Thank fuck. But Layla had vampire and witch DNA in her family history, and Carly and Noah didn’t—at least not that we knew.
“We’ll find out soon enough how the serum works on the hundreds of people lining up for the one hundred thousand dollars,” I muttered.
“I’m happy my uncle will be okay.” She rubbed her eyebrow, and her ruby engagement ring glinted in the light filtering in from the windows above the cribs.
“I see the ruby fits now.”
She glanced at her ring, beaming. “It does, but it’s still a little snug. Oh, not to change the subject, but please thank Dr. Hammond for pulling your blood and sending it on a regular basis.”
“I do every day when I show up in medical,” I said as Cooper came in.
He twirled his finger in the air, gesturing to me to wrap up my conversation.
“Baby doll, Cooper is giving me the time’s-up signal. But I have some bad news. Earlier today, Sawyer’s team found an ad on the black web.”
“Let me guess,” she said. “There’s a contract out for you.” Anger twisted her features.
I nodded. “A million dollars.”
Her nostrils flared. “I knew something like this would happen.” She puffed out her cheeks. “Don’t worry about me. I’m well protected, but Maine might not be safe for long.”
“I should’ve brought you with me to begin with.”
“We can’t dwell on should-haves and hindsight, Sam,” she said. “At the time, I would’ve only slowed you down. And aside from that guardian, we haven’t seen any media, strangers lurking, or dare I say Adam or my sister. I believe they still think I’m on base.”
I prayed like a motherfucker that they kept thinking Layla was behind our fortress.
Cooper gave me another signal.
“Baby doll, I have to go. I’ll talk to Dane and his pack. I love you. Kiss the babies for me.”
She touched her heart. “Love you too.”
As soon as I ended the video call, I growled, ready to flip the desk over. “I hate this.”
Cooper leaned against the doorjamb, his blue eyes appraising. “No signs of strangers within a ten-mile radius, unless we want to add bears to the list.”
I pushed to my feet, my stomach still in one huge fucking knot. “Where’s Dane?”
Cooper blocked me. “Dude, before you walk out of here, you need to calm down. You reek of anger. It’s bad enough that both you and Dane have every wolf on edge. You, especially.”
“Then maybe it’s time for Dane and me to punch the crap out of each other.”
He cocked an eyebrow. “The pack would enjoy that.”
Chopping wood didn’t give me the same adrenaline rush as hearing or feeling bones crack. Besides, there was only so much wood I could chop. But first I had to talk to Dane about my family coming here.
25
LAYLA
The rhythmic slide of the waves along the shore kept time with my breathing as I ran on the beach. The cool breeze did nothing to douse the sweat sliding down my temples, neck, and back.
Conrad jogged behind me. Since he couldn’t be in the gym, he took advantage of my morning workouts. I slowed to a fast walk as I approached Jo’s house to my right. The sea stretched out to seemingly touch the sun as the bright orange ball drifted higher on the horizon to my left.
I felt as though I was living in an alternate reality—a beautiful one, if I was only talking about the scenery. I wasn’t. Life was moving forward, but I felt stuck in limbo with the same routine as if I were in that movieGroundhog Day. The repetitiveness of each day was the same—work out, feed babies, change diapers, contend with sleepless nights, worry my head off, and then start over again the next day, hoping another grenade didn’t drop in my lap.
It was alarming that Sam was being hunted. The million-dollar bounty had to be from Adam Emery. The council couldn’t be that desperate to make an example out of one of their own. Unless my grandmother was funding the project. To my knowledge, she did have that kind of money, but I was really only guessing. After all, she was an investor in Adam’s project, and she was yearning to cure her blood cancer. But in that case, she would want Sam alive, not dead.
