Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92043 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 460(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“I know enough,” I replied flatly.
“So…nothing,” Chance said derisively. “Cool, cool.”
“She won’t bring all of us,” I said with a sigh, leaning against the counter. “So our options are to try and wait her out, try to figure out where Charles is without her help, which I’m guessing will be an impossible task, or go along with the plan that she actually agreed to. I’ll go with her to get Charlie, and we’ll head straight home.”
“Why the hell wouldn’t we just wait for you here?” Danny asked. “You find Charles and bring him back here, and we’ll take the fucking plane home.”
“We’ve got no idea where he is,” I reminded him. “And bringing him back to Baltimore isn’t an option.”
“This is going to end badly,” Chance said, staring out the kitchen window.
“You don’t know that. She knows we’re mates. I think if we give her a little space, we’ll find that she—”
Chance started laughing, cutting me off. Leaning away from the window, he pointed. “You were saying?”
My mate was sneaking, badly, across the backyard toward the gate.
“Fuck.” I strode toward the front door.
By the time Lucy opened the gate that led to the side of the house, I was standing right outside, waiting.
“Dammit,” she said with a sigh. “You forgot to paint the bathroom window closed.”
“How far did you think you’d get?”
“Well, I figured you’d be arguing with them for at least another ten minutes,” she said, letting me lead her back through the yard.
I stopped her by the back door. “Is it really so bad that we want to protect you?”
“Zeke wanted to protect us too,” she said as she pushed the door open. “You’ve seen how that turned out.”
“Nice stealth work,” Danny said drolly as we entered the kitchen.
“Shut up,” Lucy grumbled.
“Seriously?” Chance asked me, staring at me like I’d lost my mind. “You still think it’s a good idea for the two of you to go off on your own?”
“I don’t like you very much,” Lucy said conversationally to Chance. “You’re kind of an asshole.”
I smiled.
“It’s part of my charm,” Chance shot back.
“Huh.” Lucy crossed her arms over her chest. “I missed the charm. Where is it exactly?”
“You’re pretty mouthy for someone we just saved.”
“Saved from what? Bedbugs?” Lucy scoffed. “If I remember correctly, you broke into my perfectly safe hotel room—”
“Which obviously wasn’t as safe as you were pretending since it took about fifteen seconds with a lock pick to get in,” Chance interrupted flatly.
“Considering that I’m not even sure anyone was looking for me to begin with—”
“You can’t be that fucking naïve,” Chance barked.
I took a step forward, but Lucy didn’t need me. Her eyes widened as she sneered at Chance.
“You don’t know anything,” she spat. “You’re just a bunch of bumbling idiots. Oh, I’m supposed to trust you? Thank you? I met you like five minutes ago. Vampires are the ones looking for us, you frigging asshole! They’re the ones selling out other Vampires to humans for their sick experiments. Why do you think Zeke left my brother, even though it was excruciating for both of them? Huh? He loved Charlie.”
I stared at Lucy in horror.
“What do you mean Vampires are the ones searching for you?” Danny asked softly.
“I mean…” Lucy snapped, oblivious to the undercurrent drifting through the room. “That Zeke was sure that Vampires were the ones selling out the mates to the humans. Apparently, you guys have some kind of reporting system or something, and that’s how they were finding the new mates. That’s why he didn’t report Charlie.”
I didn’t want to believe it. The idea that our own kind was setting up others to go through what Zeke had gone through before he died. It was abhorrent. Mates were sacred.
“That’s why Zeke went back to his unit,” Chance said quietly, his hands braced on the kitchen counter.
“He thought if he poked around, he could get more information,” Lucy said, crossing her arms over her chest. “He wasn’t sure who was behind it, but he was working with Americans and the guys from Europe, and he thought he could narrow it down or something.”
“Fuck,” Danny whispered. “Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“He had names. Dates. He was trying to piece it all together.” She went quiet, and her gaze dropped to the floor. “He was due back, so he said he was going to do one more job, see what he could figure out, and then he’d be back for Charlie, and they could take everything he’d gathered to you guys.”
“Someone’s leaking classified information to the humans,” I said out loud. The words sounded just as strange out loud as they had in my head.
“Money can do horrible things to people,” Lucy replied, almost sympathetically.
“Most Vampires have money,” Chance said tiredly. “Benefit of a long life.”
“Not this kind of money,” Lucy replied. “Zeke said he thought the whole thing was funded by that billionaire. You know, the tech guy. The one who invented those electric boats that can go underwater.”