Pack Dynamics Read Online Free Page A

going to believe this,” he said, “but Alex Jarrett is right in my sights.”
    “What’s he doing there? Never mind. You get a clear shot, take him out. Then the private eyes won’t have a client anymore, and I won’t have a business rival who won’t help me even if I practically get down on my knees and beg.”
    “That son of a bitch,” Deiter breathed. “I know his assistant has been deflecting your calls, but you actually asked him outright and he said no?”
    “At the fundraiser tonight.”
    “Well then.” Deiter’s jaw tightened, but he knew his uncle had someone in his pocket high up in the board of Jarrett’s company. Perhaps with Jarrett out of the picture, they would be more amenable to a change in direction for the company, and turn their researchers loose on paranormal problems. With smug satisfaction, Deiter tightened his finger on the trigger.

Chapter Two
    A close-by flash of lightning lit up the night, with a deafening crack of thunder coming almost instantly after, causing Alex to twitch sideways away from it.
    What felt like a red-hot poker punched him in the right side of his back above his shoulder blade and exited through his lower ribcage on the same side. He grunted and staggered and dropped to his knees, attempting unsuccessfully to suck air into the lung he realized had either collapsed or shattered or maybe both.
    Swearing, Phelps picked Alex up bodily and threw him into the limo. He followed a few seconds later with Ben, whom he tossed onto the back seat beside Janni.
    Alex hauled himself onto the bench seat across from Janni, easing himself down onto the injured side—he knew first aid for injuries like this because Megan had told him that if he was going to Pamplona to get gored by a bull again he’d damn well better.
    “Towel, and ice,” he rasped, pointing at the well-stocked wet bar on Janni’s side of the car, coughing blood. “In there.” Next time Megan chided him about his drinking, he’d be able to tell her it came in handy sometimes.
    Janni wrapped a double handful of ice in a towel and handed it across to him, and he pressed it to the wound in his chest, gulping in not enough air, wondering if he was going to drown in his own blood. His first thought, that he’d been hit by the lightning bolt, was obviously incorrect. He’d been shot, and wasn’t that interesting? Who’d want to shoot him? Shock was making him almost too detached.
    “How is he?” he asked Janni, needing the distraction.
    “Still shivering. I should get him out of those wet jeans.” Her mouth turned down at the corners, and she pulled bits of bloody cloth away from Ben’s injuries with trembling fingers. “Do you need anything else?”
    “A hot babe and a warm cognac, but the only hot babe in the car looks taken, and Megan would shoot me again if I had a drink right now,” he wheezed, noting to himself that Janni seemed to have a fair amount of experience in shucking Ben’s pants off.
    “I guess what they say about you is true,” Janni said, as she settled Ben back inside the blanket, with his head on her lap and her hand compulsively stroking his curly blond hair.
    “What, that I’m charming and witty?” Blackness was starting to encroach on Alex’s vision, and he still couldn’t get enough air, so he pressed harder on the ice pack. It didn’t help.
    “That you’re prone to making completely inappropriate remarks at completely inappropriate times.”
    “Oh, that. Well, yes.” He called back over his shoulder. “Phelps, how much longer?”
    “Fifteen minutes.”
    Alex gasped. “Faster … faster would be better.”
    The Bentley accelerated smoothly, although they’d been doing at least eighty before. “You got it, sir. Hang on, I’ll get you home in time.”
    “Good … good man.”
    Janni’s eyes were wide with fear—whether for him or because of their velocity, Alex wasn’t sure. “Home?” she asked. “You need an emergency room.”
    “I don’t do …