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Pulling out jogging pants and a tee, she threw them at Finley. “They should fit you.” Blair also retrieved a tee and shorts for herself before hopping out of the van, cursing when her knees almost gave out. Dragging on her clothes, she glanced around, seeing nothing but road and woodland. “Do you know where we are?”
“Yes.” Finley winced as she shoved an arm through her sleeve while they made their way to the front of the van. “Got a broken rib for sure. We’re about twenty minutes away from the drop-off—Dammit, no keys. I don’t suppose you know how to hotwire a car, do you?”
“No, but I don’t intend to drive off anyway. Not until I know for certain that he’s a goner.” Blair snatched the cell phone she spotted in the cupholder. “How long will it take the pride to get to us?”
“Ten minutes or less if they floored it.”
Blair’s lips flattened as she realized that the cell required a password to unlock it. She typed “Blair” on a hunch. That didn’t work. Nor did any of the random words she came up with.
Shit.
An idea slipped into her mind. Biting down on her lip, Blair typed in her first name followed by his surname, leaving no space between the two.
The phone unlocked.
Blair grinned. “Yes! We can—”
They both froze as a guttural roar split the air.
Her smile fading, she pushed the phone into Finley’s hand. “Hide in the van and call Luke. Now. Then stay out of sight.”
The enforcer’s eyes went wide. “Are you kidding me?”
“Look, neither of us are up to taking him down right this second. I’m still weak and woozy from the drug. You’re injured and in pain. We need to give ourselves a little time to physically recover before we act. That means keeping him distracted. I can manage that, but not if his attention isn’t fully on me. As such, I need you to hang back.”
Finley huffed. “Fine. But don’t get killed, or your mate will slay me.”
Predictably, Mitch lost his mind on hearing that his sister had been taken. Luke was in no position to judge—hell, his cat still hadn’t pulled himself together. Nonetheless, Luke heard himself clip, “I need you to focus, Mitch. It has to have been her stalker who took her. And I have reason to believe that either Donal or Antoine could be that stalker—I don’t have time to go into the why of it right now, so I need you to trust me on this. More, I need you to tell me where they are.”
Seconds of silence ticked by. “Donal or Antoine?”
“Mitch.”
The male cursed. “All right. Fine. Give me five minutes, I’ll call you back.”
“Good. And Mitch? Say nothing to your pack about this. Any who don’t believe that your pack mates are involved might warn Donal and Antoine that they’re suspected to have taken her. If one of them is our culprit, they might panic. I don’t want our boy running scared—especially since he might kill her so that she won’t slow him down.”
Luke rang off, stilling as his mate’s emotions danced along their bond. Relief gripped his gut, though he knew they weren’t out of the woods yet. “She’s awake. I feel her. She’s shaken, but more than anything she’s pissed.”
“That’s better than terrified,” said Aspen.
“Providing she doesn’t aggravate her kidnapper too much,” mused Havana.
Luke nodded, afraid his mate would do exactly that.
“According to the enforcers who are watching Gabriel, he’s at a bar having drinks with people from work,” Tate revealed. “They can’t see him from where they’re parked outside the building, so they’re going to head inside the bar and search for him.”
Luke ground his teeth, not much liking that all they could do for the moment was wait for others to return their calls.
“Whoever he is … he’ll do one of two things—head off to the hills with her, or stash her somewhere local because he intends to go on about his normal life while also keeping her captive,” said Camden. “Right?”
“Right,” Tate agreed.
“He’ll do the second,” Luke stated. “He won’t feel the need to go on the run, because he doesn’t believe that he’s doing anything wrong. He has this neurotic notion that he and Blair are meant to be; that they will start a life together. But he’s not so crazy that he doesn’t know on some level that he’s not who she wants.” He’d have otherwise handled several things differently.
Vinnie nodded. “Another reason I can’t envision him fleeing is that he’ll know she’d try to escape; that she wouldn’t be a cooperative captive. And that’s not an ideal scenario for a man on the run—and he would be on the run, because both our pride and the Sylvan Pack would hunt him down.”
“I don’t think that he’ll take her to a random location,” said Bailey.
