He watched Broden as the doc removed the blood pressure cuff from Kenzie's arm and tugged the stethoscope from his ears. The Kodiak bear shifter met his and then his brothers' gazes. "She can stay here for the rest of the day. If she doesn't want to go home with you she can stay with us, or one of the other women."
"Uh, I'd loved to have her stay with me and my guys, but we don't have a spare room in the apartment and I don't think it's a good idea for her to stay by herself in one of the motel rooms." Emmy frowned. "Who hid the car?"
Tatum held up a hand. "I called Rex and asked him to drive it to our place and hide it in the garage. It can stay there and rust for all I care. We'll remove the plates and get rid of any other identifying mark so it can't be traced as stolen."
"I think we should talk to the Louis brothers," Jordan said. "They're recently retired FBI agents. If Kenzie can tell us where that warehouse is, they can call some of their agent friends and stake those fuckers out."
"I agree." Jayson nodded.
"Have any of you ever heard of the Triad?" Jenson asked.
"I have," Tatum said. "Those fuckers are bad news."
"Who and what are the Triad?" Pixie asked.
Jordan glanced at Kenzie when he heard her heart rate increase and knew she was awake. She still had her eyes closed and was trying to keep her breathing regulated, but he and the others heard any change since they had enhanced senses. When he quirked an eyebrow at his brothers in query, they both nodded. When he did the same to the three women, they nodded, too.
Giving Kenzie as much information as possible would hopefully go a long way to gaining her trust. He just hoped what she heard didn't send her running out of town.
"The Triad are the Chinese mafia," Jett began to explain. "They have cells all over the world and are into anything and everything illegal."
"They're into making and dealing drugs, firearms, prostitution, murder, and human trafficking," Tatum explained.
"How would a local pimp know someone like that?" Dusty asked.
"Kenzie said something about a shipment of women coming in," Jenson said. "My guess is that the pimp asshole is kidnapping women off the street to sell to the Triad."
"Those poor women are probably being shipped overseas after being doped up on drugs. They will be made to work so their pimps can earn a shit load of money," Tatum explained.
"What scares me most is that the Triad leader, Lei, I think she said his name was, wants Kenzie for his personal collection. If he's already handed the cash over for the purchase and the underling doesn't deliver, he's going to be very, very angry," Jordan said.
"The Chinese are big on dignity and respect, or saving face, which is great for the moralistic people, but when the bad guys are seen as losing face, like this Lei, he's going to want revenge," Jayson explained.
Jenson clenched his fists and frowned.
"What Jay's trying to say is that no matter what the asshole who bought Kenzie does or says to try and make up for her escape and their failure to hand her over, it isn't going to wash. The Triad leader paid money for Kenzie and isn't going to be happy with a replacement."
"He's not going to give up until he has what he wants?" Emmy asked.
"Do you think they're looking for her?" Pixie shivered and crossed her arms beneath her breasts.
"Do you think they're going to come here?" Dusty's voice trembled.
"If they can find her, yes," Tatum answered.
"They're not going to get their hands on, Kenzie," Jordan said through clenched teeth. "They'll have to go through me, Jay, and Jenson to get near her. They'll have to fucking kill me to get within sight of her."
"Me, too," Jayson stated emphatically.
"I'll be right beside you," Jenson said in a hard voice.
"And we'll all be beside you guys," Tatum said. "There is no way those fucking assholes are going to hurt, Kenzie. We might be retired soldiers, but we trained to take people like them down."
"Damned right," Pixie said. "You're all big, bad-ass shifters. No one's going to … oh shit!"
Jenson glanced at Kenzie when her breath hitched, and cringed. He wondered if she'd open her eyes and scream at them to get away. The thought caused pain to surge into his heart.
He was surprised because he'd thought he would never feel anything again after fighting for his country. Some of the atrocities he'd seen would be things he'd never forget. So much violence and horror. He and his brothers had been lucky to survive, but it had been seeing the opposite sex staring at them and turning away in repugnance that had deadened his heart. He'd been enviously happy that some of his friends had found their mates, and while he'd pined for a woman they could love, too, he'd never expected to ever lay eyes on her. Now that she was here, albeit bruised, swollen, and hurting, he'd begun to hope. That hoped slowly diminished with each passing second as Kenzie remained lying on the bed with her eyes closed.
Jenson squeezed his own eyes shut and inhaled deeply through his nose. He quickly opened his eyes again and gazed at his mate. The sweet scent of her fear had faded. He could still smell her pain and the blood from her bruises, but he could also smell her sweet feminine fragrance of oranges and peaches. Saliva pooled in his mouth and he swallowed. When she shifted on the bed he got a waft of another sweet perfume. His panther purred with eagerness and began pacing, rubbing himself over his insides as if trying to saturate himself in their mate's delectable aroma.
She was wet.
He crossed his arms over his chest and dug his fingers into his biceps to prevent himself from moving and reaching for her. Jenson wanted to order everyone from the room, pick his mate up, and hold her close, but he couldn't for two reasons. The first because he didn't want to cause her any more pain when she was already feeling way too much. And the second, because he was scared if he so much as touched her, he would strip her out of that hospital gown and bury his face between her legs.
Hope tried to crawl back into his heart, but he ruthlessly pushed it away. He didn't want to be optimistic only to have his dreams smashed onto the rocks. Maybe he and his brothers were going to have to get used to spending the rest of their lives alone after all.
Big bad-ass shifters? What the hell was Pixie talking about?
Kenzie had listened to all the people talking about her and her situation while she pretended to be asleep. When the men had started to explain to the other women about the Triad, she'd been terrified, and it had been hard to keep her breathing deep and even. However, when the guys had said they'd protect her, her fear had waned and confidence that she'd survive this began to take its place.
She wasn't sure what Pixie had been talking about, and even though she was sure she was wrong, all she could think about was the werewolves she'd read about in a romance book.
She'd never had any spare cash to buy such luxuries like books but if she had, she would have had a room full of them. The only books she'd been able to read whenever she'd had any spare time-which was next to never since she was always working or doing chores-were ones she got from the local library. She hadn't even been able to spare a couple of dollars to buy secondhand books from the thrift store. Every penny she'd made had been allocated to keeping a roof over her and her not-father's head, and food in their bellies. Kenzie hadn't even been able to afford a cell phone.
Now, here she was, in a strange town, surrounded by people she didn't know, with no money, no clothes, and no means to get away.
Her life was in the trash and she felt as if she had tons of garbage on top of her, weighing her down with no energy or way to dig herself out.
With a sigh of acceptance, she pushed her pessimism aside and tried to look on the bright side. She'd escaped that pimp and his goon without being raped. Plus, these people had said they'd protect her even though they didn't know her. Only kindhearted, good, moralistic people would go out of their way to do that for someone they didn't know. Wouldn't they?
Deciding she was gaining nothing by playing possum and hoping that these men and women were as nice as they seemed to be, Kenzie opened her eyes. They were all staring at her.
The room wasn't small but with six hellaciously tall, muscular men as well as three women and herself, it felt crowded. "What are shifters?" Kenzie blurted out before she could stop herself.