PS02 - Without Regret (27 page)

“That’s not what I said, Chris,” his father said, looking worried, but there was nothing Chris could do about that. It was better

that his father only worried for him than his brothers and sister. At least he knew how to take care of himself.

“Just try not to miss me too much,” Chris said, stepping away from his father and continued down the small hall that ran

alongside the front stairs. When he arrived in the foyer he nearly sighed in relief when he spotted his mate freshly dressed in

his old flannel shirt and a pair of jeans that were a little too long, probably Jill’s, he decided as he glanced around the room.

He spotted his brother leaning against the doorway, Madison glaring at him from the living room doorway and Jill trying to

throw Izzy a reassuring smile from across the room.

“Josh, I need you to give us a ride to the airport,” he said as he walked over to Jill, who still looked pissed, but once he pulled

her into his arms she softened and returned the hug.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” she whispered.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

He walked over to Madison and sighed when she stubbornly looked away from him.

“Do I get a goodbye hug, Madison?” he asked softly.

“No.”

“Madison,-” he started to reach for her only to find nothing but air. When he turned around he wasn’t too surprised to find her

standing in front of his father.

“Baby, don’t let him do this,” she pleaded, sounding close to tears and making him feel like an asshole, but he had no choice.

“It’s not my decision to make, baby,” Ephraim said soothingly as he tried to pull Madison into his arms, but she wouldn’t allow

it.

“He’s your son and he’s doing something incredibly stupid! He’s going to wreck his life by sending her away!” she said,

reaching up and cupping Ephraim’s face. “Please.”

“Madison, it’s too dangerous to keep her here,” Ephraim explained quietly.

“Then we’ll go somewhere else, somewhere where he won’t find us, but please don’t let him do this!”

This time when she tried to back away from him, Ephraim grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.

“There is nowhere to hide, Madison. Nowhere. His only choices are to let her go or join her and he knows we’ll understand if

he chooses to go,” his father said as he looked up and met Chris’ eyes. He knew exactly how much his father loved him and

knew it hurt him to say that.

“I’ll be back,” Chris said tightly as he turned to leave, only to pause and throw a look over his shoulder, hoping to find

Madison coming to him. When she didn’t move away from Ephraim he felt his stomach twist. He loved her. She was his best

friend and the most important woman in his life. He couldn’t imagine going a day without talking to her and hated knowing that

he’d caused her any pain, but he didn’t have a choice.

He’d make it up to her when he got back, he decided as he grabbed his little mate’s cold little hand and led her outside.

“Which car are we taking?” Joshua asked as he headed for the driveway.

“Take whichever one you want. We have to take one of the unmarked to the airport.”

“If we’re grabbing one of the unmarked cars we should take Dad’s truck so we can take the shortcut,” Joshua said as he headed

for their father’s black pickup truck.

As he helped Izzy into the truck he took one last look at the only home he’d ever known and prayed that he’d see it again, but if

he didn’t at least he’d know he kept it and the family inside safe. It was the least he could do for them.

**********

“I’m tired,” she grumbled as she tightened her arms around her bag, but the damn man wouldn’t leave her alone. He picked her

up and carried her out of the truck.

“You can sleep on the way to the airport,” he promised her as he carried her through an open garage door.

Fighting back a yawn, she looked around the large and tidy garage and counted ten vehicles, a hummer, a few trucks, an SUV

and a few cars.

“Where are we?”

“We’re just switching vehicles,” he said, heading for the black SUV.

“Oh,” she mumbled, too tired to ask him anything else, not that he’d answer her anyway.

As soon as she’d climbed out of that pool he’d dragged her soaked, freezing butt into the house and shoved her towards his

sister and Madison. Even though they went out of their way to be nice to her and assure her that everything was going to be

okay, she knew they were lying. Whatever Chris had planned for her had both woman pissed off and she was guessing for good

reason.

But for his family’s sake she would go along with this little plan now, but the second she thought they were in the clear and that

nothing she did would bring attention to them she was making a run for it.

“I’m going to use the Florida plates,” Joshua announced as he walked over to the wall of red metal cabinets.

“That’s fine, but we need to hurry up,” Chris said, juggling her in his arms as he opened the back passenger door and deposited

her in the car.

She hugged her bag tighter as she moved away from him, but he stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.

“I know this hasn’t exactly been easy and that you’re really pissed, but I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate you

helping me out,” he said, sounding as exhausted as she felt.

“I didn’t do it for you. I did it for your family,” she said tightly as she met his eyes.

“Thank you,” he said with a firm nod before he gently shut the car door.

For a minute she considered trying to sneak out of the garage and making a run for it, but she had no idea where they were and

knew that wouldn’t help lead this Quinn guy away from his family.

The only thing she could do for herself right now was to get a little rest and a clear head so that she could figure a way out of

this mess without making it worse. With that thought in mind she placed her bag at the end of the seat, laid down and curled up

and within minutes she was dozing off.

“Come on, Munchkin, time to wake up,” Chris said in what felt like only a few minutes later.

“Stop calling me that,” she said as she tried to go back to sleep.

“Don’t even think about falling asleep, Munchkin,” he said as he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of the nice warm

car into the cool crisp fresh air.

She forced her eyes open as he set her down on her feet and frowned. They were at the airport? How long had she slept for?

However long it was wasn’t enough. Well, at least she could look forward to a nap on the plane, she thought as Chris said his

goodbyes to his brother.

“You’ll be back by tomorrow night, right?”

“Sure,” Chris said and she knew he was lying and judging the look on Joshua’s face he knew it too.

“Chris-“

“Don’t worry about it, man. Just keep everyone safe and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Joshua glared up at his older brother from the car for a minute before he shook his head in resignation. “I know you won’t

listen to reason so I’m not even going to bother trying.”

“And I appreciate that,” Chris said, reaching into the car to give his brother’s shoulder a squeeze.

“I just bet you do,” Joshua grumbled as he turned his attention to her. “Take care of yourself, Izzy.”

“You too,” she said, smiling. Considering everything that happened over the last two days she was actually shocked to

discover that she truly meant it. She might not like the jerk next to her or the crap she went through, but she liked his family.

Before Joshua even managed to put the car in drive, Chris was pulling her towards the double automatic doors of the small

airport.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think that you like my brother more than you like me,” Chris said quietly as he led her to the

customer service desk.

“That’s because I do,” she said with a small shrug.

“I see,” he bit out tightly.

“I’m glad that you do,” she said, not giving a damn if she was pissing him off. In fact she hoped that she was pissing him off

and to make damn sure that he was pissed off she added, “Is there any way I can switch him for you, because I have to tell you

your brother has the hottest-eep!” she ended on a high pitched squeal that thankfully went unnoticed in the early morning crowd.

Chris chuckled softly, not sounding particular happy as he gave her ass another warning squeeze. “Finish that thought and you

won’t be able to sit for a week.”

“I was only saying-ow! Lay off my ass already!” she hissed out as they neared the customer service woman, who sent her a

bored glance, but when her eyes fell on Chris they widened and turned calculating.

“Then stop trying to piss me off, Munchkin,” he said, pulling her to a stop ten feet from the customer service desk.

“I’m not,” she lied.

“Right now that doesn’t matter. What I need you to do is go ask the pretty woman behind the desk for a one way ticket on the

next flight. I don’t care where it’s going. The important thing is to get you out of here quickly. Do you understand?” he asked

and she just barely stopped herself from informing him that the woman was not that pretty, but right now that didn’t matter.

Right now he was letting her go and she could actually kiss the man for that.

“Okay,” she said, trying not to smile as she pulled her ID and credit card out of her bag. She couldn’t believe this nightmare

was about to end. Even the glare the customer service woman sent her when Chris didn’t join her didn’t diminish her good

mood one bit.

Ten minutes later with a ticket in hand, she walked over to the small cafe where Chris sat watching her and thought about

grabbing a quick bite to eat before her flight took off. Now that she knew she was about to be free from this nightmare food

sounded pretty good.

“Do you have your computer?” Chris asked casually as his gaze swept over the small terminal.

“Yes,” she said, wondering if he wanted to make sure she could email him to let him know she was safe. It was sweet really,

something she didn’t expect from the big jerk, but no less sweet.

“Good,” he said, gesturing for her to join him. She was about to refuse and explain that she didn’t have much time and really

needed to grab something to eat when his next words gave her pause, “Can you hack into the airport’s system?”

She had to snort at that. “Yeah, why?”

“Because I need you to hack into the system and make it look as though you boarded the plane,” he explained absently as he

glanced around again. If she didn’t have a better understanding of what was out there she might think he was paranoid.

“Why would I need to do that? Once I hand my ticket over it will update itself,” she explained. Then again he probably wanted

to ensure that she left some sort of paper trail for this Quinn man to follow, which brought up a very interesting question.

“How exactly is Eric going to meet me in Texas if I just bought the ticket?” she asked, wondering if maybe he was already

waiting in that private jet they used to smuggle her here for Chris to call him.

“He’s not,” Chris said, not bothering to look at her.

“I thought that was part of the deal,” she said, trying not to panic. After what she saw last night she really didn’t like the idea of

one of those beasts chasing after her. She’d hoped she was going to be protected by Eric and some of his men. If she couldn’t

count on any of them for help then she was going to the police the first chance she got. Granted they weren’t going to believe

her and they’d probably lock her away with insane people who thought they turned into werewolves, but as long as they didn’t

sprout fur she was actually fine with that.

“There was never any deal, Munchkin. You’ll do what I tell you, when I tell you,” he said, still looking around and further

pissing her off.

“And if I don’t?” she demanded, tossing her bag over her shoulder as she glared down at him.

Finally he looked up at her and simply said, “Then you’ll die.”

Chapter 22

“There has to be some other way,” Izzy said as she backed up, looking around the dimly lit parking garage nervously.

Fighting back the urge to throw her ass in the car, he reached out and took her hand into his. “There is no other way,” he

explained calmly. “Now get your ass in that car before I spank it.”

“But I-“

“Just get in the damn car,” he snapped.

She tossed her bag in the back seat as she glared at him. “Fine. You didn’t have to be such a jerk about it.”

“Apparently I do. Now move your cute little ass,” he said, reaching out and palming that beautiful ass as it moved past him

because he really couldn’t help himself.

“Hey!” she hissed, slapping his hand off her ass. “Stop touching my ass, you pervert!”

“Move it and I won’t have to,” he snapped back, knowing he was lying. There was no way he was going to be able to stop

himself from doing at least that much when he was around her.

Even as he should be focusing on getting them the hell out of the state without being seen he couldn’t help but think about that

kiss. He hated the way she made him want her, need her. Handing her over to Eric would be the smartest thing to do in this

situation, but he couldn’t do it. He needed to make sure this was done right and that meant doing it himself.

“You know what? I’m done with you. I don’t want to have anything to do with you. In fact,” she said, shoving her hair out of