Page 120 of Marked

“That is exactly what I want to get to the bottom of. It’ll have to wait a bit, though. After we get you introduced to the pack alpha and get you inducted into the pack.” He groaned. “And I’ll need to take care of this body. Once all that is taken care of, I’ll do a deeper investigation. Now that I have his name and last-known address, it should be easier to find out more about the guy’s history.”

The mention of his ID reminded me of the business card I’d pulled from his pocket.Keeble and Jax Construction. Where did I know the name from? Maybe a commercial? A billboard? Could be, but something told me I had some tenuous connection to it. Had I ever known someone who worked for them? Had I written a story on them? What could it be?

As we drove, the maddening sensation of something being right on the tip of my tongue took over. Iknewthat if I figured out the connection, something important would be revealed.A door would swing wide, and the light shining in would illuminate all the questions and their corresponding answers. Maybe Ollie had heard of them.

“I found a business card in the guy’s pocket,” I said. “Have you ever heard of?—”

“What the hell?” Ollie grunted and slowed the truck.

He peered out the window, squinting against the pouring rain at the road ahead. The truck had come to a near total stop. There was an obstruction of some sort in the road. I almost couldn’t make it out. With each swipe of the windshield wipers, the sheet of water was cast away, but just as soon as it was cleared, another opaque sheet of water covered it. But even in that half-second of clarity, the problem managed to reveal itself. A car parked across both lanes, forcing Ollie to stop the truck and throw it into a park.

“Asshole’s in the middle of the road,” I said. “Wonder if he spun out. Maybe hydroplaned.”

Ollie unbuckled his seatbelt, his mind shifting intocop modeeven as I strained to see more. “I don’t think so,” he said. “He’s parked directlyacross both lanes. Like it’s on purpose.”

Ollie glanced out the window, and the look of irritation faded into worry. “Something’s not right. If this was just an accident, where’s the driver? Why aren’t the emergency lights on?” He took a few slow breaths. “I don’t like this.” He inched his hand down to his holster, unclipping the pistol.

The wipers swiped away another sheet of cold rain, revealing the car again, and this time I got a good look at it. A silver luxury sedan. Irecognizedthe car in the street. I’d ridden in that car multiple times.

A conversation came spiraling up from my memory—a conversation in that very car that took place a week ago but somehow seemed decades away. Rick, parking in front of aconstruction site. Me, questioning why he was showing me the place. His words from that day burst into my mind.

“This is being financed by The Masters Foundation. Keeble and Jax work for the foundation of construction projects like this.”

The feral wolf had been hired by the same company that worked for Rick and his family. That couldn’t be a coincidence. How? Why? None of it made sense, but it all fit together.

Outside, the rain slowed a bit, enough for me to see movement out the passenger side window. A shadow, inky black against the gray of the rain, was sprinting toward us.

A wolf. Rick’s wolf.

Grabbing Ollie’s arm, I pointed and opened my mouth to scream. But before I could, Rick leaped up, his body slamming into the driver-side window, shattering the glass.

I screamed as the world erupted into a chaos of glass, growls, snapping teeth, and screams around me.

PART II

31

Cameron

Rick, in his wolf form, was halfway through the window, snapping his jaws at Ollie. The wolf’s yellow eyes were wide and maniacal, rolling in their sockets. Strings of saliva hung from teeth that threatened to tear into Ollie’s throat.

“Goddamn it,” Ollie hissed, thrusting his arm beneath Rick’s jaw, trying to keep the wicked teeth from his neck.

The window was made of safety glass, and the fact that it wasn’t completely shattered was all that kept Rick from coming fully into the car. I grabbed Ollie’s shirt and tried to drag him backward, but he swatted me with his free hand.

“Get out of here, Cameron!” he shouted.

He was too busy trying to keep Rick’s jaws away to shift, and even if he could, Ollie had no room to do it and still fight. The truck cab was too small.

Rick snarled and growled like some mad creature from Hell. He looked rabid, crazy. He’d managed to claw both his front paws into the hole in the glass. Blood oozed down his foreheadfrom where he’d busted through, but he didn’t act as though it bothered him in the least.

I grabbed the door handle and yanked it, but it refused to budge. Why wasn’t it opening? A high keening sound echoed in my ears as I kept tugging on it, and I realized it was me. A panicked moan was coming from high in my throat. The terror clawing at my insides made it hard to think, and I gave a quick shake of my head. The fucking door wasn’t opening because it was locked.

“Shit!” I yelled.

Ollie’s scream drew my attention away from the door. Rick’s entire upper body was nearly through the glass, and he’d closed his jaws on Ollie’s shirt. Rick thrashed his head back and forth with maddening force, slinging Ollie around like a ragdoll until his head slammed into the steering wheel. He fell limply against the wheel, then slid sideways, only held up by the seatbelt. Blood trickled from a cut above his eyebrow.

“Ollie!” I shrieked.

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