Page 63 of Alpha Rising (Secrets of the Northland Shifters)

“Hey, Lauren.” My eyes focused on the silvery splatter of rainwater pounding against my dark window.

A hitched breath and a muffled sob came through the phone line.

I sat up straighter, and my fingers tightened around the receiver. “Lauren, what’s wrong?”

“Sarah…” Her breath hitched again. “I need a ride.”

Instinctively, I grabbed my purse and headed for the kitchen at a fast clip. “Where are you? What happened?”

I retrieved a set of keys off the hook in the kitchen, and—somehow avoiding Reese’s detection; he must have been in his room—ran out the back exit. I opened the door to the Jeep parked closest to the lodge and threw my purse onto the passenger seat. It knocked into a wooden bat that someone had left behind after yesterday’s softball practice.

“One, forty-three Elm Street,” Lauren said.

“Are you in trouble?” I turned on the windshield wipers. The rain was coming down so hard the water barely cleared.

“That party I told you about…” Lauren said. “That guy I met in town. We went back to his place, and he….”

She didn’t have to finish her sentence. I knew what she didn’t want to say, and the anger that had been brewing inside me for days finally had someplace concrete to go. “How badly are you hurt?”

She hesitated before answering. “Not too bad.”

Judging by the hitch in her voice, that was a lie. “Can you get away from him?”

“Yeah. He told me to leave. I’m sitting on his front step.”

“He kicked you out in therain,knowing you didn’t have a car?” This guy was the asshole of all assholes.

“There’s a porch overhang. Sarah, I’m sorry to bother you, but nobody was picking up in the bunkhouse. They’re all in the basement for that ping-pong tournament. Can you come get me?”

“Honey, I’m already on my way. I’m coming down the hill, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

She sobbed again. “Thank you.”

As I hung up, it occurred to me that Sam was in town refilling some fuel cans for the tractors. I hit his name in my contacts and waited for him to pick up.

“Hey, Sarah.”

“Have you headed back to the resort yet?” I asked.

“No. Do you need me to pick something up for you?”

“Meet me at one, forty-three Elm.”

He didn’t answer right away, and I could hear his muffled voice as he spoke to somebody else. When he finally responded to me, he asked, “Wanna give me a clue what it’s about?”

“Lauren Chantry’s hurt, and she’s at that address. I’m going to be there in about three minutes.”

“Whatkindof ‘hurt?’” he asked, and I could hear the apprehension in his voice.

“She was with some guy from town.” I hoped he got the gist without me saying more.

He did. His tone turned fierce. “I’ll be there as soon as I can. The cashier’s just ringing me up. When you get there, stay in your Jeep.”

I hung up without promising him anything. My whole body was shaking with fury, and it took some effort to concentrate on my driving.

All I could hear was Lauren sobbing, telling me the guy she’d met in town had hurt her, then kicked her out in the rain.

All I could see were the frightened faces of a dozen women being pushed into the back of a truck by DaBruzzi’s men.

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