Page 71 of Hunted

Nobody answered that.

The Outlaw Ridge team left McIntyre’s helicopter somewhere in Indiana, and picked up a small jet for the trip back to the Ridge. It wasn’t until they were changing over that Michelangela’s captors learned the ‘child’ she’d been holding wasn’t real.

They were furious about it. Especially the pilot, whose name seemed to be Sugar, and who apparently worked directly for Thanatos.

They were standing at the bottom of the stairs to the jet when he realized. He went absolutely still, like the whole world holding its breath just before a huge storm broke.

“What the hell did you do with the child?” he said. Each word was like a chip of glacier ice.

Michelangela was pretty sure the only thing keeping her alive was the fact that Thanatos wanted her.

“She’s safe,” she said, more bravely than she felt. “I handed her off to a trusted associate.”

“Then what the hell were we even doing there?” Cisco complained.

Michelangela shrugged. “Having you there wasn’t my idea.”

“Gunn knew about this?” Sugar asked.

“Actually, no.”

“So you betrayed him.”

She hadn’t betrayed anyone. She’d made a decision in the moment, which turned out to be a good one, since they’d ended up in a firefight.

She said to Sugar, “My impression was that the intent of the mission was to get the child away safely, so she couldn’t be sold and used at the whims of unscrupulous people. It seemed to me it wouldn’t matter where she was, as long as that happened. Unless, of course, your boss was planning on using her unscrupulously himself.”

He locked eyes with her, and she could tell that if he had his way, he’d probably slit her throat right there.

“Get on the plane.”

She walked up the stairs ahead of him, the spot between her shoulder blades prickling as if she were about to get a knife there. Maybe several.

Mikey spent the plane ride to New York cuffed to one of the admittedly comfortable seats, trying not to think about what might be happening to Gunn. Matéo and Cisco played poker and snarled at each other. Sanchez glowered at her and cleaned his nails with his combat knife.

Finally Boomer came and stood in front of Sanchez, blocking his view of Mikey. “Knock it off,” he said. “Go in the back and play with your boys. Or yourself. In fact, a quick wank might improve your mood. There’s lots of tissues in the restroom.”

There was silence for a minute—presumably while Sanchez tried to kill Boomer with the power of his evil gaze—and then he stood up, shouldered Boomer roughly aside, and moved to the back of the plane. It was only about ten feet away, but it was still a relief.

Boomer pulled up a folding tabletop between Mikey and the seat facing her, and put down a covered cup from the tiny galley in the front of the plane. “Here’s some tea,” he said. “I’m sure it sucks, but it’s hot.” He sat down in the opposite seat and took the top off the cup for her, since she only had one hand she could use properly on account of the cuffs.

“Thanks.”

She took a sip. It did suck, but he was right—it was hot and warming.

After a minute he said quietly, “He’s okay, you know.”

She knew he meant Gunn.

“You can’t know that for sure.”

“He’s our alpha,” Boomer said. “If that bond was cut off, we’d know.” He was quiet again for a minute, and then said, “So would you. If your bond with him was cut off.”

She bit her lip. She’d wanted to think that, but worry kept her from completely believing it. “I hope so,” she said.

The wolves in the back had started arguing about poker—did they ever do anything without arguing?—but she kept her voice low in case they were paying attention.

“Why did Sanchez do it?” she asked. “How could he do it? Gunn could have been killed.”