Page 14 of The Wayward Sons & The Vampires of Fortune
“Riley Marx.” The kid was straight to the point when he answered the phone.
“My name is Gray Harper,” I bit out, trying to hide the panic in my voice. “Please, help me. I ain’t got a clue how to save Ryder.”
“I’m going to need more information than that.”
“He got himself arrested.”
“We’re not lawyers. Well, most of us aren’t lawyers. Either way, we don’t handle legal situations for hunters,” Riley said.
“I don’t give a fuck about the arrested part. I could break his ass out of jail right now if I wanted to,” I told him. “I’m worried about the goddamn vampires.”
“Vampires?” The annoyed tone in his voice vanished. “What vampires?”
“The Vampires of Fortune are hunting him.”
The silence on the other end was deafening.Had he hung up? Given up?I wouldn’t blame him. I was asking a lot of a guy I didn’t know.
“What’s his name?”
“Ryder Josiah Collins.”
Again, more silence.
“Ryder Collins is a fake name with barely enough history to be passable,” he replied finally. Fuck. “Save us both the trouble and tell me what his name is. I’ll find out one way or another.”
“Josiah Hartford of the—”
“Seattle Hartfords,” he interjected. “His family runs the Hunter House there. One sister, two brothers—one deceased. He—”
“He didn’t mean to fuckin’ kill him,” I snapped quickly. No way was I letting some computer nerd from Chicago think that about Ryder. “It was an accident. He lost control of his power. He don’t deserve to be hunted like a goddamn animal.”
“No, but it does help me understand what’s going on. I can’t help if I don’t know the whole picture.”
“The whole picture?” I shot back, my temper flaring. “The whole fuckin’ picture is his old man’s a goddamn dick—sendin’ vampires after his own kid and plannin’ to rip his soul from his body all over again to imprison him all because he can’t control his power. Is that enough fuckin’ information for you?”
“It is.”
“Can you help?” I retorted. “I ain’t got a whole lot of time to waste answerin’ questions if you ain’t goin’ to help me.”
Another round of infuriating silence. I was so damn close to hanging up the goddamn phone. I didn’t have time for this.
“My team can help. Keep your phone on, and stay in your hotel. I’ll be in touch.”
I glanced around the hotel room in surprise.
“How the fuck did you know—”
The phone went dead.
CHAPTER 10
Sitting in the back of the police car, I saw it. One second there, and then the next… just gone. But I saw it—the dark figure just there watching me. I felt its presence prickling across my skin as every one of my hunter instincts ignited in unison.Danger.
They were close, just watching and waiting. There was no outrunning them at this point. Getting arrested was a cop-out, and I knew that. A dumb plan that would keep my ass in jail as a way to ride this out. But it was the only way I knew to keep myself surrounded by humans. Gray and I could only stay on the run for so long—could only keep ourselves surrounded by a big crowd for so long. Eventually, we’d be alone. And I knew when that happened, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to protect Gray from the Vampires of Fortune.
Jail seemed like a fair trade-off for keeping Gray safe.
All I had to do was survive it. I could do that.I hoped to hell I could do that.If I was being honest, the idea of beingsurrounded twenty-four hours a day by people was a nightmare. Still, it was the best idea I had, which I knew wasn’t saying much.
