Mollie would understand if Aida wanted nothing to do with vampires again and chose not to live with them, but she would have to go with Aida.
She tried not to think about it as she focused on what she could see of the passing scenery. One step at a time, and they had plenty of steps to get through before they decided their living arrangements.
Half an hour later, they arrived in another small town with only one road as the main strip through it.
“Stay out here,” Mike said when he pulled into the parking lot of the only motel in town. One other car was parked outside the office, which was the only room with a light on. “I’ll get the keys.”
Using his power to bend a human to his will, he got three keys from the clerk, instructed the man to give them unlimited access on the phones, and left him with false names and no memory of how they paid for the rooms. If the clerk were ever asked to describe them, he would give descriptions of the cast of Three’s Company.
He made sure there was no security system and they were the only guests in the ten-room motel before returning to the car. Because of that, Mike wasn’t concerned someone would report him carrying a tarp-enshrouded body to whatever police they had in town.
Mike placed Doug’s body in the first room he confiscated, went through the door to the second room, and opened the door in between the second and third room. Mollie and Aida had already settled into the third room and looked up at him when he opened the door.
He nodded to them before closing the door and walking over to sit on the king-sized bed. He didn’t like having Mollie out of his sight, but she needed time with her sister, and he had some things to deal with. Lifting the phone from the bed stand, he dialed Liam’s number.
Liam answered on the second ring. “Hello.”
“Liam,” Mike said.
“Mike! Where thefuckhave you been? We’ve been trying to call you for days, and your phones aren’t given off a location, so we had no idea where to start searching for you!”
“We ran into a lot of trouble up here.”
“How bad?”
“Real bad.”
“Jack and Doug?”
“Jack’s still caught up in it.” He’d prefer not to break the news about Doug over the phone, but he didn’t have a choice. The problem was, he didn’t know how to make it easy, but then there was never an easy way to tell someone a loved one was dead. In the end, he decided just to rip the band-aid off. “Doug’s dead.”
Dead silence came across the line, and it was almost a full minute before Liam spoke again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Liam’s breath exploded out of him, and Mike heard the cushions of a couch sinking. “Oh shit.” Grief laced Liam’s voice as his breathing became labored over the line. “What happened?”
Mike filled him in on the details in a flat, monotonous tone. If he allowed emotion to get involved, he’d tear this room to shreds. He was almost done with the story when the door opened and Mollie walked over to sit beside him. She rested her hand on his thigh and her head on his shoulder while he spoke.
The warmth of her body helped calm him; he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. On the other end of the line, he heard someone enter the room as he finished speaking with Liam and then the whispered voices of David and Sera, but Liam didn’t respond to them.
“We have to get Jack,” Liam finally said after at least another minute of silence.
“We will,” Mike said. “We’re going to need a lot of help to do it and to eradicate every bastard on that island.”
“I’ll bring help,” Liam said. “Do you think the ones who caught you will flee now that you’ve escaped?”
“No. I think they believe they’re untouchable. It will only be more of a game to them when we return.”
“Assholes,” Liam breathed. “Where are you?”
Mike told him the name of the town in northern Labrador.
“We’ll leave soon.”
It would take them over a day, possibly two to drive there, but they would get there as fast as they could.
“Your mate,” Liam said. “Are you going to change her before you go back to the island?”
