Law of the jungle, she thought fiercely. They were going to hurt my family. She should have just told Clover about that crop weeks ago, but she hadn’t wanted to see her mother and father go to jail. She’d just never dreamed that her parents would stoop this low to get what they wanted. Her mistake.
This was on her; she had to make things right again.
She went over to the front of the car and reached in to find the lever next to the car door. She found it, popped the trunk open, and dragged Sapphire over there. She stuffed her in the trunk and then climbed behind the wheel. She’d borrowed a few cars in her time, joyriding them and putting them back where she’d found them. She wouldn’t even have to hotwire this one; the keys were dangling in the ignition.
She climbed behind the wheel and roared off, pressing her foot hard on the accelerator. She was naked, but she wasn’t going to take the time to try to find clothing. Don’t let it be too late, don’t let it be too late, she prayed to herself.
Chapter Fifteen
“Something’s happening,” Lennon whispered. “I hear cars coming. That’s not good, is it?”
Clover listened hard, her sensitive shifter hearing picking up at least half a dozen vehicles. No, more. “I swear that sounds like Sam’s engine. How would he know where we are?” she wondered.
She glanced around wildly. “Inside that back bedroom. Quick,” she said, grabbing a chair and rushing them through the door. She shut it quickly and wedged it up against the door knob. It wouldn’t hold for long, but it might buy them time.
She heard the mobile home door open, and footsteps pounding in.
“Get behind me,” she said, and shifted into bear form, moving between the door and her siblings. Her bear form was so tall that her head scraped the ceiling.
She heard fists pounding on the door. The door bulged inwards.
Outside, she heard gunshots cracking through the air, and screams. Then she heard more people pounding up the steps and into the mobile home.
“Step away from that door or I’ll take your head off!” It was Sam’s voice, thick with rage.
“All right, all right! My hands are up! I surrender!” she heard the Skullrider whine.
She quickly shifted back into human form. “Sam! We’re in here!” she cried.
She pulled the chair away and opened the door. Sam rushed through and quickly looked around the room. “Everyone’s here? Nobody’s hurt? Good.”
“Autumn’s not here – we have to find her,” she said frantically.
“Autumn is back in Blue Moon Junction, at the sheriff’s office. She drove over there with Sapphire in her car trunk. We persuaded Sapphire to reveal where these assholes had taken you. Oh, sorry.” He glanced at the kids.
Lennon snorted. “We’ve heard worse.”
“We’ve said worse,” Moonlight added. Then she cried happily, “I knew you’d save us!” And she hugged him.
“You think I’d let anything happen to my favourite criminals? Not a chance!” He hugged her back.
Then he turned his attention back to Clover. “So, Sapphire’s looking at life in prison, as are your parents. There are warrants out for their arrest. I’m sorry it had to go down this way.”
“They all deserve it,” Clover said. She felt a clenching in her gut, and a deep sorrow that seeped through to her very core. She’d hoped and prayed for a different outcome for her family.
She swallowed hard. All that she could do was move forward. “It hurts, but they committed the ultimate betrayal. They were willing to sacrifice their own family for profit, and to put the entire bear shifter community at risk by selling them a very dangerous drug.”
“How did Autumn get Sapphire in a car trunk?” Moonlight said.
“She went bear,” Sam said. “It caught everyone off guard and gained the advantage. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if she hadn’t showed me.”
“She went bear? That’s not possible.” Clover followed Sam as he led her and the kids out of the mobile home. There were a dozen police cars there, lights flashing. The bodies of gang members were scattered on the dirt, riddled with bullet wounds that smoked and sizzled. They’d been shot with silver bullets. Several cursing, struggling survivors, cuffed with silver, were being hurled none too gently into the back seats of cruisers.
“It can happen on rare occasions when a shifter has two different species of parents,” Sam said. “Especially under extreme duress. It’s like a one in a million genetic mutation.”
He led her over to a big SUV with flashing lights on top and handed her a dress, which she quickly put on.
“As far as I’m concerned, both my parents are one hundred percent rat,” Clover said bitterly as she tugged the dress over her hips.
Sam nodded, his expression somber. “I’m sorry about that. We strongly suspected it all along, but we didn’t have any proof until Autumn told us what had happened. We tapped the phones at the Snakepit and found out that Sapphire and the Skullriders were expecting a big shipment of Somniatus, but we had no idea that Autumn was involved, or I would have done things very differently.”