Jeffrey would be devastated without her. Would Grant find her and save her in time? How could he? He couldn’t search every car in town, simultaneously.
“Yeah, yeah.” Boone sounded bored and disgusted. He kicked Celeste in the side, hard, and she stifled a cry. “Quit faking, bitch, I know you’re awake.”
She rolled over onto her back. Fine. Now he couldn’t see what she was about to do with her hands.
She’d learned a few tricks when she was working for the security company. One of them was to always carry a handcuff key concealed in her bracelet.
She wouldn’t be able to escape, but she wouldn’t let them take her alive. She’d fight until they had to kill her.
She stared up at him. She’d met him a few times, eight years ago, when Jennifer had first started dating him. The years had not been kind to him. He had been handsome in a lean, hawkish way, but now he’d lost teeth and the lines and hollows in his face had deepened.
“What do you want with me?” she demanded.
He snorted in contempt. “I don’t want shit with you. We want Jeffrey. Grant can trade him for you, or we can send him pieces of you.”
She went cold and blinked back tears. Yes. She would have to make them kill her. She couldn’t let these monsters use her to get to Jeffrey.
She’d been so close to happiness. She’d had love, and family, and friends.
“Grant will never give Jeffrey to you,” she said, squirming on the floor of the car as she worked her hands behind her. There. The cuffs were off. She’d just have to wait for an opportunity.
“His loss. There are other things we can use you for. The boss said you’d be good for breeding.” His gaze roved over her in a way that made her want to vomit.
Boss? Breeding? What the hell was he talking about?
“I’m not one of you,” she protested. “I’m not a werewolf. And Jeffrey’s only half wolf.”
“Yeah. That’s what makes him special.”
Had years of drugs and booze fried his brains? What was he talking about?
“Who’s the boss?”
He shuddered, and a fearful look crossed his face. “You’ll find out soon. Then you’ll wish you didn’t. You made lots of trouble for him. Should of just gave up the kid when you had the chance.”
“Told you so,” Rhona sang from the front seat. “If you had just let me have him when I first came to your house, none of this would have happened. He wasn’t yours. You had no business keeping him.”
Celeste ignored her. “Where’s Jennifer?” she asked Boone bitterly. “She didn’t want to come to the party?”
“Bitch is dead. I killed her weeks ago,” Boone snarled. “Shot out her tire. She hit a tree, and now she’s barbecue.” He sniggered at that.
Celeste froze. Boone had caused the accident – and he thought he’d killed Jennifer. But he was wrong, she was sure of it.
“Is that so,” she said flatly. “Why would you have done that?”
He snorted. “She was supposed to meet me and give me that brat of hers. She came to the meeting spot, but then she took one look at me and kept driving.” Then a pouty look crossed his face. “Wasn’t my fault. I was supposed to come alone. My boys was hiding in the woods, but they didn’t hide good enough, and she saw them. I kilt them after I shot her tire out. Ripped their throats out.”
Now the car was going up an even bumpier road.
“She was just going to give you her son?” Celeste snorted. “No. Jennifer never does anything for free.”
“I told her I’d give her a million bucks for him.” His expression went sly and greedy. “I got a real interested buyer. The boss man. I was supposed to hand that brat over six years ago, but she found out about it and took the kid and ran. Guess she needed money real bad now. So she came back and told me she knew I had a rich guy who wanted the kid, so she’d sell him to me.”
Jennifer, you bitch.
“Who’s the rich guy? The boss man?”
Boone punched her in the side of the head, and she saw stars.