Gone with the Wolf - By Kristin Miller Page 0,17
him? To the biker dude?” Pointing, Emelia tried to rise up, but Drake held her against the seat.
“Everything’s going to be okay, I promise. Just leave it to me,” he said, though she didn’t believe him. No way. Didn’t he witness what just happened? “Mr. Bloomfield is taking care of everything now. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Nothing to worry about?” she screeched. “Are you insane?”
“I just need to get out of here before the cops show up, and then I’ll explain.” His words came out flat and emotionless, like he’d dodged the cops a thousand times before. He slid an arm beneath Emelia’s legs, swiveling her body so that her feet touched the ground. Her skin tingled beneath her soaked jeans. “Come on, let me give you a ride home.”
“But my car…I can’t just leave it here.” Her world swirled, in and out, in and out, fuzzing when she focused on slowing things down. “And why would we run from the cops? We didn’t do anything wrong. That guy tried to kill me. You and Mr. Bloomfield saw it…didn’t you?” She braced the steering wheel. “God, I’m so dizzy. I think I’m going to pass out.”
“You’re having a panic attack. You need to close your eyes and calm down.” His fingers curled possessively around Emelia’s arm. As though he’d toss her over his shoulder and carry her out of the car if she refused to leave. “I’ll take care of everything, but I need you to trust me.”
A dark, shadowed figure appeared at Drake’s side, tapped him on the shoulder, and handed him something. Yup, that was Mr. Bloomfield all right. Short, stocky, and stinking of Old Spice.
“I don’t, Drake. I don’t trust you at all.” Emelia closed her eyes anyway as something bit her backside, just below her hip. Her skin warmed, burning where she’d felt the sting. “Oww! That burns! Was that a wasp?”
“Sleep, Emelia.” Tender fingers, much too tender to be Drake’s, brushed sopping tendrils of hair out of her face. “We’ll work on the trust when you wake up.”
…
“She’s going to hate me for drugging her.” Drake tugged the sheets to cover Emelia’s exposed shoulder. “And she’ll have every right.”
“You could’ve let her see the cleanup,” Raul said. “It took two seconds to drag him to the trunk of the limo, and Ms. Hudson wouldn’t have gotten close enough to the body to see anything anyway.”
“He’d already begun the transformation when you tranquilized him, and Emelia’s much too observant.” Drake lowered his voice so he wouldn’t wake her. “She would’ve asked questions I’m not willing to answer. There was no other choice.”
“Then I’m glad I brought extra tranquilizer darts with me. I must admit, sir,” Raul said, “I’ve never seen you hold off the change as well as you did. I expected you to shift long before I got the tranquilizer loaded up.”
“I couldn’t let her see me that way.”
They weren’t exactly on the best of terms, but any chance Drake had of getting close to Emelia would’ve evaporated the instant he shifted into wolf form.
As it was, they’d cut it close. He wasn’t sure how much Emelia had seen, but he’d soon find out. She’d have a million questions, and he’d have to come up with answers that were as close to the truth as possible. If there was any chance of them being together, he had to reveal the truth to her slowly, and when she was ready.
“Why the hell was there a werewolf on that street? Emelia’s probably gone her whole life without running into a single one of us. She meets me and gets attacked. There’s no way that’s a coincidence.” Drake scrubbed his hands over his face. “I shouldn’t have left her alone in that bar.”
“You went back, sir.” Raul brought over a glass of water and set it on the bedside table. “There are too many members of our pack for you to monitor the second one goes rogue.”
“You really think he was from our pack?”
“What are you implying, sir?”
Drake shook his head. “I’m not implying anything. It’s just too bad he died before giving up any information.”
“Perhaps next time I’ll nail him with one dart, sir, instead of six.”
Drake bit back a laugh. “One can never be too careful.”
Emelia stirred. Little mewing sounds escaped her lips as she rolled over and clutched the sheet against her chest. Something stirred in Drake’s rib cage and he dragged his gaze away. She was innocent, oblivious to what she’d gotten herself into.