“Where’s my mom?” she asked again.
“I’m coming to get you. Tell me where you are,” Mateo commanded.
“Not until you let me talk to my mom.”
“You can talk to her after you tell me where you are.”
Elena glanced nervously at Asher and Logan. They were both watching her intently; Asher sat on the side of his bed while Logan stood near the TV. Logan’s eyebrows knitted together over the bridge of his nose when he saw her hesitance. She could almost feel the wrath simmering off him as he glared at the phone.
She contemplated switching the conversation into Spanish but didn’t know how well either of them spoke the language, so it could do nothing more than annoy them. Plus, she didn’t want them keeping things from her, so she shouldn’t try to hide things from them either.
They weren’t her enemy; she was becoming increasingly convinced she wasspeakingto her enemy.
“I’m not going to tell you where I am, Mateo. You shot me,” she said.
“It was an accident.”
She’d guessed it was him who shot her, but his words confirmed it. And like she had no remorse over lying to him, he didn’t sound at all repentant.
“I was trying to save you from them. I couldn’t allow them to take you away from the compound; I knew we’d never see you again if that happened, so I assumed it would slow them down if you were injured. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. I tried to make it only a flesh wound, and I must have succeeded if you’re talking to me now.”
She couldn’t tell him Logan had given her some of his blood. He may be telling the truth about not wanting to injure her—she doubted it—but he would kill her if he learned Logan gave her vamp blood. She did not doubtthat.
“They are not our allies, Elena,” Mateo continued. “They came here to kill your father and take over the compound; you must see that.”
When doubt tugged at her, she pushed it aside. If that had been Asher and Logan’s plan, then they wouldn’t be getting ready to head home. They were loyal to Ronan and the Alliance.
If Ronan planned to take their compound, they would still be fighting for it. He also would have sent a lot more men. He had to know two of his fighters wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to take over the compound. It was a ludicrous statement and assessment.
It irritated her more that not only was Mateo lying, but he also considered her an idiot.
“You have to know I would never hurt you on purpose, Elena,” he said in a pacifying tone that set her teeth on edge.
“Father had agreed to send men to help them; why would they kill him?” she asked.
Mateo paused long enough for her to realize he hadn’t expected her to know about that.
“Your father originally agreed to help them, but the night before they killed him, we had discussed not sending men back with them. It would leave us too vulnerable to an attack if we did. He planned to tell them that he changed his mind, and obviously, they didn’t like being told no.”
Chapter Thirteen
Logan’s handsfisted when the lie came across the line. As a born hunter, he’d always had exceptional hearing, and if he concentrated, he could hear conversations over the phone. He didn’t catch everything Mateo said, but he listened to enough to know he’d like to tear out the prick’s tongue and silence his lies.
A flash of white encircled the outside of Logan’s iris. She’d never seen anything like the band of white surrounding his pine green eyes. As disconcerting as the sight was, it was also breathtaking.
It also told her that he was listening to her conversation. Again, she considered switching to Spanish, but they would still know what she said if they spoke Spanish. Instead, she took a deep breath and tried to control her rising temper with Mateo and her eavesdropper.
“Fine, that’s what happened. Now, can I please speak to my mother?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m not sure; a motel either in New Mexico or Arizona. I didn’t bother to find out when I checked in. I was too tired to talk.”
“Which motel? I’ll bring your mom with me when I come to get you. You can talk to her then.”
“No, I’ll talk to her now. You’re not my husband, and you’re not my father; you have no say over my life, Mateo.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized she shouldn’t have said them. He was supposed to have been her husband, something that was probably still a blow to his pride. She wasn’t going to get anywhere with him by rubbing his nose in the fact she’d run away to avoid marrying him.
