Her brother had been trying to protect her—as harsh as his methods were. If she were a stronger person, she would’ve held it together. Wouldn’t have given any sign that she was leading him into a trap.
But Nate was right. Her emotions were just as readable as the books she wrote, and now it might have cost more lives than had already been lost. Not just his fiancée’s pack, but also potentially those women along the west coast who were turning up dead.
“Turn yourself in, Nate,” she pleaded. “It would be better for everyone if you just surrendered peacefully.”
She grasped the door handle, half tempted to try and slip out of the car. Maybe wave down another passing vehicle.
But just as quickly as the idea was in her head, Nate was pulling back onto the highway.
Shit. There he went reading her damn mind again.
“I didn’t kill them. I’m sure the video is pretty damning, but I didn’t kill them.”
“You told me there are moments you can’t remember. What if you did it then? What if the drug made you—”
“You told me to trust myself, and I do. I fought the effects of the drug. I swear to you, Sage, I was set up. Yes, I killed Alicia, but it was only to protect a child.”
“A child?” Her mind locked on part of the video, and hope sprang to life inside her. “There was a child in the video.”
“Tell me what you saw. Everything you remember.”
“He was crying. Screaming. Alicia was near him.”
“Because she was about to kill him,” he finished grimly.
Sage reran the image of the video in her head and tried to see it the way he described. It actually worked. There was nothing to indicate either way whether Alicia had been trying to save the child or harm him.
“Who gave you the video?”
“Jocelyn. She was actually there.”
His gaze swung to her. “Where?”
“At my brother’s.”
“She was there? You spoke with her?”
“Yes. She and another man had brought the video to my brother.”
“I’ll try and get the video.”
“How? More violence? What will this solve? You need to surrender.”
“Dammit, I’m not guilty.”
She flinched as he slammed his fist into the steering wheel.
Tears blurred her eyes and she bit her lip to hold them back. She had to get away from him. He still believed himself to be innocent—and maybe he was. She didn’t know what to believe anymore. She just knew he would fight until the death to try and prove himself innocent.
Which might be the exact damn outcome if she didn’t convince him to surrender.
Her thoughts scattered at the sound of squealing tires. A car shot past them on the left-hand side, but instead of passing, it swerved to block both lanes, before the red brake lights flared as he came to a stop.
Nate had to slam on the brakes and swerve to the right onto the shoulder to avoid hitting him.
“Who the fuck is this ass clown?” Nate growled.
The man stepped from the car and strode toward them, gun raised.
Frank. Recognition flared and Sage reached for the handle again. The man who’d been with Jocelyn at her brother’s house had somehow managed to find them.
And the gun he was leveling at them as he pounded on her window sent the hair on her arm rising.
“Let the woman go.” Frank’s shout was calm and firm.
Her heart rose to her throat and she slid a glance to the lock on the door. It was locked, but the car was old enough that clearly the locks weren’t automatic.
“Turn yourself in, Nate. Please,” she pleaded in a low, guttural voice. “I don’t want Frank to shoot you and he looks a little trigger happy.”
“You know this guy?” He shot her a disbelieving look. “Is he in your brother’s pack?”
If she admitted Frank had come with Jocelyn, Nate might just get so irate he’d try and run the man over. And then Frank would shoot him—if he survived.
Either way, there was about to be bloodshed.
Which left her no choice except one. One that made her so nauseous with guilt she couldn’t swallow past the lump in her throat.
Don’t think, just go, her mind urged.
Grabbing the door handle, she yanked it open and threw herself out of the car.
“Sage, don’t—”
She stumbled back as Nate cursed and caught her shirt, but she twisted just enough where she slid right from his fingers and out of the car.
Chapter Twenty
Frank caught her elbow and eased her away from the car and toward his. “You’re safe now, Miss Whelan.”
With the headlights reflecting on them, she couldn’t see Nate behind the wheel. She tried to search his mind. His thoughts weren’t clear, but the emotions he made no attempt to hide.
Disbelief. Frustration. Fury. Betrayal…
I’m sorry, Nate. I’m so scared. If I didn’t leave, I was afraid he would do something extreme. I couldn’t risk that.
“Don’t hurt him,” she whispered.
“I don’t plan to hurt him,” Frank murmured, still holding her arm as he walked them backward toward his car. “Not yet anyway.”
His gun never left Nate. He gestured for her to get in his car.
With her heart heavy, it took a moment for the veiled threat in his words, but by then she was already in the car with the door shut.
She twisted in her seat, watching to see if he’d approach Nate again.
Crap. What had she done? What if he—
Frank jumped into the driver’s side of the car and slammed the door. “Let’s get you out of here.”
Oh thank God. He wasn’t going to hurt Nate. Which meant his primary plan had been to rescue her.
Relief slid through, even as the ache in her heart grew.
He put the car in drive and slammed on the gas. The car lurched forward as he spun them back into the lane and raced down the highway.
Sage rushed to buckle up, and made a quick glance into the passenger mirror. Nate was following them. Not that she was surprised.
This was his chance to flip a U-turn and try to escape if he wanted. Instead he was following them. Why? What was he doing? Was he trying to get her back?
Well, you are his mate.
She tried to read his thoughts and hit a wall now. He was blocking her. He was way too damn good at that.
“Did you notify the P.I.A. of our location?” The words were thick with guilt as she shot Frank a quick glance.
“Those who need to know, know.”
Well that was a bit of an odd response. Maybe her brother had sent him—maybe he’d been nearby her house and had seen the entire attack go down.
“Thank you,” she said hesitantly. “For helping me.”
“You’re quite welcome, Sage.”
He turned to stare at her, and for a moment there was something in his hazel eyes that sent a chill of unexplainable fear through her.
Breaking his stare, she glanced out the window and hoped she hadn’t just made a big mistake. Even if her heart agreed with Nate that she’d betrayed him.
Another glance showed that Nate still followed them.
The car she was in slowed, and she frowned when Frank turned off onto a small back road. Why? What could possibly be out here in the darkness of the isolated road?
Were they meeting someone? That seemed…unlikely. The unease that had been inside her spread.
She lifted her gaze to the side rearview window again and looked for the headlights of Nate’s car on the main road.
Don’t leave me. I didn’t think I had a choice but to go, I couldn’t see you get hurt. She sent the mental plea, hoping he would hear it.
There was no response. She could sense his mental brick wall up again.
The realization made her stomach drop and a heaviness filled her heart. She’d made the wrong choice by getting into this car, she knew it instinctively now. But the sig
ht of a gun directed at Nate had pushed her into the rash, split second decision to leave with Frank.
Even though in shifter form Nate was no doubt deadly, it was hard to fight a bullet. And she had no doubt Frank would’ve shot Nate if he’d felt it necessary.
In the rearview, she saw the headlights of his car approach the turn off.
Her stomach knotted and her throat went dry.
He wouldn’t leave her. He was her mate now, and it would be his instinct to fight for her. To bring her back.
But you willingly left him, her conscience whispered. He owes you nothing.
He wouldn’t leave her. He was her mate, she told herself. He was part of her now—he would not leave her.
She waited for his car to slow, to turn onto the road. Relief flared in her as it slowed down near the turn.
But then the glare of headlights turned to taillights as he sped by the turn off and then into the night.
He’d actually left her.
Numbness swept over her, freezing her muscles and making it feel as if only her mind worked. She stared straight ahead, at the darkness, which was only broken by the car’s headlights. Trees—usually a thing of comfort too her—lined the road like ominous soldiers standing guard.
The car slowed to a stop, and then Frank turned off the engine and then the lights. Plunging the night around them into darkness.
Fear rose swiftly, gathering around her throat and making it difficult to breathe.
“I’m pretty sure this isn’t the way to Fresno.” She was amazed she got the light words out with the panic being so intense.
In the darkness it was hard to see him, but not impossible with her heightened shifter senses.
He didn’t answer, but the atmosphere grew thick with what she could only describe as a sense of evil. Danger.
What she’d thought initially was just a bad decision, might just turn out to be a deadly one.
Who was this guy? How had she not picked up on this vibe of evil radiating off him?
Every part of her coiled with tension. Her heart fluttered like a trapped bird in her chest.
Get ahold of yourself, Sage, she thought. Whatever reason he’s brought you out here for, you’re going to have to face it.
Too stupid to live. She’d used the term in her books, and that’s what she was labeling herself right now.
That’s what she was for making the choice—she’d made a conscious choice—to get in this damn car with him.
“I usually choose humans, you realize.” His hazel eyes darkened. They seemed greener now, and the whites reflected especially bright in the darkness.
“Choose humans for?”
“Why don’t you get out of the car and find out, my dear.”
Oh yeah, she was fucked. “I’d, um, prefer not to.”
There was a blur of movement, before he grabbed her hair and jerked her head back. His face hovered over hers now—and there was no mistaking the violence that radiated from him.
“I’m going to enjoy the challenge, Sage. Humans can’t outrun me. They don’t even have a chance to fight. But you…you’ll be a fun bit of sport in your wolf form.” He rubbed his thumb over her lips. “And your death will bring Jocelyn so much happiness. Especially when Agent Larson takes the blame. Just as he has with each human I’ve killed before you.”
No. Oh God, no.
She’d been wrong. So wrong that she was now as good as dead.
Frank pulled the handle on her door open and she fell backward out onto the dirt road. Rocks bit into her palm and she struggled to her feet.
This wasn’t going to end well. Gut instinct told her she didn’t have a chance. She wasn’t a smart government agent. For goodness sake, she hadn’t even made the track team in high school. Her wolf form was about as equally athletic.
And now apparently some sick freak who’d been killing women for fun intended to make her his next victim. Nate was innocent. He’d always been innocent, and unless she survived this, no one would ever know. Her death would be on his hands, just as each death before hers had been.
Frank climbed out of the car after her and she watched as his body began to distort. Twist into wolf.
“Fuck I love being able to shift.” He laughed. “That drug was an answer to my prayers.”
Shit, shit, shit.
“Better start running, Sage,” he taunted, his words almost maniacal with glee. “I promise it won’t be quick.”
His words ended on a howl as he nearly completed transition.
Scrambling to her feet, Sage turned and sprinted away, shifting within seconds.
She was running, literally, for her life and to save Nate’s.
Chapter Twenty-One
She’d left him. The numbness that had begun to sink in for Nathan slowly replaced the disbelief and anger.
He stared at the red taillights of the car ahead of him, knowing Sage was in that car. He was half tempted to accelerate and slam into the vehicle—get her back, fuck all the risks.
Sage was his mate. Whether she had accepted the position willingly or not, she should’ve trusted him. It should’ve been instinctual.
And yet she’d chosen the sanctuary of another man instead of trusting him to keep her safe. Trusting him to prove his innocence.
He hadn’t seen the video, but he had to believe it was damning. If Sage had been persuaded to trap him, and now had run from him again, she must have been convinced he was guilty.
The cell in his pocket began to ring, and he jerked it free to answer the call.
“Larson, it’s Donovan. Are you okay?”
“Fine. I’m in the car you left me. Sage is gone.”
For now he would continue to just tail them, until he figured out what the hell to do.
“How?” Donovan asked. “We got you guys out of there, left you a car. She should’ve—”
“She left on her own accord.”
“Shit really? God, I’m sorry.” Donovan’s words were clearly sincere. “Where are you going to go?”
“The hell if I know. South? Maybe seek temporary protection from the packs over the border.”
“You may not need to. We’re about to board a flight back to Seattle in the next twenty minutes or so and we’re going to find that child you think witnessed everything.”
Some of what Sage had told him floated back. “There’s a video of that night. Sage’s brother—the alpha of her pack—has it.”
“Finally another piece of good fucking news. I’ll see about getting a copy to try and identify the child,” Donovan said without hesitation. “Look, I wanted to give you the scoop on that number that was disguised as yours on Alicia’s phone.”
“Give it to me.”
“The number belongs to Frank Collins. He’s a half-shifter who wasn’t seen in several days, but was spotted in the company of one Jocelyn Feloray.”
“He’s working with Jocelyn?” A direct link to the woman he suspected had set him up. It hit him then. “Wait. You said Frank? Shit. I think I just met him. Sage is with him right now.”
“I sure as hell hope you’re kidding. Because I haven’t told you the bad part.”
“There’s a bad part? So the Jocelyn bit was the happy news?”
“In comparison? Yeah. It just may have been.”
Hell. This couldn’t be good.
“This Frank guy sounds pretty off balance, Nate. The P.I.A. thinks he’s behind the deaths of the human women along the West Coast.”
It wasn’t me. Relief slammed through him as the words sank in, pushed back the demons that had been eating at him. But with the relief came a blinding fear as what the meaning of the news entailed.
Sage had walked right into the hands of a fucking murdering masochist.
“His DNA was found at the site of four human women who were found dead along the West Coast and at the site of the homicide we were investigating back in Seattle,” Donovan continued. “There’s a memo on the P.I.A. site, right below yours. You’re both consi
dered top priority right now.”
“He’s got Sage.”
“Christ.”
“They’re in the car right in front of me.”
“Maybe you could hit them with your car?” Donovan offered grimly.
“I’m tempted, but Frank has a gun. Sage doesn’t realize the extent of the danger she’s in.”
“You think he’ll shoot her?”
“No. If he’d wanted to use that gun on either of us, he would’ve done it already,” Nathan said tersely. “I don’t think he knows the P.I.A. is on to him, and my instinct says he’ll kill her thinking I’ll take the blame again.”
“Holy hell. Why did Sage go with him?”
“Because he and Jocelyn must’ve passed themselves off as P.I.A. agents. He gained her trust earlier. The video must be pretty bad—”
“Dammit, you were set up.”
“I know that. You know that, but Sage is being driven by fear right now. I’m sure Frank looked like the better choice five minutes ago.”
Especially when he’d had a gun trained on them. He knew Sage was scared and full of doubt, but he also suspected she loved him. Whether she could admit it to herself or not.
“Hopefully you can get her out of this, Larson. The poor girl is innocent and got caught up in some crazy shit, and I know you guys got close—”
“I claimed her.”
There was a heavy silence.
“All right. Apparently close is an understatement.” Donovan’s words were laced with dismay. “Tell me. How the fuck are you so calm right now when a sociopath has your mate?”
“Because I have no choice.” And because it was bred into him after years of being an alpha and commander of his unit.
Keeping his cool was part of his genetics. Yet there was no denying the river of rage that rode beneath the surface.
If Frank so much as drew blood on Sage, he’d be dead before the first drop could hit the ground.
Chances were Frank was a dead man walking anyway. When he’d taken Sage, he’d signed his own death warrant.
“Are you able to pick up on Sage’s thoughts yet? Emotions?” Donovan broke the silence.
“Yeah. That ability came pretty quickly.” He paused, trying to pick up any emotions from her. “She’s getting nervous with Frank. She’s figuring out something isn’t right.”
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