Wolf’s Princess (41 page)

Reluctantly, Sky looked at Stone. The younger man shook his head. “She’s lying.”

Into the horrified silence, Ms. Mary’s voice quavered. “Tasha, how could you? Sky and I have given you a home. We’ve taken care of you. Rose never did anything to hurt you.”

The hurt, innocent look on Tasha’s face fell away, revealing a woman Sky didn’t know. She gave a harsh laugh. “I was going to be the mayor’s wife. I was
supposed
to be the mayor’s wife.” She sneered at Rye Thomas. “First you refused to take the job. Your dad was young enough to last as mayor for decades, so I fluttered my lashes and wagged my hips at him and he fell like a rock right into my hands. He promised to get rid of his wife and marry me. But he screwed up. The old bat survived and he didn’t have the guts to try again and do it right.”

Thomas made the sound of an animal that had just been shot. Sky spared him a single glance of sympathy.

“No, he just lapped up the pity instead.” Tasha placed a hand over her heart and her voice lifted in a caricature of admiring compassion. “Poor Mayor McGrath has had so many terrible tragedies to deal with this year, but isn’t it wonderful the way he takes care of his wife?”

Sky stared at her, wondering how he had missed seeing this side of the businesswoman he’d known for eight years.

“And then Sky came along.” Tasha flicked him a melting look from beneath her lashes. “He had everything: good looks, charisma, and that special something that made men look up to him. He can be the next mayor. Tim McGrath is finished; he just doesn’t know it yet. I will make a marvelous mayor’s wife.”

Sky took a step back. “I don’t want to be mayor.”

“Sure you do. You can change all the laws to your little do-gooder’s heart’s content.”

“Even if Rose weren’t my mate, I would never have married you.”

“Oh, you will.” She sounded serenely confident. “Eventually. If you don’t, Terry and his charming nephews will kill your precious, naïve little wife.”

Sand lost control enough to howl. Tasha gave him a look of weary disdain.

She didn’t understand about wolves and their mates. Inside, Sky’s wolf swung his head from side to side, frustrated and confused. This woman had delivered their mate to the enemy, but he couldn’t attack a woman. He sensed other wolves experiencing the same confusion. Beside him, Shadow let out a whine. Sky laid an imaginary hand on his wolf’s head to calm him.

“Where is she, Tasha?” He made his voice harsh and strong. “Where did they take Rose?”

Tasha’s smile was confident. “You’ll get her back after you marry me. I don’t mind if you keep her, as long as you are mayor and I am your official wife.”

Rye Thomas shouldered Sky aside to stare at his one-time fiancée. “That’s not gonna work out so well for you. See, he’s not going to be the next mayor. I am. So you missed the boat, you scheming bitch.” He turned his back on her to look at Sky. “I think we should split up. If I can, I’d like to take a couple of your relatives and I’ll go to my father’s house. My dad will probably know about anything that slimewad Terry Askup is involved in. You go to Askup’s place. I’ll send someone with any information I find out about Mrs. Wolfe.”

Sky took a deep breath. “That’s probably good. Watch yourself, though. There are people on the street, and they’re looking for trouble. I heard they were headed for the mayor’s house next. Snake, find Quill. You two are with Thomas.”

Rye Thomas held out his hand. “Thank you.”

Sky shook the offered hand. “Be careful,” he said.

As Thomas left the room, Sky saw that damn cat of Rose’s slink out from under the desk and saunter after the trader. Pain grew and settled like a rock on his chest. He hated that cat, but Rose loved it. “Sand, Shadow, and Paint, you’re with me,” he said, putting the cat out of his mind. “Tracker, will you scout for us?”

“Yeah.” His older cousin’s voice was its usual light, uninflected tone, but all the wolves knew fury roiled under that surface calm.

“Taye, I’m leaving you with Stone and Snow to guard their mates.” Sky jerked his head to indicate Mikey, Standing Bear, White Horse and the men he employed as guards. “The rest will guard outside. Be careful. This could be a ploy to get us away and leave The Limit under-defended for an attack.”

Taye nodded. “I’ll take care of your den and your Pack.”

“Okay. Joe.” He surveyed the man who had served as his lawyer and accountant for over five years. The bitterness of the other man’s grief and remorse were strong in the air. “You’re fired. I’ll let you live, but that’s all the mercy you’ll get from me.”

“I understand.” Joe was subdued. “They would have taken Mrs. Wolfe out through that secret passage. You remember where it comes out in the park over in back? I would start looking for their trail there. Good luck.”

“Thanks.” His wolf strained to be set free. Sky shoved him down with an inner promise of freedom later, when they found their mate and rescued her. “Let’s go, everyone.”

“What about me?” Tasha screamed as they filed out.

Sky scarcely glanced at her. He couldn’t bear to look at her. “You should start packing your things. You’re not welcome here anymore.” He deliberately turned his back. She wasn’t worth any more of the time he should be spending finding his mate.

Still in his most expensive and elegant business suit, he led the way out of the house, determined to find his mate and punish the men who had stolen her from him.

Chapter 23

Her head hurt. Rose gradually became aware she was lying on something hard, and it was dark. But mostly she just knew her head hurt. Then she became aware of one more thing. A voice, low and wavering and oddly uninflected, said, “Rose. Are you awake? Rose. Wake up.”

Katelyn. Rose was quite pleased she had identified the voice. Since Katelyn was deaf, she couldn’t hear her own voice, so she often sounded a little odd. “Katelyn? Where are we? Why is it dark?”

No, Katelyn couldn’t hear her. Rose tried to sit up and hissed as pain zapped through her head. She explored with her hands, feeling a hard, cold floor beneath her. The basement. She remembered going down into the basement with Tasha. And…dang it, she couldn’t remember anything after walking down the stairs. Did she fall? Hit her head? Nothing made sense.

Katelyn grabbed her hand. “Rose? Are you okay? Squeeze my hand once for yes, twice for no.”

Could she do one and a half? She squeezed once.

“Good.” There was genuine relief in Katelyn’s voice, clear in the wavering onset of tears. She sniffed inelegantly. “You’re probably wondering what happened.”

Rose gave a mighty squeeze.

“Ouch. Not so hard. I don’t know exactly what happened to you. I went downstairs after Tasha was gone and you were already halfway through the tunnel.”

Tunnel? She was about to ask when she remembered Katelyn couldn’t hear her.

“One of the men was still in the basement. Maybe he heard me come down the stairs. Anyway, he grabbed me. I tried to scream, but I couldn’t. I was too scared. And then he hit me. He had a knife. He said he’d kill me if I didn’t do what he said.”

Knife! Rose let go of Katelyn to slap her hand against her side. Her breath came out in a whoosh when she felt the handle of her knife under her shirt. At least she was still armed. Her brain moved less sluggishly now, and she was able to think. They had been stolen, she and Katelyn. She remembered that escape tunnel. That was how Taye and the others had gotten into the house. Hadn’t they nailed boards over the door to keep anyone else from coming through? Someone had found it and broken the boards to get inside the house. Or had been let in. Tasha? Rose’s stomach churned as her head pounded. She remembered more now. Tasha had been with her in the basement. Tasha had betrayed her. She had known men were waiting in the basement. Oh, God, what would Sky do?

Katelyn groped and took her hand again. “I don’t know how long we’ve been here. Maybe an hour. I’m not sure where we are. I think it’s a big house, so it must belong to one of the mayor’s rich friends, but I don’t know which one. The two men who took us brought us here in the wagon, and they wouldn’t let me sit up, so I couldn’t see. They stopped the wagon at the back of a house and took us downstairs. It’s a lot like The Limit, but the basement here is really big. It seems like we walked a long time before they put us in this little room. One of the men had a lantern, but I didn’t see very much before they closed the door and locked it. No one has come around since they left us here.”

Rose wanted to tell Katelyn she had done well, and everything would be okay. Sky would find them. Paint was probably already looking for them. Whoever had stolen them couldn’t possibly understand what a stupid mistake they had made. With so many of the men from the Pack and Clan in Omaha, there was no way they would escape the vengeance the wolves would take on them for having stolen Pack women. Those fools might think she and Katelyn were the victims here, but they were in for a surprise.

In the dark, time passed with no markers. It might have been ten minutes or two hours before the door opened. Even the weak glare of an oil lamp hurt Rose’s eyes and sent fresh pain slicing through her head. She squinted and watched two men come in. One, the younger, had shoulder length blond hair and a familiar face. After a second she recognized him as Tony Askup, the rude man Sky had thrown out of The Limit the night she had waitressed. The older man was not nearly so handsome, but there was a family resemblance. Was this Tony’s infamous Uncle Terry? Beside her, she heard Katelyn’s breath turn to almost soundless sobs.

The older man smiled with gloating malevolence. “Welcome to the dungeon, ladies,” he said cheerfully. “Tony, run out to the hall and turn the light on. Let’s see just what we’ve paid extra for.”

If the glow of the lamp hurt Rose’s eyes, the stark glare of electric light almost blinded her. By slitting her eyes she was able to see the two men step further into the room. She dared a quick glance around and was astounded to see a sturdy four poster bed against the wall. She’d read the phrase ‘her blood ran cold’ in books before, but now she knew what it felt like. Each of the bedposts had a set of handcuffs around it. Swallowing, she snapped her gaze back to the men.

“Uncle Terry, we were overcharged,” the younger man said derisively, flicking his fingers toward Katelyn. “I’ve already had that one. She’s no fun. She cries, and she makes noises, but she doesn’t scream. She barely even bothers to fight.”

The chill in Rose’s blood was burned away by a flare of anger.

“That’s all right, boy,” the uncle said, still jovial. “She’s just extra. We have the real prize right here.”

Rose jerked her head back from his reaching hand. “Sky is going to eviscerate you.”

Both men laughed. “No, he won’t,” Terry said. “Not if he wants you to live. We’re just going to keep you here in the dungeon until he leaves Omaha. Then we’ll send you out to him.”

“Mostly in one piece,” the nephew added.

Katelyn made a thin sound of terror. Rose shifted until she stood half in front of the other woman. They would never let her go. It was a certainty that sank like lead into her belly, but she played along. “Sky and I are leaving Omaha soon. We’ve already planned it. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

Maniacal rage contorted Terry Askup’s face. Spittle flew from his lips. “Not soon enough. You’ve nearly wrecked everything for us,” he snapped. “Wanting to change the laws! Giving women the same rights as men! Trying to take away our source of funding! The things he wants to do will ruin us. And the stupid sheep in Omaha just follow after him like he’s the second coming. I told Tim we had to get rid of him years ago. But no, Tim thought Sky was good for business, so he put up with his crap for years. Now, finally, when things are ready to crash down around us, he’s given me the green light. It’s not too late. I’m going to stop this rebellion in its tracks by cutting off the head. Sky will come for you and when he does, I’ll kill him.”

The man was totally whacked. He needed an entire team of mental health professionals. Or a bullet to the brain. Yeah, a bullet would work wonders. Rose managed a pitying smile. “You're not playing with a full deck, are you?”

His cheeks went purple. Rose didn’t know a face could actually turn such a dark color. Rage did not become him as well as death would. Maybe he would have a heart attack. A girl could hope.

He gave an ugly laugh. “Feisty. That’s what we like. Say anything you want, but I promise I’ll make you scream.”

“We have better things to do than talk, don’t we, Uncle Terry?” Tony cupped his hands at the front of his pants and massaged himself. “We don’t have to wait for Andy, do we? He won’t be here until supper.”

“No, no need to wait,” the elder Askup proclaimed. “If your brother wanted to go first he should have found an excuse to leave his job early.”

Had she actually thought Tony Askup was handsome? The expression on his face now made him the ugliest man Rose had ever seen. “Wolfe won’t get here for hours, maybe days,” he said, gloating. “Andy will have plenty of time to take his turn. Should we flip a coin to see who gets first go at Mrs. Wolfe?”

“If you can handle her without manacles, you can have her first. I’ll chain this little honey up. When your brother gets here, he can take his pick of which one he wants first. They’ll be well used by then, but he can’t complain if he chooses to come to the party late.”

He grabbed Katelyn with a viciously tight hand around her upper arm. Rose made an abortive movement to try to stop him, but she had the nephew to worry about. She had to separate the two men. That way she could kill one without the other being close enough to interfere. She sidled along the wall, angling herself so she could still see Katelyn struggling as Terry dragged her toward the bed.

Against the backdrop of Katelyn’s terrified sobs and mindless moans, Rose stopped and faced Tony Askup. He thought he had backed her into a corner, and he didn’t expect her to put up much of a fight. Oh, he wanted her to put up a fight, because that would make it more fun for him, but like Zoe, he had no clue she had been training for years with deadly fighters. He himself was no fighter. He didn’t move like a fighter, did nothing to protect his belly or throat, and the hand he caressed his genitals with would do little to protect him from her knee. This fool thought she was easy pickings. She rubbed her elbow against her side, loosening her blouse to allow easier access to her knife. She was going to prove him wrong.