“I know. I know I made mistakes. But right now I need you to stay here with the twins and keep them safe. Can you do that?”
My father nodded curtly. “We’ll stay. But when this is over, you and I are going to have a very long conversation about communication and trust.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Hunt burst through the door at that moment, his red hair wild and his eyes alert. He took in the scene, the tense posture of my parents, my obvious distress, and immediately shifted into action mode.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Let’s go.”
We ran to his car, my legs eating up the distance in long strides. Hunt slid behind the wheel and I threw myself into the passenger seat. Before I’d even finished closing the door, he was reversing out of the driveway at a speed that would have been reckless if the circumstances had been any different.
“Talk to me,” Hunt said as he turned onto the main road. “What do we know?”
“Just that someone’s attempting to burn down the shop. Lina got a call, I’m assuming from Mika or whoever was watching the place. She didn’t give me details before she left.”
“Any chance this is connected to the threats?”
“What do you think?”
Hunt’s jaw tightened. “I think Mary Thorne is escalating.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
We drove in silence after that, Hunt pushing the car as fast as he could safely manage on the winding roads between Ravenshollow and Pine Valley. The journey usually took two hours. I had a feeling we were going to make it in less.
My anxiety was through the roof. Every minute that passed was another minute Lina was out there without me. Another minute she was facing this crisis alone. Another minute she might be in danger while I wasn’t there to protect her.
Please. Please let my mate be okay. Please let nothing happen to her while we’re apart.
If we got there and discovered she’d been hurt, if Mary had somehow used this fire as a distraction to get close to her, if anything had happened to my mate or my unborn child, I wouldn’t survive it.
I’d already failed her once by keeping secrets. I couldn’t fail her again by not being there when she needed me most.
Hunt must have sensed my spiral because he reached over and gripped my shoulder briefly. “She’s with Noah. He won’t let anything happen to her.”
“I know.”
“Then stop looking like you’re about to jump out of a moving car.”
“I’m not going to jump out of the car.”
“You’re thinking about it.”
“Maybe a little.”
Hunt pressed down harder on the accelerator. “We’ll be there soon. Just hold it together until then.”
I tried. I really tried. But with every mile that passed, the knot in my chest grew tighter. The bond was still muted, still locked down on Lina’s end. I couldn’t feel her, couldn’t sense whether she was okay or scared or hurt.
All I could do was hope. And pray. And promise myself that when this was over, when the danger had passed, I was going to do whatever it took to earn my mate’s forgiveness.
Even if it meant spending the rest of my life on my knees.
11
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