I had to get home. I had to get back to Gran.
“After I introduce myself,” he insisted. “I need to know she’s the one first.”
Couldn’t he feel her Mystic magic coming off her? I could.
I opened my mouth to say as much but closed it when he charged toward her. The poor woman was oblivious to his presence seconds before he bumped into her with his shoulder, knocking the bag of groceries she carried from her arms. The contents scattered across the sidewalk, and I rolled my eyes. Bumping into her was such a cliché thing to do.
Wait. Why the heck did I care how Damon chose to introduce himself? As long as he did and learned that he learned she was the one he was searching for nothing else mattered.
Judging from the magic pulsing in the air around her, there was no denying she was a Mystic. And from the lovesick puppy expression on Damon’s face, I knew she was the Mystic for him.
When he bent to help gather her groceries, he tossed me my cell without her noticing. Something he’d said had her laughing, and I knew she was just as smitten with him as he was with her. I caught my cell and marveled at his smoothness. Damon winked at me as though he knew what I was thinking, or maybe it was his way of saying thank you. Either way, my gaze drifted to his goons, and the tallest one made a gesture with his hand that signified I should go.
Nice. I’d just saved Damon Kincaid’s life by finding his Mystic and he couldn’t even have the decency to give me a ride home.
I spun on my heel as I scrolled through my phone, looking at the missed calls from both Gran and Nash. There were a few from Liam, and a couple of unknown numbers I assumed were either Tris or Penny. I tapped on Gran’s name first. The phone rang, and I started speed walking in the opposite direction of Damon and his goons. I didn’t know where I was going, but that didn’t matter. Only two things did—hearing Gran’s voice and figuring out how the hell I was getting back home.
“Sam?” someone answered after the fourth ring. My heart dropped to my stomach because it wasn’t Gran. It took me a second to process the voice belonged to Nash. He didn’t sound like himself. His voice was raw and rugged. I knew him well enough to know that it was because his emotions had gone haywire. “Where are you? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Is Gran okay? Is she still—” I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence.
“She’s still here.” He paused before saying the words I knew were coming next. “She’s gotten worse, though.”
“Just tell her I’m coming, that I’m making my way back home,” I said, walking faster. The urgency to get home was overwhelming. My bear was nearly hostile because of it.
“Where are you? What happened? And who the hell were those guys?” Nash demanded.
I cut a right at the next corner and kept walking straight. My feet knew where I was going, even though my brain didn’t. “No one. Don’t worry about it.”
“Wrong answer. They abducted you. Clearly, they’re someone to worry about,” Nash insisted. “And, they were snakes, Sam. How the hell are you mixed up with a den of snakes?”
“It’s nothing. I’m not mixed up with them. I’m fine. Their alpha is a buyer. He’s bought multiple paintings of mine. He also figured out about my gift. He wanted me to paint him something using it,” I said, trying to fill him in while also sounding nonchalant so he’d simmer down. I could tell he was pissed, his tension filtered through the phone.
“Couldn’t he have just fucking asked?” Nash seethed. I didn’t have to see him to know the veins in his neck were bulging and that his face had most likely drifted through ten shades of red as his anger grew.
“He did. Multiple times. Heck, he even offered to pay me, but I shot him down… which is why he came after me. Look, none of this matters. I just wanted to see if Gran was okay. I’m fine, and I’m headed back to Gem Creek now.”
“How are you getting back? He took you.” I could hear Nash’s anger still bubbling through his tone. “It’s not like you have your vehicle.”
Crap. He was right. I didn’t even have my wallet.
I had nothing except my phone.
“Tell me where you are. I’ll come get you,” Nash insisted. I could hear the sound of keys jingling in his hand.
I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed my temple. The dull pain of a building headache twinged. “No. It will waste too much time. I need to be making my way to you. Like right now.”
“Okay. Let’s think. Is there a way you can snag that asshole’s vehicle? I mean, he does owe you.”
I shook my head, even though he couldn’t see me. “No. When he said I was free to go, I bolted. I’m not even in that section of the city anymore.”
I glanced around. Where the heck was I?
“Good. Okay, um… is there anyone you could ask to borrow their vehicle? I mean, you probably made all sorts of friends in the city you call home now, right?” His tone was off. I wondered if it was because he was worried I’d made lots of male friends while living here.
“First of all, this city isn’t my home. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of it as home either. Not in the way I have about Gem Creek. And second, yeah. There is someone I can ask,” I said.
“Oh?”
A smirk twisted my lips. “She’s human, though,” I said, listening for his sigh of relief. When it came, a shiver of satisfaction slid through me. “Which means when I convince her to come with me, nothing bear related can happen around her, capeesh?”
Nash laughed.
