Howling Mad: A paranormal wolf shifter romance (Badlands Book 2) by Rebekah Blue Read Free Book Online Page B

was thinking. He wasn’t bugged – he’d crushed the listening device from his button before they’d even left the Dynamic Earth grounds. And that meant she must be.
    He’d shared those personae with her – the incompetent card-counter, the penniless musician – less than twenty-four hours earlier. She knew he hadn’t confided in anyone else. He’d shared nothing of himself – nothing – for over three years.
    He darted forward suddenly and wrapped his fist around the golden locket that hung from her throat. With one sharp wrench he pulled it free, snapping the chain. Her hands flew to her throat and her heart fluttered in her chest as he prised the locket open. He held it out to her on his palm, revealing within the tell-tale miniature circuit of a listening device.
    His eyes locked with hers and they were as hard and cutting as flint. The betrayal in his gaze felt like a blow. He turned and punched the wall beside him, then he flung the locket to the floor and stormed out. The door swung closed behind him and Naomi realized an expectant hush had fallen over the diner.
    She stammered an apology and threw down a couple of bills on the table without looking to see what she’d left, and ran after Byron. She couldn’t let him believe she’d know about the bug. Couldn’t let him believe that three years acting crazy was the smartest thing he’d ever done, and opening up to her the stupidest.
    She skidded to a stop in the parking lot, scattering gravel. Byron was astride the motorcycle, revving the engine, and the look he cast over his shoulder at her was wounded and dangerous.
    “Byron!” she called, but her voice was drowned out as he revved the bike’s engine and flipped up the kickstand. “Byron!” Clouds of greasy gray-blue smoke billowed up around him and the heavy smell of machine oil hit her nostrils.
    A large, callused hand clamped over her mouth and she was yanked off her feet.

Chapter Eleven
     
    Naomi kicked and struggled but it was no use – the man who’d grabbed her was incredibly strong, and his arm was like a band of iron around her chest, making it difficult to breathe. His hand over her mouth muffled her shouts – not that yelling would do her any good anyway. She’d lost Byron’s trust, and as far as everyone else was concerned she was a dangerous criminal being taken in by the authorities.
    She fought anyway. If she was enough trouble to take in, it might give Byron a chance to escape. Even now she didn’t believe her father would allow any real harm to come to her…but she believed Byron when he said they’d have him killed.
    She could hear the rising roar of the motorbike, and she dug her fingernails into her captor’s beefy forearm, yanking his hand away from her mouth so she could scream and swear. She left bloody furrows, and he bellowed his rage, dropping her. She managed to find her feet before she fell, but he grabbed a handful of her hair in his gigantic fist and yanked hard, dragging her to her knees. He shook her hard, like a dog with a rat, and she whimpered…then gasped as he used her hair to drag her up against his body.
    She opened tear-filled eyes as he turned her, and adrenaline jolted through her body like an open-handed slap. Byron dragged the roaring bike around in a tight arc, throwing up dust and gravel, and opened the throttle, heading straight for Naomi and the thug holding her.
    The Dynamic Earth tracker thrust her forward, his message unmistakable. You wanna run me down, you’ll have to go through her. The pain in her scalp was unbearable.
    Byron crouched low over the handlebars and kept coming. It was like a grim game of chicken…except in this version, Naomi was pretty sure someone was going to die. Maybe all three of them. The vertebrae in her spine seemed to fuse as every muscle in her body clenched, bracing for bone-breaking impact. The thunder of the oncoming motorcycle filled the world.
    At the very last moment, Naomi’s captor pushed her aside