I had told myself just the other day that we needed to start locking our door, but I never asked Augie where I might find a house key. Stupid. Now, Sam stood before me with something in his hand, and I knew it wasn’t good for me.
“What are you doing here, Sam?”
His eyes were sinister, something I had never seen on him before. How had we missed this?
“I saw you come home alone. I wanted to check on you, since you were hurt so badly yesterday. Where’s Liam?”
His voice was calm, but his body language gave him away. Sam and I weren’t exactly friends. He had no business in my home.
“He’s on his way.”
I sent as much urgency and fear through our connection to Liam as I could, hoping he’d get my mayday call. On a good day, I could take Sam without a problem, but if he hit me just right in my side, I knew I wouldn’t win against him.
“You should probably take off before he gets here. He’s the jealous type. Kind of annoying, but I deal with it.”
I instinctively knew Sam was the traitor. There was no other reason for him to be in my house uninvited. If I could convince him I thought his visit was normal and buy myself some time until Liam arrived, then I would do everything in my power to make that happen.
“You shouldn’t have to deal with that in a mate, Taya. There are plenty of other suitable shifters in our pack who would treat you with more respect.”
He took several steps in my direction. I held my stance, refusing to be afraid of him, but the way he mentioned other suitable shifters creeped me out. Could he be jealous of Liam?
“That’s enough, Sam. You need to leave.”
I braced myself for the attack. My brush was still clutched in my right hand. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
“I’m not leaving without you,” he sneered. “You’ve fucked up enough of my plans. I’m not letting you do it again. Now, make this easier on yourself and come with me. I’d rather not hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
He had stepped closer and was within striking distance. I didn’t waste any time. I guarded my left side where the injury was and swung with my right fist out. I clocked him in the jaw, then rotated my hand to jab the brush into his side.
He howled in pain but didn’t retreat.
Where is Liam?
He took a swing back at me, but I ducked and saved my face from the impact. I decided he needed a decent kick to the balls for trying to hit a woman. When I brought my leg up, he saw it coming and grasped it with his hand, causing me to crash into the ground.
His body landed on top of me and before I could blink, he stuck my arm with a needle. My vision immediately began to go foggy.
“What did you do to me?” I snarled.
“Just something to make sure you don’t cause a scene.”
He lifted me up and carried me outside. It was dark now, but I could hear the ATVs ripping through the dirt.
They were going to be too late.
I did my best to hang on, but the last thing I remembered was Sam tossing me in the back of his car before the fog fully took over and I was unconscious.
I woke to water being thrown on me and found myself tied to a chair with heavy chains. I was not happy, and neither was my wolf. I growled and snarled as my vision focused on where I was.
“She’s awake, boss,” Sam yelled from the doorway before turning to me. “It’s about time. I thought I might have killed you on accident.”
I couldn’t see a clock anywhere. I had no idea how long I had been out or how far away from home I might be.
Love and relief slammed into me suddenly. Liam. I felt him. He must have thought I was dead when he couldn’t feel me anymore. I closed my eyes and reached out to him. I needed him to know I was okay, but as soon as he did, I felt the anger. Pure rage came through to me, bringing me back to my current situation.
I opened my eyes, glaring at Sam. “Why am I here?”
“That doesn’t matter. You’re just an insurance policy. When Declan is done with you, he said I get to keep you. It was a win-win for me. I get to keep my life and the girl.”
“You won’t lay a hand on me if you want to live,” I snapped.
He moved his hand closer, trailing his finger down my cheek. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”
“That’s enough, Sam. You haven’t finished your end of the deal. No touching until you do.”
Declan moved into the room. His imposing figure seemed to fill the room as he stared daggers at me. I had killed his son. There was no way he was going to let Sam have me. Sam was an idiot for believing so. We’d both be dead soon if I couldn’t figure out an escape.
“I’ve waited a long time for this day, Taya. I wanted to kill you the day you embarrassed my family at the Decennial Gathering, but kids these days have no respect and you refused my handshake. Instead, letting your father pay the price. Next, I’ll be hunting down those witches for foiling that plan as well.”
He took a seat in the chair across from me. I had nothing to say to the man. I refused to let his words get through to me. I wouldn’t let him break me.
“I didn’t worry, though. I had back-up plans to my back-up plans. You see, I’ve had decades to plan this coup, and your dad has always been in my way. Always wanting to be in other people’s business. He couldn’t just let us run our packs the way we wanted to. There had to be rules. I didn’t like his rules.”
He leaned forward. “You don’t like them, either. I thought for the briefest of moments, I could bring you to see my reasoning, but you made the wrong choice. You went and got yourself a mate, making yourself more vulnerable.”
Mother fucker. I told Liam this would happen. I knew he’d be used against me.
I kept my face relaxed. “Liam is just a means to an end. He helped us get closer to you, and after I kill you, I’ll be done with him, too.”
Declan smirked at me. “So you say, but I’ve watched you from afar. I don’t believe you’re that good of an actress. He and Gerald will come for you, and when they do, we’ll be ready. I’m going to let them suffer for a few days, first. For now, you just sit tight, and I’ll be back. We have more to discuss.”
He stood from the chair, turning to the other guard beside Sam. “Don’t leave this room. Piss in the corner if you need to go. Shawn will be back tomorrow, and he’ll take shifts with you.”
Sam huffed. “What about me? I can help Todd.”
Declan stared down his nose at Sam as if he was scum. “You haven’t proven yourself. I don’t trust you, so no, you may not help any of my staff.”
Sam was at least smart enough not to respond to that comment. Instead, he cast his eyes down to the floor like a little bitch and nodded.
Declan slammed the door shut behind him, and I was left alone with the Todd guy and Sam.
I stared Sam down. “Why now? You’ve had plenty of opportunity to get to me. Why tonight?”
“I couldn’t get to Jessica to finish the job and knew she’d wake soon. She figured out I was working with Declan when things didn’t go as planned on our road trip. I couldn’t let her tell Gerald before I got Declan what he wanted. I was prepared to kill Liam to do so, but then you came home alone, giving me the perfect opportunity without making things messy.”
I breathed a sigh of relief that my dad had kept someone with her. Sam could have easily made it look natural and gotten away with killing her if he hadn’t.
I began to think about getting out of the chains. I didn’t like my odds of making it out of the room on my own. I needed to sway one of them to help me. I wouldn’t let my family fall into Declan’s trap, even if it meant I didn’t make it out alive.
***
An hour or so later, Sam finally left. I refused to fall asleep and ended up having a staring contest with Todd. The room was silent. The walls were bare. There was absolutely nothing for me to do except stare at him or go to sleep.
I began counting the stripes on his shirt. There were thirty-seven, in case anyone cared. I watched his face, waiting for any sort of sign that would tell me that the man before me had any sort of heart, but he remained emotionless.
His blue eyes hardly blinked, and I finally caved after about two hours. If I didn’t speak, I’d sleep, and that was worse. I needed to try to find out what was coming.
“So, where are you from, Todd?” I asked.
No response.
“You probably know a lot about me, since you work for that psychopath. It’s only fair I know something about you. What’s your favorite color? How about food? Oh, we could talk about books. You seem like a reader, you know, since you’re not fond of speaking.”
Random babble continued to pour from my lips, but he remained mute. I had to give him credit. The guy was good at his job. If only that job wasn’t keeping me hostage, life would be grand.
I gave up after I ran out of asinine questions I didn’t really care to know the answers to. I began singing children’s songs instead. I had a horrible voice. I never sang for this reason, but maybe it was enough to make Todd break his stone-cold exterior.
I was on my umpteenth chorus of ‘This is the song that never ends’ – because you know… it never ends – when the door opened. A man I instantly recognized walked in. I stopped singing and glared daggers at him.
Todd stood from his chair. “Good luck,” was all he said as he shut the door behind him.
I hadn’t known his name before today, but I knew where he was from and now, what kind of trouble he had caused. I silently vowed to kill him before I left the room.
“Taya, calm down,” Shawn said as he took a seat. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’re the Catskills traitor. You were the guard who took Jamie and I to the kitchen that day we stood in front of the office. You got your alpha killed.”
His eyes glanced everywhere in the room except at me. He didn’t speak for a long time. My adrenaline was pumping. My body shook with rage. If I wasn’t certain the metal shackles keeping me to the chair would hurt my wolf, I’d shift and tear the guy to pieces.
Shawn stood and began pacing in front of me. I watched him carefully, unsure of why he was the one freaking out. He had to have known I was the one he was coming to guard. He had the upper hand. There was nothing I could do to him. For now.
“You’re a disgrace to our kind.” I decided to rub salt in the wound. I could at least take my verbal aggressions out on him. “Does your family know what a spineless douche they raised? How do you sleep at night knowing all the lives you ruined by helping Declan attack your own pack? How –”
A growl tore from his throat. “I did this for my family. Everything I do is for them. You have no idea how hard it’s been all these months, knowing what Declan had planned but being unable to do a fucking thing about it. So, just shut up for five damn minutes.”
Holy fuckery. Declan had something over Shawn. I didn’t know what it was, but I intended to find out. If I could convince him our pack could help him, then maybe I could get out of here. I quickly realized he was my only hope of getting out of my current predicament alive or without losing my loved ones.
I would do everything possible to make sure they didn’t fall into Declan’s trap, even if it was the last thing I did. If Shawn couldn’t get me out of the room alive and away from Declan, I had no other option but to go down fighting. I vowed to take out as many of his men as possible when I did.