CHAPTERFIFTEEN
“Fuck!” Adam shouted as he stood in the shack of a trailer from his vision. Joy had definitely been there. Her scent was all over the place. So were a few fresh splatters of her blood. His bear wanted to rip someone’s head off right this damn second.
The scent of the shifter from her apartment was also strong in the trailer. They had been there within the last hour or so. Wherever they had gone, it hadn’t been long ago. He must have just missed them. His guess was that it was by minutes.
He racked his brain, trying to remember any vehicles he had passed on the way into the swamp. There had been a few cars, none that had been remarkable or stood out. There was an old black conversion van that had caught his attention, but he let it go because he needed to find the trailer where Joy was. So, he had sped by the van, cruising in the opposite direction.
Adam inhaled Joy’s scent and closed his eyes. Flashes of her bruised face appeared in his mind. It pissed him off even more, and a low growl rumbled up from his chest. Whoever held her captive had beaten her and left her with a black eye and a split lip. She looked exhausted, like she had given up and resigned herself to her fate, which only fueled his anger.
“Why aren’t you fighting? Why aren’t you trying to escape?” he asked the vision Joy.
Of course, there was no answer forthcoming because she was just a vision that had appeared in his head. He could easily see she was in a motel by the layout of the room. Wherever it was, it couldn’t be far, considering the fact that he had just missed them.
He raced back to the SUV and threw it into gear, spraying gravel as he sped away from the trailer. He navigated the vehicle back to the main road and raced toward the town where he had passed several motels on his way to the trailer.
He slowed the vehicle to a crawl as he approached the first of the shady motels. He didn’t see the van out front, so he kept driving to the next. It was a few blocks down the road and much larger than the first. There were several buildings that made up the entire motel. There were parking spaces in front of and behind the buildings.
Adam drove slowly through the parking lot, scoping out each of the buildings. He rolled down the window, hoping to pick up the scent of either his mate or the shifter who had taken her.
Just as he was about to give up hope that he had found the correct motel, he spotted the black van parked behind the last row of buildings. He parked a couple spaces away from it and hopped out of the SUV. His mate’s scent was fresh in the air, as was the scent of the shifter who had taken her.
There were four rooms in this unit, each with a separate door. Now, Adam just needed to figure out the correct room before the shifter caught his scent and bolted. Slowly, he approached the first door. Joy’s scent was present but too weak for her to be just behind the door. As he approached the second door, her scent grew stronger. He had no doubt if he kicked the door in, he would find his mate.
Just as he was ready to knock the door in, it flew open, and the man from his vision stepped into the frame.
“Did Malcolm send you? I thought he was coming in person,” the shifter said.
Adam stared at him for a minute before something in his brain clicked. “Yeah, Malcolm sent me. Where the fuck is the bitch?” he asked, playing along with the shifter.
“She’s inside. Do you have my money? I want the full payout because I kept her alive. Even if she is a bit banged up.”
He sounded proud of his shitty treatment of Joy.
“I fed her a few minutes ago, so she should be good for a bit.”
The more the dude talked, the more pissed off Adam got. His rage was boiling just under his skin. He tried to keep his anger in check. Long enough to make sure Joy was indeed safe, then all bets were off.
“I need to see the girl before you get paid to make sure she’s the one. Just in case you’re lying,” Adam demanded.
“Fuck you, man! I’ve been watching her for years for Malcolm. I even moved into the shitty building she lives in so I could keep an eye on her. I ain’t no fucking idiot,” he growled.
“Noted. Now, show me the girl.” Adam stood his ground, demanding to see Joy. It wasn’t like he had more than a few hundred bucks in cash on him, anyway. If the guy really wanted to press the issue about getting paid, his day was about to get a whole lot worse real fast.
The shifter stood back and pulled the door open. Joy was handcuffed to the bed, unable to move at all. Her eyes bugged out of her damn head when she saw him standing just outside of the door.
It wasn’t the reception he’d hoped to receive from her, but then again, his words weren’t actually comforting, considering he was playing along with her kidnapper.
“There’s the girl. Now, where’s my fucking money?”
“I’m assuming whoever the fuck Malcolm is, he is the one who has your money,” Adam growled.
“You don’t know who you’re fucking with,” the man growled back at him.
“Oh, I think I do, kitty-cat. And I’m telling you now that if you’re smart, you’ll walk away.”
“No can do, man. She’s mine. This is my payday. Not yours.”
“Good thing I’m not in it for the money then.” Adam pushed the man with his full might backward into the room. His body made a sickening thud against the far wall. His head lulled to the side.