Turning his head, he stared out the window at the darkness as it raced past. Wyatt was driving the SUV with River in the passenger seat next to him. Aiden had jumped into the back with Bel and Rafe. He couldn’t trust himself to drive right now, even if they were simply following Winter and the others in the rescue van. Ethan was working hard in the van to track the signal from Ronan’s phone.
He just prayed they didn’t think to ditch Ronan’s phone before they reached their ultimate destination. Not that he could even guess where they were headed. He thought Mara and Heller might be drawing them to some warehouse or even to the airport, where she could get Ronan shipped back to Europe, but they’d been heading northwest for several minutes now. They were far from the city, with trees and mountains passing by his window.
“Where the devil are we?” Rafe grumbled as he shifted in his seat.
“The last sign said we’re approaching Simsbury,” River said from the front.
“Shit.” Rafe swore softly and dug for his phone. He started typing rapidly, and Aiden leaned forward to look at him.
“What?” Bel demanded.
“David says that he’s got people at the various airports. I thought I saw one listed for Simsbury. I’m checking with him and Sofia.”
Aiden closed his eyes, trying to clear his thoughts. When Ethan had run into the room, he’d just sensed the other vampires approaching the house. There had been no moving fast enough. They ran outside and into the woods, but they were already too late. In the distance, car doors slammed and engines roared as they sped away. Three vampires were found on the ground with their throats torn out, but there was no Ronan.
They’d taken him, likely as he’d predicted they would. Mara would want revenge, and the tastiest would be handing him over to the Ministry. He could begin to imagine how she planned to keep him subdued for the entire flight. His Ronan would rather crash the plane into the ocean than return to the Ministry.
“Yes,” Rafe said suddenly, breaking the silence. “There’s a small airfield in Simsbury, about three miles from where we are now. I bet they’re taking him there.”
Bel leaned closer, looking over his brother’s shoulder at his phone. “That doesn’t make sense. It’s tiny. It couldn’t accommodate anything needed for a transatlantic flight. That’s just for small planes.”
“Maybe they don’t mean to fly him back to Europe from here. Just move him to another location where we can’t interfere and then fly him over the ocean,” Wyatt suggested.
“That’s it! Up there. Winter is signaling to turn at the airfield,” River said excitedly.
Simsbury Airport was little more than a runway against the foothills covered in white snow. There was a single-story main building at the head of the road and a line of white rounded hangars for storing small single-prop engine planes. It was a neat and tidy little place that was clearly still active. Just not past midnight in the middle of December.
As they turned, Bel’s phone began ringing, and the van pulled over to the side of the road. Winter or Marcus was likely calling to make a plan. There was no need. Aiden had a plan in mind.
“Go around them and continue,” Aiden ordered when Wyatt started to slow the SUV as if he meant to park behind Winter.
“Are you—”
“Do it,” Aiden barked. He wasn’t waiting another second. He’d not been there when Julianna was killed, and the thought still haunted him. He would not suffer the same mistake with Ronan. A queasy feeling of dread coiled in his stomach against what he planned to do, but it was nothing compared to the feeling of rage boiling in his veins.
Wyatt quickly cut the wheel, jerking them around the van and hurrying down the narrow road. In the distance they could see a series of cars and SUVs parked under the lights, waiting for them. There were at least two dozen vampires in the area, far more than he’d sensed in the woods by their house.
“Father!” Bel cried out. “What are you doing? Marcus wants to know what the plan is.”
“The plan is that I will take care of this. You will not act until I tell you to.”
“But—”
Bel swallowed his argument after just a look from Aiden. Dragging in a deep breath, he grabbed Bel’s hand again and squeezed. “Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
“Then I just need you to do as I say. All will be well,” Aiden said smoothly. He just wasn’t sure his sons would be able to forgive him after this. He certainly never felt comfortable looking himself in the mirror afterward.
But to keep Ronan safe, to put his mate back into his arms, he would risk it.
He only half listened to Bel relaying Aiden’s words over the phone to Marcus. There was no need to see if the van was now following them. His children would follow him straight into hell out of love and devotion.