by Diane Darcy
“Now, now, I brought you some spider boxes, you can put them around the edges of the cage, and that should keep them away.”
There was a tall air mattress on the floor of Addison’s cage, and another one in the cage next to it. A third was outside the cages in another corner.
“Go on,” Vince urged as he shoved Lena toward the empty cage once more.
Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something she could grab or hide behind, but there was nothing but the cages.
Another shove had her inside the wire box, and he slammed it shut behind her.
Chapter 19
“You know William is going to kill you for this, don’t you?”
Vince grinned at Lena through the bars. “Actually, the most dangerous part in this whole thing was getting you here in one piece. And here you are, completely undamaged. I think, seeing you safe, that William’s going to give me a break.”
“I doubt that.”
Maybe she should’ve crashed the car after all. But if she had and if Vince had been hurt, then they might never have found Addison until it was too late.
She glanced around her cell. It sported an air mattress with, a blanket, sheets and a pillow. Apparently Vince wanted them comfortable.
Other contents of the cage included bottled water, a basket of snacks, and a makeshift toilet made from a bucket, a garbage bag, and the fitted toilet seat on top actually had a lid that could open and close.
She looked over to see that Addison had the same arrangement in her cage.
“Ms. DeVille, make yourself comfortable, have something to eat and drink. I have a few more things I need to do, and I’m sure you’d like some privacy so you can try to pick the lock.” He winked at her, spiking her temper.
“Picking the lock will be a waste of time, but by all means, give it a try. You can test the spell I bought from the trio of witches in the mall. So far their spells have worked out great, haven’t they, Addison?”
The girl blushed, and Lena remembered that she’d purchased some spells to hide her from the security cameras, and they’d worked beautifully.
She wondered if Vince was telling them about the lock spell so they wouldn’t even try to escape. If that was his objective, then he would be sadly disappointed. She planned to spend her time trying to find a weakness in her cage.
“I’ll be back later.” He gestured at the mattress outside the cages. “I plan to keep you girls company all night, in case you get scared of the dark.”
“A nightlight will do us. Don’t put yourself out,” Lena said.
Addison giggled at that.
“Oh, you girls.” Vince said as if it was a joke. He smiled at them as he backed out of the room, then the door clicked as it locked.
Lena immediately turned to Addison. “You’re not hurt?”
The girl shook her head, but her face crumpled and she started to sniffle. “I know it’s selfish of me, but I’m glad you’re here.”
Lena looked around the room. “I can imagine.”
“Did you happen to see where we are?” Addison wanted to know.
“Kind of in the middle of nowhere. Unless a random stranger happens by and makes enough noise that we know he’s out there, I think we’re stuck.”
“Is there any chance you can get us out?”
“Unfortunately, I left my lock picks at home.” Lena made the feeble joke in an effort to cheer Addison. William’s lock picks would come in handy right about now. She’d have to get a set of her own, pronto.
“What are you?”
Lena blinked. “Uh …” for some reason her dating profile popped into her head. “Single, fun-loving, twenty-five-year-old local girl.”
Addison rolled her eyes. “No! I mean, what are you? Witch? Vampire? Djinn?” Addison gripped the bars. “You’re not a reaper are you? That would come in handy.”
The poor girl. Vince had obviously done a number on her. “I’m a psychic.”
“Seriously?” The girl blinked. “What can you do?”
“Read your palm, Tarot cards, or crystal ball.”
“Oh. Well can you tell me if Vince’s plan is going to work?”
“Not without touching you.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” The girl sat down on the air mattress. It was tall enough to be used as a seat as well as a bed.
She put her hands in her face. “My parents are going to kill me.”
“They’re pretty worried about you, I can tell you that.”
“Do they know that I snuck out? Or do they think I was kidnapped? I … I left a note. In case they found I was missing. I thought maybe if they thought I was kidnapped I wouldn’t get in so much trouble.”
Lena rolled her eyes at how illogical the girl’s thought process was. She still had a lot of growing up to do. “Sorry to say, you’ve been busted. Also, the witches admitted they’d sold you a spell to trick the security cameras. And security cameras caught you leaving your room.”
Addison moaned. “I am in so, so much trouble.”
The younger girl wasn’t looking at her, and Lena allowed herself to grin. “It’s going to be all right, you know? It’s not your fault a psycho set his sights on you. Besides, I snuck out plenty of times when I was a teenager. Even younger than you.”
Addison sprang off the mattress and threw her hands up in the air. “I know, right? They treat me like a baby or something!”
“Sneaking off to meet boys won’t convince them you’re an adult.”
Addison looked stricken. “My parents know about that too?”
Lena grimace. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“How did they find out? Noah would never come forward to help my parents find me. He turned out to be a jerk. He wasn’t as attractive as I thought. Well, he was, but he was mean.”
“You know,” Lena shrugged. “The psychic thing.”
“Right.” Addison looked Lena over, studying her clothes. “I thought psychics were witches.”
Lena shrugged. “So I’ve been told.”
“What do you mean? Are you, or aren’t you?”
“If I knew the answer to that question, I would tell you.”
Addison started to get excited. “Well if you’re a witch, can’t you zap us out of here or something? Can’t you make the doors fly open?”
“Is that what witches do?” Lena sincerely wanted to know.
Addison looked unsure. “I don’t know. Don’t you?”
“So far, the extent of my abilities seems to be to con people out of their money by telling them super nice things are going to happen in the future, or to see a little bit of glowing green occasionally. The glow helps me, I don’t know, identify stuff. Sometimes I get flashes of visions. For instance, I saw you here when I read Vince’s palm.”
“That doesn’t sound very powerful. It sounds more like a parlor trick.”
Lena shrugged again. “Hey, it’s more than I had before.” She moved forward to rattle the cage. “All I can tell you is my life’s been a little bit crazy this last week.”
Addison’s lip curled up in a sneer. “I’m a lot stronger than you are physically, and I haven’t been able to get out of this cage. You’ll have to cast a spell, not use brute strength.”
The criticism didn’t deter Lena in the least, and she checked her cage for weaknesses. Never let it be said that she didn’t at least try.
She made her way all the way around the cage, rattling the bars and testing the locks.
Addison watched her, a petulant look on her face. “Told you so.”
“For future reference? Those might be the most irritating words in the English language. Probably in any language, for that matter.”
Addison looked petulant again, but Lena didn’t mind. She was just relieved the girl was safe and seemingly unaffected by her adventure.
“Did Vince tell you what he wants me to do?”
“Bite him and turn him into an immortal werewolf?” Lena’s tone was dry, inviting the other girl to share
the joke.
Addison flung out a hand, palm up, fingers splayed. “I know, right? He’s even started calling me, Mom!”
Lena had called that right. The girl was outraged at the prospect, and rightly so. “He’s crazy, right? I mean, a werewolf?” Lena chuckled.
Addison looked over at her. “It might actually work, you know. I started turning with the moon at sixteen.”
Her smile turned feral. “Of course, there are no guarantees that he can take the wolf. It might just kill him.” The girl suddenly looked forlorn. “But if that happens, and no one finds us, you and I could die here, right?”
Lena gripped the bars on her cage and looked over at the other girl.
“Are you saying that you’re an actual werewolf?”
“Of course. Why else would he do this?”
“Why else, indeed.” Lena wanted to think that perhaps the other girl had snapped or something, but with everything else going on, Lena was starting to think maybe she was the one out in the cold. Denying the existence of the supernatural wasn’t going to make it untrue.
If it was true.
And that, right there, was how a girl could drive herself crazy.
“William thinks I’m his soulmate,” she confided.
“Really?” Addison stood up and moved to the bars, her fingers wrapping around two bars as they stared at each other. “My gosh! I mean he’s like centuries old. All the girls talk about it. It kinda scares us, you know? What if it takes the rest of us that long to find someone?”
Addison gave a delicate shutter. “I mean hundreds of years without your soulmate. It would be agony!”
Her eyes narrowed. “He’s going to be absolutely dying to get you back! Do you realize that? I mean, he’ll stop at nothing.” Her voice rose with excitement. “Do you think he will find us before, you know, the full moon?”
“The full moon is tomorrow night, right?”
Addison nodded. “If he knew where you were, he’d already be here, wouldn’t he?”
Lena went from excited to defeated in an instant. She tried to put a positive spin on their situation for Addison’s sake.
“I think he already suspects Vince Ramsey of doing this. So if Ramsey is out there, and William finds him, what do you think he’ll do?”
Addison smiled. “Torture him within an inch of his life, if he doesn’t give up your whereabouts.”
Lena did not want to rain on Addison’s parade, so she didn’t mention the fact that it was possible that William didn’t even know she was gone. In this case, the fact that William was always checking up on her could be a good thing. But still, even if he suspected Ramsey, how could he know for sure?
She smiled at the girl reassuringly. “Help is no doubt on its way.”
Addison reached out between her bars, and Lena did the same, and they tried to touch fingers but couldn’t reach.
Addison leaned back with a sigh. “He’ll come, don’t worry. He’ll definitely come.”
Lena smiled as if she believed it. But frankly, she just didn’t know what to believe anymore.
Chapter 20
In his office at The Hemlock, William felt like he was going crazy. The moon would be full tomorrow night, and he had to find Lena before then.
He’d have to be locked away for twenty-four hours, no doubt out of his mind if his mate was still in danger. He’d be imprisoned for the duration and unable to help Lena.
What about Addison? Was she somewhere she could escape and run amok during the full moon? If she wasn’t secured before the moon reached its full size, she was capable of anything, possibly killing civilians and perhaps even being killed herself.
He had to find them both. He was on a deadline.
His men were checking Vince Ramsey’s financials in search of any property Ramsey or his family owned.
That sort of information took time to discover, and William paced his office, checking his phone every once in a while to make sure he hadn’t missed a call or message.
Why hadn’t he put some sort of tracker on Lena? He’d considered it, but he figured if she had discovered the tracker, she’d never trust him again. He wished he had done it, anyway.
He called the witches, hoping that perhaps they had cast a tracking hex or something on Lena. They’d seemed insulted by the very thought of doing that to one of their own.
He snorted. Lena would never be one of their own. She was his, and would remain so.
He just had to talk her into it. After he got her back, safe, unharmed, whole.
“Why didn’t you take my warning seriously?” Ava wanted to know.
“What warning?”
“About Lena’s life being in danger. From a wolf.”
“She never said a word.” When he got her back they’d definitely be having a talk.
Lena’s mother had called him earlier, hoping he knew where Lena was.
He’d explained that he’d gone to the caravan looking for her. He’d found her phone there, so he had it with him.
He’d had to tell Mrs. DeVille that her daughter was missing.
Surprisingly, her mother had called the police, (now he knew where Lena got that inclination from), which meant he’d had to deal with a call from Sergeant Brodie this evening as well, wondering where all these missing girls were disappearing too.
When his phone rang again, he snatched it up. It was from an unknown name, an unknown number. “Hello?”
“Hello, Murray.” Vince Ramsey said on the other end of the line.
“Where is Lena?” His entire body went on alert, his muscles growing, his voice vibrating on a rough note.
“I am calling to assure you, that she is safe, well fed, and in no danger whatsoever. The same is true for Addison.”
“Give her back. Give them both back, or I will gut you from gullet to groin.” His voice was guttural, threatening, and he hoped the other man was able to understand his words, as his accent had thickened as well. “Do ye understand? I will eat you and deliver your sorry, chewed upon bones to yer mother.”
“Now, now. I don’t want things to be ugly between us. I didn’t have to call but I wanted to set your mind at ease, you understand?”
William growled, long and threatening. If Vince had been in the room with him, William might have carried out his threat. He was angry enough to rip the man’s throat out.
“Tomorrow night, I will give Lena a phone so she can call you. She knows right where she is. She’s got food, water, a nice place to sleep. Just twenty-four hours, and you’ll have her back.”
“I’m not waiting twenty-four minutes, Ramsey.”
“Sorry, it’s the best I can do. I’ll see you soon.”
Ramsey hung up the phone, and William barely refrained from turning the little piece of plastic into a missile, sending it through his one way window.
“Boss?” The single word was a question on Quinn’s lips.
William couldn’t speak. Fury consumed him, tinged with a hint of fear. Ramsey’s call hadn’t reassured him in the least. He wouldn’t feel better until he saw Lena with his own eyes, safe and sound.
He swallowed hard and forced words through his throat. “That was Ramsey. I didnae have time to track his phone call.”
“What did he say?”
“He claimed Lena was safe. And that tomorrow night he’ll allow her to call me.”
“He’s waiting until after the full moon?”
“Aye, he has a werewolf on his hands, and he is keeping Addison until after the full moon.”
“Do you honestly think he’s trying to change himself?”
“There is no doubt in my mind. We need to find all three of them before the full moon tonight.”
“Where do we start?”
That was the hundred dollar question, wasn’t it? He had no idea where to find his mate.
Swallowing his pride, he called the witches again.
Chapter 21
Vince Ramsey was gone for hours, and he must have known exactly how secure
his cages were, because he didn’t even bother checking on Lena and Addison.
Lena continued to test the bars, pushing, pulling, and generally trying to escape, while Addison looked on in amusement.
“I repeat. You’re not nearly as strong as I am, and I’ve already tried all that. With much more force, I might add.”
That’s where the amusement came in. The eighteen-year-old believed she was stronger, but Lena still wasn’t buying it. She looked beyond the bars, for anything she could use as a sort of leverage, but it seemed Vince Ramsey had thought of everything. The room was empty, except for a tote against the wall, and Vince’s air mattress.
A scrabbling sound on the side of the building made them both look, and then Lena glanced up at the skylight in the ceiling.
Against the backdrop of the full moon, showed the silhouette of a cat. Impossible to say what color in the dark. The animal seemed to be looking down at them. Surely, it couldn’t be the same one that she’d seen around town?
Lena sighed and picked through the basket. “What are the chances that any of this food is untainted?”
Addison laughed. “I didn’t think of that. They must be okay, though.” She picked up a bag of snacks. “I’ve been eating these, and so far I’m fine.” The girl popped a miniature cookie into her mouth. “I may have gained a few pounds, though.”
“Not something I’m worried about at the moment,” Lena responded.
The girl threw herself back on her makeshift bed and pillow. “My parents. I’m so dead, aren’t I?”
“I don’t think they’ll actually kill you. I mean, you’re pretty much going to be grounded for the next hundred years, sure, but other than that, what can they really do?”
Addison sighed. “You have no idea. They’re gonna bring this up for the rest of my very, very, very long life.”
“If I were you, I’d be more worried about the fact that Vince Ramsey is planning to make you his mother.”
“Eww.” Addison’s lips turned up. “That is so nasty.”
“I’d have to agree with you on that.” Lena chuckled. She wasn’t buying into it, but the whole delusion thing was pretty funny. Or at least it would be until Vince was disappointed, went crazy, and killed them both. “Is there any chance you’ll end up killing him instead? You know, tearing his arm off?”