While my gaze plundered the shoreline and the shadows coalescing between the dense evergreens, Camilla readjusted her stance. Was she reaching for her shotgun?
How I wished I didn’t have my back turned, because not knowing what was going on wreaked havoc on my cortisol levels. I discovered what she was up to soon enough, though. She jammed a cold, cylindrical object against the underside of my jaw.
Crap.
The handgun.
The foreign heartbeat quickened, and a twig snapped. I swiveled my head in the direction of the noise, finding only the darkened air of the forest.
Was Liam here? Or one of my brothers?
Another wooden crack, this time behind us.
More than one shifter had come.
Camilla spun me around, the gun never moving off my throat.
Adrenaline spiked inside my veins, sharpening my senses. Something odd struck me. There was only oneotherheartbeat, not two. Even at full speed, a shifter wouldn’t have been able to circle the lake that fast. Not even an Alph—
Bea!Bea could move that fast!
“Of course he sent a scout ahead of him,” Camilla gritted out. “Probably one of your brothers. Such a fucking coward.”
So she too knew it was only one shifter, and yet didn’t she find their velocity odd?
She jammed the gun harder into my throat. “Whoever’s out there, you can report to Liam that if any attempt’s made on my life, I won’t hesitate to shoot Nikki or break the ice beneath our feet and sink her.”
“You’d sink with me,” I reminded her, surprising myself with how cool and collected I sounded.
“I have a tiny secret weapon,” she breathed into my ear. “A key.”
And I had a huge secret weapon: my vampiric future sister-in-law who could move and heal superfast.
Could she heal from a gunshot wound, though?
There was no room for fear inside my brain, but somehow, there was room for doubt. And that doubt gnawed at me. What was Liam planning? Had he even sent Bea, or had she come of her own free will? How long had it been since Camilla made the call?
Maybe he’d sent Bea, so he wouldn’t need to endanger any of his shifters’ lives.
Even as I thought it, I realized how unlike Liam that would be. Sure, he was good at delegating, but he always got involved.
Another twig snapped. This time, I was facing the right portion of forest and caught the human shape streaking between the trunks. Camilla did too. She whipped the gun off my skin and fired a shot, the gun so close to my ears, it felt like my right drum shattered.
I leave Beaver Creek for one day, and what do you do? You go ice-fishing with a criminal? I can think of several better ways to spend a pleasant Sunday afternoon. None of them involve frozen lakes or guns.
I snorted.
Oh, and before I forget, Lucas told me to relay that he’s pissed, because you made him lose the bet he’s got going with Reese. Apparently they wagered a large sum of money that he’d be the one to locate Camilla.
I didn’t want to laugh, but my nerves were so shot the sound leaped out of me.
“What the hell are you snickering about?” Camilla growled.
Searching the darkness for Liam, I said, “You never had much of a sense of humor, so you wouldn’t get it.”
She jammed the gun into my jaw. “Try. Me.”
“Fine. Fine. Liam made a joke, and it was surprisingly funny even though his sense of humor’s not all that great either.”
