AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Jade,” he called out to the organizer of the hunt, who stood on the stage, a microphone poised to her lips.
“What’s up, Jack?” she asked, smiling at him, as she pulled away the microphone from her mouth to keep from broadcasting her words to those gathered. Without any electricity, everyone had decided to show up tonight, swelling the number of participants and bystanders. “If you and Nora wanna ditch and go back to your place, you shouldn’t. I’ve planned something special.”
“Actually, I don’t know where Nora is,” he answered truthfully, his tone edged with a bit of panic.
“Oh, shit. Really?” Jade frowned. “I’m guessing by the sourpuss look on your face, you’ve looked everywhere.”
“I have,” he agreed. “Checking here was my last hope. I don’t think she would miss tonight for anything. We were really looking forward to it.”
Jade beamed. “Well, that makes me super happy. Not that my best friend is missing, but that you two are having a good time together. You need to take care of my girl, Jack.”
“I intend to, Jade. I …” He swallowed hard.
Though he wanted Nora to be the first person who heard him speak the words, he couldn’t keep them in any longer. More than that, hehadto say it.
His lion was losing its mind, roaring all kinds of things in Jack’s head, making his head hurt from the sheer force of it.
“Jade, I am in love with Nora.”
And sheisour mate, you great big idiot!
Jack’s air supply was completely cut off. The truth of his words surprised him none, though. He couldn’t explainwhyhis animal hadn’t realized it before, but that hardly mattered. He had fallen in love with his mate without knowing she was it for him, and that meant a whole lot to him.
Jack just had to find her now and tell her. Nora deserved to know he was in love with her, that they were mates, and that he would do everything in his power to protect her from his evil sister.
“Excuse me,” a voice, clear as a bell but way more deadly, resounded behind him.
Jack didn’t need to turn to know who it was.
Sage.
TWENTY
NORA
Nora was disappointed in herself for one very simple reason.
She couldn’t believe that after all of the murder mystery books she had read, she hadn’t seen this coming. She should have been able to read the signs to see that something was happening in her life.
Something that was stranger than fiction.
Of course, her gorgeous new boyfriend, with a very dark and mysterious past, hiding out in a secluded small town was trouble.
Actually, that wasn’t even fair to Jack. He wasn’t the one who tied her to a chair after kidnapping her from her workplace.
It was Sage.
Jack’s sister Sage was all trouble. All villain too. Nora only had the small amount of time she had spent with the other woman to make her judgment on Sage, but it was enough.
Sage was all kinds of unhinged and definitely out to make her little brother pay for all kinds of things that just didn’t have anything to do with him.
I should have seen this coming.
Berating herself was easier than sitting there in her discomfort. Her despair made her angry, and when Nora was angry, she accessed parts of her that were usually frozen by her shyness.
Not this time. I am not going to let Sage win.
Nora struggled against the binds wrapped around her wrists and winced. The skin was already raw and red, tender from all of her moving around, trying to free herself from her captor.
