Chapter Twenty-Nine
“We have to find another vehicle,”Lucien said when they were a few miles out of town. No one had spoken since they climbed into the SUV and drove away. “They know this one.”
The Savages wouldn’t be able to use Elyse to track their movements as they had with Killean, but they could use other means. As long as they were in this vehicle and close to town, they were in jeopardy.
“We also need a hospital,” he said. He wanted to get her somewhere that could help her soon, but they had to put a lot of distance between them and that town. “Preferably not one close to here.”
“Their little spies could be ineverytown,” Logan said.
“They haven’t infiltrated every town in America,” Asher said.
“How do you know? They could have been working on this for years longer than we realized and now they’re unraveling their trap or whatever they’re doing.”
“They’re not in every town,” Elyse said. “They wouldn’t have needed me if they were.”
“And they would know our every move,” Saxon said, “but they don’t.”
Lucien turned in the front seat to stare at Elyse. “Whydid they need you?”
Saxon cradled her closer against his chest as she lifted her head. He’d changed his jeans when they returned to the motel and tossed his bloodstained ones away so he could hold her.
“You don’t have to answer that,” he told her.
“We both know I do. That’smymap up there, and he’ll figure it out eventually.”
“You’re giving his brain far too much credit,” Saxon said and grinned when Lucien gave him the finger.
Despite the pain radiating up her arm and constant nausea twisting in her stomach, Elyse chuckled. They may bicker, and she was sure they’d had more than a few fights, but Saxon’s closeness to his friends was evident and something she envied. She hadn’t had a friend since she was twelve years old.
After she moved out of her parents’ place and settled somewhere no one knew her, she hadn’t bonded with anyone. She had acquaintances from work; they went out for drinks and shared laughs, but she never allowed herself to get too close to them. A part of her had always worried they’d learn what she could do and abandon her like her friends in school.
The last ten years of her life had been unbearably lonely. And now, she didn’t even have her parents. Her fingers dug into Saxon’s shirt as she grappled against the melancholy trying to take her over. Shewouldget her dad back. She wouldnotlose everything.
When Saxon cupped the back of her head, she closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of cedar and snow on him.
“Is someone going to answer me?” Lucien demanded. “Whatis going on?”
Elyse opened her eyes to find Lucien’s gaze boring into her. “I have a gift.” And she proceeded to tell all of them why she’d been with the Savages.
Lucien sat back when she finished, and Asher and Logan looked at her like she was a two-headed, talking lobster.
“Ronan knows about this?” Lucien asked.
“I told him,” Saxon said. “He’s going to meet us in Maine.”
“Killean’s going to lose his mind.”
“He already has,” Logan muttered, and they all shot him irritated looks. “What? You think we haven’t seen him pacing the grounds at night staring at his hands and muttering to himself.”
“He’s fine,” Saxon said through his teeth.
“Yeah, that’s normal behavior,” Logan retorted.
Saxon wondered if they could break the truce between the hunters and Defenders long enough for him to punch Logan.
Seeming to sense the increased hostility, Logan sighed. “Look, all I’m saying is he didn’t come back normal from saving Simone. If he finds out Elyse is part of the reason, he’s going to lose what remains of his shit.”
“She’snotpart of the reason for that,” Declan said. “The humans he killed to rescue Simone is the reason he’s so haunted.”
