Never Cry Wolf (Night Watch #4)(68)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Did he even care? What would a human’s death matter to him? Just a human. A dead stranger.

Wasn’t that what she could have been?

The van’s engine roared. “We’ll be at Saints Hospital in ten minutes.” His gaze met hers. “Can you keep her alive that long?”

“D-don’t let . . .” Karen whispered and a tear streaked from her eye.

Sarah swallowed down the fear that had risen in her throat. “You’re going to make it.” Not a lie. Not really.

“Sarah?” Lucas’s voice growled.

“I can keep her alive.” I hope. “But, dammit, drive fast.” Because she didn’t think she had ten minutes. From the look of things, Karen barely had any time at all.

Don’t die on me.

But Karen’s eyes were already closed.

Chapter 17

Lucas braked right next to the hospital’s emergency-room doors. He jumped out of the van and raced around to the back, shouting for the guard on duty to get help.

Shit, couldn’t he tell when there was a damn emergency? Humans.

He yanked open the back door and hoisted Karen into his arms. Her head sagged back against him and her blood . . . so much blood.

Sarah’s gaze met his. “Her heart’s barely beating.”

Fuck. He spun on his heel and ran for the sliding glass doors. The guard was just coming out of the doors, a gurney beside him, two guys with stethoscopes hauling ass with him.

“She’s been stabbed!” He yelled but thought that should be obvious. The stab wound had been perfectly placed for maximum damage.

Lucas put her on the gurney. The agent’s eyes never opened. The docs swarmed her.

“Sir, you’ve got to come inside.” The guard grabbed his arm. “We’ll have to call the cops, file a report—”

Lucas didn’t move. “No.”

The doctors had Karen inside now. They’d do what they could for her. If she lived . . . if she died . . .

He turned away, breaking the guard’s hold.

“You can’t leave!” The guard didn’t make the mistake of touching him again. “You can’t—”

Sarah had climbed from the van. Blood covered her.

“Oh, shit! Ma’am, hold on!” The guard streaked past Lucas and caught Sarah’s hands. “You should’ve said there were two victims!”

Sarah shook her head. “I’m not hurt.” She stared down at her hands. At all the blood.

Not hurt. This time. But next time, she could be.

The wolf inside howled. Not f**king next time. No one would hurt her. No one.

“Come inside, ma’am,” the guard said, trying to tug her closer. “Come inside, you need to—”

“The woman they took inside is a federal agent.” Lucas pulled Sarah away from the man, deliberately keeping his hold gentle with her. Even though she wasn’t an average human, she was as weak physically as the agent, he knew that. So why the hell couldn’t he be easier with her?

Because I need her. Too much.

The wolf within craved her as much as the man did. “Call Anthony Miller at the Bureau . . . tell him the victim’s Karen Phillips.” Sarah’s voice was whisper-soft.

“The—the FBI?”

Lucas steered Sarah toward the front of the van. She moved quickly, jumping into the passenger seat.

The guard scrambled back. Lucas cast one last glance toward the brightly-lit hospital. That agent had been so far gone. No mambo was around to save her. Would the doctors be able to do enough?

He climbed into the van.

“He’s going to report the license plate number,” Sarah said. “The cops will be after us in no time. Especially if they think we’re the ones who stabbed Karen.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He gunned the engine and raced past an ambulance. “We’ll ditch the van.”

“I can’t . . . I . . .” The rasp of her breath filled the vehicle’s interior. “I need to get the blood off, Lucas.” A pleading note had entered her voice. “Please . . . I need to get the blood off my hands.”

Some blood wouldn’t wash clean.

But he drove faster, snaking through the lanes. Heading deeper into the heart of the city.

There.

The rundown hotel waited just off the highway. A place where no one asked questions, because the folks damn well knew better than to make that mistake. The owner was a shifter who’d spent years lying to human cops.

“Stay here,” he told her, and ran into what counted as the main office of the place. His fist slammed down onto the bell. Shit. He had blood on his hands, too. The scent had been so strong on Sarah, he hadn’t even realized . . .

A key was shoved across the scarred desktop. “Twenty for an hour.”

He tossed the money onto the countertop and swiped the key. The fox shifter had to see and smell the blood. But in that place, it wouldn’t be the first time.

Or the last.

Lucas tossed out an extra hundred. “I’ve got a van that needs to disappear.”

The fox’s palm covered the money. “Consider it gone, Alpha.”

He spun away and hurried back outside. Room seven. The room the fox always gave him when the pack needed to clean up.

How much blood have I washed away?

But, damn it, he hadn’t killed innocents. He’d taken out the bastards who’d come after him. He’d protected his pack. And if he had to . . . hell, yeah, he’d do it again.

Sarah shoved open the door when she saw him. Beautiful Sarah. She could have stayed out of this life. Could have passed for normal.

He glanced toward the side of the building. The fox was already heading for the van. “Come on.”

She’d clenched her hands, probably trying to hide the blood. Didn’t do much good though, not when her clothes were covered in dark red.

He pushed the key into the lock and the door swung open seconds later. The place was a dump, no getting around it, but it had a shower and soap and he could make certain Sarah got what she wanted.

I need to get the blood off my hands.

Oh, yeah. He understood. Been there, babe. Done that.

She brushed by him, stopping only long enough to put her gun on the nightstand before she walked toward the bathroom. Sarah yanked her clothes off as she went, dropping the bloody shirt, kicking out of her shoes and socks, and ditching her jeans.

She disappeared into the small bathroom and the roar of the shower filled the motel room. Lucas’s gaze tracked around the area. Sagging bed. Scarred nightstand. Not much else. No TV because the folks who came to this place weren’t real big on staying and relaxing.