I peeled out of my apartment complex with my eyes glued to the front entrance When Ringo didn’t come blasting out, I relaxed a tiny bit but not nearly enough for my liking.
In my head, I’d gone over a hundred different plans on how to deal with Kane’s abduction of Anna. First, I’d considered going to the cops. Then I’d quickly dismissed that option altogether. I was a ware now. Even though I’d only been one for a few hours, it was clear it put us in an entirely different category than that of non-shifters. I could understand how dangerous it would be to involve outsiders in our troubles. The last thing we wanted was for humans to further complicate matters by discovering who and what we were. Bringing the cops into Anna’s abduction could actually do that, and by extension, make my best friend’s situation even worse.
Shit! I’d just referred to myself as though I wasn’t even human anymore, like I was some kind of monster no longer able to associate with real people. But, like it or not, I couldn’t overlookhow high the stakes were in this situation, nor how protective I felt for my new pack.
After I’d vetoed the police idea, I’d considered buying a gun and taking Anna back by force. Ok, so it wasn’t my finest, most dignified plan, but Kane started this, and I was willing to finish it with firepower if necessary.
However, I’d soon come back to reality when I realized purchasing a firearm could take far too long to accomplish, and that I didn’t even know how to load one, let alone how to properly use it. This option was nothing more than a silly revenge fantasy, and one I’d never actually be able to pull off.
After trying to ping Anna’s phone for her location, and failing, I considered calling Kane’s bluff, and then ten other silly ideas that I’d shot down just as quickly as I’d conjured them. My best friend’s time was running out and I simply had to act. Because I couldn’t think of anything other than the obvious, I decided I was going to have to surrender myself to the leader of Los Lobos. If it was her or me, then it should be my life laid forfeit, not Anna’s.
Just in case Kane was more skilled in technology than I was, I left my phone in my bedroom. I didn’t need the ware tracking my movements via my device through Anna’s phone. Cranking the living room TV on full blast, I dipped into the bathroom. Once inside, I jammed a bunch of toilet paper soaked in hand soap down the sink’s drain and intentionally flooded the bathroom.
Playing the helpless female card, I’d begged Ringo to help me fix it. Once he was busy doing that, I quietly snuck out the front door, the TV drowning out my swift exit.
Halfway to the location Kane had sent me, a pain so fierce and sharp, caused me to nearly double over against my steering wheel. Pulling over on the side of the road, I tried to catch my breath and figure out what the heck was wrong with me. That’s when I realized it. My instincts were telling me I was a fucking idiot! Kane couldn’t be trusted, but my intuition could.
I was being impetuous out of fear. I was acting like every woman in some bad horror movie I’d seen over the years. I could just imagine the audience shouting at the top of their lungs,“DON’T DO IT, you absolute fool!”as I climbed into my car to act as a willing lamb to slaughter.
Making the wrong choice, for the right reason, was still the wrong choice. I had to trust my mate. I couldn’t go this road alone like I’d always done in the past. If I let Ace in on what was happening, I’d be far better equipped to handle Kane than I ever would be on my own.
Reversing my vehicle now, I sped in the opposite direction, hoping beyond hope there was still enough time to drive over to the Night Stalkers’ clubhouse and stop Kane from seriously hurting my best friend.
CHAPTER 30
Anna
I’d never been so afraid in all my life. The night the two men broke into my apartment will live in my head for the rest of my days. However short or long that may be.
When they’d grabbed me, I’d thought I was having a nightmare. When I saw the smaller one’s teeth coming to bite me, I knew I was. But this wasn’t the kind of nightmare you could wake from. It was the kind you had to endure every second of the day.
It wasn’t until I’d awoken from my unconscious stupor that I realized I recognized one of them. They were bikers. The blond one, the President of Los Lobos, had been feuding with Ace the night Cat and I had first met the Night Stalkers. Needless to say, I knew that connection wasn’t promising and that it was most likely the reason the two men had broken into my apartment last night.
I’m not sure how much time had passed since my abduction, but I’d startled awake to a smelly mattress in a pitch dark room. The absence of light kept me just as fearful as my imprisonment.Above me, I heard a lot of mechanical noises. It sounded like some kind of workshop was toiling away up there. Tools and heavy equipment were being moved around constantly, and no amount of shouting on my part would be able to cut through the raucous noises.
Not that I would have been so bold as to scream. The last thing I wanted to do was call those animals back down here. Wherever here was. All I knew was that whatever hellhole I was being squirreled away in must belong to Los Lobos.
The one positive thing about my captivity was that I wasn’t chained to a wall or radiator. It was a low bar, but an important one. Instead, I was sitting on a hard mattress in the corner of a room. There were no windows in this dark space, and I wasn’t even sure if there was a bathroom of any kind. That was going to prove to be a problem soon. I already had to pee, and I’d been holding it out of the fear and shock from what had happened to me over the last few hours.
Thinking of the smaller biker’s teeth coming for me played on a loop in my fear-addled brain. He’d bitten me. That creep had really fucking bitten me! Like some kind of rabid animal. I wondered what kind of freak had teeth filed to points so that they could attack women with them. Was that some sort of kink I’d never heard about? Must be. Men were always inventing new and bizarre ways to hurt women. I guess filing your teeth or wearing prosthetics was just the newest fad.
My hand went to my neck, and I felt the beginning of a scab forming where the ugly bastard had bitten me before I’d passed out. I didn’t think I was the kind of girl to swoon when things got rough, but apparently I was learning all kinds of things about myself lately.
I let my fingernails scrape over the partially crusted patch on my neck again and was surprised that the wound wasn’t worse. The way the man had attacked me, and the way I’d fought him, made me think I’d definitely have two gaping holes in my neck. I guess that was something to be grateful for. I didn’t want to die of a staph infection before I even had a chance to escape or be rescued.
Gathering my courage to get to my feet, as escape sounded much more likely than rescue at this point, I palmed the walls and circled the room to get an idea of the scope of my surroundings. I got about halfway around the wall when I came upon the casing of a doorway. My pulse accelerated when I located the door handle and it was unlocked.
Oh-so-quietly, I turned the handle and found my prison had an unfinished bathroom attached. The toilet was functional, so I swallowed my disappointment that escape wasn’t going to be that easy and quickly relieved my overburdened bladder.
There was a light switch on the wall, and I flicked it on to get a better picture of my surroundings. The room I was in was empty of everything except that filthy mattress. Getting a glimpse of it now, with obvious stains that made the navy material darker in some places, I think I was better off without the lights.Locating the door on the far side of the room, I checked the handle and found it was locked, as expected.
With the lack of windows, I realized they must be keeping me in the basement of some kind of workshop. Maybe an auto body shop or some kind of warehouse? What I couldn’t understand was why I’d been taken in the first place? Sure, Ace was feuding with Los Lobos, but I wasn’t his girlfriend. I was a friend of a friend. A loose connection at best. So why go to all the trouble of kidnapping the girlfriend’s best friend? It seemed kind of odd.
I tried to remember everything that happened during the attack, but it was all kind of hazy. Coming to terms with the filthy mattress, I sat on the bed with my back against the wall, closed my eyes, and searched my memory for the details of last night. As traumatic as it was, I had to relive it to help me figure out the motivation behind my kidnapping. My strongest memory, beyond the bite, was when the President of Los Lobos clapped a hand over my mouth. Then there was arguing between him and the smaller man, the one that appeared to be his subordinate. They each wanted to be the one to bite me, I recalled with a full body shudder. They wanted to use me for something, but for what?
That’s when the big man’s words popped into my head.“She’s yours, Brother. But be careful and don’t fuck up my plans with Cat.”
The sudden returning memory flooded my senses, and I had to tamp down my disgust so that my stomach wouldn’t empty right there on the mattress. It would seem the men who’d broken into my apartment wanted Cat but were using me to get to her, for some confusing reason. That’s when it all began to make sense. The prospects watching Cat at the mall, and in her apartment at all times of the day and night. She mustn’t have wanted to tell me that Ace was having her guarded to keep her safe from Los Lobos. She probably didn’t want to worry me, so she fed me some weak story about not wanting to drive to the club alone. When Los Lobos couldn’t get to her though, they must have decided to kidnap me instead. And use me for what? Collateral? Bait? Oh God, this was such a twisted mess.
