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We reached our cabin, and while the main building, guest house, and shed were perched on high ground, a slow-moving creek wound around the edge of the property. With the rain, it had become a torrent.
As we didn’t use the cabin every week, there were no live-in staff, domestic or the security kind. But there were cameras and alarms. Enough to stop humans, but shifters intent on revenge, not so much.
“What is this place?” Matt peered through the sleeting rain.
NINE
MATT
Having escaped one mobster, I was in the middle of nowhere with a second one, a guy who sprayed weird shit on me so I smelled like an emergency room. And he bit my hand and insisted I had to stay with him or bad stuff would happen.
So far I hadn’t seen any evidence to back up his claim. And while Dane was shady as shit, he’d never given the impression he wanted to sink his teeth into me.
Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on what was before me, not the possibility of mobsters with guns coming after me. That was the unknown, and while I’d imagined what would happen if my undercover work went ass up, the reality was far scarier than what I’d built up in my head.
I’d spent time in cabins with college and high school friends, but the building I was staring at nestled amongst shrubs wasn’t a cabin. Yeah, it was made of wood, logs to be precise, so technically, did that make it a cabin? In my head a cabin was small, maybe one or two rooms, but this was huge and had three stories. I wondered how much it cost to maintain and how many bedrooms it had.
I was thinking of every superficial idea that popped into my head and not that I’d escaped a mobster boss who’d planned on killing me before he was knocked unconscious. I shivered and pulled the blanket tight around my shoulders.
The grounds surrounding the house were waterlogged with rivers of sludge pouring down the driveway. Trying to ignore the deafening roar of the swollen river, I fixed my gaze on trees bent forward, the weight of the rain breaking off some of their branches.
Putting my hands over my ears, I blocked out the violent cracking as branches slammed onto rocks, the roar of the rain and wind, and jagged lightning splitting the sky in two.
The universe was angry and lashing out, and I focused on the building, standing straight and tall despite the havoc surrounding it.
A porch wrapped around the cabin, and Ranger pulled up at the stairs while I huddled under the blanket. Getting into the car with one mobster wasn’t part of my plan, especially after being held at gunpoint in a vehicle by another mafia boss. But getting out into an unknown location, nope. I wasn’t doing it.
Ranger ran around to my side and opened the door. I’d been in the car a while and nothing bad had happened apart from him sinking his teeth into my palm. Nothing in my wildest dreams could’ve prepared me for that. But now he was expecting me to leave the safety of the car, where I’d been cocooned for a few hours. It was my sanctuary.
“No, thanks. I'll be fine.”
The guy was drenched, his clothes sticking to his body. “Matt. You can’t stay here.” He had to yell over the rain.
“Why not?” I shouted back.
“Because it’s not safe.”
“Remind me what you said earlier when you abducted me?”
“Abducted?” he screeched.
“You said to be safe I had to get in the car, which by the way, isn’t your car. Now you’re telling me it’s not safe in the car. Make up your mind. Maybe you need to look up the meaning of the word safe.”
I imagined Josh’s reaction if I pulled that argument. He’d tell me to shut up or ask what was wrong with me like he often did.
Ranger clenched his jaw as his saturated hoodie clung to him.
“Inside there’s food, heating, a warm bath, and dry clothes.”
I was as petulant as a toddler, but I wanted to be back in my apartment with the paint peeling off the walls and a spot of mold behind the bookshelves.
“Please come in.”
“I’m scared, okay,” I yelled. “My life, what’s left of it, has been turned inside out, and I can’t see a way around it.”
Ranger kneeled in the mud. Ewww. “Fine. I can turn the engine on and you can stay in the car. But when the rain stops, Dane will come looking for you.”
“And being in the house will stop him from shooting me?”
