I licked my lips, which felt unnaturally dry.
Jack’s gaze flicked down to follow. Shit.
“Go back to the part where you were going to explain why this unknown kidnapper thinks you’re still on the way from Idaho,” I said in a rush, so quickly the words slurred together. “Logistics. Planning. The next steps.” Christ, who was I trying to convince, him or me? I sounded like a moron. “And tell me what that artifact does, or I walk out of here and tell Esther you’re not welcome in Lancaster anymore.”
His eyes finally shifted away from me.
Yep, he really, really didn’t want to tell me about that artifact.
“Last chance,” I ground out, not managing to sound quite as growly as Jack—but E for effort.
“I used cash to travel here, and I left my credit card with a friend to use to buy a full tank of gas on the edge of town a couple of hours ago. Brent’s still on that card. I figured he’d know I was following him using the mate bond to track him, and that he’d check online since he’d be expecting me. Buy me a few hours of surprise, you know?”
Okay, so that was unexpectedly smart. That thought must have shown on my face, because when Jack looked at me again, he frowned and sighed.
“You thought I was too dumb to think of something like that,” he said.
Fuck it. Lying here on this bed with him had started to make me feel like I needed to crawl out of my skin. How the fuck had he gotten under my defenses so quickly?
“Yes, I did, and I’m pleasantly surprised,” I snapped. “Good job displaying rudimentary common sense. We have a couple of hours before bits get chopped, not that I care all that much if they do. Artifact. Details. Now.”
The bed dipped and jounced as Jack rolled away from me and got to his feet in a move so fast I couldn’t even react. He ran his hands through his short black hair and paced back and forth across the small room while I propped myself on my elbows and stared at him.
I felt cold all of a sudden, cold and bereft, not in a cocoon of stolen warmth anymore but flopped awkwardly on a nasty-smelling motel bed with my suit all crumpled and twisted around me. Like someone’s rejected one-night stand, discarded before we even got to the good part.
Jack turned back to me, hands on his hips, head cocked to the side as he stared me down. “Fine,” he said. “It’s a family secret, passed down for the last two hundred years. But keep in mind, it only works for someoneinthe family. So you can’t steal it.”
That hurt more than it should have given how littleIwanted to trusthim.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I managed.
He sighed, rubbed at his temples, and said, “It grants one life or one death, no questions asked.”
Chapter 4
No Questions Asked
That startled me enough to get me up and off the bed in turn, my scrambling doubly inelegant given the constriction of my tightly tailored trousers.
“The fuck?” I hissed, getting right in his face. “One life or one death? Are you—do you—” I sputtered, choked, and gave in to impulse, grabbing the front of his t-shirt in both hands and shaking him hard enough that he actually stumbled back a step. “What the fuck iswrongwith you?”
“Wrong withme? What the fuck is wrong with—will you stop—why are you shoving me?” Jack demanded, as I shoved him all the way across the few feet between his back and the door, and he thumped up against it. His hands came up to grab me around the wrists, fingers hard and callused and strong enough to bruise even my nearly indestructible flesh.
“Because you’re an idiot!” I shouted, at the absolute ragged end of my not-at-all indestructible patience. “One life or one death?No questionsasked? That’s the most dangerous—you could use that—oh my fucking gods, Jack, the blackmail and coercion potential alone. How the fuck is your family not ruling the whole goddamnworldby now?”
“Because we’re not psychopaths!” he shouted back. “Because it can only be used once by each generation, and there’s always some personal reason to use it! And mostly,” and he yanked my hands away from his chest, probably because my fingers had torn all the way through his shirt and started digging into his skin, “because we’re not fucking psychopaths!”
“Speak for yourself,” I snarled. “Because apparently you mated a fucking psychopath. And now he’s been—”
I stopped struggling, stopped talking, and nearly stopped breathing.
Because a whole new idea had burst into my mind, fully-fledged and irresistible in its logic.
“He hasn’t been kidnapped at all,” I murmured. “Let go of my arms.”
“What are you talking about? And I’m not letting you go until you stop trying to hit me.”
“I don’t care about hitting you, just let go.” I tugged, and his hands tightened around my wrists. Gods, his hands were so damn warm. Vampires weren’t as cold as some of the (incorrect) legends liked to describe us, but no one ran as hot as an alpha werewolf, and his fingers felt like brands. “Seriously, or Iwillbe trying to do some damage.”
