I soften. “I know, love. Ari’s working on getting the information now.”
She makes a small noise, and I have a feeling she may have stumbled onto some audio feed she didn’t want to experience, and I don’t blame her. There’s no need to coddle her much about our life, but some things can be eased into.
“Is it…is he…”
“He won’t be alive much longer,” I tell her. “He’s close to cracking.”
She’s silent for a long time. “I know this might be, uh…the potaskingto be called black by the kettle…but does it make me a monster if I’m glad?”
“No, my darling,” I tell her quietly, leaning against a tree. I scratch the heel of my boot against the bark just for something to do because my body feels restless. “It makes you one of us, and I saw that fire in your eyes the moment I first had you in my grasp.”
She’s quiet for a long moment, and in the background, I can hear the soft grumble of Phoenix’s voice.
“Is Phoenix with you?”
“He’s at his desk,” she says. “I think he’s watching Ari—and he’s done a bunch of stuff on the computer, so I’m assuming he’s…fact-checking?”
“Something like that,” I tell her. I push away from the tree and hover closer to the house. Andrea isn’t making noise now—or if he is, it’s not loud enough for me to hear it. I doubt his body’s strong enough to last through the night, and while Ari can feed him a few more shots of adrenaline, his heart will give out soon.
I can only hope he’ll give us—
“Got it!” It’s Phoenix again, his voice a little muffled from wherever Alice is sitting, but there’s a scuffle, and then he’s clear on the line. “I’ve got him.”
Something akin to rage—though it’s far deeper and far darker—starts to beat from my heart. It’s like blackness spreading through my veins, and my mouth starts to water. “How far is he?”
“Two hours. They’ve got him in some storage rental unit. I’m going to arrange for a flight to meet you there to take him home because I don’t know what condition he’s in. There are no cameras, but there was a Wi-Fi connection,” Phoenix says, sounding drunk on triumph.
“How many with him?”
“At least three phones were tracking, but I’d bet on half a dozen,” Phoenix says.
My eyes narrow, and I head to the house, climbing up the steps. The lights have dimmed, so it’s hard to see exactly what Ari’s doing, but something hits the floor with a wet splat, and I’m pretty sure I know what it is by the muffled sounds Andrea is making.
I say nothing, and Ari finishes the job. I count a beat, then two, and then he slumps over, and there’s a ragged sigh before the only sounds in the room are Ari’s steady breathing matched with mine. I press the phone harder to my ear and clench my jaw.
“I love you.” I’m saying it to Phoenix, but I mean it for sweet Alice too, though I don’t know if she can hear me. It doesn’t matter right now. I end the call, then shove my phone into my pocket before I cross the room and haul Ari to his feet.
His eyes are heavy-lidded, his pupils blown, and most of him is covered in blood. It’s fine, of course. We have a camping shower in the back of the Jeep, and I’ll get him scrubbed off and dressed, then get a fire going to burn all of the clothes.
I glance back at Andrea, who barely resembles a person anymore, and I decide we might as well just leave him stuck to the wall. I don’t want to bother wasting time. Let Romano send someone looking for him. Let him see this as a warning of what happens when you touch one of ours.
Romano might not care about Andrea’s life or his death, but he will see it for what it is. The promise that this will be his fate, and there’s no escaping it now.
Chapter6
ARIEL
Generally,after long sessions, I lose time, and this one was no different. I wake up in the passenger seat with the smell of blood and baby shampoo up my nose. The sweats I have on are just slightly too big, which means they belong to James, but the shirt is comfortable, and my hair is brushed, which means he took time with me.
I feel the very faintest pulse of affection for him as I glance over and see him sitting in the glow of the rising sun. Fuck, he really is beautiful. The orange rays of the early morning make the ends of his dark curls light up like they’re on fire, and a small part of me wants to yank the wheel to the side and force him to pull over so I can fuck him stupid in the middle of the forest.
I don’t, of course. We don’t have time. I’m just so worked up after being able to unleash my fury and rage and fear over Kane going missing, and I don’t know that I’ve made a man suffer the way Andrea did by the time I was through with him.
Of course, Andrea was nothing to me, really. He was just a vault of information, and the pain I delivered was the combination to open him up. And he did—beautifully. I feel invigorated, and as I come to myself a little more, I’m hungry and a little horny and anxious to get to where we’re going because it’s time.
Kane is within reach now, and as far as Phoenix could tell before we left—he’s alive.
Of course, once Romano realizes that Andrea’s missing, it’s only a matter of time before he orders Kane either moved or eliminated, and my guess is we have a handful of hours. If that. It’s why James is so focused. It’s why he’s got an iron grip on the wheel so tight his knuckles are pale.