by Kate Rudolph
He traced the edges of her fingernails with his own hands, “Seems the perfect holiday getaway to me. No shifters, no witches, no one but the humans who live there and the ocean.”
“So you’re saying we should go on holiday?” Sitting, hands bound, in a mad alpha’s cellar, the idea was ludicrous. Especially considering that until a few days before, Gemma had thought she hated the man sitting next to her.
“Yes, that’s what I’m saying.” He brought her hands up and kissed them and despite their location, Gemma’s body responded.
“So long as you promise that our cabana boy will be hot.” She smiled when he growled.
Mac turned so that he could loom over her. “It shall be cabana girls or nothing at all.”
Gemma pushed him back lightly and leaned forward. Their faces were inches apart, “Are you je—”
A door down the hall banged open and they sprang apart, both silent and ready to defend themselves from whoever would threaten them. Gemma scooted away from Mac, back to the other side of the room and out of the direct line of sight of the door.
The silhouettes of two guards were illuminated by the brightly flashing torch of the third. They flashed the light in her eyes, blinding her and she was helpless as they grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her out of the room, leaving Mac behind. She wanted to fight, to kill, to escape, but once they set her on her feet she forced herself not to resist.
She didn’t know what Nigel wanted, but now it was time to find out.
They didn’t bother to hide the way to the main part of the house. And after they passed through the third heavy door in a narrow hallway Gemma knew why. If she and Mac tried to get out this way, they’d be dead in minutes. It was too well defended. Their only way through would be if the guards were called away on other business.
Her guards led her up a staircase. One took the lead with two following behind. They picked up an additional two guards at the ground floor. It seemed that Nigel wouldn’t underestimate her this time.
She ended up in an interior office. The walls were covered in dark wood shelves and stacked high with well-loved books. Though Nigel had always cared for his belongings, some of those tomes showed cracked spines and bookmarks stuck out at odd places. It wasn’t through neglect that he hurt these things, but overuse.
One guard shoved her down into a sparsely padded chair and stayed standing close. None of the guards carried weapons, but she could see in the tension in their stances that any one of the five was ready to shift if she showed the slightest threat. Even with Gemma’s skill she would have trouble surviving a five on one attack with her hands bound.
Nigel didn’t keep her waiting as long as she expected. Whether he was concerned for her safety or for that of his guards, she didn’t care. The sooner they finished this pissing contest, the sooner she and Mac could figure out how to get out of there.
The alpha of London opened the door and took a seat behind his desk without preamble. He looked good for a man nearing fifty. The gray laced throughout his brown hair projected an air of authority, but his face was still nearly unlined. She might have thought he was thirty-five if she didn’t know otherwise.
He wore a close-fitting dark suit with a white shirt and no tie. When he sat, he undid the button on the jacket, letting it hang open. The man was neither as tall nor as muscular as Mac, but Gemma knew he could be just as dangerous. Nigel was mean and vindictive and if couldn’t win fairly, he’d cheat.
Nigel studied her for a moment before turning his harsh blue gaze on one of her guards. “Untie her. Now.” He sounded upset, but Gemma doubted it. This performance was to get her on his side, nothing more.
Still, she was grateful when her hands were unbound and she rolled and massaged her wrists while studying him silently.
After several moments, Nigel finally spoke. “I’m sorry that we had to meet this way, Gemma. But after you left the city so suddenly I thought it best not to risk losing you once more.”
Bile churned in her gut. He spoke as if she’d taken off in the dark of the night without word to anyone. Instead, she’d been covered in blood and desperate to escape with her life and sanity intact.
“We seem to remember my departure differently.” Gemma kept her tone light even though she would rather eat nails than sit in the same room as this man.
Nigel’s finger casually stroked his cheek for a moment before pulling away. Her claws hadn’t left a physical scar on him, but Gemma was glad to know that she was still remembered. “And now you have come back of your own free will. Are you ready to stay in my fine city?”
“We were sent by our alpha, you have no right to hold us.” From the alpha’s scowl, Gemma knew that she’d misstepped. She shouldn’t have mentioned Mac. Had Nigel never shown her that scorn before? If he had looked at her that way when Mac left, she would have known that her man hadn’t left of his own free will.
“I’m sure that neither of us knew he planned to send a fugitive and a man banished from my territory nearly a decade past. But I am a fair man, Gemma. And I would not commit undue cruelty against you.” Nigel stood up and stepped around the desk to stand in front of her. He leaned in close but pulled away when she scowled.
“What do you want?”
Nigel smiled and he may as well have been in his wolf form. This was the smile of a predator. “I’ll let that man return home. He may even take the girl that you seek, I have no use for her and I hear that she is more trouble than she’s worth. So long as you stay.”
Mac couldn’t escape without Gemma. He wouldn’t leave her here and once he was out, it would be far too dangerous to come back. If he were at home, he could count on reinforcements and mount a siege the likes of which hadn’t been seen in the modern age. But they were both stuck in another country in another alpha’s territory. No help was coming.
Between the two guards out in the hallway and the five that had dragged Gemma away, there were seven guards that Mac knew about. More when Mac considered that this was a well-guarded pack location. Escaping would be dangerous. But he had a feeling that staying here would be just as much of a risk.
There was no way Nigel planned to let him leave the city alive.
They’d bound his hands with thick rope. Mac concentrated, waiting until he could feel sharp canines nearly puncturing his lips. He brought his wrists up to his mouth and started working on the bindings with his teeth. It was slow work, and every time he wanted to speed up he reminded himself that pulling out his fangs by working too quickly would only hurt him later.
After long minutes, he felt the bindings sag. He could pull his arms free, but he didn’t. They would only tie him up once more if they discovered him before he was ready to fight.
More time passed before the door at the end of the hallway opened and footsteps marched closer to him. Mac gave two final tugs at the ropes on his hands before arranging his hands carefully in front of him. The door opened moments later and two guards stepped inside.
They shut the door behind them with a foreboding click as the lock shifted back into place.
“The alpha wanted us to prepare you.” They both had shaggy brown hair, but one stood a head taller and two stone heavier than the other.
Somehow Mac doubted the preparation would be pleasant. “Is that so?” he asked, his posture deceptively relaxed with one leg bent and the other resting in front of him. He held his hands close to his body. “Nice shower and a shave, perhaps?”
The short one, Mac called him Tiny, laughed. “Sure,” Tiny flashed his hand and claws sprouted. “I’ll give you a shave.”
Mac sprang into action, pulling the rope off as he stood in one smooth motion. Tiny went down with a kick to his knee and the crack that echoed through the room would keep him down for awhile. Mac jumped off of the wall to launch himself onto the tall one’s back and get a hold of his neck. He held on, squeezing as hard as he could until he slumped forward, unconscious.
While the tall one was out, Mac held on for several more seconds. He didn�
�t want the guard waking up the minute he let go.
Tiny writhed on the ground, his claws hands once more. They were wrapped around his thigh above his shattered knee. These two clearly weren’t Nigel’s best and brightest.
“The woman I was with, where is she?” Mac demanded. He let go of the tall guard and loomed over the small one. “If you talk, you live. Decide.”
“She’s in the alpha’s office, second floor at the end of the hall.” In so much pain, this guard looked young. Younger than Mac had been when he’d first come to London.
But he was old enough to try to beat up an imprisoned man and Mac felt little sympathy. “How many guards?”
“Five, please don’t kill me.” He let go of his leg long enough to hold his hands in front of him as if he could hold Mac off.
“Keys,” Mac held out a hand. “Where are your mobiles? Or were you using radios?”
Tiny pulled a keychain from around his neck and handed out to Mac with shaking fingers. “The mobiles are at the guard station outside. We didn’t want you to steal them.”
Mac almost laughed, but he held it in. No need to antagonize the boy. He checked the other guard for a key and left, locking both guards in the room behind him.
He smashed their phones before locking the outer door to where Nigel kept his prison cells.
He had a woman to rescue.
Gemma felt bile rise in her throat, but she tamped it down. She tried to smile, but that was too much effort. The most she could muster was a deliberately blank expression. Nigel didn’t buy it.
He sighed, “I suppose you’ll need time to think my offer over. Very well.” He leaned over and whispered something to one of her guards, Gemma couldn’t make the words out, but from the gleam in the guard’s eye the instruction was obvious.
She was in for a load of pain.
Nigel left without another word and took two of the men with him, leaving her alone with her coterie of guards.
Gemma was tied and it was three on one. While she might have weighed the same as any one of the men, they easily each had half a head on her. She doubted her curves would come in handy in this instance. But Nigel had miscalculated.
Gemma’s hands were no longer tied. She kept them in her lap, trying not to draw attention. While the guards leered at her, she concentrated on her fingers, letting claws sprout in her closed fists.
“Little bitch is too scared to even look at us, boys,” said one of the guards. He yanked on her hair, pulling her head back and exposing her throat. “I can still smell that filthy Scot on her.” He shoved her away and Gemma used the opportunity to fall forward out of her seat. “Time to fix that.”
There was a place in her head that she tried to avoid. In those years when she’d been a terror across Europe she’d developed skills that would make the finest honed warriors cringe. But she would call that part of herself up without question if it meant keeping him safe and saving herself.
It wasn’t even a question.
Everything except the will to live faded from her mind, leaving her in a silent, almost peaceful trance. She barely heard the first guard scream as she swung up, tearing out his throat in one swift motion. In her next breath, she took out the second guard, gouging out an eye and noting that he fell to his knees, clutching his face.
The third had no idea what had happened by the time she got to him. Gemma felt no pity, no remorse, no hesitation as she took him out, ripping out his guts and letting him fall.
She turned back to finish the second guard when the door banged open. Gemma jumped back, putting the desk between her and her new foe. She hissed, spittle flying out from between her lips and a howl ready to tear free.
“Gemma, it’s me.” Her rage cleared, leaving her standing behind Nigel’s desk in the alpha’s office with two corpses, one injured guard, and the man she loved.
Loved? Of course it made sense, but it had picked a hell of a time to surface.
Mac stood in the doorway, one foot in the office and one foot in the hallway. His eyes darted between her, her victims, and out into the hallway to see if anyone was following him. When she didn’t speak, he said, “We need to run.”
That command sprang Gemma into action. She stepped around the desk and over one of the bodies, relieved when Mac didn’t seem averse to what she’d done. She crouched in front of the surviving guard. “Answer me and you live. Alert anyone to our presence and you die. Understood?” He gave a jerky nod. “Good. What is the best exit?”
“Down—” he coughed and Gemma had to keep herself from shaking him to make him speak faster, “Downstairs. There’s a door out of the cellar into the garden. You’ll need to break through the hedgerow, but it’s barely guarded.”
The words sputtered out of him so fast that Gemma almost lost track. “And how many guards are left?” She asked.
The boy didn’t look at his fallen comrades, but he paled further. “Fewer than ten. The alpha had plans to go meet someone. I don’t know who or where, but he took a team with him.”
Gemma assumed the worst. Nigel was headed to find Rebecca Patrick and offer her safety in London. She looked away from the guard and met Mac’s eyes. She could tell that he thought the same thing. She raised an eyebrow at him, silently asking him if he had any more questions to ask and he gave her a faint shake of his head.
Gemma reared back, slamming her hand into the guard’s temple and letting him fall unconscious to the ground. “We’ll need to hurry. I’ve had enough bloodshed for one day.”
Mac nodded and stepped out of the doorway to let Gemma pass. But once she was through, he grabbed onto her arm and pulled her close, wrapping his other arm around her and covering her lips with his. Gemma melted into him, returning the kiss, feeling the heat in her blood at the taste of him on her lips.
If they had any more time, she would have let him take her right there. But the prospect of being thrown back into that cell or worse cooled her ardor. She pulled back reluctantly. “I’m keeping you in bed for a week when we get home,” she promised.
He grinned. “What about Tahiti?”
She squeezed his hand once before dropping it. “I think we can take more than a week off after this ordeal, don’t you?”
“I’d like to see Rafe try and stop us.”
They took off towards the exit the guard told them about. Mac didn’t waste time arguing about whether or not they could trust the information. They didn’t have any other choice. But the boy proved true and they made it to the cellar and out into the garden without meeting any guards. Since Mac had clearly taken care of the ones guarding him, it was possible that no one else yet knew that they had escaped.
But they only had a few more minutes before that luck would evaporate.
The hedge circling the garden was twice as tall as Mac, but only about a meter all the way through.
Mac placed a hand on the shrubbery and pulled it back. “Thorns. A whole lot. This is going to hurt.”
It did.
Chapter Eight
Mac was still cursing by the time they made it to the road. No alarm sounded from Nigel’s house and no one followed. The alpha truly had taken the majority of his guard with him.
He followed Gemma for nearly a minute before asking, “Where are we going? Or do you plan to walk back to Falcon Point?”
Gemma turned just so that he could see her roll her eyes. “We need to talk to Lee. And since I’m short on bus fare, I thought we’d take a car.” She stopped next to an older black sedan. “Fancy a drive?”
“How fast can you get us to the airstrip?” Mac knew that they needed to contact their pilot and get out of the country as fast as possible. They weren’t safe here and wouldn’t be safe until they were cruising over international waters.
She tested the handle on the door and smiled when it opened. “I think we can still retrieve Rebecca.” She unlocked the door passenger door and waited for him to get in.
“That seems unwise.” Rafe wouldn’t want them to kill themselve
s to capture this one woman. She wouldn’t stay in London forever. But there was something in Mac that still wanted to do the job. “How?” He asked after a moment’s hesitation.
He couldn’t see, but he thought Gemma grinned while she worked on the wires under the dash. “Lee.”
“The man who betrayed us yesterday? The one who hold public sex shows and sells out his allies to their enemies?” On a scale of one to ten, it was a horrible idea.
The engine purred and Gemma sat up and looked at him. Her eyes were deadly serious. “If you want to get out of country, I completely understand that. And I’ll go with you. But I truly do think that Lee will help us.”
She started driving before he could answer. Mac needed the time to think. He trusted Gemma for her skills, and because he loved her. But he couldn’t let his feelings get in the way of their mission. “Did Nigel hurt you?” Now that they were finally still, he could feel the scrapes and cuts. That they’d both made it out alive and uninjured was a miracle.
“No,” she said. “He tried to make me an offer that I couldn’t refuse.”
“What did he want?” Having been on the receiving end of Nigel’s hospitality, Mac feared the worst. But Gemma was the toughest, strongest woman he knew, she could take anything that the alpha had to throw at her. He only hoped that she knew that she didn’t need to do so alone.
“If I agreed to stay with him, he’d give you Rebecca and let you both leave. Alive and unharmed.” She didn’t look at him while she spoke, but Mac could tell that she had more she wanted to say. He kept quiet and let her speak. “But you wouldn’t leave without me. Not even if I wanted to stay.”
Her faith rocked him to the core. Even though he’d left her behind so many years ago, she knew that he would never do that again. Mac let out a breath. “Let’s get this damned fox and go home.”
In the light of day, Lee’s club was even less impressive than it had been two nights before. Old newspaper and food wrappers littered the outside of the paint-cracked building. And despite the central location, there was no one on the street. No pedestrians walked the sidewalks, no cars drove on the road. It was almost as if he and Gemma had slipped into some abandoned pocket of reality.
