Without Regret
Page 24
Page 24
“He left behind four men. I had two of them patrol the north side and left the other two to patrol the woods surrounding our property. ”
“Shit,” Ephraim muttered, sounding truly unhappy.
“Madison’s scent,” he said, slamming his hands against the steering wheel andDid that thing just bend?
Isabella shifted slightly to the right to get a better look and sure enough both sides of the steering wheel were bent away from Ephraim.
“Damn it,” Ephraim sighed, grabbing both sides of the wheels and carefully pulling them back until the steering wheel was back to normal again.
“Great. Now I’m hallucinating again,” she mumbled, not at all happy with the way the drugs were attacking her system.
Ephraim shot her a quick questioning look over his shoulder. “What?”
Chris waved it off. “She thinks she’s been drugged. ”
“Oh,” Ephraim said, sounding thoughtful. “That would explain why she’s acting so calmly about everything,”
he said, turning his attention back to the road.
“Yeah, but it’s going to make our job a hell of a lot harder,” Chris said, sighing.
“You didn’t think this was going to be easy, did you?”
Ephraim asked, chuckling, but Isabella really didn’t see what was so funny about this situation. Then again she was the kidnap victim here so her perspective on everything was obviously going to be less than amused.
“Thanks for leaving extra guards at the house. I can’t believe I f**ked up on that tonight of all nights. ”
“Not a problem,” Chris said absently as he pointed ahead. “This should be it. We can cut through the woods and should be able to catch up with them in a mile or two. ”
Ephraim rolled the car to a stop and threw it into park.
“Make sure you keep an eye on your wife. For the first few minutes she’ll be completely defenseless so we’ll have to cover her until her instincts kick in. ”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to her,” Chris said in a bored tone as he climbed out of the car. She ignored their crazy conversation since she really just didn’t care and focused on what she was about to do.
Oh god……
This was it. Chris opened her door and gestured for her to get out. With a nervous nod she moved to comply, waiting for the perfect opportunity to put her plan into motion and when her chance of escape came she didn’t hesitate.
Chris merely shook his head in resignation as he caught her foot before it could make contact with his family jewels. “This is just getting sadder and sadder,”
he mumbled as he tightened his hold on her foot and yanked her out of the vehicle, catching her around the waist and easily throwing her over his shoulder even though she was doing her best to kick his ass.
“Are we all set?” Chris asked his “father” as if she wasn’t currently pounding on his back.
“Do you want the night vision goggles?” Ephraim asked from somewhere behind them.
“I don’t think we’ll need them tonight. The full moon should make is easy enough to see,” Chris said, shifting her weight on his shoulder as he headed for the woods and probably her shallow grave, she realized when she noted that neither man had bothered with a shovel.
She did her best to squash down the terror that was threatening to take over, but it was a losing battle. She couldn’t focus on anything other than having her body dumped in the woods and left as a midnight snack for grizzles.
Chapter 10
“Chris,” his father said, stressing his name as he shot him a questioning look over his shoulder.
“It’s fine,” he gritted out, already knowing that his father was concerned about the woman over his shoulder. Chris didn’t need Pyte abilities to know that the fear was practically pouring out of the woman.
“Are you sure about this? I can handle this if you want to take her back home and find a different way to prepare her,” Ephraim offered, punching a branch out of his way instead of ducking beneath it, breaking it with a loud crack that had his little mate tensing over his shoulder as it snapped off and sailed through the air crashing into another tree with a loud crash that had his little mate digging her nails into his back.
Chris chuckled at his father’s lack of control. “What did Madison do now?” he asked, knowing his best friend was without a doubt behind this.
“It’s what she didn’t do that’s the problem,” Ephraim ground out.
“Maybe you should go home and let her take care of that little problem and leave us to handle this,” Chris said, having absolutely no doubt that once his little mate’s skills kicked in that she would be able to hold her own as he took care of the situation that had them all hauling ass into the middle of nowhere.
He didn’t expect Izzy to suddenly become Bruce Lee and be able to kick everyone’s ass with a simple flick of her wrist. That would never happen. Any fighting skills she used would have to be learned and honed to perfection. Her natural abilities were brute strength, enhanced reflexes, and speed. Add those with her enchased senses and she could be turned into a very deadly predator. Tonight though all he cared about was breaking through the mental block that kept her abilities at bay.
After a long pause Ephraim sighed heavily. “Madison would kill me if I left. Besides if they’re determined to do this you’re going to need my help. She may be able to defend herself, but she’ll be no help to you if you have to put them down. ”
“I don’t think they’re going to be stupid enough to argue,” Chris said, hoping he was right.
“It’s a full moon and they’re desperate,” Ephraim pointed out as he kicked a small boulder out of his way instead of stepping over it, earning an eye roll from Chris.
“Is this what I have to look forward to for the next nine months?” he asked, hoping like hell it wasn’t. Having to deal with Madison’s hormonal bullshit was more than enough, especially if it was going to be doubled because she was having twins.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Ephraim snapped, breaking a large branch the size of Chris’ leg off a tree for no good reason that Chris could see.
“Your anger management issues,” Chris mused, earning a fiery red eyed glare from his father that he was glad his little mate couldn’t see.
“Asshole,” Ephraim muttered as he turned back around.
Chris chuckled. “Is that really any way to speak to your favorite child?”
“You’re not my favorite,” Ephraim argued, but they both knew that was bullshit. “I don’t have any favorites. ”
“Puhlease,” Chris said. “You f**king adore me. I’ll bet when you realized that Madison was pregnant again you sent up a silent prayer that they would be just like me. ”
“You really think so?” Ephraim asked, sounding amused and thankfully less pissed off. He was going to have to have a word with Madison about at least giving him a warning if she was sending Ephraim off frustrated. He just knew the man was going to take it all out on the pack they were tracking and leave him with nothing to do but sit on his ass and twiddle his thumbs.
“Without a doubt. We both know that’s what you were hoping for when Marc was born,” he drawled as he made his way up a steep incline as his little mate held onto the waist of his jeans tightly. Did she really think he’d drop her? That was actually kind of insulting.