Connor wanted to ask exactly how it worked but decided not to bother her with the question right then. It seemed like she needed to maintain her concentration. So, instead, he focused on driving, turning the truck in whichever direction Kat told him to go. At least she did it calmly instead of shouting at him to cut across a highway divider or anything crazy like that.
They reached Las Colinas, east of the airport, before turning due north on a lonely stretch of road called Olympus Boulevard. The area opened up, with large stretches of green spaces in between new subdivisions currently under construction. Connor knew there was a big lake up ahead with lots of isolated and desolate shoreline, and he couldn’t stop his inner cop from whispering that they were going to end up at a body-dump site. He’d seen this situation play out too many times.
“Kat, does that charm of yours still work if the person is dead?” he asked slowly, almost hating himself for going there, paranoid that might jinx the entire situation.
He only felt worse when Kat slowly nodded without saying anything. Oh hell, why had he even asked?
They were moving closer to North Lake when Connor heard the paper clip start going crazy. He glanced over at Kat to see her holding the jar up, gazing at the twisted piece of metal as it attempted to smash its way through the right side of the glass container.
A quick look in that direction had Connor slowing the truck and pulling to the side of the road, his eyes locked on the large two-story farmhouse about a quarter mile off the road with a small metal shed to one side. The old home seemed out of place among the neat and orderly subdivisions that were going up all around it, yet the dim light glowing from one of the windows confirmed that the house was definitely occupied.
But by whom?
Had the people who’d grabbed Cheyenne brought her here?
Were Addy and Ben there, too?
“That the place?” Rachel whispered from outside his driver’s side door, and Connor jumped a little, realizing he’d been so focused on the farmhouse and the few vehicles parked randomly around the front of the place that he hadn’t even heard his teammate approach his truck.
It only took a few minutes to come up with a basic plan. Connor would do a recon of the farmhouse with Rachel while Kat, Hale, and Trevor would hang back and let Gage and the rest of the Pack know what was going on. The idea was that Connor and Rachel would confirm whether Cheyenne or any of the other kids were present, and if so, how many suspects they were dealing with. If the numbers were against them, they’d wait for Gage to get there with backup.
Connor hadn’t said it out loud, but a good portion of his plan involved keeping Kat safely out of the way, with Hale and Trevor there to keep an eye on her if things went sideways. He knew his pack mates would get her out of danger if it became necessary.
There was a wide stretch of open ground to cross, and Connor was grateful that it was still dark. An hour from now, when the sun was up, this approach would be damn near suicidal. As it was, he still felt completely exposed as he and Rachel crossed a field that had only been recently tilled after a summer harvest.
He and Rachel had just reached the edge of the field surrounding this side of the house when Connor picked up the smell of blood. It was faint, but definitely there. A glance Rachel’s way confirmed she’d picked up the scent as well.
They moved closer, sticking to the heavy shadows along the back side of the house, well away from the single illuminated window they’d seen earlier. This direction gave them the advantage of being downwind of the place, so they were still twenty feet away when a low growl slipped from Rachel’s throat.
“Addy and Ben are in there,” she hissed, already moving toward the closest door. “That’s Ben’s blood we’re smelling.”
Connor didn’t consider for a second that Rachel might be wrong. She’d never forget those kids’ scents. It’s like they were her own children.
He could tell from the tremor of tension running through her that Rachel was ready to go charging right into the farmhouse without a second thought, but he stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. “Calm down,” he whispered. “The scent of blood is faint, meaning it’s something minor, like a cut lip. No one is in danger yet. We have time to be smart about this.”
Rachel’s shoulders remained stiff and tense for another few seconds before she finally nodded and took it down a notch, a ragged sigh slipping out as she relaxed. “Okay, but we have to get them out. I can smell their fear from all the way out here.”
“We will,” Connor promised. “Let’s get a better idea of what we’re up against, then we can come up with a plan.”
As they cautiously moved closer, Connor quickly realized they were probably dealing with more bad guys than the four of them could easily handle. “There are at least ten heartbeats coming from inside,” he said softly. “Even assuming that one of them is Cheyenne, that still leaves seven bad guys that we don’t know a damn thing about. They could be heavily armed, or magic users, or something completely different. We need to wait for backup.”
Connor could tell that Rachel hated the idea with every fiber of her being, but she nodded, because it was the best thing to do if they wanted to get those kids out of there alive. After he and Rachel pulled back to the edge of the tilled field and crouched in a shallow ditch, he called Trevor to bring him, Kat, and Hale up to speed.
“Gage is on the way with backup,” Trevor said. “He’s less than thirty minutes out with half the Pack.”
Connor glanced at his watch. It should still be dark by the time they got here.
He and Rachel had settled into their comfortable ditch, ready to wait out the next thirty minutes until Gage showed, when half the windows on the first floor of the farmhouse suddenly lit up bright as day.
Crap.
“Trevor, the house just lit up like a Christmas tree,” he said into his phone. “We have to assume the bad guys are getting ready to move the kids. We’re not going to have time to wait for Gage and the others. Rachel and I will try to slow them down. You and Hale get here as fast as you can.”
Connor quickly headed toward the front of the farmhouse, Rachel covering him as they approached the gravel parking lot and the vehicles they’d seen there earlier. There were sounds of movement from inside the house, and a lot of it, along with a few high-pitched yelps of complaint. The bad guys were rushing the teens, and the kids weren’t happy about it.
He heard soft thudding sounds behind him, and he turned to see Trevor and Hale approaching at a run. Connor cursed under his breath when he realized Kat was right behind them. She looked exhausted enough to fall over any second. His heart started to race at the thought of Kat being this close to danger. His head might still be a little confused about all these feelings he was developing for her, but the mere thought of her getting hurt was enough to almost push him into a shift.
It was scary how important she had become to him in such an amazingly short period of time.
