“Very true,” Lucy murmured.
“Do you think you can make it down stairs with those crutches and the boot on your foot?” She pointed to the tall set leaning against the wall.
“Yes, I’m not that old.” She narrowed her gaze at Emma and frowned. “Who’s in the lobby?”
“Noah and his brother and the brother’s girlfriend. We’ve got to get out of here, but they won’t give me my purse. It’s a long story, but we need a place to hide and a car to get us out of town. And we can’t go to your house on 16. Do you have another space somewhere in town?” One thing Emma could always count on was Lucy having several back-up plans.
Emma put one of Lucy’s shoes on the floor beneath her feet and held it still as Lucy slid her bare foot into it and stood, leaning most of her weight on the bedrail.
“Toss the other shoe back in the cabinet. And yes, always. But we have to go to the farmhouse. My best weapons and the extra passports and paperwork we need are stashed there.” Lucy put her hand to her head and sighed.
“We can’t. There are people there.”
“If they’ve already looked around, they’ve left by now. We have to try there first.”
“Are you sure you can walk?” Emma handed Lucy the crutches, but stayed close. I’ll rest once we swipe a car. Do you still remember how to hot wire one?”
“Let’s worry about getting you down three flights of stairs first,” Emma said, moving to the door and cracking it enough to peek out. No one was in sight. “We’ve got to go now, while the nurses are in the middle of shift change. No one will see us if we hurry. Lucky for us, you’ve got the room at the end of the hall near the stairwell.”
Lucy snorted a laugh. “It’s not luck. I’ve been yelling at them, driving them crazy until they moved me to the end of the hall. Hospitals are too noisy for my liking. You know me.”
Emma was already nodding her head. A smile spread across her face. “If it’s not quiet, you can’t hear what’s coming.” It’d been a while since she’d thought about that mantra.
Lucy swung up behind her on the crutches. “Well?”
“Well what?” Emma said, sticking her head out into the hall a little farther.
“Are we going?”
“Yes, this way.” She opened the door for Lucy and watched the hallway for movement while the not-so-slow-cripple made her way to the stairwell door. Even with the drugs still in her system and a broken leg, Lucy wasn’t letting it slow her down. Emma was worried it was pure adrenaline though. There was no way Lucy could keep this kind of momentum up for long.
A hum of voices from the nurses’ station down the hallway and around the corner kept her pulse racing, but when the elevator dinged, her heart nearly leapt from her chest. One of the nurses spoke up, asking someone why they were here.
Then she heard him. Noah's voice rumbled from down the hall and a shiver ran down her spine to join the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. He did something to her. His presence made her needy and unfocused. It didn’t matter what she wanted. She was a survivor and the only way to survive this situation was to get as far away from him as possible.
Emma closed the stairwell door behind her and prayed they could make it down the stairs and out of the building before wolf-boy sniffed them out.
She rushed down the stairs behind Lucy, pausing every few steps to listen for the door opening. “What’s got your panties in a wad, Emma?”
“I heard him. Just before we went through the door. And my panties are not in a wad. Thank you very much.”
“Sure seems like he’s got you a little edgy.”
Emma ignored the last comment and continued down the stairs. They reached the bottom floor and exited the stairwell into a main hallway of the hospital.
Lucy pointed to her left. “We can go out this way.”
“It doesn’t lead back to the main lobby?”
“Nope. Don’t worry, sweetie. Unless that VonBrandt boy can follow a trail like a bloodhound, he’ll be shit out of luck when he gets to the bottom of those stairs.”
Emma gulped. She hadn’t even considered the fact that he might be able to sniff her out like a dog following a scent. Shit.
“Let’s get out of here before someone recognizes you.”
Banishing the momentary flash of panic, Emma followed Lucy down the corridor, smiling at the random employees who passed them. No one paid them any notice. Apparently shift change was the perfect time to break someone out of a hospital. Everyone was more worried about signing themselves off the clock to care if a crippled older woman and a stranger slipped out the back entrance.
Chapter 14
“Lucy, I think they are still at your house,” Emma said, pulling over into the grass and turning off the headlights of the old 1980’s Dodge they’d swiped from the hospital parking lot. Hopefully, whatever old geezer owned it wouldn’t have a stroke when he found it was missing.
“Lucy?” Emma pulled the shifter into park and looked over at the woman she called aunt—the woman who in reality she considered her mother.
Lucy didn’t respond. Her head lolled a little to one side, but Emma could hear her steady breathing. She was a tough broad, but getting down those stairs, out of the hospital, and out to the back of the parking lot where this old hunk of steel had been parked was quite the journey for someone who’d been in a coma up until yesterday afternoon. She’d known the burst of energy would only last so long.
The sun was fully visible now and in a few minutes, the last bit of dawn would fade and the bright orange truck was going to stick out like a sore thumb if anyone took a look out the window of the house.
Emma threw the truck into reverse and slowly started backing up the way she’d come. If she could get around the curve in the driveway, behind a bank of trees, the truck would be hidden from view of the house. But where after that? She didn’t know anyone in town and Lucy needed somewhere to rest.
She took a deep breath. One problem at a time, Emma. One problem at a time. Right now she needed to get out of sight of the house. Carefully, she maneuvered the truck backward and around the bend. A sharp rapping on the glass of her window elicited a girl-about-to-die-in-a-horror-flick scream that she was ashamed to hear come from her throat. Her heart stopped in her chest for at least a whole five seconds and air refused to be drawn into her lungs.
Noah stared at her through the glass. Deja vu much? At least this time he wasn’t naked. Once she managed to swallow her heart back down into her chest and draw a breath, she wound the window crank on the door and lowered the glass.
“I know, I know. This is where you Taser me. But seriously, you need my help. Lucy looks like she needs some rest and I don’t think your ex-military friends in the farmhouse would be keen on keeping her alive.”
Emma took a deep breath and narrowed her gaze at Noah. “How the hell did you find me so quickly? And it’s not a Taser. It’s a stun gun. But, seriously, how did you find me? There were no cars following me out of town. I made sure.”
“I wasn’t in a car. I was running.”
Emma’s mouth opened, but words wouldn’t form. “I. You. Wha-a—”
“Look, we need to find a place to crash while we figure out what to do. If not, you won’t have a choice because I guarantee my family is only a few minutes behind me.”
“Fine!” Emma slapped the steering wheel with both palms. “Where do you suggest we go?”
“There’s a big empty house for sale on Jericho Lane. Been empty for a month. The Thompsons had to move. No one will think to look for us there,” Lucy said taking a deep breath.
“Lucy!” Emma breathed a sigh of relief. But Lucy wasn’t looking at her; she was talking to Noah.
“Do you know it?” Lucy asked.
Noah nodded. “Scoot over. I’m driving.” He yanked open the door and Emma moved to the middle of the bench. Before she could catch a breath, they were on 16 and barreling toward town.
She wanted to ask where they were going. She wanted to ask
a lot more than that, but for now she would hold Lucy’s clammy hand and wait. For now he was protecting her from his family and her would-be-kidnappers-possibly-murderers. For now she would go along with it.
As tough as Lucy was, Emma knew she needed to be in a bed, at least for a while.
Noah drove carefully through the old part of town and headed west into a small development where the houses sat on half-acre and acre lots. He didn’t think Lucinda Craig knew anyone in town, yet somehow she’d known the old Thompson couple had left their house last week and moved out of state ahead of schedule. Movers weren’t supposed to arrive to pack the house for another week or two. It would be perfect as long as there wasn’t an alarm system on the house.
His main concern right now was to get Mr. Henry’s blasted orange pickup truck off the roads before someone saw him driving it. Out of every vehicle in the hospital parking lot, they had to take this one. Luckily it was morning rush and everyone was more concerned about getting to work than paying attention to a college kid driving this familiar orange classic instead of its grumpy old owner.
The second thing on his mind was how his leg and Emma’s kept brushing against each other. He’d already caught and held back his hand several times from lowering to her leg and stroking it. He knew better. She probably had another Taser hidden somewhere on her person, just waiting to send him convulsing to the floor again.
Her scent invaded his space and he did his best to banish thoughts of tasting her skin, her lips, and anything else she might let him get close to. His jeans fit uncomfortably tight and he bit back a groan, hoping she wouldn’t notice.
They finally turned down the street where the Thompsons lived. He pulled into their driveway and parked behind the house on the grass out of sight of the road.
“There’s an alarm system warning sticker on that back window.” He leaned against the steering wheel, exhaling a long sigh.
“I can get us in,” Lucy said softly. “Help me get out of this truck.”
Really? Noah looked across Emma to the older woman leaning against the seat. “How?”
“I know the code.”
Emma’s face took on an incredulous look as well.
“Y’all quit looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. Mrs. Thompson and I went to the gun range together twice a week. I watched their dogs every time they were out of town.”
Noah grinned. “Alright, then.” Mystery solved.
Minutes later they were standing in the Thompsons’ kitchen. The alarm was off and reset. Noah locked the door behind them and turned to see Emma and Lucy disappear down the hallway into a bedroom.
He went to the large brown leather couch and sank into the soft pillowy cushions. It’d been a long night. One in which no one had gotten any sleep. He was horny, cranky, and worried about how long it would take for his family to track him to this house. If not his family, who and what was coming after Emma?
Emma walked through the living room and into the kitchen without a word. He watched through slitted eyes as she fixed a glass of water and dug around in the cabinets until she produced a loaf of bread.
The scent of yeast made his stomach do a flip. He was hungrier than he thought. Swinging his legs to the side, he pushed himself up off the couch and joined Emma in the kitchen.
“Is there enough to share?”
“There’s plenty,” she answered, taking four pieces from the plastic bag and then sliding it across the counter toward him.
She pulled three plates from the cabinet above the sink, pushing one toward him. “There’s not a lot in the fridge, but I found butter and strawberry jam.”
“I’m not picky, just hungry.”
She chuckled, slathering the bread she’d pulled out with a layer of butter and then a layer of jam. “I’ll be right back. I need to give this to Lucy,” she said, grabbing a plate from the counter and leaving the kitchen.
He buttered his slices while she was gone and took a seat at the small antique kitchen table.
Emma reappeared from the bedroom and took her plate from the counter. She slid into the chair opposite him and then hopped up again without taking a bite. “Do you want some water?”
“Yes, thanks.” It was a mistake, but he couldn’t help glance at her ass as she walked away. “Why are you being nice to me?”
“Because you helped us.” She set a glass of ice water in front of him and sat in the chair opposite him.
“What’s going on with you?”
“Whatever do you mean,” she said, a smirk curving the corners of her mouth into the cutest smile. It made him want to kiss her even more. Her blond hair dropped in front of her face and he leaned over, brushing it from her cheek before he could stop himself.
Her heartbeat sped, making the vein in her neck pulse faster, and a slightest gasp of air rushed from her lungs. His fingers lingered, grazing over the lobe of her ear before he sank into his seat and dropped his hand to the table. Her eyes widened and he caught sight of the same heat he felt beneath his skin mirrored in her azure gaze. He bit back a groan when her tongue slipped between her lips and wet them.
“My dad associated with people of the unsavory sort.” Her eyes dropped to the tabletop and her shoulders slumped forward. “It cost him.”
“Do you know...”
“That they’re dead?” She glanced at him and picked up her toast, taking a big bite. “No, I hadn’t heard an updated newscast that announced it, but I knew.” She swallowed the bite she’d taken and took a slow sip of water. “What did the news say?”
“They were—”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say. I know it’s going to be bad.”
“I’m so sorry. They were found on their front lawn this morning. It didn’t give specifics, but, Emma...are they trying to kill you, too?”
“Not right off the bat. They want my family’s money first, I’m sure.”
“Is Lucy really your aunt?” He asked robotically, shocked that she was showing no emotion whatsoever over the death of her parents.
Emma shook her head. “She was my guardian until I was sixteen years old. I call her my aunt because it was the closest family name I could use without calling her mom. She raised me. I saw my real mother a few times a year growing up, usually at holidays.”
“So...”
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine. I just need Lucy to get back to normal and then we can leave. You’ll never have to see me again or worry about your secret. I won’t tell anyone.”
That wasn’t what truly worried him. She was the one he’d been waiting for. Since meeting her, every thought he had centered on her and his magick hadn’t stopped vibrating every time they touched.
“My family won’t accept that. They will hunt you.”
“Then they can get in line,” she spat back. “I’ve lived through three kidnappings and a half dozen attempted murders. They finally got my parents. Now I have no reason to stay I can disappear with Lucy.”
Disappear? The thought of never seeing Emma again felt like someone was strangling him with barb wire. He wanted to know everything about her. He wanted to protect her from whatever it was that had chased her over the course of her entire life. No one should feel so hunted that their only recourse is to drop off the grid.
“Where would you go?”
She smiled. “An island somewhere. It will be nice to finally be able to relax. I need you to keep your family away long enough so that we can slip out of town.”
“Our laws won’t allow you to leave, knowing what you do about our family.”
“Your laws. You have wolf laws?”
He nodded and swallowed the last piece of his toast. “We have another problem, too.”
“The full moon tonight?”
His mouth dropped open for a second before he snapped it back shut. “How did you—”
“The nurse said something about the full moon rising today or tomorrow. She couldn’t remember. But it’s tonight, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
/>
“What happens to you? Will you be dangerous?” He heard her pulse speed up again, but she took several long breaths, evening it out quicker than he expected. In fact she was taking this whole man-to- wolf transformation stuff better than anyone he’d ever seen.
“I won’t be dangerous unless I want to be. The full moon traps me in wolf form until the sun rises again.”
“But that means your family will be changed, too, right?”
“Most,” he answered. “My mother isn’t a werewolf. And she’s pretty convinced that you can’t be trusted.”
“They don’t know me.”
“We don’t trust anyone, Emma. It’s not like we are making an example out of you. No one is allowed to see what you saw unless they join the family.” He shifted in his seat and took a quick sip of water. His clammy hands left a print on the glass and he traced his initials in the remaining condensation. The heaviness in his heart grew, tightening his chest until it was painful to breath. He couldn’t stand the thought of his mother demanding Emma’s memories be wiped.
“I won’t let them hurt you.”
“How can you stand against your entire family? Even your brother was ready to throw me to the wolves, pun intended.” Emma tapped her manicured nails against the top of the table. Each tap tap tap tap made his skin itch. His mother’s words of warning rolled around in his head, but everything inside him wanted to mark her and claim her as his and be done with this entire mess with his family. That would only leave one problem—the mercenaries chasing her.
Chapter 15
“What kind of bond were you arguing about with your mother?”
Noah took the freshly washed dish from her, dried it, and placed it in the cabinet. “It’s a spell that would bind us together permanently. If we bonded, my family would have no choice but to accept you. It’s complicated. Aren’t you freaked out enough?”
To Love A Mate: Somewhere, TX (VonBrandt Pack Book 2) Page 8
