Stepping over DeYoung’s unconscious body, she ran up the steps, ready to kill the next person who tried to hurt the people she loved.
* * *
Alex heard the councilman shouting long before he reached the fourth-floor stairwell.
“I’m telling you, there’s no fucking wolf in this building, you moron,” McDonald insisted. “It’s probably one of those damn SWAT cops with a dog from the K-9 unit. Get down there, finish off both of them, then get this place cleaned up before the rest of the DPD shows up from all this damn shooting. The surgery needs to go off without a hitch, or I’m out five million dollars.”
Alex’s blood went cold at the word surgery, his fangs and claws slipping out even further. Please God, don’t let me be too late.
His bones and muscles started to twist and crack again as his body responded to the anxiety by trying to shift again, but he clamped down on the urge. He didn’t know what he would have to do to save Kelsey. His capacity for violence as a wolf was useful but not nearly as useful as having opposable thumbs.
His nose—which seemed to be working a whole hell of a lot better since he’d gone through a full shift—told him there were at least four men in the hallway before he even yanked open the door and charged into the hallway.
McDonald and the other men were standing in front of a set of swinging doors with a sign over them that read Operating Rooms 1 and 2. Kelsey was in one of them. Getting to her was the only thing that mattered now.
All three men stared at him like they’d seen a monster. Alex supposed he couldn’t blame them. It wasn’t every day they came face-to-face with a six-foot-four, armed and naked man, sporting fangs and claws, not to mention covered in blood. He probably looked like something out of a nightmare.
Unfortunately, their surprise only lasted a few seconds. McDonald cursed and reached into his suit jacket to pull out a small pistol. The security guards quickly followed his lead, drawing their own weapons and pointing them. Alex charged, letting out a growl that echoed off the walls and drowned out even the sounds of their gunshots. Their aim wasn’t very good, so except for one shot that got him in the chest, the other bullets barely grazed him. It didn’t even slow him down.
Alex waited until he was ten feet from the men before lifting the weapon he’d taken from Pendergraff. He aimed for the security guards first, since they were both armed with .45 caliber weapons that could do more damage than McDonald’s little .32. The only thing he thought about as he put them both down was how these men had almost certainly been part of Nicole Arend’s horrific death, whether by doing nothing to stop it or helping to cover it up.
He’d just turned his weapon on McDonald when he ran out of ammo. McDonald smirked, probably assuming this was over and that he’d won. His expression soon turned to shock as Alex closed the distance separating him from the crooked councilman and smacked the pistol out of his hand to send it flying across the room. In the same fluid move, Alex reached up and grabbed McDonald by the throat, yanking him up on his tiptoes and walking him backward down the hall to the OR doors.
McDonald ripped at Alex’s hand, trying to get free while also lifting himself up at the same time in an attempt to relieve the pressure that was slowly choking him.
“It doesn’t have to go like this,” McDonald gasped. “Bensen is dying of kidney failure, and he’s paying me millions to get him two perfect new ones. I can make us both rich. A million dollars cash in your pocket right now. All you have to do is look the other way.”
Alex wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, the fact that the pig thought he could buy him off or that he was trying to swindle him right off the bat.
He pulled McDonald closer, making sure the man got a good look at his fangs. “I was in the stairwell when you told those idiots who worked for you that that you’re getting five million dollars from the man in surgery. Makes me think you were planning to cheat me on our very first deal. Is that any way to develop a lasting business relationship?”
McDonald’s eyes widened. He struggled twice as hard against Alex’s grip, but whether to get free or renegotiate was anyone’s guess. Regardless, Alex didn’t care. He was done talking.
Alex used the councilman’s head to slam open the doors at the end of the hallway, then tossed his unconscious form to the floor. The impact was extremely loud—and extremely satisfying.
He was surprised at how easy it was to let his fangs and claws retract as he stepped into the first operating room. Maybe going through his first complete shift had improved more than just his sense of smell.
Bensen was on his stomach on one operating table, red lines drawn on his back. Kelsey was on the other, the same marks on her back. Two women in hospitable scrubs were standing beside trays loaded with a bewildering amount of surgical equipment, while a man dressed the same stood at the head of the operating table Kelsey was on. Pettine stood beside her, a sharp scalpel glinting in his hand.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. The questions had always been why Bensen would get involved in drugs and dogfighting and why McDonald would get into the black market trade for transplant organs. It had been money, pure and simple. While the automotive king was definitely well-off, he sure as hell didn’t have five million lying around in his petty cash drawer. He would have needed to sell everything he owned to raise that kind of money quickly, and he still wouldn’t have gotten a new kidney the traditional way.
As for McDonald, the councilman had the connection to doctors like Pettine and the technical know-how to put together a black-market organ-harvesting ring. Not to mention a desire for even more money than he already had.
Two scumbags like them finding each other was only a matter of time. But none of it mattered now, because this operation was closed for good.
Pettine regarded Alex haughtily over his cloth face mask. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but you need to leave immediately. I’m trying to save both of these people’s lives.”
Ignoring the three other people in the room, Alex walked around the table Kelsey was on. He didn’t say a word as he walked up to Pettine and wrapped one hand around the man’s neck, then lifted him off the floor. Pettine plunged the scalpel into Alex’s chest, but Alex immediately yanked it out and tossed it across the room. Then he tightened his grip around Pettine’s throat, watching as the bastard turned an unhealthy shade of purple.
Alex glanced at the man standing petrified near Kelsey’s head. “You can bring her out of this anesthesia on your own, right? Before you answer, make sure you’re completely honest. Because if you hurt that girl in any way, I’m going to damage you beyond all possible repair. Do you understand?”
The guy gulped and nodded.
Satisfied he wouldn’t need Pettine for anything, Alex threw him across the room where he bounced off a wall, joining McDonald on the floor.
“Bring her out now,” Alex ordered. “And if anything happens to her, I’m going to start harvesting organs myself—without anesthesia or a knife.”
The man gestured to one of the women, who hurried over to help him bring Lacey’s sister out from the anesthesia she was under. The other woman stared at Alex, watching with wide eyes as he picked up a pair of forceps from one of the trays and calmly started to dig the bullet out of his chest.
