Oh. Right. Theo, Becca’s adopted son, was part of the Gladwin Kids Camp (aka shifter school), which meant he slept in the cabins with the other teens. That left Carl and Becca, newly in love, alone here except for the third wheel named Alan. No wonder the guy made himself scarce.
“But it’s not like him to stay gone. Not at a time like this.”
“I know,” grumbled Carl. “He sent me a text days ago saying he’d connected up with a law school friend and wouldn’t be home for a while. Tonya says his phone is turned off.”
Mark swallowed the coffee black, using the bitter taste to focus. What had Carl said? Phone. Off. “Turn it back on.”
“It’s off. It can’t be?—”
Mark grabbed Carl’s laptop and started typing fast. With all the caffeine, his fingers flew on the keyboard. Meanwhile, the glare from his alpha had him confessing the truth. “So remember how Tonya put a GPS tracker on your truck ages back? Because you’re the alpha and?—”
“Yeah. I remember.”
“Who do you think got her that really good tracker? And who do you think hacked your phones? She’s good, but she’s not a real techie.”
Becca sighed, folding her arms across her chest. “Did you hack Carl’s phone?”
Mark shrugged. “I may have installed a couple extra things on it. Like something that makes it look like it’s turned off when it really isn’t.”
Carl stared at his phone like it had grown leper spots. “I can’t believe you?—”
Theo came off the couch, his teen eyes wide. “Did you hack Alan’s phone? Can you teach me how?”
Becca gave the boy a stern look, but Mark barely noticed. “It’s on your phone, too,” he said to the boy as he continued to type. “See if you can find it.”
“Awesome!”
It took Mark longer than he liked. This wasn’t his computer and he had to maintain his thoughts for more than a few seconds. But it felt good to be doing something even if it wasn’t disemboweling the bastards who had taken Julie.
“There you go. Here’s where Alan’s phone is.” Then he frowned. What the hell was Alan doing near Twin Lakes? There was nothing up there but vacation rentals. “What do you know about this old law school friend?”
Carl stared at the screen, his expression tightening. “Absolutely nothing. What else can you do with that phone?”
Mark shrugged. “If the cops ask, absolutely nothing. But?—”
“I’m your alpha.”
Mark spun the laptop back toward him. “Then tell me what you want.”
Becca put her hand on Carl’s shoulder and Carl took hold of it. It was a casual, intimate gesture that made Mark’s chest tighten. God, he hoped he’d be able to touch Julie again just like that. And a whole lot more.
Meanwhile, Theo piped up. “On TV, they turn on the phone. Make it into a microphone to hear?—”
“Don’t know if we’ll hear anything, but I can give it a shot.” It took an embarrassingly long amount of time, but he got it to work. And then he dialed the audio up to max while they all strained to hear the tight, female voice.
Julie.
“He’s unconscious. I don’t care how much you threaten me, I can’t bond with an unconscious bear. I can’t— Hey! Hey! Stop it!” And then she screamed.
CHAPTER 18
“Stop it!” Julie’s screams did nothing to save her. Which really pissed her off and completely terrified her. At the moment, it was an even match between the two emotions, but she picked the one that got her motivated. Too bad it didn’t matter.
No matter how angry she was, no matter how much adrenaline was pumping through her system, she could not stop her captors from pinning her down and injecting shit into her arm. They didn’t even open the cage door but reached in and held her flush against the bars. She tried to fight, but she didn’t have any maneuverability in the small space, and they were strong. Shifter strong, if she had to guess. And the one with the Diamondbacks ball cap on had freaky cat eyes.
“I’m cooperating,” she screamed, even though she wasn’t. “Don’t do this! Don’t!”
Too late. The crap went into her arm, and she felt the heat of whatever it was roll through her body like an evil wave. It was probably her imagination, but hell, even they didn’t know what the compound was going to do to her.
