Chapter Two

Ezra Havlin stood in the middle of the empty warehouse, searching frantically for Mary Johnson, Hoyt’s most recent victim. He had already abducted seven girls and four boys, their families slaughtered as Hoyt sold the children off to eager buyers. Para-Force took the case because they discovered each of the kids possessed special powers of some kind. They spent months tracking the man and finally found him in Savannah. The plan was simple, set a trap, wait for Hoyt to hand the girl over to the buyer, then take them both down and save the girl.

However, Ezra stood in an empty warehouse. He spun searching every direction as Hoyt’s laughter taunted him. Ezra ran through the warehouse, frantically searching, the little girl begging for help. Lights flashed with a strobe light effect, blinding Ezra as he scrambled around, tracking the girl’s voice. He didn’t find Mary, but there was Hoyt right in front of him.

Ezra lunged, wrapping his hands around the man’s throat, twisting him to the floor. “Where is she?” he demanded, but Hoyt merely cackled louder as the girl screamed. Ezra’s rage burned as he threw Hoyt across the room and into the wall. He stormed over to the man, hoisting him up by his collar, his hand back around the man’s throat, but lifeless eyes stared back at him, Hoyt’s sarcastic laughter bouncing off the walls. The screams went silent, and Ezra watched as Hoyt’s face shifted, melting into that of Mary Johnson. Her eyes popped open as she hung there in Ezra’s grasp. “Why did you kill me? I needed you to save me.”

“No!” Ezra screamed, sitting bolt upright, his body shaking, covered in sweat as he gulped ragged breaths. He closed his eyes, pressing shaking hands to his face as he took a deep calming breath. He shook his head, trying to dislodge the nightmare. Finally, he gave up and decided there was no use going back to sleep.

Ezra slipped out of his tent, the morning sun of a new week beckoning him to begin another day of his self-imposed isolation while the remnants of his nightmare flitted across the back of his mind. Standing in front of his tent, he paused a moment, stretching, one hand on the healing gunshot wound in his right shoulder he suffered a few days ago as he knocked that panther shifter out of the way of a bullet. His muscles surrounding the area ached, pulling slightly as he moved his arm and shoulder in a roundabout way, working the area. The flesh around the wound was still stiff, but healing nicely. Luckily for him, his past made it easy for him to tend to the gunshot on his own.

He moved over to the firepit, stirring the embers from last night into a tiny blaze again before adding more logs. Once the fire was going well enough for him to cook some breakfast, Ezra moved over to the card table he had set up, fetching a skillet he bought at a thrift store and moving over to a cooler he kept next to his tent where he retrieved a couple of eggs and some bacon. He never had fancy breakfasts like normal people, but he was all right with that. He ate, and that’s really all that mattered. His meager meals were well worth the price of being alone.

After he peeled three strips of bacon from the pack and placed them into the skillet, he stiffened, straightening into a standing position as he sniffed the air around his campsite. Of course, over the past few days, the residents of Bull Creek hadn’t exactly left him alone. He sighed as he finished placing the bacon into the skillet. “I thought I made myself clear the last time you were here. I don’t exactly like company.”

The smaller man, dark hair and a panther shifter—what had he said his name was? Ezra shrugged, not really caring—slid from around some pines and entered the small camp. “You said that, yes, but I forgot to mention I don’t really listen too well.”

“I asked him to bring me,” a woman’s voice said, bringing Ezra up short as he turned to see the dark-haired woman walking up behind the other man. “You saved my life, and I wanted to make sure you were all right. To be fair to Josh, it did take a couple of days of me whining for him to bring me out here.”

Ezra gave a snort of derision. “He strikes me as the whiny one.” He stared at the woman a moment before moving over to his fire. “Do all panthers ignore the wishes of others as much as you two?” He set the skillet on a grate over the fire before turning back to the woman. “I’m glad to see you survived the other man’s attack, but I’m fine. I don’t need anyone checking up on me. I’ve learned to take care of myself. Thanks.”

He tried to ignore the woman as she entered his camp—without invitation, he noticed—and looked around, nodding. “I can see that.” She turned to him, her hands on her hips. “Isn’t it a little bleak living out here like this? I know Josh offered you a cabin. We have plenty.”

“He did,” Ezra said. “And I declined. Now, if you don’t mind, I prefer to be left alone.” He moved over to the table for a fork to flip the bacon and returned to his cooking. “Have a good day.” He tried to focus on cooking his breakfast, hoping his visitors would get the hint and leave.

The woman was not good at taking hints, it seemed. From the corner of his eye, Ezra watched as she moved over to his camp chair and sat down, leaning forward, her elbows on her knees, hands clasped in front of her. The man with her just remained at the edge of the camp, watching his friend. “I’m Lainie,” the woman said. “I’m new to Bull Creek. My brother’s the new alpha of the area.” She shrugged. “But, I hear you don’t care about that, either.”

Ezra kept his attention on his bacon, flipping them at just the right moment. “I don’t.” What would it take to get these two to leave him alone?

“Told you he was the warm and cuddly sort,” Josh said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Ezra shot the man a dark look, but then turned back to his cooking, adding two eggs to the skillet. He would not allow them to bait him into a conversation.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to cook on a stove?” Lainie asked, watching Ezra with curious eyes. “Or at least have a fridge to keep your food cold. I bet you go through a lot of ice. Why not let me get you hooked up with a cabin? It’s the least I can do after you saved my life.”

“Something I am very much regretting at the moment,” Ezra said, his bear’s growl heard within the words he spoke. He turned and faced Lainie, one hand on his hip as he pointed the fork at Josh. “As I told him, cabins mean people, and I don’t want to be around people. They’re noisy, nosy, and downright annoying, present company included. I’m fine here. Now, take your charity to some other case and leave me be.”

He heard the chair creak behind him and hoped the woman finally got the hint. He also hoped she took the nosy man with her. He flipped the bacon, pretending they already left.

He wasn’t so lucky.

Lainie appeared out of the corner of his eye, peeking into the skillet as she scrutinized his breakfast. “You know, I don’t mind rewarding you for saving my life by treating you to a hot meal cooked over an actual stove. I feel I kind of owe you. You know, for saving my life and all.”

Ezra closed his eyes, doing his best not to groan out loud in his frustration. “I enjoy cooking my own breakfast.” He turned, glaring at her as he walked over to his table to grab a spatula to flip the eggs. “If you want to pay me back for saving your life, then please, just leave.”

Off to the side, Josh laughed as he shook his head. “She doesn’t give up that easy,” he said. He then cocked his head as he stared at Ezra, his lips down-turned into a frown. “If you don’t like people, why did you even save her life? Why get involved at all? Why not just stay hidden?”

“Because Ezra Havlin can’t help himself,” another voice said from behind them, a more familiar voice. Ezra heard footsteps coming from behind his tent. He took a deep breath, trying to scent the newcomers, but it wasn’t really necessary. He knew who they were. At least, most of them. “As much as he says he hates people, he hates brutes even more. He’ll always get involved. It’s who he is.”

Ezra turned as the footsteps grew louder and watched as Colton Stokes and Liam Lamont entered his camp, a small girl walking between them, clutching to a small doll. He closed his eyes again and sighed. Why was everyone in his camp? When he opened them again, he stared at Colton, the muscular, dark-haired man smiling at Ezra as he approached. The thinner, shaggy-haired Liam grinned as well, as he held the little girl’s hand, their arms swinging back and forth as they walked. Ezra then dropped his gaze to the small, blond girl, her dimples pushing in her cheeks as her blue eyes gawked at everything around her, her head a constant swivel to make sure she saw everything. Ezra’s gut clenched as the past came rushing in on him, a past he did his best to forget and push out of his mind. He heard the screams, heard the agony, as well as the failure, almost as if everything had just happened.

Lainie stood straighter, her arms going across her chest. “So, he does have friends,” she said. “I was beginning to wonder.”

Colton walked over to where Ezra stood, nodding. “Oh, he has friends. Plenty.” Colton’s face grew somber then as he took a deep breath. “Friends who need his help now, actually.”

Ezra glanced down at the tiny girl, his anxiety climbing. He didn’t have to ask what the other two men needed; the girl between them told him, maybe not all the facts, but the major portion of it. They wanted him to step back into the past, back into his failure. He shook his head. “No,” he said as he sucked in a breath to fortify his decision, walking back over to his skillet. “I can’t, and you know it. I won’t, and you know why.”

Liam cocked his head, staring at Ezra. “We have no one else,” he said. “Nowhere else to go. Para-Force has been compromised somehow. We need you to help protect this little girl.”

The smell of bacon filled the air as the sound of the sizzling meat popped and snapped in the background. Lainie walked over to the newcomers, her hands down at her sides as she tried not to look threatening. “I’m Lainie Everest, a deputy around here. What’s the problem? Who is after her?”

Colton didn’t look at Lainie however, but kept his eyes fixed on Ezra, his face a serious mask. “Hoyt Cheffron.”

Ezra closed his eyes and sucked in another breath, the smell of burning bacon matching the simmering of his anger.