Elizabeth took a bite of her sandwich as Max and Dylan followed her into the woods. Evan escaping from a mental institution was the only answer she could come up with. The only thing left of the shifters’ dead bodies was little more than white ash scattered in the dirt and on the green fallen leaves. When a shifter died, the myth was true that it turned back into its human shell; what wasn’t known was why some continued disintegrating until nothing was left but ash.
Evan couldn’t be telling the truth. It just didn’t make sense. None of it did. She wasn’t a royal. She didn’t have or need a protector now, and even if there was a speck of truth to Evan’s claims, there was no way in hell she’d return to a father who had thrown her out like the trash. Nope. She shook her head. Colton Trapp could deal with this dipwad. She had more pressing things to worry about, like who was abducting the women and where the heck they were being held.
That thought had her pausing mid-step. She spun around to face the house. “Evan knew.”
“Knew what, Lizzie?” Max asked.
“He knew my past. He knew about the lab, the vials…” She let her thoughts trail off.
“Even if he knew some of whatever happened to you, why act as your protector now? Why not before when it sounded like it mattered most?” Dylan shrugged and kicked around the leaves, looking for clues as to who might have sent the shifters.
“I’m not talking about my past. He followed the missing girls out of the club.” Her mouth parted. He had the answers she needed to break this damn case.
Elizabeth left the boys in their search and jogged up to the house. Flinging the back door open, she stomped inside.
Evan was pinned against the wall with Rhys’ fingers wrapped around his throat. “Put me down, bear, before I have to kill you, and then she’ll really get pissed at me.”
“I’d like to see you try.” Rhys banged Evan even harder against the wall.
“What the hell are you two doing?” Elizabeth demanded through gritted teeth. “Rhys, drop him. And Evan… don’t you dare threaten him again, or I don’t care who the hell you are, I’ll kill you myself.”
“You don’t need to fight my battles, Lizzie,” Rhys growled and released his hold. Evan dropped into a crouch. His muscles strung tight.
“She’s the only reason you’re still breathing, bear,” Evan choked out as he stood.
“What happened?” she demanded.
Evan prodded. “You might as well tell her.”
“Your Guard claims that he’s destined to be your mate,” Rhys growled.
Elizabeth’s gaze shot to Evan’s as she moved to stand beside Rhys. She entwined their fingers in a reassuring grip. “Now I know you’re on crack. I can feel the pull between Rhys and me. Hell, I can’t even deny that. You can’t even explain it, other than what happens between mates.”
Rhys glanced down at her, letting go of her hand. He cupped her face and held her gaze. Lowering his head, he pressed a kiss to her lips. He understood what she’d just said. Her words weren’t to appease anyone other than herself. She’d meant what she said, regardless if they’d yet to seal the deal. Rhys cared about her. He might not love her yet, but there was potential where once there had been nothing but a dismal, empty shell of a life for her. He brought color and feelings into her life when everything she’d felt had been stolen from her a year ago. Spending one day with Rhys might not have convinced her she loved him, but she knew she cared and that he cared about her, which was more than Evan could argue.
Evan’s lips twisted at the corners. “You haven’t claimed him, and he hasn’t claimed you.”
“How do you know that?”
“It’s a full moon tonight. If he’d bitten you or you him, then he’d be dead. It’s part of your genetics,” Evan answered, not in a threat but as if it was a natural response.
“I’ve known him less than forty-eight hours,” She whispered as she turned back to Evan.
She heard the car pull up without even having to look out the window. “Rhys, I need a few minutes alone with Evan.”
“Are you sure?” Worry clouded his gaze.
She cupped his face. “I’m sure. Colton is about to drag him down to the precinct, and I need a few minutes to ask him my own questions.”
He ran the pad of his thumb across her lips before walking out the front door to buy her some time.
She had to work quickly. She spun around to face Evan. “You followed the women out of the club. You knew about me and the lab. My guess is you know exactly who is behind the abductions and where they’re holding these women.”
Evan raised his brow but didn’t answer her question. “Finally piece it together, did you?”
“Why are they doing this?”
“To destroy you and all of our kind.”
“Where is it?” she demanded.
He shook his head. “I told you earlier. I am your protector, even if that means protecting you from yourself. You go to that lab, and you’ll die.” He said it as if he’d seen the future.
“If I don’t go to that lab, the other missing women will,” she countered.
“Those women are not my concern. You are.”
“Listen here.” She stepped toward him and ground her teeth together. “I’m going to find that lab, with or without you, and destroy it,” she said through clenched teeth. “Then I’m going to find the people responsible and destroy them.” She narrowed her eyes. “That is my concern.”
He lifted his hand to rest on her cheek. She shivered at his touch. “I recognize that fight and fire in your eyes.”
She grabbed his hand, squeezing with all of her might as she twisted it behind his back and shoved him into the wall. “Then you know what I said is true,” she said, leaning into his back, she pulled his arm unnaturally higher up his back pegging him in place. “Don’t touch me again.”
“You’ll be begging for my touch, princess.” He glanced back at her with a cocky smile, so she twisted his arm higher and watched as sweat beaded on his brow.
“You may say that you’re saving me from myself, but who is going to save you from me, asshole?”
The door flew open, and Colton stood in the doorway. “Abigail, let the Jordanian go before you get hurt.”
Elizabeth swung her gaze to her boss as Evan chuckled. Her mouth parted. “He’s lying. He isn’t my guard.”
Colton clasped his hands together. “Yes, he is.”
“Sir?” She released Evan with a little shove and stepped back. A lump formed in her throat.
“How do you think they found you in that alley? I led them to you and explained your importance. You had lost too much blood, and I had to give you some of mine.” Evan answered the question she’d yet to ask as he stretched and straightened his arm.
Her heart felt as though it was caving in. Colton Trapp, the one man that she trusted more than anyone, stood in front of her not denying Evan’s accusation. Elizabeth took an unconscious step back. This couldn’t be happening. Her whole life, her job…a lie. She covered her mouth with her hand as tears swelled in her eyes. “I trusted you.”
“I haven’t lied to you.”
“That’s true.” Evan shrugged. “An omission of the truth isn’t a lie. Not really.”
“Shut up,” she yelled at Evan. It was his fault her world was crumbling, his fault her secret had surfaced.
“Elizabeth,” Rhys called to her and stepped in her direction.
“No,” she said angrily, holding up her hand. “Not another step.” She shook her head as her heart shattered into a million pieces. Was it possible Rhys knew? Hell, was it possible that Colton had sent her on this mission knowing that Rhys could be her mate? Acid churned in her belly and bile rose to her throat.
She needed to get out of here. She had to go, somewhere, anywhere that she could think. She lifted her chin and straightened her shoulders, grabbing her laptop from the table. She headed for the stairs to grab her keys and her bags. “I’m done here.”
“Hanson,” Colton’s demand made her stop on the third stair. “You aren’t leaving. That’s a direct order.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “Just try and stop me.”
She took the stairs two at a time and grabbed her things, including her keys, not giving Rhys enough time to block her exit.
She stomped back down the stairs to find Evan sitting on the couch, his ankle resting on his knee in a casual posture. His muscular arm was stretched out on the back of the couch cushions. A smug-ass smile was on his face, and in any other circumstances, she would have wiped the floor with him because of a smile like that. Now, she just wanted to leave.
Rhys stepped in front of her. “Don’t do this. Don’t go.”
She swallowed around the lump in her throat. “If what you said in the car about my happiness is true, then you won’t ask me to stay.”
He dropped his head but not his hold on her arm. “Lizzie.”
“I’m sorry, Rhys,” she said, stepping around him and heading for the door where Colton was still standing. “I just can’t...not right now.”
“Elizabeth,” he growled.
“I’m going to find these women. I’m going to nail the bastards to the wall, and when I’m done, I don’t ever want to see you again, Trapp. Consider this my two weeks’ notice. I’m done with you and your secrets.” She glanced over at Evan, the man who called himself a protector. “And you can go to hell. Consider yourself fired from being my protector, if you ever were.”
Elizabeth pulled the door open and walked out of the house, leaving all three men behind her. She’d meant everything she said. She got in her car and headed toward the main road, not stopping until she was a mile away. Tears clouded her vision as she gripped the steering wheel in a punishing hold.
“I’m so stupid,” she whispered as she closed her eyes. Visions of Rhys’ hurt face stared back at her. And for the first time since she’d escaped the lab, she rested her head on her steering wheel and let the tears consume her. Her body shook as tears streamed down her face. Her heart cracked open into a million pieces. She had nowhere to go, no one she trusted. Not only was there a hit on her life, but she also still had a job to do. The other women’s lives depended on it.
Elizabeth sat up and swiped the tears from her eyes. She pulled back out onto the road and did the one thing she was good at. She disappeared under the darkness of night to find a hotel and come up with a plan of action that included trusting no one but herself.