I breathed a sigh of relief and stuffed the Glock back into my holster. “Adrenaline overload, but other than that, I’m unscathed.”
The night air gusted through my open window as Aren picked up the speed. The Los Angeles freeway traffic was much lighter than when we were out earlier, thank God. From the passenger seat, I watched the speedometer creep up, past 100 mph, pushing 120.
The wind yanked at my hair, and despite being nearly shot more than once in the same night, I laughed. “I love this car.”
Aren turned my way, and the smile on his face reached all the way inside of me to touch places I thought had died years ago.
A dash of fear mingled with the adrenaline.
I could love a lot more than his car.
Chapter Seventeen
With no sign of anyone tailing us, Sasha finally relaxed and drifted off to sleep as we crossed the Nevada border. With sunrise right around the corner, I was fading fast too, so I found a cheap motel right off the freeway and got a room.
After a few hours of sleep, some coffee, and drive-thru breakfast sandwiches, we were back on the road. I kept my eyes on the rearview mirror, reminding myself to stay sharp. We weren’t home free.
Since we lit out of the parking structure so quickly, I doubted the sniper got my car’s plate number, but he probably caught the Nevada license plate. He may not have followed us from Los Angeles, but he could guess we were on our way to Nevada. It was a big state but only had two major cities. What if he met us there?
I checked the rearview mirror again. “Does Nero have connections in the DMV? Could our guy have someone look up all the registered Lotus vehicles in Nevada?”
Sasha nodded. “I wouldn’t put it past them. Nero has all sorts of government connections, according to Sebastian. It might take a little time, but eventually he could have a list with your name on it.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
“So what’s the plan?” she asked. “We’re not just going to show up on your brother’s doorstep, right?”
“I called and warned him to get Lana and Nadya out of town with the twins before I fell asleep. I told him I’d explain everything later.” I took a sip of coffee and shook my head. “I don’t know if Adam’s had a chance to get Lana and the twins out of Reno yet, so we’re definitely not risking showing up at the ranch. Besides, he hasn’t told the Pack who your sister really is. If she sees you, the cat will be out of the bag.”
Bad pun, but I shot her a smile, hoping she’d loosen up instead of telling me off. She rewarded me with the sound of her laughter.
“All right. Where are we headed then?”
“My company owns a cabin up by Lake Tahoe. We can settle in there, and I’ll call my brother again and ask him to meet us there.”
She crunched up the wrapper from her sandwich. “So we’ll ambush him with this crappy news about a Green Beret werewolf on your home turf.”
I shrugged a shoulder and nodded. “Basically.”
“Sounds good to me.” She started to check for any sign of someone following us and sighed. “Sorry about your mirror.”
“It can be fixed.”
“How’s your ankle?”
No sense lying. I shrugged. “Hurts like an S-O-B but I’m not fishing out a bullet, so I’m not complaining.” I started to smile. “Can’t say the same for the other guy. That was an amazing shot, by the way.”
“Thanks.” She tucked her hair back behind her ear. “I would’ve had him if he hadn’t ducked.”
“I’m sure the moving car didn’t help.”
“Probably not.”
Sasha turned toward the window. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was thinking. I’d never met a woman like her. So calm and cool when it counted. Lethal. And yet she didn’t have an ego.
In the passenger seat, she sipped her coffee. Without a drop of make-up on, weapons at the ready at all times, she was hands down the sexiest woman I’d ever known. I only wished our homecoming could be a happier occasion.
Nothing about this was going to be easy or joyful. If my mate were anyone else, she’d be welcomed into the Pack with open arms. I wanted my family to be hers too. Wishful thinking.
Delusional thinking.
At least Sasha would get to see the younger sister she loved so much. She’d mentioned Nadya was all she had, but I wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. Sasha never mentioned her parents—they could be dead, have abandoned their daughters, anything. I pressed my lips together to fight off the urge to ask.
Soon I pulled into the gravel drive of the cabin and hit the button for the security gate. We rolled up to the two-story, redwood log cabin. The sunlight sparkled on the arched glass window spanning both stories and overlooking the lake. Sasha shook her head. “You call this a
I turned off the engine and grinned. “You know how you told me you never miss with a gun?” She nodded. “I’m like that with business deals. Come on, I’ll show you around.”
We walked around the deck to the door, but before I could unlock it, she moved in front of me, running her fingers over the distressed hardware and ornate handle of the dark, solid oak double doors. “These are really beautiful.”
“Thanks. Jared made them for me. He’s an amazing carpenter.”
“Part of your Pack, I assume?” She stepped inside with me.
“Yeah, he’s Jason’s twin brother.”
She stopped and turned toward me. “So the rumors were true? Werewolves are always born as a set of twins?”
“Yeah, male twins. Only males carry the shifter gene.”
“Jaguars are similar but twins are rare. Since only the males carry the shifter gene for us, too, it makes reproducing tricky when Nero needs more employees. That’s why they want Lana so bad. She’s the only female born with the shifter gene.”
I nodded. “We figured they wanted her because she was a female-born shifter, but I never thought about the twin angle. I bet it pisses Sebastian off to think we might have something over his precious race.”
I placed my hand at the small of her back, guiding her into the living room. She sat on my leather couch with one leg tucked up underneath her as she went on.
“Well, Severino isn’t letting that slow him down. He thinks if he can breed females who already carry the shifter gene then he could have a self-contained jaguar-breeding program. He could build up his compound without the threat of bitten females escaping.”
I frowned, sitting beside her. “He’s planning on keeping women locked up forever like broodmares?”
“Probably? I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I do know that they have to plan carefully to bring in more females.” Her shoulders tensed as she went on. “They have to pick strong, healthy women who can survive the bite. The women also need to be people who can vanish without causing too many waves.”
I reached over and took her hand. “You’re definitely strong and healthy, but I’m surprised they brought in a police detective. Risky move.”
Her dark eyes met mine. “Not really. Nero didn’t know about my sister, and I had told Sebastian about my parents’ murder.”
There had never been any arrests, and knowing the killer was still out there always shadowed me with worry when Nadya was small. As I worked my way up to detective, I was grateful every day that she had our father’s last name and I had taken our mother’s. A vengeful criminal wouldn’t connect us and hurt Nadya just to
