Page 24 of Dominion
“I’m coming,” he said, his voice deeper than normal. He walked a wide arc around the car, as his vision returned to human norm and his teeth receded. He hoped the tightness in his pants would soon ease, too. After a couple of circles around his bewildered employee and the car, he came back to the driver’s seat, climbed in, and slammed the door without looking at Ashley.
She climbed in and buckled her seatbelt.
“I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. “That won’t happen again.”
She turned her head and stared at him, her expression a blank mask. What the hell did she think about all this?
Her phone rang. She dived for her purse, batting the phone out so it came flying up toward her face. She caught it with shaking hands and turned it over, looking at the screen. “It’s them,” she whispered as if they might hear.
“Answer it.”
“H-hello?”
“What happened?” the electronically altered male voice asked.
“Where’s my sister?”
“Your sister’s going to die if you don’t bring that laptop to us. What was that animal at the meeting place?”
“I don’t know—it came after me, too. It chased me into my car and I drove off without seeing where it went.”
A silence followed. Then, “Who have you talked to?”
“No one! Not a soul. I still have the laptop and I want my sister.”
“Be prepared to meet. We’ll call you with the location.”
“Wait—when? What time?”
“Tomorrow night.”
The line clicked off.
She looked up at him and exhaled. “Well, it sounds like she’s still alive.”
Maybe. He wasn’t too sure. The fact that they hadn’t brought her sister out of the car made him think they had no intention of letting either woman walk away.
She plugged her phone into the car charger. He was grateful she had one that worked on both their phones. “Do you think I should call my parents? I mean… they should know they might never see their daughter again.”
“No,” he said, lacing his voice with authority. “That would only endanger your sister.”
He half-expected resistance, but she just nodded. “Ben?”
He liked that she used his first name, even though it was impertinent. “Yeah?” He braced himself for another heavy question.
“I’m hungry.”
His initial relief at this easy-to-solve problem was overshadowed by guilt. He should have known she was starving. What kind of provider was he that he let his mate go hungry?
But no, she wasn’t his mate, nor could she be. He needed to stop thinking of her that way.
“Are you okay with fast food?”
“I’d be okay with dog food at this point,” she muttered.
He saw a sign for a cluster of fast-food restaurants and he took the exit and went into the drive-thru. With her blouse ripped and covered in blood, he couldn’t very well bring her in anywhere.
He ordered their food and paid for it, handing her the bag and getting back on the highway.