AllFreeNovel
Share Us
From what she could hear, the chopper was still some distance away. She was almost certain it wasn’t Sean or Colby, but even if it was, subduing Clyde wouldn’t be a bad thing. Moving silently Winter charged forward from behind Clyde’s back. She wrapped her arm around his neck, applied pressure with her hand behind Clyde’s head and rendered him unconscious.
Winter continued to apply pressure until Clyde went limp and lowered him gently to the ground, dragging him back inside and sliding his belt from the loops of his jeans so she could bind his hands.
Winter looked around to see if there was another door that might facilitate her escape through the backside of the building. No such luck, and all the windows were too high to manage as a human. Reaching up, she removed the iron collar from her neck and then leaned down to close it around Clyde’s. She was just coming back to a vertical position when the door burst open, and Sean filled the doorway.
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Where the hell have you been? I hung around waiting like a good little mate to be rescued, but when it took so long, I decided to rescue myself.”
Relief flooded Sean’s face and came rolling down the link to her. “You’re such a greedy, impatient mate.” He glanced over at Clyde’s inert body. “You could have at least let me tie him up for you,” he teased in a mock-grumpy tone of voice.
Winter closed the distance between them in a rush, flinging herself into his arms and kissing him with a fiery passion. “Next time, I’ll make sure to share.”
Sean chuckled. “Yeah, next time.”
CHAPTER18
WINTER
Sean flipped on his two-way radio. “I have her. I repeat, I have her, and may I say my mate is a complete and total badass.”
She laughed as he brought his mouth back down on hers, kissing her with unbridled passion. He could hear their backup rumbling down the drive, but he didn’t care. She was alive, seemed relatively unhurt, and the only thing stronger than his lust rolling down the link to her was hers pushing back up to him.
“Okay, you two, knock it off or get a room,” said the sheriff as he and Colby entered the warehouse.
“She took the sonofabitch down and then used his belt as handcuffs and put him in an iron collar. Smart, sexy, and bad-to-the-bone,” replied Sean.
“Oh, God,” groaned Jax. “Tell me they’re leaving. Tell me he’s taking Winter back to the Highlands.”
“What’s the matter, Jax? Think I’ll be a bad influence on the other female shifters?”
“You already are.”
“Weren’t you worried at all about me?” she teased the Kodiak bear-shifter.
“You? Oh, hell, no. Only the good die young. God isn’t ready for you, and the devil is afraid you’ll take over. I have to say I’m not sure I don’t think the devil is right.” He shook his head and grinned at Winter. “Seriously, though, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Clyde there just backhanded me a couple of times.” Setting her on her feet, Sean growled. “Let me reiterate, I’m fine. I deliberately kept him alive, as I think he may have new or at least additional information for us.”
“Sean, why don’t you take Winter back to Windsong? I’ll send two of my men with you. The rest of us can go introduce our friend here to the Mystic River jail.”
Sean noticed that Colby no longer referred to Windsong as Winter’s home. “See that’s the problem with all these modern homes—” .
“Modern? Windsong was built in the late eighteenth century,” protested Colby.
“Aye, modern. Curaidh was one of the fortresses the English have never been able to conquer—from William Wallace to Bonnie Prince Charlie, Curaidh has served as a bastion against invaders. And as I was saying, the problem with Windsong and modern estates is that you don’t have proper dungeons.”
Colby grinned. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
Jax shook his head. “I do not want to hear this in my official capacity as sheriff. Sean, if you’ll take Winter back to Windsong, I’ll send Derek out there tomorrow to get her statement.”
Winter stiffened in his arms. “Do you hear that?” Thewhosh! Whosh! Whosh!of the approaching helicopter was growing in volume. “It sounds too small to be one of ours,” she said to Colby.
“And I didn’t order any air support,” replied Colby.
It occurred to him again that Winter wasn’t like other she-cats. He could easily understand why Colby had chosen her as his second-in-command. He could almost see the wheels spinning in her head, trying to make sense out of the information they had.
Two of Colby’s people had lifted the semi-conscious wolverine shifter to his feet. The bound man grimaced as he tried to call for his shifted self, but the iron collar kept him from doing so. As the helicopter rounded the bend in the river, an enormous searchlight was directed at them so that they all had to cover their eyes to shield them from the bright light. The chopper leveled off and began to hover as bullets started to fly.
Without thinking, Sean flung Winter to the ground, covering her with his own body as he pulled the borrowed SIG out of its holster at the small of his back. He wasn’t sure who all returned fire or who actually hit the chopper or perhaps one or more of the men inside, but it suddenly swerved up and away. Sheriff Miller, Colby, and Derek all walked towards the river’s edge, continuing to shoot at the helicopter.
