Page 87 of Phoenix Rising

“We’re okay,” Hunter answered.

“Detective Beaumont?”

No response. Reese pushed up to see her lying in a pool of growing blood. Oh, damn. He glanced at where the crash occurred to see Christian circling the shooter.

“Go. We will take care of the detective,” Talia said.

As much as he wanted to make sure Detective Beaumont was okay, Reese grabbed Audria’s hand, and they ran to where Christian was hauling the driver out of the car, tossing him on the ground, and slapping flex cuffs on his hands and ankles.

“Roll him over.”

The man groaned as Christian used his booted foot to turn him on his back. Blood poured from the man’s nose. He turned to spit some out and cried that he was choking.

“Hey, Bisclavret,” he greeted, and Audria gasped. “Or should I call you William Rian Farmington?”

Christian’s head jerked up. “What? No freaking way. This is him? Everyone thought he was dead. How did you figure it out?”

“The tattoo,” Reese responded. He crouched down and revealed it. “I remember seeing part of it in a picture. I knew I recognized it, and then Detective Beaumont told us that the woman they found with Paige used to work with him. All the pieces of the puzzle fell into place.”

Someone said something, but a buzzing had picked up in Reese’s ears, and he was having trouble hearing. Was there a swarm of bees somewhere close? Focusing was becoming an issue, too, as Christian’s image wavered in and out. “What was that?”

“I said that he’s losing a lot of blood,” Audria repeated.

“He’s not bleeding that bad . . . oh, shit.” Christian lurched forward and caught Reese before he hit the ground. Audria’s panicked voice tried to penetrate but his mind was shutting down. He wanted to tell her he loved her, but his lips didn’t want to work. He forced out the words before the world went dark.

#

Audria couldn’t believe the werewolf Bisclavret was the fugitive William Rian Farmington. The search for him after he’d killed his girlfriend had been massive in scale and scope. Farmington and his girlfriend, Penny Gibbons, had set off on a cross-country adventure, documenting their journey on social media. Everything was sunshine and roses on the first part of the road trip. Their smiling selfies with intertwined arms had filled their timelines, and they had hundreds of thousands of followers. A month into the journey, they’d been caught on police cameras when bystanders called 9-1-1 after witnessing the couple fighting in what was described as an explosive argument. William had apparently punched Penny in the face, causing her eye to blacken. She’d cried to the police that she had started the altercation, and neither had wanted to press charges. The cops had let them go.

The happy posts stopped, and the next few days had been filled with witness accounts of seeing the couple fighting at various tourist attractions. Their social media postings had become less frequent. Penny’s mother had called the police in Arkansas to conduct a welfare check on their motel room after she hadn’t heard from her daughter. The cops spoke to both William and Penny, and although they had witnessed noticeable bruising on Penny’s face, they hadn’t arrested William. Penny had made up excuses for the wounds.

It had been the last time anyone saw Penny alive.

When William returned home without Penny, he’d claimed she’d met someone else and left him. He said he’d tried to win her back, but she was in love with another man. When no one could contact her, a search was conducted in the area where she’d last been seen. When her body was found, William suddenly disappeared. She’d been killed by blunt-force trauma to her head. After an autopsy and thorough investigation, the authorities deduced it was William who had killed her.

An organized search had been issued for him but petered out after months of unsuccessful leads. A break in the case had come when skeletal remains were found in the last known area where William had been spotted. They were identified as belonging to him by forensic dentistry. The case had been closed. The media had portrayed it as a fairy tale romance gone wrong. Instead of happily ever after, it had ended in a sad case of domestic violence and profound tragedy.

All along, William Rian Farmington had been alive and well, living it up in Sedona, while Penny’s family had been left to pick up the pieces of their lives.

Audria wanted to kick him in the family jewels, but she refrained. She glanced down at the rapidly growing pool of red. “He’s losing a lot of blood.”

“He’s not bleeding that bad . . . oh, shit.”

At Christian’s curse, she swung her head toward Reese as Christian lurched forward and caught him before he collapsed. His shirt was covered in blood.

“No, no, no,” she chanted as Christian ripped his shirt open. There were two bullet holes in his torso: one under his shoulder and the other closer to his chest. Both were dripping blood.

Audria forgot every bit of her training and had no idea what to do. Panic like she’d never known gripped her so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. “Reese, can you hear me? Stay with me.”

Thank goodness Christian was there because he took charge, pressing against the wounds to stop the bleeding and calling for an ambulance. Hunter rushed over to help, and all Audria could do was hold Reese’s hand and croon softly to him, letting him know he would be okay and they were taking care of him.

An ambulance arrived, and Audria climbed on board as they loaded him inside. He hadn’t woken up yet, and that panicked her. The ride to the hospital passed in a blur. She was separated from him when they rushed him to the emergency room. A nurse jotted down her name as his contact and guided her to the waiting room. Soon, Hunter, Talia, and Christian joined her.

“How is he?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.” Some part of her brain remembered seeing Detective Beaumont lying on the ground. “What about the detective?”

Talia frowned. “She was shot in the hip and leg but hit her head when she fell. We did our best to tend to her, but,” she held up her hands, “I don’t know.”

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