Chapter 8
EIGHT
Ethan
Mason’s words echoed in my head. They only heightened my worry about Hannah.
I glanced over my shoulder at where I left her with Chloe, but they weren’t there.
Panic twisted in my gut, and I had to fight to keep my bear from shifting.
I inhaled, allowing my shifter senses to come forward and find them.
I froze, picking up the scent that was in Hannah’s cabin after the break in. I swore, wanting to follow the trail but needing to make sure my mate was safe first. Thankfully, her scent went in the opposite direction, so I didn’t need to worry about them crossing paths.
With a few strides, I was throwing open the door to a nearby cabin. I found Hannah and Chloe having a hushed conversation. Hannah had an expression of pure stubbornness, while Chloe looked uneasy. They both turned toward me as the door banged against the wall.
“That’s one way to make an entrance.” Chloe raised a brow. “Try not to damage the cabin, though.”
“You two disappeared on me.” Seeing them only eased my worry slightly. Mason’s confirmation that someone had tampered with Cassie’s car had both my bear and me on high alert.
“Someone was too busy to notice.” Hannah crossed her arms. “What was with the phone call?”
I knew I needed to tell her. Keeping it from her wasn’t an option. But once I confirmed it out loud to her, she could no longer live in a world where her sister’s death was accidental. Instead, she’d know it was murder, and that I’d played a part, however unintentionally.
Hannah had already said it wasn’t my fault, but saying that when sabotage was only a theory was very different from believing it when it became fact.
Would she be able to look at me the same, or would it cost me my mate and the young boy I was growing to love?
Selfishly, I wanted to hide it as long as I could.
My bear pushed me to hide it too. To protect my mate from anything that might cause her pain. But Hannah wouldn’t appreciate that. Even now, I sensed her impatience with my hesitance to answer her question. Suspicion darkened her gaze. I had to tell her.
“Mason looked at Cassie’s car.” I dragged the words out. “The accelerator pedal was messed with. He said there was no way the damage to the pedal was accidental. And that it explains the sudden acceleration that caused the crash.”
The color drained from Hannah’s face, and tears welled in her blue eyes. “I knew there was a chance. Even assumed it was true. But knowing…”
Chloe placed her hand on Hannah’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry.”
I stepped closer to my mate, reaching for her slowly, giving her an opportunity to pull away if she didn’t want my comfort. Time dragged on as I waited, the seconds ticking by endlessly before she moved into my embrace. There were no words to describe the relief that washed over me as I held her.
She spoke, her words muffled against my chest. “I thought you weren’t going to tell me. I don’t know if I could have forgiven you if you didn’t.”
“Let’s make a promise right now. Even if it’s hard, we’ll always talk about things.”
She stiffened in my arms, pulling back slightly. A look of guilt settled on her face, and her eyes remained focused on my shirt as she twisted it in her fingers. “So, I might have done something. I’m not convinced it was wrong, but I know you won’t like it.”
“That’s an understatement,” Chloe muttered.
My muscles tightened, my bear reacting like he was preparing to face a threat. I tried to keep my voice even, but it was tinged with a growl. “Tell me.”
“I felt like I was being watched, and I thought it might be the saboteur. So I kind of made myself bait. To push them to make a mistake.”
I barely registered the rest of her words as she proceeded to fill in the blanks. My bear was roaring in my head, demanding I track down the danger to our mate. My breathing grew harsh, and I shook as my shift threatened to overtake me.
“Hannah, he’s about to shift. You need to calm him down.”
“How?”
My mate’s voice, filled with fear, cut through the noise in my head.
I latched on to it, using it to hold on to a thin edge of control.
I tucked my head into the crook of her neck, breathing her scent in deep, letting it calm me.
Hannah stroked her hands over my shoulders and arms, further soothing the beast inside.
When I regained control, I straightened. “We need to get you back to the house, where you’ll be protected. Then I’ll return with Luke to track the scent. He’s our best tracker.”
“I’ll agree, but only because I also found this and want to see what’s on it.
” Hannah held up a USB drive. “I forgot about it when everything came out yesterday. It may have nothing to do with all this, but I can’t think why else Cassie would have hidden it.
” She grimaced. “I’m not great with computers, though. ”
Chloe plucked it from Hannah’s fingers. “I have lots of experience with these things. Use them all the time for my work.”
We headed back to the house. Urgency drove me to push everyone faster. Once Hannah was safely inside, surrounded by my brothers, I might relax a bit. Until then, my bear’s protective instincts were in overdrive.
Hannah’s phone buzzed just as we reached the house to find all my brothers and Mae in the yard. Declan turned to me, face grim. “Jonah is missing.”
Hannah
I was looking down at my phone, where a text reading, “Tell no one,” had just come in, when Declan’s words hit me. But before I could react, a picture popped up. It was of Jonah.
The grainy photo was zoomed way in, but the fence behind him suggested he was somewhere on the ranch. He didn’t look distressed, but he was out there by himself. With the saboteur watching.
A text quickly followed. “Meet me at the little cabin unless you want your nephew to join his mother. Come alone. You have five minutes.”
My heart pounded in my chest, my breaths quickening.
My gaze flew to Ethan. He was talking to his brothers, his expression tense.
They were making plans to find Jonah. It would be safer for me to stay with them, let them help.
But I couldn’t wait. Jonah was my responsibility, and I wouldn’t risk him getting hurt because I didn’t follow instructions. My safety was second to Jonah’s.
While everyone was distracted, I slipped away, heading straight for the cabin we had just left. I didn’t trust the saboteur not to harm Jonah but I trusted Ethan to find Jonah and protect him. And if I didn’t survive this, I trusted Ethan to care for my nephew as if he were his own.
I pulled open the door and entered the cabin, but it was empty.
My cell buzzed again. Leave your phone outside.
I stepped back onto the front porch and lay my phone on the railing.
A quick glance around showed no one was within sight.
I ran through scenarios in my mind, but nothing I could think of seemed likely.
If the saboteur wanted to hide that Cassie’s death was murder, murdering me wouldn’t help. It would only draw more attention.
Unless they made it look like an accident. But how could they do that in an empty cabin?
I walked back through the front door, trying to puzzle it out. A flash of movement had me turning, but not fast enough.
A brawny arm banded around my middle as a hand clamped a cloth over my mouth. I struggled against the hold, kicking back with my feet as my fingers clawed at my attacker’s hand. A deep voice cursed as I dug my nails into his flesh, but he kept his grip on the cloth and me.
Within seconds, my head grew dizzy, confusion clouding my grasp on reality. I half-heartedly tugged at the arms restraining me, but I struggled to remember why I was fighting. I sucked in gasping breaths, but instead of pulling in fresh air, I continued breathing in whatever was on the cloth.
My vision blurred, and my eyelids blinked slower and longer, until I could no longer keep them open.
I slumped, almost unconscious, and my captor lowered me to the ground.
He must have assumed I was already out. I fought to focus on what was happening.
I needed to open my eyes. I needed to fight back.
I felt him step over me as I struggled to clear my pounding head. I heard him doing something, but I couldn’t tell what the sounds meant. Then there was a faint fizzing. A subtle, almost imperceptible sound like soda bubbles rising in a glass. The door slammed.
A sharp, acrid scent reached me. My eyes watered and my throat burned. I coughed, suddenly struggling to breathe. I forced myself to open my eyes, and my gaze fell on a bucket in the middle of the room. A bottle of cleaning vinegar was laying empty on the floor next to it.
Realization cut through the haziness in my brain. He had dumped vinegar into bleach. I had to escape before the fumes killed me.
I alternated between wheezing and coughing. Yanking off my shirt, I balled it up and covered my mouth. It wouldn’t stop the gas, but it might slow my exposure long enough for me to make a plan. I stumbled to my feet and lunged for the door.
I twisted the knob and pushed the door, but it wouldn’t open. It banged against something blocking it from outside. I threw all my weight against it, but it wouldn’t budge. My body was now wracked with coughing and uncooperative.
I gave up on the door. If I could open the windows, the ventilation would help.
But my eyes couldn’t focus enough to locate them.
I tried desperately to remember the placement of the windows in the room.
There must be one on the same wall as the door.
I placed a hand on the wall, both for support during my coughing fits and to search for a window.
I slid it along the wall as I willed my feet to move.
A deep series of coughs had me dropping my shirt on the ground, and I fell to my knees as I reached out with my hands to find it again. The burning in my throat increased. A painful sob burst out. I was running out of time.