When she faced the room full of people again, she was mildly surprised to see bottles of water by her pack. And Vlad already in his coat, car keys in hand.
To Alexis, he said, “You have my cell number. Keep us updated. We’ll take the same direction, but I’ll need you to relay any changes the Trackers pick up.”
She nodded. “You want me to send a few more with you?”
“Send whoever you can spare. No idea how many he’s got with him.” He glanced at Rose as she slipped on her coat and pulled the backpack over her shoulders, then asked Alexis, “Are my brothers involved? I just found out my people lost track of them earlier today. Do you still have them under surveillance?”
Alexis glanced away, frowning when she said, “They ditched the people we had tailing them, too. We haven’t seen them since you arrived at the compound. We don’t know where they are, or what they’re doing right now.”
Vlad cursed.
Rose wanted to curse as well, but somehow she couldn’t summon any words. Too much anger and desperation clogged her throat. She tucked the unloaded 9mm into her coat pocket, then picked up both rifles, and without a word, she and Vlad headed to the parking lot and their rental car.
Alexis, Victor, and two Trackers followed them.
“We’ll let you know as soon as we get information,” Alexis said. “We uncovered who they were a lot quicker than they could have anticipated, so they aren’t that far ahead of us. You’ll get her back.”
Rose swallowed hard but didn’t comment. Her mind had gone quiet, only instinct and determination left.
And rage. A holy storm of rage.
They were on the highway heading southwest when Vlad’s cell binged with a text. Since he was driving, Rose looked at it. “The Trackers just reported.” She frowned. “The bastards who took Zoe have gone to ‘the Mate Run area.’ What does that mean?”
“Fuck,” Vlad growled. “They’ve taken her deep into an area of the mountains where we hold Mate Runs on this coast. It’s difficult to get back to, so there are almost never any humans in the area.”
“Why take her there?” She swallowed as she imagined the worst and tried hard not to think about that possibility.
Vlad didn’t answer but his hands flexed on the steering wheel, his knuckles going white as he gripped hard.
“Vlad, this isn’t some…some perverse thing, is it? Please tell me we’re not dealing with a pedophile?” That was almost as bad as the worst possible outcome—the outcome she didn’t dare even think.
He shook his head. “Lei has never shown any taste for children.”
“Then why are they taking her to the place you do Mate Runs?”
“I can only guess it’s because it’s isolated, no one around to see or interfere with…anything.”
“Oh, God.” She started praying harder than she’d ever prayed in her life. She promised God she’d go back to mass if He just got Zoe out of this alive. She promised to confess and do a thousand Hail Mary’s. She promised she’d do anything if He just kept Zoe safe. She texted Alexis back,
Are the Trackers still following them?
A minute passed.
Yes, but haven’t caught up yet. Following their scent trail into the forest now.
Rose told Vlad what Alexis said.
“Good. They’ll know they’re being followed and won’t want to stop moving while the Trackers are so close. I don’t think Lei planned on being found out. He’ll be working out an excuse for his presence but won’t want to get caught before he’s in a position to make the story believable.”
“Meaning?”
“He can’t afford to be found with Zoe.”
“That means he and his associate have to split up. That’ll stretch the Trackers, maybe send them in the wrong direction. They can’t feel Zoe. What if the men just…leave her somewhere and lead the Trackers off?”
“They can’t feel her, but they’ll be able to smell her. Besides, she’s not going to just stay where her kidnappers leave her.”
“She’s just a baby. She doesn’t have her coat or snow boots. It’s freezing up here. If they let her go and she runs away, she’ll be lost without food or warmth. Oh, Vlad.” Panic tightened her throat again and her stomach churned with worry. She wanted to throw up, to scream, to move faster. She wanted to wake up from this nightmare.
“We’ll get her back, Rose. I promise. We’re not far behind them.”
They climbed into the mountains, taking dirt roads that barely looked like tracks. When they couldn’t risk taking the rental car any farther without it getting stuck, Vlad parked in the middle of the road. “Not likely to be any other cars up this way.”
“I don’t see signs of the car they took Zoe in.”
“Probably had an off-road vehicle. See the tracks?”
She squinted to where the car’s headlights reflected off the snow and realized there were tracks still visible.
“There’s a place a few miles up from here where we leave our cars when we come in for a Run. They likely parked there.”
“A few miles? Jesus. That puts us even farther behind. We’ll never catch up.”
“The Trackers are up there somewhere, too, remember.”
Rose climbed out of the car and took a moment to get her bearings as she slipped on her gloves—tight leather ones that wouldn’t interfere with her ability to fire the rifle. Snow crunched gently beneath her boots, soft and ankle deep. The air was crisp, making her breath visible. The night filled in the area under the trees, though the snow gave a very faint glow thanks to the car’s lights. When they got away from the car, they’d be hiking in complete darkness.
“I didn’t bring a flashlight,” she said as she pulled out her backpack. “I hope your night vision is as good as a real tiger’s.”
“It is. Maybe better. Stick close.”
She slid the two hunting rifles out from under the back seat and handed one across to Vlad at the opposite door. Then she filled her coat pockets with additional bullets for her rifle and handed Vlad more ammunition for his. She left the handgun behind, under the front seat, because it would do her little good out here in the forest.
He looked at the weapon in his hands. “I’ll be of more use as a tiger,” he said. “I’m not the crack shot you are. But we won’t be able to talk if I shift, so I’ll wait until it becomes necessary. When I do, are you okay with both guns?”
She nodded.
“Let’s get moving.”
She settled her backpack over her shoulders. The pack was heavy with water, extra clothes, food, and ammunition, but nothing she hadn’t hiked with before. She stared into the forest as Vlad led the way, her every nerve ending straining toward her daughter, somewhere in these trees.
I’m coming, baby
, she thought, and then went back to praying as they started the climb.
Vlad’s senses were stretched as far as he was able, looking for any sign of their quarry. He picked up the trail of a Tracker a half mile in and turned to follow. Rose was a silent presence at his back. Her comfort with hiking and her experience hunting made this a lot easier.
The scent of her fear and anger was so strong and pungent it was like a blaring red halo of light around her. A halo that smelled of forest fires and gasoline. His own fear and anger matched hers, creating a complicated mix of scents he had to force himself to ignore so he could focus on picking up signs of Zoe. She could be anywhere in this forest, and without being able to feel her like he would another tiger, he had to use his other senses.
After an hour, he picked up the presence of a tiger, roughly a quarter mile north of their position. He paused to scent to breeze. Another Tracker. Circling toward them.
He angled in the general direction the Tracker was coming from while still moving forward, hunting the area for signs of little footprints. When the Tracker caught up to them, he was in human form, but naked so he had obviously been hunting in tiger form. The man was vaguely familiar, his scent and his human form, and Vlad realized he was one of the Trackers who’d been guarding them on the way into the compound when they’d first arrived. That made things easier since they didn’t need to waste time confirming identities.
“One of my guys has picked up Jameson’s scent going farther east,” the Tracker said, “but Lei has left the area. We lost him about an hour ago and haven’t picked up his scent since.”
“Zoe?”
“We keep catching hints of her, but not being able to sense her isn’t helping.”
“Which direction?”
“Last point we caught her scent was another quarter mile that way.” He pointed the direction they were heading.
“Any…” Vlad glanced back at Rose. He didn’t actually want to say this out loud, but he wanted to know if Zoe’s scent indicated whether she was hurt or not.
The Tracker seemed to understand. “Pure scent. Nothing else.”
He spoke vaguely, obviously equally reluctant to talk about the three-year-old being injured in front of her terrified mother.
“She was still with Jameson as far as we could tell,” he finished. “I’ll update you if I find anything.”
Vlad nodded and continued forward as the Tracker started to shift back to tiger. Rose stayed with Vlad, not looking back.
“Zoe’s not hurt?”
He grimaced. “You picked up on that?”
“I’m not stupid. And I know you care about her. I was about to ask that very question when you did.”
“Sorry. Just didn’t want to scare you.”
“I’m already scared. Can’t get any worse and there’s nothing you can say that I’m not already imagining—or trying not to imagine.”
He dropped back to put an arm around her waist and hug her to his side for a brief moment. “She’s okay so far—alive and uninjured. She’s going to be fine.”
Rose nodded but didn’t look at him. Her gaze traveled over the trees and ground, looking for signs of her daughter in the darkness. She couldn’t possibly see very well at this time of night. The moon was full overhead, so when they came out into clearings, the snow sparkled with enough light for human eyes. But under the trees, the ambient light was barely enough for him.
They trudged on, the night getting colder as they went. He couldn’t help but think of Zoe without a coat or boots and only hoped the assholes who took her had seen fit to give her something warm to wear. Because they hadn’t just killed her, Vlad had to assume they didn’t want her dead. He couldn’t think of any other reason to kidnap her.
They’d gone another mile when he caught a sound echoing from somewhere to the north—a hiss followed by a human yowl. Without thinking he took off through the trees, running in human form at top shifter speed. He realized too late that he’d left Rose in the dark without a guide, but he knew she’d have told him to get to Zoe fast and not worry about her.
He broke out of the trees at the edge of small stream, shallow and frozen solid. He hunted around. He could feel another tiger, and he caught the scent of blood. When he saw a crumpled form a few hundred yards away, he felt his heart stop. He raced to the body.
Chapter Sixteen
Vlad reached the body in a flash, only to realize the writhing person on the ground was Nick Jameson.
The shock of relief was so profound, it took Vlad a moment to focus on the scene.
Jameson was groaning and holding his crotch. “Little bitch bit me.” His voice was harsh and gravelly.
Vlad raised his brows, then snapped them down. “What were you doing that made her bite your dick?”
“Nothing,” he gasped.
Vlad stepped on the hand that Jameson still held over his cock and pressed into the already injured area. Jameson screamed.
“What were you doing?” he asked again, his voice very quiet.
“No…not like that. She shifted suddenly. Then attacked me.” He groaned again as Vlad dug his foot in. “Telling the truth. Stop.”
“You kidnapped a three-year-old and took her into the forest. This isn’t half the pain I want to cause you. Where did she go?” Even as he asked, he scented the air, hunting for her. He caught a faint whiff swirling around a few feet up the frozen stream.
“Don’t know. Ah! Stop. I didn’t see. I’m bleeding. Get the fuck off!”
Vlad felt another shifter approaching and turned to face the newcomer without actually moving his foot from Jameson’s injured groin. To his surprise, he also picked up Rose’s scent with the approaching tiger.
When the tiger cleared the trees, Vlad realized why he smelled Rose, too. She was riding the Tracker’s back, her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs pulled up tight to his sides. She had the rifle pressed between her leg and arm and the tiger’s body with the muzzle pointed backward.
She slipped from his back, dropped to her knees, and then climbed up, rolling the rifle into position. She approached Jameson with the barrel pointed at his head. Very purposefully, she pumped the lever. The sound was loud in the still darkness.
“Where’s my daughter?” Her voice was a growl to rival any tiger’s.
“Don’t know.”
She set the muzzle against his forehead. “Where is my daughter?” She enunciated each word slowly and carefully.
Vlad’s heart thumped hard with so much love and fierce pride it almost pushed back the fear dogging him. He dug his foot in a little deeper. “She won’t hesitate to shoot. Don’t try her.”
“She ran into the trees, okay,” Jameson said.
“Why did you bring her here?” Rose asked.
Jameson had the bad sense to glower at her, a slight smirk pulling at his mouth. “She’s unnatural, an abomination pretending to be a tiger. If she’s a real shifter, she’ll have no problem surviving in this forest.”
Vlad dropped down, putting his knee in the man’s groin, hard, and his nose in the man’s face. Rose moved the rifle enough to give him room, but it still rested against Jameson’s temple.
“You brought her out here to leave her?” Vlad growled.
“A test. Only a true tiger could pass.”
“She’s three years old,” Rose said. “She’s a baby. And you were going to abandon her in the woods.” Her voice dropped to a vicious hiss on the last word.
Vlad’s own outrage took hold and his tiger roared in his head. He gripped Jameson’s head and snapped his neck in one swift move.
When he stepped off, Rose settled the rifle against Jameson’s forehead and fired. The .44 Magnum bullet turned the top of his head into a bloody mess. She pumped the lever and fired again.