Dreaming of the Wolf (Heart of the Wolf #8)(70)

When they reached the landing, a short wall half-protected a suited man with his gun aimed for a kill, but Jake saw the man before he could fire the shots. Jake ducked into a crouch behind the wall. Three pops rang in the air. Three bullets slammed into the wall behind Jake with a thunk, thunk, thunk.

Peter whipped around the low wall at a crouch and fired, hitting the man twice in the arm and making him drop his weapon. The man collapsed on the floor and passed out. Jake cursed under his breath and then rushed forward to feel the injured man’s pulse. His pulse was thready, but the man was alive.

“He’s alive,” Jake called out, loud enough for Alicia and Tom to know that everyone was all right.

The injured man wasn’t a wolf. Someone else had been here, though, who was a male werewolf.

Jake kicked the gun away from the gunman and then rummaged through his pockets, looking for any ID. None. Not that he’d expected to find any.

Peter stalked into the bathroom. “No one in the laundry room or bathroom,” he said.

“Call the local police, Peter. We’ll have him hauled off and then take care of our business here.”

Surprisingly, nothing seemed to be out of place. Jake assumed that was an attempt by Mario’s man to give the appearance that no one had been there. Then if Alicia had arrived, she would have felt safe as she entered her apartment. The man would have waited like a venomous snake until she reached the bedroom and then would have pounced on her.

The bedcovers were tousled where the gunman appeared to have been lying down, waiting for Alicia to show up. He must have heard them downstairs, thinking Alicia had come home. Jake wondered just how long the man had been here waiting for her. Maybe only since the night before because the men seemed to have been tailing her before they lost her at the Crestview Motel.

Mario might have thought she’d finally return here with no place else to go.

Jake headed back down the stairs as Peter watched the man while calling the shooting in to the police. “This is Sheriff Peter Jorgenson of Silver Town, calling about a shooting incident at 452 Sunnybrook Apartments.”

Jake caught Alicia’s pale features as he hurried to join her at the front door. “The man’s passed out but just wounded. He won’t be firing another gun for a good long while.” He took her in his arms and gave her a heartfelt embrace. “If you’re up to it, do you want to look at him and see if he’s anyone you recognize?”

“Yes, of… course.” Even though her speech was hesitant, she seemed resolute about getting this over and done with.

He rubbed her back. “The police will be here soon. They’ll have more questions to ask you, I’m afraid. But at least Peter shot the man, who had fired his weapon first. Although I am licensed to carry a gun. All of us are, just in case we need to be. He’s human, Alicia. But a wolf has been on the premises.”

“I smelled the wolf, but I wouldn’t know who he is.” She looked toward the stairs. “My mother’s things are upstairs in a linen closet.”

He took her cold hand and led her up the stairs. She took a steadying breath at the top of the stairs and moved closer to the man, who was stirring now as Peter stood over him. Peter shoved his cell phone into his pocket. “Police are on their way.”

The man’s eyes suddenly popped opened. He groaned and grabbed his bloodied arm. He saw Peter first, wearing the forest-green shirt and khaki trousers and the gold seven-point star badge identifying him as a sheriff. At that sight, the man grew very still, his dark eyes round.

“Why did Mario send you?” Jake asked, his voice low and cold, which had the man jerking his head around to see Jake standing with Alicia, his hand at her stiff spine.

His gaze quickly shot to Alicia’s. She said, “This man was a friend of the guy my mother was seeing. So much for being anyone’s friend in their organization.”

The man narrowed his eyes at Alicia. “Friends take care of friends. If they turn traitorous, you stick with the guy with the most firepower.”

“So why did Mario have your friend killed? Was Tony trying to take over the business?” Jake asked.

Sirens sounded in the distance, and when the man wouldn’t answer, Jake urged again, “What about Alicia? Why does Mario want her dead?”

The gunman’s gaze again swung to her. “He doesn’t want her dead.”

She was barely breathing now. Jake rubbed her back. “Then what?”

The guy gave a half shrug with his good arm and groaned again. “Hell, he wants her. I dunno why. But despite her killing one of our guys and shooting another, Mario wants her. Alive. Frankly, none of us gets it.” He cast an evil half smirk at Alicia, as if to say Mario would get his way, then she’d pay.

Tom shouted up the stairs, “Police and paramedics are here.”

The sirens cut out in the parking lot.

“Send them up, Tom.” Then Jake growled at the injured man, “If you see Mario, tell him Alicia’s off-limits.”

“And who should I say said so?” The guy gritted his teeth and squeezed his bloodied arm tighter as they heard the front door open and Tom telling them the man was upstairs, wounded but disarmed.

“Jake Silver,” Jake said. “Of Silver Town.”

Might as well give Mario an invitation to visit the pack. See if he had the fortitude to try and grab Alicia there. If he was a wolf, and Jake was beginning to think so, they’d have to take him down in their own territory where they could handle the matter much more discreetly.