Page 48 of Bear's Rejected Love

She raced after Sam and pulled open the back door anyway. “One of them is better than both.” She flung open the door and hurtled in, basically ripping her seatbelt off the side to get it over herself. She saw Sam lift a hand to Lily, but it didn’t stop him from pulling out of his driveway in record time. Gravel practically flew everywhere.

True to his word, it only took him a minute at the clinic, and he emerged with both Tavish and Kier. Somehow, the three huge men stuffed into the truck, the vehicle moving a little too fast as soon as it was past the clan’s limits, made her feel a whole lot better.

Even if nothing was better.

Even if the worst had happened.

She tried Roan’s phone again, but it just went to voicemail.

Her chest was still tight. Her heart was beating too fast.

Sam filled Kier and Tavish in, on the way instead of wasting time at the clinic. They’d followed him on a word only. She was so thankful for men like this. Men who would drop everything to ensure that one of their own was safe, even if it was all based on a feeling that might not even be trustworthy.

They never questioned her.

No one said anything as they drove down that twisting, narrow paved road.

“There!” Kier’s voice was too sharp, and he pointed out the windshield from his spot in the back, over Tavish’s shoulder. “That’s his truck.”

It was Roan’s truck, pulled over on the side of the road, the hazard lights blinking. All her breath emptied out of her lungs in one brutal rush, like they’d just run into the back of the truck and her seatbelt slapped hard against her chest to keep her in place. There was no accident. Just an invisible hand twisting at her lungs until she was panting.

“Stay here for a minute.” Tavish slid out of the front seat as soon as Sam pulled over. He approached the truck with caution, opened up the front door, and came back with Roan’s phone and wallet in his hand. He shook his head as soon as he was back in the truck.

Sam didn’t waste time. He sped off down the road in the direction Roan had been heading as soon as Tavish had his seatbelt back on.

“Tabitha?” Sam’s eyes met hers in the rear-view mirror.

“I don’t know,” she whimpered. “It was just a warning feeling. It’s not telling me what happened or which way to go.”

It was clear that the sick gut feeling she’d had was correct for a second time. Something was wrong. Roan should have been with his truck. He would never have left his wallet and phone and just abandoned it. She refused to think that the logical thing, being that he’d thought he should leave after the fire, was that he had left. She trusted his word and she felt bad about their argument. She’d panicked and taken it all wrong. She was scared and that came out as hurt and doubt.

She should have told him that this morning.

Because something terrible had happened and if she didn’t get a chance, she’d never forgive herself.

“I think we should just drive. I’m not getting anything that’s telling me that he’d be here or out in the woods somewhere. The sick feeling hasn’t gone away. I think if he was anywhere near here, it would let up?”

No one questioned her. Not when they kept driving and not when she told them, on instinct, to take a left because the fork in the road made her head hurt and it just seemed like the direction they needed to go. She was sure she was right when her stomach pinched even tighter. That pain seemed to be guiding her straight to her mate.

About twenty minutes later and way too many miles over the speed limit, they came up on a white van. It didn’t seem like anything special, just one of those industrial work vans. It was new and shiny and the sort of van you’d ignore. New and shiny or not, adrenaline dumped into Tabitha’s veins like someone had opened her up and poured in a gallon of paint. It made her teeth chatter and the urge to throw up washed over her so that she had to double over and breathe hard.

“Tabitha?” Kier’s hand touched down gently on her shoulder.

“That van,” she panted without looking up. “He’s in there. He has to be.”

“Oh my god.”

“Are you sure?” Tavish had to ask it. “Because if we try and run them off the road or chase them down when they recognize us back here, things could get ugly.”

“I’m sure.” She might just be going off a feeling, but it wasn’t vague. It was practically killing her. She gagged as bile surged up her throat, but thankfully, she didn’t upend the banana she’d forced herself to eat for breakfast because she knew she had to eat something. She hadn’t had much of an appetite after her argument with Roan the night before.

Now? It felt like her soul was in that van just in front of them. Her world. Her life.

She hadn’t allowed Roan to leave the night of the fire, and she wouldn’t allow whoever that was to take him.

“Why?” She whimpered. “Who?”

“If I had to guess, I would say that it’s something to do with that lab we shut down.” Sam tried to get that out without alarming her, but it didn’t work.

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