“And we have Manchu.”
Louis paused and glanced up the stairs. Melinda loved that ball of fur, but did she love it enough to risk coming back for him? After what they’d done?
“Give her some space, Louis. Let her think about things. She won’t go far. Probably to the café downstairs. This place is crawling with shifters. And warded. She won’t leave without Manchu.”
The landline rang, and Pierre snatched it up, his body tensing as he listened. He dropped the phone back in its cradle.
“What is it, Pierre?” From the look on his brother’s face, it wasn’t good news.
“That was the front desk. Melinda left the hotel with two men. It didn’t appear as though she went willingly.”
“I thought Gabriel said we could count on the shifters in this hotel?”
“We can. But there’s a dentist’s convention starting tomorrow. The lobby is full of people checking in. They couldn’t get to her in time.”
Pierre turned to his laptop, cursed and swiped the useless thing to the floor. “Get onto the security feed. See if you can track them to a car. I’ll call Gabriel for backup.”
Louis was already typing, hacking into the Ritz-Carlton’s security system. “I’m in.”
There she was, rushing out of the elevator. He tracked her through the crowded lobby. When she disappeared from that feed, he switched to the one at the front entrance. There. Two men. He zoomed in. Above the collar of one man, the hint of a tattoo.Putain.He slumped over his keyboard, his hands in his hair. The Faucherians had their mate.
Louis leaned in again, following their progress to an SUV, the license plate blurry, but visible. He locked in on it. He could trace it through the city’s CCTV. It wouldn’t be hard. The SUV was red. It was like they weren’t even trying… He sat back. Because they weren’t. This was a trap. To spring it, they were going to need backup.
* * * *
“Fuck you, Gabriel.” Pierre threw his phone at the wall. It cracked and made a satisfying dent in the plaster. His claws extended, he punched them through the sofa cushions. Once, twice, a few more times until he’d shredded one, the floor covered with its stuffing. For once, he could see the appeal of unleashing his temper.
“Pierre?” Louis stood, laptop in hand, staring at the destruction he’d wrought.
“Gabriel thinks this is the perfect time for them to send Isobella to the tenth century. He’s gathering the coven. Stef is with him.”
“But…Melinda? Our mate?”
Pierre’s gut curdled. “She’s to be the distraction.”
“It’s a trap, Pierre. We can’t go in alone. What about the backup Maxime was sending?”
“Gabriel’s taking most of them, too. He’s sending us Elliot and Alois.”
Four werewolves and no witches against Cordelia, and how many Faucherians? Did they stand a chance? Did Melinda? Their mate was human. Fragile. He hung his head. Louis was right. They should never have let her go.
“The Proulx brothers are good in a fight. So are we. And we have the smarts and tech on our side.” Louis nodded. “Oui, I think it’s possible, if we plan it right.”
Since when had Louis ever planned anything?
“Gabriel’s right, Pierre. This is the perfect opportunity to get Isobella back into the tenth century. We’re running out of time. She has to go. For all of us.”
Louis as the voice of reason? Oh, how their roles had reversed.
“She’s our mate, Pierre. We can do this. What other choice do we have?”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The car sped through the streets of San Francisco with Melinda squeezed in the back between two burly tattooed men. No chance to escape. They’d bundled her into a car and peeled away from the curb before could utter a word or scream for help, her laptop seized by the guy in the front passenger seat. He was trying to crack her password. If she weren’t so terrified, she might have found his ham-fisted attempts amusing.
Melinda hugged her body tight. Who were these guys? And where were they taking her? She side-eyed the guy to her right, the top half of his elaborate F tattoo visible above his collar. The last time she’d faced one of these guys alone, he’d held a gun to her head, prepared to kill her. And in the warehouse…
Is that where they’re taking me?
