Page 165 of Secret Shifters Next Door

“Hey, pal, you can’t go in there. Crime scene.”

“Let go,” I growled, and I was sure my eyes must have shifted, because the cop released me and stepped back like I’d burned him.

Once I turned back to the porch, I froze in horror. There were multiple footprints on the steps leading down. Red prints. Feet that had walked through blood. My skin felt like it was on fire. My bear was losing its mind, trying to rip free. It was everything I could do to prevent it from shifting spontaneously. Tearing my eyes away from the bloody footprints, I leaped onto the porch and ran into the house.

My knees nearly gave way. So much blood. Oh, God, there was so much blood. It looked like a grenade had gone off inside the room. Holes were all over the wall, lamps had been shattered and overturned, feathers had exploded out of the sofa and had stuck in the blood on the floor.

April’s name exploded from my mouth. I screamed for her over and over, my throat going hoarse. Two deputies rushed from the kitchen, and the familiar Detective Duggan grabbed me from behind. My body and mind were too shocked by what I saw to fight back.

“Damn it, Steffen, you can’t be here.” Duggan grunted as he tugged me toward the door.

Finding my voice, I yelled into his face. “My girlfriend was here when this happened. Where is she? Fucking tell me!”

Before the detective could say anything, another set of hands was pulling me down the stairs. These hands were stronger, easily pulling me from Duggan’s grasp and dragging me across the yard. I spun, raising my fist to fight whoever it was off, but it was only Miles.

“Let’s go,” he said, glancing over his shoulder.

“No, I have to find April.”

“That’s what we’re doing.” We got to the truck, and he finally let me go. “I heard the neighbor over there giving a statement. She saw three men come out of the house. One guy was pulling a pretty redhead, who was trying to beat the shit out of the guyholding her. Another guy was carrying a limp body covered in blood. Last dude was carrying some kind of machine gun.”

I grabbed Miles by his jacket, taking a handful of fabric, and jerked him toward me. My canines were elongating, the bear trying to break through. “Where? Where did they go?”

“Neighbor saw them get loaded into a white van and taken off that way.” Miles nodded down the street. “Blayne’s got his laptop, pulling up the same security feeds he accessed the other day, trying to find which way they went.”

April was safe. She hadn’t been hurt when they’d put her in the van. The knowledge that she was okay almost sent me to the ground in relief. That was short-lived when I heard the screaming voice from behind me. I spun and saw April’s parents had pulled up to the curb. Her father had grabbed an EMT and was yelling in his face for answers. April’s mom was on the other side of the car, cradling Aiden in her arms. The boy looked shell-shocked and white as a sheet.

“I got them,” Blayne called from Tate’s truck. He leaned out the window, waving at me. “Found a white van running a red light about five minutes ago. We need to fucking move.”

Miles slapped me on the shoulder. “Go. I’ll talk to April’s folks. Hurry, bro. Now.”

Without another word, I sprinted to the truck and jumped in the back. Tate peeled away from the house, following Blayne’s directions. I gripped the armrest like it was the only thing keeping me alive. I wanted to be the one driving, but I was in no state to do that. Instead, I let Tate fly through town, trying to catch up to the hunters.

Blayne typed at his laptop furiously, pulling up camera after camera, scrolling for sightings of the van. Anytime he saw it flying through an intersection or turning onto a street, he’d call out the location, and Tate would slam the gas and rocket usonward. My eyes stayed glued to the windshield, willing the van to show itself, desperate to see it.

I almost yelped when my phone rang. It was Miles. I pulled it out and answered. “Yeah?”

“April’s parents are settled with the cops. I left them with Detective Duggan. They aren’t doing great. The kid is freaked, but I couldn’t do anything else for them. Where are you guys? I’m going to meet up with you.”

“Where the hell are we, Blayne?” I asked.

He called out the latest spot he’d seen the van, and I relayed it to Miles. He promised to meet us as soon as he could. Leaving him on speaker, I set the phone down and put my face in my hands as my mind began to spiral. Everything that had happened today was my fucking fault. I’d waited too long. Our plan had been solid, but I kept putting it off. I’d been so consumed with waiting for therightmoment, I’d forgotten how much danger we were all in. If I’d talked to Kellan sooner, this may have all been avoided. I’d screwed everything up with my indecision.

My head was hung low, my face in my hands, and I kept repeating the same words. “My fault, my fault, my fault…”

“Stop that shit,” Tate growled. “You didn’t do anything. Ryland and the hunters did it. We don’t have time for self-fucking-pity. We need to get this shit done. Save April and end this.”

I clamped my teeth onto my lower lip, biting until I drew blood. He was right. I couldn’t wallow in what might have been. I had to get my mind right for what was coming. If I was going to save April, I had to be in control. “I’m good, I’m fine. Let’s do this.”

“Shit!” Blayne hissed. “They just took the on-ramp to the interstate. There won’t be cameras for miles. It’s the only way to get out of town.”

“How far are we?” Tate asked.

Blayne glanced around at street signs. “We made up a lot of ground. Maybe a minute or two from where they got on the interstate.”

The truck’s engine was already roaring, but Tate pressed the pedal as far as it would go, and we careened down the road. He passed several cars by swerving around onto the shoulder. It was some of the most dangerous driving I’d ever seen in my life, but all I cared about was getting to April.

“What’s our plan when we find April?” Miles asked, still on speaker phone.

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