She swallowed. “We have to run. The guy has a plan, Raine.”
“Good. So do I.” He loomed over her, looking more dangerous than any stalker could ever be.
“What’s that?” she snapped, searching for her temper and thankfully finding it.
He leaned toward her, masculine and intense. “We wait out the storm. If it lets up, we walk to the nearest town. If the kidnapper shows up, I rip off his head. That’s the plan.”
* * * *
Raine’s temper was a slow burn, and at the moment, the wick was ignited. He released the female and took a step back to give her some breathing room. If her chest panted any faster, she’d go into a full-on panic attack, and he needed to know what he was dealing with here. Maybe the kidnapping hadn’t been focused on him. In fact, it was looking less likely at the moment. “Okay. Tell me what’s going on.” He tried to keep his tone gentle, but as a demon-vampire hybrid, his voice would always be hoarse.
She wiped rain off her pretty face and pulled her wet hair out of his jacket. “Fine, but if he shows up, I’m running. You’re being a moron.”
Good. Her spunk was back. “I promise I can handle anything coming our way.” Now that he knew something or somebody was coming their way. He’d been embarrassingly unprepared earlier because his mind had been filled with her. The one woman he should stay the hell away from. Plus, his strength had waned being away from her for weeks. “Who do you think kidnapped us?” God, it was embarrassing to even admit he’d lowered his guard enough tobekidnapped.
Her eyes were dark pools of fear and anger. “I don’t know who he is. I’m assuming it’s a man, because statistically most stalkers are male, but I don’t even know that fact for sure. Although my gut tells me it is a man, for some reason.”
Okay. “Is this a recent event?” Who in their small town would be stalking her?
She huddled deeper into his jacket, looking small and defenseless. “No. It started in Dallas, which is one of the reasons I moved to Indiana, besides my adopted aunt leaving me her cottage.”
“What started?” He kept his voice as calm as possible under the circumstances.
She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Greeting cards were sent to my office, then white roses, and then more elaborate gifts, including a diamond bracelet. Then phone calls with hang-ups, and the police eventually tracked those all down to burner phones.”
“What were the messages?” he asked.
She paled and then shrugged. “They were mostly positive about love and the future and destiny. At least at first. The tone of the notes turned darker and angrier as time went on, because whatever I was supposed to do, in this psycho’s fantasy, I wasn’t doing. Although there’s no way to know what I was supposed to do.”
Yeah, sounded like a nut job. A human one. So this might not have anything to do with Raine or his family, although he wasn’t taking that suspicion off the table as of yet. “Did the police have any suspects?”
She shook her head. “No. We went through all of my clients, friends, and acquaintances, and nobody stood out. It’s entirely possible I don’t know this person at all, and we just had some chance encounter they made into much more. I’ve wracked my brain but haven’t come up with anything.” Her mouth turned down, and the sense of fear from her increased.
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he said quietly, meaning every word.
A small, rueful smile tilted her peach-colored lips. “That’s sweet, but I already got you drugged and kidnapped.”
Man, she was cute. Gorgeous, really. Her eyes were the color of dark and genuine topaz rocks, her hair black, and her bone structure royal. “He caught me off guard, sweetheart. Now I know he’s out there.” Life would be easier if he could just tell her he was immortal, but that would put her into even more danger, considering secrecy was key for his people. Creating a war between humans and everyone else would be a disaster, and since he wasn’t going to bring her into his world, he had to keep his secrets. “You can trust me.”
She stood, and this time he let her. “You were my patient, and I should be handling this.”
The woman barely came to his shoulder. Humor lightened the stress attacking him for the briefest of moments. “I was never your patient, and you know it. I attended your anger management group because of a job and not because I have anger issues.” They’d met in an anger-management group that the woman still had no idea was more full of immortal intrigue than true anger.
She frowned, looking like an angry and rather sexy librarian. “Excuse me?”
He attempted to keep the smile off his face. “Yeah. I was investigating a couple of the other members and had to be there. I don’t have anger issues, and if you recall, I didn’t really share.”
“Who were you investigating?” She tried to put her hands on her hips, but the enormous jacket prevented her movements.
“Noah and his buddy Ivar,” Raine admitted. Noah and Ivar were both immortal hybrids, and Ivar was dangerous to the point that Raine thought he might have to kill the guy. It was a good thing he didn’t, because he’d ended up friends with Noah Siosal.
Mariana gasped. “You’re a detective?”
“Um, no. It’s a long story, and I can’t go into it with you.” Ivar was one of the immortal members of an elite group called the Seven, and as a very distant cousin of Raine’s, he knew about the Maxwell family secret, which couldn’t go public. In fact, now there seemed to be no doubt that Benny had helped engineer the entire situation to not only help Ivar, but to force Raine into proximity with Mariana in the anger-management group under the guise of having Raine keep an eye on Ivar.
The question was which one of Raine’s brothers had gotten Benny involved. Raine had intended to leave Mariana alone after she’d moved from Dallas to Indiana, but Benny and Ivar had changed that—along with help from the Maxwell family.
But Raine could handle his family and keep Mariana safe at the same time. “But it’s all good now,” Raine added.
