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He touched her cheek, tucking her into the seat, securing her as if he thought she could go anywhere other than where he put her. “You’ll understand sooner or later. I had no other choice.”
The door closed gently, trapping her inside.
Not the truck...
She tried to beg. Tried to plead. Tried to tell him that she never wanted to ride in a vehicle again. Even incapacitated, she knew better than to willingly stay in this truck.
Her hand wouldn’t work. She reached for the handle, missing it by a mile. Before she could try again, the bastard climbed into the cab beside her. In her fuzzy, heavy head, she reached out and slapped him, fighting him off before she made her escape.
In reality, he tucked her flailing hand into her lap, then reached down and lifted Evangeline’s purse so that it was in the seat between them. The last thing Evangeline remembered was the dark stranger rifling through her bag and pulling something out of it.
After that, there was only blackness.
15
For the fifteenth time, Adam Wright dialed Evangeline’s cell phone number. And, for the fifteenth time, it went straight to voicemail.
It was off.
Her phone was off.
A muscle ticked in his jaw, his boot slamming down on the gas pedal.
It was never off.
And, okay, so maybe she didn’t always answer it as often as he would like. She got touchy when he questioned her, and Adam was working on the urge. He didn’t want her to think he was constantly checking up on her. That would only lead to her wondering why Adam was so worried about her when, on the outside—and based on what Eva said herself—there was nothing for anyone to be worried about.
When it came to hiding the truth of Evangeline’s missing year, Adam had long been skeptical. The more he got to know this Evangeline, the more he came to adore her, he began to think that maybe she should be told what she’d forgotten.
Or, better yet, who.
Wolfe.
Adam sneered as he pushed his cruiser faster than was legal. He thought about turning the sirens on before deciding against it. If his hunch proved to be something more than just his overreacting imagination, he didn’t want to give Wolfe any advanced warning.
Ever since the prison board voted to let the animal out, Adam had been waiting for something like this to happen. Didn’t matter that the perks of the Bond Laws were worthless since there was no record that Evangeline had bonded with that beast. He’d spent the last year working at the Cage. He knew what those monsters were capable of—and how much danger she would be in when he found her and she didn’t remember him.
If Wolfe believed that Evangeline was still his mate, nothing on Earth was going to stop him from going after her. If she knew the threat that lurked out there for her, she could be at least be prepared.
Her mother insisted on the secret. Eventually, Adam agreed, mainly because he knew he would do whatever he had to to keep her from learning all about Wolfe.
The animal lost her once. He couldn’t be allowed to get his paws on her again.
Adam made it his personal mission to keep Evangeline safe away from Wolfe. So he watched from a distance, helping Naomi and Paul Lewis support Evangeline during her recovery. When she was ready to move out again, he suggested that she move to Grayson because it was his precinct.
He was supposed to protect her. It was his duty as a police officer, and it was his privilege as Evangeline’s boyfriend. As far as he was concerned, her fling with Wolfe ended the day Wolfe lost control of his truck and Evangeline nearly died.
Whatever bond they had that day was broken. Adam doubted one had existed at all. When she finally woke up from the hospital, she didn’t even remember the Para.
It was the best news Adam had ever heard.
Adam had been halfway in love with Evangeline Lewis for years. When he was a kid and she didn’t want to give him the time of day, he talked himself into believing it was a harmless crush. Nothing serious. Each went their separate ways: Evangeline went to school to study English and became an editor while Adam headed straight for the police academy.
But he never forgot his Eva.
He was a couple of years into his time on the Grayson PD force when he learned that Evangeline had hooked up with a wolf shifter. Maddox Wolfe, next in line to run the biggest pack in the state. That nearly killed Adam. Not only did he lose his woman to a Para, but Wolfe was a powerful bastard, too.
But power only went too far. Laws were laws for a reason. When the bond snapped, when it was touch and go for Evangeline for a while, Wolfe exhibited signs of a bonded shifter without his mate and got thrown into the Cage. The lack of a bonding license worked to everyone’s advantage because, when she pulled through, no clause said that Wolfe needed to be informed that she hadn’t died.
