“You can scream if you want.” He shackled my wrists and my ankles to a steel bar bolted into the van’s floorboard. “No one is coming to your rescue.”
“You don’t have to do this, Tom,” I pleaded, using his given name. “William’s way isn’t the only way. Our people are thriving in Peculiar. Don’t let William do something that can’t be undone.”
“I’m a wolf, Etta. You can’t turn me into one of the sheep, so stop trying.” He growled at me. “Where’s my son? Where’s Pete? And I’ll know if you’re lying.”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. The cleaner would have disposed of his body at an unknown location. “I don’t have any idea where he is.”
“Try again,” he threatened. “Pete texted me right before he went to your apartment this morning. Since then, he’s disappeared. Now tell me what happened.” He grabbed me by the throat and shook me. “Or I’m going to snap your neck.”
“William wants me alive,” I choked out. “You and I both know it’s an empty threat.”
War shrugged and tightened his grip. “Accidents happen all the time. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Maybe letting War end me wouldn’t be such a bad idea. It would stop William’s power grab, and a broken neck was preferable to having my beating heart cut from my chest for William to feast on. “Okay,” I called his bluff. “Snap my neck.”
He shoved me backward, and the top of my head hit something hard and metal. The shackles cut into my wrists as the van turned sharply to the left. We’d been on the road for less than a few minutes when the van slowed and came to a halt.
“We’re here,” War said. “William’s eager for your reunion. Best not to keep him waiting.”
Gods, he sounded like the villain in every damsel-in-distress movie ever written. I’ll admit, his cold serial killer demeanor frightened the hell out of me. But this wasn’t a movie, and I wasn’t a helpless damsel. “Can’t wait,” I lied as I looked around for something I could use as a weapon. The van, other than the chain holding me and the bolted bar, was clean. My back started itching again. Another sign from the universe? Gah. It could stop now. I totally got the message. I was screwed.
War unhooked the shackles from the bar but left them on me as he hauled me out of the van. The man had trained Cordell, Pete, and me to fight. I’d excelled with a sword, but I was also good with hand-to-hand combat, and he knew what I was capable of in a close-quarter fight. Which meant he wasn’t going to underestimate me. Crap.
I gave myself a mental pep talk. I would survive this. I’d been on my own for a long time. I’d gotten out of scraps worse than this. I could do it again. Besides, for the first time, I had a lot to fight for. I had unfinished business waiting for me back at the cabin.
The pep talk failed. Who was I kidding about being in worse situations? I’d never been in such dire straits. My heart was going to end up a Happy Meal for my grandfather, complete with a prize, and the rest of me would end up fish bait. Or worse. What if William fed the rest of me to his sycophants?
War threw me over his shoulder like I was a sack of potatoes and carried me down a hill. The itch on my shoulder grew even more intense. I squirmed, trying to scratch it with the material of my shirt. It was the only thing I could think of, and I was desperate to make the itching stop.
War squeezed me hard enough to push the breath from me. “Stop moving around unless you want me to knock your ass out.”
I took his threat seriously and stopped wriggling about. The path behind us was fully wooded on both sides, and there were no houses or buildings. One of the treetops had a long, extended branch that curled up and reminded me of an elephant trunk. In other words, not helpful.
As he took me down a hill and through the woods, I cursed the universe. I was beginning to realize that fate was a nasty bitch. I’d confessed my love for Jo Jo, and the second I had finally opened myself to something real, it was snatched away from me. It was all my worst fears coming to life. Jo Jo had to be frantic. Would they know I was taken? War had been fast, and he’d made damn sure I couldn’t alert anyone.
Bette had said that astral projection was a specialty of hedge witches. I’d done it once. Could I do it again? Could I find Jo Jo? Maybe. Would it help him find me? Probably not. When I’d left my body at my apartment, he hadn’t been able to hear or see me. On top of that, I had no idea how I’d done it. One minute I was getting pummeled. The next, I was having an out-of-body experience. I’d technically died. Not an experiment I wanted to recreate any time soon.
The ride on War’s shoulder was a bumpy one. Every step he took punched his shoulder into my gut and knocked the air out of me. It made talking difficult. “Where. Are. You. Taking me?”
“Not much farther,” War said. “Our destination is just up ahead.”
Our destination turned out to be a boathouse. He put me on my feet once we got inside. On one side of the large building was a red and white cabin cruiser that had been hoisted above the water. The name of the boat was Destiny’s Child. The universe had a sick sense of humor. The other side had a deck floor. William, Silas Penn, Todd Hall, and two men I didn’t know were standing by a large blue box with a lid.
The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach churned my guts. “What is that for?”
“It’s an insulated holding tank for fish,” William said. “And your new room until tomorrow.”
I shook my head, my lower lip jutting as a flood of denials filled me. “No. Nope. I’m not going in there.” Had there been a part of me that believed William wouldn’t really murder me for my heart? Yes. Did I have any doubts now? Nope. Not a one. “I’m not getting in there.”
“You act as if you have a choice?”
“I’m your daught…your granddaughter,” I amended. “You raised me. How can you do this?”
He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. “You brought this on yourself when you betrayed me. There are consequences to disobeying me.”
“Oh, bullshit.” Did he think I was buying his crap? I was no longer the love-starved child who couldn’t see the manipulative asshole he’d always been. “You’ve been planning this for a long, long time.”
William fixed his gaze on me. “How would you know that?”
