Page 33 of Bad Medicine

I looked up from my computerwhen the door opened once again and Joe came back in. He wasn’t, however,alone. There were two Stone Moon wolves at his back, and one of them washolding a gun to the back of Joe’s head.

ChapterSixteen

I jumped up and Joe flinched asthe goon shoved his gun harder against his skull. “Sit back down,” the wolf onthe left said. “Sit the fuck down.”

I sat.

They shoved Joe into the chairhe’d just left, gun still firmly in place. “The clients?” I asked him.

“We told them you were closingearly and they should go on along home,” the wolf said. He smiled. “They didn’targue.”

He was a big man who looked vaguelyfamiliar, and I was sure I’d seen him at one time or the other, maybe in thewoods of Huntersburg when Adam Thorne and his goons had taken my mother.“Derek,” I said. “Right?”

“Eric,” he corrected. “But I’msure that wouldn’t make a difference to you.”

“Not really,” I agreed. “I justlike knowing the names of people before I kill them.”

He and the one holding the gunexchanged quick looks, both of them smirking. That they weren’t worried at allmade me a little nervous.

“My friend here is Wayne. And neitherone of us is going to die.”

“Kait,” Joe said, his voicestrained. “They took Max.”

“See,” Eric said, “my alphaknows you. He knows that to control you, he only has to control the ones youcare about. He said you think you have to protect the world—and especially thehumans in it.”

I could see in his eyes thatJoe was about to do something very, very foolish. He was boiling with rage, andthough I understood, I knew that if he attempted to leap up and fight the twowolves, he would die. They already had Max. It wouldn’t take much for them todispose of Joe.

“Joe,” I said, calmly. “They’regoing to take me. I need you to find the detective and the alpha and tell themwhat happened.” The alpha would make sure my mother and Lucy were protected.“Jared will burn Stonebridge to the ground,” I told the two wolves. “Yourpack—and your alpha will die for this. I’m giving you one chance to walk away,Eric. Take it.”

Two more wolves came into theroom. One of them was a female I’d had trouble with before, Elaine was hername. I’d punched her for being disrespectful to the elders, and I could onlyimagine her joy at having a chance to pay me back for that.

“We’re not taking you toStonebridge,” Eric said. “That’s not where Max is, either. Adam isn’t thatstupid—and your alpha isn’t going to waste time fucking up innocent packmembers while you’re out there somewhere…suffering.”

Again with the smile. I wasn’tsurprised. Adam like surrounding himself with sadistic warriors.

“Adam Thorne doesn’t have theguts to torture me,” I said, though I didn’t entirely believe it.

“Adam isn’t going to tortureyou,” Elaine said, coming closer. “He’s leaving that shit to us. And we’regoing to make him proud.” She went to Joe and caressed his face. “You’ll tellthem everything. Have Jared ready to answer his phone and blast it on speaker,because we want all the ones who’ll feel it the hardest to hear their littlemutant wolf cry.”

“She really will kill you,” Joemurmured. “All of you. You’re dead. I hope you said goodbye to your families.”Then he did what I’d sincerely hoped he wouldn’t do. He grabbed her around thethroat and leaped to his feet, and headbutted Eric even as he slung Elaine intothe wolf who’d come in with her.

I moved too, leaping over mydesk, my wolf roaring as my hands became hers…but the wolves were too close toJoe, and the gunman hit him hard with the gun. As Joe staggered, turning with aroar toward the man, Eric punched him in the face. And if he held back hiswolf’s strength, it wasn’t by much. But they didn’t really want to kill Joe.They wanted him to be their messenger.

Still, the wolf with the gunheld the weapon to Joe’s back. “I don’t want to kill him, but I can make it sohe’ll never walk again. And if you fuck with us, your little buddy Max willsuffer before we kill him. You want that, come at me.”

“We have to control you,” Ericsaid, the purple egg-sized contusion on his forehead already healing. “Youunderstand that.”

“Yeah.”

“We know what you did inScarlett’s,” Elaine said. “We know you have some sort of crazy power, that youjust might be able to take us all out. So…” She pulled a flask from her coatpocket and set it on my desk, apparently unwilling to get too close to me.“Drink up.”

“What is it?” But I knew. Wateror alcohol laced with silver, and as a double precaution, Lennon would havespelled the hell out of the drink. When they had me weak and ineffectual, theywere going to try their best to kill me. But they’d make sure to drag it out,because they—and most of all Adam Thorne—wanted Jared to hear it when theydestroyed me.

“Why are you doing this?” Iasked. “I mean, what does Adam hope to gain from taking me?”

“You know what the long planis,” Eric said. “Adam wants the county. He wants the state. And more than justabout anything else, he wants to see the end of Jared Walker. He’s going totake over the Gray Shadow pack and all that comes with it.”

“And maybe he’ll keep you,”Elaine said. “Chained like an animal, caged for the rest of your life.” Sheshrugged. “Unless we kill you. Now pick up the flask.”