“You mind if I go get something and come back?”
He shakes his head. “Take your time.”
I’m not so sure about that. Sam’s dad isn’t exactly frail, but things get dicey with Justin he might need back up. I’ll have to grab the phone and get straight back here. Probably all I’ll manage with the fuel I have left anyway.
“I’ll be back in half an hour.”
Sixty-One
Misty
Locked in a room in a cabin in the woods with a creep who wants to make me his girl, I don’t get any sleep. I mean, I lay down and pretend to do the whole sleep thing, just in case he’s watching. There isn’t a camera in here but there’s a peephole he clearly installed to keep an eye on the women he captures and brings here.
I doubt I’m the first, but I’ll be the last if it kills me. The asshole who brought me here isn’t going to get the chance to do this to another woman. I’ll find a way to murder him with my bare hands if I have to.
There’s a small window high up in the wall. Too tiny to get much more than a hand out of, if I tried to break it, but enough to let the light in so I’ll know when night falls. I’ve been here for what feels like hours so far, though it’s kind of hard to tell, and counting the seconds away is too mind-numbing to keep up. The first time I tried, I started to actually doze off. It would be dangerous to keep trying. Who the hell knows what he’d try to do to me if I actually passed out.
I begin to wonder if he’s gone, when I can’t hear anything in the other room. It’s been a while since I heard him moving around. I’ve got to wonder why he locked me in here if he wasn’t leaving. Seems like he’d stick around if he didn’t have some place else to be.
Like say the police station. The creep is so going down when I get the hell out of here. Hope he likes being treated like he’s planning to treat me, because cops tend not to do so well in the clink. The thought spurs my enthusiasm to escape. I need to take this asshole down.
I rattle the door handle, confirming it’s locked. Then I take a look around, trying to figure out the best way to splinter the lock to get the hell out of here.
The sudden creaking of the floorboards in the other room makes me stiffen. He’s still here. Damn it. I was sure he was gone. He must have been so quiet this whole time, just sitting in the other room, probably fantasizing about all the stuff he wants to do to me. I swallow before I can throw up in my mouth.
Okay, no breaking the door down then. What next?
“Hey,” I call out, moving around a little. “Do I get to use the bathroom or am I supposed to just soil myself in this bed?”
I wait for an answer, hear more creaking and then the door opens. Trip looks in on me, his expression as cold as ice. He tosses a metal bucket at my feet. “I’ll be out for a bit, but don’t think it’s an opportunity to escape. This place is booby-trapped. Try to get out and your head will be blown off, or your face burnt beyond recognition, or worse. We wouldn’t want that.”
I can’t tell if he’s lying. I haven’t spent enough time around him to know what his tells are. Could be his poker face is as good as mine. “This isn’t the way gators treat their mates.”
He smiles. “Well, we’re not mates yet, sweetheart. Unless you’re ready to change that?”
He gazes at my chest and I want to heave. I can’t think of anything less appetizing than submitting to this creep’s will. I keep that reaction to myself. I don’t think his ego could handle it, and I’m kind of at his mercy right now. I get the feeling he isn’t the type to just shrug off rejection and walk away.
“We barely know each other,” I tell him, keeping my tone non-committal.
He snorts, and hides his gator eyes behind a pair of aviators.
I pull on a weak smile, in an attempt to make him think I might be warming to him. Can’t go full Stockholm straight away. He’s not dumb enough to buy that. He’s full of himself though, and a guy who thinks he’s God’s Gift is a guy who can be played. Sure, it seems like I hated him at first, but he’s too hot to stay mad at forever, right?
Ugh. I pity the girl who’s actually meant for this asshole. He believes that girl is me. He’s already made that perfectly clear.
He wants me to be his mate, and that’s not something that can be taken by force. Any gator can make a claim on their chosen mate. It doesn’t mean that claim will be accepted and reciprocated.
He knows all of that. He expects to get me to fall for him. How deluded is he?
I don’t know the answer to that question, but it makes me shaky to even think about it. Deluded men are not nice guys. They might think they are. Usually they do, but it’s always the furthest thing from the truth.
“We’ll know each other inside and out soon enough, Misty.” He closes the door and locks it.
“Wait,” I call out. “Aren’t you leaving me any food?”
He chuckles on the other side of the door. “You could stand to lose a little weight, sweetheart.”
I clamp down on the string of curse words his disgusting comment wants me to rage with. It’s not going to help me to anger him. He’s already made it clear what he wants. He’s obsessed. It won’t please him that I don’t want to be his mate so I need to be a little ambivalent about that right now. I need to do whatever I can to not antagonize the prick-mother-fucking-asshole. For now, I promise myself. Later is a different story.
I look around the room. It’s pretty small. A twin bed that’s kind of lumpy and a desk and chair with no writing utensils or books or anything. I discover a bottle of water, room temperature by the bed, almost hidden under it. I check and it’s sealed. No nasty surprises. I can at least keep hydrated while I wait for the creep to get back.
Sixty-Two
Sam
The Sheriff’s deputy is different today. I realize he’s a gator and wonder how much more helpful he’ll be than the last guy. I don’t think I’m willing to settle for anything less than a hundred times more helpful, but that’s the rage talking. I smile tightly as he looks up.
“Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I think you can,” I tell him. “Where’s Trip?”
“The Sheriff’s on back shift. He’ll be here in a few hours. Is it something I can help with?”
A few hours? I bite back a growl. “Any idea where he is right now?”
He raises an eyebrow. “At home, I’d guess. What’s this about?”
“Give me the address.”
“Um, what?”
“You heard me.”
He clears his throat. “Look, I don’t know what he did, but I can’t give out personal details…”
I curse under my breath, trying to calm down before I screw up this whole situation. Misty needs me. I have to calm down. Assaulting this guy out of frustration won’t do anyone any good.
“What did he do?” The guy asks quietly, his gaze on mine.
Instinct rears and I want to walk away. Telling him will solve nothing. Then I realize who he is, exactly.
“The fucker took my mate,” I tell him, knowing this will hit him hard. He has his own mate, and she’s pregnant. He’ll understand.
“Fuck,” he curses, taking a notepad out and scrawling something on it. He hesitates before he hands it over. “He’s a hybrid, and he just became ready to take a mate. Said it happened the instant he ran into that blonde reporter. I’m guessing that’s your mate?”
I nod, taking the slip of paper and glancing at it. “This is where he lives?”
He shakes his head. “His grandmother left him a cabin in the woods when she died. It’s close to the lake. I think it’s where he would take her.”
My rage fully flares again, just thinking about Misty being trapped out in the middle of nowhere with a creep who wants to make her his mate. I’m going to kill him. The instant I see him. He’s a smear of blood on the wall.
“Thanks,” I tell the deputy as I leave.
I’ve never driven as if my life depended on it, but now that it’s Misty’s life, I don�
��t waste a second.
Sixty-Three
Tyler
The motel room is as we left it, broken door and all. Seems a little strange, but it’s not completely shocking. The owners are out of town. The kid they left in charge is probably hoping she can get away with ignoring the mess. Maybe charging extra to Misty when she sees her, to get the door fixed before her parents get back.
I walk inside and go straight for Justin’s phone. The batteries almost gone, so I just take down the number into my own phone. I do some basic searches and come up with a name. Trip Carson.
The fucking sheriff. I should have known. I leave, taking Justin’s van when I realize I’m out of gas.
I get back to Sam’s house and find two strange men inside, and a naked, confused Justin being spoken to by one of the men. The younger one. He’s the spitting image of his father.
I stare at Misty’s dad and anger swells within me so potent I have to clamp it down before I speak.
“Is he okay now?” I ask, directing the question at Jeremiah.
He grimaces slightly. “He’s out of it. Doesn’t understand what happened. Can’t say I do either, hence keeping the girls in the panic room for now.”
“I can shed a little light, but right now I need Justin to come with me.”
Sam must have had some clue where to go to find Misty, but I don’t need a hint to find her. I can track the sheriff’s phone.
I take a second glance at Justin, who looks like he’s trying to decide if it’s better or worse to cover his exposed crotch in front of the strangers. “Can we borrow some of Sam’s clothes?”
Jeremiah laughs and heads for the stairs. “Of course. I’ll be right back.”
Justin glances over at me, his eyes pleading. Misty’s father and, I guess, her brother, seem like assholes. I step toward them.
“Everything okay here?” I ask, ready to walk down the stairs.
The strangers back away from Justin. The younger one sneering at me mildly before turning the expression back on Justin.
“Keep your rookie swamp-rat under control,” he tells me. “I don’t want to have to come back to this cesspool of a town.”
“You can leave now,” I tell him. “No-one’s asking you to stay.”
When what I really want to do is smash his smirking face against the wall and tell him to stay the fuck away from me and mine. The sheriff might have caused this, but this guy seems like the type to encourage that type of messed up behavior rather than condemn it.
“Careful,” he tells me. “You never know what I might ask your boyfriend to do.”
I smile wryly. His obvious ploy to enrage me falls flat. Mostly because he’s an idiot.
“He’s my brother, but you wouldn’t know anything about family. Go home and give your lame threats to someone who might actually give a shit. I’m sure it’s what you were planning to do anyway.”
He glares at me, nostrils flaring. “I came here as a favor to Jeremiah. I owe you nothing. Get out of my face before I make you regret it.”
“Calm down, Mark,” his father finally speaks, in a bored tone. “It’s time to leave.”
I step out of his way as he comes up the stairs, relief filling me when he’s gone. His son throws another scowl my way but doesn’t act on it. I blow out a breath once Jeremiah appears with the clothes. Justin dresses quickly, holding the jeans up when they almost fall down.
“Got a belt?” he asks.
I give him mine. My pants have a little slack in them but they won’t pool around my ankles if I take off the belt. “We need to get moving.”
“We do?” he asks, his voice a little cracked and weary.
I nod, as Jeremiah goes down the stairs and opens the panic room door. I shuffle him out of the house before Marina can try and muscle in on us chasing down Misty.
We get to the van, and she suddenly appears at my side, making me double-take.
“What the…”
She’s wearing a sweater Misty’s mom must have given her, over the thin nightdress now, and she has a devious look on her face.
“Just where do you think you’re going?” she asks, raising an eyebrow at us.
“We have things to do,” I tell her, as if I could make my brush off any less obvious.
“Uh huh. Well now your things include giving me a lift home, because I can’t go to work looking like this…”
At the mention of the word work, Justin seems to suddenly wake up. Shit. I knew we were forgetting something. “What time is it?” he asks, sounding panicked.
Shit. “It’s about an hour until Misty’s supposed to be on TV.”
“We need to go get her,” he says, rushing to open the driver’s door of his van.
“You need to take me home,” Marina insists, getting in the passenger side.
“Damn,” I curse, following Marina into the van.
“What crawled up your ass?” she asks, frowning at me.
“Misty’s been kidnapped,” I tell them, getting my phone out.
“No way,” Marina says. “How the hell do you know that?”
“What?” Justin asks, pausing in starting the engine.
“The sheriff took her. Sam should already be where they are, but I’ll feel better once I see her myself.” I shake my phone at them. “Drive, please. I’ll direct you. I’m tracking his phone.”
“Sam’s phone?” Justin sounds confused as he starts the car.
“Trip’s,” I say. “He’s the one who called you before you shifted. He’s the one who’s been making shifters kill people.”
“Shit,” Justin murmurs. “What the hell does he want with Misty?”
I don’t think I want to know the answer to that. Even Marina manages to keep her mouth shut about it, though it’s not without suffering a warning glare from me. Whatever Trip wants from her, he’s not going to get it.
Sixty-Four
Misty
“I’m supposed to be live soon,” I tell my captor as he ties me to a living room chair. He left for maybe twenty minutes before coming back and dragging me out of the bedroom without an explanation.
“Live?” He snorts. “Oh yeah, your little show. I wouldn’t worry about that anymore. You’ll have other things on your mind soon enough.”
Yeah, like how deep and hard I can bite you when you try to touch me, asshole.
“If I’m going to be your mate, are you going to tell me why you killed those women?”
He smirks as he sits down opposite me now that he’s satisfied that his ropes are tied tightly enough. I wince a little when I try to move my wrists.
“What women? Oh, you mean those bitches from your high school? The ones Sam slept with instead of you? Yeah, he has way more motive than I do for taking them out.”
“But he didn’t,” I tell him, trying to keep the ice from my tone. “Sam wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“His gator would,” Trip says, grinning.
“Why did you do it?” I ask, trying to understand. Right now the pieces are laid out but the puzzle doesn’t make any sense. I can’t fit it together. I’m missing something.
“Why did I do what?”
Ugh. He’s infuriating. “You command gators,” I try, wondering if looking at this from a different angle will help.
“I do,” he says, sounding pretty damn pleased with himself.
“I don’t believe you were trying to set Sam up.”
He raises an eyebrow at me. “Why else would I be doing any of this?”
Why else, indeed? He wasn’t going to get anywhere setting Sam up. The murders were animal attacks. There was no way to set up a human to take the blame for them. Not really.
“If you wanted me to yourself I don’t understand why you’d kill women Sam had a connection with.”
“Those same women hurt you, Misty. I was protecting my mate.”
I frown at him. He’s trying to make this about me, but it feels like he’s lying.
“I don’t even remember them.”
; “You remember Peyton,” he tells me, with a smirk. “Because she told you Sam slept with her the night he tried to tell you he loved you.”
I fight to keep my expression neutral. It’s like taking a slap to the face and trying not to wince. I was hurt by Peyton’s spiteful words that morning, but when I really thought about it later I didn’t believe her. I was just twisted up over what I’d thought was a fucked up move by a guy I’d trusted. How the hell this creep knows about that, I’m not sure I want to know.
“Peyton means less than nothing to me.”
“She meant less than nothing to Sam, too. Still, you should have seen the mess his gator made of her. Barely recognizable in the end.”
A twinge of sympathy bleeds from me for Peyton as Trip’s superior expression becomes unbearable.
I can’t stomach sitting here with this psychopath while I try to get information from him that probably won’t even help anything. I’ll be too dead to use it.
“Don’t you want me to be ready to mate to you?” I ask, my tone a little clipped.
A flicker of interest lights his eyes. “Of course I do. It’s all I’ve ever really wanted since the moment I laid eyes on you.”
“Then tell me why you did all this, and don’t tell me it has anything to do with me. You didn’t know who I was until you met me the night you ditched me at the lake.”
“Clever girl,” he murmurs, gazing me over.
I keep my legs firmly clamped together, afraid of his arousal making an appearance. It was a mistake to wear a dress to go to Sam’s place last night. I didn’t realize I was going to be kidnapped, but all the same…
“What was that, anyway? A test? Finding out if I could survive being left in gator territory?”
He smiles. “Yes, it was a test. You passed. That’s when my eyes lit up. I knew you were my mate when you survived. You’re not what I expected, exactly. But I don’t really give a shit what the woman who bears my children looks like. I just need her to give birth to my kids. I can find physical pleasure with more attractive partners.”
Flashing Her Gators Page 18
