Page 30 of As Darkness Fall
Chapter Sixteen
Iwould have run all the way back to Seguin if I could have. Across the countryside, farms, forests, rivers, and fields. I would have pushed my wolf until we broke.
Thankfully, Vir had talked some sense into me. Aaron had followed that up once he and his men caught up with us. It was probably a good thing, because even now, I sat curled up into the passenger seat of Aaron’s truck, my wolf out cold. We’d never run so far, so fast, and now, we were paying the price. So was the rest of the team. The other truck had been filled with snores even before the doors closed as those who didn’t have to stay awake to drive immediately passed out.
We’d stopped an hour into the drive, and Fred, the original driver, had switched off with someone to take his turn sleeping. At least, that’s what Aaron told me. Of all of us, he was the only one still on his feet. He was tired, but he wasn’t relenting. We’d reached the trucks, and when Vir had offered to drive, Aaron had simply set his jaw and said he was fine.
Which was why Vir was now passed out in the back seat while I rested my head on the seat in front of him, staring at nothing.
“It’s for the best,” Aaron reminded me as if sensing my impatience. “We can’t go in there unprepared.”
“I know,” I said. “You made very good arguments about that, and I’m not going back on my agreement with them.”
“But you don’t like them.”
“No, I don’t,” I said. “Who would?”
“I know this isn’t easy, Dani,” Aaron said gently, looking over at me, resting one hand on the wheel while the other propped himself up on the console. “But we’re going to get her back.”
“Yeah. I hope,” I said.
“Wewillget her back,” Aaron said, his voice cold. “We just have to go about it the right way.”
“Yeah. Trust me. I don’t want you going up against Lars’s enforcers without being properly equipped.”
Aaron grunted. “One for one, my men could take any of them. Fred could probably handle any two of them. But there’s going to be a lot.”
“At least twenty,” I said. “Possibly more, depending on who all is at the manor. Then there’s Lars, himself.”
“I’m not that worried about him,” Aaron said. “Either Vir or I should be able to take him, and even if he does have Irr’s dagger, between the two of us, we should be able to contain him.”
I didn’t ask how he intended to do that, because I doubted I’d get a straight answer. Whatever Aaron was, he wasincrediblytight-lipped about it. He’d not answered one question or even given a hint as to what it was that had allowed his men to run all night. As he’d said, they couldn’t keep up with Johnathan, Vir, and me, but they hadn’t been far behind. It had been impressive.
“It’s just a numbers game,” I mumbled blearily. “I know.”
“You can sleep, you know that, right?” Aaron said. “You’re safe now.”
I was safe, wasn’t I? Unless Aaron veered off the road, but he was too alert, simply toogood, to do something like that. I could let myself sleep.
“Are you comfortable with this?” I asked, changing the topic instead of replying. “This mission, I mean.”
He didn’t need to start having ideas that I meant anything else by my question.
Aaron stared at the road ahead, his jaw clenching slightly and then relaxing. It was the only sign I had that he’d heard me. At that point, I was too tired to banter, and I simply waited, head resting sideways against the headrest, for him to either answer or not answer.
“I’ve tried to avoid tangling with you shifters over the years,” he said at last. “You have this really bad habit of bringing other packs in when one of you is bothered by an outsider, and it can get really sticky really quick. I’d just as soon not be hunted by a bunch of werewolves.”
Whether Aaron knew it or not, he confirmed that he’d been aware of shifters before me. By the sounds of it, he’d known about us for some time. Had my father brought him into the loop when they first started working together? Or had he already known?
What if, I thought suddenly,it wasn’t my father who sought Aaron out for his help, but the other way around?
I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it bore more thinking about when I had time.
“So, does that mean you want to bail?” I asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Aaron growled defensively. “I just said I’d rather not get involved. A contract is a contract, though.”
I made a sound of agreement as I studied the side of his face while he drove. There was a lot he wasn’t telling me. For instance, the contract that he’d just mentioned was only to drop Johnathan off at the side of the road in front of Aldridge Manor. That’s it. There was no mention of rescue, or combat, except if we were intercepted by Lars at some point.
