Page 78 of Blood of Vengeance

“He’s over here.” Banger caught my eye and pointed from the other side of the table. “You got something to tell us, man?”

I moved to his side to look over the section of the puzzle he indicated and felt my breath leave my body. There right next to the pictures of me, my house, and my bike sat a picture of Locklyn. They also had a shot of my truck connected to her, as if they knew she was the one who’d been driving it lately. I recognized the location of Locklyn’s pic—the coffee shop we had just gone to in town—but the clothing and her location inside the shop were wrong for our visit.

“Shit.” Rush leaned past me, staring at the picture. “Wait, that’s not our trip. She went there with the prospect, right? He let some vamp fucker get pictures of her?”

His words made sense, but my brain couldn’t process them. All I could see was that picture of my mate, how exposed she had been, how close they had gotten to her. The truck, the house, her… They had been watching, and I’d been too caught up in my mating to her to realize it. I had fucked up so hard.

“What the fuck is with all the roses?” Diesel asked, his words penetrating my haze but not hitting hard enough for me to care. “There are boxes of the things over here.”

Roses that had been left around us for days. Roses that had been sent to the clubhouse on the night of Chiggy’s burning. Roses that had seemed so out of place and yet innocuous.

Fucking bastards had been sending messages we hadn’t picked up on.

Cutter growled low and deep, his claws gripping the table. I met his eyes, recognizing his wolf. Knowing he saw mine as well. Both of us barely hanging on to our control as the house of cards began to fall. I glanced down again at the picture of my beautiful—and very human—mate and noticed a string leading from her pic to one of Zella. A picture with another string leading toward the one of Cutter but not connecting, as if they hadn’t yet figured the two out but knew they were together occasionally.

“Holy fuck,” Rush growled, shaking his head. “Flinch, they were there…”

He pointed to a picture at the head of the table. This one had been taken at the house. Zella sat in the hammock by my pool with one leg hanging down, while Locklyn floated in the water. Both outside and exposed for anyone with a fucking drone or a long-range lens to see. The fucking vamps had gotten close—far too close—and had identified both women as targets. Which meant they’d been on or near my property within the last two days.

And we had left Locklyn and Zella there together.

“Get to Flinch’s, now!” Cutter hollered just before I shifted. Someone else yelled about grabbing my phone and calling Gator, but it didn’t matter. No one could save my mate but me, so I had to haul ass.

My wolf took control in a snap, jumping from the hayloft to the dirt floor below then racing for the door. A roar met my ears as I scrambled for purchase on the hard earth outside, but I didn’t pay it any mind. All I could think about was Locklyn in that house. What would happen if the vamps showed up. How little she could do to protect herself from them. This wasn’t some teenage romance novel where vampires sparkled and turned humans into vigilante heroes. This was the real world—those vampires would suck her blood out of her body, leave her dead and dry without a thought in the world for the loss. They would rip her apart to share her pieces among themselves.

Motherfuckers would destroy her for a goddamned snack.

I ran hell for leather for a good half mile, which gave Mule a chance to catch up to me in Chiggy’s truck with Zed in the passenger seat. The warlord didn’t try to stop me or slow me down, instead giving me a head nod before Mule slammed his foot down on that gas and took off in a cloud of dust. The truck was fucking fast, but I would beat them because I had no need to stick to actual roads. In fact, as soon as I hit the highway, I veered off the road and headed for the desert, knowing it was a big, open wasteland between my location and my house. Nothing but open land and rocks. Lots of open land and rocks. Miles’ worth.

I had made it past the first patch of scrub bushes a few miles off the road when two more wolves caught up to me. I recognized both—Cutter and Rush. They raced at my heels, all three of us beelining it for where we knew the women to be. A pack in its own right heading in to fight for their most vulnerable members.

I could only hope we wouldn’t be too late.

But as we hit the slopes of the hills, a tug on the bond to my mate had me almost tripping. Had my steps stumble mid-stride. Motherfucker, the jolt of fear that blasted through to me had me yipping a cry unlike any my wolf had ever made. My mate was in trouble.

I ran faster.

Twenty-Five

Locklyn

“Everything okay?”

I nodded, trying hard to calm the way my heart had started racing when I’d heard the pounding on the door. Thankfully, it hadn’t been anyone to really be afraid of. “Yeah, we’re fine.”

Gator, one of our two guards for the night, looked over Zella then gave a single chin raise. “Things are quiet. If you want to go out back for a swim, you can do that.”

“That sounds nice.” Zella shrugged my way. “What do you think, Lock?”

“Sure. I could go for some cooling off.”

Gator hunkered back outside while Zella and I retreated to separate spaces so we could slip into our swimsuits. Flinch kept the clean pool towels in the back room, so I ended up there first, with Zella following quickly behind me.

“You ready?” I asked. She nodded, so I opened the door.

And then I froze.

Something about stepping outside—about that open sky and endless desert behind the house—felt ominous. It felt oppressive. I could almost hear the laugh from the nightmares that had brought me to the desert. Could almost feel that same negative energy wrapping around me.

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