His fist connected with the window and glass shattered all over her lap.
“Noooooo,” she screamed, as his hand felt around for the tab to unlock the door. She pushed the button on her stun gun and it sparked to life. She pressed it to his neck and a terrifying growl rumbled from within him, making her heart pound faster. No way was wolf-man getting her out of this truck.
“Sonofabitch,” he muttered, staggering backward and dropping to his knees on the ground.
Turning to the dash again, her gaze alighted on a round knob, like a stereo dial, that turned for the gears. She punched the break, turned the dial to D, and then hit the gas. The truck leapt forward and she plowed through the grass until she came out on a dirt and gravel road. She turned and followed it in the direction she’d come. A few minutes later she was at their gate.
She pulled to a stop and jumped out to open the massive steel barrier. It swung wide and she hurried to the truck. Following the farm road, she finally reached 16 again and headed for the turn off she’d passed on the other side.
Chapter 5
A few minutes later, Emma spied the white mailbox she’d missed the first time down the road. Yanking on the steering wheel, she turned down the narrow driveway. The back end fishtailed, but caught the ground a second later. She stomped the gas pedal and did her best to stay on the long gravel driveway. Gravel pellets hit the inside of the wheel wells like hailstones in a storm.
Panic surged through her chest. Breath was difficult to draw. All she wanted was to find the safety of Lucy’s house. She would know what to do. Where to go.
The whitewashed old farmhouse came into view and she sighed, relieved. Soon. Soon she would be leaving with Lucy and heading out of the country until her parents could sort out this latest mess.
Her father refused to stop doing business with less than upstanding individuals and so their family continued to pay the price. Hopefully the cost for this debacle wouldn’t include someone’s life.
She’d almost lost her mother last year.
Arnold Carrington had promised to stop doing dirty deals after that incident, but it was apparently too much to expect him to follow through with such a promise. Now both of her parents were missing and her bodyguards were part of it. Bastards.
She followed the driveway around to the back of the house. Putting the truck into park, she slipped out and walked to the large sliding barn door. After a couple of yanks, it whined and started to slide open. She pushed it halfway and then ran to the truck.
Once it was parked out of sight, she tugged the door closed.
Lucy’s house stood before her, dark and uninviting. It was strange. She would’ve thought the noise of the truck would’ve roused the battle- hardened woman. Nothing got past Lucy.
Emma climbed the steps onto the wide wraparound porch and knocked gently on the back door.
The sound echoed through the stillness of the night. An owl hooted from the trees standing to the right of the house. A shiver danced up and down her spine and she knocked again.
“Lucy? It’s Emma.”
Still no answer. All manner of terrifying thoughts ran through Emma’s mind. What if Lucy didn’t live here anymore? What if she was gone? What if they’d gotten to Lucy already? She could be lying dead in the house and no one would know.
Bile rose, burning her throat, and she pressed her hand over her mouth. She frowned and moved away from the door.
Maybe she was sleeping.
Emma followed the porch around to the front door and froze in place as her eyes alighted on a large stack of newspapers. Had to be close to two dozen or more lying against the base of the front door on the welcome mat.
Shit.
She hurried around to the back door again and took a deep breath before using her elbow to bash in one of the panes of glass. It shattered with a loud crash and she winced, hoping no one had been close enough to hear it. At least no alarms had gone off in the house yet. But when she’d visited before, Lucy said there wasn’t a system built into the house. No, the alarms had been placed around the artillery storage upstairs and in the floor cellar beneath the staircase.
Reaching through the broken pane, she unlocked the door and let herself in.
“Lucy?” She called out quietly, still hoping in the back of her mind that Lucy would magically appear out of thin air. That the ignored newspapers meant nothing. Now that she thought of it, Lucy’s old Cadillac was missing from the barn and driveway as well. Still, she clung to the hope that everything was going to be okay. Lucy always made everything okay.
Lucy had been forced to retire as her nanny when Emma turned sixteen. Her parents were tired of her. Or at least that’s the better version of the lie Emma told herself. She’d been sent to Montpelier School for Girls and Lucy had been put out to pasture in Somewhere, as a safe house keeper for the family should there come a time one was needed.
Well, Emma needed her now and Lucy was nowhere to be found.
“Lucy,” she hissed, moving toward the staircase. She climbed to the second floor and wandered through each room.
The house was empty.
Emma sniffed the air and grimaced. The stench was coming from her. Showering was a necessity, finding out where Lucy was could at least wait that long. Her clothes were covered with grass stains and manure. She smelled like a horse stall that hadn’t been cleaned in a week.
Flipping on the hall light, she looked around for the linen closet she remembered seeing last year. She opened a narrow door at the end of the hall and pulled down a couple of large white towels from the top shelf. A bottle of tangelo scented shampoo sat on the bottom shelf and she grabbed that too, just in case.
She walked through the guest room where she had stayed previously and into the adjoining bathroom. Everything Lucy had bought her last time was neatly arranged on the counter. Ready and waiting for her return.
She sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand, trying to blink away the tears welling in her eyes. All of this was for her and neither of them knew if they would ever see each other again. Dropping the towels on the counter, she flipped on the water in the shower and waited for it to steam before stepping into the claw foot tub and pulling closed the surrounding curtain.
The water hit her skin like a branding irons. But the pain from the scalding water helped her temporarily forget the encroaching nausea and the fear of being stuck in Somewhere without Lucy. The next closest safe house was in Colorado. She’d have to use her credit cards to buy a ticket and there was no way the security detail wouldn’t pick up on that. At least with the rental car, she hoped the cash payment would slow them down. Not that they wouldn’t eventually figure it out and then track the GPS in the rental car. It actually worked to her benefit that it had crashed several miles from Lucy’s place. Maybe it would give her a little longer to sort out her next move. That was if they didn’t know about Lucy’s place already. Which they probably did.
Rinsing the last bit of grime from her hair and skin, she turned off the water and climbed out of the tub. After wrapping her long hair in one towel, she used the other to wrap her body.
The dirty jeans and cami stared at her from the white tile floor of the bathroom. Hopefully Lucy had kept some of the clothing she’d bought when she was here last. Otherwise she’d have to find the washer and dryer pronto.
She hurried through the nippy bedroom and yanked open the top drawer of the antiqued red dresser. Thank God.She snatched a pair of panties, yoga pants and a t-shirt that said “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” from the drawer.
After pulling on the soft spandex and knit, she went to the bathroom to comb out and dry her wet hair. It’d been hours since she’d eaten, but she refused to soak the back of her shirt because she was too lazy to dry her hair.
Thirty minutes later, she sank into the big black leather couch and turned on the TV while she gobbled down a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a handful of pretzels. It wasn’t what she was used to, but it would have to do
for now. Besides, there was something comforting about a peanut butter sandwich. It helped her forget that she was most likely being hunted by armed, military-trained thugs bent on kidnapping and ransoming her.
And then to top it off, there was the added stress of the man/werewolf she’d spotted just down the road who was probably pretty pissed off about being electrocuted and truck-jacked.
The day really couldn’t get much worse. At least she hoped not. And since when are werewolves a real thing?
The news droned on about gas prices and political candidates, but it was better than sitting in silence. Then a bulletin popped up that made her heart race in her chest. She pressed the button on the remote to turn up the volume.
Wealthy New England family, Arnold and Erika Carrington and daughter Emma, were reported missing today after failing to attend a charity brunch the couple had personally organized. Police have no leads and are asking anyone with information to come forward and call the family’s personal security line. Their twenty-one year old daughter, Emma Carrington, has also been reported missing by friends she was traveling with in Austin, Texas.
Her fingers dug into the arm of the couch and she gasped for air, not even realizing she’d been holding her breath.
The news station showed a short clip of one of her father’s security officers asking for anyone to call if they had information. A photo of her parents and a photo of her was also shown briefly as the same security officer continued to explain that they were waiting on ransom calls while they continued to investigate the disappearance of all three.
Bastard. He’s probably in on it too.
After her stomach stopped threatening to abandon her body, she would take a few minutes to look around the house for weapons, Lucy’s computer, and the stash of cash and passports.
She needed to be prepared for the possibility that they’d already gotten to Lucy. Emma’s hands shook as the reality of the situation hit her. At any moment, she could be facing armed mercenaries or a pack of werewolves. She definitely needed a gun. Probably several.
Chapter 6
“Ughhhhh,” Noah groaned. He rolled to the side and winced as rocks and sharp grass poked into his skin.
Damn it. He rubbed his neck and hissed when his fingers grazed the spot where the stun gun had burned his skin. It would be gone in a few hours, but for now it hurt like someone had jabbed him with a hot iron.
He opened his eyes and took a deep breath. He could still smell her scent on the air, whoever she was. What really wouldn’t let his heart slow was the realization that she’d seen him change. She knew he was a werewolf. He was always so careful. But, the little blonde had been covered in manure and downwind. She had to have been on foot on their land. No one in town would purposefully trespass on the ranch, much less in the middle of the freak’n night. Even more disturbing was the way his magick had pulsed around him when he’d approached the truck and smashed the window. It was like the fact that she’d been stealing her truck wasn’t even an issue. He’d only wanted to touch her. It was still the only thing he wanted to do.
“I’m so fucked.” Noah shook his head and shivered as magick coursed through his body again, changing him at the cellular level. Everything ached from the shock of her Taser, but a moment later he was on four paws and running as hard as he could.
The cool night air whipped through his fur. He took the long way around so he didn’t spook the small herd of cattle grazing south of his parent’s house.
He trotted up to the side entrance and barked. Sneaking in wasn’t an option since his clothes and his keys were in the truck.
A moment later a light flooded the dark walkway and the door opened to reveal his mother with a you’ve-got-to-be-shitting-me look on her face.
“Why the hell are you barking at the door at three am?”
Noah whined and slunk through the open doorway.
“Get your furry ass upstairs and put on some clothes. Your father and I will be waiting in his study. You have some explaining to do.” His mother growled at his retreating form and slammed the door behind him. “You know I don’t like wolves in the house.”
He tried to hurry, but he couldn’t get traction on the hardwood and ended up halfway skidding across the room before he was able to turn and make a dash for the staircase. The rug on the stairs made the climb a cinch and he was inside the room his twin brother and he used to share. Now it was all his.
Noah stretched and called the magick, shivering again as it prickled across his skin like thousands of insects crawling. His bones cracked and shifted. Standing from his crouched position, he grabbed some clean clothes from the dresser and sighed.
This was not going to be a fun conversation. After pulling on the clothes, he sat on his bed and grabbed the house phone from its stand. He pressed #1 and waited.
“What the hell, Noah?” A familiar deep and groggy voice rumbled over the line.
“I need you at the house. I’ve got a problem.”
“What happened?” Luke’s voice changed from lethargic to worried instantly.
“Some chick saw me shift out in the south pasture. She stole my truck and took off.”
“How did you let a human get away from you, Noah!?”
“Look, dude, she Tasered me out of nowhere. By the time I was able to move again, she was gone.” His face heated. His brother was right. No human should’ve been able to get the one up on him. But that little slip of a girl had and it was rubbing his fur the wrong way. He didn’t need Luke giving him hell too.
Noah heard Kara asking what was wrong in the background.
“Tell Kara I’m sorry for waking her up. Can you guys head this way in a little while? I can find her, I just have to turn on the locator on my phone.”
“Sure,” Luke sighed. “Kara is already getting dressed.”
“Thanks, man. I gotta run, I can hear Mom and Dad arguing downstairs already.”
His brother grunted and Noah replaced the receiver on its bay. It was time to figure this out. Damn it to hell.
He took the stairs two at a time and traipsed across the house toward his father’s study, following the sound of his mother and father’s worried voices. His heart sank at the sound of their disappointment. If it wasn’t already bad enough, his uncles were there as well. Damned cameras. They were a necessary evil, but such an invasion of privacy.
The VonBrandt family had existed in Somewhere since its founding and only three times in history had a VonBrandt wolf exposed their secret to a human by accident. They were so careful. So private. However with technology becoming more and more advanced, it was only getting harder. But tonight...it never should’ve happened.
“Noah,” his mother called out from inside the study.
He pushed the heavy oak door open and stepped inside. Tonya VonBrandt was pacing in front of the large fireplace while his father sat behind his desk nursing a glass of bourbon. Uncle Adam and Allan were on the couch with their arms folded across their chests. Shit.
“Is she a local?” Adam asked, his deputy sheriff badge glistening from its place on his belt.
Noah shook his head, glancing up at the monitors behind his dad’s desk that were playing his mistake on loop. “I don’t think so. I’ve never seen her before. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t live here though.” He took a breath and tried to calm the overwhelming urge he had to tell them he thought she was the reason he’d been so agitated lately. But he knew better than to throw that in the mix of this mess right now.
“True,” his father added.
“We have to call Siobhan and her sister, Katherine. This woman is already in the wind and could tell any number of people before we find her. The situation must be handled quickly,” his mother said, grabbing an iron from the hearth and jabbing it at the burning logs in the fireplace.
The fury behind her strikes was all the hint Noah needed. He had to move fast or this chick was as good as erased. His chance at happiness would be erased with it, if he was right.
“Tonya, breathe. We aren’t that far yet. First we need to find out what’s going on with her. There may be more than a wolf sighting to deal with,” Allan said.
“We found her wrecked rental car close to the ranch’s main gate. She has no luggage and the rental’s registered papers said Austin.”
Noah swallowed. Why was this girl out in the middle of the night, driving in from Austin?
“Look, my phone is in the truck. Let me find her and bring her back to the house. Maybe we can still contain the situation without bringing in the witches. Or anyone else.” He took a step backward and reached for the door handle behind his back.
“Noah.” The ice in his father’s voice made his blood thicken in his veins. “You know there’s only two outcomes to this scenario. Only a mate bond would prevent her from betraying our family. She saw you. Our laws stand.”
Noah took a deep breath and nodded. “Give me a little time before you call them. She deserves a chance.”
“What about you?” his mother cried out. “If you take on this responsibility, you lose your only chance to bond with your future wife. This isn’t something you just use to get yourself out of a problem. It’s a permanent link to a person. It will create an emotional link that will keep her from outing us, but she’s still a stranger.”
His mom’s words made sense. But he couldn’t allow his family to steal this girl’s life away from her without exhausting every other option first. She’d fought so hard to get away from him and hadn’t fallen into hysterics after seeing him change. Instead, she’d stolen his truck and electrocuted him. She wasn’t an average girl and he sensed that she needed help. His gut said she wasn’t a threat, either. Bond or no bond. But the pulse of magick he’d felt when he was near her confirmed in him mind that she was important, possibly the one he’d been waiting for.
Now he had to convince his family.
“Find her before the sun rises, Noah. If she slips away, we will have to call the hunters. If that happens, there won’t be a choice for her or for you.” The finality of his father’s words should’ve hit his gut like a ton of bricks, but he couldn’t stop thinking about the terrified little blonde who had knocked him on his ass.
To Love A Mate: Somewhere, TX (VonBrandt Pack Book 2) Page 3