Chapter 6
Emory
“Ma’am, this is the federal prison service,” a ball-breaking female voice barks.
Ice shoots down my spine.
Relax, I tell myself. Maybe they just want another round of prisoner lunches. A laugh bubbles out of me, and I clap my hand over my mouth. Yup, after yesterday’s debacle, I’m sure that’s exactly what they want.
“Can I help you?” I say in a high, tight voice.
“Yesterday, there was an…umm… incident…” The confident tone falters. “And one of the prisoners escaped. I’m calling to ask whether you’ve seen him. He’s unusually tall and muscular. He has a scar running across his right cheek.”
Shit. I swallow hard to get rid of the lump in my throat. “W-why would we have seen him?”
“No particular reason, ma’am. We’re just tracking down leads at the moment. He’s an extremely dangerous individual and it’s in everyone’s interests that we apprehend him as soon as possible.”
What does she mean by that? Do they suspect that he’s here, or are they just fishing?
There’s a sound behind me. I whirl around. Maxim is standing in the kitchen doorway, watching me. A hot, dizzy feeling spills through me.
He’s risking so much by protecting me. His brother’s freedom. His own life. I feel sick at how selfish I’ve been. I should’ve refused his help last night. Told him to leave me alone.
Sending him back to prison would be the right thing to do. Then he’ll still get a chance to save his brother.
Even though my chest hurts like crazy at the thought of being apart from him.
I’m gripping the receiver so tight, my hand cramps.
He’s right here. Come and pick him up.
The words are on the tip of my tongue—
“Emory.”
I startle. I’m not even sure if he said my name out loud. It’s more like I heard it inside my head. Like his beast called to me. My heart pounds.
He shakes his head, his glowing eyes locking onto mine.
No.
This time, I definitely heard the word inside my head. His lips didn’t move.
I heard it because we’re connected.
We belong together. The certainty rushes over me.
I drop the receiver back in its cradle, and I turn to him.
“We need to get out of here, don’t we?”
Maxim nods and reaches for my hand.
I’m in the backseat of an SUV, speeding along the highway heading south from Perdue. Maxim is sitting beside me, and a man I met fifteen minutes ago is in the driving seat.
Things have happened at lightning speed.
After I said a panicked goodbye to Meredith, Maxim led me through the rear exit of Sinner’s, where an old black SUV was waiting.
He introduced the blond, brutal-looking driver as Swede, and we took off.
Now, Maxim is stripping off his clothes and pulling on a brand-new shirt and jeans, and I’m doing my damnedest not to look.
Instead, I focus on not asking questions as the vehicle tears through the miles.
Another ten minutes pass and the driver turns off the highway, onto a dirt track. He parks up, and there, another SUV is waiting for us. Newer and shinier than the first, but again, nothing flashy.
“Come on.” Maxim jumps out and opens my door for me. I hurry to follow his instructions. Normally, I’d ask what the hell’s going on. But I asked him to get me out of Perdue, and that’s exactly what he’s doing.
This time, we climb into the front seats and leave the driver behind. The interior of this SUV is brand-new, with luxurious leather seats and high-tech controls glowing from the dashboard.
In a couple of minutes, we’re back on the highway again, and heading for a turnaround. We take a right, and as a long, straight road stretches ahead of us, I literally see the tension going out of Maxim’s shoulders.
Finally, he turns his searing gaze onto me.
“I’m sorry about before. I just needed to be discreet.”
“Figures,” I say.
He flashes a look of gratitude. “Swede is a long-time employee of mine. I asked him to come to Perdue and be on standby in case we needed him.”
I nod. “What is your business?” I ask hesitantly, thinking that the last twenty-four hours have been so intense, I haven’t even had the chance to find out what he’s been doing all these years.
“I run my own security company,” he says. “I employ five-hundred people, all over the country. Although, I’ve been, uh, hands-off the past few months.” He gives a wry smile. “Swede has been pretty much running things while I’ve been locked up.”
“Must’ve been a real tough time.”
He shrugs. “I planned for it.” He lays a hand on the dash. “You’re safe now, Emory. This vehicle is bullet-proof. The glass, the body, everything. It’s got an anti-tracking device fitted and a rotating license plate.”
“It’s also pretty darned comfy,” I say, pushing myself deeper into the soft leather seat.
“Only the best for you…” The smile drops from his face and he looks straight ahead again, like he thought that came out wrong.
I steal a glance at him. He’s so goddamn sexy and confident and in control.
I swoon a little bit more. He’s always been my protector, my hero.
But now I want more from him. And that’s so crazy.
He’d probably freak out if he knew what I was really thinking right now.
I’m just glad I didn’t make a fool of myself earlier this morning by trying to kiss him when he was comforting me.
“We going anywhere special?” I say innocently.
A laugh bursts out of him. “You always knew how to make me laugh,” he says. “I was always real serious. And being, you know, your father’s bodyguard, that was pretty serious as well. But you were like this little ray of sunshine that just lit me up inside.”
Warmth floods through me. I love that I have this effect on him. I promise myself I’ll keep looking for ways to make him smile.
“We’re going to a mountain town called Wilder’s Edge,” he says. “I’ve got a cabin there that not a single person knows about it. Not even Swede, and he’s the guy I trust most in the world.” He frowns. “Aside from you.”
My heart jolts. “You trust me?”
“Of course, Emory.” He says it like it’s stupidly obvious. “You’ve got a pure heart. You were like an angel among demons in your family compound.”
Our eyes meet.
“That makes two of us,” I say softly.
After a while, we leave the highway and the road starts to wind up a mountain. I feel the tension going out of my own body as well. I found some peace in Perdue, but it was still a question of when, not if, they’d come knocking. But now, I’m with Maxim. And I trust him with my life.
The next thing I know, we’re pulling up in front of a rustic wood cabin, in what looks like a real isolated area.
“We’re here!” I say, followed by, “oh, god, I fell asleep on you, didn’t I?”
I really hope I wasn’t drooling or sleeping with my mouth open.
But the look Maxim gives me is tender. “You were snoozing like an angel,” he says.
Angel. That word again. All my life I’ve felt tainted by my father’s criminal empire. But Maxim sees me as pure, and I love that.
“Welcome to your new abode,” he adds with jokey formality.
I bound out of the passenger-side door.
My new abode. A rustic log cabin, with two square windows at the front, a sloping roof and a little pathway, leading to a solid-looking front door.
I used to dream about living somewhere isolated like this, far from my father’s clutches. A simple life, without all the luxuries that had been bought and paid for with other people’s blood. I think in my dreams, it had looked something like this.
Maxim puts his hand to the door and it unlocks. A fingerprint sensor. Okay, guess it’s not so rustic after all.
“Welcome,” he says.
The front door has a ton of locks that whir into place when the door shuts behind us.
“I can set up your own fingerprint sensor,” he tells me. “The exterior walls are heavily reinforced. There’s also an invisible forcefield that extends fifty yards around the property, and I’ll receive an alert if anyone breaches it.”
Inside is a combination of rustic wood and modern appliances, all understatedly stylish.
There are two bedrooms, also with reinforced doors.
And they’re beautiful. Wooden king-size beds, with lovely wooden closets and nightstands.
“I usually sleep here.” He points to the one on the left.
I already guessed that one was his. It has dark covers on the bed, and it’s tidy, but there’s something more masculine about it.
I imagine him naked between the sheets. Pulling me in with him…
He shows me the bathroom. It’s ultramodern, with a bathtub and shower. The kitchen is compact, but looks like it came straight out of a design magazine. He runs his hand across the counter. “Beech wood,” he comments.
“Did you design all this yourself?”
“Every last detail.”
I take in the trendy-looking fridge. “Where do we get groceries from?”
“From the nearby town. I usually hunt my own meat though.” He turns away from the kitchen counter. “And that’s everything.”
I run the tip of my tongue across my lips, suddenly aware that I’m in Maxim’s lair. This place he built himself; where he hunts his own food, like the big growly shifter that he is.
I’m also aware that he’s staring at me, like he can’t take his eyes off me.
“Let me show you around outside.” He strides across the cabin and tugs the door open.
He points out the well, the solar panels on the roof. The shriveled vegetable garden that could be revived. The woodpile for the winter months.
An image pops into my mind of the two of us tucked up inside with a fire roaring in the hearth. No neighbors around. Just him and me.
I want to be his. The feeling that has been growing inside me all day reaches boiling point.
Not like a girlfriend, but something more.
His mate.
The word appears in my brain, just like before.
How am I going to hide my attraction to him when we’re living like this?
All of a sudden, I feel nervous, out of my depth. I pass a hand across my forehead and take a staggering step.
“Emory? Are you okay?” Maxim turns to me.
“Yeah, I think I just realized—” The words die on my lips. I’m not even sure what I was planning to say, but the way he’s looking at me renders me senseless.
His wolf. For the first time, I really see his animal behind his eyes. And they’re no longer pale blue, but dark. Because his pupils have dilated, flooding the irises.
His attention is so intense, I feel it in my body. A drumbeat of need, connecting me to him. Energy crackling between us. Drawing us closer and closer.
He takes a half-step toward me—