Moon Dance (15 page)

“
What have you been up to
the past couple years?” she asked. Talking was better than thinking
about that.

Cole had been drinking his
coffee. He raised his eyebrows over the top of the cup and then set
it down on the table. “Not much. Hiding out. Surviving.”

Right. He’d told her that he
spent long periods of time in wolf form. “Well,” she said. “You’ve
got a pardon now, so you won’t have to hide. What do you think
you’ll do now?”

He shrugged. “I don’t
know.”

Geez, why was she asking
this? It made it sound like she was angling for the two of them to
get together or something, and that was the last thing she wanted.
She wanted Avery. She wanted her family. Didn’t she?

Of course she did. She’d
chosen Avery, after all. She’d had the option of either Cole or
Avery, and she’d chosen—

Actually, she hadn’t chosen
at all.

She’d been running after
Cole, because he was in that burning farmhouse, and she was worried
about his safety. And Avery had stopped her, mated with her, and
she…

Goddamn the mating. The
mating fucked with her head. It had been fucking with her head for
years. But she knew that she’d been in love with Avery even before
they mated. She’d made love to him often enough when she wasn’t
mated, after all. But for that matter, she’d made love to Cole when
she wasn’t mated to him as well.

The thing with Cole was that
her attraction to him was so intense. She was always trying to
fight it, and she never could. Why she’d thought she could be out
here with him, alone, and not succumb to it was beyond her. She
never had any rational sense when she was with Cole, and she was
frightened that she’d just made the worst mistake of her
life.

She might very well ruin everything
with Avery, and then what would she have? Her whole life was going
to be destroyed.

You should have thought of
this before,
she told herself
fiercely.
You should have stopped
yourself.

But she hadn’t, and she
wouldn’t. She was on the path to destruction, and there was no
changing destination now.

“
Listen, I shouldn’t have
let you do this,” Cole said suddenly.

“
What? I decided to do it
myself. It wasn’t your decision.”

“
You might not believe me,
but I actually do care about you. And I can see that I’m not good
for you. I mean to stay away from you. I swear to God, I do. But
when I see you…” He shook his head.

She tried to smile. “Don’t
be so hard on yourself. It was my fault too. And it was only
because of the… ropes. And nothing really happened, so… I’m sure we
won’t end up in a situation like that again.”

“
You’ve got a kid, Dana. And
there’s no future for you and me to… I would not be good around a
kid.”

“
Well, you don’t know that,”
she said. “You were great with the kids from Hunter’s Moon Farm.
You said that when you were growing up, you had to help out with
younger children all the time. You’re probably good with
kids.”

He gave her a hard look.
“You really mean that?”

Why was she encouraging him?
“Not that I’m saying that we should… You’re right, there’s no
future for us.”

He picked up his coffee
again. “No, there’s not.”

“
I mean, it would cause
Avery so much pain.” And she couldn’t even imagine how things would
work out with Cole. Couldn’t imagine him living with her. Couldn’t
imagine him having anything as pedestrian as a job. “And it doesn’t
make any sense.”

“
I get it, Dana. Drop
it.”

She looked up at him. Oh, he
was hurt. She hadn’t thought…

“
Anyway,” he said. “You can
rest easy. Because I told Avery that I wouldn’t mate with you and
take you away from him. I’m not screwing up your family. Screwing
up your pack. Don’t worry about it.”

Right. She remembered Cole’s
saying that in the interrogation room when Avery had barged in. She
also knew that Cole had some ridiculous idea that Avery had mated
with her against her will, which wasn’t true.

But hadn’t she just been
thinking…?

God. It was too confusing. She loved
Avery. That was that.

And Cole… well, she
definitely didn’t love him. She never had.

She chewed on her lip. “I
know you think that Avery took me from you, but it wasn’t like
that.”

His jaw twitched. “Well,
you’d say that
now
, wouldn’t you? You’re mated to him.”

“
No, it’s more than that,”
she said.

“
You know what?” he said.
“Let’s drop this too.”

She sighed. Fine. There
wasn’t a lot that they could talk about, was there?

They were silent again.

Dana looked at Cole’s phone
and wished as hard as she could that someone would just get in
contact with him already.

* * *

Three hours and just as many
cups of coffee later, Cole
’s phone finally
rang.

Dana jumped. She’d been
hoping for it to happen, but it had still startled her. They hadn’t
had much to do besides check in with the SF every hour, and all of
their conversations kept taking awkward turns, leaving her confused
and worried.

“
Randall here,” said Cole
into the phone. He paused, waiting as someone spoke on the other
end. “I was inspired by what you guys did in California, of course.
I want to be part of that…. Well, she’s been out of my life for a
while, but I didn’t think Enoch would believe me if I just said I
was through with her…. He does? Good, so tell me where you are and
I’ll be there—” He was interrupted on the other end. He listened.
“Okay, fine. Of course, it’s not a problem for you to see her.
She’s right here in the trunk…. Tell me where you want to meet….
Yeah. Yeah, I know it…. I can be there in half an hour.” He hung up
the phone.

Dana looked at him
expectantly.

“
Well,” he said. “Guy I sent
the picture to forwarded it to Enoch, just like I wanted. His
name’s Booth. He’s just a go-between. He’s in good with the others,
but he doesn’t really work with them, which is why I still have the
ability to contact him. Anyway, then Enoch had someone else get in
touch with me. His name’s Geoffrey, and we’re going to meet him
now.”

“
So, they wouldn’t tell you
where they were located?”

Cole shook his head. “Nope.
Should have figured it wouldn’t be that easy. Hopefully, once they
see you, they’ll be satisfied, and they’ll give me the location
then. We can have the SF there by the end of the day.”

“
Good.” She nodded. “So, now
we leave?”

“
Now we leave. They’ve got a
place where they’ll meet us.”

“
Do I have to get tied up
again first?”

He shook his head. “I’m not
keeping you in the trunk for the whole drive. They’ll probably be
there when we arrive, though, so we’ll stop a few miles out and tie
you up again then.”

* * *

Cole was nervous about tying
her up again. He hadn
’t expected it to
affect him so much the first time he did it. He would have come up
with a better plan if he’d known it would get him so worked up.
Part of it was the way her body responded to him. She submitted to
him so easily, and then it was like she was just a ball of sex.
He’d forgotten the way she smelled when she was aroused.

It set his teeth on edge.

Part of it was something
else—something darker. Something fucked up that seemed have been
born within him when he was young. Maybe it was the way his father
had treated women. Maybe it was the way his father had
forced
him
to
treat women. He still remembered Tasha tied up in the barn,
completely naked, completely beautiful…

The darker part of him liked hurting
Dana.

Something about it
seemed…
right
to
him. That he would feel pleasure, and she would feel pain. That she
would surrender to that pain for his satisfaction. He knew it was
wrong, but it touched something ancient inside him, touched the
wolf. There was something primal and savage in the way he wanted
Dana, and something inside him enjoyed the idea of mounting her,
her squealing and whimpering beneath him, even struggling, until he
put his teeth in her neck and subdued her and took her and forced
her and
fucked
her, and—

When he stopped the car to
get her situated in the trunk, his hands shook as he tied her up
again. He did it as quickly as he could, trying not to touch her
soft, springy skin, not to rub his body against her body. He was
efficient and businesslike. Maybe a little rough.

And damned if she didn’t
seem to respond to that too. He could smell it all over her. She
wanted him. She was wet for him.

He wanted her too.

But that wasn’t happening,
so he shoved her down into the trunk, the hell if she was
uncomfortable, and slammed the door over her bound and twisted
body.

He got back in the car and surged
forward, images of her vulnerable and trussed up like that dancing
behind his eyeballs.

He couldn’t afford to be
turned on like this. He needed to be focused on making sure
Geoffrey didn’t suspect anything, not thinking about how much he’d
like to rip down Dana’s pants, splay her face down on the hood of
the car, and drive his cock into her until he exploded.

When he got to the meeting
place—an empty parking lot out by the community’s fairgrounds—he
spotted Geoffrey’s car right away, since Geoffrey and three other
guys were leaning against it.

Cole pulled up to them. He
got out of the car. The afternoon sun beat down on them. Cole
sauntered over. He held out his hand. “Geoffrey.”

Geoffrey shook his hand.
“Cole.” He inclined his head. “Open the trunk?”

Cole did.

Geoffrey and the other men lifted it to
look down at Dana.

She was curled into a ball,
knees against her chest, hands tied behind her back, blindfolded
and gagged. She looked just as vulnerable as she had before, and
Cole’s groin twitched. He took a deep breath.

Geoffrey looked up at Cole.
“Well, you brought her, all right.” He turned back to the other
guys. “Go ahead, fellas.”

Cole was confused. Go ahead?

But then he saw they were armed with
tranq guns, and before he could react, they were
shooting.

Two tranqs embedded
themselves in his chest. He reached up to pull them out, but his
arms didn’t work.

He was already falling, losing his
balance.

“
Knock the girl out too,”
said Geoffrey.

It was the last thing that Cole
heard.

CHAPTER NINE

Dana woke up with a start to the tape
being ripped off of her face. She sputtered, spitting out the gag,
and opened her eyes.

The first thing she saw was
a man’s neck. The man was bent over her.

Dana realized that she was lying on a
cold, concrete floor.

The man moved, and she saw
his face. She’d never seen him before in her life. There was a
snipping sound.

She looked down at her body.
The man was using a pair of scissors to cut off her clothes. She
had a quick flash of Cole doing the same thing when she was chained
in his basement.

And here she was on
concrete.

She lashed out all at once,
her limbs flailing—

Only to find that her hands
wouldn’t move. They were handcuffed in front of her.

“
Now, now,” said the man.
“Hold still, or you’ll get stuck with these.” He wriggled the
scissors in her face.

Horror washed through Dana,
like ice water filling her veins. She craned her neck back, trying
to get a better idea of her surroundings. It was a basement of some
kind. They were definitely underground. The light was scant and the
walls were made of concrete blocks. There was a cluster of junk
against the wall, rusty bicycles tangled up with a brass
headboard.

And then she caught sight of
skin—someone else—someone human.

Another woman. No, three
other women. They were naked, and they were sitting on the concrete
floor. There was a pole running horizontal against the wall, and
they were all handcuffed to it. They all huddled, trying to hide
themselves behind limbs and hair—matted, dirty hair.

Dana let out a little
scream.

And the man snipped the last
of her clothing away. “There,” he said. “That’s better.”

Dana scooted backwards,
using her legs to try to get away from him. She needed to
run.

He caught her and wrenched
her to her feet. His voice was soft and soothing, as if he was
talking to a small child. “Listen, sweetie, it’s going to be a lot
easier if you don’t fight. You’ll only end up tiring yourself out
or hurting yourself, because I’ll catch you again.”