Chapter 4

​Deacon pulled up behind the other van as Jesse got out of it. There was another male with him that he didn’t know, but he was huge, and just looking at him, made Deacon think of a bear. He tossed the chewed toothpick out the window.

Nox jumped out and slammed the door, then rushed over to Jesse.

Taking a second, Deacon communicated with his animal, assuring him that their mate was fine, and they would find her. Turning his hat around backward, he got out and headed over to the other men.

He reached the van in time to see the expression on Nox’s face as Jesse told him to stay with the vehicles in case the others came back. Normally he’d have volunteered to do it, but Giana was out there somewhere and there was no way he’d be able to stand idly by.

Deacon turned from the others and inhaled slowly. Even after the years that had passed, he’d know that scent anywhere. He could still taste it in his dreams. She’d crossed the road and gone toward those trees. Without a word, he started down through the ditch.

He may have been invisible from her life, but he’d kept tabs on what she’d been doing. She was smart, he already knew that. The tracking events at the gatherings weren’t easy routes and she’d won many of them. He felt like a creeper, staying out of scent range with binoculars watching her more times than he cared to count. He’d had to do it, though, to assure his animal and his mind that their mate was fine over the years.

Her scent led to the thinned-out trees, and he could almost picture her fox darting through them, creating a hard-to-follow trail, he kept his head up and followed the sweet bouquet that smelled of jasmine, floral but musky at the same time. Her, it was all her. He spotted her clothes and went over. Pausing, he picked them up and rolled them into a ball. Jesse came up beside him. He bent down and picked up the boots.

“The stench of cologne was by the van,” Jesse said in a low tone, “but I haven’t picked it up this way.”

Deacon shook his head, “they didn’t follow her.”

“They probably figured we’d picked her up and left the van for the shop to retrieve.”

Deacon nodded, not wanting to have a long-drawn-out conversation. He jerked his chin, “she went this way.”

Jesse motioned to the other man to head through the trees.

With her clothes balled up in his off-hand, he kept his other hovering close to the sidearm strapped to his thigh. He had to keep his breathing level and his animal on lockdown for fear that if he saw anything move that wasn’t rusty orange colored, he might make it a target out of the rage that was trying to consume him. It had been a struggle since Jesse had called and said who it was that was in trouble.

Someone had gone after his mate. Somehow, they’d followed her and tracked her. Her van dying on the side of the road couldn’t be a coincidence, there was no way. He’d seen the service list for all Alliance vehicles, there was no way it would be run down to the point it just quit. He knew a little about vehicles, he could replace parts, but wasn’t going to be able to prove that theory. It wasn’t even a guess, his gut told him they were behind her being stranded out here, alone and that somehow, they’d followed her.

He stopped and inhaled again, moving just his eyes through the quiet space. She’d bounced around in the trees like it was a maze, making the trail harder to find. His mouth moved into a lopsided grin, his mate was a wily one, that was for sure.

Inside him, his animal was pacing, agitated, hard to keep reigned in. He paused again and emitted a low growl, a vocal order to get it together or they’d be in a whole different bad situation. The man with Jesse crouched down and looked around slowly. Deacon gave him a quick shake of his head, “just a warning.” He said mostly under his breath but knew the shifter would hear him from that distance.

Deacon pointed into the trees telling both other men the direction she went. The warning was for his own animal, the last thing he needed was for her to see what he was. What had Maxton called him before he’d left the group he’d grown up with? Oh yeah, an abomination. His creature was the only reason he’d been able to stay away from her all this time, he knew that was never going to be allowed to happen.

With long strides he walked in a straight line, he didn’t need to duck around trees and other obstacles. He paused and looked at a rotting tree, with long growth all around it. His animal was suddenly in hunt mode, reminding him of their life before. The best place to find a meal was in a location like that.

He swept his arm toward the spot and didn’t bother to look and see if Jesse and that other male moved in that direction. He could smell her, stronger than ever. Shaking off a moment of want, he kept going toward it. The large male walked around to the other side of a dead tree and looked in that direction.

Deacon looked to see Jesse was watching him and not looking around. He motioned to the flattened grass leading under the log. Jesse raised an eyebrow but went over carefully, when he grinned, Deacon knew his instincts had been right and she was hiding in some other creatures’ home.

Jesse squatted down, “Gia.” He said loud enough that his voice would carry beneath the layers of earth. “It’s Jesse.” He straightened and backed up as her copper-colored head appeared from between the grasses. Backing up, he set her boots down and glanced over at the other man.

The big guy shrugged and started back to this side, “and that is why I’m not a tracker.” He shrugged, “I’ll go call the rest of the team and tell them we have her.”

Jesse nodded, “find out where the hell that tow truck is too, Webb.”

Webb nodded but made no further comment as he walked silently back toward the road. His stealthy movement momentarily surprised Deacon, for a big man he was light on his feet.

Turning back, Deacon looked down at Gia as she shook the dirt from her coat. A brief inclination to bend down and hug her to him crossed his mind. He sobered, knowing that all it would get him was her teeth sunk into his body. His creature stirred; he’d be okay with her biting him.

Moving as close as he dared, he tossed her clothes to land in front of her. He couldn’t have spoken if he’d wanted to as her grey eyes looked up at him and perused him slowly.

“We’ll, uh, be over here while you shift back and get dressed.” Jesse motioned a few feet away.

Deacon had to force his legs to move in that direction, to turn his back to her. He rested his hand on the gun, as his eyes tracked over the long grass and weeds, watching for any movement of any kind. Looking over at the van, he watched Nox pace back and forth beside it. He wasn’t even paying attention to the road, watching for other vehicles. Deacon wasn’t a rat, but he still lifted his hand and motioned to the prancing brother Jesse had left beside the vehicle.

Jesse sighed, “he’s her brother and from what I gathered earlier she’d prefer not to be face to face with him.”

“You are right.”

Both men turned to Gia. She was pulling on her hoodie.

“He’d only tell me everything I did wrong and how I shouldn’t be here.” She said as she brushed some leaves from her leggings.

Jesse shook his head, “you did everything right.” He motioned to Deacon, “if Deacon wasn’t here, we would have walked right by where you were.”

Gia peered at him, her eyes moving over him like she was trying to decipher him for a moment. “Thank you.” She blew out a breath, and tucked her hair up under the hat, “now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go tell Nox to stuff his idea of what I should be doing.”

Deacon could only stand there and watch her stomp in the direction of the vehicles and her anxious brother.

Jesse glanced at him, “I’m not sure if I should interfere or stand back and watch Nox get his ass handed to him.” He smirked.

Deacon could only nod, he was consumed with the scent of her that had filled every fiber of his body as she’d walked by him.

Jesse started walking back, he pulled out his phone and looked at it. As he walked, he typed something into it quickly.

Lurching as if he’d just broken his cemented feet free, Deacon went after him, “Jesse, I don’t think this was a fluke.”

Jesse stopped and waited for him to catch up. “What do you mean?”

Rubbing a hand over his beard, he regretted it immediately, it had been the hand that carried her clothes and now he could taste her. Her scent was going to linger in his beard for hours now. “Uh, the van,” he spurred his brain to function, “it quitting—I think it was on purpose.”

Jesse looked at the van and then back to him, “you think it was deliberate?”

He nodded, “think about it, how often are they serviced?” He shrugged, “more than once mine’s been called in for a once over when it wasn’t required.”

Jesse looked at the vehicle as they continued to walk. “I don’t know how they would do that.” He waved a hand toward it, “she would have known if she was being followed, there isn’t exactly a lot of traffic here.”

They walked through the ditch and went over to it. He tried to ignore the immovable stance of Nox standing there with his arms over his chest as Giana waved her hand around inches from his face. Dragging his attention back to the incapacitated vehicle, he stared at the back of it. “Paint cans.” He said under his breath.

“What?” Jesse turned around and looked at him.

“Uh, just remembering something.” It was true, the group he’d landed in with when he’d first left the wanderers had been up to some underhanded things. When they found a vehicle, they wanted to track, they’d secure a punctured can under it to leave a trail. “I think it’s being tracked somehow.”

“Son of a bitch.” Jesse said under his breath, “they found me,” he looked back to Deacon, “when I had my mate with me and went after us.”

Deacon nodded, “Wynter told us.”

“I’ve been going over that in my head a hundred times, trying to figure out how—I never do anything predictable.” He turned and stared at the van he and Webb had gotten out of. “Shit.” He pulled his phone back out. He pointed to Giana’s van, “give her a hand getting all her gear out of that one and into mine.”

Deacon nodded and went over to the van. She had the driver’s door open now and was mumbling under her breath to herself.

Turning his hat back to the front, so the bill of it would shadow his face, he opened the back door. “Jesse says to move everything to his van.” He told her when she looked at him from the front of it.

“Yeah, okay.” She blew out a breath, her forehead was puckered, and he could feel the tension pouring off her.

“You did great,” he told her, hoping to wipe that expression off her face. “The only reason I didn’t blow right by that log was that I spent a lot of time in the bush monitoring wildlife when I was younger.”

Her face lit up as if he’d just told her she won the lottery. “Thank you.” She looked through the window at her brother who was glaring at her from where he stood. “Some people think I’m a half-wit without a brain in my head.”

Deacon lifted one shoulder in a small shrug, “some people should keep their opinion to themself.”

A slamming door had him jolt and spin around. Jesse walked around to the front of his van and popped the hood on it. He stood there looking in it now. “Think about it, Devin, how else did they know when I’d hit that stretch of road?” He stared at the motor like the answer was going to jump out at him. Webb went over and looked in it with him, he moved the phone from his mouth and looked at him, “Webb, go look and see if you can see anything obvious done to hers that would cause it to stop running.”

Webb gave him a skeptical look and then nodded before walking around to the front of Gia’s van.

Gia popped the release lever for the hood and went around the front. “You think something was done to it?”

Webb lifted his big hand and shrugged, “the boss says look, I look.” He opened the hood and leaned over it, moving his head to peer down in between things.

“That’s,” she spun around and looked at her brother and then back to Webb, “How? When?”

Nox, now scowling with a look of focus on his face went over and watched Webb. “Did you stop anywhere along the way?”

Gia’s expression soured, “a few times, just to stretch my legs. I wasn’t away from it for more than a couple of minutes though.”

Deacon grabbed the tote and carried it to Jesse’s van, opening the back door, he slid it in. His animal was pissed, to the point that he was having to keep his jaw clenched to focus on keeping him on the inside. His skin was hurting, muscles clenching. Someone went after their mate. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes for a second and tried to convey that at this point they both needed Deacon on the outside to keep her safe. The creature didn’t like it, but it settled just enough that he could function again.

Opening his eyes, he saw Jesse looking at him, but he made no comment as he started talking again and walk to the other side of the road to stand there.

He went back and grabbed the supplies tucked under the one bench seat.

“Jesse,” Webb growled out, his voice not so light and easy-going now.

Deacon walked around the van to see him under the front of it, his body from the waist up almost wedged underneath.

Jesse came over and squatted down, the phone still to his ear.

Deacon leaned over the side of the motor and looked down at the other man “This wire,” Webb moved around, “it’s been cut, not corroded.”

“What is it to?” Jesse knelt on the road and leaned down to try and look “Alternator.” Nox said, almost in Deacon’s ear as he leaned over and looked in the motor as well.

“Did you hear that?” Jesse got to his feet and nodded to whatever was said on the phone, “this was intentional.” Jesse nodded, “let me know.” He hung up and glared at the van. “Devin’s calling back in a minute with a new plan.” Jesse squeezed his eyes shut for a second and then opened them. “We have a lot of vehicles out there right now.”

Webb worked his way back out from under the bumper. “So,” he got to his feet, “I’m guessing they have a way to track our vehicles.”

Nox stood there with his hands on his hips and glanced from one to the other.

Jesse rubbed his hand along his jaw. He turned to Deacon, “how’s your fund pouch?”

Deacon shrugged, “fine, we haven’t used it since the last op.”

Jesse nodded slowly, then rolled his shoulders, “we’re going to have to ditch the vans and get new rides.”

Gia had been busying herself moving things to the other vehicle up to this point, she came over and stood too close to Deacon, he could taste her scent again, “you think they’re somehow tracking the vans?” She looked from Jesse to Nox, “all of them?”

Deacon stepped back and looked up and down the road, just to put more distance between them.

“We can’t take the chance until we have them all checked,” Jesse frowned, “by someone other than the shop we use.”

“Isn’t the shop run by our kind?” Deacon’s brows drew together, not from the conversation, but because he wanted to lean over and lick Giana’s exposed throat. He had to get away from her.

Jesse nodded, “most of them, yeah.” His tone was low. Blowing out a breath he put his hands on his hips and shook his head slowly, “I don’t trust the safe house now either.” He swore venomously and lifted his phone again. “I have to get a hold of Calum before they reach it.” He stomped to the other side of the road.

Webb cleared his throat, then slammed the hood down, “his mate is with them.” He said quietly.

Deacon stomped to the back of his own van and stood there. Every muscle in his body was tight, uncomfortably so. Shit. He was going to have to make sure he was assigned to the team that Giana was working with. If someone was after his mate, they’d have to survive him before ever touching her—and their odds of surviving that were less than zero with the way he was feeling right now.