Chapter 18

Cooper pulled Armand’s minivan into the guest parking area of the luxury condo complex on North Pearl and looked up at the tall building. It was ten stories high with lots of glass, immaculate landscaped trees and bushes around the first floor and pool, and a monthly maintenance fee alone that was more than Cooper’s total rent. It wasn’t the Ritz-Carlton, but it was in the same neighborhood, and as a management-level drone in a small DOD contracting firm, this place should have been out of Ryan North’s price range. Cooper only hoped Jim was here, and that he had Everly with him. If Cooper struck out, he wasn’t sure where to look next.

Cooper had gone straight from his apartment to Triple S-I, praying there wouldn’t be any cops or feds hanging around. Because he had no doubt there was a BOLO out on him already, and if anyone saw him, he was screwed. But there hadn’t been a cop or fed in sight.

Unfortunately, North wasn’t in his office. Recognizing him from the investigation, Arnold Braun’s secretary had told him that North had gone home already, getting ready for an overseas trip to handle some contractor work. Cooper had left a few minutes later with North’s home address, doubting it was a coincidence that the man was leaving the country at the same time Jim was trying to kill him. The theory that North believed he was no more a target than any of the other senior company officials was starting to look a little bogus. Then again, as Cooper looked at the expensive place where North lived, he started to think there were a lot of bogus things going on with the former EOD officer. Something told Cooper that if North left the country tonight he probably wouldn’t be back.

Cooper flashed his badge at the doorman, and like magic, a bigger man in a slightly more expensive suit showed up.

“Is there a problem officer?” the man—obviously security—asked, taking in Cooper’s SWAT uniform and probably wondering why the holster at his hip was empty.

“I hope not,” Cooper said. “Have you seen a man about forty or so, gray at the temples, medium height, about a hundred-and-ninety pounds? There may have been a beautiful woman with long, golden brown hair with him.”

The doorman immediately looked at the security guy with a look like, I fucking told you so, and then turned back to Cooper.

“Yeah,” the doorman said. “They were heading to the restaurant on the tenth floor. The woman smiled, but she didn’t look like she was enjoying herself. Is there a problem with them?”

At least Everly was with Jim. “Was the man carrying a bag or package of any kind?”

“No.” The security guy frowned. “He didn’t have anything with him. What is this about, officer?”

Cooper ignored the question. “I’m guessing you don’t pat down your guests before they go up to the restaurant?”

When the guard shook his head, Cooper headed for the doors. “Which way are the elevators to the restaurant?”

Cooper ran through the lobby, looking at the green-tinted glass of the atrium roof above him and the view of the trees and shrubs that grew right up to most of the big windows of the ground floor. It was a beautiful place. Hopefully, it wouldn’t get messed up. Hopefully, he’d be able to stop Jim before anything like that happened.

There was a crowd waiting for the elevators. Shit. He didn’t have a lot of time. Cooper swerved and shoved the door leading to the stairwell. He sprinted up the flights to the tenth floor. As Cooper slowly pushed open the heavy metal door at the top of the landing, he realized the shit had hit the fan. He could already hear screaming and shouting.

Cooper slowly stepped out of the stairwell. Across from him, both sets of elevator doors were wedged open. Now he understood why there was such a huge crowd downstairs waiting for elevators. Jim hadn’t wanted anyone interrupting him.

Cooper swore as he walked into the restaurant, past the hostess table and over to a partition separating that area from the rest of the restaurant. He really wished Dennis hadn’t taken his weapons. He felt frigging naked going into a situation like this.

He poked his head around the wall and immediately felt his whole body tense as his claws and fangs extended on their own.

Twenty terrified customers, chefs, and waitresses huddled against the far wall of the restaurant, their eyes as big as saucers. Ryan North stood on one side in front of the panoramic windows, holding a Glock on Jim and Everly, who were standing near the other end of the panoramic windows. Jim held Everly in his arms, using her as a shield. There were tears in her eyes, and her heart was beating a hundred miles an hour. She was scared, but she was holding it together.

Cooper frowned in confusion. Jim didn’t seem to be holding a weapon, but North and the rest of the customers in the restaurant where obviously freaking out. Then Cooper saw the one thing he would have never in his life expected to see on Jim—a suicide bomb.

The vest was tight-fitting and partially hidden by the sports jacket Jim had on, but Cooper could see at least six pipe bombs attached. No doubt there were more in places he couldn’t see.

Jim held a controller in his left hand, his thumb already pressing down on the top button. That definitely wasn’t good.

“Go ahead, Ryan,” Jim taunted. “Shoot me. The bomb goes off as soon as my finger comes off the trigger.”

Fuck. This was about as bad as it got.

Jim already had the button pushed on a dead man’s switch, and Cooper seriously doubted there’d be a way to return the system to the safe condition. Jim had walked in here planning to die—why have a safety switch?

Cooper took a deep breath to calm himself, forcing his claws and fangs to retract. The animal inside him wanted out so badly, wanted to run to Everly’s side and protect her no matter what. But there was nothing a werewolf could do to solve this problem. Cooper was going to have to do it all on his own.

He exhaled loudly then walked around the dividing wall and into the restaurant.

“That was pretty fucked up the way you stashed those C-4 blocks in my bedroom closet, Jim,” he said as casually as he could as he approached his friend—and the woman he loved. “The damn feds tried to arrest me.”

Jim stared at him stunned, but it was the look on Everly’s face that almost stopped Cooper in his tracks. Her eyes widened, and her heart began to pound even faster. Damn, she seemed more terrified of him than she was of Jim and the bomb strapped to his chest. God, that hurt like hell.

He pulled himself back to the here and now just in time to hear Jim telling him he should leave.

“You know I can’t do that, Jim,” Cooper said. “Why don’t you just let Everly and all these other people go, then I’ll help you get that damn vest off, and we can get the hell out of here?”

Jim shook his head violently and ranted about all their friends being dead, about North murdering them and how wrong it was for their former commander to be walking around free—hell, to be walking around at all. About how he’d put the dog tags from one of the soldiers North had gotten killed in that IED attack. As much as Cooper hated admitting it, the man he used to know and love as a brother was gone.

“If you won’t let everyone go, what about letting Everly go and using me as a hostage instead?” Cooper asked.

Jim was so busy running down the list of all the atrocities North had committed he didn’t even hear Cooper. He wanted revenge, and he didn’t care if had to die to get it. Unfortunately, he was going to take Everly and everyone else in the restaurant with him.

Everly was so terrified it hurt Cooper down to his bones. She wouldn’t even be here right now if it weren’t for him. If he could go back to the bank that day and do it all over again, he would never have asked her out.

He’d known for days there would never be a happily ever after for them. That knowledge took so much out of him that it was hard to think about anything but how miserable he was without her. The one woman in the world who was The One for him just happened to be terrified of werewolves. He’d found his One. They simply could never be together.

But none of that was important now. All that mattered was saving her life. If he could do that, in some small way, it might repay her for all the pain he’d brought her.

Cooper looked at Jim, considering the vest he wore and the trigger in his hand, then the window behind his friend. Ten stories was a long way down. But the fall wouldn’t be the thing that did him in. No, the bomb going off would take care of that. He’d survived an IED blast once before, but that time he’d been in a bomb suit and nearly ten feet away when the device had gone off. This time, he would be much closer.

What the hell? Once an EOD tech, always an EOD tech. It was almost a given that someday he’d get blown into a big pink mist.

Jim was ranting so loudly now that Cooper doubted he was even aware of what the hell was going on around him. It didn’t help that North was pleading for his own worthless life in between calling Jim a psycho.

Cooper locked eyes with Everly.

“I love you,” he said, even though there was no way she could hear him over the bedlam.

Then he growled and let his body partially shift like he’d done in the bank a few days ago. The moment his muscles twisted and hummed into life, he ran toward his best friend and the woman he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with but never would.

* * *

Jim had lied to her. Everly had helped him get into the restaurant, but the moment he’d seen Ryan North sitting by himself at a table near one of the windows, he forgot his promise to let her go. He forgot the promise that he wouldn’t hurt anyone but his former commander too.

Instead, there was a whole restaurant full of people trying to hide behind a few pieces of furniture, and Jim was using her as a human shield as he taunted and shouted at North. She’d been too terrified to try to free herself, afraid she’d jostle his hand and set off the bomb.

But then Landry had strolled in, and her panic level had shot through the roof. How the heck had he found them? More importantly, what the heck did he think he could do here? Jim was slipping closer to the edge by the second. Now that Jim had North in front of him, she was surprised he hadn’t already released the bomb trigger and killed them all. Landry couldn’t do anything here except get himself killed. She shook her head, trying to silently tell him to get away while he still could. She would have shouted at him to run, but she was afraid if she did, it would set Jim off.

She’d known after talking to Jayna earlier that she still loved Landry, but it wasn’t until that moment when she realized they might both die, how incredibly stupid she had been. Yes, the werewolf inside him scared her, but it was something she knew she could have come to accept given time. But now, it didn’t seem like there was going to be any more time for them, and Everly was furious with herself for wasting the last two days she could have been with him.

Then Landry’s eyes caught hers, and she saw him mouth those three little words that people throw around so casually. But with Landry, she knew there was nothing casual about it because in the next breath, he released a growl and darted toward her and Jim in a blur.

Everly opened her mouth to scream for him to stop. But before she could even make a sound, Landry slammed into Jim. There was a tug on her shoulder, then both Landry and Jim flew past her, smashing through the big window behind her. She was so shocked it took a moment to register what happened. When she figured it out, her heart seized in her chest. Screaming, she spun around and ran toward the broken window, even though she knew it was too late.

She’d barely taken two steps when an explosion rocked the building. The sound of breaking glass seemed to last forever, then a huge ball of black smoke rolled upward past the shattered window.

Everly rushed to the window, grabbing the frame as she leaned out. Her stomach spun as she looked down. She expected to see both Landry and Jim lying lifeless on the pavement below, but all she saw was the broken glass of the lobby atrium. Smoke rolled up through the opening, keeping her from seeing anything. She strained her eyes anyway, hoping to see Landry getting to his feet, but she didn’t.

She wasn’t sure why she expected him to be alive. It was impossible to believe that even a werewolf could survive the impact with a glass roof from this high up, not to mention falling through it, and then an explosion.

That didn’t stop her from whirling around and shoving past a confused North and running for the elevators. She had to find Landry.

* * *

Cooper had clamped his hand around Jim’s as he slammed into him, doing all he could to keep the man he once considered his best friend from lifting his thumb and blowing all of them to pieces—at least until they were through the window and far enough away for Everly to be safe. He barely felt the impact as they hit the window. He’d been moving too fast, and his mind had gone numb. Only one thought existed in his head—let Everly live through this.

Jim tore at his hand as they fell, but Cooper hung onto the bomb trigger silently counting the milliseconds until they were far enough away from the only perfect thing that had ever stepped into his life. The air whistled in his ears, and the sensation of weightlessness was almost a comfort. He expected it to last only a few seconds so he didn’t bother to look down. Why should he worry about what was coming when he couldn’t do anything about it?

One moment he was falling, the next he and Jim smashed into something that shattered under them. It took a nanosecond for Cooper to realize it was glass, not pavement. They’d hit the roof of the atrium.

Shit.

He must have landed on one of the aluminum framing pieces that held up the glass of the atrium. While the glass beneath Jim shattered, whatever was under Cooper didn’t. He heard and felt things inside him break as he bounced on impact. Then, as Jim was ripped out of his arms, Cooper felt himself slide down the inclined glass roof and keep right on going.

Cooper went only a couple feet when the blast hit him, breaking the glass out from under him and flinging him off the atrium roof into the air.

He was immediately transported to that day more than four years ago when another blast had shoved him like this. Except this time, he didn’t have all those images of regrets and things left undone running through his head. He had gotten far enough away from Everly, and she was safe. He had no regrets and had left nothing undone this time. He’d met and spent an amazing week with the love of his life. A man couldn’t ask for more than that.

Frag from the bomb and glass thrown by the blast wave sliced through him, but only for the barest fraction of a second. Then he was spinning uncontrollably toward the ground rushing up to meet him.

Cooper tried to twist around, flailing against unresisting air as he attempted to get his feet under him, but he hit something that definitely wasn’t the ground before he could. It yielded then snapped under him, altering his trajectory and bouncing him against the glass wall of the building.

He had a moment to realize he’d bounced off a tree branch before he hit more, ricocheting back and forth, like a pinball in an old-fashioned arcade game. Every impact slowed him down, but it also hurt like hell as smaller branches stabbed into him like tiny knives, and larger ones slammed into him like baseball bats. Things were cracking and snapping inside him like a fucking bowl of Rice Krispies.

He gave up any thought of getting his feet under him and settled for getting his arms up to protect his face and head. He’d hated his old army bomb suit, but he would have killed for one right about then.

Cooper held his breath, his body tense as he waited to hit the next branch, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he slammed hip-first into the ground. Agony exploded through him as he felt bones break. Pain unlike anything he’d ever experienced rushed through him.

Shit.

If he was feeling pain, did that mean he was still alive? The answer to his question was a black sheet slowly pulled over his head.