Over confident from the small victory, Connolly was distracted for a brief moment, giving the wolf enough time to swirl around fast and swipe a sharp claw across his face and neck. Fuck. That stung like a bitch.
He’d pay for that.
Blood dripping from the guard’s flank, he circled Connolly, clearly waiting for the right moment to charge again. The man’s breaths were coming out increasingly faster, indicating the guard was losing strength.
Move now.
Connolly dropped back on his haunches and lurched at the wounded man. He dug his teeth into his neck, deep enough to immobilize him but not enough to kill. When his adversary collapsed, Connolly shifted into his human form.
He stood over the guard and kicked him hard. “That’s for punching a woman.”
His gaze shot over to her. Her green scrubs were stained with flecks of blood and dirt, and her face was badly swollen. Geezus, the man would suffer for this.
From a previous reconnaissance, he hadn’t spotted any cameras this far behind the main structure, but that didn’t mean someone wouldn’t come out to look for this guy. It was time to move them both.
Chapter Four
Connolly was barely able to contain himself from breaking down the warehouse door and demanding justice. Only a true, sick bastard would harm an innocent woman. If the other women hadn’t been inside, he’d have found a way to destroy the building and everything inside it, but he had a larger mission to accomplish.
With a lot of effort, he managed to carry the downed guard and the girl back to his vehicle. Because the guard had lost a lot of blood, he’d passed out and had been unable to shift into his human form.
Connolly had been tempted to take the girl to a hospital, but without even knowing her name, he might be accused of harming her. Her injuries looked bad but were hopefully superficial. With care, he suspected she’d heal. The guard on the other hand, didn’t have long for this world. What little time he did have left, Connolly was going to enjoy torturing him. Having served as an interrogation expert in the armed services, Connolly had hundreds of ways to extract information. His main concern was whether this guy was privy to the inner workings of Statler’s organization.
When he pulled up to his safe house, a large van sat in the drive. Good. Help had arrived from Florida. Carrying both of the injured parties inside, he called to the two men he’d yet to meet. All he’d been told was that they had a way to get inside the warehouse.
Two beefy looking men, both of whom were dark haired and resembled each other, were setting up a shitload of monitors and other surveillance equipment in the living room. As soon as they saw what he was carrying, they rushed over. “What happened?”
“I’ll fill you in later. While I get the girl to my room, mind making sure the man stays put?”
“You got it.”
Connolly would deal with introductions when he had a free hand. The woman moaned and something inside him stirred, but he refused to identify the emotion. He toed open the door to his room and carefully placed her on the bed. Her eyes were closed, but she was jerking and thrashing as if she was clawing her way to consciousness. The only reason Connolly would consider leaving her alone—even for a minute—was because he needed to find some aspirin for her.
“You need help?” one of the men asked as Connolly headed toward the kitchen. “Your brute just roused and shifted back into human form. Guess he thought he could escape. No need to worry, Dante is making sure the guy doesn’t move again.”
While he enjoyed working alone, being with competent operatives was a nice diversion. “I’m good. Thanks. How’s he doing?”
“He’s bleeding, but my brother is patching him up. We figured you wanted him alive.”
“I want to find out what he knows first and then I’ll kill him.”
The man held out his hand and smiled. “Trax Field. My brother Dante is in the other room.”
The name almost made Connolly laugh even though the General had mentioned who was coming up to help. “Connolly McLaughlin. I bet you were teased a lot growing up. Did the kids call you Track and Field?”
“Only the dumb ones. And then never twice.”
He liked the man. “Excuse me. I need to take care of the woman.”
“While you’re at it, you should bandage your neck and face.” Trax stepped aside and Connolly headed into the kitchen for water and aspirin.
He touched his cheek and was surprised to find blood. His adrenaline was still running through his system so fast that he hadn’t felt a thing after the initial swipe. He wasn’t worried. His wolf genes would take care of his injuries soon enough.