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Honor frowned and took the phone. “What do you mean gone? His truck’s still here. I’d know if he left.”
“Taken,” I managed. “Papa. Show?” I held out my hand like I’d done several times with Axel.
Honor hesitated only a moment before he took my hand. I placed it on my lure and opened my mind to his. He let out a pained hiss as our minds clashed briefly, but relaxed enough that I could show him the clearing, the phone, the smells. I senthim everything I knew so far and hoped that he would be able to help me fill in some of the blanks.
“Fuck,” he muttered and let go, stumbling back a step.
“Honor!” Ziggy was suddenly there, keeping Honor from falling over. “What happened?”
Honor rubbed his temples and winced. “It’s Parker. He’s got Axel.”
I chewed on theplastic zip ties around my wrists, earning a smack from one of the armed guards in the van. “Ow! Hey, watch the face!”
“Quit trying to chew free,” the guard snarled from behind his visor.
I hadn’t seen any of them yet thanks to those stupid visors, but I already knew I hated their faces. These guys weren’t soldiers just following orders, not if Mozley was telling the truth. Since I trusted Mozley way more than I’d ever trust Parker, I was going to treat them like they chose to be there, which meant Parker had their full support.
Speaking of Parker…I turned my head, eying his smug face in the front seat. It was impossible to tell he was another clone just by looking at him. He had the same mousy nose, the same beady little eyes, the same punchable face.
And I wassopunching him in the face the first chance I got.
The van crawled slowly over a bump that had the four of us in the back all jostling around. A glance out the window told me westill hadn’t found a proper road. It was a wonder the van hadn’t lost a tire or thrown an axle driving through the forest like that, but the damn thing seemed to drive like a tank. Special military van, I guess.
I watched tree trunks and bushes pass by, just like they had been for the last twenty minutes. It was clear now that we weren’t even trying to get back to the road. Wherever he was taking me, he didn’t want to be seen doing it.
“Where are we going, anyway?” I growled up at Parker.
“Oh, don’t you worry,” Parker said with a smug smirk. “I wouldn’t dream of taking you too far from your precious mate.” He glanced back at me. “Which you are going to tell me all about, of course.”
“Get fucked,” came my reply.
Parker sighed. “No manners at all. That’s the problem with you people. You think fuck you is a valid reply to anything.”
“It’s a valid reply to you. I don’t have anything else to say, and I never will. Not even if you torture me.”
Even as I said it, I knew it probably wasn’t true. I didn’t have military training like the others, or special forces training like Phoenix, and I wasn’t some secret badass like Honor. The truth was, I couldn’t fight my way out of a wet paper bag. Not really. I was made to look hot, not defend myself against armed soldiers and a mad scientist with a god complex. The minute he got out the pliers and started peeling off toenails, I was probably going to break and tell him everything, but he didn’t need to know that.
I just had to hope that I stalled him long enough that Ghost could get away.
“They’re going to notice I’m missing, you know,” I spat. “You think you’ve gotten away with this? You haven’t. Ghost knows better than to come for me.”
“Ghost?” Parker laughed. “You named it? Oh, how rich!”
“Ghost is not an it!” I surged toward Parker, but the soldiers grabbed me by the shoulders and pinned me back to the van floor.
“As for Subject Zero-Six-Nine…” Parker twisted in his seat to look back at me. “Even if he knows better, he won’t be able to stop himself. He’s still an irqed, and they are ruled by instinct. He can’t not come for his mate, even if he knows it’s a trap.”
My stomach churned. No. He was wrong. Ghost wasn’t some animal incapable of making decisions. He was more than instinct and violence. He was sweet, good, gentle. Yes, there was a side of him that had hurt people, but he’d been driven to do that after years of torture. That wasn’t who he was. Not anymore.
“Even if that were true—and it’s not—he wouldn’t come alone,” I pointed out.
Parker arched an eyebrow. “I know all about your friends and their monster mates camping out at that pathetic excuse for a cabin.”
“Hey! My cabin’s awesome, not pathetic!”
He ignored me. “And I know all about Special Agent Mozley and his people. Rest assured that measures have already been taken to minimize anyinterruptionsthey might cause.”
Parker believed he’d thought of everything, but that couldn’t be right. Maybe my life was weird, and I was walking bad luck, but dammit, we were the good guys. The good guys weren’t allowed to lose. Not against dirtbags like Doctor Parker Grey.
