Avery and Gabe ducked behind a red SUV.

“What is that?” she asked, trying not to scream. He should have given her some type of warning.

“An alarm. The perimeter of the parking lot has infrared sensors that set it off.”

“And you thought it was a good idea to run into the middle of it?”

“There’s no other way, Avery,” he growled. “I had to park on the road so we could get out of here quickly.”

That was when she noticed the barbed-wire fence surrounding the lawn area. Going directly through the lot was the only way to Gabe’s truck.

“Oh my God,” she murmured. “Are they going to shoot at us?”

“No! Just be quiet for a second so I can listen.”

She closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing. Even when she’d been pinned down by two vampires drinking her blood, she hadn’t been this frightened.

After a few moments, the alarm shut off. In its place, she now heard voices and wished the ground would swallow her up.

“Get under,” Gabe whispered.

She scooted on her belly under the SUV, and he followed so they lay shoulder to shoulder. Avery closed her eyes and bit her lip to keep from crying out. Panic, coupled with the cold, wet asphalt caused a chill to run through her body.

Blood pooled in her mouth, and she curled her hands into fists as she listened to the crunch of boots not too far away. She didn’t dare open her eyes to see how close they were.

A radio squawked nearby, but she couldn’t understand what was said. How much time passed, she couldn’t be certain, but she opened her eyes when Gabe began to move.

“Stay right here,” he said.

He didn’t have to tell her twice.

As Gabe disappeared into the night, weaving in between cars, she tried to spot his boots under the vehicles. What if he got caught? What would her next move be? She’d run and take her chances. No way would she return to the prison unless someone had a gun to her head.

The sound of footsteps approached, and Avery almost screamed. When the person stopped next to the SUV, she once again bit her lip to stay silent.

“Come on,” Gabe said when the guy walked away. “Hurry up.”

She scooted out from under the SUV and scrambled to her feet. Gabe ran, and she followed close behind him.

Expecting someone to yell at them to stop, or a shot to ring out in the night, she sprinted as fast as she could, weaving between the parked cars. In the distance, she saw the road and a black truck. That had to be Gabe’s. The closer they got, the harder she ran.

Just before they reached the truck, its lights flashed on and off. Gabe grabbed her hand and pulled her around to the driver’s side. He flung open the door, then lifted her up and threw her in. She scrambled to the passenger’s seat. The door slammed, and he drove away before she could even get her seatbelt on.

Avery didn’t know how many miles they rode in silence. Her gaze had become transfixed on the side mirror, watching for a potential pursuer.

Eventually, she became more relaxed, resting her head back against the seat and shutting her eyes.

They’d done it. They’d escaped.

But she had questions.

“Where are we?” she asked. The road wound through thick forest, not leaving a lot of room for guessing their position.

“In the mountains between Seattle and Spokane.”

She furrowed her brow. Route 2 was a well-traveled highway and the choice of many city residents who wanted to enjoy the forest.

“How is the prison hidden from humans?”

“The faeries put a mist around it. It distorts the prison and also gives off a vibe that tells them to stay away.”

She’d never heard of such a thing but was impressed with her species, making her wish she had grown up as a full Fae. Maybe if her father had stuck around, she’d know more about the Fae side of her genetics and the abilities her ancestors possessed.

“Why weren’t the authorities more concerned when the parking lot alarm went off?” she asked, turning her head to face Gabe. His knuckles were white as he fisted the steering wheel, his stare flickering from the road in front of him to the rearview mirror.

“It happens a lot, but they can’t hear it inside the prison, only at the guardhouse. Usually, the alarm sounds when a deer or other wildlife wanders in. The guards usually investigate, but it’s always half-assed.”

“Like the boy who cried wolf,” she mused. “It’s happened too many times for anyone to actually believe it.”

“Exactly.”

“It seems kind of stupid to have an alarm system that doesn’t really work. I’d have thought they’d give some consideration to something coming in, not just beings trying to get out.”

Gabe chuckled. “It sounds good to all the bureaucrats to have an alarmed parking lot. The fact that it doesn’t really work isn’t important. You wouldn’t believe the stupidity that comes with bureaucracy.”

She smiled, then glanced around, trying to pinpoint their location.

“We’re going to my cabin,” Gabe said, as if he had read her mind. “It’s north. I’ll be able to drop you off, then go back to the prison and clean up our trail.”

“What for?”

“Well, I have to turn the cameras back on and upload some old footage to replace the gaps in time. And don’t forget about the toilet.”

That meant he actually had to break back into the prison.

“Don’t you worry that someone will come down to that area and find the escape route?”

He shook his head. “Everyone hates solitary. It’s the worst place to be assigned. No one goes there voluntarily. I just need to get back in time for the shift change.”

“It’s still a huge risk. What about Danica? What if she wakes up and calls for a guard? Or what if the guard woke up?”

A sly grin spread across his mouth. “We don’t have to worry about them, either.”

“Why not?”

“I sprinkled some sleeping herbs into her dinner and his coffee. They’ll both be out for a long time. There were some big benefits to having a Fae raise me.”

Avery had no idea what herbs caused sleep. A shifter knows more about Fae stuff than me.

“Don’t you work tomorrow?” she asked. “Won’t you be the one to find them?”

Gabe shook his head. “Nope. They owed me a second day off after calling me in, so this all came together perfectly. It will be like I was never there.”

Avery stared at his strong profile and decided to appreciate his lack of moral compass. If it hadn’t been so muddled, she certainly wouldn’t be in a truck barreling through the night toward freedom.

She’d value it, and just keep her eye on him. Trusting a shifter could be risky business. In fact, Avery’s level of trust with anyone had eroded to a new low.

As adrenaline ebbed from the escape itself, extreme fatigue overcame her. Just as the hum of the engine was about to lull her to sleep, Gabe made a quick right turn, jolting her fully awake. At some point, they’d left the highway and now traveled down a dirt road.

The truck bounced as Gabe sped down a narrow lane through the trees. She gripped the dashboard with one hand, the other on a handle by the door. Did he have to go so fast? She anticipated they might collide with a tree at any second.

He finally came to a halt, his headlights revealing a small log cabin nestled in the foliage. As he got out of the truck, she unbuckled her seatbelt, while staring at the building. It appeared as if he had constructed it himself. If not, the people who had erected it did a magnificent job of making it seem homemade.

With the logs, the chimney, and the small tubs of tulips below the porch, she was reminded of something out of a fairytale. The little house didn’t match what she knew about shifters. She had always imagined they lived in decrepit trailers without running water, surrounded by empty beer cans.

Gabe walked up the steps to the front door as she got out of the truck. The headlights went off, and she took a second to allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness. For a brief moment, she closed her eyes and took in the smells and sounds.

Crickets. A possible stream in the distance. An owl. The rich scent of rain on earth. Oak trees, spruce, and fir. Even though she lived in the city, her Fae side bubbled to the surface, and she wanted to run through the foliage and pick flowers.

“Let’s go, Avery,” Gabe called.

With a sigh she opened her eyes and walked up to the cabin. Gabe unlocked the door.

“When I left, the lights were on. It looks like the power went out again. Stay here while I get the candles.”

As he stepped inside, the house slowly illuminated. She found herself in a clean, cozy home, complete with a cast-iron wood-burning stove and logs stacked in a pyramid beside it. A brown couch with matching recliner and a coffee table covered with hunting magazines faced the stove.

To her left, a small kitchen was visible, with dishes neatly stacked in the drainer. The cabin was clean and tidy, and she could easily enjoy hanging out here for as long as needed. Gabe had once again surprised her. So much for her stereotypical idea of shifters.

Gabe disappeared toward the back of the house and returned with a couple of pillows and a blanket. “I’ll light the stove for you, and you can crash here on the couch.”

He squatted down and arranged pieces of wood in the stove, then took a box of matches from the top. In seconds, a fire blazed.

“We have power outages here occasionally, but the lights will be back on soon. I do have a septic tank, so if you need to use the restroom, it’s down the hall and to the left.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“I probably won’t be back before sunrise,” he said as he re-entered the kitchen and returned with two bottles of water.

“When I get back, you and I are going to sit down and move on to step two. I got you out. You’re safe. Now you need to give me the information you have so I can hunt down that vampire.”

“We,” she said, not thinking. “We will hunt down the vampire.”

The need to avenge her mother had returned full force since she got out of prison. Funny how freedom could turn a person’s perspective around.

“Okay, fine. We’ll hunt him down. In the meantime, remember you’re in my pack’s territory. I told them you were going to be here, and why. Right now, you’re an asset to us, so they should leave you alone. Don’t get too comfortable and stay out of sight. A lot of them weren’t pleased about a Fae staying on our land.”

She nodded and shuddered. Deep in werewolf territory wasn’t her ideal location, but it was better than prison.

Gabe drank the rest of his water in one long gulp, then headed for the door. “I’ll be back when I can.”

The truck engine roared to life in the driveway, and Avery collapsed on the couch and took some deep breaths. She was safe and out of prison. However, in some respects, she’d jumped from the frying pan right into the fire.

Gabe thought she possessed important information, but she really didn’t. Her only resources were two addresses, and neither had led her anywhere close to finding her mother’s murderer. She tried to think of anything else that would be helpful to Gabe and his cause but came up with nothing.

Too nervous to rest, Avery wandered around the house studying his stuff. She found a photo of him and Madge sitting at a table together wearing Christmas sweaters. Both were smiling, and Gabe had his arm thrown over the Fae’s shoulder protectively. Although the unlikely pair didn’t resemble each other in any way, Avery once again detected the mother-son familiarity.

She picked up another picture frame. It showed Gabe and two other men. They were sitting around a campfire, laughing and smiling, each with a beer in hand. She assumed they were members of his pack. Studying one picture after another, her heart ached at the loss of her mother again. Does Gabe know how lucky he is to have two sets of family?

When Avery got to the bathroom, she eyed the shower and quickly stripped off her damp clothing. Turning the water as hot as she could stand, she shampooed her hair three times. She almost used a full bar of soap. Hopefully, Gabe wouldn’t be too upset. She hated pulling on the prison jumpsuit again, but she had nothing else to wear and didn’t feel comfortable rummaging through Gabe’s closet and drawers for a T-shirt. Too intimate to wear his clothes without permission.

She returned to the living room and got comfortable on the sofa, pulling the blanket over her and easing her head down on a pillow. The couch was overstuffed and cozy, the blanket smelled freshly washed, and the pillowcase felt soft on her skin. She shuddered as she thought about the cot, musty blanket, and sandpaper sheets in prison. She could never go back. The warmth of the stove lulled her to the edge of sleep but worry kept her awake.

Maybe she should just leave. Gabe would be furious when he found out she had nothing to add to his investigation. What would he do? Take her back to prison? Take her to the woods and shoot her, or let the pack have their way with her?

The more consideration she gave her situation, the more frightened she became. She rolled on her side and pulled her knees up to her chest. She didn’t think Gabe would hurt her, but she could picture him hauling her back to prison for deceiving him.

She sat up and slipped on her shoes. Guilt washed over her at the thought of not holding up her end of the bargain with Gabe, but she had learned to look out for herself. Maybe she’d continue the hunt alone, but nothing good could come from seeing McAllister again. He’d only chase her down and put her back in prison, probably for life.

Her only option was to disappear.

It was a rotten thing to do to Gabe, but when she thought about how little she had to give him, she wasn’t ready to take the punishment for that, whether it be prison or letting a pack of wolves decide her fate. Maybe she should leave him a note with the addresses from McAllister’s paper and a write to him that was all she knew. He could investigate them himself. Perhaps he’d find something she hadn’t.

But again, it was the wrong thing to do.

Avery craved fresh air. It always helped her straighten out her thoughts.

While reaching for the doorknob, she recalled Gabe’s warning about his pack. It was still nighttime, and the clouds continued to hide the moon. If she decided to leave, she could make her way up the drive to the main road, then hitchhike as far as possible from the area. When she had put some distance between her and Seattle, she would call Victoria and get some additional help.

Avery closed the door softly behind her and had just stepped off the porch, when a voice spoke from the darkness.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Faery.”