Emma shook her head, obviously trying to fight off the dizzying weakness of her wounds. “He smells like motor oil,” she whispered haltingly. “Isa cried for Ashley, but he hit her because she knocked the gun out of his hand. It’s under the bed. He hit me first, took out Ashley then grabbed Isabelle. Isa took your shirt.” She lifted her gaze to him again. “She’s only wearing your shirt.”
“Let’s move.” Malachi was on his feet, his gaze slicing to the tracker Rule had brought with them.
Braden Arness was one of the best they had, and the woman at his side, his mate, a Navajo empath that could find a fucking needle in a haystack.
Braden grabbed Malachi’s shoulders, but he was expecting it. He stood still, the animal inside him snarling for action as the Breed inhaled the scent just beneath his ear and again at his lower neck.
It was there that the mating scent was strongest during the first stages of the mating heat. It was from there that Braden would have the scent of Malachi’s mate, as well as the scent the shirt would carry.
Releasing him, Braden turned but his mate, Megan, was already hurrying for the door. “I told you something wasn’t right,” she reminded her mate furiously as they headed from the door. “I knew the pain I felt was tied to this. God, Braden, I should have looked further.”
“We’ll find her,” Braden promised. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll find her.”
And Malachi could only pray the tracker was right, because God help him if he lost his mate. Still, the howl that tore from his throat and echoed through the corridors of the hotel was haunting, filled with rage and grief. A coyote’s mate was in danger. God help the bastard responsible because now death was his only option.
Chapter Ten
You held my heart in your hands.
I felt its warmth, its power, and its promise.
“Holden, don’t do this, please.” Fear crawled up Isabelle’s back as she fought the sickening pain caused by the grip he had on her wrists as he dragged her down the stairs with him.
She couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t believe he would have lost his mind to the point that he thought he could shoot one of the few coyote Breed females, and kidnap her and get away with it.
“You’re hurting me, Holden,” she cried as the dagger-like sensations stabbed at her wrists at every point that his flesh touched hers.
“Do you really think I give a fuck, you stupid little whore?” he screamed furiously as he dragged her down another flight of stairs. “You and those fucking bitches up there have just about ruined everything. All you had to do was be your usual stuck-up bitch self and stayed there alone after that Breed left. That was all you had to do.”
He gave another hard jerk at her wrists as though in retaliation for the perceived slight.
The harsh tug as she made that first, stumbling step to a landing caused Isabelle to lose her balance and twist her ankle. She went down hard, fighting to catch herself to lessen the chances of serious injury.
Holden refused to release her wrists as she went down. The lack of support and her inability to hold herself up had her falling down the next step, her hip colliding against the edge painfully.
“Fuck! Keep it up bitch and I’ll leave you to bleed out like I did that whore Breed.”
Isabelle screamed out in pain as he yanked at her wrists at the same time his fingers buried in her hair and used the thick length to jerk her up.
“He’ll kill you!” she screamed out at him, the pain and the humiliation enraging her. “Malachi will kill you, Holden. You know he will. You stupid bastard, you just possibly killed one of the most loved Breed females in the world. There’s no way they’ll let you live.”
She kicked at him, sobbing at the pain as he threw her against the wall before tossing her behind him once again.
“Fuck you, bitch,” he sneered. “He’s not going to kill anyone. He’ll be too busy chasing after you and the rest of them will follow suit. And I’ll be far far away.”
“You can’t run far enough.” She resisted, pulling her weight back and fighting his hold every inch of the way. “You can’t find a hole deep enough to hide in,” she spat in his face. “You’re a dead man walking.”
Ashley wasn’t dead. She had seen the other girl moving, watched her eyes open as Holden dragged her from Malachi’s room to the stairwell in the next wing.
Emma would have contacted Malachi immediately. She wouldn’t have waited. God, she had to be conscious enough to have contacted Malachi.
Where was he?
She stared behind her, looked up, fighting to catch a glimpse of him, to catch a glimpse of anyone that could report the abduction.
“You’re going to make me a hell of a lot of money, bitch.” He laughed at her attempt to break free, the pain shooting through her wrists making her weak.
Dazed from the confusing effect of his touch on her wrists, and the earlier blow to her head that he had used to keep her from escaping the room as Emma and Ashley rushed in, Isabelle found it more difficult to focus by the second.
“You won’t get to spend a penny of it.” She stumbled on the next landing again, crying out brokenly as her knee connected with the unyielding metal beneath her.
“Son of a bitch, what’s your fucking problem!”
The blow to the side of her head was humiliating. Not really hard enough to be disabling, just enough to rattle her senses and draw another hoarse cry from her lips.
Holden laughed, though the sound was filled with mockery and fury.
“If you had just been smart enough not to fight me that night,” he snapped. “All you had to do was lie there and take it like a good little girl and everything would have been fine, Isabelle. I’d have married your stupid little ass, given you a kid or two and life would have been good. I’d have you, your daddy’s ranch, and the respect I deserve. But you had to go fuck a Breed, didn’t you?”
“I would have died before I would have done anything but killed you,” she screamed furiously as the pain became excruciating. “I should have killed you while I had the chance.”
“But you didn’t, did you Isabelle? You let that puke-faced little sister of yours stop you. That was your second mistake.” He was up in her face, nose to nose, his rough features twisted into a monstrous mask of anger. “The first was denying me.”
A heavy, merciless hand gripped her jaw, pushing her head against the wall as he seemed to be trying to push it through the cement.
“Why are you doing this?” Isabelle cried out as he released her jaw.
The next second an openhanded slap knocked her to the side. The grip he still maintained on her wrists was the only thing that kept her from tumbling down the steps as she lost her balance.
She was weak, the pain rushing through her was worse than it should have been. Far worse. But he wouldn’t let go of her. He kept touching her, and for some reason just his touch was like a thousand blades cutting into her flesh.
“Hurts doesn’t it?” he rasped as he began dragging her down the steps again. “They were right about that. It hurts bad enough you can’t even fight me.”
They, who the hell was “they”?
Isabelle shook her head as she fought to make sense of what he was saying.
“What did you do to me?” She could barely breathe, the pain was building so much.
“I didn’t do it, stupid,” he bit out in disgust. “You did it to yourself when you let that dirty coyote knot you. If I’d known you like fucking dogs, slut, I would have brought mine over for a visit.”
Isabelle shook her head, let herself fall against the wall and dragged back on his hold again as she tried trip them both.
He laughed at her efforts.