“You,” Phil snarled, turning to her. “You’d use these on another shifter?”
It seemed so unreal for Phil Locke, of all people, to be questioning Gretchen’s honor that they both actually laughed. Gretchen was the one who’d flown in the face of all loyalty and duty? Sure, Phil.
It was nice to have a little levity as the car streaked up towards them.
Gretchen said incredulously, “On a shifter who’s a criminal? A shifter like you, who framed his partner for a murder that didn’t even happen? A shifter who sold out the people who were counting on him to protect them? Um, yes. A thousand times yes.”
“You’re not really a shifter at all,” he said, spitting the words at her.
“Oh, she definitely is,” Cooper said.
A smile spread across Gretchen’s face, as beautiful and natural as the sun coming up. She almost glowed with it.
If Cooper never made it down this mountain again, he was going to try to die thinking of that smile.
“I’m a shifter,” Gretchen said simply. “But I’m a Marshal first.”
“Then it’s time we did some Marshaling,” Cooper said, “because they’re almost here. Gretch, it looks like you’re back on prisoner transport after all. Ready for a ride, Phil?”
*
It was almost over. They’d bring Phil back to her home office and explain everything that had happened, and after they all waded through an ocean of red tape...
Cooper would be free. They’d have a life together.
Thinking about that was such a beautiful distraction that Gretchen almost missed the poisonous delight in Phil’s eyes. Almost, but not quite.
A chill shot down her spine. “What?”
Phil spoke only to Cooper, like he’d decided that she wasn’t worth talking to since she didn’t fit his narrow, idiotic ideas of what it meant to be a true shifter. “You might have gotten me with these,” he said, holding up his wrists and letting the shiftsilver cuffs dangle down, the blue-gray metal winking in the sunlight, “but unless you have more of them—I’m telling you what I told you before. You’re not getting off this mountain alive.”
“Gretchen’s going to fly you off this mountain,” Cooper said. “No problem there.”
“We’ll all fly,” Gretchen said firmly. “If you’re not up for it, then you can ride on my back while I carry Phil with my talons. I don’t care if it’s hard. I’m not leaving you behind.”
Cooper reached out and squeezed her hand. “All right. Then we’re all going. And there’s not a thing Roger and Monroe can do about it, not if we’re in the air.”
Phil laughed. The unpleasant sound rang off the stones around them, echoing.
“What do you say when someone’s had plastic surgery?” Phil said.
He was enjoying himself now, Gretchen realized, toying with them the way a cat played with a mouse.
“They’ve ‘had some work done,’ right? Well, Cooper, old buddy, partner, you could say Roger’s had some work done. He’s not exactly the man you remember.” His smile was so wide it looked like the edges of it would come off his face. “And now he’s here. I almost feel sorry for you.”
Let him feel sorry all he wanted. Gretchen wasn’t standing around here another minute, not with Cooper’s freedom at stake. She didn’t know what Phil could possibly be talking about, but she figured the open sky was still their best hope.
She touched Cooper’s shoulder. “Come on.” She let some of the urgency she was feeling bleed into her voice. “Let’s get out of here.”
But Cooper couldn’t take his eyes off the car, which was, as Phil had said, now practically on top of him. The same wind that was whistling around them and playing her nerves like violin strings was ruffling his hair, and Gretchen could guess a little at the tangled emotions he was feeling.
He was as free right now as anyone could possibly be—he was out in the great wide open wilderness, with the proof of his innocence right at his feet and nothing but safe blue sky all around him. But two of the people who’d hurt him were seconds away from confronting him, and as dangerous as it might be to come face to face with Roger and Monroe, maybe Cooper needed that. Some part of him clearly wanted to face down the last of his demons.
She was ready to let them stay, then. He’d been through so much, and there was no way she could begrudge him whatever satisfaction and sense of closure he would get from getting to trade a few choice words with the men who had almost ruined his life.
But Cooper finally tore his gaze away from his past and looked straight at her, with all his attention and all his love shining brightly in his eyes. It was enough to take Gretchen’s breath away.
He’s giving all that up for me, she realized. He wants the chance to face them, he wants to make sure they don’t get away—but he’ll give that up to make sure I’m safe.