71. Eva

Taylor Swift sang about douchey boyfriends while I hummed along as I chopped vegetables for tonight's stew. We were all pretty fed up with venison at this point, but there was so much of the damned stuff in the massive chest freezer in the barn that it seemed wasteful not to use it. Cole thought the pass over the mountain would reopen any day now the thaw had finally arrived.

The roads in the valley far below had been clear for a while, but it took longer for the snow to disappear this far up the mountain.

Spring was on the way; I could feel it in the air.

Just this morning, while out searching for berries, I'd spotted a few green buds peeking through. I couldn't wait to see what the forest looked like without a thick blanket of fluffy snow everywhere.

I smiled when I thought back to the day I first arrived here. Back then, all I could think about was escaping and heading to the city. I'd stupidly believed Brent wouldn't find me. I should have known better. Brent would always have found me. He was too damned motivated.

Tanner had uncovered all kinds of horrors while searching through various tech items recovered from Carlos's estate. The shifter fight ring had been running for months, with girls stolen from packs all over North America.

With Tanner's help, the FBI team working the case had located most of the girls, and the few still missing would likely be found soon.

Thank God Lily and Jessa were safe and back at home, where they belonged. Knowing Lily, she'd have ended up in all kinds of trouble if Tanner hadn't rescued her that night. The girl didn't know when to shut up.

She'd been bugging Tanner about setting up a fighting club. Every day, she sent him messages with new ideas. He bitched about how much of his time she took up, but I knew he liked the idea.

To be honest, I thought it would do Lily good. She needed something to focus on. As much as she claimed she was unaffected by her kidnapping ordeal, I saw how haunted she was when she thought nobody was paying attention. Jessa too.

The girls had been spending a lot of time together while Jessa's father, the Misty Falls Alpha, helped Rufus deal with the fallout of Carlos's trafficking ring.

Carlos was still on the run. Nobody had seen him since the night the shifters stormed his estate. Rufus's guys had found a hidden tunnel leading from a small storeroom on a lower level. They believed this was how he escaped since it came out in an old barn a mile away from the main house. Tire tracks indicated he'd had a vehicle stored there, which meant he could be anywhere by now.

Even overseas if he had a fake ID, which Tanner said was likely.

One thing we knew for sure was that his former comrades were unlikely to help him stay hidden. The FBI had arrested most of them in a wide-ranging sweep.

Carlos had been dumb enough to retain all kinds of useful and interesting information on an encrypted server, which Tanner took no time at all to hack into.

With so much evidence against Carlos and his criminally inclined buddies, once he reappeared, he was going down for a long time.

It was only a matter of when.

Every shifter in the area was on the lookout for him. And if one of them caught him before the FBI, he wouldn't last long.

Not that I cared.

He'd been partly responsible for all my trauma. If it wasn't for his help, Brent would have had fewer resources at his disposal. With Carlos's help, he had connected with a buyer looking for a girl like me, a girl so damaged she wouldn't fight back.

Brent's plan had been to sell me all along. He would have made a fortune from selling my virginity, only I'd escaped before he could hand me over to the buyer. The only reason he waited until I turned 18 was because a minor disappearing would have attracted more attention.

Brent and his corrupt cop friends had been working for Carlos for years. They turned a blind eye to Carlos's unsavory activities, and in return, they enjoyed cash rewards, access to girls, drugs, and more.

I still didn't know why Brent targeted me in the first place, but it was most likely because I had nobody. Not that I thought about Brent much now. I was determined to forget about him. He'd stolen too many years from me already. It was time to move on and enjoy my new life.

A life where I was loved and cherished, treated like a queen.

A life I chose.

I added the vegetables to the enormous pan containing the pan-fried meat, added stock and herbs, and then put the lid back on. After simmering for a few hours, the meat would be tender enough to fall apart.

All I needed to do now was peel some potatoes and then I could relax for a bit. Cole had promised to make a dessert when he got back from his run.

He was much better at cooking than me, so I always left the more complicated stuff to him. Chopping veggies I could do, but baking anything other than cookies was not in my skill-set.

I washed my hands at the sink and folded the apron I'd been wearing, placing it on the stool by the counter. Silas had disappeared to fix something in the barn and Tanner had gone to see Rufus, so that meant I had a bit of time to myself.

There was a book I wanted to read, so I planned to make a drink and then sit by the fire for a bit. It felt kind of lazy to do nothing productive, but the guys kept reminding me I still needed extra rest after my ordeal.

They weren't wrong. While I was feeling OK physically, nightmares woke me up most nights, which affected my sleep. An hour on the sofa, reading a swoony romance, wouldn't hurt.

With a milky coffee in hand, I wandered through into the living room to grab my book. The sound of the back door opening made me look up. Surely Cole wasn't back yet? He'd only left 30 minutes ago, and he was usually gone for an hour or more.

"Cole?" I called. No reply. Cole? Still no reply.

A spike of anxiety flared in my chest.

Silas? Again, no response. Since I knew Silas was only in the barn, something must have happened.

Anxiety exploded into full-blown terror when a man stalked into the kitchen, a demented look on his face.

A face I'd seen many times over the years because he'd been a frequent visitor at Brent's house since I turned 16. I just hadn't known who he was until Tanner showed me a photo from a file the FBI had compiled.

Carlos Carelli.

The mug of coffee in my hand slipped through my fingers, crashing to the floor. Hot liquid splashed my bare legs, burning my skin. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out.

"Hello Eva, you look well, my dear."