Chapter Nineteen
Evan waited for Lark to say something, but she didn’t. He rolled through the red light so he didn’t lose momentum, hanging a sharp right onto the road.
“Baby?”
“Take me home.”
He bit off a growl. “I can’t do that. I told you that someone dangerous is following us. I...shit.”
“What?”
In the rearview, he saw Javan’s SUV turn right to follow him, then get slammed from the side by a big pickup. The SUV skidded across the intersection and toppled into the ditch. Several more trucks turned onto the road, one stopping to pick up the people from the truck that had hit the SUV.
“Our escort was just taken out. Shit, shit.” He fumbled on the screen to find Joss’s number, but when he pressed the button to call him, it didn’t go through. “Fuck. Can you use your phone?”
“What?” she asked, her voice going high as she clutched the door.
He picked up his phone from the cup holder, and the screen showed no service. He glanced in the rearview and saw the trucks gaining on him.
“They must be using a signal jammer. Check your phone.”
Her hands were trembling as she took her phone from her purse. “I don’t have service.”
“Damn it. Damn it!” He slammed his palm on the steering wheel. He didn’t know what to do. How could he keep Lark safe when he didn’t know where the hell he was? He pressed the Home button on the GPS to get directions to the park, but it buffered and then the screen froze.
Shit, they must be jamming the Bluetooth. He didn’t know that was even possible.
The road widened to four lanes, and he floored it, passing through a small town and blazing past a stoplight. It wasn’t that late, but although someone honked their horn at him, he didn’t have trouble getting through.
“Evan, you’re scaring me! Stop!” Lark shouted.
His hands tightened on the wheel. “Did you hear me? I told you that we’re in danger.”
“I heard you being an asshole and lying to me. And now you’re trying to kill me. For fucks sake, let me out!”
He let out a deep, angry growl, and she whimpered and shrank against the door. His wolf was furious that she thought he was trying to hurt her.
“I’m not trying to kill you, Lark. The guys following us are dangerous. I can’t stop, or I’ll put you in more danger. My wolf is going nuts trying to figure out how to keep us both safe right now. You’re safer with me.”
“I don’t think so.”
He hung a sharp right, hoping to get away from the trucks. Lark shrieked as the SUV rocked a little with the turn. “Sorry, I’m trying to get far enough away for their signal jammer to stop working so I can let my people know where we are.” At least Joss and others from the park knew where they’d gotten off the parkway and could catch up to them. Hopefully.
“Just let me go, Evan. Please.”
The road seemed to be going away from civilization as they headed into the Pinelands. Had he made a mistake? He looked in the rearview as he heard the roar of engines drawing closer.
Fucking think. What to do?
The engines grew louder. He had his foot to the floor, and the scenery was whipping by so fast it was a blur. But the trucks were still gaining on them.
One of the trucks passed him and swerved in front of him. The truck didn’t hit its brakes, but it slowed down, and Evan had to jam his foot on the brake. A second truck was on his left so he couldn’t go around the first one, which left the side of the road and the woods.
“Hold on,” he told Lark.
He jerked the wheel to the right and the SUV lurched, leaving the pavement and slamming front wheels-first into the dirt. Lark screamed as he narrowly missed splitting the SUV in two with a tree.
Slamming the SUV into park, he undid her seatbelt and reached for her door handle.
“Baby? Run. I’ll keep them busy. Just run as fast as you can.”
He saw a shadow out of the corner of his eye and didn’t have time to react. Something heavy swung at Lark’s window and it shattered. She screamed and covered her head. A male reached for her, and Evan snarled, letting his claws out and swiping at the male’s hands. Evan undid his seatbelt and grabbed for Lark, but she was pulled from his grip through the window. She shrieked as her back was cut from the broken glass.
Evan’s whole world narrowed to what was happening.
His mate was in trouble, and he was the only one who could save her.
Calling for his wolf as the males from the trucks got out and came for him, he shoved his jeans down his legs to free them and shifted, sailing through the broken window and letting out a deep howl of fury.
No one touched his mate.
* * *
What the hell was happening?
Lark struggled in the strong arms of a stranger, her back aching sharply from where it had been cut as she was dragged from the SUV. The hand over her mouth was clamped so tight she couldn’t even open her jaws a tiny bit to try to bite it. Breath huffed from her nose as she kicked, but her feet were off the ground and not allowing her any purchase.
Where the hell was Evan?
A handful of guys were stalking toward the SUV, and she couldn’t miss their amber eyes. Or the fangs peeking from their parted lips. Or the dark claws on their fingers.
Evan moved in the SUV, and she saw him stripping? What the ever-loving hell was going on?
Then he changed. She froze, not struggling anymore, as the guy she was mostly-sort-of in love with ceased to be human and turned into a wolf.
Nope. Hell nope.
There was no way she’d just seen that.
Her eyes stung, so she blinked, and if she’d blinked any more than a heartbeat, she would’ve missed the wolf sailing out of the SUV right for her and the man holding her.
Wolf Evan dove low and between her legs, and she saw a flash of claws before the man holding her dropped her with an anguished grunt. She hit the ground and gasped in a deep breath, her chest heaving. She scrambled to her hands and knees and tried to crawl away.
He’d told her to run. That they were in trouble.
He’d also told her he was a wolf, and she hadn’t believed him, but here he was.
She couldn’t head toward the road because the other guys were making their way to Evan, who was attacking the man who’d grabbed her from the SUV. She looked over her shoulder and shuddered at what she saw. Wolf Evan had just torn the throat out of the guy who’d grabbed her.
Changing direction, she rose to her feet to run into the woods. She couldn’t get to the road because of the guys coming for them, but she sure as hell could run into the woods and hide.
Hide from everyone, even the guy who’d been a wolf the whole time she’d known him and hadn’t once told her. He’d kept a really serious thing from her.
Shit! Focus, damn it!
She didn’t get far, someone tackling her to the ground and sending a wave of pain through her arm as she hit sharp rocks and sticks.
“Going somewhere?” a man said, his hot breath dragging over her skin like wet fingers.
“Let me go!”
She tried to elbow him, tried to wiggle from his hold, but no matter how she moved, she couldn’t stop him from dragging her to her feet, one arm twisted high and tight behind her back and making it impossible for her to get free.
A loud, furious growl shot fear straight through her.
“I’ll kill her,” the man holding her said.
“Let go of me!” Lark shouted.
The man swung her around, and she had a dizzying, head-spinning moment before her vision cleared and she saw Wolf Evan, muzzle red with blood and fangs bared.
The other men circled around behind Evan, and whether he realized he was being ganged up on or not, she didn’t know. “Behind you!” she shouted, then kicked back with her right leg, grazing the man’s knee and doing absolutely nothing to weaken his hold on her.
He responded by twisting her arm even harder behind her back, making her bow forward and cry out.
How had she gotten in the middle of this fight?
What was going to happen to her?