Chapter 172

[ 1,494 words ]

Ransom

“I should go in with you,” Elliot tries for the fifth time since we pulled the jeep away from our territory.

“No. They won’t feel comfortable with you in the background giving them a serial killer stare.”

He pouts, the look drawing out a cuteness that would have other people giving him a double take.

“No.”

His eyes get bigger, rounder.

I sigh. “I won’t change my mind. But if you behave yourself, you’ll get a prize once I’m done.”

“You’re my prize,” he says stubbornly, his hand clenches against my thigh. “What kind of male do you take me for, expecting me to just let you walk into a situation that could be unsafe?”

“I expect you to trust me.” Is it a low blow? Yeah, it is, but with Elliot you have to know when to pull and when to push.

Today is a push day.

“I do trust you b—

I put my finger to his lips. “Sp then trust me to take care of myself of something goes wrong.” I can feel his muscles tenseing as his wolf flashes in his eyes. “And trust that I’ll call out to you if I need help.”

He nips my finger softly. “This would be a lot easier if we bonded.”

Elliot’s been increasingly adamant on us fully bonding. I haven’t told him no. I told him I’m not ready.

A bond is permanent. Final.

It means that I’m giving him more than my commitment, I’m physically binding our souls together.

You would think that loving him makes this easier, but it doesn’t.

Not when your used to everything you love being taken away from you.

Right now everything is good.

It’s safe.

But what if the moment I reach for more, life takes it away from me.

At least if we’re not bonded, Elliot has the option to walk away and start over.

But I don’t tell him that.

I change the subject. “I’m going to go in now and you’re going to wait here and only come in if and when I call for you.”

His eyes narrow. “You know I won’t let you get away from this conversation forever.”

I lean in and kiss him firmly, deeply. He kisses me back, eating at my mouth with a desperate fervor that tells me this is just as much of a punishment for dodging the question as it is him being unwilling to refuse me.

I kiss him until I start to reconsider going inside the mechanic shop in favor of some parking lot fun.

Luckily, my logic is still fully intact.

I pull away. “Be right back.”

Slipping out before he can argue some more, I head across the street and inside the mechanic shop, Lance started after leaving the Hunters behind.

When I reached out to him he wasn’t exactly thrilled about me contacting him, but he didn’t turn me away either.

As positive of a sign as I could have hopped for really.

The bell on the door rings announcing my presence.

A petite little red head looks up from the counter. “Welcome. What can we help you with?”

“I’m looking for Lance, he knows I was getting him today.”

“Oh you must be Ransom, Lance’s friend.” Okay so that’s what we’re going with. “Hi I’m Kelsey.”

She reaches down and picks up a baby that can’t be more than ten months old with a look of maternal love and pride on her face.

“And this is Cole.”

“Hey Kelsey. Hey there little man. You must of gotten you good looks from you mom be your dad is one ugly—”

“Not even here two minutes and you’re already bashing my name,” Lace says walking towards me, wiping his hand on a rag.

Lances smile is tight and I can see why.

Not only have I met his girl, but now I know he has a son. When we were hunters personal information was a weapon to be used against each other.

Old habits die hard.

He looks at Kelsey. “I told you to head home. You’ve worked enough for the day.”

“I didn’t want to leave you alone,” she says oblivious to his tension.

“Don’t worry about me. I called Carl and he’s on his way.”

“Are you sure,” she asks.

“Of course I am. Go and get Cole down for a nap. I’ll be home by six,” he urges, his eyes flicking to me.

“Alright,” she says, wrinkling her nose.

She puts their son in a car seat and picks it up.

“Five me a minute while I help strap him in, ” he says.

I wave him off. “Take your time. Make sure Cole is strapped in tight. Oh and if you are a big angry blonde man staring out of a car, that’s just my husband. He’s pouting right now.”

Lance gives me a look and I know he understands.

Kelsey laughs. “Shit is he in the dog house?”

“He definitely is a dog,” I smirk.

Lance’s shoulders tighten. He quickly guides her out.

I wait there looking around at the shop. He’s made a decent life for himself. And though we weren’t best friends we were peers and I understand what it’s like to rebuild your life.

I understand the weight and the guilt he carries for the things he’s done.

The things we’ve all done.

Lance walks back in.

“I take it Kelsey isn’t privy to your past,”

“No. And it needs to stay that way.” He walks up a set of stairs into his office and I follow him.

I take a quick look around narrowing down the exit route just in case shots hit the fan and then take a seat.

“You know it’s not going to work right?”

He scrunches his face. “What are you talking about?”

“Lying to her. It could bite you in the ass.” I fiddle with a paperweight on the small table in front of me.

“It’s better if she doesn’t know,” Lance asserts.

I shrug. “Sure. Your house I guess.”

“I don’t want to be a dick but—”

“You don’t want me here,” I finish for him, pinning him with my eyes.

He sighs, his shoulder caving in. “Look I appreciate what you did for us…what the wolves did but I’ve got a new life now. A family. I can’t risk my past touching what I have. If you’re here, trouble must be following you.”

I smile. “Glad to see not all your instincts have died. But you’re wrong, trouble isn’t following me,” I lean forward. “I’m hunting it.”

“What the hell has that got to do with me?”

“Don’t be coy. You may be out but you’re not deaf. You’re still in the network, I wouldn’t have come to you otherwise.”

“I don’t have anything to do with—”

I hold up my hand. “Save it. We both know you keep your ear to the ground. It’s smart. We know better than anyone that information is what keeps you safe.”

The muscle in his jaw ticks. “Are you here about the shifter shows?”

My body tenses at the way he says shifter. There is a disassociation in the word, a sense of them being other that brings me dangerously close to the hunters beliefs.

“How much do you know?” I ask, keeping my voice even.

“Not much. They’re taking shifters, making a sort of black market or at least trying to.”

The black beast of my rage starts to rear its head.

I raise my brow. “Do I need to make you give me more information or are you going to offer it?”

I know he hears the threat.

“It’s mostly snuff films but a few of the guys have reached out to a few of us trying to tempt us with selling them for entertainment or to scientists for experiments. No one took them up on the offer as far as I know.”

“No one came to us either.” My goes cold, soft, deadly. “No one tried to warn us.”

“We weren’t trying to get dragged back into anything,” he says

“At what cost? Those shifters being taken, they’re innocent! Mother’s daughters, fathers sons. They have people who love them and they’re being slaughtered like animals.”

He flinches, having the decency to show remorse.

I don’t let up. “Those are also the people who could have killed you for what you did to them, but they chose peace and they stayed their hand. They gave you a second chance and you ever pay them by turning a blind eye? I wonder how many of you truly said no.”

“i can’t answer for everyone but I would never side with them and I believe most of us won’t either. We know they are not anything we thought they were.”

“I truly hope that’s the case because biting the hand that feeds you can lead to consequences. And this time neither me or Hazel will step into vouch for your lives.”

“I understand.” The chastised look on his face doesn’t mollify me.

“Good. Spread the word. Those who don’t stand with us won’t be our concern if and when they’re ever targeted.”

“No one is sure how they know about us,” he offers.

“But you have suspicions,” I guess.

“There are those who believe that not all of the assembly members died that day.”

“And why would they think that?”

“Beau, I said that he was out at the lumber yard a few months back and he was sure that he saw Kane.”

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