CHAPTER 12

Follow the Leader

They stood in an uncomfortable silence for quite a while and the cold of the winter night was sinking right through Julio's coat. Chrissa was pressed against him and at this point he was sure it was just as much to do with the cold as for any apprehension she might be feeling.

"Could you at least let my wife sit in the car? It's cold out here and we hadn't planned to be outside this long." Julio could barely feel his toes anymore.

Neither of the men answered but when Julio took Chrissa's hand to pull her in front of him the man on the left started to reach inside his coat. "Whoa just take it easy." Julio held up one hand and reached slowly for his coat zipper with the other. "I'm a pastor for a little church a few blocks from here. I'm not armed. You can come check. But my wife is cold and if you won't let her warm up in the car I want to share my coat. Okay?" He'd been very slowly unzipping his coat as he talked. The man on the right came over and roughly patted down Julio while the man on the left held his gun on them. Right nodded to left and left nodded at Julio.

Julio pulled Chrissa to him and she wrapped her arms around his waist under his coat. He tugged the sides of his coat as far around her as he could and put his hands in his pockets to keep the coat in place around Chrissa, and to help warm them up. With the side of her face pressed to his neck he could hear her whisper. "Dear Lord, protect us and deliver us. Please bring your judgement on these men who are up to no good. Shelter and protect us…" Her whispered prayer faded to near silence, and he couldn't quite make out the words, but he imagined that they paralleled his own silent prayer.

It felt like a frozen eternity later when Julio heard the motor rev and the vehicle at the mouth of the alley pulled up to the loading dock. Another vehicle made its way down the alley and pulled up next to the first. A man with sandy brown hair and tailored wool coat stepped out of the second car. He came up the steps and stopped in front of Julio. "You are a friend of Eliot Spencer?"

Julio didn't respond, just held Chrissa tight against him.

"Do you know where I can find him?"

"No. The last time I saw him was here. I don't know where he could have gone." Julio felt the cold cut across his chest where Chrissa had been. She'd pulled away from him just a little so that she could stand beside him.

"I would like you to accompany me. We can go someplace warmer." He gestured to the vehicle he'd just gotten out of.

"We've got nothing to do with whatever is going on here." Julio pulled Chrissa tight against his side.

"We were just painting over the graffiti as a kind gesture." Chrissa sounded like she was on the edge of tears.

"That may be, but I am still interested in what you know about Mr. Spencer." At the top of the stairs, he nodded at the man on Julio's left. Both of the men stepped in to herd the Mendozas off of the loading dock and into the waiting vehicle.

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Parker watched the interaction between Hawthorn and Eliot's priest friend. Seeing Julio's wife Parker remembered Eliot saying that Julio wasn't a priest he was a… something else. Parker went back through the other footage and watched Julio try the doors all around the pub and ring the buzzers before going away. Next was a very short clip of a cat that ran across the loading dock. Then Julio and his wife came and painted over the graffiti. When they were nearly done two men came onto the loading dock. Everyone must have held very still for a little while because the clip ended with everyone standing on the loading dock. Next was the clip that set off the alarm and Parker watched it again, but she didn't get anything new from it.

It was after nine at night and the road between the cabin and Kalama was likely to be icy and that would take extra time. But if she left right now, she could make it to Eliot's houseboat in about two hours. But what then? She knew she couldn't take on Hawthorn and all of his bad guys. But Julio wouldn't be mixed up in any of this if she hadn't called him the night that Hardison had been stabbed. She knew she couldn't leave Julio and his wife in trouble so she wrote Eliot and Hardison a quick note and left it on the table where it couldn't be missed. She gathered up her warmest clothes and all of the little heating packs from Eliot's first aid kit, put out the fire in the hearth, and hurried out to Lucille.

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Eliot was consumed by the thrill of the hunt. He and Hardison had found the trail of a small herd of black tailed deer. After tracking them through the trees for a while he and Hardison crested the hill and could see the herd of deer in the small meadow below. Creeping low, Eliot could feel the ticklish tug of his belly fur as it drug across the crust of the snow pack between the trees. Hardison followed behind him at first but slowly started to fan out to his right. Eliot smiled a wolfish smile as they drew closer to the clearing.

The amazingly loud sound of a deer crashing through the brush near Hardison, in its mad dash to escape, did exactly what that sound was meant to do. Hardison startled and dropped to the ground and the deer in the meadow below ran in the same direction as the one Hardison had surprised. Eliot had been surprised as well but he was more prepared and bolted after the closest deer. He'd made it into the woods on the other side of the meadow before he realized that Hardison wasn't with him.

A howled cry broke out behind him, and he could feel Hardison panicking. Without another thought for the deer Eliot spun around and went back to the last place he'd seen Hardison. Eliot was afraid that Hardison might have been caught it a trap or had some other mishap. Trapping wolves and other large animals was illegal in this part of the state without a special license. But as a man that made his living outside the law, he wouldn't be surprised to find an illegal trap. When he spotted him Hardison was turning in circles like he couldn't decide what direction to go, and his panicked agitation was building.

Hardison spotted Eliot coming back up the hill and ran to him. Eliot could feel through the bonds that Hardison was teetering on the edge of the wolf taking control. He followed his instincts when Hardison pressed up next to him. He gently bit down on Hardison's muzzle, applying enough pressure to make Hardison hold still but not enough to do any damage. Hardison stilled and after a moment Eliot could feel Hardison's panic lessen. Without Hardison's panic thundering through the bonds Eliot felt what had set Hardison off; Parker was worrying over something, and he had the sense that she was farther away than she should be. He didn't understand why that had pushed Hardison into a panic but maybe Hardison was picking up something from Parker through their mate bond that Eliot wasn't getting. When it felt like Hardison was back in control Eliot gave Hardison's side a nip and sprinted back toward the cabin.

They had traveled miles from the cabin but without the need for stealth they covered the distance in no time, crashing through brush and leaping across rocky terrain with no care for the rocks they sent smashing down the hill sides. A wolf could sprint at about thirty-seven miles an hour and Eliot knew that werewolves were faster than that. He couldn't keep up that speed for long, but it was enough to carry them almost all the way back to the cabin. He slowed them to a trot as they got closer, and he noticed that the one small window on the back of the cabin was dark and there was no smoke coming from the chimney. It was early for Parker to be in bed so the window being dark was odd and it was far too early for the fire he'd built to have gone out on its own. He was certain that Parker wasn't there and that meant that something was definitely wrong.

Eliot knew when Hardison came to the same conclusion because he started to hurry forward. He gave Hardison another nip and tilted his head to the side. Hardison followed him as they circled the cabin, weaving between the trees on the perimeter of the clearing. Eliot felt relief wash through him followed by frustration. Relief: that with Lucille gone and nothing more than worry coming through the bonds, Parker must have left on her own. Frustration: that she would do such a thing on a moon night when he couldn't shift back to communicate with her or help with whatever crazy idea she'd come up with. Hardison was still agitated but Eliot thought that Hardison must have figured out the same things that he had as well since the level of anxiety coming through the bonds had dropped a little.

With one last look around Eliot and Hardison trotted across the open ground of the clearing to the cabin. The door was pulled shut but Eliot managed to get it open. He knew that Parker was gone but if she'd left willingly on her own, she might have left some clue as to why. Eliot was relieved to see the note propped up on the table. After he was sure that Hardison had read through it he yipped at him and hurried into the woods. Once Hardison joined him between the trees Eliot started a headlong sprint back toward Portland.

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It had taken just a little more than two hours for Parker to make it back to Portland. The roads down to Kalama had been especially icy and had taken a lot longer to navigate. Parker circled the block of the brew pub before finding a parking space in the lot for the apartment building across the street. She'd been most of the way back to the pub when she started to second guess her initial plan. She was sure that Hawthorn would have taken Julio and his wife to Eliot's houseboat and the first plan had been to sneak onto the houseboat and steal Julio and his wife at the first opportunity. The first problem was that people were hard to steal and usually Eliot was there for the heavy lifting and protection. Second without Hardison it would be harder to set up a good distraction and there was no one there to be a look out. Third the bad guys would definitely be expecting someone to come, and they hadn't hesitated to kill Hardison so they likely wouldn't worry about killing her if they caught her. She was just so used to working with a team that she hadn't paused to think things through before rushing to action but realizing how alone she was right now made this a daunting task. She checked the time on her phone and was pretty sure it was around eight in the morning in Ireland.

"Nate." She said his name when she heard him answer but she suddenly wasn't sure where to start. "How…I…grrr." She couldn't help the growl of frustration.

"Parker? Are you okay?" Nate smirked when he heard Parker's very human growl.

"How am I supposed to do this on my own?"

"Do what on your own?"

"Steal people." So far, every plan that had flitted through her head to retrieve Julio and his wife, had been garbage.

Nate set down his morning paper and his coffee to better concentrate on what he was hearing. "You're stealing what?"

"Julio and his wife. Hawthorn took them and I need to steal them back."

"And where are Eliot and Hardison? Oh…right it's still…what is it midnight-ish over there? They're still stuck in their wolf forms for several more hours then." Nate had been woken early that morning when Nati, Ewen, and several other wolves had staggered into the house, human shaped, naked, and still in uproariously good humor after spending the night as wolves under the full moon. He'd momentarily forgotten that the team was in a completely different time zone.

"Right, so I'm on my own here."

"Parker, you are part of a team…."

"But I'm by myself right now!" She cut across whatever he was going to say.

"You are part of a team. You are their mastermind. Act like it!" Nate hung up. He smiled as he tucked his phone back in his pocket. Parker was a good mastermind, one of the best he'd ever seen but sometimes she fell back into old habits from her years as a lone thief.

"Act like it. Be the mastermind. Just do it. You got this." She took a deep breath and gave herself a look in the mirror. "I got this!" A plan for how to handle the situation presented itself and after a quick inventory of Lucille she figured out what she might need.

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Eliot had sprinted until he noticed Hardison starting to fall behind. He had to admit to himself that he probably couldn't have kept up that pace for much longer anyway. He slowed to a traveling pace that was closer to a real wolfs so that Hardison could catch his breath. A wolf could travel almost all day or all night at around six miles an hour and a werewolf's traveling speed was closer to twelve. When it looked like Hardison was ready Eliot sped them up. They'd covered a lot of ground in their headlong rush down through the woods, but they were still many miles from Portland. Eventually they started to pass a few scattered houses but there was enough space at first that they didn't need to slow down. Eventually the houses got closer together and started to form neighborhoods on the north side of the Lewis River.

Fortunately, the area was still fairly rural and there were still plenty of trees to provide cover, but as they drew closer to the Lewis River Road Eliot pulled on the pack bonds to cast an overlook spell for the two of them. He hadn't tried this spell for a while, but he wanted to follow the road instead of traversing the uneven ground closer to the river. Looking over his shoulder at Hardison he thought the effort of the overlook spell might be wasted on him. The coloring of Hardison's wolf would make him hard to see regardless of moon light or lights from the passing cars. He, on the other hand, was too lightly colored and too big to go unnoticed or be mistaken for your average dog.

They followed the road until the river turned on the south side of woodland. Here Eliot slowed and took them to the river. The road would have taken them into a more densely populated area and maybe to Interstate 5 and while he'd had good results with the overlook spell, he wasn't sure that it was strong enough to keep them from being noticed in the heavier traffic that would be looking for animals on the side of the road.

Ice had built a thick crust along the edge of the river, but the current had kept the middle clear. Eliot considered it an upside that he wouldn't have to worry about either of them becoming trapped under the ice. But on the downside, there was probably no way to avoid getting wet. He supposed that they could follow the edge of the river for a while in hopes of finding a bridge, but he didn't think it would be worth the time it might take especially if there wasn't a bridge for miles. After stopping to drink from the river he looked as far down the river as he could in either direction. To his right was the bend of the river and past that were tall pines and a few houses. To his left was a long stretch of river and no sign of a bridge. He was certain that there was no bridge between where they'd joined the road and where they'd left it and he hated to backtrack farther than that if he didn't need to.

This part of the river had a wide sandy berm that was probably submerged in spring and summer months but right now it extended a good way into the river and Eliot was pretty sure that they would be able to make the crossing here. He yipped to get Hardison's attention before he backed up a little to get a good running start before, he made his leap at the edge of the river. He waited a little too long before he pushed off and his back feet slipped a little on the ice. Momentum mostly made up for it though and he landed haphazardly on the other side. His back legs crashed through the ice crusting the riverbank and the cold water engulfed him to the knee but he scrabbled clear and turned to face Hardison on the other side.

Hardison mimicked Eliot and sprinted for the river, at the last second, he pushed off and sailed through the air over the water. His leap took him a truly impressive distance and he easily cleared the opposite bank. Unfortunately, his rolling crash landing robbed something of the grace in the leap. Hardison rose as shook himself before giving Eliot a wolfish smile of victory.

Eliot smiled back, yipped, and hurried into the woods as he continued to lead them south toward Portland.