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 sat down and buckled my seat belt while Ambrose watched with a small smile.
Charlie and the others followed us in a minute later. I looked my brother over as he sat across from me and set his bag and my baseball bat between his feet. The animation in his expression while he’d been talking to the others slipped as he met my eyes. My chest tightened.
I would’ve let Matthias hug me for an hour if it would’ve taken away that look of defeat in Charlie’s eyes.
“Here, Charles,” Chance said as he walked down the center aisle, tossing my brother a little paper bag. “Just in case.”
“Thanks,” Charlie replied sheepishly as he set the bag on his lap.
An air sickness bag.
“It’s Charlie,” I snapped at Chance. “And he doesn’t get air sick unless we’re in a helicopter and bouncing all over the place like a frigging ride at the county fair.”
Chance raised his eyebrows in surprise.
“It’s fine, Luce,” Charlie said, glancing at me in embarrassment.
“We good?” Beau asked as he stepped inside the plane.
I was still glaring at Chance. He was such an asshole. I could take it, but I’d fucking end him before he treated my brother like shit.
“It was a joke.” Ambrose chastised me quietly.
“Did you think it was funny?” I asked, turning to look at him as I unbuckled my seat belt.
“Good luck with that,” Chance grumbled as he disappeared inside the cockpit.
“Knock it off,” Charlie whispered.
I ground my teeth as I turned forward in my seat and glared at the wall of the plane.
We’d give them a couple of days, I decided. After that, if I didn’t see any change in Charlie or if we just weren’t feeling it, we’d leave. Zeke had procured us a couple of fake passports that we’d never had to use. I was resourceful, and Charlie wasn’t exactly social anymore. We could find some small town and get lost. It wasn’t as if it would last forever. The Bouchers seemed like they were on top of things. They’d stop the assholes going after Vampires and their mates, eventually.
“What’s going on in there?” Ambrose asked quietly as he sat down beside me, moving my bag to the floor.
I just shook my head. I’d talk to Charlie later and see what he thought. We didn’t have to stay with the Bouchers. We could change our minds at any time.
I refused to think about the mating heat and the fact that everything inside me seemed to still when Ambrose was near. Time and distance would make it fade if we decided to leave. Their brother Beau had walked away. It was possible.
Takeoff in the tiny plane was surprisingly smooth, but I re-buckled my seat belt and tightened it across my hips anyway.
“Almost home,” Ambrose announced, smiling tiredly at Charlie. “You guys will be safe there. My parents’ property is large and protected. No one will even get close.”
“You know, no one got close until you showed up,” I mentioned dryly. “Maybe you’re the problem.”
“Just because you didn’t see them doesn’t mean they weren’t close,” Ambrose replied, leaning his seat back.
“If they got the drop on Zeke, they’re good at keeping a low profile,” Beau added. He’d sat down across the aisle from us, his legs stretched out in front of him. “You two got lucky.”
“Or maybe they weren’t even looking for us,” I shot back.
“Well, they weren’t looking for Ambrose,” Beau said flatly. “Since no one knows he has a mate.”
“Maybe they’ve changed tactics, and they’re going to follow unmated Vampires until they find their mates,” I said smugly.
“For the next hundred years or more?” Beau asked with a grin. “Seems time-consuming.”
I rolled my eyes.
“What’s going on?” Ambrose asked me quietly as Charlie closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat.
“What do you mean?” I hedged.
“I mean, you’d dropped those guards for a while, and now you’re acting like we’re the enemy again.”
“Maybe I don’t like being manhandled and tortured without warning,” I hissed, turning to look at him. “Maybe I’m wondering if I screwed up royally trusting any of you.”
Ambrose’s eyes darkened with remorse.
“Baby, as far as anyone knows, you’re just Charles’s sister.” He reached out and wrapped his hand around my knee.
“Matthias grabbed your arm so that anyone watching would see that you’re not mated,” Beau added, sitting up and leaning his elbows on his knees. “On the assumption that if you were, none of us would touch you except your mate.”
“Matthias is mated to someone else,” Ambrose continued. “Anyone with any knowledge of us would know you’re not his mate.”
I stared at him while the information clicked into place.
“It had to be Matthias, didn’t it?”
Ambrose nodded. “Or Beau. But Beau is better in close combat if it came to it. He needed his hands free.”
“Because no one else has a mate,” I said slowly.