Protecting Salvation: A Shadow Elite Novel

A headache began the second Peyton was out of his sight and it had nothing to do with the damn tumour in his head. Fear and panic at the thought of her at the mercy of men and women who already disliked her and were negligent with her safety had him ready to burn the world to the ground.

McCain had stood rocking on his heels, hands in his pockets watching him, a smirk smeared across his smarmy face. Baiting him as if he wanted Hurricane to react, to get angry and lash out so he could haul his ass in too. It was that smug look which had allowed him to get a grasp on his anger and think.

Police were ripping her lovely home apart and he couldn’t look at it, but he had to be as present as they’d allow because he trusted these bastards about as far as he could throw them. “What evidence do you have against Dr Lawson?”

A condescending chuckle fell from the man and Hurricane gritted his teeth to stop the growl from falling past his lips.

“Come on now, son. This can’t be your first rodeo. You know I can’t tell you that.”

The man’s snide implication that Hurricane would have been in contact with the police before today was insulting and racist at its most basic level and didn’t shock him in the least. “I ain’t your fucking son”

“Watch how you speak to me, son. I’d hate for anything to happen to Ms Lawson.”

The threat almost made him lose it but he kept a tight rein on his temper and laughed off the threat he knew was all too real. He wouldn’t do anything that advanced this man’s agenda, no matter how badly he wanted to rearrange his ugly fucking face.

Turning away, he put some space between them before he pulled out his phone while still keeping his eyes on McCain. Why he hadn’t gone into the house to direct and manage the search was interesting and another thing he’d pick apart later. He placed a call and his phone was answered instantly.

“Hurricane, what’s up?”

“McCain just arrested Peyton for her cousin’s murder.”

Bás bit out a curse he couldn’t decipher. His heart was hammering in his chest and his vision chose now to play up as things began to blur and the pain intensified. Fuck, not now!

“Hurricane?”

“Yes, sorry.”

“I said I’ll have Aubrey Granger check in with Peyton and make sure she’s safe.”

His fear released its stranglehold on him at the words. Aubrey Granger was married to Will Granger, one of the men who’d financed Shadow. He worked for Fortis security and was some kind of genius on par with Watchdog. His wife was originally a detective, but was now Detective Chief Superintendent, although she was currently on maternity leave.

“Thank you. She needs a lawyer too.”

“Already on it. Gideon’s brother Damon is visiting, and as he’s already read in, I’ll ask him if he wouldn’t mind helping out.”

Relief made his knees weak and he had to lock them to stop the physical reaction because he sure as shit wouldn’t let McCain see how worried he had been. “Thank you.”

He paused thinking of the woman he cared about and everything that was going on with her and knew that he’d been wrong to take her choices away about the two of them. Because if she tried to do the same to him right now, he’d move heaven and hell and wake up the devil himself to remain by her side. “Hey, you know she’s innocent, right? She didn’t do this.”

“Don’t fucking insult me with that shit. Of course she didn’t do it. Lotus and Titan are two minutes out. Do you need me to stay on the line or have you got this shit handled? You spaced on me and I need to know where your head is at.”

Hurricane could react one of two ways. Take it as an insult and a sign his boss didn’t trust him or as someone he respected checking in with him. He chose the latter. “Head’s fucking killing, vision isn’t great, and I feel a little light-headed.”

“You got access to your meds?”

“Nah, they won’t let me in the house.”

“Okay, hang tight. Lotus should be pulling up any second, I made sure the team had access to your meds in case you need them, so she should have some on her.”

As Bás finished the sentence, he saw her car pull up behind McCain’s vehicle. “Lotus is here.”

“Good, now get your meds in you and get your ass over here so we can make a plan.”

“’Kay.”

He hung up as Lotus walked up to him, throwing a murderous look at McCain who followed her with his eyes all over her. Fucking prick was a disgrace to mankind.

“What the fuck you looking at, pervert?”

His cheeks went red but he looked away and Hurricane tried not to laugh.

“Hey, Bertie.” Lotus reached down and lifted the dog, who’d been asleep on his foot into her arms. “Here.” She used the motion to hand him his meds and he took them and popped the lid open, shaking two into his palm. He swallowed them dry, his back to McCain.

“All my shit is inside.”

“Weapons and ID?”

“No weapon, that’s on me, but the ID I used before is inside, along with my meds.”

“We can get that sorted.”

Police began bringing bags of evidence out of the house as they watched. Then McCain got in his car and drove away, a smile of satisfaction on his face.

“I don’t like this.”

“Me either, girl. Me either.”

“Duchess is on her way. I called her after Bás alerted us.”

“How did he alert you? He was on the call with me.”

“He’s with Val so she called me. They probably used some kind of couples voodoo shit to communicate.”

Hurricane smiled, he was glad she was here. She might be a pain in the ass sometimes but she was good at what she did and her banter always helped to ground a situation and he needed that now more than ever.

“Bás wants us at his place to plan but I’m not leaving until I have Peyton beside me. That asshole cop already referred to her having an accident in his custody.”

“That fucking prick.” Her hand landed on his arm. “We won’t leave her and Damon is the best. He’ll have her out in no time. We can clear up this bullshit and you two can go back to making eyes at each other.”

Hurricane didn’t smile but he appreciated her effort to lighten things. Duchess arrived and waved them off, saying she’d oversee things from here. He watched her march into the house, a determined look on her face and almost pitied the men inside who’d either leave terrified of her or be ready to leave their wives because they’d fallen in love with her. He didn’t really care, all he wanted was to see Peyton and hold her in his arms.

“Okay, big guy, let’s go.”

Lotus opened the passenger door and he saw Titan waiting in the back, his phone in his hand as he typed.

“Hey, you good?”

Hurricane nodded. “Better, but we need to figure this out and fast.”

“I just got word from Bás that Aubrey is heading to the station and Damon is already there.”

His shoulders sagged and he nodded. “Good, good.”

Peyton was as good as she was going to be for now. Damon and Aubrey would have her back and he had trust that the people he sent would be able to work a miracle.

“You need a lie-down or some shit to get your head on straight?”

Raising a brow at Lotus he pointed to the ignition. “Fuck you, Lotus, start the damn car.”

Titan chuckled but didn’t look up from his phone as Lotus pulled away. Bertie sat in his lap looking lost and licking Hurricane’s hand. He stroked a hand over the little dog with the heart of a goddamn lion. “Any word on what happened with the cousin?”

“Not yet, but it looks like someone stabbed him. He was found in his home late yesterday from what we can glean.”

“We need to know what they have on Peyton. It’s obviously a setup but why and how?”

“Well, the how would account for the break-in. We thought they were there looking for something but maybe they were there collecting her fingerprints.”

Hurricane turned in his seat to look at Titan. “You think they put her prints on a weapon? Because that’s pretty damning as evidence goes, even if we know it’s bullshit.”

His shoulders shrugged. “They seem pretty sure if they arrested her like this.”

“True. Fuck.” Bertie yipped and he gentled his tone not wanting to scare the poor boy. “Has anyone let Aoife know?”

Lotus glanced at him as she switched lanes to pull in to make the turn for the police station. “Bein knows so I’m going to assume he’ll tell her. The timing sucks for them.”

“Yeah, it does.” He didn’t bother to add it sucked for Peyton most because everyone knew that and it wasn’t a competition.

“So what’s the plan?” Lotus was looking to him to lead this and it touched him that despite the shit going on with him, they still trusted him. “Well, short of marching inside and demanding they let her go and getting arrested, we can’t do a lot. I want to wait for Damon and see what he says.”

“He could be hours if they’re interviewing her. How about I get him to call the second he can and we go on a little jaunt out to Peyton’s old home?”

He didn’t want to leave her but sitting in a police carpark waiting wouldn’t do her any good, so he nodded. “Let’s go, but make sure he’s aware of how vulnerable she is in there.”

“He knows. I told him when we spoke after she told us about her run-in with McCain yesterday.”

Hurricane angled his head. “I didn’t know you and Damon spoke.”

A blush crept over Lotus’ cheeks. “We’re friends. Don’t make a big deal of it.”

He held up his hands and glanced in the mirror above his head at Titan who was smirking. “No judgement here, Lotus.”

“Good. Now can we stop gossiping like a fucking knitting circle and go?”

“Hang on, Bertie needs a piss first.”

Hurricane got out of the car and walked Bertie around to where he knew the officers parked their cars on Gaol Street. He spied his target and led the little guy towards it, his body language relaxed as the dog sniffed and then lifted his leg and pissed on McCain’s car. It barely hit the wheel but it made Hurricane feel better and gave him a chance to crouch down and plant a small tracking device under the wheel.

“Come on, Bert, let’s go.”

He saw Lotus with her arms folded watching him from the corner with a grin on her face. She spun on her heel and got back in the car and he slid inside.

Lotus raised a brow at him. “Feel better now?”

“I do now I know I can track the weasley bastard and find out if he’s involved.”

“And you just happened to have a tracker on your person?”

“I was a boy scout, Lotus.”

“Bollocks.”

He huffed out a bark of laughter. “Titan slipped it to me when I got in the car.”

Lotus looked between them, her mouth hanging open. “What, so now you’re freaking telepathetic?”

“It’s telepathic.”

“I know what I wanted to say and that was it, asshole.”

“Easy, tiger.”

“Don’t make me beat your ass, Titan.”

“Easy. Hurricane just knows I don’t trust cops so when I gave it to him, no words were needed.”

“You two are dumb as shit. Watchdog could hack the vehicle management on that piece of shit and track it while sitting on the toilet.”

“Maybe but then I wouldn’t have had the satisfaction of watching Bertie piss on that douche bag’s car.”