Page 82 of Hunted

Alek listened without interrupting while I explained the run around with the lab.

“I didn’t order the hold on the samples,” he said once I paused for air, not even chewing me out for talking like a dick to him. “But I think we both know who did.”

“Can you override his order to cancel the samples?”

“No. You know that.”

I rubbed my temples. My headache from blocking out all the voices in the diner was threatening to smash my skull in. I lowered my shields, allowing the voices around me to swell in my head like an off-key opera.

“Is my uncle there?” We needed to have this out, for once and for all.

“No. He left early this morning. And didn’t say where he was going.”

I swore. Alek started to say something else, but through the sea of voices, I caught a sharp knife blade of panic, a voice I recognized.

Hayden.

I was out of my seat in an instant, racing towards the back of the restaurant, through the kitchen. A server shouted when I nearly crashed into their tray. The bathrooms were located in a dark narrow hallway. Men’s room on the left. Ladies on the right. I didn’t hesitate. Hayden could throat punch me later if it turned out I was wrong. God, for once in my life, let me be wrong.

I wasn’t.

The sink was still running, a sodden paper towel draped over Hayden’s black hobo purse which had fallen to the floor, a cherry lip gloss and a plastic package of tissues spilling out of it. Her phone lay beside it, the cracked screen showing a picture of Hayden and Ellie, their faces pressed together as they took a selfie.

The scent of an unfamiliar male werewolf permeated the air. I’d had a clear sight line to the bathroom, which meant they’d used a vampire. Vampire blood had no scent. They retained the scent of whatever blood source they drank from, human or werewolf, but only for seventy-two hours. They probably had someone watching the restaurant, waiting for the right moment to get her alone. I swore, slamming my fist into the mirror over the sink. It shattered into a thousand pieces.

Rossi had gotten to her.

Hayden was gone.

And it was my goddamn fault.