Chapter 14

Samson

Pure, alpha fury coursed through me as I watched Clyve walk Ari away. The farther from the SUV they walked, the more of them I could see, ironically. What I saw, I didn't like. That slimy bastard had his hands on my omega. Heads would roll for that.

I forced myself to close my eyes and take a deep breath, clearing away the unhelpful emotions. Did I want to crush Clyve's skull like a cracker for daring to call Ari "baby"? Hell yes. I didn't care what connection the Ingraham family had to Ari and his family. Ari's entire family could go to hell right along with Clyve and his goons. Ari belonged to me now. That might have been a fantasy before, but things had gotten very real in the last few hours. But if I had any chance of freeing my omega from his circumstances, I had to keep my wits about me and stay one step ahead of Clyve.

"You heard him," Bruno shouted to the others once Clyve and Ari were gone. "Search the forest again."

I opened my eyes, fighting to push everything else aside but strategy. First and foremost, I needed to figure out how to get out from under the SUV and back into the relative safety of the forest without being seen.

It was nearly impossible to think, though. My new bond with Ari pulled at me like an electron magnet. It physically hurt to feel him moving farther and farther away, especially when I knew he was in extreme danger. There was no telling what Clyve would do to him once they were alone. I didn't think much of Clyve as an alpha, but he was still bigger and stronger than Ari.

Ari was smarter, though. I didn't really know Clyve, but I was certain of that. I knew Ari had revealed himself as a way to distract Clyve and the others away from me, and I'd listened to him spin a perfectly believable story and sell it. That didn't make me feel like everything was okay and Ari could fend for himself, though. Not even for a second.

My omega needed me. I needed to get to him, secure him, and take him to safety.

The sound of the ATVs rumbling to life, then zipping away filled me with a sense of confidence. It wasn't perfect by any means, but four fewer goons to deal with gave me a better chance of getting to my omega and getting us out of there.

"What are we supposed to do?" one of the goons asked Bruno.

"Search the perimeter," Bruno ordered him. "It's past five now, but we still don't know when exactly Remmington is coming. This deal has to go smoothly."

"Gotcha," the one who had asked the question said. His footsteps crunched off across the gravel to the other side of the shipping containers a moment later.

"I'm still half convinced Clyve is double-dealing and trying to screw Remmington somehow," Bruno muttered to the one remaining guard.

"You think he's smart enough to do that?" the guard asked.

"No," Bruno answered immediately. "But Norman Ingraham is."

That answered that. Not that I'd had any doubt, really. Clyve was too young to be a real threat in this kind of world. The way his own men had questioned him proved to me he had no real power.

"I'm not getting on Norman Ingraham's bad side," the guard said, then turned and marched off into the trees.

That left only Bruno to deal with. I scooted as close to the edge of the SUV as I dared, flattening myself even more so I could see more of the area. My only chance was if Bruno still believed this Vick guy was mistaken about how many people he'd seen on the drive. My chances of getting away and rescuing Ari increased if he believed Ari's story.

Whether he believed it or not, Bruno paced in front of the shipping containers for a moment, muttering to himself, then veered off like he would make a lap around the containers.

That was the only chance I was going to get. Moving too fast to think about my actions, I scooted to the side of the SUV closest to the bit of forest the other guard had headed off into. I took two seconds to make certain no eyes were on me—well, except the surveillance cameras, I couldn't do anything about them—then muscled myself out into the open.

I pushed up to a crouch, keeping the SUV between me and the direction Bruno had walked off in, and checked the area. It looked clear and peaceful, though I knew better than to let that lull me into complacency.

Another second later, I dashed as carefully as I could across the gravel, hissing as it made more noise than I wanted it to, then leapt into the undergrowth of the forest. I let myself feel one second of relief that I'd made it without being seen, except, in all probability, by the cameras, then darted off in the direction I thought the other guard had gone.

The only chance I had of giving myself what I needed to go after Ari was if I caught one of the guards, disabled him, and took his weapons. Bonus points if he had a cell phone on him I could use to call the local authorities. There wasn't time for me to race all the way back to my house to arm myself.

The other problem was the head-splitting wrongness I felt as I moved farther away from Ari. I couldn't see him, I knew he was in the house now, but damn, I could feel him like he was standing right next to me, writhing in pain. Bonds had their uses, and I was certain we would be sweet and cute and loving it up if we'd formed the bond under peaceful circumstances. In our current danger, though, the new bond made me feel like I had vines tangled around my feet, trying to keep me from putting any greater distance between us.

It was lucky for everyone that the guard who had wandered off hadn't gone that far. Was he too close to the shipping containers and potentially within Bruno's earshot? Maybe. Were my body and soul going to let me get any farther away from Ari than that? Definitely not.

I crouched behind a thick tree just as the guard heard something and whipped back to face in my direction.

"Who's there?" he demanded, backtracking to check the area.

He'd heard me, but I didn't think he'd seen me yet.

I had once chance at this or I was dead. Speed was the only thing that would save me. Well, speed and years of training and experience back in Medford.

"Who's there?" the goon repeated.

It was a bad mistake. His words told me exactly where he was. I had the jump on him as I pushed out from behind the tree, balled my fist, and threw a punch at his jaw before he could raise his weapon. Between the angle at which I hit his jaw and the force I used, I had the asshole twisting and falling flat to the ground.

I didn't rest on my laurels once I had the goon down, though. A hit to the jaw would knock someone out, unlike a blow to the back of the head, like the movies, which just pissed people off, but it wouldn't last forever. I needed to immobilize the bastard and take him out of the picture entirely if I wanted to get back to Ari and save him.

I worked quickly, disarming the goon first and moving his weapons out of arm's reach, in case he came to suddenly and was sharp enough to fight back. He carried more than just the assault rifle, which was another stroke of luck. He had a smaller pistol on him that I immediately set on the ground within quick reach. Tucking it into the waist of my jeans would have been another Hollywood mistake that might have ended with a bullet in my groin.

Once that was done, I hurried through untying the goon's boots and pulling them and his socks off. One of the socks went straight into his mouth. From there, feeling like time was ticking away too fast, I yanked the laces out of his boots and used them to secure the guy in a quick and dirty hog-tie. Shoelaces weren't strong enough to hold someone forever, but with any luck, when he did come around, it would take him a few minutes to struggle free. And as Ari knew, I was really good at knots.

It felt so much better to throw the rifle strap around my shoulder and grab the gun than it did to race around unarmed. I had no luck with the guy carrying a cell phone, but I didn't really expect everything to be that easy.

I took a few, halting steps deeper into the forest, contemplating whether I should head back to my house to call for help, but ditching the idea for a second time. I couldn't move that far away from Ari. It was physically impossible. Instead, I headed as stealthily as I could back toward the clearing with the shipping containers, intending to continue on to the house.

The forest was far from quiet as I moved, which was both a blessing and a curse. The distant drone of the ATVs, coming from two different directions, along with the usual sounds of the forest, covered whatever sounds I made as I moved as fast as I dared. There was still one guy out in the forest with me, aside from the ones on the ATVs, who I could keep track of by sound. I didn't assume Bruno wouldn't wander out into the forest either.

They couldn't be my main concerns, though. Ari was my one and only concern. I needed to get to the house and find him, see him, touch him. I could feel him through the bond, scared but determined. His emotions were nebulous, which was either the newness of the bond or the distance between us, but I didn't like any of the things I felt.

There were new emotions mingled in with the fear and attempted strength I'd gotten from him when we were moving through the forest. I couldn't be sure, but they felt like disgust, indignation, and a fair bit of excitement. They hinted to me that Ari had discovered something at the house, that there was something there that could bring whatever this drug ring was down.

Not for the first time in the last few hours, I wished I had the back-up of my team from Medford. It was infinitely easier to carry out a mission like this when you knew you had other guys monitoring you, ready to send in the cavalry if things got hairy.

I knew what I was doing as I shifted through the undergrowth, trying not to even breathe too loudly, and keeping out of sight of the shipping crates, but I'd never liked working on my own. Everything was on me, and I hated that pressure.

The snap of branches off to my left had me ducking down in an instant, teeth on edge. I'd been too focused on feeling for Ari and hadn't sensed the other guy moving through the trees. I moved behind another tree and peeked out, guns at the ready, to find him in the blend of green and brown. It wasn't helping that the sun had started to set.

Well, it might have helped me to stay hidden. I spotted the guard and could tell immediately that he didn't know I was there. Point in my favor. The trouble was, he was headed straight toward his passed-out, tied-up buddy.

"Shit," I hissed, caught between the risk of one guard discovering the other and the waste of time it would be to go after the second guard to disable him.

In the end, I decided to leave things up to fate. If even the slightest thing went wrong and a single shot were fired, it could spell the end of everything. I'd be dead, and worse, Ari would be stuck in whatever hell he was going through just then.

That decided me. I didn't care about my own life, but if Ari ended up trapped with Clyve and mired in whatever illegal activity the Ingrahams were involved in, the least that would happen to him was that he'd be conveniently dispatched to keep the drug ring a secret. At least I was confident nearly all of the goons were behind me as I hurried through the trees toward the house.

I moved confidently at first, but as soon as I came within clear sight of the house, I nearly tripped over myself in my haste to slow down. Ari was calling out to every cell of my being, but a glint of the sunset against a tiny spot high on the side of the house reminded me there were cameras watching the forest.

I cursed as I crouched down, doing whatever I could to conceal myself from the all-seeing eye of surveillance cameras. I didn't know where they were pointed or what capabilities they had. Bruno hadn't thought much of them, and I didn't see anything that indicated I was dealing with a top-of-the-line system. But that wasn't something I could feel settled about with any confidence. No matter what I did, I was going to be seen at some point.

The increasing buzz of the ATVs seemed to confirm that. I'd been aware of the sound in the back of my mind, but both vehicles had grown closer. They seemed to be close together, wherever they were.

Then came the shouts from the direction where I'd left the goon tied up. Shit. He'd been discovered way too soon. Bruno and his buddies would know Ari hadn't been lying, that there really was someone out there in the forest. That might be good for Ari in the long run, as it gave his story credibility, but it was bad for me.

Again, I felt like speed was of the essence. I needed to get in, get Ari, and run before Bruno's men could get organized enough to find me. I wished I'd felt like my chances of that were good.

Keeping an eye on the one camera I'd seen and looking out for others I hadn't discovered yet, I moved closer to the house. The shouts and calls behind me increased as I did. Maybe that would work to my advantage. It meant the guys with guns were somewhere else.

When I finally reached the edge of the clearing where the house stood, I took another moment to assess the situation. I'd approached it from the back, where there was nothing but dirt and a few windows with their curtains closed. The house was two stories, but a faint glow of light from the basement windows, which sat just at ground level, told me the basement might be furnished.

My earlier assumption that the house was prefab and had been built recently seemed to be confirmed by a few exposed joints, new siding, and wires that ran just under the siding and up some of the walls. I frowned at the wires, assuming they were electrical, or maybe cable or internet. The forest was underdeveloped and pretty much off the grid, so there was probably a large generator somewhere on the other side of the house to power everything.

I'd worry about architecture later, though. Something was wrong with Ari. I could feel fear and revulsion through our bond, and it was strong. It made me want to rend and tear throats and mercilessly draw blood to protect him.

I didn't get that chance. I didn't even get the time to focus in on what Ari was feeling and why. Movement from the side of the house, along with a swell in light that indicated the headlights of more than one car pulling into the driveway had my pulse kicking up all over again.

The shouting behind me took on a different sort of tone. The ATVs fired up again, and within a minute, I heard those vehicles getting closer.

I moved as well. I wasn't going to see what was going on from the back of the house, that much was certain. I didn't want to put myself between the goons and the house either. That meant I had to move way more out into the open than I wanted to as I dashed out of my cover and right up against the house. From there, I inched my way around the far side of the house, trying to keep low and out of sight.

I was lucky to peel around the edge of the house to the side with the generator. The low buzz of power being generated concealed the sounds I made as I crept along to the corner with the front of the house. Or at least as close as I could get. The front and presumably other side of the house had a porch attached, and I didn't want to risk being seen by anyone on the porch.

It was a good thing that I stopped where I did. I had the perfect view of two black sedans stopping and their doors opening in the light of a few floodlights that suddenly lit the growing darkness. I cursed inwardly as four more armed men filled the area, these ones wearing suits, like they were some sort of secret service, meant to secure the area before their VIPs arrived on the scene.

Sure enough, a few moments later, a third car, another black SUV, rolled around the corner and up the drive. I hunched down lower, watching and waiting. I knew hardly anything about Barrington's crime scene, who were the big players, and who the local authorities had on their radar. I doubted I would recognize anyone important if they stepped out of the SUV and headed to the house.

It turned out I was wrong on that count. Two older gentlemen in expensive suits stepped out of the SUV, along with personal guards. One was a tall alpha with a regal bearing and salt-and-pepper hair. I didn't know him. I did know the other one, though, from numerous campaign commercials and from the news. Mayor Keller.

A second after that realization hit me, the house's front door opened and Clyve stepped out onto the porch. "Dad! What are you doing here? You know I've got this." A second later, he added, "Mayor Keller. Er, hello."

A thousand thoughts passed through my head, but the only one I could think of was Ari. Ari was inside the house, still scared, still frantic with determination of some sort. I could feel him like he was right next to me, so close I could reach out and wrap my arms around him. But now not only was his fiancé there, Norman Ingraham had arrived on the scene. I didn't know much, but I knew the amount of danger we were both in had just quadrupled.

I knew it was time for some serious action.