The Falcon Ridge Series Book 3 If Looks Could Kill

(Chapter song ‘Crazy Train' by Ozzy Osbourne)

LUKE

The lycan grips my hair harder as I run through every plan in my mental arsenal. Coming up with nothing, I flick my eyes to my guys and very slightly shake my head. Receiving my signal, their faces fill with looks of angered defeat.

I look down and see a flash of white ivory embedded in silver metal. I press my lips together and close my eyes. Taking down by my own gun. Fucking hell. A wusses death.

Terry raises his hands in the air by his head. His gun twirls upside down and he throws it. Gavin does the same, but Bobby hesitates. His eyes meet mine and I nod for him to throw it. His lip curls and he throws it as he raises his hands in surrender.

"Found this one."

I try to see behind me as a lycan drags Evan by the shirt to the circle of armed men. He throws Evan to Bobby who catches him and straightens him up. Evan puts his hands up, looking terrified. I wince at his stupidity. I was kind of hoping he’d be smart enough to run, but that was apparently too much to ask.

The guy holding my hair grinds in my ear. "Any other idiots we should know about?"

I flick my eyes to his voice and smile. "Nope. That's all of 'em."

The guy I shot is holding his bleeding shoulder, leaning on the table. He’s bleeding out and pissed off. "Just fucking kill him." He growls.

I feel him turn his head to me as he yanks my hair back. He jams the gun under my chin. "Naw. He and the boss have to have a little conversation." He lets go of my head, pushes me forward, shoving the barrel into my spine. “Let's go!”

I put my hands up as I stumble forward. “Alright! Fuck! You know it’s a gun not a fucking knife.”

“Shut up!” He shoves me again.

****

We're gathered up and taken to second area of the barn. It’s larger than the one we were in and seems to be some sort of storage room for farm equipment. There’s two support poles in the center with two lights hanging from the ceiling.

They pair us off and tie us in twos with silver laced ropes to the poles. They throw Evan to the floor and hog tie him. He’s whimpering something fierce and I wish he would stop because it’s starting to irritate. Remind me to teach him how to get captured like a man.

With Bobby behind me, a lycan ties our hands behind our backs. He pulls the rope and I just have to be a smartass. “Ow! Watch it!”

He smirks as he faces me from the side. "Too tight, Alpha?"

I watch him walk around to my front. "No. It's just that your face is giving me a such headache, I can’t enjoy this."

His mouth ticks up and he delivers a right hook to my cheek. My head is pushed to the side and I blink out the stars that explode behind my lids.

I spit blood on the floor then roll my head up to him. "When I get these ropes off, you're the first to go down."

"We'll see, sweetie." He smacks my cheek. "Let's get the boss." He waves the rest of the Lycans out.

Once they’re gone, I whip my head to Evan, jut my chin out and throw him an angry glare.

"I'm sorry." He whines.

"Sorry?" I growl as I struggle with the ropes. "Sorry?! When we get home, you won't even begin to know what sorry is!" I spit.

He struggles with his ropes. "Luke, I was just trying to help."

"No! You were fucking stupid and now we're in this mess!" I try to call my wolf, but he’s no fucking help. The ropes are suppressing him.

Bobby turns his head to my shoulder. "No. We're in this mess because you wouldn't fucking listen. If we had stuck to the original plan, we wouldn't be tied up right now."

"Shut up." I growl. "It was going good until Captain Idiot showed up."

Gavin looks at me from behind Terry. "Luke, calm down. Give the kid a break."

"No, I won't calm down, Gavin! If people would just fucking listen..."

"Better listen to him, Luke."

A deep voice interrupts me and I squint in the dark to see who's talking.

"Luke Jackson. As I live and breathe."

From a dark room on the wall opposite me, he steps into the light. I watch black boots and black jeans enter the room. His tall, thick frame fills the doorway as he walks through it with his hands in his pockets.

He's wearing a black leather vest and no shirt. His arms and chest are covered in ink and his blonde hair is tied back in a half ponytail. His scruffy chin lifts as he looks me over.

As soon as I see one blue eye and an eye patch, I know it can only be one person.

"Ian Wolfstrike." My eyes turn to slits and my chest puffs out.

"You look like shit, friend." He smirks.

I nod to him. "Something’s different about you, Ian. I just can't put my eye on it." I smirk back.

He gives a quick chuckle as he steps closer and crosses his arms. He stands tall in front of me and rubs his chin. "How long has it been? Three, four years?"

I tick my jaw. "Six."

"Six years. Man. Now what would compel you to show your ugly mug back up here?" He starts to pace around as he eyes my men.

He touches Terry's cheek with his fingertips as he walks by and Terry moves his head out of the way. Ian points to his nose as he turns back to me.

I shrug. "I heard a new scumbag rolled into town. Should've known it'd be you." I follow him as he walks my way.

He stops and turns to face me. "Is that any way to talk to an old friend?" He tilts his head, folds his arms and eyes me.

"You stopped being my friend when you joined them." I shoot daggers at him and the Lycans behind him.

He smiles, holds his arms out to the side and takes slow steps to me. "Someone has to be on the winning side, my friend." He spins around and presents himself to his men. "And if you haven't noticed, I'm the one winning." He points his hands to his chest as he slightly bows.

His men chuckle and take tough guy postures as they fist bump each other. I clench my teeth as I watch them gloat.

"Game’s not over yet." I grit as I throw out my own tough guy.

He turns, looks me over then gets up in my space. He stands about four inches taller than me, but if I worried about height, I wouldn’t be an Alpha.

He tilts his head to the side and leans to me. His tone is quiet and dark. "I have your pack by the balls, bud. Soon, I'll have your house.”

I look him dead in the eye. "When did you become such a dick?"

He cocks his head more and looks like he’s shocked by my question. He chuckles again as he turns around and faces his men. “I’m a dick?”

His men break into a round of mumbled no’s and snarky laughter.

I watch his head nod as his hands land on his hips. “Didn’t think so.”

In a second, he spins around, grabs my shoulder and delivers a gut punch so hard, I double over the rope tied around my ribs. He walks away as I cough it out and try to get my air back.

I raise my head up enough to see him cracking his knuckles as he turns back to me.

"Luke." He grabs the top of my hair, pulls my head back and leans close. "You know, there was a time when I admired you? You were the kid of the Alpha. To be your friend? How cool was that?"

“Can’t…blame you…I'm…just that…awesome.” I pant.

He chews the inside of his cheek, gives a little shake of his head, then pulls it back. He slams his forehead into mine and my eyes explode into white lights. I slam the back of my head against the pole and feel the bells ringing in my skull.

“Fuck!” I growl out the pain as I squeeze my eyes shut and open them several times.

I lower my head and can just make out him walking around the floor in front of me.

He rubs his knuckles as he walks past a table with all our guns on them. He scans them as he continues his whine fest.

"Yeah…I admired you. You were the guy everyone wanted to be.” He turns back to me and heads my way.

“But then I saw just how much of a spoiled, evil, little bastard you were. Showing off, looking down on people. Using your smart mouth to bring people down. All because your father had power." He stops in front of me and gives me that look that I’ve seen all too often from people who were annoyed by my shit.

I try to focus my eyes as the blow to my head starts to fade. I feel blood trickle down my cheek and I start to take stock of our situation.

Ian’s reminiscing is fun and all, but we need to get the fuck out of here before he really starts to share.

He gets real close, curls his lip and flares his eyes. "Now, who has the power, dick."

He delivers another right hook to my face and I let out a growling groan as my head ignites in pain again.

He holds my nape and leans to the side of my head. “You were a punk bitch then and you’re a punk bitch now. People are starting to see exactly how worthless a Jackson is and you know what?” I roll my eye to him. “It's about fucking time.”

He pushes off me and walks to the table. He picks my gun up and studies it as he sits his ass on the table top.

"Humph...It's pretty." He lifts it to me then holds it, barrel down, between his knees. He meets my eyes. "Where's the armory?"

I cinch my brow in confusion. “The what?"

"The Armory. Where is it?" He shrugs smugly. His legs dangle off the table as he glances at his men then back to me.

"I don't know. I just fucking got here!" I whine with irritation. My head hurts too much for this bullshit.

He looks down at my gun. He nods like he’s contemplating my answer and shrugs. "Ok."

He jumps off the table, cocks my gun and fires into the floor in front of Evan. The bullet goes through the wood at his knees.

Evan screams and tries to push himself away and cover his head.

I almost jump out of my skin as he stares me down, still aiming the gun where he shot.

"I don't know!" I yell with a growl.

He cocks the gun again and aims it at Evan’s head. Evan's eyes widen and he tries to cover himself as he whimpers. "You have five seconds." Ian warns.

I glare at him. My eyes flick between him and Evan. "I don't fucking know, Ian. As far as I know, we don't have one!"

"Three seconds." He stares me down.

I look to Gavin and Terry and they both shrug.

"Come on, Luke. The kids about to piss himself here. Where is it?" His brow furrows as he ups his threat.

"I don't know what you're fucking talking about!" I’m fucking panicking as my head whips between the two.

"Bullshit!" He takes large steps to me and puts the barrel to my chest. "Every fucking Alpha has one. Where is it?!!" He thumps the gun on my chest with each word.

"Enough!!" A voice yells from the darkness.

Ian turns and I look around him. That voice…what? My wolf perks up, spins then starts to growl. His emotions are all over the place.

I watch the shadow in the dark step into the light. My eyes widen when I see the boots, long coat and fire red curls. Her green eyes glare at Ian and I can’t breathe. Her face…her legs…her rack…oh my God.

Her solid curls bounce just above her shoulders as she looks around the room. Goddamn, she’s hot. She looks exactly like I dreamed her…except she’s not in a bedsheet. If I get half a chance, I could change that. Her scent fills the room and inhale deeply.

“Uh…Luke. That’s the girl who kicked your ass.” Terry says as he side eyes her then looks to me.

“Yeah…so?” I scowl.

He tilts his head. “She looked taller in the video. Doesn’t look like she weighs much either. Hard to believe she could put any power in a pun…”

“I was drunk!” I interrupt him with a quiet growl.

He smirks as he turns back to the girl.

"Leave us." She barks as she faces Ian.

He has six inches on her, but he seems scared of her. He glances at me then her.

"Now." She warns as she holds hand out.

Ian mumbles something and places my gun in her hand. She safety’s the gun, folds her arms and watches as the lycans leave the room.

She turns to me and our eyes lock. She stares at me intently then looks at my gun. She walks over to the table and gently places it down with the others.

She turns around and slowly walks over to me, pulling out a pair of silver knuckles and putting them on.

"Oh, come on." I roll my head and whine.

My dream girl doesn’t have to be this fucking real. Give me a break!

She stops in front of me and my face softens as our eyes meet again. There’s that death look I dreamed. This is unreal.

"Where...is...the armory?" She whispers as her gorgeous eyes look me over then pierce my soul.

“Uhh…” I search around her then back to her.

Come on, Luke…THINK!