A shadow moved ahead, stepping right into their path.
Sage whined and dug her nails into her thighs the moment the headlights caught Jasper’s scarred face.
He was here. Not with the fighters on the ranch. Not a million miles away while everyone overreacted. Jasper Crowley, her tormentor, was right there in front of them.
“Hold on,” Alton growled.
He barreled forward, then spun the wheel at the last second to avoid hitting the man.
Sage twisted in her seat to see Jasper simply turn around and clasp his hands behind his back. She let off a sigh of relief and resisted the urge to raise a middle finger in farewell. They were going to make it. They were going to be safe.
Something hard slammed into the side of the SUV, crunching the metal and sending them into a spin.
Tires screeched as Alton tried to regain control.
Another slam on the other side rocked the vehicle to its side. Time seemed to slow as gravity took over, grabbing the lopsided SUV and tipping it over completely.
Sage threw her arm over her face as the windshield cracked, but didn’t break. The rest of the SUV wasn’t so lucky. Metal groaned and screamed against the asphalt as the SUV skidded to a stop.
She panted hard in the seconds after they stopped moving. Pure adrenaline pumped through her veins. Her fingers moved. Toes, too. She hung awkwardly in her seatbelt, but she was alive and breathing and mostly unharmed.
Alton turned wild eyes to her. “Sage?” he cupped her cheek and forced her to look at him. “You okay?”
She nodded, but he’d already twisted in his seat. “Hailey?”
The woman let off a groan and pressed a shaky hand to her head. Her eyes flew open and she glanced down at her stomach. “The twins,” she whimpered. “He better not have hurt the twins.”
Sage opened her mouth, but her words of comfort turned to a scream as her door was ripped away and a hand wrapped around her arm. Claws flashed across her vision and for a long, dreadful second, she thought they’d find a home in her flesh. Relief sagged her shoulders when they simply sliced through the seatbelt.
That same relief died when she caught sight of the one hauling her out of the SUV.
Jasper.
Fuck.
Fresh panic sliced through her and soured the back of her tongue. The horizon seesawed back and forth as she inhaled his scent and felt his eyes drag down her frame. Her skin crawled to feel his hands on her after so many months of freedom.
“Well, this is a better surprise than I expected,” he chuckled darkly, sweeping hateful eyes over her. Not turning away, he called over his shoulder. “Who else is in there?”
“Let go of me!” Hailey hissed as she was pulled from the overturned SUV.
Jasper jerked his chin to someone behind her, and Sage felt a hand land on her shoulder. She twisted around enough to see her father glaring down at her. “On your knees,” he ordered, shoving her forward before she could react.
Her stomach turned as Hailey was marched next to her. She recognized too many faces of those with Jasper. Ira, his second. Her father, of course. Garrett, the former occupant of her den and the one who’d handed Hailey over to Jasper in her close encounter. Others, too, who made up Jasper’s inner circle or served as his personal enforcers.
They hadn’t gotten away. They’d landed right in the center of the storm.
Jasper turned curious eyes on Alton the moment he was pulled from the wreck and placed on his knees. “And you are?”
“None of your fucking business,” Alton sneered.
Garrett decked him right in the face.
“No!” Sage tried to surge to her feet, but her father’s hand on her shoulder kept her on the ground. “Leave them alone,” she whimpered. “I’ll come with you willingly. No questions, no fighting, I will accept your mark and become your mate. Just leave them alone. Leave them all alone.”
Jasper’s lips hitched up in a cruel smile. “What makes you think you have a choice?”
Chapter 26
Sage breathed a sigh of relief as soon as the SUV door closed behind her, then immediately felt stupid. Just because a hunk of glass and metal stood between her and the monster on the other side didn’t mean she was safe. Far from it, in fact. She’d had that and much more distance not even ten minutes before, and look how that turned out.
She bit her cheeks to keep herself from spiraling. She wasn’t dead yet. She could still find a way out of Jasper’s grasp.
She’d had that before, too. In the early days when he’d put a collar around her neck. Bars on the windows, lock and guards at the door, he’d broken down her hope of escape.
No. No. It wouldn’t be like that again. She’d come too far to be forced back into captivity.
Sage glanced out the window to where Jasper conferred with the others, then slashed a look to Hailey at her side. “Did you get the message off?” she whispered.
Hailey turned her head slightly, eyebrows raising with her unspoken question.
“Before we crashed. Did you get the message off?”
“I don’t know.” Hailey shook her head slightly. “I’m not sure.”
Someone pounded on the window. “Quiet in there!”
Well, there went that hope.
Or any of somehow slipping out the other door and making a run for the trees.
The front door whipped open and Jasper slid into the passenger’s seat. Roland wedged himself behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition.
“Where are you taking us?” Sage demanded.
Jasper whipped his head around. The murderous look in his narrowed eyes made her want to shrink back, but she somehow managed to keep her spine straight.
“Hm,” he grunted, then sneered. “I suppose it doesn’t matter now. I’m taking you back to your pride.”
Roland shook his head and chuckled.
Sage exchanged a worried look with Hailey, then Alton. Fear slithered
