A surge of life returned to his limbs. An explosion of pinpricks roared through him, as if a vital part of him had fallen asleep and then shaken awake.
A choked sound escaped his throat as he tore the tracker out of his pocket. There, on the tiny screen, were her vital signs — stressed but within baseline range — and location.
Kaz swayed. Sloane braced himself against his side, supporting his weight as relief threatened to knock his legs out from under him again.
Speaking with numb lips, he gasped, “She’s at the fucking caravan.”
ChapterFifty-One
The driveback to the caravan was a blur. Kaz knew logically that he didn’t hold his breath the whole time, but it felt like he did. His lungs burned and his vision tunneled as he broke nearly every traffic law in the city.
He hopped curbs. He ran lights. He went the wrong way down one way streets.
He didn’t give a fuck about the people he spooked, nor the horns that blared at him. All that mattered was that he cut down what would have been a thirty-minute drive by nearly half. The tires screeched as he skidded to a halt in front of the safehouse. Fuck parking. He barely came to a complete stop before he threw himself out of the car.
Unfortunately, the first thing to catch his eye was not his mate. It was a cherry red Lamborghini parked beside the caravan and the blue-skinned woman who lounged against the side, checking her claw-caps.
What the fuck?
Blue skin. A flash of dark curls.Of course.
His sister was right there. She’d probably been waiting for them the entire morning. She probably knew exactly what was going to happen and where his mate was from the very beginning. Maybe even as far back as that night in The Broken Tooth.
Because she was Delilah fucking Solbourne and she did whatever she wanted.
He was too furious with her to feel relief. The idea that she’d somehow had a hand in this, the most terrifying moment of his life, was a betrayal he simply couldn’t stomach. He didn’t care what she did tohim,but his mate was off-fucking-limits.
Delilah straightened as he approached at just shy of a sprint, his fury mounting with every step. “You’re late. Let me guess— traffic? UW is just the worst for that. I swear, no one knows how to use a roundabout.”
Kaz wasn’t sure whether he wanted to slug his sister or rip his own hair out or both. Undecided, he stormed up to her and bellowed, “Where the fuck is mymate?”
She didn’t even flinch as he leaned in, teeth bared, to snarl in her face. The infuriating woman actually rolled her eyes. “Oh,nowyou ask.”
Was his head exploding? It felt like his head was exploding. Kaz struggled to contain his increasingly volatile rage as he peered through the tinted windows of her car and didn’t see his witch. Shoving his face into hers once more, he snarled, “Delilah, I’m going to—”
“Before you threaten me, you should know that your mate is quite fond of me and will not take my death well.” Delilah reached down to gently inspect his clenched fists. Shetsked.“It’s a good thing we have a healer in the family, my boy. You did a number on your hands.”
“Did you take her?” He ripped his bloody hands out of her grip. “Did you fucking kidnap her, Delilah?”
She’d put a bomb in Margot’s home to push her and Teddy together. Of course she would do something like this. What he couldn't figure out waswhy.What purpose did it serve?
His sister frowned. For a second, he thought he spied real hurt in her inscrutable gaze, but it was barely a flicker; gone again in a moment, only to be replaced by her usual sardonic look. “I didn’t take her. I justwatchedher be taken. And then I followed her and our new friend Nicolas.” She patted the trunk of the car. “Really, Atria handled most of it. Our girl is delightfully capable of ruthlessness.”
If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t have bought the story. Only the fact that it wasDelilah,whose logic and motivations were serpentine at best, made him begrudgingly accept it. Really, itwouldbe just like her to let Atria be taken, knowing that she would be all right — or asall rightas was acceptable to Delilah.
He knew from personal experience that a great many terrible things could be considered acceptable to his sister in her quest for… Well, no one really knew the specifics. Delilah refused to explain herself to anyone but Winnie.
They all had their burdens to bear, and Kaz understood that Delilah’s were heavier than anyone else’s. She knew things that would break most people and she felt the responsibility to act on that knowledge, steering the course of lives. In that pursuit, she’d been forced to make hideous choices.
Her own mother’s life in exchange for her brothers’ and the safety of their territory.
Trading her place at Theodore’s side for his happiness with Margot.
She’d probably done worse andwoulddo worse than a bomb or a kidnapping, all for the sake of a future only she could see.
His big sister, the woman who raised him, had the biggest heart he’d ever known and a completely shattered moral compass.
He loved her. He thought that on some level he understood her better than Theodore or Sam or even Winnie, seeing as they were broken in similar ways. But he didn’t have to like it when she fucked with his life. Heespeciallydidn’t have to when she played with his mate.
