The Protector (17 page)

“Sure thing, boss.
I will run her up to the office
and use the equipment up there.”

“Thank
you, Aaron. I will look at it later this evening, when we have completed our
investigation here.”

Cole
looked around the clearing. Blair was still in town, and it was getting very
late. “I need to make sure Blair gets home ok. I have a shitload of work to do
still.”
 

Michael
leaned against the tree. “I will get a hold of Cassie, and see if anyone is
free to sit with her.”
  

Chapter
Ten

Blair
flipped through a book she found in Cole’s office. Part of her wondered why
Cole was talking to Lucas. She could not understand why Cole and Michael acted
as if Lucas had done nothing wrong. Michael hid it better than Cole because of
Cassie, but at the end of the day, Lucas still murdered Cassie's best friend.

It
didn’t matter to Blair if Lucas had mixed her up with the psycho that killed
his mate, Allie, and the baby. He’d still murdered an innocent woman. She felt
Michael should have banished him for good, not left him free to make another
mistake and kill someone else.

Caleb
walked into the office. “Hey, they got a scent trail for that missing kid. Cole
is busy right now with getting the girl’s statement and dealing with her
family.
 
I can see you home so you don’t
have to sit around here all night.”

Blair
smiled. “Great.”
 
She hoped Cole was
getting over his distrust of Caleb. The man was a town hero by bringing in a
nice business, which would not only bring some shopping to their town, but
attract other shifters to shop there instead of going into Colorado Springs or
Denver. Cole always looked at Caleb as if he was up to something though. Blair
knew Cole’s “I don’t trust you” look.

Caleb
was respectful to everyone, helped out with the town, and was building a
business that would keep them secure financially for years to come. What was
not to love?

“Ok.
Is the little girl all right? She wasn’t hurt or
anything,
was she?” she asked while putting the book back.

“Oh
no, everything is great. They found the girl, and she is going to be fine. Cole
is talking with the family, and that FBI agent that came to help.”

“Oh?”
Blair wondered why Cole didn’t just call her himself, but Cole was the sheriff,
and the
Kelach
of the
cholan
.
There would be times he was just too busy to stop and call her.

Caleb
held the door open for her. “I am sure he will get in touch with you soon.”

Blair
walked down the sidewalk towards the parking lot where Caleb parked his black Mercedes.
He held the door open for her and made sure she clicked her seatbelt before
closing the door.

Blair
smiled, again wondering why Cole had such a problem with Caleb. He was always
the perfect gentleman, just like Cole and Michael, and he made sure female
shifters were always home safely.

Caleb
got in the driver’s seat and started the engine. Blair looked around at the
luxurious interior of the car. It was so much nicer than her Buick or Cole’s
pickup truck. She guessed this was what being a contractor got a guy.

“Thank
you for taking me home,” Blair told Caleb as they drove out of town.

Caleb
looked at her.
“My pleasure.
I could not live with
myself if something happened to you.”

Blair
gave a short, humorless laugh. “A few weeks ago I would have told you this is a
very safe area.”

Caleb
stared at the road. “I do not think the trouble will last long. Once the others
accept the changes, things will settle down.”

“What?”
Blair asked. She looked out her passenger side window and screamed as a truck
with its lights off came out of a gravel drive and rammed into the car. The
impact forced the air from Blair’s lungs, and she felt like the world exploded.
Glass shattered around her, as she felt her head impact the side of the door.
Someone rammed the car several times with the pickup truck. It wasn't just an
accident. Someone was attacking them.

The
truck’s engine went to idle, and she heard the door open.

“Caleb,
get out. Caleb, we have to move, someone is coming. Caleb!” Blair screamed
frantically, but nothing roused him. Was he dead? She pulled her phone out of
her pocket and dialed 911, and hearing Stephanie’s voice answer, she tried to
get her hysterical sobs under control. “Please help me, we’ve been attacked. I
think Caleb is hurt.”

“Who
is this? Where are you?”

The
door opened, and a huge man in a ski mask grabbed her phone and threw it. “Get
out.”

“Please
don’t hurt me,” Blair cried shakily.

“Get
the fuck out of the car, now!”

Blair
looked around frantically for any kind of help. “My friend is hurt. Please call
an ambulance for him.” He grabbed her by the hair and yanked her hard, but the
seatbelt held her in place. Blair let out a pain filled scream and tried to
grab his hands.

“Unfasten
the seatbelt or I will rip your hair out. Then drag your ass out and make it
quick.”

“Ok,
I am doing it. Stop pulling.” Blair’s hands shook as she tried to find the
seatbelt in the dark and through her blurred vision from the tears. She heard
the click, and the seatbelt retracted.

He
yanked from the car and slammed hard onto the ground. Blair cried out, hoping
she made enough noise that someone would hear her. She hoped there were
cholan
still around, and as their hearing was more
sensitive than the typical shifter’s, screaming for help would attract their
attention.

He
landed hard on her back, knocking the breath out of her lungs. Blair gasped
several times, while he yanked her arms painfully behind her. Blair struggled
to get her breath while he wrapped rough twine around her arms and wrists.
Blair let out painful cries while she gasped for air. He shifted his weight on
her, allowing her to take a full breath. She used the chance to take a deep
breath and scream, “Help me!”

“Shut
the fuck up, bitch,” the man said in a snarling tone. Blair drew in a breath
for another scream when his fist impacted the side of her face. Lights flashed
behind her eyes, and the pain that exploded from the impact took her breath
away. She screamed again, but this time in pain, instead of a way to attract
attention.
“If you scream again, I will make it hurt far more
next time, you stupid bitch.”

Blair
felt herself hyperventilating, and she became lightheaded. Her arms were so far
behind her back that there was no way she could shift to free herself. Even if
she did, her bones would break instead of shifting. The thought of the pain she
would be in when all her bones fractured made her fight harder to get free, but
she was trapped.

She
felt a heart wrenching sob tear through her chest. Would Cole be the one who
found her when he was done with her? She cried harder imagining Cole crying
over her cold, lifeless body.

Just
as they repaired their fractured bond and mated, she would be ripped away from
him. She had to get back to Cole alive. Damaged was better than gone.

“Please
don’t hurt me. I will do whatever you want.” Blair heard her voice quivering
with emotion.

“You’re
going to do whatever I want anyways, bitch.” He finally got off of her and
pulled her up to stand. Blair was sobbing incoherently by the time he jerked
her to her feet.

“Stupid whore.”
He leered at her breasts. “You
are going to ride my cock before I put you out of your misery though.”

Blair
shook her head frantically, while screaming again. There was no reason to try to
save
herself
by following his instructions as he was
going to rape and murder her. Cole would find her and go mad with grief, like
Lucas, maybe even go feral. He may even go so far into madness that Michael
would need to kill him. Shifters who went completely insane with no chance of
ever recovering sanity were taken care of like that.
 
It was far better that way, than to chain
them to a cot for the rest of their lives.

 
Feral shifters were worse than wild animals
that went mad. They still had intelligence to track prey, but madness and blood-
thirst
made them dangerous predators.

Blair
let out a scream, terror giving her extra volume. Not for
her
own
life, but imagining Cole going insane, trapped in a cage, then
Michael forced to stop his heart.

“I
told you to shut the fuck up!” her attacker yelled and punched her hard,
knocking her to the ground.

Stunned
and in pain, Blair only whimpered as her mouth filled with blood.

He
leaned over her. “Scream like that again, and I’ll cut your fucking tongue
out.” He jerked her back up again.

Blair
stumbled along as he walked her deeper into the woods. While she tried to keep
on her feet as he made his way through the forest, she thought of other ways to
escape.

Maybe
if she could fake her death, he would leave her alive. She could leave a trail
for Cole and the other
cholan
to follow. She saw her
blood dripping and knew they would be able to scent her, so she dragged her
feet so they could have something they could see as well.

She
had no way of knowing how long they walked, but her legs were burning and
shaking from the steep uphill grade before he pushed her hard, making her
stumble.

“This
here is good enough.” He threw her to the ground. He took off his ski mask and
slapped the side of his face. “Fucking bugs, they should not be allowed to live
up here.”

Blair
instantly recognized him as the private investigator, Josh
Hamen
.
She’d had a creepy feeling about him when he was in the office, and now her
plans to try to remain calm vanished. Panic and the will to live took over, and
she rolled over and pushed herself up to her feet. She ran as soon as she was
on her feet, not knowing or caring which direction she ran as long as she could
get away from him.

“Stupid
cunt, get the fuck back here.”
 

The
rage Blair heard in Josh’s voice spurred her to run faster. She had to escape
and live, for Cole. She had to warn him about Josh. The man was evil. She let
out a scream when she heard footsteps and panting breaths behind her.

“Help
me, please someone help me.” She felt something hard hit her square in the
back, knocking her to the ground. Her head impacted the ground, making her
vision go black. She could feel, and hear, but she couldn’t see anything.

“Stupid fucking bitch.
I am going to make it hurt, for
that shit you just pulled.”

Blair
wanted to fight him off of her, but she was too disoriented.

“What
are you doing here already?” Josh asked someone in the distance.

“You
can have her in just a moment. I need to make sure she remembers nothing that
can give away my plans, stupid human. Why did you remove your mask? You were
supposed to just attack her and leave the rest to me.”

Blair
knew that voice and struggled to open her eyes to see if her suspicion was
correct. The betrayal cut her so deep she could barely breathe. If it was true,
they all trusted him, and he was not what he appeared to be.

“There
was a fucking bug crawling on me,” Josh said in a defensive tone.

Blair
opened her eyes and saw a man standing over her. He wore a kabuki mask like she
had seen in movies before, and as he lifted up his mask. Caleb was standing next
to Josh, and they were talking as if they were friends as Caleb laughed at
something Josh said.

Blair
wanted to scream, but her throat had closed off in shock and terror. She could
only stare mutely at them. She ran every scenario through her head to try to figure
out why Caleb would be here, with the man who kidnapped her. She couldn’t think
of any.

Caleb
ran a hand over his forehead. “I was hoping you would make this quick. I need
to get back and watch my daughter. She is about to marry that fucking Guardian.
Now I have to deal with both of you.”

“Aren’t
fathers supposed to be happy about their daughter’s wedding?”

“She
doesn’t know me. If she did, she would kill me, especially if she knew my
plans.”

Her
stomach churned with the realization that Caleb was the shifter betraying them.
Oh Goddess, Caleb is Cassie’s father!
Alarm
bells rang in her head. Caleb had tried to kill Cassie to further his own evil
agenda. Cassie thought she was safe in town, but she wasn’t.

She
had to warn Cassie and the others who her father was. She closed her eyes
quickly, hoping he hadn’t seen her watching him. If he knew she had seen him,
then he would kill her for sure.

She
had to tell Cole and Michael not to trust Caleb, but although Cole had his
doubts about Caleb, she knew Michael trusted him, so they would not suspect him
being her kidnapper and Cassie's father.

Blair
felt cold hands settle over her head and she tried to flinch away, but they
held onto her skull tightly. “Sorry it has to be this way, Blair. I need Cole
to trust me, and the best way to gain a man’s trust is to save his mate. His
jealousy when he thought I was interested in you as a mate was rather cute. He
will be so thankful that I saved you, he will fall right into my plans.”

“What?”
Blair asked before her words were cut off by a burning sensation growing in her
head. She finally screamed as it became too much, and she tried to struggle
away. She knew what Caleb was doing to her. He was erasing her memory, without
being careful to make sure she was not experiencing the burning agony it could
cause.