Chapter 46
CHAPTER 46
Issa
I was wedged as close to the passenger door as possible, keeping as much distance between Antonio and myself as I could. The jerk in the back smelled heavily of cigarette smoke and cheap beer.
No idea how I could tell it was cheap other than he smelled…sticky.
Like the smell of the trashcans at The Vault at the end of the night.
The entire cab of the older model sedan was filled with their scents, of smoke and alpha hormones. And it turned my stomach and filled my throat with bile.
“I’m going to throw up,” I blurted.
There was a glimmer of hope that if I threatened to puke in the car, Antonio would pull over and I could make a run for it or wave down some help.
Surely, someone would see two giant alphas chasing after me and either stop to help or call the police.
But Antonio made a dismissive sound in the back of his throat as though he either didn’t believe me or had no intention of pulling over any time soon.
Probably best for him. Though it sucked for me.
Best for him because I was not the weak, broken beta he knew from before. I would fight tooth and nail the second I was able to get out of this car. I would scream and flail and fight until either he gave up or someone stepped forward to help me get away from my fucking captors.
How the hell was I here again?
And had he killed Oscar?
My heart ached at the thought someone might have died simply because they were supposed to be protecting me.
I had balked at the idea of having armed babysitters everywhere I went, had almost pitied Cora for having to live behind the heavily guarded walls that surrounded her estate.
But if we’d had manned gates at the start of our driveway there was no way Antonio would have had the balls to attack us the way he had.
“You shot Oscar when he wasn’t looking,” I blurted, turning in my seat to look at him then at the jerk behind me.
“That the dead fuck’s name?” Antonio said, smirking as he shared a look with the alpha in the backseat.
“You’re a coward. You knew if you’d waited until they were out of the SUV, there wasn’t a chance in hell you would survive in a fight against them. You snuck up and shot him through the window instead of going toe to toe with him like a man. You threatened my omega instead of challenging Abdel because you knew he would sacrifice his own life before ours.”
A growl lifted on the air, sending the fine hairs on my arms and the nape of my neck to stand on end.
“Careful, beta,” Antonio growled.
He turned a glare on me long enough I grew nervous. His eyes needed to be on the road being as he was pushing the sedan over eighty miles an hour with quite a few other vehicles around us .
I turned in my seat and stared through the windshield, still pressed as close to the door as possible, my arms wrapped around my middle.
“They’re going to kill you,” I muttered.
Both alphas scoffed.
“Even if they don’t find me. Even if you kill me and dump me somewhere no one will ever find me, my pack and my sister’s pack will track you down and kill you. Both of you.”
I glanced in the side mirror as though I could see the alpha in the backseat…
But instead caught the distinct single headlight of a motorcycle. Then another.
It wasn’t just one, but three. And they were whipping in and out of traffic, growing closer by the second.
My alphas.
The phone in my pants, the one Amir had shoved back there without Antonio knowing. They had used it to track me and were so damn close.
They could catch up to me but then what? Not like I was some stuntwoman who could jump through the window and onto the back of one of their bikes.
Think, Issa .
I couldn’t bring attention to the fact my alphas were flying up on us. Antonio would intentionally try to hit them or run them off the road. And since they were on two wheels instead of four, they would have nothing to protect them if they were to crash.
Especially since Ax refused to wear a helmet because it messed up his hair .
Biting my lower lip, I nearly broke the skin as I worried it and searched the vehicle for…what? What exactly was I looking for? No way in hell would either of these assholes leave any weapons where I could reach them.
There had to be a way to… damn it .
A way to do what?
Distract them . I could distract them. But then what ?
I still couldn’t exactly leap from the passenger window and onto the back of one of their bikes or into their arms.
And we were on the highway doing…
I glanced toward the speedometer as discreetly as possible and sighed. He was only doing seventy now instead of the eighty plus he’d been driving at originally.
Did that mean he was so stupid as to think he was in the clear?
Let him think that . If he let his guard down, that would give me and my alphas some way to end this with as little bloodshed and flaming car crashes as possible.
Without turning my head or bringing attention to myself, I let my eyes roam the entirety of the cab, finally landing on the emergency brake between us.
After another quick glance in the side mirror to make sure my alphas weren’t too close but close enough to get to me before Antonio could kill me for what I was about to attempt, I reached down, pulled the e-brake at the same time I threw the car in neutral, then slammed into the dash as the tires began to squeal against the pavement and the smell of burning rubber filled my nose.
While Antonio cursed and struggled to keep the car under control, I lunged for my door, popped the lock and threw the door open.
We were still going entirely too fast, but no way would I stick around to see what my former alpha would do after my little stunt.
The highway was a blur as I stared at it then closed my eyes and threw myself from the passenger seat, immediately wrapping my arms around my head in hopes of minimizing the damage, at least to my head.
Broken bones and road rash would heal – brain damage wouldn’t.
As my body was jostled, rolling and bumping against the asphalt, I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my teeth against the pain tearing through my arms, my legs, my back.
Whether anything was broken, I wasn’t sure, but there was definitely skin being torn away.
Horns blared. Tires squealed as people slammed on their brakes. But I kept my eyes squeezed shut and prayed anyone who might have been following us closely didn’t run me over before those three motorcycles made it to me.
When I finally stopped rolling and bouncing, voices made it through the blood rushing through my ears and my heart pounding like a damn bass drum in my head.
Hands smoothed over my head and hands, and I instantly batted them away, ignoring the pain in an effort to keep Antonio from dragging me from my alphas again.
“Issa – Issa!” Cyrus’s voice was raised over the cacophony of sounds invading my senses. “Stop!”
My eyes were wide as I stared into his face. “Am I alive?”
His lips quirked into a sad smile as he forced me to stay lying on the asphalt, headlights illuminating both of us.
“You’re still alive, sweetheart. Don’t move.”
“I’m fine,” I grunted as I tried again to sit up.
But my head spun, and it felt as though my body, or maybe my mind, was shutting down.
“Fuck! Baby girl, open your eyes!” Ax said, his voice deep and guttural, as though his emotions were clogging his throat the same time a growl worked from his chest.
“Did you catch him?” I muttered as my lashes fluttered in an attempt to open my eyes.
“Bain’s men are dealing with him.”
I forced my lids up and my eyes met Enzo’s. All three of my alphas were kneeling around me, their expressions varying from enraged to downright grief stricken.
“I’m not dead,” I gritted out. But I no longer tried to push to sitting. That hurt too much and made my head spin and my stomach roll. “You look like you’re looking at my corpse.”
I tried to huff a laugh, but even that hurt.
My alphas’ scents surrounded me as their hormones exploded from them.
A broken, stuttering purr was coming from my left, where I’d seen Cyrus.
Sirens wailed in the background, barely making it over the sounds of engines running, feet hitting the pavement, then somewhere in the distance…
My eyes flew open at what sounded like fireworks. Or like several engines were backfiring in rapid succession.
Bain’s men are dealing with him.
Hopefully, by dealing with him Enzo didn’t mean they were literally firing their guns right there on the highway for anyone to see.
Even if they were able to take off before anyone caught sight of their faces, those who’d been close enough when I’d thrown myself from the car would know I was somehow connected, that my pack was somehow connected.
And the last thing we needed was attention from law enforcement over a death – two deaths counting the asshole alpha who’d helped Antonio – in the middle of a now congested highway.
“Can you keep your eyes open for me, sweetheart?” Cyrus asked. His warm, wet scent washed over my face and coated my tongue as I took in deep breaths, trying to ignore the pain igniting my nerve endings.
“I’m trying,” I forced out through lips that were growing numb.
That can’t be good.
Shock. It had to be shock. It didn’t feel as though I’d broken anything, and I couldn’t clearly remember whether I’d hit my head.
But damn…I had really thrown myself from a moving vehicle.
The sirens grew closer and blue and red flashed across my closed lids or my alphas’ faces when I was able to peel my lids open for a few seconds at a time.
My alphas’ scents faded a touch and growls lifted on the air the same time fresh beta scents surrounded me and hands began to smooth over my head, my neck, my arms and legs.
I was trying so hard to stay awake, to open my eyes and keep them open as a thick collar was wrapped around my neck and I was carefully lifted onto some kind of hard board.
Then I was being lifted again and placed on a stretcher before being wheeled to the waiting ambulance.
“You can’t all fit in here,” someone said .
My lips twitched in humor as I pictured my alphas trying to crawl into the back of the ambulance with me.
“The motorcycles,” I muttered.
My lids fluttered and I looked into the face of a young male beta donning a paramedic uniform.
“What was that?” he asked, leaning close and turning his head so his ear was close to my mouth.
“They can’t leave their motorcycles. Someone will steal them.”
The paramedic huffed a chuckle and repeated what I said to the alphas.
“Fuck the bikes. I’m not leaving you, baby girl.” That was definitely Ax.
Focusing on our bond, I sent each of them, including Amir who felt as though he was losing his mind, love and comfort. As far as I knew, I would be okay.
Unless of course there was some kind of internal bleeding I was unaware of…or maybe brain damage.
But again, I didn’t feel as though I was seriously injured, just a little shaken up from the chaos of the past thirty or so minutes.
“Oscar?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet. Abdel said he was alive when the ambulance took him away.”
I blew out a sigh of relief.
“You can follow us, but there is no way to fit all three of you in here with us,” the paramedic said, inserting as much authority as he could into his voice.
I had a feeling this poor guy was more than used to dealing with overprotective alphas on his job.
A constant growl filled the interior of the ambulance. I lifted my hand and reached for Ax. His big, warm hand wrapped around mine.
“Go. Meet us there. I’m fine.”
His face filled my vision, blocking anything else.
“Oh. And call Amir and let him know I’m okay. And check on Oscar. ”
I blinked rapidly, trying my damnedest to keep my eyes open and on Ax’s face, even when his own beautiful eyes glimmered with tears.
“Why the fuck did you jump out of that car?” he said, his words choked.
I tried to shrug but couldn’t with the way the medics had me strapped to the backboard. “So he wouldn’t ram into you guys when he noticed you chasing after us.”
It sounded completely logical to me at the time, and it still did as I said the words to him.
He could be mad at me later. For now, I desperately wanted to close my eyes and sleep until whatever hurt so badly healed.