Enforcer (Cascadia Wolves) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Gabriel had fled Ohio for Seattle. It had been too big a risk to choose a path that had anything to do with computers. She had gotten close to getting caught a few times and hadn’t wanted to chance it. She’d been so tired of running and living on the margins. She’d wanted a normal life, a real job. Security. So she’d enrolled in a floral design program and some business courses at the local community college and then she’d taken part of her nest egg and opened her florist shop. She discovered that working with flowers and plants was something she not only loved, but was good at. It wasn’t the big money game that hacking had been but it wasn’t illegal either. She could relax finally, for the first time since she’d been twelve. While she tinkered around as a hobby with her computer skills, she’d ruthlessly tamped down any use of the internet for anything other than her business.
    Things had been going really well until Gabriel had gotten infected with the lycanthropy virus during a bar fight. He’d hit on some guy’s girlfriend and the guy, being a total jerk, had infected him on purpose in the fight. Gabriel very nearly didn’t make it then. Instead of pressing charges against the wolf for intentionally infecting him, instead of turning his life around, he joined the local Pack and became a runner, a man-of-all-work essentially, and had dropped off her radar.
    She was so tired. She’d given up running years ago. She had built a life for herself in Seattle. She had friends and her business. Granted she hadn’t had a date in four years, but there never seemed to be much time for that anyway.
    Her house was gone, her stuff was gone and her brother, the last bit of family she had any feelings for, was gone. She wasn’t going to leave town, damn it! Her business was her life—the only thing she had left. She wasn’t going to allow some punks to run her off.
    “You really can trust me,” Lex said, pushing his brother out of the way. “Me and Cade. If we were planning on hurting you, we could have done so already. Not that you’re not a tough customer, I know you can handle yourself,” he added quickly when her eyes narrowed.
    “I’m going to have one of my men take your car and hide it. You can come back with us, our house is safe.”
    “Of course it isn’t safe! Someone high up in your Pack hierarchy is the one who shot what’s-his-face,” she hissed, leaning back from Lex Warden’s body. She had this awful compulsion to rub her cheek along his chest, to tug his bottom lip between her teeth. His cologne was obviously doing something to her.
    “Did Rey tell you who, Nina?” Cade asked.
    She shook her head. “He said it was someone big, that what’s-his-face told him it was someone high up. Gabriel didn’t see anyone’s face, though. God, they killed him for no reason! He didn’t know anything.”
    “Damn it! I told you, Cade,” Lex said, and as he moved she saw the big gun in the shoulder holster and she stiffened.
    Oblivious, Lex brushed his hands through his hair again. It made Nina’s body tighten just to watch. Oh jeez, perfect timing to get horny, right after your brother is killed and you might be next. Truthfully, she knew that Lex was right. If they’d wanted to hurt her, they could have quite easily. But damn it, she didn’t know up from down and she felt totally off balance.
    “I just didn’t want to believe it. Thank god you pulled all clearance but yours and mine.” Cade turned back to Nina. “No one is allowed at the house but me and Lex and my personal guard. All of us are Wardens, absolutely trustworthy. We have a Pack house here in town for everyone else, but my house is a safe haven. You’ll be safe there. We’ve got to get out of here in case reinforcements show up.”
    Safe from the killer sure—but not from Lex. And Nina had a feeling that Lex Warden posed a way bigger threat to her than any scary werewolves who wanted to kill her. Still, she wasn’t going