She stopping speaking, and Roni assured her, “You don’t have to tell us what they did. But I would like to know how you got out of there alive.”
“I didn’t think I would. I knew I had to be smart. So when he told me how proud he was of me, I pretended to be glad. Pretended to be happy that I had pleased him so much. I wasn’t sure if it would work—especially since his friends didn’t think he should let me go—but it did. He drove me back to his house, wearing this beaming smile. I’ll never forget that smile. After what felt like a few hours, when we stopped at a red light near his neighborhood, I took the pepper spray out of my bag.”
Roni inwardly winced. Pepper spray on shifter eyes would hurt like a son of a bitch.
“While he was busy screaming, I got out of the car and ran to the nearest house. The couple there called the police. Noah was gone by the time they arrived, but they found him at his home and arrested him.”
Taryn’s brows knitted together. “So, wait . . . You’d been drugged, taken somewhere against your will, and beaten . . . and he wasn’t prosecuted for those things?”
“It didn’t even go to court.” Another bitter chuckle. “Some members of his pack—or his old pack, whichever—got involved, discredited my accusations, and promised to keep Noah out of my life if I promised to not go public with the story.”
Roni just bet they did. His pack might not want him, but they wouldn’t want him drawing attention to them either.
“I’m a librarian, I don’t have more than three figures in my bank account; I had no way of fighting him legally. All I really wanted was to know he couldn’t hurt me again. He hasn’t.”
“But you live in fear that he will one day, don’t you?” Roni understood that, because for a long time, she’d feared the other humans involved in her attack would come back for her.
“He’s sick and cruel, and he doesn’t deserve to live.” She looked from Taryn to Roni. “Will you kill him?”
“That’s the plan,” replied Roni.
“Good. Make it excruciatingly painful.”
Taryn’s mouth curved. “I think we can manage that.”
“And his friends?”
“Once we find them, they’ll wish they hadn’t been born. But we have no idea where to look for them. Is there anything at all you remember about the place? Maybe something Brunt once said about a certain place he liked to go?”
She thought for a minute. “I remember the smell. Death. Blood. It was everywhere.” So it was safe to say Brunt had taken her to the jackals’ kill site. “That’s all, I’m sorry.”
Taryn nodded. “Thanks for speaking with us, Margo. Take care.”
Rounding the aisle, they advanced through the building toward the exit. The males slid out of their hiding places, and Marcus immediately went to Roni, just as Trey went to Taryn. It wasn’t until they were outside that anyone spoke.
“Well, that was a wasted journey,” grumbled Dante.
Taryn held up a finger. “Not necessarily. Margo said it was a few hours before she got near Brunt’s home, so that would help pin down the location.”
“She’d been drugged and beaten, Taryn,” Ryan reminded her. “Being trapped with Brunt while she was so afraid . . . the journey could have seemed a lot longer than it was.” Taryn inclined her head, conceding that.
Roni slipped the lollipop out of her mouth—only to have it snatched from her hand by Marcus. Casting a brief scowl his way, she said, “One thing we have learned is that Brunt is being monitored by his pack. They might know something.”
Reaching the SUV they’d rented, Trey unlocked it and they all piled into the vehicle. “I doubt it. They’d have killed him to protect the pack’s reputation if they knew just how bad things are. But it’s safe to say they’ll try to get him off again. Not sure it will work this time, though.”
“We’ll get to him,” said Nick. “Even if he is imprisoned. No one’s untouchable. I know that very well.” In juvenile prisons, the human guards were often paid to target the prisoners.
At that moment, Trey’s cell phone started ringing. Putting it on speakerphone, he answered, “Hello.”
“Trey, I’m not sure you’re going to like this,” said Rhett. “Well, actually, you might. I think Marcus will. Or maybe not, since he now can’t get his hands on them.”
“Rhett,” interrupted Taryn, “make sense.”
“Sorry. It’s just that, um, I was checking the new vids on snm.com. Quinn and Lola McGee are dead.”
“Dead?” repeated Dante, leaning forward in his seat.
“There’s a clip of them being savaged while in their human forms by several jackals—all of whom were in their furry form. They also destroyed McGee’s pack.”
Marcus turned to Roni. “They might have found out that Quinn told us about the website.”
“Or they were a little pissed at finding the female jackal dead and decided to take it out on them,” said Taryn.
“Damn,” muttered Marcus. “I wanted to kill them myself.”
Roni wanted to laugh at the petulant pout on Marcus’s face. “It’s okay. You can take it out on the jackals when we find them.” She fully intended to.
“You can bet your phenomenal ass I will.” But the idea didn’t improve his mood. In fact, he wasn’t too proud to admit that he more or less sulked over the next few hours. Even later on, when Marcus and Roni took his Toyota from her pack’s parking lot and he drove to his territory, he remained pissed.
Roni snorted. “You sure know how to brood.”
“I’m not brooding, I’m—” Marcus halted midsentence as he approached the large security gates of his territory and noticed a familiar vehicle parked outside. Son of a bitch.
Feeling the anger that surged through Marcus, she looked at him. “What’s wrong?”
He pulled up outside the gates. “Wait here for me, sweetheart.”
“You have trouble of some kind, and you expect me to wait here?”
“It’s not trouble. There’s just someone I need to have a little talk with.” Without another word, he hopped out of the Toyota and made his way over to the vehicle. He didn’t halt until a dark, middle-aged man exited the driver’s side. “Dad.” The word was clipped, toneless.