Elliot just hoped that when it was over, and the dust had cleared, she was still standing by his side.
Chapter 6
It was difficult for Elliot to think he was with Skye simply because he’d had the luck of a coin toss. A random turn of fate that could have so easily gone in Max’s favor, instead of his.
Though most Lycans subscribed to the belief that life-mates were predestined, he knew there were some more progressive-thinking shifters who believed that the connections were made when two souls came into contact with one another and shared a spark. A moment of recognition that they were a perfect match, in all the ways that mattered. Ways they wouldn’t completely understand at first, but would come with time...and the seeds of deeper emotion.
It was a concept that had troubled Elliot more than once over the years. At times, he’d found it impossible to believe that he would ever be able to find a woman whose soul reached out to his and thought Yes, him. He’s perfect for me. He’s mine...
Now that it’d happened, he was... Christ, it was difficult to explain. So damn happy he could barely process it, and yet so terrified it was ripping him to shreds inside. Because having something meant you had something to lose, and that... Yeah, that scared the ever-loving hell out of him.
They’d only spoken in bits and pieces since they’d set out in her beleaguered little car. She’d asked Elliot if he would drive, and he was more than willing, sensing she needed some downtime. She was drawn with worry, quiet in a way that he guessed wasn’t natural for her, but he didn’t push her to engage. At the moment, as they sped down the dark highway that climbed steadily toward the mountains, he was too busy focusing on their surroundings, ensuring they weren’t being followed by anyone who might have been watching the apartment, to navigate his way through a tricky conversation.
And until he’d told her at least part of the truth about what was going on, every damn conversation they had was a tricky one.
Before they’d left Charity, he’d found an electronics store that was open late, and was able to grab a new battery for the older-model cell phone Skye had in her purse. As soon as they were back in the car and on the road, she’d put the new battery in and had sent Viv a short message that simply said: Phone working. Saw the apartment. Men were trying to kidnap you! Please call me! X
Then she’d bitten her lower lip and set the phone in her lap, staring down at it like it was suddenly going to give her direction. “I feel like I should call Viv’s mom,” she’d said in a quiet voice, “but I...I wouldn’t know what to say.”
Fiddling with the heater, since he hadn’t wanted her to be cold, he’d said, “It’s probably best to just hold off on that for the moment.”
“Yeah?”
Elliot had nodded. “As soon as we have some solid news, you could call her then. But right now, you’d just end up scaring the shit out of her.”
She’d sighed as she leaned back in her seat. “You’re right.”
That’d been almost an hour ago, and as they came up on one of the last towns they would pass through before changing onto a more rural road that would lead up to the safe house, he asked her if she was hungry. She said she could probably eat something, and so they grabbed some burgers and fries from a drive-through. Elliot ate as he drove, desperate for the food, since his body burned through twice as many calories as a human male. But Skye only picked at hers, her thoughts clearly still on her friend as she said, “Couldn’t Monroe do like an APB on Vivian’s truck? Wouldn’t that help Max find her?”
With one hand on the wheel and the other holding his burger, he said, “He could, but that might just lead them to her even faster. These guys are too good at what they do to not be monitoring the police systems.”
His skin sizzled with awareness as she looked over at him. “They were expecting you and Max to be at our apartment tonight. Do you think they know you’re working on the case? That you’re trying to catch them?”
He shook his head as he swallowed the last bite of his burger. “I’m not sure they knew about us before we showed up in Charity. But after that message on her wall, you’re right. They definitely know about us now.”
When her phone suddenly buzzed, signaling a text alert, she nearly jumped out of her seat. “Ohmygod,” she gasped, scrambling for the phone and quickly reading the message. “It’s from Vivian. She says that she was able to charge her phone for a few minutes at a rest stop, and wants to know if I’m okay.” Her fingers started flying over the keypad. “I’m telling her that a lot has happened, but I’m fine, I have help and I’m going somewhere safe.”
“Ask her how badly she was hurt, where she is and where she’s going.”
“Okay.” She typed some more, and a moment later, her phone buzzed again. “She says she got a bad cut, but that it’s stopped bleeding and that she’s still on the move. That she just needed to know I was safe. But that’s...that’s all.”
Elliot glanced over at her, and his stomach tightened when he saw the shattered look on her face. Voice hoarse with emotion, she said, “I don’t think she wants me to know where she’s going. But that doesn’t make any sense. Why wouldn’t she tell me?”
“I don’t know, Skye. She’s probably not thinking very clearly right now, so try not to read too much into it.”
He had to shift his attention back to the road, but he could see her still chewing on her lip from the corner of his eye. “Yeah, I guess.”
“Do me a favor and tell her that there’s a guy named Max who’s trying to find her and is probably trying to call her. Tell her he’s a PI who wants to help her. That he’ll be able to explain what’s going on and that she can trust him.”
“Good idea,” she murmured, quickly typing in the message. They waited, but when a response didn’t come through, she said, “Damn it. I think she must have turned her phone off again.”
“She’ll check it eventually.” He wished there was something more comforting he could tell her, but he honestly didn’t know what the fuck was going through Vivian Jackson’s head at the moment. He just hoped she stayed smart, and listened to Max when he finally caught up to her.
Skye held the phone tightly in her hand for the next half hour, but when it stayed silent, she finally set it down on her lap again, leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Elliot kept trying to think of something to say to make her feel better, but couldn’t come up with a single goddamn thing. He didn’t want to spew another lie, and so he bit down on the useless platitudes that lingered in his mouth and kept silent.
Hoping it would help her to relax, he turned the radio on low, and she eventually dozed off. Despite the heavy snowfall they’d recently seen in that area, the roads were relatively clear, and he made good time, the directions he’d been given to the remote cabin easier to follow than he’d thought they would be. Less than an hour later, they were there, and he parked the Beetle on the side of the cabin, then gently nudged Skye awake with his hand on her knee.
“Skye, honey, wake up. We’re here.”
She looked around for a moment, disoriented, then sat up and pushed her hair back from her face. “I’m so sorry I fell asleep. I’m hopeless in the car when I’m not driving.”
“No need to apologize. You needed it after the night you’ve had. Come on. Let’s check this place out.”
“You’ve never been here?” she asked, giving him a curious look over the roof of the car after she’d climbed out.
Elliot grinned. “Nope.”
He grabbed their bags from the backseat, shut his door, and they met at the back of the car, the two of them walking together as they made their way to the front of the cabin. Six steps led up to the wide, wraparound porch, the exterior stained a deep gray that was so dark it looked black in the moonlight. It wasn’t as nice as the cabins he and the other Runners had in the Alley, but it was still a beautiful place, and Skye obviously thought so, too.
“Wow,” she murmured, shooting him a wide-eyed look of surprise. “Who owns this place?”
The truth? The cabin was part of an interregional pack alliance that Mason had been working on, its purpose to establish safe locations for Runners to stay at while on assignment outside of their area. But that wasn’t exactly an explanation Elliot could give Skye, so he licked his bottom lip, and said, “It’s a cabin that some of my PI friends own. A good place to use as a safe house when one of us needs to lie low.”
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah,” he grated, unable to look away from her as she tilted her face up to the moonlight, the silvery beams making her look like a fairy creature. Making her so breathtaking he had to rip his gaze away before he did something stupid, like grab her and cover that pink, delicious-looking mouth with his own.
Unfortunately, that was the last friggin’ thing he needed to be thinking about, unless he wanted to scare the hell out of her. He might not know all that much about women, but he did understand that after bringing her up to a cabin in the middle of freaking nowhere, the fastest way he could put her at ease was by keeping his hands to himself. Christ, he’d gone without for nearly his entire life. Not like waiting until she was ready for more was going to kill him.
Though with her so close, and looking so goddamn beautiful, while that mouthwatering scent kept screwing with his head, he figured there was a good chance he might go a bit mad.
“Whoa, what was that?” she gasped, gripping on to his arm when an owl suddenly swooped down just off to their right.
“Just an owl heading out to get his dinner.”
“Oh.” She breathed out a huge sigh of relief, and let go of his arm.
Sensing her fear at being in the woods, he couldn’t help but ask, “Haven’t you ever been camping before?”
With a wry twist of her lips, she shook her head. “My family didn’t do the vacation thing, and Viv and I...” A quiet, hollow laugh slipped past her lips. “I don’t think camping would really be our thing.”
Elliot lifted his brows. “You don’t like the forest?”
“Oh, I like it just fine. I’m just not entirely sure that it likes me.”
“Naw, I think you’ll find it likes you just fine,” he said in a low voice, giving her words right back to her. The wildness and freedom of the forest was such a part of his animal-side, he couldn’t help but believe that the connection between him and Skye would eventually help her to feel as at home there as he did.
Of course, that meant that the same should work in the reverse, and he would eventually feel more at ease whenever he had to venture into a big, bustling human city, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. Then it hit him—how much of a jerk he was being—and he gave himself a mental kick in the ass as he finally started up the porch steps, Skye right at his side.
Instead of needing a key to unlock the door, he punched the code Mason had given him into the keypad just above the handle. A second later, there was a distinct click, and the door opened with a little popping sound.
“Cool door,” she murmured, following him in.
Looking around, Elliot immediately felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders. He’d been worried the place would be a bit on the barren side, but it was actually clean and well furnished, with colorful rugs covering the hardwood floors, comfortable-looking sofas and what looked like a high-tech kitchen off to their left.
Together, they took a quick tour, neither of them commenting when the only functional bedroom sported a massive king-size bed, the second room set up with weights and a desk. He figured one of the sofas probably turned into a bed, but didn’t like the idea of not having her in the same room with him.
Thinking it was probably best to get the issue out in the open as soon as possible, he set their bags down on top of the dresser and turned toward her as he shoved his hands in his front pockets, hoping it made him look a little less threatening. “You okay with me sleeping in here with you if I use the cot in the closet? It’d make me feel better to know I’m close in case we have any trouble.”
She slipped her coat off, laying it on the foot of the bed before sliding him a worried look. “Do you think we will? Have any trouble, I mean?”
“We shouldn’t. But that doesn’t mean we let our guard down. Especially when there’s so much about this group that we don’t know.” Not to mention the asshole they’re working for.
“That makes sense.” She angled her head a bit to the side and frowned as she looked him over, from his short hair down to the heavy black boots on his big feet, every single one of his muscles hardening beneath her attention. “But let me take the cot. I don’t think you’d fit on it.”
“I’ll be fine,” he assured her, the fact that she wasn’t freaked out at the thought of sleeping in the same room as him making him want to smile like a damn idiot. Needing to distract himself, and quick, he jerked his chin toward the door. “Let’s finish checking out the place.”
They took a quick look around the kitchen, examining the contents of the cupboards and the fridge, and he was relieved to find that there were enough provisions to get them through for at least a couple of days before they would need to head back down to a store. Mason must have had someone come up and stock the place with supplies, when he’d learned that they might need to use the cabin.
The last time Elliot had talked to the Runner, he’d told him that he and Max planned to bring Skye Hewitt and Vivian Jackson up there, giving them a safe place to stay while they went after the assholes coming after the women. But learning that Skye was his life-mate had definitely changed the game. No way in hell was Elliot leaving her side, which meant he and Max would need to come up with a new plan as soon as his partner showed up with Vivian.
“I want you to know that I appreciate what you’re doing for me,” Skye said, as he shut the door to the fridge. “And I...I didn’t mean to be a pain earlier. It’s just...it’s scary to rely on people. To trust them. And I’m... I’m not very good at it.”
He turned around, resting his back against the stainless-steel front of the fridge, little more than a few feet between them as she stood by the breakfast bar and stools that separated the kitchen from the rest of the open floor plan at the front of the cabin. “How about the next time I need to rely on someone, it can be you? Then we’ll be even.”
“That sounds like a plan,” she said with one of those shy smiles that made him feel a little dizzy, they were so adorable, and he was sure that he’d surprised her.
It was after eleven, but Elliot was nowhere near ready for bed yet, and he knew she had to be hungry. “Let me make a fire for you before I get started on the food,” he said, straightening away from the fridge. “It’s pretty cold in here.”
“You’re hungry again?” She shook her head as she laughed, and he was glad to hear the sound was a little less hollow this time. “How is that even possible?”
He walked past her, heading toward the fireplace, but shot her a playful wink over his shoulder. “I’m a growing boy.”
Elliot could tell she was trying to sound casual as she asked, “You’re what...twenty-eight? Twenty-nine?”
“Twenty-seven,” he told her, glad she was trying to learn more about him. Looking back at her again as he went down on his knees in front of the hearth, he said, “And you hardly touched that burger and fries we picked up. You need to at least have a go at something before you call it a night.”
There was something incredibly soft in her eyes as she held his gaze, her voice a little huskier when she asked, “Are you really offering to cook for me?”
He couldn’t help but grin, thinking that he would happily cook for this girl for the rest of his life, if she’d let him. “I’m not much of a gourmet, but I can make a killer omelet.”
She smiled, but turned quiet again while he got the fire going. He watched from the corner of his eye as she looked out one of the front windows, so hungry for the sight of her that he almost singed his hand as he got the kindling going. Then he went back into the kitchen and began putting everything toget
her for their omelets.
“I’ve never had a guy cook for me before,” she admitted with a note of embarrassment, after he’d finished chopping the peppers and had started cracking the eggs into a mixing bowl. The fire was heating the room, and it’d soothed his protective instincts when the color had come back to her cheeks, her smooth skin no longer covered in chill bumps.
Surprised by what she’d said, he lifted his brows as he looked over to where she was perched on one of the stools, her crossed arms resting on the tiled surface of the breakfast bar. “Seriously?”
She nodded, biting her lip, her creamy complexion turning pinker as she blushed. “That sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, you’ve probably cooked for hundreds of girls, and now you think I’m a dork.”
Taking a deep breath, Elliot set the eggs down, washed his hands, then locked his hooded gaze with her curious one as he slowly made his way over to where she sat.
“I’ve only cooked for friends,” he said quietly, unable to stop himself from turning her toward him and settling his hands on her waist. He leaned down and pressed his lips to her temple, then trailed them down the side of her face, before letting himself steal a quick kiss against the corner of her soft, quivering mouth. “I’ve never cooked for a girl that I wanted,” he added, his lips brushing against her cheek. And I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you. Not even close.
She shivered, and he nearly died when she turned her head and pressed those supple, velvety lips against the side of his throat. He swallowed so hard that it hurt, and knew he needed to step back. He allowed himself one brief moment to run his hands from her waist, down over the feminine swell of her hips, damn near drooling over the lush curves of her body, his grip tightening for no more than a second. Then he forced himself to let her go, careful to shield his eyes with his lashes as he headed back to his task, knowing his normally dark irises were glowing in a way that was so much more Lycan than human.
“Elliot?” she whispered, sounding...unsure.
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