Page 43 of Nick
No matter what had happened since then, he owed it to her to keep her safe.
With the motel looming before him, Nick’s breaths came fast and shallow.
Before he reached the parking lot, he shifted back into his human form.
“Please,” he whispered to the stars above.“Let her be okay.”
Nick pounded on the door of room 112.It popped open under his fist, and he stumbled inside.
Ryker and Bronx both sat up, instantly awake.
“Sarah’s gone,” Nick spat out.His gaze darted around the room, searching for an echo of his own panic on their faces.“I think she’s been taken.”
Bronx and Ryker stood in unison.Their gazes assessed Nick, noting without surprise that he stood naked in their room—the sure sign of a shifter moving from his wolf form to his human one without considering human social norms.
“Details, Reagan,” Bronx said.
“Outside her place, there’s sign of struggle.”Nick’s hands shook.“No note, no nothing.She wouldn’t just leave…not without—”
“We move now,” Ryker cut in.
Malcolm and the other rebels of the Sunburst Pack—Anders, Conall, Quinton, and Larissa—filed in.
“Una called us,” Malcolm said.“We came as soon as we heard.”
“Vincent?”The name was a curse on Nick’s tongue, a possibility he couldn’t afford to overlook.
“Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Anders said.
“Conclusions be damned,” Nick growled.“She’s out there, and every second we waste—”
“Is a second longer she’s in danger,” Quinton finished for him.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” Larissa said, pulling her phone out of her pocket and dialing.
Nick’s thoughts spiraled into an abyss of what-ifs.Sarah haunted his vision.
He had failed her.
“We’ll find her.”Ryker’s hand clamped onto Nick’s shoulder.
“Vincent has her,” Larissa said abruptly, sliding her phone back into her pocket.“Word’s gotten around Sunburst.He’s taken her out to the old Last Strike Mine to be ‘corrected.’”
“Corrected?”Nick asked.That word set off a fresh wave of fear for Sarah.
“Means punishment,” Anders explained.“Not pretty.”
The others murmured their agreement, a chorus of grim understanding.
Malcolm’s gaze bored into Nick’s.“We’ve dealt with Vincent’s kind of justice before,” he said.“He doesn’t go easy.”
“Damn it,” Nick rasped, his throat tight, anger and guilt knotting in his gut.“This is on me.I should’ve seen this coming.”
“Easy, man,” Conall said.“Blame won’t help Sarah now.”
“Right,” Nick snapped, shrugging off Conall’s grip, his movements sharp with self-reproach.
“Enough,” Bronx ordered, a note of command in his voice that brooked no argument.“We move out, and we move out together.No lone wolves here.”
