Atticus by R.E. Butler

Chapter Fourteen

Lori startled awake—someone was slapping her cheek repeatedly. She tried to put her hand up to ward another blow, but her hands were tied. She opened her eyes, blinking away the fuzziness around the edges.

Her memories flooded back swiftly. Keir had kidnapped her, and she’d lost consciousness while she was hauled away from work.

She was sitting next to a tree, her hands tied together. She patted her pockets with her bound hands.

No phone!

“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble.”

She held back the shudder at hearing Keir speak to her again after all these years. She lifted her eyes to look at him. He was just like she remembered—handsome in an arrogant sort of way, but now he looked haggard, with stubble on his cheeks and dark circles under his eyes.

“Let me go.”

“Nah.”

Three guys who looked somewhat familiar appeared near them; two looked similar to Keir and one didn’t. They all looked at her with varying degrees of disgust.

“We didn’t find her phone,” one of the guys said.

“Damn it,” Keir said. “Well, no matter. Tell me your daughter’s number so I can call her.”

Alarm filled her. Not just no, but hell no!

She pressed her lips together and shook her head.

He squatted in front of her and gripped her chin, his fingers digging painfully into her skin. “You won’t stop me from getting her. There’s too much on the line.”

“I don’t think she wants to talk,” one of the guys said with a dark chuckle.

“She will,” Keir said.

He released his hold on her, and she inhaled sharply. He toyed with his phone. “Tell me her number. This will all be over soon, and you’ll be at peace. But if you make me force the information out of you, you’re going to have a terrible last few hours on this planet.”

Her eyes stung but she blinked away the tears. Hearing him say for certain he was going to kill her was a new kind of hell. She wished she’d trusted her instincts and called Atticus before things went south. She wished she’d just quit the damn job and stayed safe in the park. Because she knew now that the park was safe from Keir and his goons. They wanted her to draw Novi out of the park so they could kill her too.

First, she thought she’d try lying and see what that got her.

“I don’t have her number memorized. If you could find my phone, then I could get it for you. Without it, I can’t tell you.”

He moved so fast she didn’t see his fist flying at her face, but she sure felt it. Her head smacked back against the tree as pain exploded in her nose and lips. She tasted blood and her vision went wonky for a moment.

She wheezed out a sound that was half cry and half laugh.Holy fuck that hurt!

He wrenched a hand into her hair and twisted until she yelped at the sharp pain. She reached for him with her bound hands, but he was out of her reach. “Just tell me what I want to know. You owe it to me to let me end this quickly. It’s been two fucking decades that I’ve been looking for you!”

She spat out blood and sniffled. Damn her nose hurt. “I don’t owe you anything.”

He growled. Honest-to-crap growled. His eyes changed color to an icy blue that was just like Novi’s when she got emotional.

For the last two decades, she’d pushed away the thoughts of how different Keir was from other men. She didn’t want to think about what it meant that he was truly different. Trulyother.

His lips parted and fangs appeared, and another deep growl rumbled from him.

“You stole my life from me!” He gripped her throat and squeezed. She gasped and clawed at his wrist, but she couldn’t budge him. “You know what I am. You know what your daughter, that abomination, is and you know why you both have to die.”

“I don’t know anything,” she wheezed, her lungs burning as he squeezed tighter.

He ripped his hand away with a snarl. “Fucking liar.”

“Just let me go. Whatever you think I know, I don’t. You’ve been stalking me for twenty years; you know I’ve never told anyone.”

“What about that animal you’re fucking now?” he said. “You think I believe for a second that you don’t know what he is?”

Lori frowned. Atticus?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

But did she?

“Get me her number or suffer!” Keir let out a roar that made her ears hurt and this time, Lori couldn’t stop the tears.

She was going to die, somewhere in the woods, and she didn’t get to say goodbye to Novi or Atticus.

While she wasn’t feeling particularly courageous with the four guys threatening her and Keir on some kind of animal-fueled warpath, she hiked up her big girl panties and went full-on momma bear. “Fuck. You.”

* * *

Atticus picked up Lori’s scent at the side of the building and followed it to the back where it abruptly ended.

“Damn it,” he murmured. He put his hands on his hips and closed his eyes, reaching out to his gorilla and the part of him that felt connected to Lori. While he could feel her in some ways in his heart, he had no idea what direction she was in.

“Hey, come inside. The manager’s cueing up the video cameras,” Caesar said.

Atticus hurried to follow the alpha lion inside the store. “I’m Alana, the shift manager. I didn’t see Lori get taken, but I saw her phone on the ground and realized she was gone. You can see the security footage.”

“Do you have her phone?”

“Yep, here,” she said. She handed it to Atticus.

It wouldn’t do him any good because she didn’t have it on her person for tracking, but holding it made him feel a little better.

They watched the grainy footage of the front and side of the building. A big male caught Lori around the waist and clamped a hand over her mouth and nose. She struggled but couldn’t get free. When she went limp, he hauled her over his shoulder and rushed into the woods with three other males. One of them stopped to spray something into the air, the cloud dispersing quickly.

“Is that helpful? Do you know who took her?” Alana asked.

Atticus shook his head. “No.”

“Should I call the police?” Alana asked, wringing her hands.

“I’ve already made the call,” Atticus lied. There was no way they were going to involve the human police. “Thank you for your help.”

“Of course,” ALAN

Their group left the store and headed toward the woods where Keir had carried off Lori. “I don’t smell her at all,” Atticus said.

“Whatever they sprayed seems like it masked their scent,” Caesar said. “I don’t smell anything either.”

“Sorry I’m late,” a male said.

Atticus looked at Thomas in surprise. Joss clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for coming. What do you need?”

“Something of hers.”

“What’s going on?” Atticus asked.

“He’s a tracker, the best damn one ever. But we need to get into the woods so he can change,” Joss said.

“You can find her?” Atticus asked, hope blooming within him.

“I’m going to do my damnedest,” Thomas said.

They walked into the woods behind the shop, leaving their vehicles behind. He didn’t smell anything but the woods as they walked. Whatever they’d sprayed, it had effectively covered their scents.

Thomas stripped. “Keep up with me once I catch a scent.”

“Good luck,” Atticus said.

Thomas nodded and shifted into a wolf. Atticus squatted down and let him smell Lori’s phone. He snuffled all over it and then he moved away from the group, lifting his muzzle and inhaling deeply. He moved slowly away, slightly changing direction as he moved. A little to the left, then the right. A little more to the right.

Then his whole body tensed, his hackles rising, and he took off.

“Fuck!” Atticus shouted as he raced after the male. He was damn fast.

He could hear his friends behind him, but he wasn’t worried about whether they could keep up. He just had to keep the wolf in sight.

He heard a roar echoing in the woods, and it spurred him on. It was definitely the roar of an animal that didn’t live in New Jersey naturally.

A polar bear.

Atticus’s gorilla rose to the surface, ready to challenge the male and rescue Lori.

He would not fail.