She pushed to her feet, collected her bowl, and placed it in the sink. “Five miles. But with the storm coming in and your need to rest, it’s not a good idea. We should wait until the morning.”
“No. I can make it.” I felt like a sitting duck in this cabin. Granted, I wanted to sleep, but I wouldn’t be able to.
Her lips pinched together. “Layla, the terrain is rough, the weather isn’t on our side, and we’re looking at a two-to-three-hour journey, and that’s hoofing it.”
“I hear you, but I will feel better if we keep moving.”
“Do you know where the men were taking you?” she asked.
I swiveled in my seat to face her. “Only that it was close to where we’d crashed. I don’t know how far that is from this cabin. Before one of the men fell off the cliff, he told me that the place is fortified behind cement walls. He seemed pretty adamant that no one would rescue me. Since you know the area, do you know of a place like that?”
She leaned her hip against the sink. “The area has grown so much. More homes, cabins, and new businesses.”
“You seemed worried. Do you know Intech and what they’re doing?” Maybe she did and that was the reason she was here, although the panicked look on her face said otherwise.
Her forehead creased. “No. But my brother, Tucker, went missing two weeks ago. What if…”
I smoothed my sweaty hands down my thighs. What if Intech was looking for me and instead found Tucker? “You said earlier you smelled Tucker and suspected he was here. Why? To hunt?”
“His pack believes he went rogue to marry a human girl. Tucker’s alpha contacted me and asked if I’d heard from him. I’m always on missions, so I hardly talk to my brother. I took leave from my unit so I could track his phone up in this neck of the country. I lost the signal before I even got here.”
I didn’t have the heart to tell her what Carly had done to the alpha shifter Dane Gray—but she needed to know. After I filled her in on my relation to Carly, what her role was with Intech, and what she’d done to Dane, including implanting a chip in his head as well as Sam’s to control them, Rebekah rushed over to her duffel bag.
Fishing around inside, she pulled out what looked to be a phone slightly bigger than a cell. “With the storm moving in, coverage can be spotty on this satellite phone. Since the Vampire Navy SEALs have been dealing with Intech since the beginning, I would like to defer to them. Call Sam Mason, and I’ll give him the coordinates. Then I need to call my captain.”
A ball of excitement had me on my feet as she handed me the phone. I didn’t have Sam’s number memorized, but I knew my sister Jordyn’s. I prayed she was okay and that she would answer. After all, she’d been pretty beat up after her run-in with Fred Emery. Still, Jordyn would do whatever it took to get the message to Sam.
I blew out a breath. “After I speak to him, it’s imperative we bolt before the rain starts. If Tucker was taken, then Intech knows about the cabin.” Anxiety kicked my elation to the curb at the notion that they could be watching and biding their time before they barged in and took me. Rebekah, even in wolf form, couldn’t fight off a group of SWAT-type men, especially if they had drug-filled darts.
“Make it quick,” she said. “It’s possible to track a Low Earth Orbit sat phone.”
If this was the only way to contact Sam, then I didn’t care. Worst-case scenario: Sam would have my location even if my grandmother found me.
Hope bloomed like a wonderful spring day—yet why did I feel like my world was about to turn darker than the clouds outside?
11
SAM
Ijabbed my fists into a punching bag in the base gym, waiting on Dane to show his ass. After our conversation with Doc and Peter, Dane and I agreed we would meet to knock each other’s lights outs.
It was the third day since Layla had been taken, and we had no leads whatsoever. I was one ornery fuck, and if anyone looked at me the wrong way, I snapped. My mind was on overload too. Abbey’s vision that I would harm Layla was stuck on repeat, which just added to my overall grumpy demeanor. But my niece’s prediction might prove to be true if Peter and Doc couldn’t find a way to remove the fucking chip.
Surgery had been out of the question, but Doc had changed his tune. Instead of no operation, he wanted to drill into my skull.Whywas the million-dollar question. And I didn’t have to wait long for the answer.
Apparently, the coding had a self-destruct mode, which meant that whoever was behind the controls could press a button, and kaboom—my brain matter would be scattered and splattered everywhere. Yeah, surgery was looking like a walk in the park, but…
There was always abut.
After an MRI yesterday, the scan showed that the tiny little fucker decided to swim to other parts of my head.Ding, ding, ding.That was the main reason I’d lost my acute hearing. Sure, I wasn’t deaf, but as a vampire, I might as well be. I might lose my vision or sense of smell next. That would suck the big one.
Dane didn’t want anyone drilling into his head either, though his chip hadn’t shifted. Peter kept reiterating that actions and reactions to a device that controls the brain differed in each victim.
For example, I couldn’t recall that I’d attacked Peter or my sister with the chip engaged, whereas Dane’s mind had remained intact. His problem had been his inability to shift from wolf into human form until Peter shut down his chip the same night I’d come out of my coma. Peter had theorized that Intech programmed Dane to stay as a wolf. If he had, then Dane’s wolf would’ve taken over, and he would’ve become the predator he was born to be.
On top of all that, Peter was against surgery, especially for me. “Too risky,” he’d said. “If the chip keeps moving, we might have a hard time doing anything.”
“Then how in the fucknation do you plan to pluck the sucker out?” had been my retort, even though I had to agree with Peter. I wasn’t stoked about a surgeon boring several holes into my skull only to fail in the end. Or worse, touch a part of my brain that could render me a vegetable. I had a family who depended on me. I wanted to marry my beautiful baby mama, watch my kids play in the sand, swim in the surf, and build sandcastles. I wanted to teach them how to fight, play sports, if that was their thing, and everything else that came with growing up.
