Page 31 of The Union
I shouldn’t be laughing, but it was comical. Rianne, of all humans, knew what Sam was capable of. She’d been a victim of his anger when she’d made a false threat to blow up his sister’s house. Though maybe someone else had thrown Lester.
Junior leaned close to my ear and whispered, “I know a way out.” He wrapped his fingers around my wrist and tugged when Sam marched into view from somewhere directly beneath us.
I jerked my arm from Junior and squealed, slapping a hand over my mouth as my heart stopped cold. Then it cracked in two when he glanced at us with his silver laser beam eyes, his fangs dripping with blood. But what had my stomach churning with horror was the metal device on his head. Frankenstein’s monster came to mind until Sam zeroed in on me. Confusion replaced the savageness on his handsome face.
A sharp pang punctured my heart.He must think I’m with them.That I conspired with Rianne and betrayed him.
I pressed a fist to my heart to urge the darn thing to beat or race or do anything but cut off my blood supply. “I’m not with them.” My head moved back and forth in quick successions like I had a nervous tic. “I’m not.” With his sharp hearing, he had to have heard me.Please hear me.
A large wolf trotted out, severing my attention away from Sam. The white-haired beast sidled up to Sam and shot his gaze upward, his red eyes glinting.
“They’re using shifters too,” Junior said.
Suddenly, the memory of that snowy morning when we’d fought Roman, Vera—a shifter—and her alpha in the form of a white-haired wolf reared its ugly head like a predator caught off guard.
But the flashback vanished when two military-looking men entered in stealth mode, guns trained on Sam and the wolf whose name escaped me.
I banged on the window. “Sam, behind you!” I screamed holy hell. The high-pitched sound rattled my eardrums and cracked the window.
I pivoted on my heel, ready to save the man I loved, when horror careened through me. Once again, my body went rigid.No, no, no. Not again.
Harriet, Adam, Rianne, and Junior had keeled over.
The sound of glass breaking jolted me out of my stupor. I was about to check Junior’s pulse when he moaned, holding his left ear, which was oozing blood.
While the sounds of fighting echoed toward me, I checked the others. Adam, my grandmother, and Rianne had blood trickling out of their ears too. Just like my uncle Ray had before he died.
Junior held his head. “Carly. I need to help her.” He tried to stand but couldn’t. “What happened?”
I helped him up. “I’ll tell you later.” I would—if I could make sense of why my scream caused them to conk out.
Once he was on his feet, he wobbled as he wiped the blood from his ear. “What the fuck?” Then he glanced at the other three on the floor. “Did your scream do this?”
I shrugged. “I think so. Don’t ask. I don’t even understand it.”
“I feel like I have vertigo.” He swayed on the way to the door.
I rushed over to Harriet and Rianne when an animalistic roar rented the air. I peeked below. The lab was bathed in chaos as Sam sunk his fangs into a guard before throwing him across the room. The wolf leapt at the other guard, his growl sending shivers through me.
Then Sam launched fireballs.
I didn’t have time to watch the show. “Help me,” I said to Junior, who was holding onto the doorjamb.
“No. Carly is in trouble.”
“It’s Granny,” I said. “And my sister. You wouldn’t leave your siblings or your parents for dead.” No matter how much I disagreed with their decisions and their involvement, I didn’t want them dead.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Noah, I might leave. But that’s beside the point.”
My grandmother whined, her eyelids opening. “Layla, what’s happening?”
“See,” Junior said. “She’s fine. Let’s move our asses. Otherwise, you’ll be her prisoner. Harriet’s plan is to take you back to Montana and lock you up until she can persuade you away from the Masons. If I don’t conform to her plan, she’ll do the same to me.”
She’d said she wanted to bring the family together and take control. What better way than to lock us up?No, thank you.Ice flowed through my veins. If she found out I was pregnant, she would… If she didn’t have a stake in Intech’s plan, she would kill my baby. But the game had changed. My unborn baby was a Mason who would be powerful like Sam. Therefore, she might salivate at the notion she could gain power from my child.Screw that.
My grandmother reached out. “Help me, Layla.”
“Move, cousin,” Junior shouted on his dash out of the room.
