Page 59 of The Hunted
“And he’s been trying to call for the last few hours,” Webb said.
I was surprised Webb wasn’t breaking shit or snapping necks, knowing Roman wanted Abbey. I was ready to do both of those things, as guilt rode me hard.
Webb grabbed the base of his neck. “Roman isn’t going to stop at just information. He’ll ask you to do more.”
She sagged in her seat. “I don’t want any harm to come to Abbey. Without even knowing her, I’d already planned not to give Roman any information. You might not believe me, but it’s the truth. I came here for Rianne, but I have to find a way to save our sister. What would you do in my shoes?”
“Why haven’t you called your uncles for help?” Webb asked. “I understand your family doesn’t do jobs alone.”
“Too long a story to get into, but the short version is that we don’t get along. Not since my father passed. And we needed the money.” She turned to Wyman. “I guess I won’t be getting the rest of that two hundred grand.”
“That’s all I’m worth?” I asked sarcastically.
“That was my life savings,” he said as though that would make me feel better.
Layla tucked her hands in her lap. “What do we do now?”
“We do what we do best,” I said. “We go hunting.”
21
LAYLA
The vampires left the room, and the scary beast, Webb, barked orders to someone.
I shivered and gnawed on a nail. Usually, I wasn’t that frightened of vampires, but Webb had a certain demonic vibe. Maybe that chill running through me stemmed from the fact that his fangs appeared longer than most vampires’ I’d come in contact with.
A stiff shot of whiskey would be good right about now. Everything that had happened since I’d met Sam was overloading my brain. How I was feeling about the vampire wasn’t making any sense. I had been trained to kill his kind, yet when it came to Sam, I wanted to do anything but hurt him.
In fact, on our trek down to the control room, I could feel what he’d been feeling. How? I had no freaking clue. I felt the need to take away his pain. Maybe his blood had not only made me sick but had connected me to him on some supernatural plane. I wasn’t making any sense.
“Webb is the lethal one from what I remember, although Sam’s dad isn’t far off,” Wyman muttered, tearing me from the hell I was in.
It didn’t matter who was scarier than who. I’d just sealed Jordyn’s death. Roman would know I told Sam. He would hear it in my voice. Vampires were that astute even over the phone. I agreed with Webb. Roman would want more out of me if I confirmed his intel, and if I didn’t, then Jordyn was as good as dead.
She is, anyway. You know that. The shifter isn’t going to let her go without taking revenge for what Jordyn did, my inner voice supplied.
I was ready to bawl my eyes out. I wanted to scream and run and get the heck out of there and far away from any supernatural. But I was in deeper than ever before, and the ship I was on was sinking fast. Even my uncles wouldn’t be able to help me. Vampires and shifters joining forces would only end in the death of every Aberdeen on the planet.
“I’m sorry,” Wyman said in a low voice. “This is all my fault.”
I wanted to blame him, but I couldn’t. “My sisters and I agreed to do the job.”
“Layla, look at me.”
I dashed away an errant tear.
“As much as I despise their kind, they are the best at what they do. Well, maybe not in the tech department.” He mumbled the last line.
“How do you know?” It was more a question to settle my mind. I knew he was right. After all, a vampire Navy SEAL team with supernatural powers had to rival any human military force out there.
“I’ve been studying this team.” He pointed to the door. “They know how to handle their people better than us. You might think you know vampires, but not these ones, particularly the Mason family.”
Maybe that was one reason my family had never targeted the Masons. They knew they didn’t stand a chance. “What did Sam do to you?”
“He wiped a few of my memories, so I can’t recall much.”
I chewed on another nail. “Where did you meet my father?”
