Wild and Free (The Three #3)(5)

She was right.

But seeing as she was crazy, she was also wrong.

“And since Ma can’t open the door, I’m here,” the son put in. I looked to him and he was still grinning. “Another thing I don’t get about our boy, why he has steel doors installed in every pit he occupies. It’s whacked.”

I blinked.

Every pit he occupies?

“Chen, your opinions are not needed at this juncture,” the woman noted.

“Ma, look at her.” He swung an arm out toward me. “She’s freaked.”

“I can see that, and if you’ll be quiet, I’ll do something about it,” she shot back.

He again settled in with his arms on his chest, mumbling, “This oughta be good.”

“Chen!” she snapped.

“Ma, no joke, what you’re about to say is gonna freak her more,” Chen retorted.

Excellent.

“Uh, if I could butt in here,” I butted in there, “your boy kidnapped me after committing five serious felonies, so I’m not sure I can get more freaked.”

I didn’t know if it was a felony to kill a wolf with your bare hands, but if I were a lawmaker, it would be.

After I said this, something changed in the woman’s face that made me brace, and considering I was already alert and ready for attack, this meant every muscle in my body strung tight.

“Qīn ài de,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you should sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down,” I returned. “I want to leave.”

“That cannot happen and I think you know why,” she replied gently.

“All I know is,” I retorted, “I’m in a basement room that does look like a safe house for terrorists. I’m here not of my own accord. I’m covered in blood. And I watched one guy murder three men and two wolves not an hour ago. I should be at a police station. I shouldn’t be talking to two Chinese folks who seem nice, but who are somehow connected with that man, and that man scares the absolute pants off me.”

“Abel would never hurt you,” the woman stated.

“Maybe not,” I replied, “but he has no problem hurting other people…like a lot. Like until they’re dead.”

“Those other people were vampires,” she announced and I stared, feeling my mouth drop open. “And, of course, werewolves.”

Slowly I closed my mouth and whispered, still staring at her, “Brilliant. Awesome. Fucking fabulous. You’re crazier than he is.”

“I know it’s hard to believe, but she’s telling the truth,” Chen put in.

“Great, and you’re crazy too,” I muttered, turning my stare to him.

He grinned again, shook his head, and declared, “Abel will just have to transform in front of you.”

Transform?

“What?” I asked.

“He’s a werewolf too,” Chen told me.

I blinked.

“And a vampire,” Chen finished.

I said nothing.

They didn’t either, both watching me, assessing my reaction.

Eventually, I gave it to them.

“You’re both totally insane.”

“We’re not, we’re—” the woman started but stopped when it happened to me.

She didn’t miss it, but then again, it would’ve been impossible to miss. As the pain sliced through my innards, I sucked my cheeks in, lurched back, bent double, and dropped the knife so I could wrap my arms around my stomach in a futile effort to contain the pain.

“What is it?” Jian-Li asked the same time Chen asked, “Hey, you okay?”

My mouth filled with saliva and the pain twisted, taking me down to a knee.

Chen was close in a flash, kneeling next to me, hand to my back. “Hey, hey, hey,” he crooned. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”

My head jerked back. It did it; I didn’t make it.

And then my mouth moved.

“He’s in danger.”

Chen swore under his breath.

“Where?” Jian-Li demanded, also now close.

“I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” I chanted, feeling the pain at the same time feeling a panic that was so extreme, it was nearly consuming. I reached out a hand and clasped it on Chen’s biceps, curling it tight and yanking him to me even as I leaned his way. “We have to get to him.”

“You’ll guide me?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Let’s go,” he said, straightening and pulling me with him. We were both racing to the door when he called back to his mother. “Call Xun and Wei.”

“Of course,” she replied, her tone urgent, and we were out the door, up the stairs, and down the alley where he stopped me by a motorcycle.

The man they called Abel had a Harley Sportster.

Chen had crotch rocket.

My father rode a Harley. My father had ridden a Harley since before I was born. My father got a job at thirteen and worked it, saving every penny to buy his first broken-down Harley at the age of fifteen. And my father would disown me if he knew I did what I did next, that being jumping right on behind Chen after he mounted it and turned the ignition.

I wrapped my arms around his flat stomach and leaned deep, lips to his ear. “Left out of the alley, right at the next street. Hurry!”