Free Texas and Tarantulas by Bailey Bradford Page A

or take Diego back.”
    Diego muttered something Trent couldn’t hear then spoke. “You sign your own death warrant then. Not with Trent, or Joe, or me, but with the people who sent you. The Cosgi, right?”
    “Or I go after them, take them all out,” Mahon said. “Their purpose, they say, is to keep shifter kind safe and hidden from human discovery, but it doesn’t seem like that’s all they’re doing.”
    Trent hummed, considering that. “Don’t you think it’d just be easier to take off and hope they never found you?”
    Mahon shook his head. “The next Mahon they sent wouldn’t give you a chance to take him down with a water hose.”
    “There’s a story I gotta hear.” Joe looked at Trent expectantly.
    “It was all I had in my hands when I went outside and spotted him,” Trent explained. “So I used the pressure nozzle and soaked him.”
    “They’ll send others,” Mahon said again.
    “Yeah, I got that, and I think Joe and Diego did, too,” Trent said, as he scratched his chin. “I wonder if they’ll back off if they get it very clearly explained to them what happens if something happens to one or all of us.”
    Joe held the gun steady as he spoke. “We told the surviving betas. They know. They passed the message along.”
    “Maybe not completely.” Mahon shrugged when Trent gave him an inquisitive look. “You didn’t send back the best and the brightest from what I saw, and only one survived the trip home. The other was shot. If the male was the smartest beta, then there’s no hope for wolf shifters in this world.”
    Trent knew there was another reason, one that was very accurate if it had been figured out. “There’s also the very real chance the alpha doesn’t believe we would post the video since it would endanger Diego. Or he doesn’t care and wants us dead. He might even have plans in place to stop the video from being uploaded and played, though I don’t see how.”
    Mahon was nodding in agreement. “So the alpha, Xavier, must be killed. The rest of the pack can be dealt with accordingly.”
    “You’re on our side now?” Diego asked skeptically.
    Mahon didn’t answer.
    Trent walked over and held his hand out. “Give me the gun. You two, go home. Lock the doors, keep weapons at hand.”
    “We’re going to get the chains, and you’ll lock that asshole up with them or we can all camp out here—or we can just shoot him,” Joe finished with.
    Diego came up onto his toes in a little bounce move. “We should stay here anyway or all stay at the big house. What if more…um, Mahons show up?”
    “It’s possible.” Mahon’s stomach rumbled loudly. “Sorry.”
    Trent felt bad for the man. He couldn’t help it. He didn’t think Mahon was lying. That connection between them was still there, and he’d swear it acted as a lie detector of sorts. He also believed that, given a little time, Mahon would be on his side. Speaking of Mahon…
    “I’d call you Finn. Finn Beckett, if I got to pick a name for you.”
    Mahon pointed to himself. “Me?”
    Trent just kept from scoffing. The sarcasm he couldn’t restrain. “Well, yeah. You’re the one without a name, right? You’re part of a scary tale, not a living, unique being. I’ve always liked Finn, but you pick something whenever you’re ready.”
    Mahon’s eyebrows met over his nose and he looked confused. “You say that like you think I’ll be here after tonight.”
    Trent just smiled.
     
    * * * *
     
    Mahon’s whole life had been a lie, but he’d always known that, hadn’t he? Sharing the same name with five other bear shifters, being isolated from their own kind except for the six of them and the bear shifters who had seen to their training. He’d been used. How much blood did he have on his hands? Any was too much, his conscience said. Seeing Trent, Joe and Diego together had him questioning everything he’d been told, all the assignments he’d done—especially Diego, who was clearly happy with Joe and