Page 167 of Secret Shifters Next Door

“Miles? How’s Kellan?”

“EMTs just pulled away with him. Had him on an IV. They looked worried, but he was still breathing when they took him. What do you want me to do?”

“Shit, go to the hospital. Stay there and update me on his condition. Let April’s parents and brother know what’s going on, tell them to head to the hospital.”

“On it. You guys be careful. You hear me?”

“I hear you.” I hung up and slid the phone back into my pocket. “What did you find on the building?” I asked Blayne.

He nodded. “It was built in the seventies as a homeless shelter but transitioned to a warehouse in the late eighties. Thenin the nineties, the company that owned it went under. Now the lease is to a guy named Dominic Olivera. I figure that’s an alias, but I’ll look into it and see what I can find.”

As we got closer to the location, I started to realize where we were going. This area was known to be pretty rough. It was rural, poor, and known to have a significant drug problem. It was the polar opposite to Lilly Valley. It was the kind of place where people looked the other way when bad things went down. It was not anywhere I wanted April to be, even if hunters weren’t involved.

Tate pulled the truck into the parking lot of an abandoned fast-food place. We were still a quarter mile from where the GPS said they’d taken April. It would take a little longer, but going on foot was better than trying to plow in with Tate’s giant truck. The three of us got out and moved toward the warehouse.

I looked at my friends and took a deep breath. “Are you ready?” When they nodded, I turned and walked toward the warehouse. Their footsteps followed me. It was exactly what I’d do for them. If there was one thing we weren’t afraid to do, it was going into battle with each other.

THIRTY-THREE

APRIL

Kellan was gone. Dead. He had to be. In my mind, I could still see the explosive gunshot, the flash of the muzzle, the spray of blood as the bullet tore into my brother. My eyes were swollen and puffy from crying. When they’d pulled me from the van, leaving him behind, the pool of blood around him had been growing larger by the second. My brother was dead.

I swiped a hand across my face, wiping the tears and snot away. The man beside me, the one who’d shot Kellan, had a gun jammed into my ribs. From the look on his face, I almost thought he was hoping I’d try something. In the distance, a warehouse loomed. It seemed to be where they were taking me, but I had no idea why. What was their plan?

The man beside me leaned in, and I flinched as his lips almost touched my ear. “You are a sweet piece, aren’t you? Even if you’ve let one of those filthy things fuck you, I wouldn’t be opposed to showing you what anactualman could do. I guarantee my cock tastes better than some nasty shifter dick.”

“Knock it off,” the driver called over his shoulder. “She’s for Ryland. He’s already gonna be pissed. No reason to make shit worse.”

The guy beside me leaned away, and I breathed a sigh of relief. My skin crawled thinking about what he’d said. The idea of one of these men even touching me made me want to vomit.

The car came to a halt in front of the warehouse, and I was pulled roughly from the SUV. I stumbled in the gravel of the parking lot, and the guy who’d killed Kellan yanked at my arm, holding me up. I stumbled into the garage, noting the rollup door. The hunter who’d been driving hit a button and the door automatically began lowering. The warehouse was small, and I couldn’t tell if it was some type of front for the hunters or a vacant building they’d taken over.

We kept moving deeper into the building, and with each step, I was losing more and more hope. I dropped my head and sobbed.

“Shut the fuck up,” the third man said.

“You killed my brother, you asshole. Fuck you.”

His eyes widened, and he pulled his hand back to slap me, but the driver caught his wrist. “If you put a mark on her, Ryland will have your ass. Chill. This is almost over. No reason to get shot over a shifter-fucker.”

The one who’d tried to hit me glared in my direction but finally nodded and dropped his hand. As though he’d heard them say his name, Ryland appeared out of the shadows. I almost screamed in surprise. It was like some malevolent spirit stepping out of a nightmare into reality. The one thing I could tell was that he was well and truly pissed. The look on his face sent fear pulsing through me.

He walked straight toward me and took my hand. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

I couldn’t speak. Instead, I simply shook my head. Ryland nodded, and the cloud of anger descended on his face again. Slipping a gun out of his waistband, he looked at the men standing behind me and snarled, showing his teeth.

“Which one of you shot her brother?”

The three men took an almost simultaneous step back. Their voices stumbled over one another as they tried to explain what happened and why. The fear in their eyes told me all I needed to know about the kind of person Ryland was—if I hadn’t already been sure.

The guy who’d shot Kellan held his hands up. “You said if he talked to Steff, we needed to take him out.”

Ryland sliced a hand through the air like a knife. “No, you fucking idiot. I said that if he talked to Steff and he was going to ruin the plan, then take him by force. Then I could find out what he said. I did not mean you should shoot up the goddamn house in the middle of the damn day. It did not mean putting a bullet in him and drawing unwanted attention.” Ryland shook his head and let his shoulders slump. “You realize we’ve already brought down more heat than we were supposed to? I’ve had to go into hiding. I’ve lost my cover job at the school. The boss isn’t happy. Then you three fuck-ups go and try to be Navy seals or some shit?” He cocked his pistol and stood straighter, a look of decision on his face. “One last time, which one of you shot the brother?”

The driver and the third guy jumped away from the one who’d killed Kellan. He looked at his two friends in surprise, then back at Ryland. He held his hands up, looking panicked. “Hang on now. I was following orders.”

Ryland shook his head. “Because of you, we have a dead man on our hands and a bunch of half-breed animals on our tails. I can’t tell you how much I hate it when someone can’t listen.”

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