Alpha's Captive 04 - Haven

by V M Black

  Because she wasn’t the kind of person that happily-ever-afters happened to.

  He was right. She needed to get away from him, and fast, because the only place this was going was where she was going to get very hurt.

  “And the wedding bells aren’t an option,” he continued. “Not with the kind of life I lead. The kind of life I’m going to keep leading.”

  “I thought you said that if this works you wouldn’t have to be afraid ever again,” Harper said around the tightness in her chest.

  “My family won’t,” he agreed. “And neither will you. But there are a lot more vampires in the world than Mortensen. A lot more werewolves who live in fear.”

  “And you’re going to keep throwing yourself between them until all the vampires are beaten—or until you die,” she finished.

  “Something like that.”

  “You’re an idiot.”

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

  “No, seriously, you are,” she said hotly. “It’s just suicide. This is what all this was about really, wasn’t it? You didn’t actually expect to win. Not really. You barely even had a plan, and if it wasn’t for me—”

  “What do you want to get out of this conversation, Harper?” Levi said, his voice cracking through the confined space of the car’s cabin.

  She opened her mouth to snarl back at him, but instead, she said, “I just don’t want you to die.”

  The rigidity flowed out of his body all at once, and he slumped slightly as he held the steering wheel steady.

  “Neither do I, Harper,” he said, his voice subdued.

  “Right now,” she corrected. “You don’t want to die right now.”

  His body shifted silently in his seat.

  “What about when you climbed into Mortensen’s office or his house or wherever it was that you got the dagger? Did you want to live then, too? Or did you just want to prove something to the clan or the vampires or maybe just the universe, and damn the cost?” she pushed.

  The silence stretched out between them, and finally, long after she’d given up hope for any kind of answer, he said, “I don’t know.”

  Harper didn’t know what she thought of this talk of never and forever. Even the idea of thinking about it hurt too much. But she did know that as much as she needed to get away from him, she also had to do what she could to keep him safe, at least until the files were safe.

  Safe especially from himself.

  She eased against the seat, pushing everything out of her mind except for the night that wrapped around them. They drove in silence except for the sound of the wind over the car and the tires on the pavement. Without headlights, the world seemed much larger than it usually did when driving in the dark, the road stretching like a long black ribbon in the moonlight between the trees and fields. The heater blew warm air over her, and the car’s cabin seemed far removed from the night that spread out around it.

  Levi’s profile was highlighted by the few, faint lights of the dashboard and the silver moon, and Harper found herself involuntarily remembering the rasp of his week’s beard against her skin, the soft touch of his lips….

  And it only made her feel more hollow inside. She turned away and looked out of the window. It was ridiculous how good they felt together, ridiculous and wrong, because the one man who might ever have wanted her enough to matter wanted death even more.

  Harper blinked as she looked out over the blurring night. She wasn’t sure how long she’d slept during the day—a few hours, at least. But her eyelids were heavy again, too heavy to keep open, so she let them fall closed and shut out the world.

  And shut out Levi with it.

  Chapter Five

  “Want the sunglasses again?”

  Harper made a small noise then opened her eyes. Levi noted that she didn’t come awake the way he did, instantly and completely, but moved through a moment of confusion, when her eyes were still sleep-fogged and her eyebrows drew together in a manner that was far too attractive for the state of his equilibrium.

  She straightened in the seat, surreptitiously wiping at her cheek. Levi suppressed a grin despite himself. He’d been watching her drool slowly for the past two hours. Again.

  “Where are we?” she asked, looking out the window.

  “On a highway. Gas station ahead,” he said.

  “That’s why your lights are on.” The last of the confusion cleared as she focused on the tall sign and bright lights of the filling station that they were rapidly approaching. “Yeah, I want the sunglasses.” She retrieved them from the dash where she’d left them and slid them over her eyes.

  “I thought you might,” Levi said.

  “You think it will do any good?” she asked.

  “At this point? Not at all.”

  “Aren’t you Mr. Optimism,” Harper said, raking her hair away from her face and settling them more securely on her nose.

  “You asked,” he pointed out. He was glad that she’d decided not to resume their last conversation. It couldn’t go anywhere, after all. None of this could.

  But his mind kept replaying her expression when he’d talked about a relationship that would last forever. He’d expected to see flat rejection. After all, it was crazy talk, in human terms. But instead there’d been shock and behind it a deep, aching pain.

  A pain he could only add to, he told himself brutally. If not now, then at some point in the future. He was right to not try to kiss it away, to not make promises that he could never, ever keep, like he wanted so desperately to do.

  “Mmm,” she said, leaning back against the headrest. “You said they go after families. Do you think they’ll do anything to mine? I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to any of them.”

  “No,” Levi lied. It was a mounting concern of his own. The clan maintained an uneasy kind of truce with any number of other interests. If word had reached them of what he’d done, they would repudiate him after all the usual procedures and delays, which by convention should protect the members of the clan from any type of revenge. But of course, vampires were better at making rules for other people than following them.

  “I’ll fill up,” he said, changing the topic. “You see if you can get a prepaid cell.”

  “Sure thing,” Harper said, adjusting the shades.

  Levi pulled into the gas station, put the parking brake on, and killed the engine. Harper waved the prepaid debit cards she’d snagged, and with another look at him above the edge of the sunglasses, she hopped out and went into the convenience store. Levi had chosen the gas station because of the building behind it—beyond the modern, shiny canopy, it looked like an old-fashioned, siding-clad country convenience store, the kind that carried milk and bread and had a table in front for local men to play card games. It would sell t-shirts and phone cards—and hopefully pre-paid cellphones, as well.

  We’re moving too slowly, Levi thought as he swiped his card at the pump. It had now been two full days since he’d taken the dagger. That was way too long to let Mortensen figure out how to respond. Way too long for them to be flying blind.

  He watched Harper through the plate glass window as she approached the cashier. They talked for a moment, Harper leaning slightly across the counter as they spoke. He wondered if she realized that she’d done that. Sometimes, she appeared completely aware of all the things she did that attracted male attention. Other times, she seemed utterly oblivious.

  The cashier gave no appearance of alarm. Instead, he gave her the slightly foolish expression that Levi had seen so often on men’s faces around her, and he ducked to rummage around behind the counter. The police might be looking for them, but apparently they weren’t on the local news twenty-four seven. At least not yet.

  Harper came out of the convenience store just as he was hanging up the gas nozzle. She had a plastic bag in one hand and a grin on her face.

  “Victory?” he asked as she reached the car.

  “You’d better believe it,” she said, swinging into
the passenger seat.

  She handed over the phone and the prepaid minutes card. In under a minute, he had the minutes added to the phone’s account and was punching in Beane’s number. After three rings came the surly answer.

  “Who is this?”

  “Who do you think?” Levi asked. “Your mom.”

  “Holy shit, Harris, do you have any idea of the mess you’ve made?”

  Levi winced. “I’ve been running dark for a while now. Do I want to know?”

  “Six o’clock news across the state. Levi Harris, AKA Connor Voss—”

  Levi started cursing, but Beane just raised his voice.

  “On armed robbery, hijacking, grand theft auto, kidnapping, murder—a two-state rampage. Highly dangerous. Do not approach. Call 911 at the first sighting.”

  “Dammit, Beane, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this,” he said. “And what about Harper?”

  “Harper Bailey, age twenty-one, kidnapped, possibly forced into helping Harris,” Beane said. “Last seen driving a red and white 2013 Mini Cooper, which they hijacked—”

  “I get the picture,” he said, cutting Beane off.

  Holding the phone against his cheek with his shoulder, Levi twisted the keys in the ignition, hit the clutch and the gas, then shifted up rapidly as the car jumped forward.

  “I take it there’s an APB out for us,” Levi said.

  “And extra patrols,” Beane said. “What’s this number you’re calling me on?”

  “It’s a new burner.”

  “Better be,” he said. “And this girl I’m hearing about? Did you actually kidnap her? Levi, I didn’t think—”

  “She kidnapped herself,” Levi snapped. “Look, we don’t have time for this.”

  “Sure. Fine. Whatever you say. Leave me hanging here for a day and a half while all the news wires blow up about you, then don’t answer my questions.”

  “Where do they think I’m going?” Levi said, ignoring him.

  “Virginia via Maryland,” Beane said. Levi started to relax. “Or West Virginia. You are coming here, right?” he added.

  “There are files on the SD card, but the reader couldn’t see them.”

  “Told you so.”

  “Shut up. Anyway, yeah, we’re headed your way.”

  “I’ve been monitoring all the police channels,” he said. “You’ll have a hell of a time doing it because there are checkpoints on every road leading south out of Pennsylvania.”

  Levi cursed again. “What about going around?”

  “What are you planning on doing, swinging into Ohio? Dude, every hour you’re out there is an hour too long.”

  He was right. Of course he was right. The noose was tightening around Levi’s neck, and the longer he was in the wind, the higher the chance that Mortensen would find him—or find someone else to use against him.

  “What about the clan?” Levi asked.

  “You know I’m not a real member, Harris, and after the stunt you pulled, I’m not exactly in their good graces.”

  “But is everyone all right?”

  “They’re in full damage control and have everyone on lockdown, but so far, everyone’s present and accounted for,” Beane said. “They’ve told me that I’m supposed to talk you into turning yourself in. They say they’ve arranged a deal with Mortensen—hand over the SD card, and he’ll forget the whole thing.”

  “Vampires never forget anything.”

  “Yeah, well, I told them I’d pass on the message. I have. Now I’m going to pass on my own advice: Don’t take the deal if you value your skin.”

  “Yeah, thanks, I already knew that one.” He shook his head. “We’re only an hour from the border now. I’m on 381. Where’s the nearest checkpoint?”

  Beane snorted. “Just keep going, and you’ll run smack into it. Three miles from the border. They’ve got traffic backed up a quarter mile, even at this time of night.”

  Levi thought quickly. “Do they have recent photos of Harper?”

  “I know you’re not asking me whether there are recent photos of a twenty-something in the age of the selfie,” Beane said.

  Right.

  “And me?” he asked.

  “Surveillance only, but it’s good enough.”

  Okay. So there was no way they were going to be cruising through the checkpoint.

  “Right, then,” Levi said. “We’ll figure something out. Keep the porch light on for us, will you? You’ll be seeing us tonight.”

  “Don’t get killed,” Beane suggested. “I don’t really want to have to be there when your mother cries over your bullet-ridden corpse.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Levi said, and he hung up.

  “It’s not good, is it?” asked Harper, pulling off the shades.

  “No. Not good. There’s a police checkpoint ahead, and they’re looking for us.” He killed the lights.

  She went paler in the moonlight, but she nodded. “All right. What’s the plan? We go around?”

  “No.” He braced himself. “They think you’re my prisoner, that I kidnapped you. Mortensen might know better, maybe, but to the police, you’re just a victim.”

  “Levi—” she started, a warning note in her voice.

  “This is it. Your chance. We’ll park half a mile off, and you’ll walk in. Tell them that I kicked you out and turned around and went the other way. I’ll get through somehow.”

  “And then what?” she asked. “You’ll walk?”

  “Beane’s place is only forty miles over the border,” he said. “In wolf form, I can do that in a hard day.”

  “No,” she said.

  “Harper, I’m not asking,” he said.

  “No.”

  “It’s your chance to be safe.”

  “I don’t care. I thought that’s all I wanted, to be safe again. But this isn’t over until you’re safe, too. I might not be able to stop you from getting yourself killed eventually, but I can sure as hell make sure it doesn’t happen today.”

  “What do you expect me to do? Carry you the whole way?” he asked.

  She was still looking at him with her jaw set in determination, and he had to break that—break her loyalty, make her choose to be safe. So he chose his next words carefully, cruelly.

  “You’re too fat,” he said. “You’ll just slow me down.”

  The slap that followed made his head ring.

  “You’d be dead now if it wasn’t for me, you bastard. Don’t think you can get rid of me with your stupid playground insults. You think you know how to be mean? You’re not even in the running. So shut the hell up before you embarrass yourself, because I’m coming along with you, if only to make sure you stay alive long enough that I can kick your ass for everything you’ve done. Got it?”

  She couldn’t make him take her. When he stopped the car, all he had to do was shift and run into the darkness, and she’d be left with no choice. She’d have to turn herself in. She’d have to be safe.

  And if he really cared about her, that’s what he’d do. But even as he thought that, he knew that he wouldn’t because he couldn’t let go of her, not when she wanted to stay so badly.

  Not when he wanted her to stay.

  And that image kept running through his head, over and over, of the pain in her eyes when he talked of forever….

  “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t mean it.”

  “I know,” she said, still staring straight ahead with her mouth in a hard line. “You’re still an asshole, though.”

  “Yeah. I know,” he said.

  And then there was silence as the car flew on through the night.

  A pair of taillights appeared beyond a curve in the road. Levi carefully kept his distance, keeping an eye on the rearview mirror to make sure that no one was catching up to them behind. He was only invisible to other cars if they didn’t get too close, because as soon as another car’s lights hit them, they’d be seen. The occasional field had given way to solid woods this close to the West Virginia bo
rder, pressing on either side of the road until it felt like they were flying down a chute made of asphalt and trees.

  Levi watched the mile markers count down. A mile out from the checkpoint, he slowed.

  “Are we there?” Harper asked, leaning forward against her seatbelt as she strained in the darkness.

  “Getting close,” he said, pulling off onto the shoulder, then farther, into the high weeds along the road. He pushed the car farther and farther off the side of the road, small branches scratching at the sides of the car, until it came to rest against a thicket that it couldn’t push through.

  “Give me the SD card.” Harper’s voice was flat.

  He looked over at her as he killed the engine. She had her hand out. She wiggled her fingers, looking at him even though she probably couldn’t make out anything in the darkness, with the trees crowding close overhead.

  If she had the SD card, he wasn’t going anywhere without her. But if she was coming along, it only made sense for her to carry it. He was going to be shifting, and unless he devised a kind of collar for him to carry it with, he couldn’t easily hang onto it. Plus, no one would expect her to be holding the goods. Even Mortensen might think that she was a victim, still, since those who knew otherwise hadn’t survived.

  But if he gave her the SD card, there was no sneaking off in the darkness. No doing the right thing. The noble thing.

  Levi handed her the coin purse with the SD card inside. He’d never been very good at noble.

  Harper let out a little breath then, one he hadn’t realized that she’d been holding. Tension ran out of her shoulders.

  “Right, then,” she said, and she shoved the coin purse in her front pocket and punched the button on her seatbelt buckle.

  Wordlessly, Levi got out of the car. Harper tried her door, but the underbrush pressed up against it kept it from opening, so she scooted over the center console and out Levi’s, hauling her purse with her. Five of the beers were gone now, and so was the plastic container of stew, so the purse lay almost flat against her body, even with the tablet and the new reader inside.

  If they had time, they should probably wipe the car down. Levi itched to leave it behind, covered in evidence. But if they won, Beane and Mortensen could sort everything out between them, scrub them from all the databases, once he had the data in hand. And if they lost, well, they wouldn’t be in a position to care.