allowed to succeed. His plan can’t happen, whether by him or someone else. With your permission or not, I’m going to do this.”

  He nodded to her and left without another word.

  Maybe she had underestimated him.

  Or maybe he was running off to get himself killed.

  Chapter 6

  The house where Peter Martin lived was larger than Adrian’s, but then it had been his family house, and Peter had been one of six. He had been the oldest, and all of them had been boys except for the youngest. All of them had been in and out of jail. Somehow, the house had survived despite them throwing wild parties whenever their parents went away on vacations. Shortly before Melvin died, Peter’s parents moved upstate and sold Peter the house. Or maybe just gave it to him. The Martins had money, although Adrian couldn’t recall what the father had done. Or Peter’s job either.