Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
The impact of Griffin's knuckles on Carter's jaw was practically ear-splitting.
Carter's head snapped back and he stumbled, trying to get out of reach. He grabbed his jaw and winced with pain. "What the hell?"
"That's what you have to say for yourself?" Killian's jaw twitched as his nostrils flared. "‘What the hell’ is all you have to say?" He rushed over to Carter and punched his friend in the gut.
"Ugh." Carter leaned forward, wrapping one arm around his waist as his other hand continued to rub his chin. "Just stop," he groaned.
"Oh, well… Since you asked." Rosemary rolled her eyes. "You're more moronic than I thought."
To prevent them from continuing the beating, I stepped between the two guys and Carter. I scowled at the person who I’d thought was at least sort of my friend. "You've got one second to spill or I'll let Griffin and Killian continue."
Carter tried to straighten up, but he winced, stopping before he reached his full height. "Look, it was nothing personal," he rasped.
"Dear God." Sierra barked out a laugh and sat on the couch like she was ready to watch a show. "I never thought I'd see the day where I agreed with Rosemary, but hell has officially frozen over. He really is an idiot."
Carter frowned. "Hey! My family is at risk."
"We're well aware," Rosemary said with disdain.
I pushed aside my natural inclination to beat him to a bloody pulp. Acting on emotion would work to our disadvantage, and we already didn't know who we were up against. We didn't need to stack the odds even more in their favor. "Nothing personal is getting the wrong type of cake, or taking a longer lunch break than you were supposed to. Drugging me and passing me off to someone who put me in the trunk of a car is the definition of personal."
"I didn't know he was putting you in the trunk!" He at least had the sense to cringe and avert his gaze to the floor.
For him to act so flippant irritated me even more. Who the hell did he think he was? Maybe he was clueless, and we could learn nothing from him.
"Obviously, that makes the entire situation better." Rosemary took a menacing step in his direction. "Because the drugging part wasn't bad enough."
"You know what?" I stepped out of the way and waved both Griffin and Killian on. "Beat the living shit out of him. If he isn't going to talk or doesn't know anything useful, we might as well at least get even." I prayed that he didn't call my bluff.
"What? No!" Carter lifted a hand in front of his body—like that would save him. "There's no need to beat me up. I didn't mean for any of this to happen."
"How so?" I lifted my chin and stared down my nose at him. "You stuck me in the neck with a needle and injected something into my bloodstream. That seems pretty purposeful to me."
He took a step toward me. "Dove—"
"Shut up," Griffin bellowed and shoved him in the chest. "Don't even say her name."
"I didn't have a choice." Carter's bottom lip quivered.
Killian shook his head. "You always have a choice. You happened to make the wrong one."
"They have Randall," Carter said. "And they threatened to hurt him if I didn't help them get Dove."
"Randall?" I hadn't heard of anyone by that name.
"His younger brother." Killian sighed, but the tension didn't leave his body. "What do you mean they have him? As in they still do? Why the hell wouldn’t you tell me or Billy?"
It took me a second to remember Billy was the pack beta who was stepping into the alpha role while Killian figured things out.
"I was told not to alert anyone—I couldn’t risk it. They said that he'd be released once Dove got to wherever the hell they wanted her to go." Carter waved a hand toward me as he continued, "And I'm pretty sure this isn't where they wanted her."
"She got away." Griffin gritted his teeth. "No thanks to you."
"What was I supposed to do?" Carter asked, as his shoulders sagged. "They were going to hurt my brother. Correction… They are going to hurt him."
"Why didn't you come to me?" Killian clenched his hands into fists.
"I didn't want to get you tangled up in this." Carter blew out a breath. "I mean, you already lost your entire family. I didn't want to make you choose between Randall and Dove."
"She's my fucking mate ." Griffin stepped in front of me. "Did you think that we would just be like, ‘oh well, it sucks that we lost her?’"
"In my defense, I thought she was still with Killian when I agreed the day before," Carter said, wringing his hands.
"That's a very weak defense." Sierra wrinkled her nose, looking disgusted. "It shouldn't matter whether she’s Killian's girlfriend or Griffin's mate."
"It kind of does." Carter ran his fingers through his hair and yanked on the ends. "I knew she wasn't Killian's mate, so he would get over her. When she walked in with Griffin yesterday, it completely threw me, but I was already in too deep. Randall is a good kid. He doesn't deserve to be hurt."
"And she does?" Griffin asked, shoving Carter.
"No, that's not what I meant." Carter plastered himself against the wall. "But he's my family ."
I understood that all too well. If there had been a way I could've saved my parents or pack, I'd have been tempted to play along, too. Granted, I would've tried to find a way so no one else would've gotten hurt, but Carter clearly didn’t have leadership potential. He wasn't an omega, but he definitely wasn’t dominant; he did well managing the coffee shop, but his wolf was submissive. "Let's give him the benefit of the doubt." It was hard saying those words, but if I didn't, Griffin wouldn't calm down. "He made the best choice he thought he could under bad circumstances. Whoever we're up against is smart; think about how they managed to take out those four guards that disappeared at the start of the fight two days ago with us none the wiser."
"That doesn't make it okay." Griffin sneered. "He deserves to have his ass beat."
"Maybe, but this gives us a strategic advantage." I had to put on my fighter hat. Making smart choices was the only way we could get a step ahead of the enemy; we were in the dark right now. I faced Killian and Griffin. "Were we able to glean anything from the boat that was left behind?"
"No." Killian sat on the other end of the couch. "There was no registration or anything personal on it."
"That's how the car they used to kidnap me was, too." We'd left the car on the side of the road for someone to find. Hiding it would have raised more questions. "So I'm betting the boat and car were stolen, which strengthens my case for recruiting Carter to help us."
"How can that ding-a-ling help us?" Sierra leaned forward.
"Because they have leverage over him, and he's already proven that he's willing to do whatever it takes to save his brother." I gestured to Killian. "Even going against his alpha and the Shadow City alpha as well."
"In fairness, he doesn't think of me as his alpha." Killian pursed his lips. "I mean, I haven't really been alpha material."
"Well, it's time for that to officially change." If we were going to figure this out, we were all going to have to do things we didn't want to—like me being here, facing the death of my pack—Griffin and Killian were going to have to step up and be the leaders they'd been afraid of being. "We need to pool our resources to have a fighting chance…unless you two want to walk away?" I had to give them an out. This wasn't something they'd ever wanted, and I was asking a lot.
"That question has to be a joke." Griffin's irises darkened. "You're my fated mate. I'm not going anywhere."
"And you're my family now." Killian nodded. "We're all in, and we're going to figure this out together."
"It's about damn time that you two finally step up." Rosemary placed a hand on her hip. "There's been so much turmoil, between your families dying and you two messing around instead of taking charge. You committing to your alpha roles should, at least, cause tensions to die down among the Shadow City representatives."
"You know, sometimes it'd be nice if I could at least wonder what you might be thinking." Griffin scowled at the angel. "But you've never given me the opportunity."
"Sorry if I've ruined your fragile ego several times now." She flipped her hair over her shoulder. "But no one dares to give it to you straight, so I figured I would."
Dear God, I didn't want to listen to their bickering right now. "The point I was trying to get at is they'll wind up calling Carter again to help them out."
"You think so?" Carter cleared his throat and pulled at his collar. "I mean, you're okay with being captured again?"
"No, idiot." Rosemary huffed. "You're not actually going to go through with it."
"But my brother—"
"You're going to tell Killian—using the pack link or whatever—and we'll set it up so we catch whoever is there to collect me, instead of them actually taking me." I had to be careful or he might not be willing to help us. Instead, he could tell whomever it was that we were on to him. "How did they get a hold of you the first time?"
"Some robotic voice called my cell phone." Carter tapped his foot. "Randall must have given them the number. It told me that since you worked at the coffee shop, I got to be the lucky person to help them."
That was what I'd figured. They'd been watching me and knew that Killian and Griffin wouldn't turn me in; the only other person who had influence over me was my manager. "So, you'll be that lucky person again—which means Carter needs to get back to the coffee shop before they suspect anything." I looked at Rosemary.
"I... I can't risk Randall." Carter slumped over. "If something happens to him—"
I was trying to be nice, but it was time to lay it out for him. "They aren't going to give up your brother willingly. In fact, once you deliver on your end of the bargain, he's as good as dead."
"But they said—"
"They lied," Rosemary interjected. "They've gone out of their way to make sure no one can identify them and that they can't be located. Do you really think they're going to just hand him over if he has any sort of clue who they are? They definitely won’t if he's seen some of their faces. The only reason he's still alive is to manipulate you into compliance."
I appreciated that Rosemary had said it instead of me. She had an excellent bad-cop approach, which helped me appeal to Carter's softer side. She and I made a good team. "So, if you help us, we can capture whoever shows up to get me, and we can locate your brother before it's too late."
"Do you believe this?" Carter asked, looking at Killian. "Do you think my brother is at risk?"
"Yes, I do," Killian said curtly. "That’s why you should've come to me from the very beginning. Not only would St—Dove be okay, but we could have already gotten Randall back."
I felt bad for Carter. He hadn't known what to do, and he had put so many people at risk. We were all being hard on him, but he needed to learn the lesson.
"Let me be very clear," Griffin said, as he grabbed Carter by the neck. "If you make any sort of decision that puts my mate in harm's way again, you will suffer immensely. I don't care what it takes; I'll make sure you go through hell. Do you understand?"
Carter's face turned red, and he nodded his head, as if unable to speak.
"I want to hear you say it." Griffin rasped.
"I..." Carter coughed a few times. "I understand."
Griffin released his hold, and Carter fell back, inhaling sharply.
"Do you mind taking him back?" I asked Rosemary. I didn't want to tell her to do it because that would just irritate her. I needed to be diplomatic in order to keep the angel on our side.
"Yeah, but if he screams the whole way back like he did here, I can't promise I won't drop him." She rubbed her temples. "He gave me a headache."
"Huh." Sierra blew a raspberry. "Can supernaturals get headaches? I never heard someone complain about one."
"This was a first for me." Rosemary reached the door and paused. "So, I'm guessing if we’re around someone super annoying, it is possible. Something I wished I hadn't learned firsthand. I might need ear plugs."
Her dramatics were exactly what I needed at the moment. The corner of my mouth tipped upward. "Sorry, I’m fresh out."
"Damn tragedy." She snorted and shook her head.
"Uh...maybe you guys can blindfold me and take me by car." Carter put his hands together like he was in prayer. "Then Rosemary won't have to go through the torture of carrying me."
"You've already been gone too long." They did need to leave, and now. "She'll get you there faster."
"Just come on." Rosemary marched over to him and grabbed him by the ear. "I'll take him back. Call me if you need anything else."
"Ow," Carter whined, as he followed behind Rosemary and out the front door. When it closed, the four of us looked at each other.
"Do you think he'll be able to pull it off?" Sierra tapped a finger against her bottom lip. "I mean, he seems nervous."
"He'll have to if he wants his brother to survive." That was a cold, hard fact—whether we liked it or not.
Killian puffed his cheeks. "He'll be able to pull it off. He loves his family and will do whatever he can to protect his brother. He’d told the pack that Randall had gone on a camping trip, so now it adds up. Randall must be far enough away that we can’t use our pack link to connect with him—or he’s being drugged. Between that and Carter being willing to face Griffin’s and my wrath to do what he thought would save Randall, he'll make it work."
I sure hoped so. "Well, we need to keep digging because, once they call him, we'll have to head back to Shadow Ridge." Luckily, we weren't that far away, but I was afraid to leave before we had searched through everything. There was no telling what we might come back to.
A phone rang from my bedroom. I faced Griffin and said, "You better go answer it."
"It's not mine." He pulled his phone from his pocket.
My stomach dropped. "It's the bear shifter's burner phone." I rushed down the hallway and ran into my room. The phone buzzed on the nightstand and rang for the third time. I snatched it up and pressed the green button.