The Lost Wolf's Destiny (The Pack)
Page 13
“Here are her phones—she might need them. Now go,” Kane urged Lucas, glancing over his shoulder. “Get the hell out of here.”
“What about you?” Lucas asked. “Your cover is probably blown.”
“I can take care of myself,” Kane growled. “Now go.”
Lucas shook his head, then tore around to the driver’s side and climbed in. The engine started immediately.
They roared off into the night, still traveling without headlights until he hit the road. Lucas’s last glimpse of Kane was in his rearview mirror.
“Thank you,” Blythe breathed. “Thank you for giving me my baby back.”
He took her hand, holding it tightly, unable to let it go. “I’m glad you’re both okay.” Understatement of the year. His relief at having her safe defied explanation.
For a few minutes, they clung together in silence.
“My poor Hailey,” Blythe finally said. “I don’t know what they did to her. We need to get her to a doctor.”
“I agree, but not here.” Lucas glanced at the motionless child. “I’d like to put as much distance between us and Jacob as humanly possible.”
Frowning, she finally agreed.
“I wonder what Jacob’s going to do once he finds out we’re gone,” Blythe said.
“That’s why we need to get out of the state. He’ll probably contact the local law enforcement.”
“Why? What can he possibly say to the police?” Blythe asked, sounding weak. “All you did was rescue me and Hailey. I’ll testify to that.”
He shot her a grim look as he drove. “Remember, he’s got everyone around here in his pocket. Breaking and entering, plus he’ll counter with what I told you before—he’ll claim you were abusing your little girl or some such nonsense.”
“I don’t care,” Blythe said, briefly closing her eyes as she continually smoothed her daughter’s long hair away from her small forehead. “When all of this is over, I promise I will find that Dr. Silva and make her pay.”
“And Jacob,” Lucas added, sounding equally fierce. “I’m going to make sure he never does something like this again.”
She nodded, her attention still focused on Hailey.
“What if she doesn’t wake up?’
“She will.” He made himself sound certain, though he was anything but. “We’re going to be driving like a bat out of hell. I’ve got a place in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Colorado. We’ll head there. If she’s not stirring by the time we reach the Colorado border, we’ll find a doctor. If we do, be prepared to do a lot of explaining.”
Again Blythe nodded. “A Pack doctor would be best. As long as they’re not affiliated with the Protectors.”
Curious, he glanced her way. “Care to explain?”
A look of extreme weariness crossed her face. “Not right now, Lucas. Maybe later.”
Though he nodded, he couldn’t help but wonder what secret she was hiding. One that she couldn’t share with the man who’d just risked his life to save her and her daughter? To cover his irritation, he changed the subject. “We have to get you both out of town before they put out an APB on us.”
“An APB?” she said, her voice rising. Little Hailey moved at the sound, the first movement he’d seen at all since they’d left. Even though she’d barely twitched, it gave him hope.
“She’s going to be all right,” he said, letting his relief show. “It’s just a matter of time until she’s fully conscious.”
Though Blythe looked less certain, she nodded.
Lucas headed west, out of Texas and into New Mexico. The roads were mostly two-lane and there was less traffic here. The more he thought about it, the less likely Jacob would be to put out an APB. He doubted Jacob would want to call too much attention to himself. Therefore, he’d mount a search using his own people rather than risking becoming a story on the evening news.
At least for now. Once he’d exhausted all his resources without finding Blythe and Hailey, that might change. Jacob had no idea to what lengths his son had gone in order to make sure he was never found. And Lucas knew Jacob had searched fifteen years ago. After a few weeks, he’d seen his picture plastered all over the television. Apparently, when a prominent preacher—even one as radical as Jacob Gideon—had a son come up missing, it was newsworthy.
Lucas had found it amusing as he knew Jacob had hated the attention. He liked to control when and how the spotlight shone on him.
Therefore, as long as they got away fast, Lucas figured he and Blythe and little Hailey were safe. By the time Jacob realized he’d need more help than the local police, Lucas would have Blythe and Hailey safely ensconced in his remote cabin two states away. Out of reach.
And even if, by some wild and completely unlikely chance, Jacob managed to track them to Colorado, he’d never find the cabin. Five years ago Lucas had purchased the place with cash, putting it under the name of his tile company in Seattle, founded under his new name Lucas Kenyon. Anyone doing a property search for Luke Gideon wouldn’t find a match.
Even better, situated high on a bluff, the house had a panoramic view of both the winding road up the mountain, and the long and narrow driveway leading to the property.
When he’d first bought the place, only privacy and security mattered. Now Blythe and her small daughter had the same need.
His conscience reminded him of Kane. The other Shifter had gone out of his way to help two people who were essentially strangers to him. He could only imagine what would happen to Kane if Jacob learned what he’d done. Even though he’d fired the two guards, Kane wouldn’t be safe. Jacob would search for the two missing men in case they’d been the ones who disabled the security feed and helped Blythe and Hailey escape.
As soon as Jacob found Blythe and Hailey gone, he’d be beside himself with rage. Not for the first time, Lucas wondered if he was the only person who realized Jacob was insane.
Still holding Hailey in her arms, Blythe dozed. Lucas kept glancing at her as he drove. Cradling her little girl in her arms, she looked so fragile and so lost. Powerful emotion filled him and he knew he’d protect them both with his life if need be.
Barely an hour had passed when her cell phone rang, jerking her awake. Bleary-eyed, she squinted at it before turning to stare at Lucas with a horrified expression.
“It’s Jacob,” she said, her voice quivering.
“He has the number because you called him,” he told her, keeping his tone calm. “Go ahead and answer. Let’s see what the bastard has to say. He can’t hurt you now.”
Inhaling sharply, she swallowed and said hello, her expression like stone. After a moment, she covered the phone with her hand. “He wants to talk to you. He knows it was you, though he calls you Luke instead of Lucas.”
“Good. I’m glad to have the chance to talk to the monster who attacked another defenseless child,” he said, holding out his hand for the phone, keeping the other on the steering wheel.
Hand trembling, she passed it to him.
“What do you want, Jacob?”
“Now, is that any way for a son to talk to his father?” Jacob drawled, his carefully modulated tone sending a shudder down Lucas’s spine. “Even though you broke into my home and stole from me, I’m offended that you didn’t stay to visit. It’s been so long since I’ve seen you. I didn’t even know you were alive.”
A jumble of emotions—rage, guilt, sorrow, hatred—so consumed him that for a moment he couldn’t speak. As he took a deep breath, determined to keep the one thing his father would never take from him again—control—he realized if he gripped the cell phone any tighter he’d surely crack it.
Running through his mind were a hundred—no, a thousand—ways to respond to the other man’s mocking comment.
He said the first one that came to mind. “I didn’t come to visit you. You know that. Despite your elaborate precautions, you weren’t able to keep me out—or keep Blythe and Hailey in. I took them away, saved them, and I want nothing to do with you. Ever.”
Lucas believed it was the former. Jacob also didn’t acknowledge any reference to Blythe or to Hailey.
“Cut to the chase,” Lucas said, unwilling to play even the smallest game with this man, this murderer. “Why are you calling?’
“You know why. I want the child. Bring her back. I wasn’t able to help you, but surely I can help her. And her mother. They still have a chance to be free of their demons—unlike you. I must do what I’ve been called to do.”
“Unbelievable.” Keeping his icy control, Lucas pressed on the accelerator, watching as the speedometer crept up past eighty. “You tortured me and tried to kill me.” He clenched his teeth to keep from mentioning Lilly. He refused to soil her memory by discussing her with this monster. “Why would you even think I’d let you do the same thing to poor Hailey?”
“Because I know what you are.” Triumph rang in the older man’s voice. “And I call you out, in the name of heaven. You are the spawn of demons.”
“So what does that make you?” Lucas couldn’t resist taunting his enemy. “I saved two innocents from your hellish grip. You won’t be torturing Hailey, or her mother. They’re with me, free. Safe. And you’ll never find us. So leave us alone.”
“Not until you submit to a higher authority.” Slipping into what Lucas had always thought of as his preacher voice, Jacob’s tone rang with command.
“A higher authority?” Lucas scoffed. “Since you and I both know what you do has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with God or heaven or anything even remotely good, I’m guessing you mean you? You’ve always made your own rules.” He took a deep breath. “Well, I’ve got news for you, Jacob. You are not a higher authority and I’ll send you straight to hell.” He ended the call.
Seething, he glanced over at Blythe and tossed her the phone. “Block his number, please,” he said.
She nodded, still eyeing him warily.
“What is it?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she said automatically, then shook her head. “Your voice... It’s just that for a moment, I got a sense that you’re hiding something from me.”
He felt the impact of her words like a serrated knife straight to the heart. A sick feeling curled inside his gut. “Looks like you’re not the only one that has a secret,” he finally said. There was only so much he was willing to share of himself. Lilly—and how he’d failed her—was completely off-limits.
“Fine. Whatever.” Impasse. She appeared to be equally unwilling to tell her secret.
She took a deep breath. “To be honest, my wolf is disturbed right now. The emotions that your wolf is transmitting...you are scaring me a little.”
Startled, he realized his own beast was agitated. “Your wolf can sense mine?” he asked. “How is that possible? Is that...normal?”
After a brief hesitation, she nodded. “Sometimes. Especially if two people are really bonded.”
Bonded?
Damn. He glanced sideways at her, seeing her exhaustion in the blue hollows under her eyes. Her pale skin looked stark white in the dim light of the dashboard.
Chapter 10
While he struggled to find the right words without hurting her, she gave him a slow smile. “Look, I know we don’t really have a relationship,” she said, letting him off the hook. “But we have been through a lot together in the short time since we met. Sometimes that’s enough to make a bond.”
“Right.” Noncommittal. Wary. Even though something intense flared inside him.
She lowered her chin. “No worries, I completely understand. You’ve already done enough. I’ll try my best to get out of your life as soon as I can.”
Out of his life? How could she not realize that everything had changed, for both of them? She could no more go back to her former life than he could go back to his.
“How are you going to do that?” he asked, curious to hear what she thought. “Are you finally going to get the Pack involved?”
“The Pack?” Judging from her tone, the word tasted sour on her tongue. “No. That’s not going to happen.”
He glanced at her, surprisingly relieved. What the hell, he might as well give her his opinion. “I have to say I’m glad to hear that. Actually, the Pack seems like another version of Sanctuary.”
One corner of her perfect mouth lifted as she shook her head. “Most of the Pack isn’t like that at all.”
He jumped on her words.
“Most? With the exception being the Pack Protectors?”
Ignoring him, she continued, “Those of us in the Pack don’t try to impose one set of beliefs on everyone. The Pack is simply what we are. After all, half of us are wolves. Wolves can’t be alone. Even our wild brethren run in packs.”
“So you modeled the human Pack after them?”
“I guess you could say that. We change together, run together and hunt together. Cover each other’s backs. This is our Pack, a network of our own kind. You’d be surprised how many prominent people are actually Shifters. We look out for each other. And the humans never know.”
He considered this. She’d said wolves couldn’t be alone, but he had been for most of his life. By choice. He’d never had the slightest inclination to be part of any Pack. Not even now, though he had to admit her simple and eloquent words made him reconsider. Plus, changing with her—he’d never experienced anything quite like it.
Brushing away the unfamiliar—and completely unwelcome—yearning, he glanced at her. “Still, if you do involve this Pack of yours, how will they help you?”
This time when she looked at him, he saw the anger simmering behind the emerald of her eyes. “He must be stopped. They need to know what he did to you. And what he planned to do to Hailey.” Again she smoothed back her daughter’s hair. The yearning expression on her face left no doubt how much she hoped Hailey would wake up soon.
“Don’t involve me. I don’t reveal my past to anyone,” he said.
“You talked about it with me.”
“That’s different,” he admitted firmly. “I had to in order to make you aware of what Jacob was capable of.”
She lifted her chin. “Which would be the exact same reason you’d need to let them know.”
“It sounds pointless. If I did talk to them,” he said, his tone cautious, “what could they do to stop it? Jacob Gideon and his church of Sanctuary are very powerful.”
“They might be in the human world, but the Pack takes acts of violence against Shifters seriously. They’d investigate.”
“Which puts us back at square one. You told me the organization that protects the interests of the Pack is called the Protectors. The very same one you’re so adamant about not getting involved.”
She said nothing, so he continued. “I agree that it’s definitely time to expose him,” he said. “He can’t be allowed to continue doing this to innocent people. Who knows who he could grab next, what other innocent child he’ll try to torture and ultimately destroy?”
“Exactly.” She sounded relieved. “If he really is on a crusade to destroy our kind, no one can tell how many people he’ll hurt—has hurt. I have to let them know,” she said.
Torn, he considered for a moment. Part of this was due to his distrust of anything with a group mind-set. Pack or Sanctuary, no matter what Blythe believed, they seemed to be cut from the same cloth, at least to him. Her reluctance to involve these Protectors was another red flag.
Finally, he planned to do it on his own. He really wanted to expose the bastard himself.
Would that selfish desire for revenge be his downfall? Frustrated, he gripped the steering wheel tightly, if only to keep from pounding it. Jacob needed to be brought down. It shouldn’t matter who actually did the deed.
Though he hated to admit it, she was right. They did need help. Still, he had to know all the facts.
“Will involving
them endanger your daughter?”
She gave him a carefully blank look. “How could it?” This then, was part of her refusal.
“You’ll have to be front and center. If there’s a media storm, you’ll have to be willing to go on camera—and let Hailey go on camera—and say what Jacob has done. You’ll need to obtain a lawyer and press charges.”
“You’re talking like a human.” Still not an answer.
“Jacob is a human. In order to stop him, you will have to go through human channels. Assuming you don’t want him killed.”
She looked so shocked he nearly regretted saying the words. But the black thought had been festering inside him for years, churning up his insides. An eye for an eye, he’d often told himself. Jacob’s life for Lilly’s. Only fitting. Part of his guilt was the knowledge that he should have found a way to kill Jacob years ago and hadn’t.
“I’m not a murderer,” she said, indignant.
Which only meant she hadn’t been pushed to that point. If Jacob had killed or seriously injured Hailey, he had no doubt Blythe would go looking for blood.
“Then be prepared to go through legal channels.”
Silence while she considered this. He kept his eyes on the road, taking comfort from knowing they were putting miles between them and Sanctuary. They’d already crossed out of Texas into New Mexico. It wouldn’t be too much longer before they reached the Colorado border.
“The Pack will help me find me a lawyer,” she said haltingly, making it clear she wasn’t fond of the idea.
Ruthlessly, he pressed on. She needed to be clear on what she was letting herself in for. “Are you willing to testify? And let Hailey testify?”
“I don’t know.” The way her voice broke nearly cracked his heart.
“You’ll need to, if you really want him stopped.”
“Stop.” Her gaze touched on his, pleading with him. “I can’t deal with this right now. Maybe later.”
Exhaling, he let it go. Before she contacted this Pack of hers, he’d bring it up again.