“Nope.” The last thing I needed was to hook up with a guy.
The cute brunette bartender took the man’s drink order with a flirty smile as her big brown eyes lit up.
“So, sis, what’s it going to be? Ranch from hell? Or hot sexy vampires?”
I snorted before I took a long pull of soda from the straw then picked up my phone from the tabletop. “I don’t have Dr. Vieira’s number.”
She beamed from ear to ear. “Now, we’re getting somewhere. Call Sam. He’ll give it to you,” she said all too smugly.
I snarled at her teasingly. “You’re just dying to get us together, aren’t you?”
She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “Layla, I know you like him. But you’re frightened out of your mind. You’re trying to do everything to avoid him.” She twisted her lips. “Life’s too short to worry about what our family thinks of you, of us. They don’t own us. Maybe things would be different if Dad was still alive. Well, I take that back. We probably would’ve never met Sam and the others.” She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m not saying rush back to him and get married, but you’ve got to explore how you feel. And right now, you’re in denial.”
I squeezed my eyes shut for a second. A dull throbbing began in my temples. My stomach swirled with nerves, and I knew I had to do something, especially after licking that blood off the knife like it was my favorite watermelon candy. I needed answers, ones that made sense. Answers that said I wasn’t going crazy.
I opened the text from Sam.
“What does it say?” Jordyn snatched the phone from me. “‘Baby doll, please return my messages. I want to make sure you’re okay. Don’t make me come to Montana.’” She giggled. “I guess I could see why Uncle Jack is having a cow. I would bet he’s priming his flamethrower.”
I bit a nail and swallowed as something dark and scary stole my breath. “You don’t think Sam is on his way here now? The fact that Aunt Tab answered my phone would make Sam suspicious.”
She slid my cell across the wooden table. “Only one way to find out. Call him. Or I will. At least tell him you’re okay, even though it would be fun to see how Sam would fare if he stepped foot on the ranch.”
A chill danced down my spine as I pictured Sam hanging by his ankles over a roaring fire. “You know as well as I do that he wouldn’t stand a chance, no matter how powerful he is.” I absently glanced around, and my gaze landed on the well-dressed man at the bar again.
He grinned and nodded.
What the hell?“That man is giving me the creeps,” I whispered. “Let’s get out of here.”
It was time to get my life in order.
8
SAM
Ipaced outside my father’s hospital room at our Boston medical facility. Jo and I had found him with rebar embedded near his heart about two hours before. I’d been ready to remove the rebar, but Jo had stopped me.
“He might bleed out,” she’d said. “If he does, you and I wouldn’t have enough blood to give him.”
So we’d rushed him to our Boston medical facility in the chopper we’d arrived in. The good news—the rebar wasn’t cobalt. The bad news—the metal severed a vena cava, which carries blood to the heart. And since he’d lost a ton, the vein wasn’t healing as quickly, not even with the amount of blood Jo and I had given him.
Jo chewed on every one of her nails as she rested against the wall outside my father’s room.
I twirled my phone in my hand, anger gripping my stomach like a vise. Fucking Roman and whoever was behind his escape would pay dearly. Roman needed to die. Otherwise, chaos would be a staple in our lives—in Abbey’s life, and she needed to grow up without any fuckers like Roman whose sole purpose was to use her as his moneymaking machine.
A redheaded nurse chatted with a doctor at the nurse’s station up ahead. I stared at her for a long second as Layla came to mind. Then I checked my phone. No update from Conrad yet.
The elevator dinged. I whirled around as Jo pushed off the wall. We were both on edge. Abbey had said my dad needed my blood and Jo’s, but that didn’t do the trick. Plan B was Dr. Vieira. We were waiting for him. He always kept blood reserves on hand for emergencies. Sometimes, especially in situations like this, the only way for a vampire to heal was with his own blood.
The elevator doors slid open, and Dr. Vieira rushed out with Abbey at his side.
Jo clutched her chest as she pushed out a relieved sigh, especially when she laid eyes on Abbey. The first thing Webb had done when he learned Roman had escaped was to get Abbey off the naval base.
Abbey’s black ponytail swung behind her as she bolted for Jo. “Mom,” she cried. “I’m sorry. My vision was off. I thought Grandpa needed your blood.”
Jo lifted Abbey into her arms. “It’s okay.” She rubbed Abbey’s back. “Grandpa is going to be fine.”
I hated that Abbey carried the world on her shoulders. I hated that she had visions that were mostly nightmares of the future. I couldn’t remember a time when Abbey saw a happy road ahead. Still, her visions had been off lately.
