A moment later, the bond feeds me a potent horror as my alphas catch on. I choke from the strength of their rage, Zack and Rickon equally furious. My breath hitches and my throat closes, and I can’t tell if it’s the engine or my heartbeat roaring in my ears.
Clarissa Jones steps on the gas, and we shoot forward along the road, overtaking the other cars wildly.
“You’ll regret this,” I hiss at the woman as I drag my seatbelt over my chest. I’ve no desire to die in a car crash if she misjudges a turn.
Her nostrils flare. “Honey, I don’t do things I’ll regret,” she says, the accent lilting her smug words.
“Bullshit!” I roar. “You wouldn’t be here bothering Rickon if you didn’t regret something! Shoulda just stayed wherever you pissed off to after abandoning your child at the zoo.”
Her top lip curls up in annoyance, but she stays silent.
I calculate my options, deciding against jumping into the front and forcing the wheel out of her hands. For one, I don’t know how to drive, although it might not be so different to the golf cart, but for two, we’re more likely to crash and die in a crumple of burning metal if I try.
I’ll sit tight for now . . . because I have other options.
And my alphas will be hot on our trail.
I dig out my phone and type into the group chat:Abducted by Clarissa Jones. Headed west.
She’s an idiot to let me keep my phone. I’ll watch the street names and report everything and an entire OCB team will be on our asses in minutes. And then we’ll—
Clarissa stomps on the brakes, and I jerk forward, snapping back against the seat when the belt grabs me. I scream instinctively and throw up my hands as my spine echoes painfully with the jolt, and the phone goes flying.
My kidnapper swipes it from the floor. “You’ll pay for that,” she hisses, winding down her window and tossing the phone out.
“You’ll be the one paying,” I promise darkly, pressing one hand to my throbbing head. I dare not move too much for fear my spine’s damaged—every little movement sends warning shocks through my body, and the honking horns around us make my head throb. Even if I wanted to move, my bond fills with bitter alpha panic as my men register my flash of terror.
Clarissa swears under her breath as she swerves back into the traffic and takes the first side street. We’re no longer heading west, but surely street cameras somewhere will catch our movements.
I groan as every lurch sends pain rattling down my neck, and I hang onto my seatbelt, trying not to move. Not hard to guess what this is about: Money. Same thing Ray was chasing while taking all my haze. Well, for him it was also enjoyment in havingpower over others. Look where that got him, talking with a machine and feeding out of a tube for the rest of his life.
I grit my teeth and promise myself it won’t go well for this scum of a human either. She tried approaching Rickon, and he slapped a restraining order on her, so now she’s turned to true crime. What a wonderful mother; I guess some families really do have black sheep. The absurdity makes me chuckle.
“Something about this amusing?” Clarrisa snaps.
“Only how terrible a mother you are,” I say.
Her tone gets blacker than her wretched soul. “I never asked to have a child.”
“You took a dick willingly, didn’t you? Kinda comes with the territory, dumbass.”
“Shut up!” she hisses. “You wouldn’t know anything.”
“Oh?” I ask, bracing one arm on the door to keep still. “Maybe not, but I do know if one of my men gave me a piece of themselves in the form of a baby, my pinky would have more love for that child than you’ve managed in your lifetime.”
“Easy for you to say when you’ve got money to help.”
I scoff. Anger rises to tighten my throat. Hard to tell if it’s my own or a byproduct of my alphas. “Easy? I didn’t have a bank account until five months ago. It hasn’t been easy, but that’s no fucking excuse not to love a person you’re responsible for! You coulda stuck around and done your best. If you had, now you’d be the mother-in-law not only to a superstar but also the Wren family heir. But no, you chose the selfish path, and now the joke’s on you. You deserve everything that’s coming to you, bitch!”
She swerves on purpose, and metal crunches as she swipes a side mirror off a parked car. I hiss and hold my neck as paralyzing pain runs through my upper body. Fuck. If she messes up my acting career, I’ll tear her apart with my own hands.
“We’ll see who’s laughing at the end of the day,” she promises darkly.
A trickle of fear coils in my belly as my bravado melts in the face of pain. But what can she do to me that hasn’t already been done? I’m no stranger to agony.
And more importantly, my alphas are searching for me. That’s a fact, because I can hardly breathe from the force of Zack’s wrath in the bond. I press a hand to my chest and close my eyes, pushing back on my lover’s energy so he knows I’m alive.
I just need to hold on a little longer.
