Chapter Twelve
Jackie had never run so fast in his life, not even when he’d heard the gunshot as he raced back to Boone. His mate was missing, and Jackie knew of only one man who could help get him back. By the time the lights from the farmhouse came into view, Jackie felt as if his legs were going to fall off.
So much for being faster and stronger.
Maybe he should have shifted into his lion form. He briefly considered it, but as he had only ever shifted once—with Boone present—he was afraid of what would happen if Boone wasn’t there to guide him through the shift.
He saw the porch light go on before he reached the driveway. Imposing figures stepped out of the darkness at the edges of the house. Jackie ignored them and kept running. The front door opened and Hugh stepped out, stopping at the top of the steps.
“Hugh, Hugh, they took Boone.”
Alarm flashed across the large man’s face. “Who took Boone?”
“I don’t know. Something broke the back window and we crashed. Boone got impaled on a piece of the doorframe. He told me to go for help because he couldn’t free himself and I wasn’t strong enough. I started to come here, but then I realized someone must have shot out the window to make it shatter. I raced back, but I was too late. Boone was gone. There was a body on the ground and I thought it was him, but it wasn’t.”
Jackie stopped at the bottom of the steps, panting heavily. “They took him, Hugh. They took my mate.”
Hugh started barking out orders, and people began running around. Before he knew it, Jackie was sitting on the couch inside, a blanket around his shoulders and a cup of hot tea in his hands.
“Go through it one more time, Jackie,” Hugh directed. “What happened from the time you left the house?”
“We were talking about rings. Boone”—Jackie swallowed hard against the lump of sorrow clogging his throat—“Boone wanted to know my ring size and what kind of gem I wanted, but we started talking about getting tattoos instead because of shifting. Then the back window shattered and Boone yelled at me to get down on the floorboards.”
Jackie started shaking as the memory played over in his mind. “The truck started swerving and then we hit something, a tree maybe. Something. The dashboard pinned me on the floor. Boone pulled it up enough for me to get out, but he couldn’t pull it away. Part of the doorframe had come off and gone through his shoulder, pinning him to the back of the cab.”
“Was he lucid?”
Jackie nodded. “He told me to go for help. His cell phone got destroyed in the crash and I left mine at home. The CB was destroyed. Boone said we needed help to free him and we couldn’t call anyone. He needed me to go for help. I didn’t want to, but he was bleeding and I just…” Jackie shrugged. He didn’t know how else to put it into words.
“How did you discover he was missing?” Hugh asked.
Jackie sniffled. “I was heading here when I started to think about the crash and how the window shattered. They don’t just do that, you know? Something had to have shot it out, or someone. It just felt wrong to leave Boone there unprotected, so I started back. I thought we could use his gun to shoot off a few rounds and maybe someone would hear us.”
“That was good thinking, but depending on where you were, we might not have.”
Jackie was not thrilled about having that pointed out to him. Maybe if he’d kept on going, he could have gotten Boone help before someone took him.
“What happened then, Jackie?”
“I heard a gunshot.” He glanced up, curious. “Did you hear it?”
Hugh shook his head. “I didn’t hear anything, but one of the enforcers might have. We’ll have to ask later. Continue your story. I need to know everything that happened. Don’t leave anything out, no matter how insignificant you think it might be.”
“When I got back to the truck, the door was open and there was a body on the ground. I thought it was Boone.” Jackie had to stop and take a breath. The tears clogging his throat made it hard to talk. “There was blood everywhere, so much blood.”
“Was it Boone’s?” Hugh’s voice had gone terse.
“He was bleeding a lot in the truck, but I don’t think it was his. I think it was the guy on the ground.”
“Who was he?”
Jackie shook his head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him before in my life.”
“Okay, I sent a few of the enforcers back to the crash scene to check things out. If there’s anything to find, they’ll find it.”
“What do you need me to do?” Jackie couldn’t just sit there.
“I have a few phone calls to make. I want to bring in some more men. Why don’t you let Kye take a look at that wound on your head? You’ve also got a few nasty scratches on your face that should be looked at.”
