by Roxy Wilson
She wasn’t quite sure how to react to his statement. Did he really intend to kick her out of the house?
He dug a hand into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. “This contains all the money I owe you as well as some extra that will cover the cost of your ticket. I don’t want to see you again.” He flung the envelope onto the bedside table, whipped around, and marched off.
Shit. She couldn’t believe it. He was actually letting her out of the house. Apparently, he didn’t seem to think she was responsible for Justin’s kidnapping. If he thought the same way now, he wouldn’t have allowed her to leave. But she was devastated that he still didn’t want anything to do with her.
Did he really hate her so much?
What had she done to deserve such a treatment?
Devyn collapsed on the bed. In some corner of her heart, she’d retained the hope that he would come to the right conclusion sooner or later. Perhaps she imagined he would beg forgiveness from her and maybe, they would be able to start over again. She loved him and of course, she’d prayed for a happy ending to this mess. He dashed all her hopes without as much as a grimace. All he wanted was for her to leave, and there was no remorse or regret in his heart for what he did.
If he didn’t care for her, she would do her utmost to forget him.
Devyn wiped her tears. She went into the bathroom and collected all her toiletries. Taking out her bag, she packed all her clothes. When she was finished, she went downstairs.
Simon was waiting for her in the foyer. “I’ve arranged a car to take you to the airport.”
“Thank you, Simon. I…” She couldn’t complete her sentence. It was humiliating to be turned out like a criminal from the house she’d made her home. She foolishly built her hopes around a life with Justin and Keran. Of course, he didn’t want that. It was her fault for even thinking that it could ever be so. Devyn walked out.
A driver was waiting.
She sat in the car while Simon stowed her luggage in the trunk. There was nothing left to say. “Airport,” she told the driver.
As the car drove off, she closed her eyes because she didn’t want Simon to see the tears that threatened to spill down her cheeks. Nothing ever prepared her for such a sad end to her love story. It was stupid of her to even think that she could have a happily ever after with Keran. He probably gave in to one night of weakness when he made love to her. She didn’t mean anything to him. He didn’t care about her. All he wanted was his son and now, that he was sure she’d had nothing to do with Justin’s kidnapping, he turned her out as if she was a beggar in his house.
She never wanted to see him again.
But dammit…She also longed to cast one last look at his face.
For some odd reason, she’d forged a strong connection with him. It defied the events that happened in the last few weeks. Despite all the bad things he made her go through, she still couldn’t hate him. Devyn tried hard to gather some antagonism against him, but her heart was only filled with pain and regret. Maybe if she’d done things differently, he might have felt more for her.
No.
She wasn’t going to blame herself for his weaknesses. The man didn’t have a heart in his body. He was incapable of feeling the normal emotions than a human experienced. She was going to do her best to forget him. Devyn intended to move on with her life. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy but she would show him that he didn’t manage to break her.
When the driver slid to a stop outside the departure area, she stepped out. After she took out her bag, Devyn made her way inside. “Hi. I want to see if there is a flight available for New York?” she asked at one counter.
“Sure, madam, please wait.”
After some brief checking, she found a flight two hours later that would take her home. Now, all she had to do was wait. Rather than stick around the crowded counter, she strolled to the café and sat. Devyn ordered a coffee. She would find another job. With her credentials, it wouldn’t be difficult to do so. She had an excellent reputation, and except for Keran, no one ever blamed her for any wrongdoing.
While she sipped her coffee, Devyn was unable to focus her thoughts. The urge to cry wasn’t far off but she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in a public place. She sucked in a deep breath and swallowed all her feelings. When she was back in her house, then she would let go of her emotions. Soon, this pain would end and she would be able to live a normal life.
A man sat opposite her.
She glanced away, not wishing to make conversation. Why didn’t he take another seat? There were plenty of empty chairs and tables.
“If you want to see Justin alive, you have to come with us.”
She jerked her head to stare at him. “What?”
“Keep your voice low. This is a public place and I don’t want you to draw attention to us,” he said. He looked big and strong. His wide shoulders stretched the t-shirt he wore. The edge of a tattoo peaked out from the top of the navy blue shirt. His face could only be described as pleasant, but he had a sharp, cold gleam in his eyes. “We have Justin. If you want to see him alive, I want you to come with us. We can’t force you. You can walk away if you want but if you do so, his life is over.”
She swallowed. This was one of the kidnappers. Why did he want her to go with him? What did they want from her? Of course, her first urge was to walk away. As he said, they couldn’t force her to go, but then she thought about Justin and his cherubic face. The boy needed her. She’d failed him once. How could she do so again? Vaguely, she was aware that if she went along, she would become their prisoner. They could do whatever they wanted with her. She had the perfect opportunity to walk away. No one could oblige her to do this. This wasn’t her duty.
But she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she didn’t do something to save Justin. If Justin died because of a direct consequence of her actions, she wouldn’t ever be able to forgive herself. Keran may have treated her badly but Justin was an innocent child. She couldn’t punish him for his father’s sin. “I’ll come.”
“Good girl,” he said as if he was talking to a child.
“But what guarantee do I have that he’s alive and you’re taking me to him?”
He smiled. Taking out his cell phone, he opened a picture and showed it to her. Justin sat on a chair. He was wearing clothes that didn’t belong to him. The shirt was too big, and the shorts too small, but he looked okay. He held one of the daily newspapers in his hand. She bent forward to read the date on it. It was today’s newspaper.
She breathed a sigh of relief. At least as of this morning, he was alive. It was the best news she’d gotten in a long time, but it didn’t stop her from being angry. Her muscles quivered and her pulse sped. “How can you torture a child by keeping him away from his father?”
“You have no idea what’s at stake here.” He shoved the phone back in his pocket. “Take out your cell phone and put it on the table.”
She did as he told her.
He shoved it into his pocket. “Come with me and we’ll get into a car. I don’t want any drama. If you make the slightest noise, I’ll disappear and neither you nor his father will see the boy alive.”
“I won’t create any problems,” she promised. Devyn stood. She walked with the man. There was no way for her to know if she would return alive, but for Justin, she had to do this. Keran might not love her, but she loved him and Justin…if there was anything she could do to keep Justin alive, she would do it. Hopefully, Keran will find the information he was looking for soon enough and he would reach his son and rescue him. Devyn wasn’t too worried about herself. If Keran could make the ultimate sacrifice for his son, she could do it for the young boy who stole her heart.
This was her decision, and she was sticking to it.
Chapter Four
He’d made plenty of mistakes in his life, but nothing of this magnitude ever hit him before. Keran bit his bottom lip as he listened to the conversation. He wanted to bang his hands on something and break it. Shit.
How could he have been so stupid? For a moment, he glanced out of the car.
“Take off, and keep that white sedan in plain view. Drop away after three miles and let Simon take the lead. Then we’ll catch them. We don’t want them to see that we’re following them,” Martin said to the driver.
Keran wiped a hand over his face. He wanted to run out of the car and rush towards the vehicle where the man was taking Devyn. “We can get them.”
“We need to follow them to see the place where they’re holding Justin,” Martin said. “That was the plan, right?”
Shit. The plan was to place a device on one of Devyn’s belongings which would enable them to track her. Keran let her out of the house because he was convinced she was working with the kidnappers. He was a hundred percent sure that as soon as she got out of the house, she would meet the kidnappers. Now, it was obvious he was wrong. She got her ticket and she waited at the airport for the flight. The man who kidnapped Justin contacted her and forced her to go with him. She could have said no. She had every right to refuse. After all, this wasn’t any of her mess and after the way Keran treated her, he expected she would refuse to do as she was ordered.
But she went with that man.
The reason for it was fairly obvious. She cared about Justin. He hadn’t believed it when she said the words, but now the evidence pointed to the fact that she was willing to sacrifice her life for his son.
No woman ever humbled him in such a manner before.
“We’ve got to protect her,” Keran said as their car zoomed after the man who took Devyn. There was no need for him to tell Martin he was wrong. Martin was right; he’d been convinced Devyn was innocent but he agreed to play along with Keran. He was the one who planted a bug on her shirt when he hugged her, just before she left. Because of this, they could follow her.
“We’ll keep her safe, but if the man is taking her where Justin is, we need to know the location.”
Of course, they did. He couldn’t abandon his plan now, when they’d come this far. It would be stupid to show their hand before their goal was achieved. Keran was in a hell of a conundrum. He’d tried his best not to let it happen. Was even secretly glad he’d had an excuse to hate her, to believe that she was a criminal. A beautiful, sexy, lovable criminal. But he couldn’t prevent it—couldn’t hate her. Now, he was forced to admit to himself what his heart and his wolf had already known. Devyn was the woman he loved.
They followed the vehicle until it slipped inside one of the garages that lined the street. Simon drove past the gate and pulled the car to a stop, about five houses down. They all joined him and crept towards the house.
Martin gave instructions to his men to surround the building. “Let’s storm through the back and front entrances simultaneously.”
“Maybe it’s time to call the police,” one of the guys, Phil, said.
“Don’t be silly. It’s a pack thing. We’ll deal with this shit ourselves,” he said.
Keran wasn’t too sure. As an Alpha, it was his duty to protect his pack, but this here was risky business he was willing to take. Those men kidnapped Devyn in much the same way they did Justin. Still, he couldn’t afford to involve the police. For one thing, that might bring harm Devyn and Justin and two—it would compromise the secret they had safeguarded for so long. If he called the police, he would be breaking one of the laws of shape-shifters and that would turn the entire community all over the country against them. We need to solve this shit ourselves,” he said. “We need to figure out how many people are inside before we barge in.”
They stood behind a hedge as they listened to the sounds that came from the bug that, unbeknownst to Devyn, was attached to her person. It was a highly sophisticated device that was designed by one of Keran’s company. It wasn’t even out on the market as yet.
“What do you want from me?” Devyn demanded.
“Sit right here,” the guy said.
There were a few tense moments of silence which made Keran’s heart ached. What the hell were they doing to her?
Then she spoke again, “Who are you?”
At the sound of her voice, Keran breathed a sigh of relief.
“It doesn’t matter who I am. Now, tell me what you know about the guy who was caught by Underwood’s men?”
“What? I don’t know what you are talking about?”
Keran had asked Martin to plant this information, so Devyn would rush to her friends to give it to them, but she was actually kidnapped because of it. If Devyn didn’t tell them about the man who was with them, how did they know? It was a good question but unfortunately, he didn’t have the answer for it.
The man growled and the sound sent chills down Keran’s spine. The guy was a shape-shifter. He could seriously hurt Devyn. Keran had been so hell-bent on proving his point that he didn’t even pause to consider he was actually pushing her into harm’s way.
“Don’t lie to me. You know there’s a guy they’ve detained, and they’re trying to drill him for information. I need to know what he told them.”
“And I said I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Liar,” the man yelled. “Where the fuck is he?”
She knew that. Martin had told her a little. It was an easy matter for her to divulge that to save herself from her captive’s wrath but much to Keran’s chagrin, she refused to do so.
“I don’t know,” she repeated.
“We’ve heard enough,” Keran said to his men. He signaled for them to follow him. There was no way on God’s green Earth, he would let the man have his way with Devyn.
Slowly, they crept towards the gate. It was locked, but luckily, there were no cameras. Martin managed to unlock the gate using the hand-held device he’d brought for that purpose. He then managed to take out the camera that manned the front door with a silent gun. Quickly, he shot through the door and they stormed in.
The foyer was empty. They rushed inside the living room and the sight that met his eyes made Keran halt.
Devyn was already tied to a chair.
A man stood next to her. “Who the hell are you?”
“Step away from her,” Martin stated as he held his gun steadily. “Where’s the boy?”
The man’s gaze roamed over Keran. He laughed. “Very clever. I’m glad you came here. It’s time to have a one to one conversation.
Keran wanted to kill the bastard. He wanted to rip out his eyes and crack his skull. With great effort, he managed to control his temper. “Where the hell is my son?”
The man wiped a hand over his brow. “Let’s not hurry. Why don’t we all introduce ourselves? My name is Joe. I’m a member of the Wolverine. Bet you have heard of them.”
“I didn’t come here for polite chit-chat,” Keran sneered. “Where’s Justin?”
“What’s the rush, man? Calm down.” He ran a hand over Devyn’s hair and she flinched.
Keran marched towards her to loosen the ropes that bound her, but the man growled deep in his throat. He stopped midstride. If the man attacked, Devyn would get hurt. He couldn’t risk that.
“Let’s talk about a few important things before you make decisions that might hurt your child.”
Devyn glanced at Keran.
She shook her head.
He was surprised, but the same time, his heart burst in pride at her bravery.
She was in a position where she could get seriously hurt, but it was obvious she didn’t want to do anything because she didn’t want Justin to bear the brunt of their decisions.
“What do you want?”
“Now we’re talking. See, this is good. This is communicating.” Joe threw back his head and laughed. “That’s bound to serve us both. I’m not surprised you guys came this far. We’d kind of expected that you might do one maneuver or another, and that is why we didn’t have much security at this place. But rest assured, where your son is, you can’t barge in like this. We actually wanted a chance to deliver some home truths to you, and this is the perfect opportunity to d
o so.”
Martin shoved his gun in his belt. “What home truths?”
“First of all, this isn’t about money.”
“We know that,” he said.
“We want you.”
“And you have me. Keep me here and tie me up. Take me anywhere you want. I won’t resist, but in return you have release my son and Devyn.”
“What a noble sacrifice. Unfortunately, now is the not the time. We will let you know when we want you. In the meantime, you are not to go out of the town.”
“I wasn’t intending to do so.”
“So this girl…how much does she mean to you?”
Keran’s heart stopped. What if this guy also took her? “How much do you want for her?”
“Interesting question. Well, right now, I’m in a generous mood, so I have to say a hundred thousand dollars.”
“Done.”
Devyn’s eyes widened but Keran couldn’t say anything to her.
Joe grinned. “Call someone and tell them to come here with the money.”
Keran took out his phone. He made a call and snapped some instructions. He shoved the phone back in his pocket. “It’s on it’s way.”
“There are some great perks to being a rich guy.” Joe sneered. “Okay. So that problem is solved. Now, I want you to listen carefully. You will receive new instructions regarding this situation. When we tell you, you will hand yourself over to us. You will not make any more attempts to contact us, and you will release the man you have captured. Is that clear?”
“We don’t have the man. Never found him.”
“What?”
Keran felt glad to tell this guy something that took him by surprise. “We don’t have him. It was all a ruse, deigned to get you guys to come out of your cave.”
“Pretty clever.” Joe scratched his head. “You really don’t have him? We will know for sure, so you better tell the truth.”
“I am telling the truth. I wouldn’t tell a lie when my son’s life is at stake.”
