And yet something suddenly felt wrong.
I watched him draw closer, my fingers tense on the wheel. The truck swerved away from my side of the road and, for an instant, I felt safe.
But I’d barely relaxed my grip when the truck’s tires squealed and the huge grille suddenly filled my vision. I cursed and ripped the wheel sideways as I hit the gas pedal. The car half spun as it surged forward and the truck hit the rear, smashing me into a lamppost. The impact flung me about violently and the side airbags popped, catching my head before it could hit the window. Metal crumpled as the passenger side of the car bent around the post.
We’d barely come to a standstill when another car hit us head-on. It tore my car away from the pole and sent it skidding backward, the windshield shattering under the impact and spraying me with glass. For a moment I couldn’t see anything, my vision filled with white bags and the steam erupting from my engine. I eased up on the gas pedal, but it didn’t make a damn bit of difference. I reached forward and turned the key, shutting the engine off. Moisture ran down the side of my face as I moved, stinging my eyes. I swiped at it irritably, and my fingers came away bloody. I hadn’t even felt a bump to the head.
Over the groaning of metal and the hiss of escaping steam came the deep-throated growl of the truck’s engine. The driver was still moving, still finding targets. And Quinn’s car had been three behind mine.
Fear surged and for a moment I couldn’t even breathe. Then I grabbed the handle and flung the door open. In my haste to get out I forgot the seat belt and it snapped tight, almost choking me.
I cursed, undid the thing, then climbed out. The road was awash with wrecked vehicles and dazed people getting out of cars. Ahead, the truck had found another victim. A black car had been turned onto its side, and the truck was hitting it again and again, rolling it over and over. There was blood on the windshield, and the back half of the car was crumpled almost beyond recognition. No one could survive such a mess …
Suddenly, what I was seeing hit.
That black car belonged to Quinn.
“No!” The scream was wrenched from my throat. I flung myself past the door and ran down the road. I couldn’t lose him as well. Not like this. Not in some stupid, senseless act of violence …
Something sharp hit my arm and I stumbled, whacking against the road hard, skinning my hands and knees in the process and grunting in pain.
I swiped at the thing in my arm and realized it was a dart. A goddamn hunting dart. “What the fuck?”
I reached for it, but my vision was suddenly blurry. The dart became two, then three, then all of them danced away. I swore and tried to get to my feet, tried to keep running, to get to Quinn and to stop the truck, but my legs wouldn’t obey me.
The world was spinning; my mind was spinning. Everything was going around and around, until I just wanted to throw up.
“Well, what have we got here?” The voice was rich and somewhat arrogant. It was also far too familiar.
Blake.
The Alpha of the red pack. The man who’d made my childhood hell. The wolf who’d sworn revenge for the humiliation I’d dished out to him not so long ago.
Kye had warned me Blake was planning his vengeance, and yet despite that, I just hadn’t expected he’d act this soon.He moved toward me, his bulk filling my vision and his gait oddly erratic. Like something was wrong with one of his legs and he couldn’t put much weight on it.
“You’d better hope you haven’t killed the man in that black car,” I croaked, blinking desperately to gain some clarity in my vision.
God, I just wanted to close them. To rest.
I jerked them open instead. There were fading bruises and almost-healed scratches all over his face, an indication he’d been in some sort of accident recently.
Shame he didn’t die in it, my inner wolf snarled. It would have saved me the trouble.
Though I couldn’t help wondering what had happened—and whether it had been an accident, or someone’s attempt at retribution.
“Oh, he’s dead, have no doubt of that,” Blake said. “The car doesn’t even resemble a vehicle anymore.”
Fear leapt into my throat, my heart. I didn’t want to believe him, but I couldn’t feel Quinn. Not in my mind, not in my heart.
He couldn’t be dead.
He couldn’t.
Boots invaded my vision. Shiny brown boots. I swiped a hand across my eyes and forced my head up. Past the boots and the medical uniform, until Blake’s blunt features swam into view. His silver eyes glinted with pleasure and his expression was victorious.
“I will kill you, Blake.” Though the words were shouted inside my head, they came out as little more than a croak. “And if I don’t, the Directorate will.”
“Oh, the Directorate can only legally kill me if I kill you. And I don’t actually intend to kill you. That would be too easy. The person I intend to kill will be someone else entirely.”
Which made absolutely no sense. I licked my lips. The sick fear churning my gut seemed to be sweeping through the rest of me, sapping my energy. My arms and legs were quivering with the effort of holding me upright, and it was all I could do to not collapse.
“Don’t you dare go near Rhoan,” I spat, “or I’ll fucking erase you and every one of your goddamn sons from this earth.”
“Oh, I have no intention of killing him. Him being unable to find or save his sister will be punishment enough.” He gave me another sharklike smile. “And you, my dear wolf, won’t even remember who you care for, let alone who I am. Hell, you’re not even going to remember who you are. I bid you farewell, Riley Jenson. I hope you enjoy the week you have remaining—but I very much doubt you will.”
And with that, my world went black.
Chapter 7
Waking was an abrupt and ugly process. Sensations flooded my mind, overwhelming and confusing and, most of all, painful.
My body burned, my skin burned, my head burned. Everything hurt. My back, my legs, my arms, my face. Even my goddamn brain.
It felt like someone had strung me up and used me as a punching bag. A bag that now lay abandoned and forgotten.
I lay on my back, and the surface beneath me was sandy and hot. It stuck to my skin, grinding like sandpaper, itching and hurting all at the same time.
The air was also heated, and ripe with flavors that were strange and oddly exciting. There was a vastness to the air, an emptiness, as if I were lying somewhere that held nothing and nobody except me and the burning earth.
I tried to open my eyes and discovered I couldn’t. I frowned and lifted a hand. My arm felt heavy, tired. My fingertips, when I brushed my face, felt nothing, although the lack of sensation did not apply to the hand as a whole. Frown deepening, I switched hands. Felt the dry stickiness caking my eyes.
Blood.
There was blood on my face.
Why was there blood on my face?
I didn’t know, and that scared me far more than the burning in my body and brain.
I rubbed the blood away and forced my eyelids open. The sky above me was blue. A deep rich blue from which the sun burned brightly.
That’s why my skin burned. I was getting burned.
I twisted my head, looking for cover. The land stretched out before me, filled with sandy red hills and scrubby-looking plants. It seemed totally empty of any other sort of life.
How the hell did I get here?
I didn’t know. I really didn’t know.
Fear swirled, briefly catching in my throat and making it hard to breathe. I forced it away. I could worry about the hows and whys later. Right now, I needed to find myself some shade or I wasn’t going to survive much longer.
And I didn’t want to die. I’d followed that path once before, and though it had been tempting, in the end it had not been for me.
I frowned at the thought, not really understanding it and too damn worried about the here and now to chase it.
I forced myself upright. If I thought my body had been aching before, then that one action proved just how wrong I’d been. God, it hurt. Fiercely. Brutally. Tears stung my eyes and fell down my cheeks, mingling with a warmer liquid that seemed to be running down the side of my face.
More blood.
And not just on my face.
My torso was a mass of bruises and cuts. There was an ugly, half-healed wound on my shoulder, abrasions scattered across my skin, a massive yellowing bruise stretching from under my breast down to my hip, and my knees were cut and scabby.
Had someone used me as a punching bag? Right now, it sure as hell felt like it. But if they had, how had I ended up here, in the middle of goddamn nowhere?
I didn’t know. Not anything. The ache in my brain seemed to be all-consuming, and nothing was getting past it. Nothing except pain and the need to find shelter before the sun burned me to a crisp.
I lightly hugged my knees with my arms and stared at the landscape around me. Hill after red hill. Few trees, no houses, no cars, and certainly no people.
There weren’t even footprints in the earth. How I’d gotten here was anyone’s guess. Hell, I might have been dropped from the sky for all I knew. But sitting here wondering how I’d gotten into this situation rather than doing something about it wasn’t going to stop my skin from getting redder.
I braced my hands against the warm, sandy soil and pushed upright. Every part of me protested the movement, and I ached with a ferocity I wouldn’t have thought possible. Sweat broke out anew across my forehead, and my breath hissed past gritted teeth. But I forced my sore knees to lock and made it upright.