The Werewolf Ranger (Moonbound Book 3) (8 page)

He nodded and leaned forward touching his forehead to hers. “I know.”

The contact soothed some of the worry in the pit of her stomach. They’d been so close to bonding before Maggie had interrupted. It would’ve happened. She knew he wanted it. And she did too.

“We need to be the ones who take the book back to the alphas,” he said softly.

“Yes,” she whispered.
Alphas. Shit.
“We can’t say the bond spell.” The words rushed from her lips. Her heart raced and her hands sweated. Her father would know. He would feel it. He’d be waiting and Rain wouldn’t make it out of Vegas alive.

“What?” he growled.

“Not yet. My father. He’ll know. He’ll feel it like he did with Paul. He’ll find a way to get to you.” Tears trickled down her cheeks. She brushed them away, hoping the others were too enamored with the priest and his stories about the angel and people descending from the mountains to see her meltdown.

“Hey.” Rain cupped her face and bent down, covering her lips with his. “Breathe. I have a plan.”

L
as Vegas
, Nevada

R
ain woke
to the worst sound in the world when he opened his eyes to the charter jet door opening. He’d planned on three solid hours of sex on the plane, but after takeoff, he had fallen asleep with Nora’s hand in his pants, and woken to find she hadn’t moved, either.

Best laid plans.

She busied herself with pouring cups of cold water and setting them on the little conference table in the charter jet. The only saving grace was that the jet cabin didn’t smell like sex.

They had very little time before Nora’s father would recognize that the strength of her presence had changed, and he needed to speak to Francis.

Clunking steps sounded at the front of the cabin, and Rain stood to greet his alpha. The old man smiled his big Santa smile and gave Rain a bear hug.

“You’re back.” Francis clapped him on the back. “I’m assuming you plan to tell me why I had to come here in secret, and why I couldn’t bring Nora’s father.”

Rain reached behind him and gripped Nora’s hand. She closed both of hers around his and leaned against him.

“We have the book,” Rain said. “Did you bring the cryptologist?”

Francis gestured behind him where a short, pixie-haired young woman was almost hidden by the bulk of his body. “This is Jeanette Sureda. I promise you, Edward Cavanaugh won’t miss her.”

“Is the council still meeting?” Rain asked.

Nora handed the leather-bound book to Francis and sat at the table. “And do you know where my father is, right now?”

“The council is not meeting.” Francis narrowed his eyes. “But Edward has been systematically meeting with each of the pack alphas, trying to determine whether or not anyone had knowledge of unbonded wolves before Jared found Elise at the LeBlanc charity auction.”

Nora squeezed Rain’s hand and pulled him down into the seat beside her. “He always wants to know what everyone knows, and when they knew it.”

“Well, it gave me a chance to slip away undetected, because he won’t need to meet with me.” Francis gave them both a wide smile. “He already knows everything I know.”

Francis passed the book to Jeanette and she ran her hands over the leather with greedy fingers. She opened the book to the first page, then flipped it over and ran her fingertips over the back cover.

“Jeanette used to work for the FBI as an analyst,” Francis said. “She’s with the Suredas in Miami.”

Rain had a momentary flash of Alejandro and felt a pang of sadness for the way they’d left things with the rest of the group, back in Guadalajara. If he had been a better leader, perhaps it wouldn’t have been so contentious. Alex was a nice enough guy, and he had good instincts. But he didn’t respect Rain, and he couldn’t blame the guy. There’d been nothing he could do to fight his attraction to Nora. It would’ve over-ridden a monk’s chastity to be pulled toward a woman like this.

He ran his hand down her thigh, under the table. He would sacrifice missional integrity for Nora. And whatever respect Tomás or Alex might have had for him. Or anyone else. He didn’t care.

Nora deserved his undivided loyalty, above a team or a mission.

Francis slid a hand onto the table. “Rain. Are you okay?”

It took him a long moment to collect himself, but he met his alpha’s eyes and nodded. “I am now.”

“I need to speak to you about your instructions.” Francis glanced between Rain and Nora. “I need to know more about why you’re requesting this before I grant it.”

He expelled a long breath. “Nora’s father is all but holding her hostage, Francis. He tells her what she can and can’t do, who she can and can’t date or marry, and is generally medieval when it comes to her freedom.”

A long, white eyebrow rounded and Francis made a thoughtful noise. “I suspected as much.”

“I’m afraid of what he’ll do to Rain.” Nora scrabbled for his hand. “My last…boyfriend. My father did not approve.”

“I’m not afraid of Edward Cavanaugh.” Rain grunted. “He can come at me all he wants.”

“Except you will not always be with her,” Francis noted.

Rain pushed air from his lungs. He hated to admit this, but it was true. He wouldn’t always be able to protect Nora from her father. “If you were to bond with her,” Rain began, and Francis held up a hand.

“I know what you’re saying.”

“You have to override her father’s alpha bond before I can make her my mate.” Rain slid his arm around Nora’s waist and pulled her in to his side. “Otherwise, her father will always be able to find us.”

Francis folded his hands on the table. “He will feel it at once.”

He nodded. A tight sensation crawled up through his body and lodged itself in the base of his throat. If Rain had his way, he’d kill Edward Cavanaugh himself, with his bare hands. He would sneak into the man’s bedroom and cut his head from his body with an exacto-knife. But Nora would never allow it.

This was their only other option.

“I think I found something,” Jeanette piped up from the corner of the table. She turned around a yellow legal pad that she’d been scratching on.

There was a list of words in Spanish, and then in English. Next to each was a day and a set of numbers.

Rain ran his finger down the list.

Matthias
sat beside the number
989
and the word
handcuffs
. Then, on the next line, was
Ricardo
and
1172
and
herpes
. The strangest list Rain had ever seen.

“That’s amazing,” Nora said, her voice full of wonder. “We all looked at those lines and we couldn’t read anything.”

“It’s a fairly complex substitution cipher.” Jeanette’s slight fingers tapped on the worn pages of the book and then on her notebook. “The only way I knew the key is that it’s commonly used by Argentine intelligence. I used to work the South America desk at Langley.”

Rain chewed his lip and passed the notebook to Francis. “What do you make of these?
Handcuffs
,
herpes
,
blood
.”

Jeanette picked up the glass of water in front of her and took a long drink. Almost into the glass itself, she said, “I bet it’s an operative.”

Rain scratched at his forehead. “An operative?”

The tiny cryptologist gave him a rueful smile. “Or a former operative.” She used her pencil to point to one of the lines. “It’s really not detailed enough to be from an assignment—plus, I have to wonder why an operative on assignment would ever be keeping what amounts to a diary.”

Nora gripped Rain’s thigh and he turned, to find her face white and her eyes wide.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You know who does keep a diary like that?” She looked at each of them with a meaningful frown. “Business owners.”

The silence around the table gave them all plenty of time to process what that meant, but Rain couldn’t hold it in. “The jackass ran a brothel and kept records like they were transactions.”

“And customer notes, too.” Jeanette pointed to each of the words as she said them. “Somebody likes handcuffs, somebody has herpes…” She trailed off when she got to the next word. No one wanted to think about what it meant that there was a note about blood.

Rain shuddered. “If we assume this is a ledger…what do we do with it?”

Francis shut the book. “Let me give it to Jeanette to take back to Miami with her. We need to study the entire thing, in case there’s information about who this man is.” He slid it across the table, almost like he was attempting to get it as far from him as he could manage.

“We sent some of the men from the group into the mountains,” Nora said. “If there’s anything to be learned about these
men
who live there, Tomás and Alex will find it.”

The air inside the plane began to feel tight to Rain, like it was closing in on him. The thought of his team back in Mexico should’ve eaten at him. But they weren’t really his team. His real team was back in North Carolina, and they weren’t sure when he would return—if ever, in the case that Francis needed him. But all this talk of missions made him itch again.

Francis rose from the table and ushered Jeanette from the cabin.

Rain made to follow, but Nora held his hand and kept him beside her.

“Are we going back to Guadalajara?” she asked.

Rain glanced up at his alpha. The man had a presence and filled a room, almost making his anxiety go away. “We should go,” he said. “If we don’t check in with the team, they’ll wonder what happened to us.”

Nora settled against his chest and looked up into his eyes. The lazy smile on her face made Rain almost forget about all of the crazy moments in the last couple of days. Somehow, when he looked at Nora, he saw serenity and stability—two things he’d always craved—but wrapped up in a package of adventure and beauty and fearlessness.

“I love you,” he blurted out. Rain swallowed and took a long breath. “I guess that’s just out there, now.”

Nora’s lips settled into an easy smile. She opened her mouth to speak, and the strangest strangled noise wrenched itself from her throat. Her eyes went round and she stopped breathing.

Rain lunged forward, his hands going immediately to her shoulders. “Nora. What’s wrong?”

She continued to make the choked-off noise and collapsed against the table. Rain put his hand on her back and stroked her.

“What happened?” he asked.

Her eyes were wide and brimming with fear. “My father,” she choked out, coughing. “It’s my father. He’s here somewhere. He’s close, and he’s looking for me.”

“
F
rancis
!” Rain shouted out the open plane hatch.

Nora clutched his arm and fought to draw in a breath. Somehow her father had already honed in on the relationship she’d started with Rain. He would punish her and then he would kill Rain. She couldn’t lose him. Losing another mate would kill her.

“Help, Francis!”

The New Orleans alpha sent Jeanette on toward the car and turned back to the plane. He took the stairs quickly and knelt beside Nora where she clung to Rain’s arm and gasped for one molecule of air after the next.

Edward Cavanaugh was pissed and closing in. He didn’t have this much control over her physical body, unless he was less than a mile away.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” Rain growled. “She just collapsed and she can’t breathe. And she says her father is looking for her.”

Nora looked up from the floor and met Francis’ gaze. He must know what was happening. All alphas had the same power over their packs, but she hadn’t met many other alphas that wielded it the way her father did.

Pain seared through her chest and a growl rumbled out as she called on her magick to fight through the link.

“If I break his bond, Nora, you will be bound to me the same way.”

“Her father is hurting her!” The disgust in Rain’s voice dug at her heart.

Yes, she had an asshole tyrant for a father. She’d grown up where every move and every word was carefully planned. Her father forgave no one and forgot nothing.

“He won’t stop looking for you, but it will give you a chance,” Francis continued.

“Please,” she gasped.

“Francis, I can’t lose her.”

“You won’t be able to go back to Mexico, and you can’t return to New Orleans. You must go back to your unit and disappear, Rain. That is the only chance you have to remain hidden from a man like Cavanaugh.”

“Do it,” Rain said.

Francis looked at Nora and took both her hands in his. “This is your choice, Nora. Not mine. And not Rain’s. You will have to give up your entire life.”

She glanced to Rain and then to Francis. “There is no choice to make,” she gasped. “Please help me.”

The older man nodded. “Welcome to my family.”

A warmth and peaceful sensation rippled through her magick, unlike anything she’d ever experienced via her link to her father…
her
alpha. Francis’ magick swirled around her, embracing her, and then tore the pain free of her chest. One second she was gasping for breath and the next she was crying with relief.

It was gone.
He
was gone. That horrible ax that had followed every step of her life had vanished.

She drew a full breath and threw her arms around Francis’ neck. “Thank you.”

Francis returned the embrace. “Take care of her.” He said over her shoulder.

“I will.”

They stood and Nora moved back a step to stand at Rain’s side.

“He will look harder for you because of his anger. Be careful. Both of you. A man like Cavanaugh has many resources.”

“I know.” Nora nodded. “Believe me. I know the extent he’ll go to get what he wants. Goodbye, Francis.”

“Goodbye,” he answered, then pulled Rain into an embrace. “Get this plane off the ground fast,” he murmured.

Francis turned and hurried down the stairs to the pavement and climbed into the waiting car with Jeanette.

Men on the ground scrambled to pull the stairs away from the plane.

Rain tugged her hand and led her to a seat in the back of the plane. “I’ll be right back.” He kissed the top of her head.

She sighed as he disappeared into the front. Nora glanced out the window. The black car Francis and Jeanette had left in was barely visible now.

The hatch slammed shut and the engines of the plane roared to life. A few minutes later, the plane lurched forward and started taxiing along the runway. They made a few turns before Rain reappeared and sat next to her.

“You okay?” He took her hand in his and squeezed.

“Where are we going?”

“North Carolina. We’re going to disappear.”

She took another deep breath and leaned her head against his shoulder. “It will be good to disappear. We will need every advantage we can get to stay hidden from my father.”

Rain cupped her face, tipping it up so that she looked into his beautiful blue eyes. She loved those eyes. She loved him…more than she could ever describe. He was her whole world now. Literally.

“You are safe now.” He kissed her forehead and then rearranged his body in the chair to prepare for the takeoff. The plane had picked up speed and was vibrating as it got closer and closer to rising from the runway.