Extraits

Spoiler(cliquez pour révéler)Seeing Addie as we headed around the front of the house was enough to send a bolt of fear spiking through me. I broke into a run as she started to get out of her car, breaking away from my friends as they were mid-conversation.

“Addie!” I yelled, hearing Katy and the others start running behind me.

I slid to a stop, my shoes catching on the gravel in front of her. My heart slammed painfully against my ribs as my brain spiraled to come up with a reason for why she was here and not with Mom. “Is it Dad? Did something happen?”

Guilt and fear churned in my gut. If something had happened to him while I was dealing with Lodge …

“No,” Addie replied, tears in her eyes as she thrust her phone at me. A tremulous smile curved her lips. “It’s Skye. She’s on the phone.”

The world stopped turning so abruptly that I wondered if I would fall off. Everything went still for one moment as time suspended.

I grabbed the phone, nearly ripping it from Addie’s fingers as I pressed it to my ear. “Skye?”

The only sound I heard was a tiny, hiccuping sob that absolutely gutted me. But I knew that sound all too well.

“Babe, hey.” I swallowed hard, even if I could have broken down and started crying with her. “Talk to me.”

“Sorry.” She whispered the apology as I turned away from Addie and my friends.

That didn’t matter. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” she answered, her voice stronger. I could picture her straightening her shoulders and pulling herself together. She was a master at smothering her emotions. “I’m fine. I’m just … God, I tried calling you and you didn’t answer, and I thought the worst.”

Fucking hell.

I winced, kickingmyself. “I left my phone in the car.”

Which was probably the stupidest thing I could have done when I had no idea where she was. But what were the odds she would call in the fourteen minutes I had been away from my phone? I had been heading back to the car now to get it.

“Mom told me about the challenge and your dad. I’m so sorry, Rem.” She sniffled again. “Is Gabe okay? Are you okay?”

“Dad’s hanging in there, and I’m fine. Where are you? I’ll leave now to come get you.” The plane would be taking off to head back to Brooks Ridge any minute, but maybe I could stop it. Hell, I would charter a private plane if I had to.

A strangled sound escaped her. “You can’t.”

“The hell I can’t,” I replied, practically growling the words as my hand tightened around the phone.

“Remy,” she sighed, sounding defeated, “I’m not anywhere near you right now.”

“That’s what airplanes are for,” I clipped out, turning and looking at Rhodes.

He was already on his phone. He covered the mouthpiece and told me, “I stopped the plane. Find out where Skye is, and we’ll go get her.”

We’ll go get her.

My friends looked at me with determination and hope. They would follow me into the devil’s house to bring her back because they loved her, too.

“There’s a storm coming in, and Dimitri said we’ll be stuck here for days,” Skye said bitterly into the phone. “You wouldn’t make it.”

“Who the fuck is Dimitri?” I snarled, wondering where she was and who the hell she was with.

Whatever adrenaline I had spent taking down Lodge was roaring back to the surface now. I had no idea if Dimitri was a friend or keeping her there against her will. Maybe he was someone else from Long Mesa.

“Daniel,” she corrected. “It’s Daniel. From the Summit? He was with Elias.”

“Wait, you’re with Daniel?” I asked, frowning as I tried to keep up.

“We were looking for you when the bomb went off,” she explained. “The blast knocked me out—”

“What?” I demanded, fear flashing through my body.

“I’m okay, I swear,” she assured me. “He got Tate and I out of there and brought us to his pack.”

“Daniel didn’t have a pack,” I muttered through clenched teeth. I looked at Dante and Ryder. “But Tate’s with you?”

“Yes,” Skye said quickly. “Tell Dante she’s fine.”

I gave him a tight smile. “Skye said that Tate’s okay. They’re together.”

“Thank fuck,” Dante muttered as Ryder sighed heavily, leaning his forehead against Dante’s shoulder. “Can we talk to her?”

“She’s not with me right now,” Skye informed me, clearly hearing Dante’s request. “She’s … sleeping. I’ll have her call him as soon as she wakes up.”

“Skye’s not with her. She’s sleeping or something” I told him, but that didn’t sound right. I had known Tate for years; she wasn’t the type to sleep through a crisis.

Dante frowned, clearly thinking the same thing I was.

“Skye, where are you?” I pressed. “Daniel’s pack was from Arizona, right? We can be there in a few hours.”

She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “God, I wish. Daniel isn’t Daniel, Rem. His name is Dimitri, and he’s … Jesus, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but he’s my brother. Kind of. It’s a long story. We have the same father.”

Wait.

What the actual fuck?

My hands started to shake. “Babe, where the hell are you?”

The heavy pause between us sent my senses into high alert. I wasn’t going to like her answer.

“Russia,” she finally murmured.

he smiled softly at him, probably not even noticing the way her body completely relaxed when he touched her. “Good. We have enough places to put people. Also, I gave up your house.”

Rhodes frowned, clearly confused by the eviction notice. “You did what?”

Larkin rolled her eyes and pulled away from him, patting his chest. “You’re moving in with me. That frees up your house for a family who needs it until we finish building them a permanent house.”

“Did I agree to this?” Rhodes asked, his head tilted to the side.

Katy shrugged, turning back to the map. “Fine. Stay in your house by yourself. Larkin’s parents offered to host a family.” With a wicked smile she looked over her shoulder. “Dante, was it Brett who wanted to date Larkin last year? We can put him and his parents with them.”

“Yup,” he agreed easily, latching onto the idea of giving Rhodes shit. “Wanted to take her to the Spring formal, I think.”

“Excuse me?” Rhodes’ expression darkened, and I couldn’t help but smile.

Brett was a year younger than us and had made the mistake of asking for my permission to date Larkin last year. Unfortunately for him, Rhodes had been with me at the time and even though he still had his head in his ass where Larkin was concerned then, he had still managed to scare Brett into never speaking to Larkin again.

“Brett wanted to date me?” Larkin narrowed her eyes at Katy before turning her suspicious gaze on her mate.

Katy grinned. “Oh, yeah. He asked Remy if he could date you last spring, but Rhodes had a hissy fit.”

Larkin glared at Rhodes, hands on her hips as her tiny nose wrinkled in annoyance. She looked like a pissed off puppy. “Is that why Brett stopped talking to me?”

Rhodes gave her a hard look, not giving an inch. “You’re mine. Then, now, and in another fifty years, baby girl