From the Ashes (Force of Nature Book 1) (31 page)

And that was likely to get her killed.

“Don't hurt her!” I shrieked, navigating my way through the overgrown forest, looking for the pack. “She's my friend! Don't hurt her!”

“Piper!” she yelled again. This time her voice held an edge of concern. I think that she, too, realized she was outnumbered and in major shit.

“Knox!” I called out, finally able to see the horde of werewolves circling something, or someone, as the case most likely was. “Please. Just let me talk to her!”

I crashed into the outer perimeter, shoving bodies aside until I reached the inner ring. That's where I found Kat lying on the ground, bleeding badly, which spoke volumes about the amount of damage they'd inflicted in a short period of time.

“Oh my God, Kat,” I said, kneeling down at her side.

“I'm fine,” she said, spitting out a mouthful of blood at Brunton's feet. She looked up at him with a menacing glare. Kat had his number for sure. “This one has a bit of an attitude problem that I'd love the chance to discuss with him sometime, but other than that, I'm good.”

“I caught her sneaking around Piper's property.”

“Yeah,” she said in mocking, “because I was trying to find her, Einstein.”

“They sent you?” I asked, unable to suppress the sadness in my voice. In retrospect, it made perfect sense. Kat wasn't restricted by the light of day, and she had keen hunting senses. Why wouldn't they send her to track me down?

She nodded tightly, a look of embarrassment in her eyes.

“I'm in a rough position here, Piper. I think you can appreciate that.”

“You'll be in a rougher one real soon if you don't start telling me exactly what I want to hear,” Knox said, bending down beside Kat. Her eyes shot to him and back to me, quickly putting the pieces of the puzzle together. Kat knew how packs worked. She also knew how possessive they were of what they perceived as theirs.

“Oh, Piper...” she said, the patronizing tone of her voice unmistakable. “Tell me you didn't.”

“She doesn't have to tell you anything,” Knox said, snatching Kat up off the ground. It was only then that I saw the anatomically impossible angle of her leg. She winced the second she put weight on it, an action that she immediately regretted. To show weakness to your enemy was dangerous in our world and she knew it.

“We have to set that before it starts to heal,” I pleaded, reaching for the protruding bone in her lower leg.

“Later,” Knox replied. He started hauling her through the trees, almost dragging her at times when her broken limb gave out under her weight.

It pained me to watch her struggle, but I knew that now was not the time to argue. Undermining him would only make him more angry and defiant. It would also make Kat appear weaker. Neither were ideal outcomes. I needed to play this situation just right, or my friend would be dead. It was really just that simple.

Just before we reached the lodge, Knox shoved Kat toward the stairs. She stumbled and fell, catching herself on the bottom step. I raced to her side, lifting her leg to rest it on my lap.

“Oh no,” Knox said, grabbing the wounded limb from my hands. “We're not doing this one your way, Piper. If she wants this fixed, she's going to tell me what I want to know. If I'm satisfied, I'll set it for her.”

“I'm not telling you shit,” Kat snarled. “I'm here for her, and she's the one I'll answer to. Not you.”

Knox quirked his brow at her, feigning amusement.

“She's feisty, I'll give her that,” he replied, turning his attention to me. “I don't know what it is with your friends and death wishes, but so far, they're two for two.”

I smiled tightly, strategically putting myself between Knox and Kat while the rest of the pack looked on, ready to finish what Brunton had started if they weren't pleased with what she had to say.

“How bad is it?” I asked, squatting down beside her. Knox still held her leg, which made me nervous, a fact that I made plain to her in my beseeching expression.

“My leg or the shit in NYC?”

“I can see the former isn't good. How bad is the latter?”

She frowned.

“I'm not sure, Piper. When I left, they seemed to have him subdued somewhat. After that first day, something in him shifted. I don't know how to explain it, but I could see it in his eyes. He was still as mad as a hatter, but it was for a different reason. Like he'd realized what he'd done and needed to find you at any cost.”

“Who sent you? Jase? Dean?”

“The king...”

“Fuck.”

“I know, Piper. I'm between a rock and a hard place in this. But in a strange way, I'm glad that they sent me. I came up with a plan over the time I was searching for you. I think I know how I can play both sides of this, but you need to listen to me very carefully and do exactly as I say, understand?”

I nodded frantically.

She reached her arm behind her back for something tucked into the back of her pants. Knox, not appreciating the movement, wrenched her leg in warning. She screamed in pain.

“Knox!” I shouted, pushing him away from her.

“I have a passport in my back pocket, Piper. I had it made for you. I know a guy in Idaho that does that kind of stuff. A rogue fey who flies under the radar. He had it ready for me when I went through that way.” I reached behind her and pulled it out. “I knew you didn't have one. I also knew you'd be needing one if you had any chance of ever escaping the king's reach.”

“So your plan is to let her go?” Knox asked incredulously.

“Well it sure as fuck isn't to send her back to that nutcase. You didn't see what he did to her...” Sad eyes fell upon me as she spoke. “I'm so sorry, Piper. I should have stayed home that night. When the boys told me what had happened to you—it’s all my fault.”

“It's not your fault, Kat,” I said, leaning forward to wrap my arm around her neck in a half hug, doing my best not to jostle her leg in the process.

“At any rate, here's the bottom line: the king sent me to find you. Every night, the boys show up to see if I have any news on your whereabouts—”

“Jase and Dean? They're checking up on you?” Her expression tightened, confirming my worst fears. Perhaps my dream hadn’t been just a dream after all. “But they saw what he did to me.”

“I know, Piper. But they're in the king's service as much as I am.”

I felt sick. Completely and utterly sick. Jase and Dean had been my rocks for longer than I could remember. To know that they would willingly return me to the very place where I had nearly met my end was beyond unthinkable.

Suddenly, the dream I'd had of them and Merc took on a very different connotation. One where they used my feelings for them against me to get what they wanted: me to return to the mansion. And Merc.

I collapsed onto the ground, Kat's leg propped up in my lap. I couldn't think. I couldn't speak. All I could do was feel the pain of betrayal tighten around my heart, choking it slowly.

“They'll be here at sundown, Piper. If I don't text them to tell them my location, Jensen will be in a world of shit.”

“Who's Jensen?” Knox asked, still looming over the two of us.

“My mate.”

“He's an enforcer,” I added. Knox's expression twisted to one of disgust.

“Fuck him. He can fend for himself.”

“There has to be a way out of this that doesn't result in death,” I said, my mind still reeling.

“There is,” Kat replied, her voice riddled with anger. She clearly didn't care for Knox's plan. “You need to take that passport and get the fuck out of here now. Put some distance between you and this place before sundown. I'll text the boys and tell them to meet me at your cabin. That I just missed you, but that you'd been there recently. It'll be enough to make everyone think we're close, but give you a head start on your international getaway plan.”

“She's not leaving,” Knox growled.

Kat ignored him entirely.

“I have money. I took all the cash I had—the cash I have stashed at the mansion from tips. My 'just in case' money,” she explained, grabbing my hand and squeezing it tightly. “I know what they'll do to me if they find out I lied, but I'm willing to risk it, Piper. You and I will always be outsiders in their world, no matter how ensconced in it we are. I've saved up that money over the past couple of years because I know that the second something happens to Jensen, I'll be out on my ass. There's just under ten grand in my car. Take it. Run. It's your only chance.”

“How do I know this isn't some elaborate scheme?” Knox asked. “How do I know that you're not setting her up with an alias that the king already knows about? Money that can be traced?”

It took me a moment to process what was going on, my mind still focused on the betrayal of Jase and Dean. But once his words really registered, I turned to him with a questioning stare. How did the walking polygraph not know if she was lying?

“Knox, why are you—?”

“Because I can't tell if she's lying or not, that's why.” He bent down beside me, taking Kat's leg from my hands. “I think it's about time we set this thing, don't you?” he asked, turning her leg back and forth as though he were assessing the best way to do that. “Here's the thing, Kat. Piper is very important to me. Important to all of us, for that matter. And I don't really like the uncertainty surrounding your role in her retrieval. I'm normally an excellent judge of intention. You could say I have a feel for the truth. But with you, I can't seem to get a read on whether or not you mean what you say, and that's just not going to work for me. So from where I stand, nobody is going anywhere. Especially not you.”

A horrific crunching sound echoed through the yard, followed closely by a shriek from Kat. He had apparently decided that fixing her leg wasn't in his best interest. Breaking it further seemed more to his liking.

“Knox!” I screamed, shooting to my feet. He slowly uncurled his body to stand in front of me, not a hint of apology in his stare. Cold indifference met my eyes. “She's not lying. Kat and I have been friends for a long time. She wouldn't lie about this. She's trying to help me.”

“Just like your boys are? The boys that had your back all the time?” he countered, silencing me. “If she's in deep with them, then she can't be trusted.”

“But she said that they'll be here by nightfall.”

“Not if she doesn't message them.”

“And how long do you think it will be before they track her phone, Knox? An hour? Maybe two? They'll hunt her down.”

“And we'll be waiting for them once they do.”

“This is insane!” I exclaimed. “Even if you take them down, more will come. And they'll keep coming until they get what they want. You can't fight them forever. There are more of them than you. This is suicide, Knox.” He stared at me, unfazed by my argument. “I know you made me a promise, but knowing what we know now, you can't keep it. I'm asking you not to. For your sake and the sake of the whole pack, back out, Knox. Back out now. Let me run. I'll be okay. I'll get word to you as soon as I'm out of the country. I'll let you know everything is fine.”

“No.”

“Why won't you see reason in this?”

“Because they will find you and kill you.”

“You don't know that,” I argued weakly.

“Yes. I do.” There was a finality to his words—a certainty behind them that gave me pause. There was something Knox wasn't telling me, of that I was certain. “You're a target they can't lose sight of, Piper. We end this now. My way.”

I could see in his eyes that he was unwilling to cave on the issue. Like it or not, the showdown with Merc was going to happen sooner than later. I feared for the fate of us all.

“Then fix her leg,” I said, looking down at the hideous angle he'd created with her lower limb. The sight of it made my stomach roll.

“Why?”

“Because we'll need her.”

“And if she's a traitor?”

“That's a chance we'll have to take. Besides, how many of your boys did it take to bring her down?”

Knox scanned the pack for an answer. A show of hands said that three of them had captured Kat. She was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

“You're willing to bet your life on her loyalty?” he asked, eyeing me tightly.

“Yes. I am.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Truth...”

“You're the one that keeps telling me I call to nature. That I'm connected to it. That's partly why you all took to me so quickly. Why you chose me,” I argued. “Why would Kat be any different? She's fought for me before.”

“And I'll do it again, Piper,” she bit out from her position on the ground. “But I can't condone this plan. It really is suicide.”

“We'll see about that,” Knox grumbled under his breath, taking Kat's leg in his hands again. With no more care than he’d taken with it before, he snapped it back into an anatomically correct position. Kat screamed, breathing hard as Knox released her appendage, letting it fall limp to the ground. “It should be fine in an hour. Foust, take her to the holding cell. Lock her in there until I say to let her out.”

“It'll be okay,” I whispered to her. The set of her features told me otherwise, but she didn't bother verbalizing it. She'd already made her stance clear.