Chapter Seventeen

~ Vanya ~

I was going to skin Brad alive if I got my hands on him. Not only was he causing us all sorts of problems, but he was trying to lay claim to Remy.

My Remy.

I clenched my hands, wishing I could plant them in Brad"s face. While I probably could, it would more than likely end up with me behind bars, especially if he was as connected as Levi said he was.

"Finish packing," I directed to Remy and my baby brother. "Maybe we can get out of here before—"

There was a heavy knock on the door and a shouted order to open up.

"Never mind." I started for the door. "Just play it cool, everyone. No furry business."

"You mean funny business?" Levi asked.

Not really.

"Yeah, that," I said. "Whatever happens, just stay cool."

I grabbed the door handle and pulled the door open. I blinked in surprise when I was met by a man in SWAT gear. "Is there a problem, officer?"

The officer didn"t answer me. He just grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and jerked me out of the room. I was tossed to the floor and then a heavy weight came down on my back before my hands were forced behind me and cuffs were snapped around my wrists.

There was a lot of yelling and shouting after that. I had a hard time understanding what everyone was saying, but I understood the situation perfectly. Brad"s connections had come through.

"What are you doing?" Remy cried out in a panicked sound. "Let him go."

"Its okay, Remy," I called out. "Just do whatever they say."

"But—"

"Sir, sir," one of the officers started asking. "Are you okay?"

Before Remy could reply, I saw Hudson forced onto the tiled floor next to me. I tried to see where Remy and Yeri were, but the officer kneeling on my back wouldn"t let me up.

I felt a deep growl building up in my throat and swallowed it down as fast as I could, closing my eyes briefly and praying I didn"t shift. Now was not the time to go furry.

When I was finally pulled to my feet, I saw Remy and Yeri off to one side talking to two officers in SWAT gear. I don"t know what they were saying to him, but Remy"s hands were waving in their like a frantic man.

The two officers glanced at me and Hudson a number of times, and then one finally came over to me. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Lieutenant Commander Ivan Sokolov."

"Lieutenant Commander?"

"Marine Force Recon, recently retired." I gestured behind me. "My identification is in my back pocket."

The officer dug my wallet out of my back pocket. I couldn"t see what he was doing until he stood up and walked back over to where Remy and Yeri were still talking to his partner.

"No!" Remy suddenly shouted. "I don"t care what he said. He"s lying."

"Sir—"

"You see this bruise on my cheek?" Remy pointed to his face. "He gave this to me when I refused to do what he said. He said I belonged to him, even though everyone knows he"s dating Margot."

I growled because nothing could have kept my rage contained in my throat. I already knew this, but hearing Remy say it again made me just as angry now as I had been when I first heard about it.

"I don"t care what Brad told you. He is lying through his teeth." Remy pointed at me. "Vanya is my boyfriend. He"s here helping me pack. We"re going on a trip together with some friends."

"Sir, I need you to calm down."

"You—"

"Remy," I called out. "You need to calm down, baby. Shouting at the officers isn"t going to solve anything. They are just doing their jobs. Once we explain everything, I"m sure they will let us go."

"Vanya—"

"Baby, please."

Remy huffed, crossing his arms. "Fine."

"Sir," the officer continued. "We received a report that you were being kidnapped by Mr. Sokolov. I"m sure you understand that we had to investigate."

"I get that you had to investigate, but I"m telling you, Vanya did not kidnap me. I want to go with him."

"You said that you were packing to go somewhere?"

Remy nodded. "I"ve been attending medical school for awhile now and I need a break. I talked to Vanya and a few of our friends and we all decided to take the next semester off and go do something, anything. We just need to get away from books and studying and not getting any sleep."

"We"re been playing with the idea of touring Europe," Yeri added in.

The officer"s eyebrows lifted. "Touring Europe?"

"Greece mostly," Remy said. "My parents are on an archeological dig in Greece right now. They have a house there. We were thinking of going to stay with them for awhile and just hanging out there until the next term started."

"Must be nice," the officer mumbled, but I still heard him.

"Brad was not invited," Remy continued. "Maybe that"s why he did this." His brow furrowed as he turned to look at Yeri. "Could he be that petty?"

Yeri snorted, not saying a word.

"Remy!"

I stiffened when I heard Brad"s voice. Whipping around, I saw him running toward Remy. The only thing keeping me from running across the room the strangle the man was the handcuffs around my wrists and the two armed police officers standing on either side of me.

"Darling, I was so worried about you."

When Brad tried to grab Remy he was pushed back.

"Get away from me!" Remy snapped. "Don"t touch me!"

Brad"s eyes quickly darted to the officers standing there before going back to Remy. "Don"t be like that, Darling. I know you"re scared, but it"s okay. I"m here now."

"I am not your darling." Remy stomped his foot. "Stop calling me that."

"Just tell the officers about Vanya kidnapping you and then I can take you home. Mother and Father are waiting to meet you." Brad tried to grab Remy again, but he darted behind one of the officers. "Remy!"

"Stay away from me," Remy shouted. "I want nothing to do with you, you sick freak."

Brad"s eyes narrowed. "What did he do to you?"

"What?"

"What did he do to you?" Brad asked again, his tone almost crooning. "You weren"t like this before. You never used to argue with me. What happened to you?"

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Remy asked. "I never argued with you because I don"t care about you. We"re not dating. We"re not friends. We"re barely classmates. We don"t even hang out in the same social circles. The only reason we even have anything to do with each other is because we attend the same university."

"How can you say that, Remy?" I don"t know how he did it, but tears appeared in Brad"s eyes. "After all we meant to each other."

"You threatened to rape me!"

"Oh, Darling, I would never hurt you."

"You hit me!"

Brad"s jaw clenched. "If you would just do what you were told..."

Both officers had been looking back and forth between Remy and Brad, but when he said that, their heads snapped in his direction.

"Sir, did you threaten to rape Mr. Manning?" one of the officers asked.

"No, of course not."

"I have witnesses," Remy stated. "Yeri was there, so was Hudson, Carmine, and Akio. Hell, even your girlfriend Margot was there. I"m sure if you asked them, they will back me up."

"Margot is not my girlfriend."

Remy"s jaw dropped. "You broke up with Margot?"

"Oh please, I was never with Margot. I just fucked her because she was an easy piece. It"s you I love. You know that."

"You sick fr—"

My eyes widened at the loud screech that filled the air. My ears rang so hard I wondered if they were bleeding.

"An easy piece?" Margot screamed as she ran up to Brad. "You fucked me because I was an easy piece?"

"Shut up, Margot," Brad snapped.

Margot"s eyes narrowed. She crossed her arms and glared at him as she said, "Remy is telling the truth, officers. Brad did threaten him and he did hit him. We all saw it."

An officer grabbed Brad by the arm when he took a threatening step toward her. Margot let out a frightened gasp and stepped back.

"Shut up, Margot," Brad snarled. "You don"t know what you"re talking about so just stay out of this. Its none of your business."

"None of my business? Yesterday you were telling me how much you loved me as you fucked me and now it"s none of my business? I"m pregnant, you asshole."

My eyes darted to Remy as dread filled me. This was bad. Very, very bad. Depending on when Margot got pregnant, we could have a major problem.

"Sir." One of the officers reached for Brad. "I"m afraid we"re going to need to take you in for questioning."

"No, no, you don"t understand." Brad struggled to get free, causing more officers to rush over. "I"m just trying to save Remy from him. Vanya is dangerous. He can change into a wolf. He"s already threatened to rip my throat out several times, and he"ll do it to you, too. Just wait. You"ll see."

Everything stilled. There was a deadly silence that hung in the air at Brad"s outrageous words. I wasn"t even sure anyone was breathing.

I know I was holding my breath.

One of the officers sighed. "Place him in cuffs and take him in for a seventy-two hour psychological evaluation. This guy is obviously off his rocker." He turned and walked over to me, uncuffing me. "I"m sorry about this, Mr. Sokolov."

"It"s okay," said as I rubbed my wrists. "You were just doing your job."

As soon as I was free, Remy rushed into my arms. I hugged him tight, pressing his head against my chest as I watched Brad shouting and struggling as two officers led him away. Another one was questioning a now sobbing Margot.

"You know," Remy whispered, "they can only hold him for seventy-two hours, but that might be enough time for us to find that bug-out spot."

"Assuming they don"t test his blood for drugs." Which would probably be the first thing they did. "We need to get back to camp as soon as possible."

"I need to finish packing and then—" Remy snapped his lips closed when an officer walked up to us.

"I"m going to need to get a statement from both of you." He glanced at Remy with an uneasy look on his face. "Do you want to press charges against Mr. Tanner?"

Remy shook his head. "I just want him to leave me alone."

"You can get a restraining order against him."

I nodded when Remy glanced at me. We might not be fully human anymore, but we lived in a human world. We had to play by their rules. They wouldn"t understand a wolf"s mentality to rip someone"s throat out.

"Will I have to see him again if I get a restraining order?" Remy asked. "I"d rather not have anything to do with him. I always knew he was a bit aggressive, but I never dreamed that he was bat-shit crazy."

"No, that"s not how it works." The officer"s smile was almost indulgent. "A restraining order is meant to keep him away from you."

"From what I have seen here, Brad doesn"t think much of the law. I doubt he"d let a restraining order stop him." Remy shook his head. "I still can"t believe he thought he could get away with this. Sure, his father has money, but I don"t think it"ll cover this."

Remy huffed as he waved his arms around the room. "I mean, look at all these people. The police even had to call in SWAT. That takes time and money, time that could have been spent saving someone who really needed to be saved. If someone died because they were here for this fiasco instead of saving them, who is going to be responsible for that?"

The officer smiled at Remy. "I can assure you that there is no need to worry. We have more than one SWAT unit on duty at all times just for situations like this."

"It"s still not right. Brad uses his father"s money to get himself out of trouble all of the time. When is he going to take responsibility for his actions? I didn"t ask for any of this. In fact, I"ve gone out of my way to stay away from him. He"s a menace, and now he thinks shape shifting is a thing?"

My eyes narrowed. Remy sounded as if he was getting worked up, and now that he had mentioned shifting, I was concerned. Was he too wound up to realize what he was saying?

"I"ve read all about shifters in romance novels and I"ve seen them on TV, but I"m pretty damn sure they only live in people"s imagination." Remy tossed his hands in the air as if exasperated. "Hell, maybe vampires are real, too? And dragons and ghosts. Bigfoot."

I smiled as I reached out and grabbed Remy, dragging him back to my side. "Baby, you know none of those things really exist."

"Yeah, but—"

"There"s obviously something wrong with Brad. We have no idea what his family"s mental history is. Maybe that psychological evaluation will find something and they can get Brad the help he really needs."

Remy snorted rudely. "Only if his father"s money doesn"t buy him a get out of jail free card."

"I can assure you, Mr. Manning, that Mr. Tanner will be held until the doctors are assured he is not a threat to himself or others. With everything he has pulled, his father can"t buy him out of this."

Remy shook his head as he turned and gripped a handful of my shirt. "Can we go? I want to go to Greece right now. He gets out in seventy-two hours. We can be gone by then. He"ll never find us in Europe."

"Okay, baby, okay." I pressed Remy"s head to my chest before pinning my gaze on the sympathetic looking officer. "Is there anything else we need to do or can we go?"

"I think we"re about done here," the officer replied. "I will need a number where I can contact you if something comes up with the case."

"Oh, um, I"m not sure my cell phone will work overseas, but I can give you my father"s number. I usually call him every few days just to check in."

"Not your brother?" the officer asked as he glanced at Yeri, who stood across the room talking to Margot and Levi, Hudson hovering behind him.

"He"s one of the people going with us."

"Oh, okay."

I quickly rattled off my father"s phone number, and yes, I did give him the real number. We needed to play this cool until we knew what was going on with Brad. My father could always change his number in the future if needed.

When the officer walked away, Yeri and Hudson walked over to join us. "Can we go now?" Hudson asked in a low tone. "I"m having a hard time keeping my skin."

I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Let"s finish getting Yeri and Remy packed and get everything in the trucks. We still have to grab Carmine"s stuff and then we can go."

The sooner the better.