Page 58 of Cold Foot Revenge
She cast one last glance back at him to commit to memory, and then slipped through the door, and eased it closed silently behind her.
Grave grabbed the back of her neck immediately, and she hunched and yelped softly in shock at the pain.
He dragged her toward his expedition, and in the parking lot, the grizzlies Changed back into Tommy and Haden. Fuckin’ henchmen with no moral compass. Grave had brought the wrecking crew with him, just to collect her, a little coyote.
She didn’t know whether to be flattered or disgusted.
“You smell like him,” Grave gritted out.
But something didn’t make sense. If he knew who Dylan was, and this was a possessive thing, why wasn’t he dragging Dylan out of there too? She knew Grave and the boys tried tostay away from hunting humans because the laws were strict on harming them, but this wasn’t like Grave.
She didn’t trust it.
“You stole something from me,” he growled.
“Well, I guess we’re even,” she blurted out as he shoved her into the passenger’s seat of the expedition. “I guess we’re both shitbags.”
Grave stalked around the front of the Expedition and got in as the guys piled into the back two rows.
“How did you find me?” she asked, hoping to keep him distracted from thinking about Dylan laying just inside that thin-walled hotel.
“I’m your Alpha!” he roared in her face, and she flinched back as tight against the door as she could, trying to stifle the whimper in her throat. “I have a bond to you, you stupid cunt. I could find you anywhere.”
There was a truck waiting on the edge of the parking lot, with the window rolled down. A shifter she didn’t recognize was sitting in there. He had orange eyes like Grave, and Leech. Grave pulled up beside him and rolled down his window. “A deal is a deal. I want him by noon.”
“You’re in my territory, Asshole,” the behemoth in the jacked-up truck said easily. “I don’t need reminders on deals.” He cast a glance at Roxy, then back to Grave. “What is so special about Hoffman?”
“Nothing is special about him. I want him dead, and I want to do it myself. Bring him to me alive.”
“Mmm,” the man said, narrowing his eyes. “The deal is if he doesn’t leave by noon, I’ll have my Crew bring him to you.
“He’s not going anywhere. He’s had a taste of this little slut,” Grave told him.
The orange-eyed shifter didn’t react at all. There were a few seconds of loaded silence, and then he told Grave, “This isthe only time you’re allowed in my territory without my guys snuffing you out of existence completely. Have I made myself clear?”
“Crystal clear,” Grave uttered, then rolled up his window, and muttered that the guy was a, “Fuckin’ dick.”
“Well, Grit hasn’t changed much,” Leech said quietly from the back seat. “Still a human sympathizer.”
“Shut up, Leech,” Grave ordered as he sped away.
Okay. Okay. There was a territory line in play here with another Crew. And that was what was keeping Grave from killing Dylan right now? She thought hard about snippets of conversations about nearby Crews. Where were they right now? She looked for signs and cursed herself for not paying more attention last night. Maybe it was the Stone Edge Crew? Stone Blade? Something like that? Or she’d heard Grave talk about a War When Crew? Warren? Something like that? Clearly Grave had coordinated her pick-up with that orange-eyed guy back there. He’d allowed Grave to pick her up, but not Dylan?
“What will you do with me,” she asked.
“It’s not whatI’lldo. It’s whatyou’lldo,” he growled out. His voice couldn’t pass for human right now. “You will dance every shift, just like you did last night. Two-thousand-dollar nights will be a minimum from here on out. I like that cash, Rox. Five nights like that and I can buy a Turn dose. I’ll buy one every week with the money you make me!” he was screaming now. “I knew you could do that. I knew it all along, but you have this goddamn notion that you need to be somewhere else, doing something else.”
“Why did you keep my resumes?” she asked. It had bothered her. She needed to know.
He flashed her a furious glare as he turned out of the parking lot, and then he uttered an empty laugh. “You found theresumes. Good. I kept them as a reminder. I knew you would need it someday.”
“A reminder of what?” she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
“That I will always own you. You could run to Alaska, and I would drag you back here by your fucking hair.”
“Why?” she demanded. “Why me?”
“Because you are my mate!” he roared. “You’re mine. You’re mine. You’re mine! There is nothing you can do to change that, my animal chose you the second I gave you your coyote, and you belong to me. And if you can’t accept that fast, I will fucking kill you. If I can’t have you, no one will.”
