She knew that she couldn’t do it.
“It’s not my home,” Indie said because that was the last thing that came to mind when she thought of that house.
“Then, what was it?” Ethan asked as she watched the large shifter walk into the bathroom, frowning as he shoved the rest of the Butterfinger candy bar that she’d been saving for later in his mouth as he glanced around the bathroom.
“A prison,” Indie said absently, as she watched him pick up the black bag and hold it up to his ear only to toss it aside with a sigh.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ethan asked as he shoved the shower curtain aside and grabbed a towel off the rack above her head.
“Trying to figure out what that beeping is. It’s been driving me out of my fucking mind all day,” Jacob said, frowning as he slowly looked around the bathroom only to sigh with relief when his gaze landed on her.
Chapter 20
Westdrom, Maine
“Well, this is interesting,” Kale said as he watched the large Sentinel take in the smoldering mess that had drawn his attention.
“What the hell do you want, Quinn?” Lukas asked as he glanced around them, taking in the empty dirt driveway, the charred remains of cellar doors, and the watery soot-covered mess the fire department left behind.
“Wondering what you’re doing out of your territory,” Kale said as he watched the Sentinel that had been handpicked by the Council to watch over Rerum, or rather watch over one person in particular.
“This is my territory,” Lukas said, shifting his attention to the small path to the right that cut through overgrown briars tangled with fallen branches and about fifty years’ worth of overgrowth.
“Who’s babysitting the bait?” Kale asked, still wondering why the Council had allowed Jill to leave the compound alive.
“Don’t fucking care,” Lukas said, heading towards the trail.
“Fair enough,” Kale said, only to follow that up with, “They’re all dead,” stopping the Sentinel in his tracks.
“How many?” Lukas asked, glancing back at him.
“Six shifters,” Kale said as he watched the Sentinel that had done a hell of a job keeping this secret from the Council. While most Sentinels lost their twins in the womb, the ones who survived were usually brought into their world and protected for the rest of their lives, which made him wonder why this Sentinel had abandoned his sister.
“She’s not here,” Kale said, watching as the large Sentinel glanced back at the charred house that had once belonged to his maternal grandmother.
“You’re sure?” Nathan Lukas asked, glancing back at him.
“Positive.”
“Any idea why they were at my house?”
“Not yet,” Kale said, but he would.
He’d known when Caine asked him for this favor that there was more to it, but it didn’t matter, not when the Pyte was finally giving him a chance to get his hands on the little prick that had made his life a living hell.
*-*-*-*
“We’re going to starve,” Samantha announced with a forlorn sigh, as she closed the last cupboard while Trace finished the rest of the blood that she’d heated for him with a grimace.
“We’re not going to starve, wife,” he said, placing his cup down in the metal basin.
“We really are,” she said, slowly exhaling as she stood there, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, looking lost in thought as he had to once again wonder how she’d survived this long without him.
“Rabbit or deer?” he asked, watching as her eyebrows drew up in confusion.
“Rabbit or deer?”
Nodding, he asked, “Which one do you want?”
“For what?” Samantha asked, frowning up at him.
“To eat, wife,” he said, wondering why she looked confused.
“You…you want me to eat Bambi and Thumper?” she asked, blinking up at him.
Not sure what she was talking about, Trace found himself glancing around the room that was obviously used to make food and found himself wondering how he was supposed to cook the meat without a fireplace. That led him to wonder how his father heated the house in the winter. Sighing, Trace glanced around the room looking for an ax only to find his wife rubbing her hands roughly down her face with a, “We need to figure out where we stand.”
“Stand?” he asked, only to frown when she grabbed his hand and gave it a tug that had him following her back the way they came.
Instead of answering him, Samantha asked, “Do you think you could handle being around people without losing control?”
“Most likely not,” Trace said as his attention was drawn to the small hand wrapped around his.
As his wife dragged him through the house, he found himself running his thumb over the back of her hand, enjoying the feel of her small hand in his, and nearly groaned when she tightened her hold around his hand as she dragged him outside with a mumbled, “That’s what I thought.”
“Why are you dragging me?” he asked as she led him down the stairs.
“To make sure that you don’t kill Bambi,” she said when they reached her car.
She released his hand, opened the back and-
Made him grunt when she shoved her satchel in his arms. With a sigh, she grabbed the sack that his father left for him and shoved that in his arms as well, closed the door, grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back towards the house where she grabbed the bags from him and placed them on the floor so that she could search through them.
“There has to be something that we can use,” Samantha mumbled to herself as she opened the sack, grabbed a small stack of light green parchment, a small thin black square, and what looked like another phone with a black string wrapped around it, and slapped them into his hand before shifting her attention to her own satchel, pulled out some clothes and-
Forced him to slap his hand against the wall when his legs threatened to give out as he watched her shimmy out of her trousers before he could look away. Slowly exhaling, Trace forced his attention away from his wife and her smooth, lightly tanned legs that he wanted to run his hands over and did what he’d always done when he needed to distract himself. He focused on the only thing that mattered.
Revenge.
It was the one thing that helped him survive being trapped in that hole. Whenever the hunger and the pain from not being able to breathe became too much and he needed to escape his tomb, he thought of all the things that he was going to do once he escaped. He replayed everything that he’d planned on doing to the bitch once he got his hands on her, how he’d make her pay, make her get down on her hands and knees and beg him for mercy as he-
“Stupid boobs,” his wife mumbled with a soft sigh, drawing his attention to find her dropping her blouse on the floor as she placed her arm across her bare breasts and searched through her satchel while he stood there, biting back a groan.
“Your father said that we couldn’t leave so we’re gonna have to order food,” she explained as she grabbed the cloth trimmed with lace that he hadn’t been able to figure out and pulled it over her head so that she could slide her arms through it, giving him a view of the soft curve of one large breast and-
“Maybe you could stay here while I run out and pick something up?” she said, worrying her bottom lip as she glanced over her shoulder as she finished covering her breasts and reached for a new blouse.
When his answer was a glare, her shoulders dropped with a mumbled, “That’s what I thought,” as she pulled her blouse on as she glanced around the room.
“What are you looking for?” Trace asked, frowning as he followed her gaze.
“You didn’t happen to see a computer or an iPad, did you?” she asked, sending him a hopeful look only to mumble, “Stupid question.”
Nodding to herself, Samantha sighed heavily as she grabbed the phone out of his hand, unwrapped the black string from around it and slid the shiny end into a small slot in the wall. Frowning, Trace leaned over and-
“You r
eally don’t want to do that,” Samantha said, grabbing his hand to stop him when he moved to explore the other slot.
At his questioning look, she gestured weakly towards the wall. “Electricity. It’s what powers all of our devices, turns on lights, and does a lot of other stuff that I’m too tired to explain right now. I’m not sure if it can kill you, but it’s going to really hurt.”
Nodding, he dropped his hand away and watched his wife as she headed towards the closed door across the room and-
“Oh, thank god,” she said, sighing in relief as she hurried into the dark room only to rush back out seconds later, holding a thin square item in her hand.
“What year were you born again?” she absently asked as she headed towards the chaise lounge only to switch directions so that she could pluck the small square out of his hand and head back to the lounge chair where she sat down with her legs crossed and mumbled, “Credit card,” as though that explained everything.
“1649,” he said, watching as she taped her fingertip against the surface.
“The expiration date is next year, so as long as your father activated this card before he put it in the bag, we should be all set. We could ask him, but he said that it wasn’t safe to call again,” Samantha explained as he sat down next to her and watched in utter fascination as an assortment of bright colors suddenly appeared on the surface.
“It’s an iPad,” she explained as she continued to tap the surface, swiping to the left, using her finger to press letters only to type in the numbers off the thing she’d called a credit card a moment later.
“What are you doing?”
“First, I’m going to order food because I’m starving. Then I’m going to order some snacks and drinks from 7-Eleven to get us through the night since the grocery store won’t be able to deliver until tomorrow,” she said, only to worry her bottom lip as she glanced at him, sighed, and shook her head before adding, “It might be a good idea to do an Amazon.com order.”
As he sat there, watching her tap away, Trace realized just how different this world was from the one he knew.
Chapter 21
Devil Hills, Idaho
“What are you going to do with her?” Jacob asked as he took his time looking through the assortment of junk food that Ethan bought for Indie the other day with the hopes of finding out how she processed sugar, something that should have clued him into what kind of impure he was dealing with since he was pretty that’s what she was now. It would explain why the bitch had gone through so much to hide her from him and why she’d put a twenty-million-dollar reward on her.
“Cut my losses,” Ethan said as he double-checked to make sure that his gun was loaded before he placed it in his bag.
“They’ll have her by the end of the night,” Jacob said, glancing back at the closed bathroom door where he’d left the small woman that he’d planned on using to bring the bitch to her knees.
“Probably,” Ethan said, sighing heavily as he glanced down at his watch, noting that he still had another half-hour before the sun finished setting and he could leave.
“She’s worth a lot of money,” Jacob said, sending him a questioning look.
“Have at it,” Ethan said, knowing when to cut his losses.
He’d waited a long time to see his son and he wasn’t about to waste another minute. He should have killed her when he found her, but he’d been hoping to use her to draw out the bitch that had gone into hiding two centuries ago. His revenge was going to have to wait until after he saw his son and then…
There was nothing on this earth that was going to stop him from killing her. Not now that he knew that his son was alive. He’d made the mistake of letting her go before, hoping that she would lead him to his son only to have her disappear. He’d spent the last two hundred years searching for her, destroying her precious Pack, destroying her properties, and fucking with the Pack’s businesses every fucking chance he got and making sure that there was nowhere for her to turn. When he’d found out about the little girl that she’d risked everything to protect, he’d torn this world apart to get to her and now that he had her…
He had no choice but to let her go.
The smart thing to do would be to kill her and make sure that whatever plans the bitch had for her were ruined, but he couldn’t do it. When he’d realized that they’d inserted a tracking device into her back, he’d reached for his knife, intent on killing her and making sure that the bitch never got her hands on her, but one look into her innocent baby blue eyes and he’d resigned himself to letting her go.
“They’ll probably punish her,” Jacob said, helping himself to the package of Twinkies that he saw Indie eying earlier.
“They probably will,” he absently agreed as he glanced around the hotel room, looking for his knife.
“They might kill her,” Jacob said, watching him with a curious look in his eye as Ethan shifted his attention back to his bag and-
Found himself frowning when he heard what sounded like a muffled cry seconds before the most intoxicating aroma that he’d encountered reached him and when it did-
“What the hell is she doing?” Jacob asked as Ethan shoved him out of his way and headed towards the bathroom door.
He didn’t stop to knock, he grabbed the doorknob and twisted it, breaking the lock and shoved the door open to find Indie sitting on the bathroom floor, crying as the knife slipped from her trembling hand and fell to the floor.
“I don’t want to go back there,” Indie said, sending him a pleading look that he wanted to ignore only…he couldn’t. Not when he wondered if his son had that same look on his face when he’d begged the bitch for his life.
*-*-*-*
“It’s in too deep,” Jacob said as Indie laid there, trying not to cry as her grip tightened around the comforter, afraid that if she opened her mouth that she’d beg him to stop.
“It has to come out,” the man that she’d expected to leave her behind said as she felt his cool fingertips push the shifter’s hand aside so that he could inspect the incision that she’d started on her shoulder.
“I can’t get it out without hurting her,” Jacob said, sounding frustrated.
“P-please just get it out,” Indie said, squeezing her eyes shut as she tried to prepare herself for the next slice of the sharp blade only it never came.
“New plan,” Ethan said as she felt a towel pressed against her back. “I have a device in my bag that can block the signal to buy us a little more time, but we’re going to need to get that out of there.”
“Any ideas?” Jacob asked as Indie opened her eyes and found herself looking into a pair of dark blue eyes as they slowly turned silver.
“One or two,” Ethan said, nodding absently as he reached for his cellphone.
*-*-*-*
Western Massachusetts
“Dr. Phillips to curtain seven for the slight cough,” came the PA announcement that crushed a little more of his soul.
“Christ,” Noah said as he rubbed the back of his neck, wondering how much more of this he could take.
Every day was the same, coughs, sprains, bruises, hangovers, drug seekers, and his personal favorite from the retirement communities that made up this dull town, STD exams. He honestly wasn’t sure if he could handle doing one more pelvic exam on a little old lady while she pulled out pictures of her great-grandchildren and offered to make him a casserole.
He should have left when he had the chance, Noah told himself for the hundredth time that day as he pushed away from the small desk in the back of the emergency room that was little more than a glorified walk-in clinic and resigned himself to listening to some asshole bitching about a cough that wouldn’t go away even as they whined about the hospital’s no smoking policy. Noah grabbed his stethoscope and-
“Time to go,” came the voice that he’d almost convinced himself wasn’t real as Noah looked up at the large man with the Celtic tribal tattoo wrapped around his neck and jaw.
As Noah watched Caine’s
grey eyes turn red, he stood there, thinking about all the things that he should be doing, yelling for help, turning around and running, anything to get away from the man that had torn his world apart and made him realize that those things that went bump in the night were real. Instead of doing what any other sane adult would do, he simply tossed his stethoscope aside and nodded.
“Let’s go.”
*-*-*-*
Waterway, Nebraska
“She doesn’t look so good,” Jacob noted as Ethan found his gaze once again searching her out in the rear-view mirror.
“She’s fine,” he bit out as he watched Indie, who’d somehow managed to look paler than before, curled up more tightly into herself.
“She doesn’t look fine,” the large shifter said as he searched through the large bag of junk food that Ethan had bought earlier with the hopes of enticing Indie to eat something, but the only thing that she’d managed was a politely murmured, “Thank you,” before passing out.
That had been four hours ago, and since then, nothing. The only thing that she’d been able to manage was to curl up into a ball in the backseat of the SUV that he’d been forced to steal since the asshole next to him had totaled his car. Well, that and occasionally whimper, which had him tightening his hold around the steering wheel, wishing that he could kill something.
She was fine, Ethan told himself again even as he couldn’t help but wonder why he cared. She was just a means to an end, albeit, one that he’d taken pity on, but that didn’t change the fact that he planned on discarding her as soon as he got what he wanted. The only thing that mattered to him was getting to his son and every moment that he worried about her was a moment wasted.
She. Was. Fine.
“Maybe we should take her to the hospital?” Jacob said, throwing another worried glance at the small woman who appeared to have passed out again.
“She’s fine,” Ethan bit out evenly, wondering when he was going to start believing it.
“If you say so…” the shifter said, letting his words trail off with a shrug.
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