PS02 - Without Regret (15 page)

“Sorry,” he mumbled, feeling like an ass.

Ephraim chuckled. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I don’t want to break up this little weird love fest or anything but I have to use the bathroom,” his little mate piped in

suddenly, sounding extremely nervous, but clearly trying to hide it and doing a piss poor job of it.

He shot his father a quick glance. Ephraim simply shrugged. Yeah, really fucking helpful, he thought as he looked back down at

his little mate who was squirming. They really didn’t have time for this shit, but if she had to go it was better that she went now

instead of pissing her pants when she got her first good look at what waited for them.

“Fine, go over to that copse of trees. We’ll wait right here for you,” he said, releasing her arm as he gestured to an area less

than ten feet away that was still visible thanks to the angle of the setting sun.

“Um, that’s not really going to work for me,” she said, taking a huge step away from them as she pushed back a loose strand of

the golden blonde hair that he was starting to like. For years he’d pictured a mate with dark, almost black hair that matched his

own, but this was much better. He liked how her blonde hair seemed to make her green eyes that matched his own sparkle.

“How about over there so I can have some privacy?” she suggested, gesturing to a thick copse of trees a good thirty feet away.

“Why so far away?” Ephraim drawled, leaning lazily against a tree.

“So you can’t hear me?” she said, sounding more like a question.

He shared an amused look with his father. “Sure. Go over there and we’ll wait right here,” he said, holding back a chuckle.

They’d both be able to hear her, but he didn’t think now was the time to explain about Sentinel hearing and his father’s almost

freak-like hearing. He’d rather get this over with so they could get this shit done and move on to the next step.

Her opening her adorable little mouth and spilling all the shit they needed to know to stop this war.

They watched as she walked towards her designated “bathroom” and disappeared behind the thick brush.

Seconds later they were both sighing heavily as they shared a look. Without a word they headed after her and Chris couldn’t

help but wonder if his mate was always going to be this much of a pain in the ass.

Chapter 11

Don’t look back, don’t look back, she thought as she ran through the quickly darkening woods. A few minutes ago she was able

to make out plants and trees, but now that the sun looked like it was finally setting she was having a hell of a time avoiding

running into them.

She couldn’t help but wish that they’d lived in the city.

At least if they were in the city and she was making a mad dash to safety she could at least count on some dim street lights or

better yet people around to scream for help. Not that that always worked, but still it would be a bit of a comfort right about

now to have someone around to ignore her.

If, no scratch that, when she got out of this mess she was destroying her program and never making another illegal program

again no matter how much fun they were to create. She was going to buckle down and focus on the less fun programs that

brought her the attention of stuffy CEO’s and not cult members. She was also buying herself chocolate in every form when she

got out of here, cake, brownies, candy, ice cream, pudding and whatever else she could find and putting herself into a chocolate

coma so that she could forget about this whole stupid experience.

“Damn it!” she snapped when she tripped over a large root and went flying through the air, landing awkwardly on her hands.

She bit her lip, holding back the scream of pain that threatened to escape as pain shot up her broken fingers. They hurt like hell,

but right now was not the time to cry over them. There would be plenty of time for that later, she hoped.

As quietly and as quickly as she could, she got to her feet, careful not to make any more noise, but knew that was pretty much

impossible since she was tearing through foliage, snapping anything and everything that got in her way. They probably already

knew her general location thanks to her fall, but thanks to the now quickly disappearing sun they’d have a hell of a time

pinpointing her exact location, which was all she had going for her right now.

Maybe if she could find some thick brush to hide under until morning she couldAll thoughts of hiding flew out of her head as

she slammed face first into a large solid wall with two small bright glowing red lights and went stumbling back. She barely

had time to prepare herself for the impact when she found herself once again thrown over a large muscular shoulder.

“Let’s go, Munchkin,” Chris said, sounding relaxed and calm while she was desperately trying to catch her breath so she could

tell the bastard to stop calling her that.

“They’re just up ahead,” Ephraim said with that same edge in his tone that he’d had since he joined them at the car, making her

wonder what the hell that Madison woman did to him and how it was going to affect what they decided to do with her. While

she gripped the jerk’s pants to stop herself from bouncing around on his shoulder another fear shot through her. Who were they

meeting in the middle of the night in the woods and why were they insisting on bringing her along instead of just getting rid of

her and dumping the body like she’d expected them to do an hour ago.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Chris?” Ephraim asked as they continued.

“Yeah, it’s the only way,” Chris said, sounding resigned.

“Don’t I get a say in this?” she asked, giving up, for now, on trying to escape and hoping that maybe she could talk some sense

into them since it was painfully obvious, at least to her, that she was not going to be able to escape these two.

“Nope,” Chris said, making the word pop as he petted her ass, again.

“Look,” she said, forcing herself to ignore the ass petting, “I promise I will not say anything if you just put me down now and

let me go. I swear I’ll just walk away and forget any of this ever happened and I won’t say anything to the police about what

your cult did to me. I promise I’ll-“

Chris stopped his fast pace through the woods so suddenly that she lost her grip on the waist of his pants and slammed face first

into the small of his back.

“Cult?” he demanded, sounding disgusted. “What the hell are you talking about, Munchkin?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Ephraim said, sounding as though he was walking towards them, but with her face still

plastered against Chris’ back it was kind of hard to tell.

“Well?” Chris demanded, hefting her off his shoulder and dropping her to her feet before she realized what he was doing,

making her stumble before she caught herself. She was really getting sick of being manhandled, but now was not the time to

complain.

Now was the time to talk her way to freedom.

“Would you prefer religious group?” she asked, not really caring what they called themselves as long as they let her go.

“Religious group?” Ephraim repeated in disgust as he joined Chris to glare down at her. “Exactly what do you think is going on

here?” he demanded in a hard tone of authority that clearly stated he expected to be answered and if she wasn’t scared out of

her mind she’d probably be able to come up with a smart ass remark that would irritate the hell out of him the way she had with

that FBI agent the other night.

Unfortunately for her she was scared, really scared and she had no idea what the hell she should do. If she gave up her program

they’d have no reason to keep her alive and if she didn’t there was a very good chance that they’d probably just kill her,

thinking that they’d find her work, but they wouldn’t. Maybe if she let them know they needed her without any real plans to give

up her work they wouldn’t kill her.

“If you kill me you’ll never find my programs,” she blurted out, wincing when she realized what she’d done.

She planned on working her way up to it, explaining it with finesse even though she wasn’t exactly known for her ability to talk

her way out of really big problems like this one, not that she’d ever been a life threatening situation before, but”Why in the hell

do you think we’re going to kill you?”

Chris barked, looking decidedly more pissed off. “You’re my goddamn mate, Munchkin. It’s my job to protect you.”

you.”

“Now, when you say mate….,” she prompted, not really trusting that they wouldn’t kill her and be done with it once they

realized how stubborn she could be.

“He means you’re his wife,” Ephraim said dryly.

Chris gave her a firm nod of agreement. He didn’t look happy about it, which was insulting and really confusing the hell out of

her since he was the one that picked her and not the other way around. Not that this was a marriage in any way, but still……

She took a step back, a subtle one, but a much needed one to put some space between her and the huge men glaring down at her.

“Umm, so exactly how many wives do you have?”

“Why in the hell would you think I had more than one wife?” Chris demanded, frowning.

“Because she thinks we’re a cult,” Ephraim supplied dryly.

“Religious group,” she corrected quietly, earning an eye roll and a few choice words that had her shrugging sheepishly. “Sorry,

I’m not up on the cult lingo. You’ll have to cut me some slack here,” she snapped, wishing she hadn’t raised her voice to the

two heavily armed big men the instant the words left her mouth.

Maybe the psychologist they made her see when she was fifteen was right and she really did have a problem with keeping her

mouth shut. That kind of made her feel bad for that little virus that she uploaded onto his computer when he suggested taking

away her computer for a few months.

“You’re my only mate,” Chris bit out, not sounding pleased about it at all.

“No, I’m not and I don’t want to be,” she snapped. Then took a calming breath and continued at what she hoped was a

friendlier tone. “You really don’t need to kidnap woman. You’re a decent looking man,” hotter than hell, she corrected

mentally, “and I’m sure you have some very nice qualities-“

“Please stop. You’re making me blush,” Chris drawled flatly.

“-that would make some woman very happy. Just not me,” she finished, ignoring the interruption and hoping she gave him

something to think about.

“I’m sorry, Munchkin, but I’m afraid there will never be anyone for me but you,” he admitted with a careless shrug before

adding, “and no else for you but me.”

“Are you crazy?” she demanded, regretting her slip immediately. Of course he was crazy. He lived in a commune where

everyone’s relatives and spouses were picked at random.

“No, but now’s not the time to discuss how badly you want me. We have a job to do after all,” he said, not giving her a chance

to respond as he physically turned her around and gave her a swat on her ass to get her to move.

“Real smooth,” Ephraim drawled.

“Thanks,” Chris said brightly, earning an over the shoulder glare from her that only managed to earn her another swat on the

ass. Gasping, she turned around and increased her pace, hoping to get the hell away from Chris and his roaming hand, because

heaven help her, she was really starting to like it and right now she needed to focus.

Maybe if she made a run for it again she might luck out this time and”There they are,” Chris suddenly said, startling her.

Wondering what the hell he was talking about, she looked around several times until she spotted what looked like a tiny orange

glow flickering through a small opening in a thick wall of foliage.

“Who are they?” she asked, hoping they hadn’t noticed her voice cracking.

“That, my little munchkin is one of the reasons you and I were placed on this earth,” he said as he nudged her to keep moving.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she whispered harshly as she felt her heart pound in her chest.

Whatever the two of them had planned for her was about to happen and she was helpless to stop it.

Why the hell had she agreed to that meeting in the park? It felt like years ago that she was walking along the deserted street to a

meeting she knew she should never have agreed to instead of just this morning.

“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded, close to tears.

“It will be fine,” Chris said firmly, giving her another nudge.

Tears streamed down her face as she stopped moving, too afraid to keep going and seeing what they had planned for her.

“Please,” she said, putting everything into that one word.

Chris was silent and for a moment she thought that maybe she’d gotten through to him, but the second his hand landed on the

small of her back she knew she’d failed. “This is for your own good, Munchkin. You’ll understand soon enough,” he said,

pushing her forward.

“Chris,-” Ephraim started, sounding unsure, making her wonder if she could change his mind and convince him to let her go.

“This is my decision,” he said firmly. “It’s the only way.”

“Fine,” Ephraim said, sighing heavily. “Just make sure she comes home in one piece or Madison will kick both of our asses.”

“Not a problem,” Chris said, grabbing her shoulders and moving her forward when she tried to stop.

She dug her heels in hard, fighting him as he easily moved her forward. “Don’t do this!” she said, trying to twist around and