Misty’s bedroom door is ajar. I push it inward and frown at the empty bed. My gaze drifts around the room. Her clothes are gone. I pick up my own clothes and start putting them on, intent on finding Misty and figuring out why I wound up on the couch last night before I relax enough to take a shower and decide if I should tell her we’ve been invited to breakfast.
“Misty?” I call out, stepping into the hall.
Bathroom door is closed. I move over to it, listen at the door before knocking and trying the handle. It opens. The room is empty. What the hell? I check the spare room and her mom’s room, before heading back down the stairs and spotting her purse, still lying where she hung it next to the door.
She isn’t at my place, or out in the backyard. Her mother would have seen her and mentioned it.
I dig through her purse and worry once I find her phone. She wouldn’t have left here without it. Not willingly. I need to know what happened. I can’t see any messages or calls that might have spurred her to do anything. I put the phone in my pocket, checking my own and realizing it’s dead. I put it on to charge as I leave the room.
I don’t find Misty’s car keys in her purse. Her car is still out there so I take a walk out to it and have a look inside. No keys, but the door’s unlocked. The bad feeling that’s growing in the pit of my stomach is intensified by what I find next. There’s a shimmer on the road. Her keys. Lying in the middle of the road.
That seals it. Someone took her and only one asshole comes to mind as a suspect. Trip Carson, the goddamn sheriff. The bastard is going to pay for this. I pick Misty’s phone out of my pocket, ready to call Ty. His number comes through on a call before I get the chance to. I pick up quickly, thoughts already working overtime. I know who took Misty, and I’m going to find her.
Fifty-Seven
Misty
All kinds of thoughts are running through my head when the car finally stops moving. We were on the road long enough to worry me. I started counting out the seconds after the first few minutes passed. It took almost forty minutes to get here, wherever here is.
I listen to Trip getting out of the car, and I wonder what the hell he wants from me. Nothing good, is the only answer I can come up with and I’m pretty sure it’s on the money. What the hell was I thinking, allowing him to drag me out here?
The trunk opens and he gazes down at me, some small hint of affection in his gaze before he lifts me out. I think about protesting when he doesn’t immediately put me down, but I think better of it quickly. He has a gun, and he’s bigger than me. I don’t stand much of a chance without a weapon of my own.
Besides, I didn’t get the story yet. A hint of shame fills me at the thought of that. I seriously let this guy bring me out to the back end of nowhere because I had to know why he’s been killing people?
I must be out of my damn mind.
“Here we are,” Trip tells me, his voice soft as he carries me up the stairs to his cabin in the woods.
He fumbles a little to open the door before carrying me inside. Okay, I think, trying not to let myself panic. At least there should be something I could conceivably use as a weapon around here somewhere. I make sure I take a good look around when he hits the lights.
“I think you’re going to like it here,” he tells me as he walks me through a kitchen and living room, into a smaller room.
It’s a clean and sparsely furnished bedroom. He lays me down on the twin bed, and I’m suddenly very aware of how close he is, how predatory the expression he’s wearing is.
“I knew you wouldn’t mate to Sam,” he tells me, a smile that quickly turns into a smirk moving across his lips. “You’re mine, Misty. I knew it the minute I saw you. My eyes changed that same night, after I ditched you by the lake.”
His eyes seem to glow a little brighter as he makes this claim. I bite back a gasp. That never happened with Sam or Justin, or Taylor. My stomach drops. Please, please don’t tell me I’m supposed to be mated to this creep. I swallow.
“Your eyes would have changed the moment you accepted Sam’s claim on your body, mind and soul.” His smile becomes dreamier as he strokes a hand through my hair before moving in close and brushing his lips against mine. “They didn’t, because you’re not his.”
I fight not to pull away. I know instinctively it would make him angry and that’s the last thing I want to do right now. Playing along is going to help me survive this mess I’ve gotten myself into. I’m willing to, but only up to a point.
“Don’t worry. I know you’re not ready,” he tells me as he backs up, cupping the bulge in the front of his pants, and gazing at me intently. “I’m not going to rush this. I want you to beg me to claim you. You will. But not now.”
He backs away and I feel my arms tremble as he closes and locks the door from the other side. I’m a captive now. I get up slowly, trying to ignore the tremors that wash over me as I stand. I need to find a way out of this, and I need to do it before Trip decides he’s done waiting for me to beg him.
My initial assessment of him feels on the money now. He might not know it yet, but I do. I saw it in his eyes. If I don’t submit to him, he’ll take what he wants by force. I seriously need to find a way out of this place. If I can’t, I’m going to have to outmaneuver him some other way.
Fifty-Eight
Tyler
Driving around forcing Justin to chase us was working, but I was running out of gas and we needed a plan to move on to. One that wouldn’t make Marina a happy meal Justin was going to have to tear out of this tin can once we ran out of juice. Day was already breaking. We’d been driving around town for hours.
“We need a safe place to run to,” I tell her, thinking out loud. I’d speed up a little once I had a location in mind. Right now I’m picturing electrified fences and industrial freezers with big, heavy steel doors. My thoughts just can’t seem to lock on to an actual location that exists in town where we might find those kinds of set ups. I’m going to blame exhaustion for that. My brain’s not usually so sluggish.
Marina shivers a little in the passenger seat. “Safe how? What do we need to be safe from him?”
“We need to get somewhere he can’t get to you.” I glance her over, realizing a freezer is out. She’s barely clothed and already feeling the cold.
“I assume he’s not just going to give up,” she says, frowning. “This is insane, but I might know a place.”
“Where?” I ask, giving Justin another glance in the rear view. He’s not going to give up, and I’m kind of glad about that. I wouldn’t want to be racing around town saving people from him all night. This is bad enough.
“You know where Misty lives?” She doesn’t wait for me to answer before adding, “Sam stays next door. His father had a panic room installed years back. It’s impenetrable.”
I wince at the thought of it, but she’s right and I knew about that already. Everyone around town knew. Jeremiah turned into a full on survivalist in the aftermath of his wife’s untimely death. Most of the people around town thought he had a screw loose.
“I’m not keen on leading a gator into a residential area,” I tell her, wondering if it’s going to wind up being our only choice. If it is, I’m going to have to stay outside of the panic room to attempt to keep Justin under control if he leaves or tries to hurt someone else.
“There are meat lockers at the outskirts of town. We might be able to trick him into one of those or something?” She shrugs.
It might be a workable idea, if only I was Justin’s target. I can’t use Marina as bait. She’s human. She’s too fragile. He could hurt her before she got the chance to get away from him.
“Sam’s house it is. I’m going to pick up the pace. Here’s my phone. Call Sam. Hopefully he can be ready for us coming.”
She makes the call, clearing her throat in anticipation of talking. After a minute, she puts it down.
“He isn’t answering his cell.”
Right. He just spent the night with Misty and he sleeps like a
damned log at the best of times.
“Call Misty.”
If I know her, and I do, she has her phone within arm’s reach even on a heavy date.
“Misty?”
“She’s with Sam.”
Marina’s eyes widen as she makes the call. It seems for a moment that it’s going to ring out like before, but then she blows out a breath. “Sam? Thank God. We need you right now.”
Sam’s ignoring his own phone, but picking up Misty’s? What the hell happened last night?
“Sam! Sam, listen to me, we’re being chased by a gator.”
I can’t quite hear his side of the conversation, but Marina makes sure she dominates their chat.
“We need your panic room. Your dad’s panic room. Whatever.”
She sighs softly, and then explains the situation with emphasis on the urgency of our arrival.
“We’ll be there in five. Be ready.”
She hangs up and passes me back the phone.
“Why was he answering Misty’s phone?”
“How should I know?” She asks with a shrug.
I speed up a little, making sure I keep Justin within sight. He fades into the distance a little but I can still see him, still chasing us.
“So Misty’s seeing Sam now?” Marina asks, sounding surprised.
“It’s complicated,” I tell her, wondering if it still is. For all I know, she’s mated to Sam now and blissfully happy enough to be out of the room where her cell is. I feel a spark of jealousy ignite and fizzle out again a second later. It would hurt if that happened, but I know it hasn’t. It can’t.
“Complicated like you’re one of the guys she’s interested in right now?” She asks, looking me over with mild disapproval in her tone and a hint of disgust in her gaze.
“Complicated like she’s a hybrid who just became ready to mate and she doesn’t realize yet that she’s meant to take three mates.”
Marina’s jaw slackens. She blinks at me when I glance her way.
“Um, what? Misty’s part gator? Oh. Oh, shit. Her father must have been a shifter. Holy hell,” she murmurs, going back to staring out the window. “I can imagine how well she’s taking that.”
“Not to mention the other part.”
“She told me she had a few guys on the hook,” Marina says, shrugging. “She’s into all of them. Why shouldn’t she get to be with them all?”
Wow. I’m starting to like Misty’s best friend. Who would have guessed that would happen?
“Okay, get ready to run when we stop. We’re going to put some extra distance between us and Justin, but this is going to get dicey.”
“I’m ready,” she confirms, straightening in her seat. “I ran track for years. I have a bunch of medals to prove how fast I am. I hope you can keep up.”
I don’t need to, but I don’t tell her that. “Just run for the house. I don’t care if you beat me inside but try to get there before Justin, please.”
She laughs. “You’re going to eat my dust, Ty.”
I smile as I slow to go around the turning into Misty’s mother’s street. We’ve lost sight of Justin but I can sense he’s not too far away. I park haphazardly and Marina makes a run for Sam’s place. I push the door open and step out of the car. It’s time to poke an angry gator and try to make him see sense.
Fifty-Nine
Sam
I dash across to my dad’s house, via the back yard. Hell only knows how much time we have before there’s a gator in hunt mode stalking toward the house. We need to get Misty’s mom to safety before that happens. I just don’t know how we do that without opening a can of worms.
“Sam, you decided to join us for breakfast,” Misty’s mom says, with a smile as I dart inside. Her smile wavers slightly. “Where’s Misty?”
“Long story,” I tell her, trying not to freak the hell out about it. I have to help Justin before I go after her, even if it does make me want to spit nails. “Dad, we need your panic room.”
Dad’s eyebrows shoot up quickly. “The panic room? What for?”
“There’s a situation,” I start, before Dad cuts in.
“Dana knows about shifters.”
Oh. Well, that’s convenient. “Well, we need to get her to the panic room. Tyler’s bringing Marina here. Apparently she’s being hunted and we need to get her a safe place to hide.”
“She’s being hunted by a gator?” Dad gets up, sounding more than a little confused.
“It’s a long story,” I remind him, starting to freak about Misty. I can’t be sure how long she’s been gone. I don’t know where that asshole would have taken her, or for what reason, but he doesn’t seem to like her and that’s enough to make my worry escalate. “We need to get her safe because he won’t stop.”
“He’s been commanded?” Dad asks.
“Commanded?” I ask, remembering what Marina told me. It sounded like Justin was going berserk chasing her, but I don’t know why it would just be her. Unless someone ordered him to go after her until, well, until she was dead. Shit. Someone’s been controlling gators. That’s why they’ve been killing people. I’m stunned into silence just thinking about it.
“If he’s been commanded, we need a hybrid to break the command,” Misty’s mom says, her face paling.
Dad grimaces. “I’ll call Max.”
“Max?” I ask, vaguely remembering him mentioning the name every so often when I was a kid, distain in his tone.
“He’s from the congregation I was in before I came here. He… has a thing for human women. Had a bunch of kids years ago. He’s our best chance for locating a hybrid to break the command on your friend.”
Holy shit. I glance at Ms Gordon and I know. This Max guy is Misty’s father.
“Call him,” I say, not willing to break the news that Misty’s missing. I’m going after that goddamned sheriff myself. I won’t have anyone tell me not to slaughter him for what he already did to her.
Dad moves out of the room to do so and I look at Misty’s mother.
“We should get you to the panic room, now.”
She nods, her face still ashen. She follows me out there and steps inside without a word. I don’t know if she knows the guy’s Misty’s father. I think she would have said something if she did. Maybe she’s in shock, or maybe she didn’t realize the guy was going around impregnating other human women when he was sleeping with her. I don’t know. I don’t care right now. I will when I come back here with his daughter and knock him the fuck out.
“I need to wait outside for Marina and Tyler.”
She just nods. I guess she’s in shock. Can’t really blame her.
“I’m leaving the door open, but close it and lock it if my father orders you to. If Marina doesn’t get inside in time.” I get moving up and outside then, encountering my father in the hallway.
He gives me a grim look. “Max is bringing one of his sons. It might take a while for them to get here.”
“I’ve told Misty’s mom that you’ll shout down if she needs to close the door.”
He nods. I go outside, just as Tyler’s car pulls up and parks halfway across the pavement.
Sixty
Tyler
Marina wasn’t wrong about being fast. She sprints toward the open door of Sam’s house and disappears inside before I can open the driver’s side door. Relief fills me knowing she’s safe, but the look on Sam’s face makes me wonder what happened with Misty last night. Her car’s still outside and I’m beginning to worry over him answering her cell.
“Sam,” I call out, as he moves past me toward his car.
The determination etched into his face is something else. He’s always been moody, but I’ve never seen him this mad before. What the hell happened?
“Sam, wait!”
He yanks open the driver’s door to his car and stops to stare me down.
“What happened? Where’s Misty?”
“That fucking Sheriff took her,” he tells me, rage in his eyes. “Stay here, Ty. You have to d
eal with Justin.”
He gets into his car and speeds out of the street before I can fully process what he just told me.
Misty’s been kidnapped? What the hell?
I look up and see Justin’s gator swish past, moving toward the open door to Sam’s house. I hesitate before going after him, anxious now about Misty. It’s starting to feel like Justin’s change last night was a distraction, but maybe that’s only because we managed to keep him from killing the woman he was ordered to hunt down.
Sam’s dad is standing at the top of the basement stairs, looking down at the gator who’s attacking the metal door at the bottom. He’s going at it persistently. I wonder if he’ll knock himself out.
“Any ideas on what we do about him?” I ask Mr. Jones.
He looks past me suddenly, frowning. “Where’s Sam?”
“He left,” I say, excluding the reason. If he doesn’t know it’s because Sam didn’t tell him. I don’t know Sam’s reason for that, but I know there’s something and I won’t reveal something he doesn’t want to.
“We called a guy from my old congregation. He’s going to bring a hybrid out here who’ll be able to break the command on your friend.”
“Anyone I’d know?” I ask, knowing hybrids tend to be rare.
He sighs, leaning against the wall. “No-one you’d want to know. His name is Max. He has a thing for human women…”
Misty’s father then. Shit. I manage to keep my mouth shut, but everything’s starting to fall into place. A hybrid commanded Justin, so a hybrid needs to break the command. The only hybrid we know of is Misty, and she’s currently kidnapped.
“How long do you think he’ll be?” I ask, wondering if I have time to head back to the motel and see if I can find out who made the call that turned Justin into a single-minded killing machine.
“Could be a while.”
Flashing Her Gators Page 17