“I’ll be ready.” I pulled him down into a hug. “Thank you for everything, Mark.” He smiled and left.
The next morning, Mark got everything down to the truck while I was finishing with the doctor and the discharge paperwork. I would need rehab for at least a year, and he wanted me to return to him or another specialist in a month. I made sure I got hard copies of the records, because I knew I wasn’t coming back to THIS hospital. When I was done, and dressed in jeans, flannel shirt and boots, the nurse came by with the wheelchair and took us down to the parking garage. Stupid rule, but that’s what they did.
I walked down the sidewalk so I could get away from the smokers near the door. My new purse was over my shoulder, complete with hidden compartment that now contained my Glock. I watched Mark go to the back of the lot, and looked around to see if I could find the wolves who were supposed to make sure we left. My spidey sense was tingling, something wasn’t right. My arms crossed over my chest, and my hands felt for the handles of the daggers hidden under the flannel.
I didn’t sense him approach, thanks to my dulled senses. I felt my waist get grabbed as I was spun around and pulled into a hard chest. I looked up at him as he squeezed me tight enough to start breaking ribs. “Ella, how good to see you again.”
“The pleasure is all yours, Frank.” Frank Tanner was the late David’s older brother.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said as his right hand cupped my jaw.
I unsheathed a blade from my left arm while pretending to struggle, and plunged it into the side of his chest. He screamed, and I twisted the blade before snapping it off. He staggered back, falling onto a bus stop bench, his jacket soaking with blood as he tried to pull the blade out. I just stepped away from him, Mark was just pulling up. I opened the door and climbed into the heated leather seat, looking down at the dying werewolf with utter contempt. “Say hi to your brother in hell,” I said before we drove off.
“The hell?” Mark was focusing on not breaking traffic laws as he guided us out of town.
“Apparently, the Tanners are still pissed that I killed their boy. That was their second son.” I pulled out my cellphone and called Alpha Goodwin. Naturally, he didn’t know a thing and was furious the Tanners had come onto his territory. I told them to pick up the trash before the cops found him.
It was time for me to make a visit to the closed blood relative I had left.
My aunt, now the Luna of the Johnson Pack in western Wyoming.
**************
There had been plenty of phone calls to make while making our escape from Minnesota. I had been in touch with my former Pack members that had been held hostage in my house; as promised, they had not been further harmed and the St. Cloud pack members had left. I was adamant that they leave the area, fearing further reprisals after the latest aborted attempt on me. “Dang it, Marge, you’re LEAVING. If you hadn’t been out getting food, you would have been in chains with your sister Mabel and the others. I can’t protect you if they come back.”
“Young lady, I won’t let some snot-nosed kids run me out of the home I’ve kept for my entire life!”
I was simmering. “Marge… you’ve been my family’s housekeeper my whole life, and my whole parent’s life too. I need you in my house, but right now? Right now my house isn’t THERE. I couldn’t bear it if you were hurt in an attempt to get back to me. I’ve lost everyone, Marge, I need you with me. I need Mabel and anyone else still around there to leave. Go to friends or family, or meet me and we’ll find somewhere safe.”
She was quiet for a moment. “Where will you go, dear?”
“I don’t know for sure. I need advice and support, so I’m going to see Aunt Remington. She and Uncle Doug will know what to do, and we can be safe there.” I thought of her family, we were close as we often went to their Pack for celebrations. Her cousins Dave (22), Nathan (19), Derek (16) and Renee (13) were always fun to be around.
There was silence for a moment. “All right, young lady, but only until it is safe. I’ll talk to the others and see who else wants to go with us. Have you talked to Remi yet?”
“No, she’s my next call. We’re taking the scenic route, meet us in Miles City for dinner tomorrow, let’s shoot for six at Montana Rib and Chop House. Leave as soon as you can and get a hotel room there, get an extra room for me and put it under your name. I doubt if they’ll be watching west of our Pack lands.” I looked over at Mark; I couldn’t take him to Johnson Pack lands. “And talk to Tom, have someone drive Mark’s car there. He’ll get me that far then he can go home.” He looked at me, then back to the road; clearly he didn’t want to go home yet.
We hadn’t seen anyone following us from downtown Minneapolis, but we didn’t take any chances. Since we had told Goodwin we were taking I-90 west, when we hit the 494 loop in the south metro we headed west until we picked up Highway 212. This road would take a lot longer but we would be less likely to be seen on the rural highway.
Mark called his Dad, and filled him in on what had happened. I asked if we had any recourse in the non-aggression pact, but he basically said these things have no enforcement mechanism. Treaties rely on honor, and he had none.
The attack also changed my financial plans quite a bit. “Tom, I basically need you to make it so I can disappear for a while. School, housing, living expenses- nothing can be in my name so I can’t be tracked. I don’t know how much their Pack is tied in to the human systems or who their allies are. The fact that they got copies of police reports that hadn’t been filed, and destroyed evidence, is enough to make me cautious. I want to become a ghost to them.”
“There’s some I can do for that, and some I can’t. First thing, you need to operate in cash only now. Don’t ever use a credit card again unless it is untraceable to you. I’ll get some cash and some rechargeable VISA cards together and send them with Mark’s car. Meanwhile, I’ll see what I can do to set up some dummy corporations to invest in real estate. When you have an idea of where you want them, send me the list and I’ll put it together.”
“That’s fine, I should be in Wyoming for a week or two.” I was already looking forward. “You’ve got power of attorney for me, withdraw me from school and get my transcripts. I’ll enroll in an online high school and finish that way.”
“That works,” he said. “Now is the tough one. Stop at the next Wal-Mart and each of you buy a half dozen burner cellphones. Write down all your contact numbers, then destroy your iPhone. Buy a new computer, too, and don’t allow your old one to connect to the internet anymore. Transfer any files you need then wipe the hard drive clean. Do this soon, preferably before you stop again. From now on, you don’t use your name on the phone or in text messages.”
I was all right until the point where he talked about my iPhone. My baby! All my games and text conversations! Gone for a bunch of cheap flip phones. It was almost too much to bear, I felt like I was going back to the times my Mom grew up in. Pretty soon he’d be saying I couldn’t have my Sirius XM in my truck or something.
“Fine.” Mark held my hand, knowing it would be all right. “Now for the financial stuff. I can’t depend on being able to stay on my family lands, so keep selling the mineral rights but stop looking for land near there. Keep my finances liquid, until this is over I’m more interested in flexibility than earnings.”
“That sounds good. You’re still young, you might decide to settle elsewhere after you’ve seen a lot. Now that you are human, I’d recommend that. Move around every few weeks, see the sights and recover. I know you need physical therapy, so ask around, see if any therapists will do discrete home visits for cash. Keep your medical records to yourself, and don’t see a doctor in the same town you’re staying in.” He paused. “Ghosting is tough. Give Mark one of the burners, make sure they can take text messages, and he should copy down all the numbers of your phones. Send him text messages with your locations so I can get ahold of you if I need something.”
“Sounds good, counselor. Thank you for everything.” His family really had been good to me, especially in these past few days.
“You’re welcome, Ella. Stay safe, all right? Hand Mark the phone please.” I did, he listed for a moment then hung up. With wolf hearing I easily would have heard it, but human hearing sucks and I could only watch him scowl as he hung up.
“Problem?”
He shook his head. “Work stuff.” He saw the sign for a Wal-Mart up ahead, and so we put the plan in motion. An hour later, with full bags, we were driving through a Chick-Fil-A and heading west again. The drive after that was pretty boring. The new truck was great, I had weaned off my pain pills enough I could drive, even if only for an hour or so. Mark was a good companion for the trip, knowing when to be quiet and being fun to talk to when not. Along the way, I had programmed all the burners into his cellphone, written down all my contacts, transferred all my files to my new laptop, and (sob!) ran over my iPhone and left it in the trash at a gas station.
We made it to Rapid City, South Dakota before we had to call it a night. Mark found us a hotel room- kind of. It was the bridal suite, complete with huge bed with mirrored ceiling, jacuzzi tub, large shower and complimentary chocolate and champagne. He was smiling when he came out with the key. “Just play along, Mrs. Harris.”
“What?”