Aric (The Boundarylands #7) - Callie Rhodes Page 0,1

in cash from his safe to start a new life, but he must have found out because he's waiting in the parking lot to kill me and anyone else who gets in his way.

Yeah…maybe honesty wasn't her best option.

Jocelyn rushed to catch up to the others, who were getting into an unremarkable dark sedan parked a few feet from the back door. Traci took the wheel, and Jocelyn slipped into the back. Gripping her bag tightly to her chest, she slumped down low in the seat, letting her long hair cover her face.

Energetic dance music filled the car, and Traci hit the gas. The moment they were out of the parking lot, Jocelyn twisted around in her seat to see if John had followed them, but the road was clear. In the distance, she spotted his car parked next to hers in the lot.

Jocelyn let out the breath she'd been holding as she turned back around. That was close—way too close.

"Nervous?" The woman named Hannah asked kindly. She seemed nicer than the others—or maybe she was just less worried about being picked last, whatever that meant. "Everybody is their first time. But don't worry, you'll do fine."

Great, Jocelyn thought. Now she just had to figure out what the hell she was expected to do.

"Where'd you work before this?" Traci asked from behind the wheel.

"San Francisco." Jocelyn winced as soon as her words were out. She had to do better at covering her tracks, but she suspected she wouldn't be any better at lying than she was at stealing.

"No shit," Courtney said, looking over the passenger seat. "I started there too. What neighborhood?"

"Pacific Heights."

Courtney seemed taken aback. She looked Jocelyn up and down appraisingly, taking in her simple blue wrap dress and understated heels, her hair held back with a tortoise-shell band, her pearl stud earrings.

"Fucking upscale," was her assessment. "But we're a long way from private mansions. How the hell did you end up here?"

"Well, I…" Jocelyn cast about for a credible response, but couldn't come up with anything.

"Leave her alone, Courtney," Hannah said. "You know better than anyone that we all have our stories and our secrets."

Courtney turned back around in her seat with a huff. "I guess it explains the bag, but you won't need it or any other fancy props here."

Jocelyn looked down at the fine, oversized leather handbag that she'd saved for months to buy, wondering what was wrong with it, but Hannah patted her leg reassuringly.

"She just means these guys like it simple."

These guys? Jocelyn wondered uneasily who she meant.

"Yeah," Traci laughed. "Long and hard and simple. Even if you use every damn toy in that bag of tricks, you're still going to wake up sore tomorrow."

Oh, shit.

Guys...tricks...waking up sore tomorrow...

Jocelyn had been too panicked to see it before. Too desperate for any way out.

Desperate enough to pretend to be someone else and pile into a car with a bunch of prostitutes, and now she was headed to some kind of brothel, or party, or…hell, Jocelyn had no idea. She didn't have anything against sex workers; she just hadn't ever expected to join their ranks.

Jocelyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. It was going to be fine, she told herself. She would figure something out. Wherever they were headed, it couldn't be as bad as John and his gun waiting for her back at her car.

And it wasn't as if she was a prisoner. Once the car stopped, Jocelyn would simply make up an excuse to slip away. These women were already annoyed with her. It wasn't like they'd come chasing after her.

She would find a quiet spot to hide, get some sleep, and figure out what to do next.

When she opened her eyes again, they were passing a sign announcing WARNING: BOUNDARYLANDS – 1 MILE.

Jocelyn's breath caught in her throat. Her heart began to race. "Um…guys—didn't you see that sign? We're about to cross the boundary."

Traci laughed behind the wheel. "Well, yeah, obviously. You didn't think that the alphas were going to come to us, did you?"

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

What the hell had she done?

Jocelyn hadn't just accidentally joined the ranks of a bunch of whores—she'd taken up with alpha whores.

Oh God, things could not get any worse.

Except…it turned out that they could. As the dark sedan speeded toward the border, a faint hum in the distance grew into the rumble of a familiar engine gaining on them. Even before Jocelyn turned around, she knew what she'd see.

Sure enough, out