"We're meeting over at the rangers' office."
"I'll be there."
He hung up and quickly dressed, then bounded up the stairs. He knelt by the bed, kissing Neva's lips gently, feeling the stirrings of passion in the sleepiness of her response.
"Sleep well, my love. I'll be back soon." He brushed the hair from her eyes, kissed her nose, then left.
The phone rang again as he was walking towards Main Street. He pressed the receiver and said, "Don't tell me, the location's changed."
"It certainly has."
It wasn't his father on the phone. It was Betise. His knuckles went white with the force of his grip. "If you've hurt him, bitch, you're both dead."
Betise tsked. "Such anger."
"Just tell me what you want."
"My mother is waiting in front of the hair salon for you. I'm not sure where you are, but you have two minutes to get there and get into the truck. We hear, see, or smell the rangers anywhere near, and René is a dead man."
"This is not going to achieve anything."
"Promises were made. Tonight they will be fulfilled."
The bitch was definitely crazy. He hit the "end" button, then dialed his father's number as he ran. "Betise just called me," he said, the minute his father answered. "She wants me in front of her hair salon, alone, within two minutes."
Zeke swore. Duncan didn't give his father the chance to say anything else. "Follow the truck's tracks," he said. "And don't get near enough for them to see or smell you, or René's dead."
He hung up, sped around the corner, and saw not one waiting truck, but two. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught movement, and something sharp plunged into his arm. He swore and swung around, fist flying. Betise laughed and danced out of the way. He glanced down. A dart had been buried hilt deep into his forearm.
"Do you really think I'd trust you to sit back like a good little wolf while we take you to René?" she taunted. "I may be well-used flesh, Duncan, but I'm not stupid."
He lunged for her. But it felt like he was moving through glue, and his feet were extraordinarily heavy. Betise laughed, capering just beyond his reach. The dart must have been drugged. He cursed her and lunged again, but suddenly found himself falling face first onto the pavement. Then the darkness rushed in, accompanied by harsh, almost maniacal laughter.
Chapter Fifteen
Neva woke to the nagging sensation that something was wrong. Frowning, she lay still in bed, listening to the silence haunting the cabin. Duncan wasn't there. His smell was little more than a lingering tease of wood on the air, and there was no sound of footsteps or breathing. Maybe he'd joined the hunt for Betise and Iyona.
She glanced toward the window. The light filtering past the curtains was soft, almost muted, as if the day had come and gone, and dusk was almost over. Surely she couldn't have slept that long.
Neva? Savannah's thought was abrupt, and the feeling of wrongness increased.
What's happened? She swung out of bed, shivering a little as the cool air caressed her skin, and padded downstairs to find her clothes.
Plenty. Savannah's mind voice was grim. There was a fire at the hospital, which we've since discovered was little more than a cover for René Sinclair being snatched. Duncan then got a phone call stating he'd better meet Iyona in front of Betise's hair salon if he wanted to see his brother alive.
He wouldn't have gone to such a meeting alone. Surely he wasn't that stupid.
He was given little choice and little time. But he did call his father. By the time we got there, the trucks were gone. We followed the tracks, but the damn snow came down again, and we lost them.
Neva cursed the unseasonably late onslaught of snow, though no doubt the skiers still lingering in Ripple Creek were rejoicing. I'm coming to the hospital.
I'm not there.
What? Savannah —
I'm fine. I'm being careful. But I'm a ranger, and I'll be damned if I'll lay on my back in bed while these bitches run around killing and kidnapping people.
Neva moved across to the window and looked out. It was no longer snowing, and the moon was rich and yellow and almost full as it began its ascent in the darkening sky. She stared at it for a moment, remembering Betise's words. Remembering her conviction, her certainty, that she and Duncan were soul mates. She's going to perform the promising ritual.