Page 29 of Wed Or Dead

She wanted to smile back at him because that grin had always gotten beneath her skin. That grin—from the first sight, it had told her hecouldn’tbe a monster, even when she knew otherwise. But Kayla couldn’t smile in return. She knew what future was coming for them.

And it wasn’t going to be easy or pretty orgood.In order to escape, she’d have to turn on the men she’d worked side by side with for years.

She might even have to kill them.

Or else she and Gage would be the ones to wind up dead.

“I want to see my sister,”Jonah demanded as he marched into Lyle’s office. He didn’t know what was going on at the compound, but he sure didn’t like it. He’d been forcibly held in that surveillance room by the other hunters—so much for friendship—and then, twenty minutes later, when they’d finally let him go, he’d discovered that more hunters were stationed in front of Kayla’s holding cell.

When he’d tried to go inside and talk to his sister, the hunters—jerks who he’d counted as friends before—had lifted their weapons toward him.

What in the hell was happening? Things couldn’t have gotten this screwed, this fast. It was like a nightmare. One that he just couldn’t wake up from, no matter how hard he tried.

He’d been trying pretty damn hard.

“Iwantto see her,” Jonah blasted again. He had to make sure she was all right. It was his fault she was in containment.His fault.

Lyle leaned forward in his chair and gave a sad shake of his head. “I’m afraid that’s just not possible.”

“Make it possible.” Lyle could do anything he wanted. The man was the head honcho at the compound. He just answered to the government guys in their fancy suits—and those guys came around only when it was prison transfer time. “Give me clearance to see her. Now.” Anger had him seething. He still had his weapon. The others hadn’t taken that, and if he didn’t get to see his sister soon?—

Lyle exhaled on a slow breath. “You know she betrayed us.”

The boss’s words scraped right over Jonah’s soul. His jaw clenched, and he straightened to his full height. “There’s been a mistake.” That was what he kept telling himself. A mistake could be fixed. “If you’d just let me talk to her, I can fix things.”

There was sympathy in Lyle’s gaze, but he said, “She’ll try to bring you over to her side, too.”

“I’m not going on the side of a freaking wolf!” Not after what that shifter had done to him so long ago.Three months.He’d been trapped in a hospital for three months because of the beast that had come after his family. He’d nearly lost his arm. He’d been clawed open.

And his sister was siding with those monsters now?

“No.” Lyle pushed to his feet and walked around his desk. “No, I never thought you’d join up with a wolf.”

Jonah’s breath heaved out. Right. Lyle trusted him. Lyleknewhim.

“But then,” Lyle’s assessing gaze swept over him, “I never thought Kayla would, either.”

Her betrayal didn’t make any sense. “Why?” Why would his sister turn on the hunters, on him, for a wolf?

“Because they’re fucking.”

Jonah’s teeth ground together so hard that it hurt.I’ll kill that wolf.“I can—I can get her to come back to us.” If he could just talk to her, he could make this all right again.

“The others know that she can’t be trusted now.” Lyle walked toward him with slow, measured steps. His green gaze was watchful. Always so watchful. “What we do in this world, it’s life or death, and if you can’t count on the hunter who’s supposed to be watching your back…” He shook his head sadly. “Then just what good is that backup?”

No good. Worthless.But Kayla wasn’t worthless. She was everything to him. Jonah fought to keep his voice calm. So much was happening. So much he still didn’t fully understand. “Why—why’d you turn off the surveillance camera?” That hadn’t been protocol. Not even close. And with Kayla there, the cameras absolutely should have been rolling.

“Because you’re already in enough pain.” Lyle’s hand came up and clasped his shoulder. “I didn’t want you to see just how far your sister has fallen. I didn’t want any of the other hunters to see just how twisted she’s become. They thought she was a friend, but the truth is, she’s been working with Gage Riley. She’s been planning—” His hand tightened on Jonah’s shoulder and his words broke away.

Jonah frowned at him and knocked that comforting hand away. “Just what has she been planning?”

“She was selling us out to her wolf. Telling him where our compound was located. You want to know the real reason all of Gage Riley’s pack mates vanished from the city?” The faint lines around Lyle’s mouth deepened. “They’re planning to attack us,and Kayla was going to help them destroy every hunter here.” The briefest of pauses, then, “Every hunter, including you.”

Bullshit.Kayla would never turn on him. No matter what else had happened, he wouldn’t believe that. Kayla wouldn’t hurt him, wouldn’t turn on him?—

Not the way I turned on her.He could still see her eyes. When she’d realized that he’d shot her…betrayal.

She was the only family he had. When he’d been in that hospital, wired to those constantly beeping machines and drugged out of his mind, Kayla had been there. Every single day. Bandaged and bruised herself, she’d held his hand.

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