“He said they would kill me unless she cooperated.” She showed them the board, then erased it. “She gave up & they still did this.” She touched her throat. The nurse handed her some ice water, letting her sip it to soothe her throat. She started writing again. “Find the bastards,” she wrote.
“We’ll do everything we can,” the detective promised.
Another nurse came in the room with a gurney. “Radiology has an opening for her, we’ve got to go,” she said. The two disconnected her IV, then scooted her over onto the gurney. “The doctor is keeping her overnight for observation,” the new nurse said. “When she is done with the scan, we’ll move her to a room and come get you.”
“Thank you,”
They returned to the waiting room, where Dawn and her Mom were being consoled by friends. She knelt in front of Dawn, tears in her eyes. “I’m sorry, Dawn, Treasure didn’t hurt Jenny, she tried to save her,” she said. “She gave herself up for her and they still tried to kill my baby.”
Dawn opened her arms and pulled her in; she couldn’t hold a grudge against her friend, not with the history her daughter had. “She’s… she’s going into surgery,” she told her. “Broken left arm, collarbone, they’ve got to wire her mouth shut because her jaw is broken. Oh God…” They hugged each other for a few moments as the crowd tried to give them a little privacy.
The second detective came out of the ER, and they went to a corner to talk. The first showed his notes from the interview with Jenny. “She was wearing gloves, so no DNA under her nails. I’ve got nothing else,” he said.
“That matches what Treasure was able to give me,” he said. “Walking, the dog stopped them, and they backed into two guys. Your first guy had short hair, graying on the sides, wearing a black leather jacket. She said she might be able to identify the two, but they had to take her into surgery.”
“We should get the sketch artist out here tonight, while it’s still fresh. Jenny will be up in a room in an hour or two.”
“Was she raped?”
The second detective shook his head no. “The doctors examined her, there were signs of a struggle but nothing on the rape kit. She got lucky, kidnapped and naked, they must have panicked and tossed her out of their car onto the road.”
“Where she almost gets hit by another car,” he said. “We have some time, let’s go interview the guy who found her. Maybe he remembers a car he passed. She couldn’t have been on the road that long.” They walked out of the room, leaving the rest behind. A news van was already pulling up, and one of the officers went out to talk to them while the parents were escorted to a conference room in the hospital.
Kidnapping, attempted rape, a naked girl found in the road… this was going to be a circus.
The green Expedition stopped by the side of the road, the back passenger-side door opening just before a huge black wolf jumped in. The door closed, and the vehicle was moving again seconds later. The spot had been carefully chosen, no houses or streetlights were around, and the driver had gone past three times before he caught a break and no cars were coming either way.
There was the sound of crunching bones and moments later a naked Todd was in the back seat. “You guys are fucking idiots, you know that?” He pulled on a pair of jeans, then pulled a T-shirt and sweatshirt over his muscled chest. He crawled into the front seat and buckled up. “Head for the hotel, and don’t get pulled over.”
“Sorry Alpha,” the younger man said from the back. “I let her slip.”
“You did, and now we’ve got a dead friend and MY FUTURE LUNA just got hurt while running from me. How could one little shewolf get loose from a trained warrior?”
“The same way she outran an Alpha,” the big driver said before realizing that was the WRONG thing to say. He muttered an apology and looked back to the road, glad he was driving because otherwise he’d be nursing a fresh wound.
The Alpha considered just killing both of these idiots, but he pushed the impulse down and thought for a minute. “With Treasure at the hospital surrounded by cops, there’s no way we can get close to her and grab her tonight. She took a good hit, she’ll be in there for a few days at least.” He glared at his Beta as he drove. “We’re going to head back to the hotel and you two bozos are going to stay out of sight. If she lives, she could identify you.”
“She barely saw us, boss,” the young one said. “It was dark out.”
“She has a fucking WOLF, you idiot. If she didn’t, you wouldn’t have gotten your forearm ripped open. She can see plenty good in the dark.”
The rest of the ride was quiet. He dropped the men off at the hotel, then drove off to pick up some pizza and beer. Along the way, he called the Beta he left in charge of the Pack and told him it would be a few more days before he would return with their Luna.
It was after midnight before Treasure woke up in the recovery room of the hospital. Her head, her face, her shoulder and arm… everything hurt. She tried to move but her body wouldn’t respond, and she couldn’t open her mouth. She started to panic, causing the machines hooked up to her to alarm and getting the attention of the nurse. “Relax, Treasure, you’re in the hospital,” the nurse told her. “You were in an accident and your jaw was broken. You won’t be able to open it because the doctors had to wire it shut so it can heal,” she said.
Rea closed her eyes, tears starting to drip down her face. She didn’t remember running or getting hit by a car, she remembered nothing after she watched Jenny drop to the ground dead. She must have had another episode, but how did she get away from those men? What happened while she was out?