Bound by Danger (The Alliance #6) - Brenda K. Davies Page 0,42

to watch his car drive away, but he didn’t react.

Lucien hadn’t bothered to ask the kid for a cell phone; he almost certainly had one, but he didn’t have the time to talk to Ronan now, and he wasn’t going to steal the kid’s phone. He’d need it to call someone for a ride home.

Once they settled somewhere, he’d call, but first, they had to get somewhere safe. He was aware he was putting off the inevitable, but a part of him dreaded the call. He hadn’t become a Savage, but he’d been so close he could still feel that madness seeping through his brain.

And because of that, he wasn’t ready to face his mentor and friends. He would call soon, but first, he would get her somewhere safe.

Chapter Eighteen

Three car changes and a whole lot of driving around between New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania later, Lucien pulled into the parking lot of a small motel outside of the Poconos.

The sun had set behind the mountains hours ago, and the moon was high in the sky when he doused the car’s headlights before shutting off the vehicle. He studied the exterior of the small motel while he listened to the tick of the Jeep’s cooling engine.

Callie leaned forward in her seat to peer up at the vacancy sign. “We don’t have any money.”

“That won’t matter.”

“Oh, yeah,” she muttered, feeling like an idiot as she recalled he could bend others to his will.

Uneasiness churned in her stomach; she was ready to be out of the car and definitely ready for sleep, but she hated the idea of him using that ability. When would he turn it on her?

She gulped as goosebumps broke out on her arms. She supposed it was a good thing she wouldn’t know when it happened… or maybe she would.

She couldn’t say how the ability worked. Maybe the guards recalled everything they’d seen and heard, but they couldn’t do anything about it.

Then she recalled Lucien instructing them to forget everything they witnessed, and she really hoped they did precisely that. The old man shouldn’t have the memory of that fight between Lucien and the Savages. He should be able to sleep at night without recalling the blood and violence that unfolded earlier in the day.

She’d like to do the same, but if it came between a mind erase and the memory, she would choose the memory. She enjoyed her mind the way it was.

Using the heels of her palms, she rubbed her eyes and stifled a yawn. Dropping her hands, she opened her eyes to study the brick building before them. Fifteen or twenty units branched off the main office to run along the left side of it.

The lit-up, neon sign to her right proclaimed it to be the Mountainside Motel, and beneath it was the vacancy sign. There were a few other cars in the lot, but it was more empty than full.

Despite its nearly empty status, it looked so cozy with the mountains rising behind it and flowers overflowing the containers on either side of the glass office door. She yearned for a hot shower and a comfortable bed. She was certain she’d sleep for three days straight once she had both.

“We’ll be safe here,” Lucien said.

She wanted to believe him and, after the many hours they spent in vehicles, back roads, and different states today, he had to be right, but she was afraid to believe it was true. “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

He was confident the last time they were on camera was in New York, when they stopped at a convenience store to load up on food and drinks for her, along with other assorted supplies. Unfortunately, the store hadn’t sold any disposable phones. He could have stopped somewhere else, but he’d chosen to stay away from cameras.

The guy he stole this Jeep from wouldn’t report it missing for another three days. He’d taken the guy’s phone only to discover it unlocked by a fingerprint. He’d junked it on some back road in New York.

“Come on,” he said. Her exhaustion and fear beat against him; he would get her settled before he called Ronan. “Let’s go.”

He lifted the pair of sunglasses he’d taken from their second vehicle and slid them into place over his still red eyes. The black lenses blocked the color of his eyes. He was hungry again, and once they got a room, he would feed.

They unbuckled their seat belts and jumped out of the Wrangler. The original owner had removed