Release Me (Storm Lords Book 3)

by Nina Croft

  “Can I ask you something?” Finn said.

  Bryce turned to him. “Of course.”

  “What happened? When you failed. How…?”

  “Did she die?” Bryce asked.

  Finn took in a sharp breath. There. It had been said, and pain ripped through him at the thought. If he failed, Rachel was going to die.

  “When the five days were up, she fell into a coma. Her body shut down. I don’t think there was any pain. And she was ready to die; she’d suffered so much.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I. But it’s done, and if I had the chance to change things, to have it as though we’d never met, I couldn’t do it. She taught me what it was to feel love. Maybe someday we’ll meet again.”

  Finn knew exactly what he meant. Love had always been an abstract emotion before Damaris.

  “So,” Bryce said. “Torr said to tell you the extraction is on for tomorrow lunchtime. We get the boy out, bring him back here. Then tomorrow night, there’s a party at the White House. The senator will be there. We’ve got you and Rachel an invite. Go face him, make sure he understands that he’s lost this one, and if he goes near Rachel or her son again, he’ll lose a whole lot more.”

  Finn hated parties, but he saw the sense in facing the senator in a public place, surrounded by his peers. It should finish him once and for all. If Rachel died, the senator might come after Jacob again. And that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

  God forbid it came to that.

  Chapter 14

  Rachel sat in the back of the black van and clasped her hands on her lap to stop them from shaking. On a monitor across from her, she could see Jacob. He was alone in a bedroom, sitting in the middle of a big bed, arms wrapped around his knees. He looked composed, but sad. And she longed to be able to hold him.

  Soon.

  Yesterday, she hadn’t seen Finn again after he left her, and she couldn’t believe how much she had missed him.

  Phoebe had brought her dinner and stayed to share it with her. She’d also brought her two-year-old daughter with her to be introduced. Sophie had her father’s dark-red hair and green eyes and was, even at two, a little beauty. She’d been lively company and kept Rachel from too many dark thoughts. She suspected that was the plan. Phoebe had told her that Finn was off somewhere with Torr and Cade but hadn’t gone into details. And something had kept Rachel from asking. Phoebe had plied her with red wine, which she’d drunk because she just needed to get through the night. Time to worry about turning into a lush when she had Jacob back. Once he was safe, she could start to think about what she should do next. She had an idea that returning to Haven and her old life was not an option. The Elders were pushing her to take up one of the offers for her hand in marriage and she knew she couldn’t do it. Not after meeting Finn. Even if nothing came of that, deep down she knew he’d changed everything. Changed her indelibly and forever.

  She’d actually fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow and slept deeply, for once without dreams. Until she’d woken in the night to find her golden wolf lying beside her, his huge head resting on her stomach, his gray eyes watching. A sense of safety washed through her, and she’d fallen asleep again to dream of angels.

  Now they were parked outside the senator’s house. Waiting for the all clear to go in. Not that she was going in herself. Apparently, she would be a liability, and she could sort of understand that. The guards would be armed, and she hated guns. She’d probably freeze up at the sight, and they’d have to rescue her as well.

  A hand tugged one of hers from her lap and squeezed it. She cast a sideways glance at the man sitting on the bench seat beside her. Finn was dressed in black pants and a black T-shirt and a matching leather jacket. Beneath it, she knew he had two pistols in shoulder holsters; she was trying not to look. And praying that it wouldn’t come to a shootout.

  “Don’t get shot,” she muttered.

  “Not part of the plan, sweetheart. And my plans always work.”

  A tingle ran over her skin when he called her sweetheart.

  On the drive here, he’d regaled her with stories of his previous missions. They sounded dangerous. More dangerous than this. The last one in the jungle in South America. This was apparently going to be a piece of cake. She glanced out of the tinted glass of the window, gnawing on her lower lip.

  “He’ll be all right,” Finn said.

  She looked at him then. “Will you?”

  He smiled. “I’m pretty hard to kill.”

  She supposed he was right. After all, he’d been shot only two days ago and recovered almost immediately. Of course, he’d been a wolf when he was shot that time. Maybe it was different if he got shot as a man. And she couldn’t even believe she was thinking that without screaming hysterically. How had her life gotten so…weird?

  Someone banged on the door of the van, and Finn gave her hand one last squeeze and got to his feet. He headed to the rear as the door opened, but hesitated and came back. He leaned down and kissed her hard and fast on the lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

  She clamped her lips together and nodded, watching as he jumped out of the back and disappeared, the door slamming behind him. The screen on the laptop still showed Jacob sitting on the bed.

  Everything seemed to slow as she strained to hear, expecting at any moment the quiet to be shattered by gunshots. She forced herself to sit back, relaxed her muscles one by one. She would be a wreck if she didn’t calm down and no good to Jacob. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, out then in, and her heart rate slowed a little.

  When she opened her eyes, someone had entered the room with Jacob. A woman she didn’t recognize. She spoke—there was no sound, so Rachel couldn’t hear the words—and he shook his head solemnly.

  Then she jumped as the van started up and moved away slowly. The house was surrounded by high walls and a gate. Finn had told her they would drive inside once they had neutralized the guards. Neutralized—that was a good word. She hoped none of them would be seriously harmed. The van pulled to a halt again.

  Then Finn was on the screen, close to Jacob, and the woman was backing away, looking at something behind him. Finn crouched down by the bed and spoke to her son, and his face broke into a big smile, and he nodded. Finn straightened, held out his hands and picked Jacob up. They vanished from the screen.

  Rachel got up and hurried to the back of the van, pushed open the door. They were inside a walled yard, on a gravel drive, big metal gates behind them and a three-story, elegant house in front of her. A body lay sprawled on the steps leading to the front door and another at the bottom of the steps. She swallowed, then jumped down onto the gravel, staring at the front door, willing Finn and Jacob to appear.

  Finn had told her that—according to her father—this was the house where she had spent the first years of her life. She searched for something familiar but found nothing. Had she played on these lawns? She couldn’t remember.

  The door opened, and a man appeared—not the one she was looking for. She recognized Cade, Phoebe’s husband, dressed in black, the same as Finn, together with Bryce and Killian. They fanned out behind him. Cade held a pistol loosely in his hand, almost as though it was an extension of his arm. He caught sight of her and nodded.

  A moment later Finn appeared, carrying Jacob. When he saw her standing by the van, he hurried across, stopping in front of her and lowering Jacob to the ground. For a moment, she couldn’t move, just stood and stared at her son, as though, if she reached out and touched him, he might vanish.

  “Mom?”

  And she opened her arms. He jumped into them, and she hugged him hard.

  “Mom, you’re hurting me.” But a wide grin spread across his face. “I told great-grandfather that you would come. He said you didn’t want me anymore, that you’d said I could live with him, but I knew he was lying.”

  She put him away from her but kept her hands on his shoulders; she didn’t want to let him go. “I love you, and I’ll never leave you
. Never believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”

  “I won’t.”

  She kissed him on the forehead, then sniffed. She hadn’t realized how scared she was underneath, however much she’d told herself that Jacob was fine, that his great-grandfather wouldn’t do anything to harm him. She’d been terrified. Now, the adrenaline oozed from her system, leaving her shaky.

  “We need to get out of here,” Finn said. She nodded. “Ready to go, Jacob?”

  Jacob nodded. Finn scooped him up, and he giggled—clearly, he hadn’t been harmed by the last two days. He’d trusted her to come and get him, and she would never betray that trust again. She would make sure that he never had reason to doubt her love. Finn placed him in the back of the van.

  “You next,” Finn said.

  As she turned to climb into the vehicle, there was a loud crack. Something smashed into her, crashing her to the ground, and the air left her lungs in a whoosh. She lay for a moment, winded, trying to work out what had happened. More cracks.

  Gunshots.

  ***

  Finn covered her body with his own. A line of shots kicked up the gravel so close he could feel them whiz past. Then Cade and the others were shooting back.

  Beneath him, Rachel wriggled, trying to get free, and he tightened his grip. “Stay still,” he muttered in her ear.

  “Jacob?”

  “He’s safe. In the van. It’s bulletproof.” He glanced up to check. He could make out Jacob cowering in the back, Killian in front of him, stopping the boy from running to his mother.

  They hadn’t been shooting at Jacob. Or him. If they’d wanted to hit him, they could have done it easily while he was lying here. Rachel was the target. And his fury rose inside him like a living thing.

  The sky darkened above them, thunderclouds rolled in, and lightning flashed. A bolt hit the building.

  “Go,” Cade shouted, and a continuous volley of shots rang out. Finn dragged Rachel to her feet and almost threw her into the back of the van, climbing in after her. Cade got in behind them and someone slammed the doors and they were moving. The van pulled away with a screech of tires.

  Rachel slowly raised her head, then scrambled to her feet and hurried to Jacob, who was staring wide-eyed. Killian moved out of the way, and she hugged Jacob as though she would never let him go.

  Cade caught his eyes, a frown on his face.

  “Who?” Finn asked.

  Cade shrugged. “I have no clue. Bryce is going to see if he can get one of them alive.”

  “They must have been watching. Expecting us to come.”

  “You think it was the senator? That he brought in some backup?”

  “No.”

  It couldn’t be Lilith. If she killed Rachel, the Covenant would be broken. Presumably, Rachel would be reborn. He would no longer be bound by the rules of the Covenant, and Lilith would lose any hope of regaining her control over either Finn or his legions of wolves. No way would Lilith risk that.

  And there was no reason for Gabriel to want Rachel dead.

  That left the senator and Cassia.

  He didn’t think it was the senator. He was unlikely to believe Rachel had the contacts to take Jacob back by force.

  So his bet was on his intended bride. Who claimed she loved him but had a strange idea of what constituted love.

  Probably inherited from her mother.

  Chapter 15

  Finn leaned in the doorway, watching as Rachel tucked Jacob into bed.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was so beautiful. In a long red dress that skimmed her body, revealing more than it hid.

  She sank down onto the mattress beside her son and stroked his hair.

  After they’d gotten back, she’d spent the rest of the day with Jacob. Feeding him, mainly. The boy ate as if he hadn’t been fed since he was taken. Finn couldn’t believe how much food one small boy could get inside him. Otherwise, he seemed to have suffered no ill effects.

  And Finn had spent the rest of the day watching the two of them. The attack at the senator’s house had shaken him. And while this was the safest place in DC, he still hadn’t been able to drag himself away, and he should be out there with the others, trying to find out who had ambushed them. Bryce hadn’t managed to take one of them, so right now, they had no clue. Apparently, as soon as the van had pulled away, their attackers had vanished. And they had been unable to contact either Lilith or Cassia.

  At least tonight, they would hopefully remove the senator as a threat once and for all.

  Rachel hadn’t wanted to leave Jacob.

  Finn had finally persuaded her that they needed to confront her grandfather, and tonight was their best option for that. He hadn’t told her where they were going—that might have made her even more reluctant—just that it was an opportunity to face the senator in public where he wouldn’t be able to make a fuss. There was no way he could be a danger. Otherwise, they would have to go visit him; he had no other public appearances over the next few days.

  She’d seen the sense in the end, and Phoebe had offered to babysit. She had introduced Jacob to Sophie, and the two had been an instant hit. Sophie was already asleep in the other twin bed.

  Time to go.

  He straightened from where he was leaning against the open doorway and walked toward her. Her hair was up in some sort of knot on the top of her head, loose tendrils around her face and neck. The dress was almost backless. Her skin was pale and flawless, and he could see the curve of her spine. His hand came out without conscious thought and stroked down the smooth skin. She went still, then looked over her shoulder at him.

  He hadn’t realized how tense she had been. Now, the lingering fear was gone from her eyes.

  She rested back against his hand for a moment, then rose to her feet and turned to face him. “Thank you. For Jacob, and for what you did back there. You saved my life. Again.”

  He hadn’t known she’d realized she was the target. He shook his head; there was nothing to say. She wouldn’t be in danger if it wasn’t for him. “Come on, we have to go.” He put his hand at her waist and ushered her out of the room. She gave Jacob one last look, but he was already sleeping deeply, exhausted by the excitement of the day.

  Phoebe hurried across the hallway, carrying some sort of shawl that she handed to Rachel. “We forgot to get you a jacket, but this should go okay.”

  “You’ve been too kind,” Rachel said.

  “Hey, you’re family now.”

  Rachel frowned at the comment, but Finn urged her toward the door before she could say anything else.

  “Do I look okay?” she asked as they went down in the elevator.

  “You look beautiful.”

  “Bella got the dress. I would never have dared. There’s a lot of me on show.” She shook out the shawl. It was black, velvet and lace, and she wrapped it around her shoulders. “Will I fit in?”

  “You’ll be the most beautiful woman there.”

  She bit her lip, opened her mouth to say something, but at that moment, the doors parted, revealing the ground floor. They walked out across the marble foyer and through the smoky glass doors that led to the street.

  A limousine was parked out front, the engine running, the driver waiting by the door. Finn nodded to him. He was one of the Washington, DC pack. Finn had called Dawson, the alpha, when they got back. He wanted eyes on the street and on Rachel—though if he had his way, she wouldn’t leave his sight again. The pack hadn’t been happy; they hated any reminder of their allegiance to him, but they hadn’t been able to deny a direct call.

  She slid into the back, and he followed her in, settling beside her as she fastened her seat belt.

  “So where are we going?” she asked as the car pulled away and into the traffic.

  “To the White House.”

  She twisted to face him, eyes wide. “Really? So what’s happening at the White House?”

  “Some sort of celebration for a visiting dignitary,” he said. He didn’t even know w
ho. All he cared about was that the senator would be there, and they could have this out and remove the threat he posed. “Torr got us the invites.”

  “Torr must have some influential friends.”

  “More than you can imagine.”

  She blew out her breath. “I’ve always thought I had a good imagination, but you’re probably right. So much that has happened over the last few days has been beyond my imagination. This”—she waved a hand down over the dress— “nothing. The White House…pft.”

  “And how are you feeling?”

  She smiled, and the expression lit up her face. “Relieved…excited…happy. It’s funny; I’ve never been unhappy. Don’t get me wrong—I’ve loved my life, but it was more a…feeling of contentment. I never realized that until this moment. Tomorrow, I’ll worry about what comes next, going home, whether I’ll feel safe.” She cast him a look. “Werewolves.”

  “I’m not a werewolf,” he said.

  “Maybe not, but apparently there’s a whole pack of them in my forest.”

  “They’ll never hurt you.” But whatever she was thinking right now, he doubted she would return home, except maybe to visit her grandfather. He’d take her if she wished, and if they got the chance. But by that time, she would either be with him or she would be dead. And he wouldn’t think of that right now. Because if he did, he might cease to function, and he couldn’t afford to do that. Tonight, he had to neutralize the senator. After that, there was Lilith and Gabriel. Cassia.

  “And I have no clue why that is,” Rachel said. “Or why you saved me or why you’re going to all this bother and helping me now. But, you know what? Jacob is safe. And for tonight, I’m just going to forget all those questions and go with the flow. I’m wearing a pretty dress—which I can guarantee you Papi would not approve of. I’m with a handsome man, who for some reason has nominated himself as my protector. For one night, I’m going to forget the rules.”

  “Then I’ll help you.” He would give himself this night as well.

  The car stopped to go through the security check into the White House grounds. Then pulled away. A minute later, they parked outside the entrance. Someone opened the door, and he climbed out and held out his hand for Rachel. She slid her palm into his, and he helped her out. He followed the line of guests in, showed his invitation, and they entered the White House. A footman took Rachel’s shawl, and another led them through a huge set of double doors and into some sort of ballroom with tables around a central dance floor.