Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92941 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 465(@200wpm)___ 372(@250wpm)___ 310(@300wpm)
“What the fuck?” Beau barked.
“Get her back inside,” Danny ordered, jogging toward us.
Beau’s arm wrapped around me, and he nearly lifted me off my feet as he hurried us back to the house.
“What’s going on?” I asked, scanning the darkness around us. I hadn’t been worried when we’d walked into the dense trees because Beau was with me, but now that we were trying to escape them, my heart was racing.
“It’s fine,” Danny assured me, swinging his head from side to side. “We just need to get back inside.”
“Inside,” Chance called to his parents as we reached the driveway.
Our feet hit the porch just as Erik stepped back inside the house, and I was jostled between the brothers as they ushered me in behind him.
My throat felt thick with fear as I got a good look at Danny and Chance. They looked like they hadn’t slept in days. Chance’s long hair was pulled back in a messy French braid down the center of his scalp, and he had dark circles around his eyes. Danny hadn’t shaved in at least a week, and his red beard was scruffy. They looked like shit.
“What’s going on?” Erik asked, wrapping his arm around Mattie.
“We found them,” Danny said baldly. “We tracked the sister back to fucking Baltimore.”
“They went back?” Beau asked doubtfully.
“She did,” Chance replied. “By the time we caught up with her, they’d separated.”
“Where is Charles?” Mattie asked.
“She wouldn’t say,” Danny replied, scratching at his beard angrily. “But she had quite a lot to say about everything else.”
“They’re far more organized than we thought,” Chance said, falling back against the wall. “She knew so much shit. Zeke told them all the things he’d figured out before he went back to his unit. They were supposed to hide until he could get back, but then he never came.”
“Why would he leave his mate?” Sven asked in bewilderment.
“Because he was convinced that someone in command was telling tales. There was no other way that humans would even know that a Vampire had found his mate unless they were getting official records.”
“I didn’t report it,” Beau said in confusion, pulling me tighter against him. “That can’t be how they’re finding out because I didn’t report Reese.”
“I did,” Mattie said softly.
Beau let out a huff of air like he’d been socked in the gut.
“He wasn’t sure if it was someone in the United States command or in Europe command, but since they were working together in South America, he thought he could poke around a little,” Danny said, shaking his head.
“Someone is leaking classified information to the humans,” Erik said slowly, like he was letting it sink in.
“That’s not even the most interesting part,” Chance said bitingly, tearing the rubber band out of his hair. “The head of all this, they’re pretty sure that it’s that billionaire with the tech company that’s cozying up with the president.”
“Unlimited resources,” Beau said, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“What’s the one thing money can’t buy?” Alice asked rhetorically. “A long life.”
Fear covered me like a suffocating blanket. Money like that made people invincible. The Bouchers were wealthy, but the man they were speaking about had more money than he could spend in a hundred lifetimes. He could just keep sending people. No matter how many times Beau stopped them, they’d just keep coming.
“Where is Ambrose?” Beau demanded.
“She’d only agree to take one of us to get Charles, and she refused to fly,” Danny said angrily. “She’s more paranoid than Matthias, I swear to the gods.”
“And she agreed to take Ambrose?” I asked in disbelief. Out of the three brothers she could’ve chosen, he was the least personable. It wasn’t that he was rude. He just wasn’t as outgoing as the other two.
“Well, yeah,” Chance drawled. “Since she’s his fucking mate.”
“Oh,” Mattie said, her eyes widening.
“We might not want to report this one,” Danny said tiredly.
Erik snapped something at Danny, but I wasn’t paying attention. My thoughts had looped back to the realization that one of the most powerful men in the world was kidnapping Vampires and their mates. Did Charles and his sister have proof? What exactly had Beau’s baby brother found before he was killed?
I didn’t realize that I was breathing heavily until Beau’s hand wrapped around the lower half of my jaw and tipped my face toward his.
“What?”
“They’re never going to stop, are they?” I asked, fear tightening like a band around my chest. “What are we going to do? How can we live our lives if they’re just out there waiting for us—”
“No one is going to touch you,” Beau promised, backing me into the corner by the door. “Do you understand? No one.”
“They’ll just keep coming. There will always be someone willing to take that job.”
“We just have to cut off the head of the snake, my love,” he murmured, leaning down until our noses were almost touching. “And if Zeke’s information is right, we know who that is.”