“Fuck, no.” Roy barked out a strange, harsh laugh. “Too late for that. Let me go, and I’ll still kill you.”
Anthony sat very still while Roy talked. His face went paler and paler. Savannah was afraid he was going to puke.
Still, she didn’t try to shut him up. Roy occasionally hurled himself against his chains, at random moments, but he wasn’t struggling hard. He was spending too much time threatening them. That was good. They’d bought themselves some time.
Finally they pulled over at a little rest stop gas station.
The sun was rising now, glowing like an ember through the crags of distant mountain peaks.
“Out,” Austin said to Anthony. “You’ll get your share; you’ve done your part. This is too much for you. You are going to call back to Foxhaven and get someone to pick you up.” He pulled out his wallet and grabbed a handful of twenties, which he shoved into Anthony’s fist. “They have a little motel here. This will cover it if you need to spend the night.”
Anthony didn’t even try to argue. He grabbed the money, glanced back at Savannah regretfully, and then hurried over to the little rest stop store.
“Thank you, Austin,” Savannah murmured, with an appreciative smile. “That was decent of you.”
A rush of happiness warmed him. He loved it when he and Savannah bantered, but when he’d done something to earn her respect…that felt like everything to him. “I have my moments.”
Savannah climbed out and filled up the gas tank while Austin stood there and listened to Roy rambling on with his favorite “filet of shifter” recipes. Then Austin hurried off to make a quick phone call while she took a turn holding the rifle on Roy.
When they got in the car, Roy started in on Austin. He described the things he would do to Austin, and then his packmates.
Then he started detailing how he’d dismember and skin Austin’s mother. At that, Austin threw his head back and laughed. “You’re too late. She’s dead now, thank God, but frankly, if she wasn’t, I would hand her ass over to you and I would stand back and watch while you dismembered her.”
“Do you want to know what I’m going to do to the cubs in your pack?” Roy sneered.
At that, Savannah shifted angrily in the driver’s seat. “Sort of like what you did to those humans?” she snapped. “You killed an innocent family. You killed a teenager, you slimeball.”
There was a long pause. “He was tasty,” Roy said coldly.
“What are you even talking about? You didn’t eat them, you freak.” Disgust dripped from Savannah’s voice. “Just ripped their throats out and left them for the vultures.”
Another pause. A long one. “Well, when you’ve killed as many as I have, you forget little details like that.”
But he hadn’t killed anyone else. That would have been in Harris’ report.
“Did you actually kill them?” Doubt crept into Savannah’s voice.
“Dumbass, why would I confess to a death penalty crime if I didn’t do it?” Roy sneered.
“Hey, nobody ever accused you of being sane. Or rational. Or hygienic,” Savannah said nastily.
“What do you think your mother’s intestines are going to look like when I’m playing jump rope with them?” Roy snarled at her.
Thunk, thunk.
A groan, a yelp, and then blessed silence.
“Did you just shoot him?” Savannah demanded.
Austin looked down at the limp, unconscious shifter with satisfaction. “Sure did.”
“But why?” she said with exasperation. “You know that those tranqs are as precious as gold right now, and we really need to save them for when he’s fighting the chains. What difference does it make what he says? He can rant all the way there for all I care.”
“I know, I’m sorry.” Frustration chewed at him. “I wasted the tranqs. I’m sorry. It was stupid of me. I just didn’t like it when he was threatening your mother.”
“You would defend my mother like that, but not your mother?” she asked.
Austin’s voice turned tight and angry, with a hurt lacing it that had been there his entire life. “Clearly you never met my mother. Or rather Jessica Bronson. You never met Jessica.”
