Running Free Page 11

  Her fingers tangle in my hair while I show her exactly what it is good boyfriends do. I take her closer and closer to the edge of sanity with each swirl of my tongue on her clit until I know she’s dangling over the edge.

  “Say it,” I demand, pulling just far enough away from her that all she can feel is my hot breath.

  “Damn you, Gun!”

  “I’m not getting you off until you admit you want me and we’re something. Say it, hádanka.”

  She relaxes and pushes me back to where she throbs for me. “Fine, I’m your woman. Now eat my pussy before I end up in the paper for homicide.”

  I’m smiling as I lick her a few more times until she’s shuddering and gasping for air. I don’t wait for her to catch her breath and am soon on my knees, fisting my cock as I position myself between her. Last time, I took her slow. This time, during make-up sex, I’m going to fuck my girl.

  With a hard thrust, I slam into her. She cries out and clutches the sheets beside her as I drive into her tight heat. “No more running, Frankie. We’re something. You got that?”

  Her wild eyes are on me as she nods frantically and when I push her knees against her chest, a sexy mewl escapes her. From this position, my balls slap her ass and I know it won’t be long before I’m coming too.

  She reaches around and clutches onto my balls, causing my vision to go black with pleasure. All of it — her contracting pussy, her sweet moans, and now her massaging my balls — I lose myself to a fucking epic climax.

  “That’s it, baby, take it all,” I say with a growl, as my nuts tighten and I pour into her, hot and furious.

  She wiggles her legs around me and I scoot closer to her, crushing her with my massive body. Despite her labored breaths, she’s happy as a fucking lark to have me on top of her this way. Slipping my hands into her hair, I kiss her in a way I hope conveys how much she means to me.

  “Make-up sex is kind of fun. Maybe we should fight more often,” she muses aloud.

  I chuckle and nibble her lip before rolling onto my back, dragging her on top of me. “As long as our next fight includes me spanking you, I guess I can get on board with it.”

  She swats at me but I seize her wrists and draw her to me for another kiss.

  “I fucking missed you, woman.”

  Her sigh into my mouth is one of contentedness and my heart pounds nearly through my chest for her. For as long as Carla and I were together, I never felt like I’d walk through the depths of hell for her. Sure, I would have protected her at all costs because she was my wife. But with Frankie, something’s different. It’s like she tethered her heart to mine and the only way to sever that link is death.

  I don’t plan on dying any time soon.

  And I’ll be damned if I let anything happen to her.

  I’m such a lovesick fool at the moment that I’m already wondering how I can talk her into moving in with me. She’s the independent type so I’ll have to tread lightly, this I know.

  “Suzie starts school soon,” she tells me, a smile upon her lips. “Otis wants to homeschool her but I think she needs to be around other kids her age.”

  I think about the dark-skinned little girl — so adorable and innocent. She’s lucky to have someone like Frankie in her life. With that thought, a dark one enters my mind.

  “Did you know a Jennifer Collins?” I blurt out.

  The smile on her face falls and she shakes her head. “Don’t say it, Gun. Please.”

  I hug her to me and stroke her back. “Last night. After you bolted, I got called in. I’m sorry, Frankie.”

  Frankie, the ever resilient and tough cookie, begins to cry and it guts me. Fucking guts me.

  “She was pregnant!”

  My belly drops at her admission and I swallow down the bile rising in my throat. “I’m so sorry, hádanka.”

  She sits up and glares at me, tears staining her pink cheeks. “We have to find who’s doing this. Some asshole has a vendetta against me! Was it Jared? I’ll break his fucking nose again and then I’ll—”

  “You’ll do nothing because it wasn’t him.” I sigh. “Babe, it was a bear.”

  “Fuck that,” she snarls and scrambles off me.

  “Where’re you going?” Panic spikes through me at the thought of her leaving me again. Her emotional outbursts are confusing.

  “I’m going to go kill this ‘so-called bear’ and end this today.” Her bare chest heaves each time she takes a furious breath.

  I climb out of the bed and pull her naked body against me. “Do you know how to shoot a shotgun?”

  She freezes in my arms. “Otis taught me.”

  “Good, then we’ll go bear hunting tonight. After your shift. It’s my damn job so I’ll already be on patrol looking for that fucker. But when you get off, you can come with me. The forest ranger said it’ll take a few shots to kill the damn thing.”

  “Thank you,” she says and relaxes into my arms. “I have to protect anyone else who knows me. I know it seems like a bear is doing this but trust me, Gunnar. There is more to this that you don’t understand.”

  I stroke her hair and kiss the top of her head. “Like what?”

  The missing puzzle piece. A big one.

  It’s like she’s clutching it behind her back — internally warring on whether or not she should give it to me.

  Hand it over, hádanka.

  Her sigh is loud and I know today won’t be the day I find out what it is she’s hiding. “Just more. Don’t rule out that there’s someone with ‘motives.’ This wild bear story just isn’t it. I can feel it.”

  “I trust you, Frankie. While you work your shift, I’ll keep following leads. When I pick you up at two, we’ll go hunting,” I tell her as I grip her ass. “But until your pretty little ass goes to work, I’m going to feed you.”

  She pulls away and gives me a saucy grin. “I’m in the mood for hot dogs.”

  My mind goes straight to the gutter and she giggles when my cock hardens between us.

  “No, really, Gun. You make the best hot dogs.”

  She’s still having a good laugh at my expense when Cutie Pie pushes through the bedroom door proudly carrying one of her boots. It’s been chewed all to hell.

  Oh, shit.

  “You little fucker!”

  I grin as I pull down a long gravel driveway. Earlier, Frankie was pissed that Cutie Pie ate not one but both of her boots and chewed her underwear all to hell. It was embarrassing that my dog dragged all of her clothes out of the house and into the backyard. He’s been such a good pup until today. I’m not quite sure what’s gotten into him.

  Pulling into the circular driveway, I park in front of the small cabin where smoke billows from the chimney. I snatch up my printed paper from the office and glance at it. Fitz and I have been combing the homes that dot the lake, questioning everyone if they know anything in regards to the Woodland Pond murders. So far, nothing’s turned up, but we keep trying despite the forest ranger’s belief the homicides were from a bear.

  My phone chimes with a text, interrupting my thoughts, so I pause to read it. Fitz. Earlier, I asked him to look up Joe Harrison to make sure he wasn’t fostering anymore kids and if he was to contact the local authorities to see about opening up an investigation. He’d told me he’d get back to me with an update.

  Fitz: Harrison died nine years ago. Murder. Apparently really fucking gruesome. Don’t have to worry about him touching kids anymore. The witness was underage and was attacked too but survived.

  The news should have me shouting from the damn rooftops for Frankie’s sake. Instead, I’m thrown yet another curveball. A part of me wants to connect this new puzzle piece to the crimes here in Woodland Creek. Another piece that links to Frankie.

  Frankie seems far from convinced that these murders had anything to do with a bear. I know I’m the detective here, but I can’t help but believe she’s right. If someone built the right kind of weapon, a knife that resembles the claws of a bear, it would be easy to throw the pol
ice off. And, duplicating bear prints wouldn’t be that difficult either.

  I’m with Frankie on this one.

  Something stinks.

  I can’t be convinced all these homicides, all teens who knew Frankie, are just fucking coincidence. Someone is out to ruin her.

  I climb out of my Tahoe and trot to the front door. My heavy footsteps clatter on the wooden porch steps and before I can raise my hand to knock, the door cracks open. A dog yaps like crazy in the background and I’m instantly on guard. Slipping my hand to my gun, I use the other to show the occupant my badge.

  “Woodland Creek PD. I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  The door opens further and a man, much larger than me, breathing like he just ran a fucking marathon fills the space. “About what?”

  His voice is gruff and a nasty scar runs down his forehead, splitting his eyebrow, and continues down his cheek to his jawbone. Beads of sweat are on his upper lip despite the cooler temperatures.

  I can’t hardly think with the dog going nuts and apparently he feels the same because he jerks his head over his shoulder to look back into the house. “Shut the fuck up.” I’m shocked that the dog quiets at his words but my hackles are raised by his odd behavior.

  “Do you know Jennifer Collins?”

  He shakes his head. “Nope. Never heard of the name.”

  I grit my teeth at his uncaring attitude. “Well, she was pregnant. And someone murdered her last night.”

  “Sucks to be her.”

  “Yeah,” I snap. “Sucks to be her. Can I ask you where you were between the hours of midnight and two in the morning?”

  He scowls at me and wipes at his brow with the back of his hand. “What are you insinuating?”

  “I’m not insinuating anything. I just need to know your whereabouts at that time.”

  “Here.”

  “Sir, I’m going to need to ask you to step outside for a minute.”

  Panic momentarily flashes over his features before he grunts and pushes through the opening of the door. He towers over me but I don’t back away. This dude is a massive motherfucker and I feel like he’s every bit capable of murdering those kids with his hands. My eyes drop down to his fisted hands and I attempt to inspect them before he shoves them into his jean pockets. It’s hard to see a damn thing out here in the dark.

  “What now?” he says with a growl.

  The hairs on my arms prickle as a realization steals over me. He reminds me of a bear. An unusual thought but one that seems important — one that I plan on addressing more thoroughly when I get back to Frankie. Could this guy be a…

  A bear?

  Like the so-called animal that’s been killing teens.

  It feels like a piece of the puzzle. It’s almost laughable but I’m not fucking laughing. I’m trying to solve a crime and I’m not ruling anything out.

  Another face pops up in my head. Suzie with her mop of unruly curls and wide, innocent eyes. She reminded me of the pup from the shelter and acted like she knew me when we met at the bar. Suzie’s name is oddly similar to Curly Sue. This, too, feels like a piece of the puzzle.

  A dog?

  Luca crosses my mind next. The thick, alpha motherfucker with eyes a familiar grey. A leader of his own pack of motorcycle riders but resembled that of the animal pack I encountered at that first dead body. Another piece of the puzzle.

  A wolf?

  My mind finally flits to Frankie. My hádanka. How does she fit in this equation? I know I’m right. I can feel this with every part of my being. Of course I can’t go blabbing my insane hypothesis about how half the people I know might be an animal to TJ or Fitz. No, this I’ll have to sort out on my own.

  And with Frankie’s help too.

  “What’s your name, sir?” I question the giant man.

  He scoffs as if I’ve offended him. “Some fucking cop you are.”

  Shit, another puzzle piece… one I’m not grasping.

  My police radio in the Tahoe goes nuts about the time my cell starts ringing. I give him a look that promises we’ll finish this later as I jog to the truck and answer my phone.

  “Gun!”

  Frankie is hysterical on the other line.

  “T-t-they hurt him! S-s-she’s gone!”

  I sling myself into the truck and tear out of the gravel drive, hauling ass toward the bar. “Who, Frankie? Who?”

  Her sobs are a jumbled mess. She needs to calm the fuck down so I can understand her. I hit the lights on my Tahoe so everyone will stay the hell out of my way. As she chokes out unintelligible words, I pick up codes on the police radio.

  217. Assault with attempt to murder.

  207. Kidnapping.

  Shit!

  “Frankie, calm down and make some goddamned sense!”

  She chokes out my worst fear. “Suzie… she’s gone. And Otis is barely alive.”

  “Stay there, I’ll pick you up,” I tell her as I swerve around a slowed car.

  “Gun, a b-b-bear hurt him. But… but… ”

  I turn on the street which leads to the bar and see her ugly truck sitting out front. “I know. I’m here. Get in.”

  Frankie

  “What happened?” he asks when I climb in.

  I’m still reeling at seeing Otis’s bloody chest, his dulled eyes. Before he passed out from blood loss, he told me it was a Bear shifter. I was pretty sure I’d known that was the being responsible for the deaths but I still couldn’t understand how it tied to me. Otis didn’t know the man.

  “Talk to me, Frankie. The truth.”

  I sigh, swiping the tears from my eyes, and turn in my seat to look at him. His handsome face is contorted into a pained, worried one. The truth is inevitable. He’ll hate me once he finds out what I am but I can’t afford to think about myself. He’s the smartest cop in this town and if anyone can get Suzie back in one piece, it’d be him.

  “There’s a lot you don’t know in this town, Gun. Hear me out. Don’t judge. Just do your cop thing and help me figure this shit out.”

  His nod is a clipped one but I trust that he’ll hold back on his feelings at least until we see this through.

  With a huff, I continue. “Otis is a shifter.”

  He widens his eyes and goes to speak but I wave him off. I need to get this all out before I chicken out.

  “He turns into an owl.”

  Something flickers in his eyes. He believes me. It spurs me on.

  “Anyway, the bear came for Suzie. Otis tried to fight him off but the old man was no match for the massive beast. Right before the bear delivered the kill shot, Otis shifted and managed to fly to the bar. He was too injured to rescue Suzie but knew if he could get to me, I could get you to find him before he hurts her.”

  He puts the car in reverse and peels out of the parking lot in the opposite direction of my house where the rest of the police department is processing the scene. I don’t ask him where he’s going, just keep blabbing the ridiculousness that is my life.

  “Otis said the bear is a shifter. Other shifters know these things — just trust me. So my suspicions are correct, this Bear shifter is killing these teens to get to me for some reason,” I say with a ragged sigh, knowing this all sounds insane. “Luca and the guys—”

  “Wolves.”

  I gape at him in wonder. “Well, Luca. Winston is a Tiger shifter. A couple are bear-shifters. Several are Wolf shifters including Luca. He’s their pack leader.” My pack leader — but I leave that part off.

  “And?” he urges me to continue.

  “Suzie is a—”

  “Toy poodle.”

  Shit. He knows. He somehow knew all along. “Yes. How do you know all of this?”

  He flashes me smile that comforts my soul. “I love puzzles, hádanka. I always figure them out.”

  My heart flutters but I don’t have time to acknowledge a future with him knowing my deepest, darkest secrets. Instead, I focus on our problem at hand.

  “Where are we going?” I ask once
he pulls down a gravel road.

  “I think I found our suspect. He was weirding me the fuck out before you called. I thought he reminded me of a bear. It made me think of Luca and Suzie — shit started to click into place. I even heard a dog yapping inside. Can you tell me if he’s a bear? From a distance?”

  “I think so but you promised me I could kill him!”

  He shakes his head at me. “If he’s a bear, then you shoot the fuck out of him. But if he’s in the same form I left him, I need to apprehend him. I’m calling for backup too. Now crawl into the back seat and load both of those shotguns.”

  I don’t argue and clamber into the back while he radios in his location — that he doesn’t have time to wait for backup. My fingers shake as I load the two guns and just click the second weapon into place when he parks the Tahoe.

  “Stay here. I can’t protect you and survey the scene. If you hear shots, get my back if backup hasn’t arrived. Otherwise, stay the hell in here where you’re safe.”

  I hand him his bigger gun and a handful of slugs before I scramble into the front seat. “Gun, no. Let me help!”

  He jerks his head to me and slides his hand into my hair. His lips briefly kiss mine before he breaks away. “Frankie, baby, I need you. When this all blows over, I don’t care what kind of animal you are… you’re still mine and I love you.”

  I’m so stunned by his words that all I can do is gape after him as he exits the truck and creeps along the wood’s edge toward the single cabin.

  Stay in the car, Frankie.

  Listen to your boyfriend.

  Stay in the car…

  Oh, who the hell am I kidding? I’m not staying in the fucking car. Quietly, I slip out of the truck and don’t let the door slam shut. I run in the opposite direction Gun went in to cover more ground.

  We’re coming.

  The thought is loud and clear in my head. I can feel the words sliding through my veins like liquid. My pack is on their way. Relief rushes through me to know Luca and the boys will be here soon. Howls and growls in the distance reiterate their journey to us.

  Yap-yap-yap-yap-yap!

  I can hear the yapping of a small dog within the cabin — the one Gun mentioned earlier. It’s a sound I’m extremely familiar with. Suzie! Gun was right. Whoever lives here killed my friends — tried to kill Otis — and has kidnapped my daughter.