Christmas Heat

Chapter 2

Haley shuddered in the blanket Zane Taggart had wrapped around her. The sheriff was kneeling in front of her as she sat sideways in his cruiser, her feet on the ground, the heat from the vents blasting over her upper body. Still, she shuddered from the cold and the fear.

Zane was one of those men in Buffalo Gap Haley had known almost since the cradle. He was a few years older than she, so he had always been a little protective of her. Zane was protective of all women though. He wasn't in uniform, so he must have been off duty when the explosion happened. He was dressed in jeans, a dark flannel shirt, and a heavy quilted overshirt.

He was staring at her silently as she gripped the cup of hot coffee he had pressed into her hands seconds ago, his expression concerned.

"You should let the paramedics look at you, Haley." He reached out and brushed her hair gently off her forehead.

"I'm fine." A sob hitched her breath, shuddered through her body. "Patricia's not okay, Zane." More tears leaked from her eyes.

She couldn't seem to hold them back. Patricia was gone, and it was all her fault. Because she had let Patricia borrow her truck, had given her the keys because it was going to snow.

Lazy fluffy flakes were already drifting through the air, but they no longer held the magical appeal they had only a few hours ago.

Flames still burned inside the library. The fire blazing around the building and the vehicles that had caught fire were more important than the books inside a building that would contain its own flames.

"No, Patricia's not okay, Haley." Zane sighed and stared through the windshield before turning back to her. "You have to tell me what happened, honey."

"I don't know." She stared back at Zane in shock. "It was going to snow. You know how pitiful Patricia's car is in the snow." Another sob tore free. How pitiful it had been. The explosion had destroyed several other vehicles as well, Patricia's being one of them.

She lowered her head, fighting the sobs that shook her shoulders as Zane patted her knee.

"Come on, Haley." He lifted her chin until he was staring back at her. "You gave Patricia your keys, right?"

She nodded unsteadily. "So she could get to town after the snow. She hates being snowed in."

"Yes, she hates that." Zane nodded. "Go on."

"That's all," she whispered. "She went out to leave. I turned the television back on. I wanted to see the snow." Her lips trembled. "They were showing the snow in other states, and I wanted to see it. And then . . ." She blinked and shook her head.

She had to stop crying. She had to remember what Jonas Wyatt and Noble had told her. She couldn't tell anyone what had happened at Sanctuary until the hearing. But she knew, oh God, she knew Patricia had died because of it. Somehow, some way, the Breeds' enemies knew what she had seen and overheard. She knew it. She could feel it crawling over her skin, digging its way inside her brain.

"Haley." Zane stared up at her, his blue eyes sharp, concerned, but knowing. "You have to tell me what's going on here, honey. Someone blew up your truck. That wasn't an accident. You and I both know it wasn't an accident. Now, you have to tell me why."

She shook her head. She couldn't lie to Zane. She was a horrible liar, and she knew it. And she couldn't look him in the eye when he was staring at her like that. Determined and worried, compassion and pain glittering in his eyes.

She looked at her truck, and her stomach ached with the sobs and the fear she was holding in. Her chest felt constricted, tight, and filled with pain.

There was nothing left of Patricia. She was gone, while the snow drifted through the air, and the flames billowed around them.

Firefighters were working to put out the blazes, several twisted hunks of vehicles were nothing but charred skeletal remains of what they had been.

"We found a breed, Haley," Zane told her then.

Her head jerked around in terror. Haley could feel the rest of the blood leeching from her body, agony tearing through her.

"No." Sometimes Noble came in late. Returned books, helped her lock up.

"He was shot behind the library. Someone killed him. Now tell me what the hell is going on, or I'm taking you in for your own protection."

"Who?" The word wheezed out of her as her stomach churned sickeningly. She was rocking, slowly, back and forth, and didn't notice as the coffee cup slipped from her grip and crashed to the ground.

She was going to throw up.

"Who was the breed?" She nearly pushed Zane back as she forced herself to her feet. The quilt dropped behind her. "Where is he?"

She was shaking so hard she had to grip the open door as Zane grabbed her shoulder.

"Haley, dammit, tell me what the hell is going on."

"Was it Noble?" she screamed back at him. "Tell me, damn you. Who was the breed?"

She tried to tear away from him, the sickening fear of Noble, gone, dead. No, it couldn't be Noble.

But it had been time for Noble. It had been. She had been waiting for him.

She stared around and jerked away from Zane.

"Where is he?" She sobbed again, stumbling around the door and gripping the side of the car as she tried to force her legs to move.

He had said behind the library. Dead behind the library. She wasn't crying now. The fear and the pain was going too deep for tears. If Noble was gone, she couldn't bear it. Not Patricia and Noble. It couldn't happen. Not like this. Not because of her.

As she forced herself around the front of the vehicle, she heard a sound so wild, so animalistic, her head jerked up. It was Noble. She knew it was. She couldn't accept anything else.

"Noble!" She screamed his name and heard the sound again.

It rocked the night. Like the wild lions that patrolled the borders of Sanctuary. If the night was quiet, sometimes, you could hear them. And now, it sounded as though one had stepped into the city itself.

Her head jerked around, staring into the parking lot, watching as the flames flickered around it. And she saw him. All that wild black hair blowing back from his savage face. His lips were pulled back into a snarl as he pushed a police officer attempting to hold him back to the side.

Black-leather pants and heavy motorcycle boots. A leather jacket that he was unzipping as his gaze caught hers. He moved like the jaguar he was bred from, a hard, graceful shift of muscle, a ripple of danger.

"Noble." His name tore from her lips again as he snarled. The sight of it, the sound of it, should have been frightening. The flash of his canines, the hard edge to his black eyes, should have frightened her as much as it did the officers and bystanders.

She tried to make her legs move. Tried to run to him but they weren't functioning as they should. She stumbled again and heard his throttled growl a second before he jerked her into his arms.

Warmth covered her. She was only barely aware of his jacket going around her shoulders, because he was holding her, jerking her against his chest and swinging her off her feet.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against him to block out the sounds, the sight, and the smell of the fire.

He smelled like the night. Like winter. Like the snow that was drifting around them. There was no death around him. There was nothing of the nightmare and chaos around her.

For the first time since the night had turned into hell, Haley finally felt safe.

"Chavin, be advised of reinforcements landing," the comm link crackled with the information as Noble buried his face in Haley's hair and held on to her. His arms tightened around her as he let himself rest against the hood of the sheriff's cruiser and let himself soak up the knowledge that she was alive.

As he held her, he was aware of the breed heli-jet landing on the other side of the parking lot, and of the sheriff moving closer to them.

His head jerked up as Sheriff Taggart pulled the edge of Noble's jacket over her shoulder. He flashed a feral snarl at him, the thought of the man touching her finally sending him past the limits of what little control he felt he possessed.

Taggart lifted his hands, his eyebrows arching.

"She was afraid the dead breed behind the library was you," the sheriff told him, his blue eyes knowing as he watched Noble.

Noble tensed and let go of Haley just enough to activate his communicator.

"Jonas?"

"I have you. We're on scene."

"There's a breed behind the library, apparently dead." Silence filled the line for long seconds. "Fuck. We had Jason covering her."

Jason was young, but fully trained. He wasn't inexperienced.

"I want her out of the open. I'm bringing her to the heli."

"Negative. We have vehicles coming in and a civilian in the heli. Transfer her to one of the secured SUVs."

Noble grimaced. No doubt, the first Leo was in the helijet, the breed who only a few knew was a breed, and an interfering bastard at the moment, had decided to check things out himself.

That meant there was no way to transfer Haley to Sanctuary. Not and preserve the secrecy of Leo's identity from her.

He listened through the link as Jonas sent Mordecai Savant and Mercury Warrant to check the body and prepare it for transfer.

"You guys are going to fuck with my investigation, rather than just helping me secure the scene, aren't you, Noble." Zane tucked his fingers in the belt of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. "You know that's not going to go over with me. Right?"

"Talk to Jonas about it," he snapped. "My concern is Haley right now, Taggart, and where she's concerned, then your best bet is just staying the hell out of my way."

He turned and carried her to the vehicles pulling into the outer edges of the parking lot. The library was pretty much lost. The books had fed the flames that had whipped through the windows as they burst. It was a wonder she was still alive and relatively unharmed.

Relatively. He could smell her blood, her pain. He could feel her fear and her disbelief, and it was enraging him.

Clamping a firm hold on his control wasn't easy. As he carried her to the SUVs and slid with her into the backseat of the nearest one, he could feel that rage pumping through him.

Someone had dared to harm her. To attempt to kill her? The attempt was against her; otherwise, the young lion breed, Jason, wouldn't be dead, and her beautiful truck she so loved wouldn't be a hunk of twisted metal.

"They killed Patricia." Her head lifted from his shoulder as the door closed behind them. Her eyes, that dark ring of blue spreading into the gray, darkening them further.

He saw the pain and tears in her eyes. Noble let his arms tighten around her for long seconds as he watched Jonas stride to the SUV. Beside him, was the taller, broader form of the Leo, barely disguised in a hooded jacket, and his son Dane Vanderale. Evidently, neither of them were content to wait in the heli or at Sanctuary.

Behind them, the sheriff followed more slowly, his rugged face set in a scowl as breeds moved between them. That damned sheriff wasn't going to be content to let this go, he thought, as the others moved into the long seat across from Noble and Haley, and the doors closed behind them.

The combined stares of the three powerful men didn't bother Noble, but evidently, there was something about them that made Haley self-conscious.

Her head lifted, her expression flickering with wariness.

"Someone found out, didn't they?"

Haley stared back at Jonas Wyatt, knowing exactly what had happened. Brackenmore and Engalls had somehow learned that she would be testifying against them during the January hearing.

"We don't know that, Ms. McQuire," Jonas answered carefully, his expression carefully blank.

She moved, forcing herself from Noble's lap and sliding onto the seat beside him.

"She hasn't been seen by a medical professional, Jonas."

The younger of the other two men leaned forward. She knew him. The vice president of Vanderale Industries and beside him was the president, CEO, major shareholder, and whatever other title anyone had ever found to attach to him. Leo Vanderale.

And she had a feeling she knew why they were there.

She glanced out the front window to where the flames were finally dying down within the library.

"All the books are ruined," she whispered, looking back to the elder Vanderale. "You were so kind, Mr. Vanderale, to help donate all those lovely books." Her breathing hitched. "I'm very sorry."

His head tilted just slightly, his amber eyes staring back at her curiously. "Why would you apologize to me, Miss McQuire?" he asked her.

She sniffed back her tears, aware of Noble brushing back the side of her hair to examine the gash she could feel against her temple.

"Because it was my fault. Someone killed Patricia and destroyed the library because of me."

"Ridiculous," Dane Vanderale snapped, a frown veeing his brows.

"My dear, the choices others make because of your kindness is not your responsibility." Leo sighed. "And Dane is right, you need to be attended to. You're bleeding, my dear." He turned to Jonas. "Have her taken to Sanctuary."

"That's not possible." Jonas shook his head sharply.

"And why would this be?" Leo's tone was dangerously smooth.

"Leo, you know exactly why." Jonas bit out. "Let's not air our disagreements in front of Ms. McQuire and see what we can do to help her out here."

There was a tension brewing in the vehicle now, wrapping around her, tightening her nerves to breaking point.

"She's obviously in danger because of her courage in coming to you about what she saw and heard," Leo pointed out imperiously. "She should be taken to Sanctuary."

"No one is asking me," Haley pointed out, watching as the two Vanderale men glared back at Jonas.

"I don't think they believe you should have an opinion." Dane leaned back in his seat with a grin.

Haley ignored him, glancing to Noble instead as he spoke into the mic that curved around his tough, angled cheek bone.

"We need to get her to a secured site, one way or the other," Noble growled. "She's bleeding, Jonas, and she's scared out of her damned mind. Sitting here glaring at her isn't helping the situation."

"And you think taking her to Sanctuary will?"

"No," Noble snapped. "Her home will be easier to control. I want a team under my command, men I choose. I want the area declared off-limits to any other breeds, and I want full security protocols placed around it."

Jonas stared back at him blandly. "Those are a lot of wants for an enforcer," he said softly. "A low-ranking one at that, Noble. You've barely been within the hierarchy a year now."

"And I was invited in," Noble reminded him. "I didn't apply."

Haley blinked as Jonas grunted. She felt light-headed, uncertain. She lifted her hand to her temple, where the pain seemed worse, and touched dampness. Drawing it back, she saw her own blood.

"Choose your team," Jonas suddenly stated. "We'll cover you until they get there." He pulled the mic wand to his cheek. "Lawe, Rule, pull everyone to Haley McQuire's home. I need a medical attendant and the sheriff to follow."

Immediately, three of the breeds standing outside were sliding into the front of the SUV limo. The engine started, and the vehicle was pulling out as the snow began to fall faster.

Haley stared at her bloodstained fingers before lifting her eyes to Noble. "I'm bleeding," she whispered.

"Not bad." He laid a folded gauze pad that Dane handed him from a first-aid box he had acquired from beneath one of the seats over the wound. "Everything's okay, Haley."

"It's not okay," she whispered, staring into his dark eyes, his savage face. "Everything's not okay anymore, Noble."