“Get in the back,” Lucio said.
I climbed in, my movements awkward with my hands still bound. The interior smelled like new leather and something chemical. Cleaning products, maybe. Or the smell of whatever drugs they’d used on my mother and Sarah.
Lucio set Blake down in the passenger seat just long enough to grab something from the driver’s side. Handcuffs. He reached into the back and cuffed my bound wrists to a metal bar welded to the frame of the vehicle.
I wasn’t going anywhere.
Then he picked up Blake again, climbed into the driver’s seat, and started the engine.
Fuck.
He was driving with my baby in his arms. One hand on the wheel, one arm cradling my daughter. If anything happened, if he lost control of the vehicle, if someone ran them off the road-
No. Nothing would happen. Nothing could happen. I had to believe that or I would lose my mind.
The SUV pulled out of the driveway and onto the road, leaving Ravenshollow behind.
I strained against the handcuffs, testing their strength, looking for any weakness. There was none. They were solid steel, bolted firmly to the frame.
My mind raced through possibilities. Lina would call for help. Noah and Ryder would mobilize the pack. They would find my father, get him medical attention. They would organize a rescue.
But how long would that take? And where the hell was Lucio taking us?
I watched out the window as familiar territory gave way to unfamiliar roads. We were heading south, away from Ravenshollow, away from safety.
I hoped Lina forgave me for what I’d done. I hoped she understood why I had to make this choice. And I really, really hoped she trusted me to keep Blake safe.
Because that was all I could do now. Protect our daughter until help arrived.
Thirty minutes passed in tense silence. Blake had stopped crying, lulled to sleep by the motion of the vehicle. She looked peaceful now, her tiny face relaxed, completely unaware of the danger she was in.
I couldn’t stand the silence anymore.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
Lucio’s eyes met mine in the rearview mirror. Now that we were away from Ravenshollow, away from the immediate danger of discovery, his personality had shifted. The cold, empty mask was gone, replaced by something smugger. More confident.
“Why am I doing this?” He repeated the question as if savoring it. “Because of love, alpha. Isn’t that always the reason?”
“Love?”
“The woman I love was taken from me.” His grip tightened on the steering wheel, old pain flickering across his features. “Shipped off to a fucking awful pack when we were very young. They brainwashed her. Made her think she liked the alpha there. Made her forget what we had.”
I watched him carefully, trying to understand. “What pack?”
“Doesn’t matter anymore. What matters is that a year ago, she found me. And everything we’d lost came flooding back.”
“You’re talking about Mary?” I was confused. Mary had been obsessed with me, not with some tech specialist from Shadowcrest.
Lucio snorted. “The fuck? No. I’m talking about my Mira.”
Oh.
Everything clicked into place.
Lucio and Mira. Both from Shadowcrest originally. He had been in love, separated from her, reunited. And now Lucio was helping Mira and Mary with their twisted revenge scheme because he was blinded by his feelings for her.
“We’ve never done anything to you,” I said, trying a different approach. “Lina never hurt Mira. I never hurt Mira. Whatever happened to her, whatever pain she suffered, it wasn’t our fault.”
