“It’s a mess, Keith. Start to finish.”
Keith thunked his beer bottle on the railing so hard the glass cracked. “I’m worried, Joe. I am seriously f**king worried. Alan Matthews is waging goddamned psychological warfare against Abby, and I can’t protect her. I can’t do anything.”
And he would keep trying to take Brynn away from Abby. The knowledge burned in Joe’s gut, a knot no amount of preparation or confidence could dissolve. Matthews seemed willing to send—and sacrifice— a steady stream of his people, and it didn’t take a mathematical genius to know he might get lucky sooner or later.
But Joe had known Keith for years, and one look told him his friend was remarkably close to the edge. So he quelled the angry, protective worry. “Okay, let’s look at it. What does Abby have left?”
Keith brought the rage and fear back again with one tight, snarled word. “Brynn.”
“Yes, and you.” He waved his bottle at Keith. “That’s what you can do. You keep yourself and Abby safe, and you leave Brynn to me.”
The beer bottle hit the ground and shattered as Keith spun on him. It wasn’t just his friend staring at him now, but a protective, territorial alpha werewolf. When Keith spoke, it was in the quiet, deadly voice that made most people flee in terror. “Leave her to you?”
It took a concerted effort for him not to bristle in challenge. “You’ve got your hands full.”
“And you want your hands full?”
Joe choked on his beer. “Not exactly how I’d put it, but all right. Do you have a better solution?”
Keith clenched his fists and dragged in a deep breath. When he let it out, he gave Joe a wry smile. “I think that was me losing my f**king shit.”
It was no wonder, what with everything that had happened to Abby and Brynn both. “I get it. A lot of bad stuff has been going down, and the last thing you want is for anyone else to get hurt.”
“You’re not going to hurt her. I know that.” Keith speared him with another of those pointed looks.
“Not on purpose, anyway. Just use your brain. Please.”
“I will, I promise.”
Keith opened his mouth but snapped it shut without a word at the sound of soft footsteps inside the house. A few seconds later the door creaked open and Brynn peered out. “Hey.”
Joe’s heart stuttered, skipping a beat before settling into a strong, fast rhythm. He cursed silently, fully aware Keith could hear the frantic pounding of his pulse. “How’s Abby?” How are you?
“All the arrangements are set, but Abby’s…” Her voice hitched. “I think she needs you, Keith.”
Keith nodded and slanted a look at Joe. “Don’t be an idiot, or I’ll shoot you somewhere painful.”
He played it off as a joke out of habit. “Again?”
“Yeah, and this time it’ll be on purpose.”
Brynn’s eyebrows came together as her gaze jumped from Joe to Keith and back. “Do you guys need a moment or something?”
“Nope. Keith has to get inside to Abby.”
Keith turned to look at Brynn. “You can stay here if you want, kiddo.”
“I know.” Brynn’s heart was doing the same thing his had, and Joe could see Keith’s jaw clench as she turned him down with casual words that weren’t casual at all. “It’s okay. Abby needs me gone if she’s going to get it out. Joe was going to give me shooting lessons in the morning, anyway.”
“Okay, then. Joe’s got a walkie at his place. Call if you need anything.”
“I will.” Brynn slipped past Joe and held open the door until Keith grudgingly stepped past her. “Take care of Abby.”
“Of course.” Keith caught Joe’s gaze over her head, the warning clear in his eyes. Keep your hands to yourself.
Joe lifted one hand in a lazy salute and cursed himself all over again when he saw his hand was shaking. “Come on, Brynn. Let’s go.”
She let the door go, and it bumped into Keith’s hip. Keith heaved a sigh and moved back into the house, letting the door whisper shut after him. Brynn raised one eyebrow. “What’s got him pissy?”
He thinks I’m going to take advantage of you and break your heart. Given Joe’s track record with women, it was hard to fault Keith for the assumption. “Nothing. Typical guy bullshit.”
“Uh-huh. Well, if I’d seen that back home, I’d assume you’d made a pass at Keith’s girlfriend in a drunken stupor or something. I’m going to trust that’s not the case, seeing as everyone’s still alive.”
“I haven’t been hitting on your sister.”
“Obviously.” Brynn took the first two steps, then turned to glance at him. “Like I said, everyone’s still alive. You coming?”
Joe set his bottle on the porch railing. “Yeah, sure. We’ve got a lot to cover before you start shooting.”
“I could use something to think about.” She squinted in the direction of the setting sun, which had already dipped below the tree line. “You guys need a path between your place and his so I don’t keep tripping over branches. Though I guess if I’m going wandering in the woods in the dark, it’s good to have the big bad wolf on my side.”
Screw you, Keith. He looped an arm around her shoulders and dropped a kiss to the top of her head.
“I’ll clear one after I teach you how to shoot, yeah?”
She made a noncommittal noise, and her galloping heart wasn’t the only proof of her arousal now. A moment later she acknowledged the fact with what he imagined was supposed to be a joke, even if it came out sounding snappish. “If you’re going to do it with an axe and no shirt, don’t invite me.”
He told himself another joke was the easiest way to change the subject. He almost believed it too.
“Nah. This time, I think I’ll leave my pants at home.”
“You’re a smartass, Joe Mitchell.” The words were harsh, but her hand found his, clinging to it as if his presence was the only thing keeping her steady.
He held her hand and ignored the feeling of warmth that overwhelmed the constant arousal he felt in her presence. “That may be. But at least I’m a cute smartass.”
“That’d only help if you didn’t know you were a cute smartass.”
“For you, Miss Adler, I’ll fake some modesty.”
Her laughter sounded both relieved and guilty. He tightened his fingers around her hand as she leaned into him, her body soft and warm against his side. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, sweetheart.” He inhaled the scent of her hair and wished like hell he didn’t mean the words quite so sincerely.
Hope, already a fleeting, faltering thing, gasped its last breaths as Brynn watched two of Alan’s men drag her sister from the room. Two days of emotional torment were coming to an end now, two days spent listening to her captors describe in loving detail the fate that would befall her as soon as they’d captured her sister.
And Abby had walked into their midst.
Brynn pulled her legs closer to her chest and fought a shiver as Pierce closed the door and turned to smile at her. “Just you and me now, sweetie pie.”
No, no, no… It was the only word left in her mind, a broken litany she couldn’t stop. Her fingers clenched around the torn fabric of her khaki pants, and she jerked her gaze away from him to fix on a broken desk across the room. Pierce loved it when she flinched, and refusing to do so was the only silent defiance she had left.
“The alpha’s going to have fun with your sister,” he murmured as he walked around Brynn in a wide circle. “He likes them like that. Strong. Sure.”
Guilt flooded her, almost strong enough to drown out her terror, but it didn’t last. Blaming herself for this was pointless. Abby had chosen to walk into a trap. It might have made her angry, if only she’d had enough emotion left to feel such things. Now instead of suffering alone, she had to watch her sister break along with her.
Or be used to break her. They’d left her with no illusions as to her relative importance in the grand scheme of things, after all. Brynn was a tool. She was a pawn.
From the way Pierce was looking at her, she was about to be sacrificed.
He knelt in front of her, his smile blossoming into a grin. “She thinks he’s going to let you go, doesn’t she?”
The last time she’d refused to answer him at all, she’d earned a blow that left half her face bruised and aching. “No. She’s not stupid.”
He slapped her anyway, snapping her head to one side, though it hardly seemed to cost him any effort at all. “If she knows he’s keeping you both, why did she come?”
Brynn choked on a pained whimper and fought back tears. “I don’t know.”
He leaned in, his breath hot against her stinging cheek. “She’s not planning some grand escape, is she? That would sincerely f**k up my plans for you, sweetie pie.”
Brynn would have preferred being hit again to listening to the low, pleased cadence of his voice. It was impossible not to flinch now, but she’d already backed against the wall and there was nowhere to go.
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything.”
Pierce mocked her as he rose, his fingers freeing the buttons of his shirt as he moved. “I don’t know if I believe you. Then again, I suppose it doesn’t really matter.” His shirt fell open, and he shrugged out of it.
“Not much does anymore. It’ll be too late.”
Her first thought was that he meant to rape her. It had been a popular threat over the past two days, delivered by an assortment of men who seemed to be engaged in a competition to see who could get the most terrified reaction out of her. Once she’d stopped reacting at all, most of them had gotten bored.
Not Pierce. The more she refused to respond, the more obsessed he became. But the sick fantasy he whispered in her ear when he had her cornered and sick with dread had nothing to do with sex.