Page 107 of Medium
I blocked my anger at his dad or Arch—or both—behind a mental wall and went over to hug him. “No hobbies are dorky. You love it and you’re amazing at it, therefore it’s cool.”
He flashed me a smile. “Thanks, um, let’s get going.”
He walked swiftly out of the room and headed to the front door. We all followed, but Pia dashed over to the couch to get her phone, so Shane and I waited for her. Which meant we weren’t with Ellis when he opened the door.
“Um, hi? Who are you?” Then he made aneepnoise and, raising his hands in the air, backed into the living room.
Uncle Hugo, followed by Randolph Chamberlain and three guys holding automatic rifles, walked in.
Fuck. I spun around. Shane had already picked Pia up and was running for the back door. But he skidded to a stop when two armed men stepped onto the porch. We could see three more spread across the yard.
Uncle Hugo surveyed us with the air of a bad TV villain. “Phones on the coffee table. Hands on your head.”
We all complied, though Shane kept his hands on Pia, who’d latched onto him with all of her arms and legs. Her phone wasn’t on the coffee table.
Uncle Hugo smirked at me. “Hello, nephew. Long time no see. Or, at least, it’s been a while since I’ve seen you in person. I’m sorry I didn’t know you were stalking me until I saw the footage on Randolph’s security camera.”
He must’ve noticed my surprise, because he chuckled. “That’s right. You missed one. Randolph saw you carrying out the little creature there.” He inclined his head toward Pia. “It wasn’t hard to wait outside your condo and follow you over here.”
Randolph smiled at Pia like a creeper. “I’ve missed you. It’s time for you to come back home.”
Pia cringed into Shane.
“Put her down,” Randolph ordered. “We’re taking her with us.”
“No!” Pia shrieked. She sobbed into Shane’s neck, her arms and legs around his back.
I shouted in my head for Grandfather, but he didn’t appear. My abilities had never worked that way, but maybe things would change since now I was bonded. I tried Dimi, then Garfield and Mercy. Nothing.
I can’t reach the ghosts!
Fuck. This was bad. No way would they leave us alive when they took Pia. Shane couldn’t hold on to her if they put a bullet in his head.
The mere thought of that nearly sent me into a tailspin of panic, but Shane interrupted my freakout.Pia has her phone. She’s texting Arch and Ms. Jackson behind my back.
I didn’t relax, but hope was suddenly an option. Ms. Jackson wouldn’t let them take Pia. But we needed to give Manny time to drive back here.
Keep him talking. I frowned at Uncle Hugo. “Aren’t you supposed to be at an illegal auction right now?” They were both certainly dressed for it in expensive black suits.
Randolph stepped forward. “There’s no auction. The auctioneer had heard some chatter about you stealing the girl, so he told me he wouldn’t sell to me again until I could prove I wasn’t under surveillance.” He thrust a pointer finger at me. “Fuck you. Hugo and I faked an auction to see if you’d bugged my phone. And when the auctioneer found out there was some rescue team converging on Houston for it, he banned me for life. Said I was a security risk.”
I grinned. “Excellent.” Though it sounded like the Hunter team had a leak.
He smirked. “You won’t be so happy when my men kill all those so-called rescuers. Who’ll rescue the rescuers,hmmm?”
I doubted Randolph’s men could take out a team of Hunters, but if Arch and Dominic’s crew were tied up, they wouldn’t be able to come help us anytime soon.
Randolph gestured at the goons. “Get her.”
One of the men kept his gun pointed toward me and Ellis, and the other two went over to Shane and Pia. They were on the other side of the seating area, pretty much at the far end of the distance the bond would allow. Shane backed against the wall, but there was no escape. One guy put the muzzle of his gun directly against Shane’s head, and the other one grabbed Pia’s arm and yanked. “Come on, or your friend here dies.”
Shane kissed Pia’s head and gave her a quick squeeze. “Go on now. It’ll be okay.”
Slowly Pia unwrapped herself from Shane. She let the goon drag her over to Randolph, but when he reached for her, she popped out all of her thorns. The guy holding her jerked his hand back and swore. Pia turned to run back to Shane, but the first goon still had a gun to his head. She froze.
The goon with Shane was staring wide-eyed at Pia. “Uh, boss?”
“No questions! You’ve seen nothing!”
