He grabbed something from the back seat and, standing outside the car door, pulled on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and sandals. The jeans molded perfectly to his muscular thighs. Lucky jeans.
He climbed back in the car and turned the ignition key.
I let out a sigh of resignation. “Fine. I’ll let this abduction continue for now. I’d rather be kidnapped by you than by Hughie, Louie and Derpface.”
“Duke, Royal, and Earl,” Killian corrected me as we pulled away from the curb.
I leaned back in the seat. As we drove, thoughts whirled through my head, tangled, confused. “When they tried to kidnap me, I overheard some stuff that you said. It sounded like you were claiming they had the same father as me.”
He nodded, focusing on the road ahead as we left the downtown area. His pack members followed us close by.
Hispack members.
What had happened to my world?
“My mother told me that my father was a traveling salesman. They met at a bar one night, and he left before she ever even found out she was pregnant.” My heart thumped in my chest at the memory. I’d always wanted a dad, and the story was such a sad cliché.
Killian shook his head. “Maybe that’s what Clive told her.”
I wanted to ask more questions, but I was afraid of the answers I’d get. Clive was the father of those three creeps. Maybe I didn’t want to know any more about my family after all.
I stared out the window as we drove. It didn’t look different than any other small town you’d find in the American West.
We left the town and rolled up a hill into the deep forests. Trees rose up on either side of us, tall and somehow ancient feeling. After a few minutes, the trees fell away and we came to a massive fenced area. Standing in front of the gate were two large men, muscle-bound and intimidating. They were as ruggedly handsome as movie stars, but they didn’t stir the same feelings in me that Killian did.
This must have been the compound he was talking about, though. It looked almost like a prison, and I bit my lip, trying to think about how I would ever make a break for it out of a place like that and go back home.
“You won’t want to.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I won’t want to do what?”
“Escape. That’s what you’re thinking about right now, and I’m telling you, you won’t want to do that.”
“Who says I’m thinking about escaping?” I gave him a big innocent blink.
“I know exactly what’s on your mind, Daphne.”
“You can read my mind?” I shrank back from him, alarmed.
He smiled wryly. “Not exactly, but I have a good idea of what you’re thinking and feeling. We’re attuned, and the more time we spend together, the stronger that bond will be.”
We rolled past the front gate, the two guards giving Killian a knowing nod as we passed. We drove into a clearing, and a small village appeared in front of us, with colonial-style clapboard homes and some brick homes as well. Toward the center, we rolled up to a large brick mini-mansion. Sprawling, three stories, and with a semicircle of trees in front of it and a stream running right next to it.
The car rolled to a stop. Killian popped open his door. “Now, let me come around and open the door for you like the gentleman I am.”
“Gentlemen don’t kidnap ladies!” I yelled at him as he slid out of the door. “And I swear if you say I’m no lady, I’ll pop you one.”
“Well, look at you, handing me the comebacks.” He grinned. “This is going to work out really well.”
I grabbed my door handle and tried to yank it open just because he told me not to. It was locked.
He walked around and held the door open for me.
“Milady,” he said.
“Mikidnapper,” I replied, sliding out.
He looked amused. “You’re really stuck on that, aren’t you?”
