Dr. Brown relaxed in his bed, partially sitting up. The sound system of the room relayed the evening service of one of the local churches. The pastor giving an intense and fiery sermon about the importance of forgiveness. Dr. Brown pursed his lips as he focused on a crossword puzzle.

“Nice digs you have here, pops,” a man said from the door.

Dr. Brown set down the cross puzzle slowly and looked up. A younger man stood in the door, his skin as dark as Dr. Brown’s and dressed in a charcoal suit with a white button shirt and a black tie. Under the puzzle, Dr. Brown slid his hand over to the call button. “I’ve been expecting you.” He paused, “Son.”

The younger man smiled at him. “Now, there’s no need to be like that.”

“If you’re here to kill me,” Dr. Brown said and pushed the button. “You might get it over with. I’m not able to go anywhere.”

The younger man sighed and reached into his suit jacket. “If it was that easy.” He pulled out a gun with an extra long barrel. “You need to answer questions first.”

“I required some time to think,” Dr. Brown said softly.

“Time is what you don’t got,” the younger man said and pointed the gun at him.

“Have,” Dana said. “Time is what you don’t have.” He grabbed the guy’s shoulder. “Even I know that one.”

“Damn it, Dana, kill him,” Reese swore.

“No. I have questions,” Dana said.

The guy wrenched his shoulder down, spun and drove his fist into Dana’s stomach. Dana’s mouth opened and he grunted, bending over. The man brought up a knee to get him in the chin. Dana jerked to the side, forced himself up, and picked up the guy. He tossed the guy across the room into the cupboards.

The guy got to his feet, shook his head, and brought up his gun.

“He’s armed,” Dana shouted and dove for the floor.

Reese dodged behind the wall. “Damn. Damn. That was a pup’s mistake, Dana!”

“Oh fuck you,” Dana snapped at him.

Reese jammed his fingers down on his phone. “We’ve got an intruder at St. Nicholas’, trying to kill Dr. Brown,” he barked. “He’s got a gun.”

“There are two of you.”

“Damn it, Darkside. This isn’t the time to be cute.”

Dana crawled over to Dr. Brown. He pulled a gun, popped up, and propped his arms on the bed. “Easy now,” he told the guy.

The guy shifted his aim to Dr. Brown.

“Reese!” Dana shouted.

Reese exploded around the wall, flung his body across the room, and tackled the guy from the side. The gun fell from the guy’s fingers. Dana shoved to his feet and picked up Dr. Brown. He got Dr. Brown to the floor.

Alarms shrieked.

The guy jerked in Reese’s hold and tried to ram an elbow into him. Reese grunted. They rolled about, struggling and throwing punches at each other. The guy tried to get a hold of his gun. Reese knocked it further way. The guy punched him and managed to kick Reese off of him. The guy rolled to his feet.

Hope ran into the room.

Reese struggled to his feet and jumped on the guy’s back. The guy slammed him into the cupboard. Reese lost his hold. The guy shook him off and made a run for Hope. His arm came out to shove her out of the way. Hope grabbed it and pulled him towards her, jerking him forward. Her knee came up and drove into his crotch.

The guy’s eyes crossed but he punched her anyways. Hope rocked backwards. She snarled. He twisted his arm out of her grip and punched her again. Hope’s other hand came up and slashed at him.

Blood spattered.

The guy managed to shove her aside and he ran for the door.

Reese shook his head.

“My office,” Hope snapped and pointed.

Reese nodded and ran off.

Hope ran over to Dr. Brown. She knelt by him. “Are you all right?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Dr. Brown said. “Are you? You’re bleeding, Dr. Meade.”

Hope reached up and touched the blood. “It isn’t mine,” she said.

Dana looked up as Reese in his gray wolf form ran past the open door and down the hall. Dana reached up and touched his computer. “Darkside, sound out the alert. The assassin got away. Lock down Jasper. He’s about six foot tall, African descent, wearing a suit. Reese is chasing after him. Hope slashed him.”

“Slashed Reese or the assassin?”

“The assassin.”

“Good on Hope,” Darkside said.

Dana looked down at Dr. Brown. “A lot of excitement for a Sunday night,” he said.

“Should have let him kill me,” Dr. Brown said.

Dana narrowed his eyes. “Don’t talk like that,” he said and lifted Dr. Brown back to the bed. He stood up and got his gun back out, checking the clip. He moved to the end of the bed and sat down, holding the gun loosely in his lap.

--

Darkside pressed keys and ran her finger down menus of her holographic screen and keyboard.

“Damn it, Brand,” she said into her computer mic that had formed near her chin, “I can’t get a hold of Savannah. She’s not answering her phone.”

“She’s probably gardening,” Brand’s voice said in her ear, grim. “Call Gideon.”

“I don’t have his number in the system yet. He hasn’t changed over to a Jasper phone number,” Darkside bit out. It sounded like she was swearing. “Josiah’s on his way to the hospital to pick up the trail of the intruder.”

“Get ahold of Beda, she can go see if Gideon is home,” Brand said.

“Right.”

“This guy is probably heading out of Jasper the fastest way possible.”

“You say that,” Darkside said. Why did neither of them believe it? She ran her finger down her screen and hit another item. “Pick up, Nana,” she muttered. “Pick up.”

“Beda,” Beda answered.

“We’ve got an intruder,” Darkside said.

“I’ll get my machine gun.”

“No. We need you to go get Gideon. Savannah isn’t answering her phone.”

“Why not call him?”

Darkside flushed. “We don’t have his number.”

“Surely, Ted,” Beda said.

“He’s out in the field already.”

Beda sighed. “One of these days, he’s going to have to get with the times and make his paperwork computerized.”

Beda’s line went dark as she disconnected.

--

Gideon jumped as someone banged on his door.

“Gideon!” Beda shouted. “Open up if you’re there.”

Gideon’s eyes widened. He dropped the business directory on the floor and got to his feet and then remembered he was naked. “One minute!” He shouted at the door and dashed for his bathroom and a towel.

“We may not have a minute,” Beda replied.

Gideon wrapped the towel around his waist. It was one thing for Savannah to walk in on him naked. It was another to have his sweet old landlady see him. He tucked the end in and unlocked the door.

Beda glanced him up and down. “Shit, puppy. I’ve seen it all before,” she said.

Gideon flushed.

“But we may have the minute for you to put on pants,” Beda took a step forward.

Gideon took a step back and let her in. Beda raised an eyebrow at him.

Gideon blinked. “Right, pants.” He turned and headed towards his bedroom. He pulled open the drawer in his dresser that held his pants.

“We’ve got an intruder in Jasper,” Beda said, voice conversational.

Gideon’s heart rate jumped. “Intruder.”

“Tried to kill Dr. Brown. Savannah’s not answering her phone.”

Gideon’s heart stopped. Savannah. Shit. He struggled into his pants, grabbed a t-shirt and slid the weapon’s bracelet off the top of his dresser. He put the t-shirt into his teeth as he slapped the bracelet around his wrist and tried to button his pants at the same time.

He ran out of the bedroom, snatched his kutte, searching in it for his keys. He slid it over his shoulders and grabbed the t-shirt out of his mouth, maybe he’d have time to put it on later. “How will I know the intruder?”

“Black and bleeding,” Beda said. “Hope got him.” She headed out of his apartment and headed towards the stairs.

Gideon nodded. “Good for Hope,” he said. He took the stairs two at a time.

“Don’t sound approving. She’s swearing because she didn’t get him anyplace lethal,” Beda said smartly.

Gideon grinned as he shoved the downstairs door open. He skidded over to his auto, unlocked it, and got in.

Beda stopped next to his open door. “Don’t worry about the speed limit, Josiah and the department are on alert and know you’re to be left alone.”

Gideon nodded, slammed the door shut, twisted the key in the ignition, shoved the car into gear almost before it finished turning over and backed out of the space, spinning it and accelerating onto the road.

It was a nerve wracking drive to Savannah’s house. The twists and turns in the road meant he really couldn’t get the auto above sixty. He skidded to a halt in front of Savannah’s house, her gate was shut. He swore and slanted the auto across the end of her driveway. Now would be a good time for him to have a key for her place.

He got out of his auto and slammed the door. He faced the fence and jumped onto the hood of his auto.

Another auto skidded around the corner. Gideon spun and brought his hand and called out one of the guns in the bracelet. His eyes narrowed, the driver at the wheel was a black man dressed in a suit.

Gideon shifted his aim and laid down a pattern of fire into the auto’s hood.

The auto slewed into a slow curve, sparks and smoke flying out from under the hood, it went up onto its side and then slammed back down as the hover field flickered out.

The black man got out of the auto.

Gideon sniffed, the wind was coming from behind the man. His lip curled. He smelled the copper iron tang of fresh blood.

“There certainly are a lot of you,” the man said. He raised his arms slowly.

Gideon jumped off the hood of his auto. The gate behind him opened. The guy’s eyes flick to the gate. He made a feint to the right and then ran to the left. Gideon swore as he the guy was too close to shoot. He let the gun go and got in the guy’s way, snapping out at him with a kick that hit the guy in the chest and knocked him back. Gideon fell into a fighting stance.

The guy rolled back to his feet and rolled his shoulders. He brought up his hands. They nodded at each other and the guy threw the next punch.

Sirens rose in pitch and blue lights flashed. A police auto came around the same corner Gideon had come from and twisted, sliding to a halt horizontally along the road. Josiah opened the door and used it as a shield between him and Gideon and the assassin. He put his hands along the window frame.

Savannah came out of her house holding a pistol. She jumped on Gideon’s auto hood and pointed it at the fighters.

A grey wolf ran around the corner, tongue hanging from his mouth. He skidded to a halt on the other side of the fight, threw his head back and howled. Other howls answered him in the distance. He howled again, then started walking back and forth. His nails clicked on the concrete road surface.

The fighters ignored them, throwing punches and kicks at each other.

Josiah lifted his head. “Savannah!” he shouted.

“I can’t get a clear shot. He’s in the way.” Savannah shifted on the hood.

Men and women on motorcycles began to arrive and behind them, wolves on the run.

The assassin and Gideon continued to fight, throwing punches and kicks, hitting each other with sharp slaps of flesh against flesh.

Gideon grabbed the assassin, threw him and landed on top of him, putting a knee into the assassin’s back and threw one arm around his neck, while the other hand wrenched one of the assassin’s arms back.

Savannah jumped off the hood. “Gideon,” she said lowly.

Gideon panted, his tags swinging between him and the assassin.

Josiah lowered his gun and came out from behind his auto door. He grabbed his cuffs and approached slowly.

“You have him,” Savannah said and put a hand on Gideon’s damp shoulder.

Gideon inhaled and could smell the scents of warm wax, oils and dirt around her. He exhaled deeply. Movement to the side made him glance over.

Josiah stopped walking.

Gideon looked at the back of the assassin’s neck. “Cuff him,” he managed, his voice growling down into baritone.

Josiah nodded, came over, grabbed the man’s hand and slapped the cuff on it. Gideon rocked back to his feet, handing the other arm to Josiah.

“Don’t you have to read me my rights?” the assassin half laughed and then groaned.

Josiah’s eyes narrowed. “In Jasper, you have the rights we say you have,” he said and clicked the other cuff closed. He glanced at Gideon.

Gideon stood up and moved off the assassin.

Josiah nodded at him and heaved the assassin to his feet.

Savannah took a step around until she was in front of Gideon. She ran her hands on his arms and then checked his face, turning it back and forth with the tips of her fingers. “Are you okay?”

He grabbed her hand and shut his eyes, trying to breathe normally and get his heart under control. Her scent soothed him, the herbs and flowers mixed with the smell of dirt. “I’m fine,” he said. “You weren’t answering your phone.”

Savannah let out a tiny sigh of relief. He was fine. “It was in the house,” she muttered. She paused. “Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”

Gideon opened his eyes and glowered at her. “It’s my apartment,” he growled.

Savannah blinked once and her lips twitched as she thought it through and come to the correct conclusion. She muttered. “Not that I’m complaining,” she said. “I’ll, um, go get you a towel to wipe off with.” She snickered and broke into giggles as she walked around his auto.

Gideon narrowed his eyes and clenched his jaw. Instead of watching her, he watched Josiah. Josiah shoved the assassin into the police auto and shut the door. Gideon reached up and touched his tags.

Josiah nodded at him again and got into the auto, shut his auto door, shut off the lights and turned the auto around headed back downtown.

The first wolf came over and sat by Gideon and huffed.

Gideon glanced down at him.

The wolf raised his brows and nudged Gideon’s hand. Gideon gave in and scratched the wolf’s ears.

Brand pulled in on his motorcycle and got off. “Savannah,” he said, looking at Gideon.

“House,” Gideon replied.

Brand let out a breath of relief as Savannah came out with a towel in hand.

Cole pulled in and got off his motorcycle. He jerked his head to retract his helmet and charged for Gideon. “This is all your fault,” he shouted. “He’s a spy.”

The wolf growled and got between Cole and Gideon.

Gideon shifted back into a fighting stance.

“Cole,” someone shouted.

Bikers climbed off their motorcycles and one lunged for Cole and tried to grab him. Cole shook them off. He pointed at Gideon. “He’s from New York. He was sent here to tell them about us.”

People started to shout.

Gideon glared at him.

“He told the assassin how to find Savannah!”

Savannah shouted. “He wouldn’t do that.”

Gideon’s shout of, “I didn’t. She’s mine!” was fortunately lost in the shouting of those supporting Gideon and those supporting Cole.

“You’re biased towards him because you’re attracted to him,” Cole shouted at Savannah.

“Over half the girls in the Club are attracted to him,” Savannah shouted back. She slid between Gideon and Cole. “If you have a fight with my prospect, Cole, you’ve got a fight with me!”

Gideon reached out and grabbed her hip.

“Enough!” Brand roared.

Every one turned silent and looked at Brand. Gideon’s hand fell off of Savannah as she turned to face her grandfather, chin raised.

Cole pointed at Gideon’s face. “He is a spy. They sent him here to get information about us.”

Gideon growled.

Brand met Gideon’s eyes. “Are you a spy?”

“No, sir,” Gideon said.

Brand turned his gaze to Cole. “He’s not a spy.”

“And you’re going to take his word for it.” Cole gaped. “He came here from New York and suddenly we have a job from there and you’re going to accept that this is coincidence. They tried to kill our client and Savannah.”

“I wish you were as upset about me as you claim you are,” Savannah growled.

“He is a spy,” Cole bit out each word.

“Shut up, Cole,” Savannah snapped.

“You want to fight about it?” Gideon growled. “We can fight about it. I can remove that stick you have up your ass about me.”

Brand growled.

Gideon turned his face back to Brand and lowered his eyes.

“There aren’t going to be any fights. Gideon isn’t a spy because he says he isn’t a spy and I say that I believe him,” Brand said. “If you want to dispute that, you can take it up with me.”

Cole jerked and looked down at his feet. He flicked a glare at Gideon.

“Right now, we have a lot of assumptions,” Brand said. “And no facts.”

“I left him talking, sir,” Gideon muttered.

“Good work, Prospect.” Brand nodded.

Savannah smiled and put her hand on Gideon’s wrist.

“Break it up, people,” Brand said.

Cole glared again at Gideon, but headed back to his motorcycle.

The wolf licked Gideon’s palm once and trotted off.

The bikers got on their motorcycles and revving their engines headed out. The wolves ran after them, disappearing into different lawns. Leaving Gideon, Savannah and Brand.

Brand looked between the two of them. “You going to be all right?”

Savannah nodded. “We’re fine.”

“I’m not a spy sir. I want to stay.”

Brand blew out. “I know. I’ll feel better if this dies down quickly.”

Gideon swallowed hard. “I’ve never met Dr. Brown before in my life. You can check my records if you want. I don’t know anything about what was going on in Africa from at least the last year. I haven’t been posted there for over a year and a half. I had nothing to do with intelligence.”

Brand’s eyes softened. “I believe you, Gideon.”

“I feel the need to say it, sir.” Gideon shifted on his feet. “A lot of my record is classified. It might encourage rumors.”

“Understood.” Brand revved his engine. He looked at Savannah.

“It looks like we aren’t going to be able to leave it alone,” she said.

“Had to rub our noses into it,” Brand growled. He put the bike into gear, nodded at them again and rode off.

Gideon let out a deep breath.

Savannah looked at the towel in her hand. She held it out to him. He raised an eyebrow at her. It’d been long enough that the sweat had dried. She shrugged.

Gideon rolled his eyes and jerked his chin. He took the towel.

--

Brand walked into Hope’s office and sat down on the edge of her desk. He reached out and lifted her chin up with his hand. “That looks nasty, you should see our doctor about it,” he said and lightly touched the swollen cheek that was quickly turning dark purple.

Hope half smiled. “Very funny.”

Brand dropped his hand. “You should expect brotherly attention after this.”

Hope shut her eyes, but nodded. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John would come back to Jasper and fuss over her until they were sure she was safe working at the hospital again. No doubt, they’d set up a rotation to make sure one of them was guarding her at all times. “Don’t tell Charming,” she said.

Brand’s eyes turned darker. “Hope.”

She reached up and put a hand on his. “He’s not ready to come back to Jasper and settle down.”

“He loves you, and should know.” Brand paused. “Eberron might tell him.”

“I’ll talk to Eberron.” Hope opened her eyes. “Please, Brand.”

Brand sighed. “Has Dr. Brown revealed any clues as to why someone might be trying to kill him?”

Hope shook her head. “He is saying more that we should have let him be killed.”

Brand grimaced.

“Dana’s set up in the room.”

“Is any of that blood yours?” Brand asked.

“No.”

“Josiah has the assassin locked up in a cell,” Brand said. “Gideon got him in a pretty professional looking hold. I knew there was a good reason to let him stick around.”

“The assassin can rot in there for all I care,” Hope growled. She blinked. “You’re saying that too lightly. Then what happened?”

“Cole accused Gideon of being a spy. I think a few too many might agree with him now the idea is out there.”

“That boy has been laid up for six months with that knee. It’s been at least nine months since he’s had anything to do with active duty,” Hope protested. “I’ll vouch for him.”

“They could have come to him while he was laid up.”

“Then they were either extremely lucky or they know about us being werewolves and know he is a werewolf,” Hope said.

“He says he isn’t a spy and I believe him,” Brand said.

Hope snorted.

Brand stood. “Go home and rest. Nothing more about this can be solved tonight.”

Hope’s eyes turned haunted. “Will we solve it?”

“Heaven won’t be what is coming for them,” Brand said. “Even if it is slow and fine.”

Hope stood up and gathered her coat. “Good night, Brand.” She left the office.

Brand blew out. When the time came, he knew that there wouldn’t be any mercy in them. But first, he had to find out what he was dealing with and like he told Hope, that wasn’t going to happen that night. He got up and shut her office behind him. He nodded at the receptionist and the armored Heathens now on duty and headed back home to Esme.