“You’re so smart, why can’t I ever think of stuff like that?”

She would have said something sarcastic but he looked so forlorn that she held back and kissed the top of his head instead. “I’m here for you, Gabriel. We’ll get through this together, like always. Let’s go.” She grabbed her own laptop and gear.

She knew she was being watched so they quietly went into the garage. Needing to avoid being seen, Gabriel crouched down on the floorboard in the backseat until they got out of the immediate area.

* * * * *

Her skills were rusty, but being dodgy was like riding a bike. She laughed to herself as she looked in the rearview mirror, seeing it empty. She had a feeling that Lex Warden wouldn’t be so easy to shake the next time. She’d taken advantage of the fact that she knew he’d underestimate her but she also knew he wouldn’t do it twice. Lex Warden was damned good at his job. She admired that about him. It was sexy.

She pulled into the parking lot at the bus station in downtown Seattle and turned to Gabriel. “Stay in the car. We don’t know how many people are looking for you but it’s wise to keep your head down. I’ll be back in a few.”

Leaving Gabriel in the car, she went into the building and did a good solid meander around making sure she wasn’t being followed and finally went to the lockers. She pulled out two keys, one for her locker and one for the one she shared with Gabriel. Out of her locker she pulled out what she termed her running kit. A gym bag with clothes, a cell phone, cash, a laptop and several electronic toys—the tools she’d need to get out of town quickly and to help her set up somewhere else. It had sat there for five years. She’d added to it over that time, extra money, a new toy here and there—it made her feel safe, knowing she had a back door out of trouble. She planned to give most of it to Gabriel and send him far, far away when she got him back to his motel room.

She opened up the other locker, Gabriel’s locker, and saw the laptop case. Grabbing it, she slammed the doors closed, walked out of the bus station and got back into her car.

“Got it. Let’s go back to your motel and see what we can find. I don’t want to take you back to my house, not with Warden skulking around.”

Gabriel nodded. “I don’t think he’s dirty, Nina. He’s a pretty stand-up guy. Maybe I should take this to him,” he said worriedly. “I’m tired of hiding.”

It had only been a few weeks. Her stomach sank. If he couldn’t deal with a little less than a month on the run, how could he survive in the long term? She had to figure out who was behind this shooting so that she could use the information to buy Gabriel’s freedom. There was no other way.

“Let’s see what’s on this machine before we do anything, okay?” She spared a quick glance his way, the street lights casting an orange glow, flickering over his face as they passed by. He wasn’t thirty yet and already he had lived a hard life. Poverty, abuse, lawlessness, neglect—that combined with too much alcohol had given his once sweet face a hardened edge.

She sighed, not for the first time, grieving for what might have been for Gabriel but quickly put it away. She couldn’t afford to wallow, certainly not now.

They turned into the parking lot of a seedy motel near the airport and she pulled in to the back, out of sight of the street. She bit back her instinctual lecture on his choice of motel. The place was in town and within ten miles of the Pack house, but lectures would be pointless.

They went into the room and she put her stuff down. Looking down, she realized she’d left the kit in the car. She headed back to the door. “I’ll be right back,” she called out as she left the room.

“Need help?” Gabriel called out as he followed her outside, wearing a sweet smile. In that face was the Gabe of her childhood, the sweet little boy with nothing to hide, a loving and happy kid who had a family that took care of him. Her heart constricted in her chest at the memories of that very long ago Gabriel Reyes and mourned his loss.

She bent to unlock the car and felt the prickle on the back of her neck. Trouble. Time slowed as she spun around just as they were jumped. Four very large men, wolves she’d be willing to bet, rushed at them from out of the darkness.

Gabriel snarled as his wolf began to surface in reaction to the threat. He called out to Nina to run, to get out of there, as two of the wolves grabbed him. “Get off my sister!” he said in a growl as he attempted to fight free.

One of the wolves had Nina’s ponytail in a tight grip and yanked her backwards. Facing her brother as she struggled, Nina watched, horrified, as one man put a gun to her brother’s head and pulled the trigger. A cry of gut-wrenching grief tore from her as he crumpled to the ground. Sound, time, movement rushed back at her at super speed. She screamed as loudly as she could and delivered an elbow to the jaw of one of her attackers. She spun and gave a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus of the other and a good, solid right hook back to the first one. Both hit the deck and she turned back to where the man with the gun was, expecting to be shot at any moment.

But the shooter suddenly crumpled. She looked up and saw Lex standing there, fury on his face and blood on claws that slowly morphed back into a human hand.

She lost her footing for a moment and then scrambled to her feet. Ruthlessly, she tried to think, compartmentalized as best she could. She didn’t have the time to fall apart! Forcing her thoughts away from how Gabriel’s eyes had blanked, losing their life after he’d been shot, she attempted to focus. But the slice of reality cut through her, she was alone in the world.