Cearnach glanced back at the older wolf, who raised his head in greeting. He must have known that Cearnach was Duncan’s brother, coming to lend some muscle to the cause.
Not hearing any sounds of growling, Cearnach had to follow his nose, which told him four wolves had gone this way. A female—had to be Shelley—and three males, one being Duncan. Damn it to hell. No wonder Duncan had given up the wolf he’d been fighting to Cearnach so he could deal with the spent wolf. The she-wolf had two male killers on her tail.
That meant Duncan still had two male wolves to deal with, not just one. Cearnach had to reach him before that happened.
Shelley was doing great, having arrived at the reserve well ahead of the other wolves attempting to chase her down. Even though poisonous plants could cause skin irritation, she figured her wolf coat would protect her. She darted off the path and deeper into the forest. Following her scent, the wolves could still track her. If she could shift and climb a tree, maybe she could lose them. But as soon as they lost the smell of her foot pads leaving a scent on the forest floor, they would return to the spot they’d last smelled her and realize she’d shifted and scrambled up a tree. Too bad she couldn’t use the vines to swing through the forest and navigate it like Tarzan, minus the yelling.
Not figuring she could evade them in the forest after all, she headed toward Sal’s beach resort. With any luck, he was by himself and Carlotta hadn’t sent a hit team after him. If Kenneth was there, as soon as he saw her as a wolf with two more wolves on her tail ready to kill her…
He would be a dead man.
Chapter 20
When Shelley saw Sal’s estate, she felt chills race up her spine. The house looked dark and dead. Had Carlotta already murdered Sal?
Or maybe he was sleeping, although it seemed a little early for that.
She didn’t slow her pace, knowing the wolves behind her would soon catch up once they figured out where she was headed. She leapt over the fancy wrought-iron fence surrounding the swimming pool. Spying a doggy door in the bottom panel of the back door, she assumed then Sal must run as a wolf some nights. She dove through it.
That’s when she heard the two angry male voices in another part of the house.
“You son of a bitch, Kenneth. All this time you’ve been working for my wife? Who the hell pays your salary?” Sal growled.
So Kenneth had been the traitor all along. Shelley figured that both were paying the man, only Carlotta was paying more.
A soft light was glowing in another part of the house—the light-blocking curtains on the front windows blocked out the light from within.
“No, Mr. Silverman. I didn’t tell her about the woman you’d tried to pay the Scot to give up. I thought she already knew about Lola, and Mrs. Silverman didn’t seem to care. Why would I think she’d care about this other woman, Shelley, then?”
“Even though you said you hadn’t told her?”
Something crashed where the two men were speaking. Shelley jumped a little. She glanced back at the pool. No sign of the other wolves yet.
“You’ve been telling her about the women I’ve been seeing all along, haven’t you? Spying for her?” Sal said, his voice so harsh that he sounded like he was ready to kill Kenneth.
“No, no, I haven’t done anything of the kind. I’ve got lots of women on the string so I see nothing wrong with it.”
Bastard.
Kenneth was backing up, his voice getting closer to Shelley, but he was facing in a different direction.
Sal had to be stalking him. “But it doesn’t matter if you’re spying for Carlotta. Telling her what I’m doing. I pay you. She pays you more. Is that it?”
“No, I’m just on your payroll.”
“Her money is my money,” Sal growled.
So now the truth was coming out. The money was all Sal’s. Every stolen bit of it.
“No,” Kenneth said, groveling.
“So you do it for your love of her? What? Don’t tell me that you’re doing it for free, knowing if I learned of it, I could terminate… your employment with me.”
“Terminate you” was what his pause meant to Shelley. He would, too, she thought, although at first she’d believed Sal didn’t have it in him. Stealing money was his forte. Killing was becoming a side venture.
Something banged on the back patio. The wolves who had been following her. One ran into a pool chair and knocked it into the other wolf. He growled. Shelley raced into a formal dining room adjoining the living area where Sal stood stock still.
For a second, he just stared at her, then he must have realized she was Shelley. Probably had watched her with Duncan on the beach shifting after all. “What the hell?”
One wolf bashed through the dog door, followed by the other.
Shelley raced around behind Sal, expecting him to shift and help her fight the male wolves. Instead, he shook his head at the two wolves as they came into the room. “Where are the others?”
They shook their heads.
Her heart nearly stopped. He had sent the wolves to kill Duncan? Not Carlotta?
“Hell, didn’t you kill Duncan? He can’t have killed the others.”
Stealing the show for a second, Kenneth choked out, “They’re… they’re wolves. Trained killer wolves.”
“Yeah,” Sal said, motioning to one of the wolves. “Kill Kenneth, the lying bastard.”
Not believing that Sal—and not Carlotta—had been the one to sic the wolves on her and Duncan, Shelley tried to sort out her options to get herself out of this predicament. She couldn’t move past the other wolf to get to the wolf door. She couldn’t do anything about the front door—not while she was in wolf form. Once Kenneth was dead, the two wolves would deal with her.
Carlotta wasn’t the one who had wanted her dead. What about Sal’s guards who had already left his estate? Had Sal staged the whole thing to look like he was without protection? Had he wanted to get the humans away from here so he could deal with Duncan, a wolf and much more of a threat?
One of the wolves lunged at Kenneth. He threw up his arms to protect his throat from the wickedly bared canines, screeching in abject horror.
Seconds later, Kenneth was sprawled on the tile floor, his throat ripped out, dead.
Shelley was panting from all the running and her heart tripping over itself, her body heated, but chills still ran up her spine.
Sal folded his arms and looked crossly at Shelley. “So, Duncan MacNeill believes I’ve stolen his clan’s money, eh? That’s why he asked for that much money for you. It wasn’t for you at all.”
So he knew. How long before he’d finally figured out that Duncan and his people were after their investments? That had to have been why Sal had ordered his men to kill Duncan. It had nothing to do with her.
Shelley inched away from Sal. If she could get to the front door, maybe she could shift in time, run outside, and shift again. Even though she was tired, she’d had enough of a rest that she felt she could run back to see Duncan and still outdistance the other wolves. The adrenaline was still pumping rapidly through her blood.
Hopefully Duncan and her uncle were all right. The three of them could take these two wolves on. Sal also, if the bastard decided to shift.
“You could have been mine. But you were in on this, trying to trap me, weren’t you?” Sal’s brows rose. “Now you came here for my protection, didn’t you? A little too late.” He shrugged.
Not having much of a choice, she knew her next move might not work, but she had to give it a try. She bolted for the front door and found to her profoundest relief that it had a wolf door. She rammed it with her nose and dashed outside.
“Get her!” Sal yelled.
As soon as she raced around the front of the house, she saw three wolves headed straight for her, while the two Sal had commanded to go after her were catching up to her from behind.
Duncan was in the lead with another wolf racing after him. She didn’t recognize the second wolf as one they’d been fighting. Had he been a latecomer? Her uncle was off in the distance, running to catch up to them. So it would be Duncan and her against the two wolves behind her and the one following him.
She just hoped Sal would stay out of it.
But the wolves behind her began to slow down. Maybe not so confident when they saw Duncan. She sure didn’t intimidate anyone.
What truly amazed her as she ran to join Duncan was that the wolf behind him didn’t seem intent on fighting him.
Then she didn’t hear the wolves behind her. Not running toward her anyway. They were suddenly moving away from her, back toward the safety of the house.
Duncan reached her, brushed his body along hers in greeting, and kept running after the two wolves. The other wolf that had been following him dipped his head slightly at her, almost smiling, and she wondered…
It couldn’t be Duncan’s brother, Cearnach, could it? How did he get to her rented villa? They’d missed him at the airport! A taxi. He must have realized they were in trouble.
Her uncle finally reached her and nuzzled her face, catching his breath. As much as she wanted him to rest, she knew they needed to kill as a pack. Together, she and he followed Duncan and his brother into the house, where Duncan began fighting one of the wolves who had chased her, and Cearnach was battling the last of the wolves. Another wolf was waiting for Duncan and Cearnach to wear down before he got into the fracas. That coward Sal.
Damn Sal that he cared more for his blasted money than for werewolf lives or human life, she thought, as she glanced at Kenneth’s dead body.
Duncan growled and bit at the big alpha male that had driven the truck. Cearnach was seeing to the other. Her Uncle Ethan had Sal pinned to the floor, not killing him, knowing they needed to get the money out of him.
Cearnach and the other wolf crashed into a table, a porcelain lamp falling and smashing to the floor. Then the wolf yelped and Cearnach stood over the dead man, panting, then shifted his attention to Duncan, ready to lend aid if his brother needed it.
Shelley would have helped Duncan, but the two wolves were snarling and running into tables and couches, their attacks so vicious that she knew if she got in the way she’d get trampled by the much bigger males.
