Page 101 of Pack Me Up

The man’s face is clearer now. He’s not Brittney’s father, not exactly, but the family resemblance is close enough to make me sick. He watches me come, never blinking.

I stop a foot away from him, body sideways, every sense on high alert.

“You lost?” I say, voice even.

“No,” he answers, in a voice so calm it’s almost robotic. “I’m where I need to be.”

The muscles in my forearms are on fire. Every instinct says to rip him in half, but I hold back. I’ve made mistakes before. I won’t again.

“You’re going to tell me,” I say, stepping forward until the space between us is nothing. “Who you are, who sent you, and what you want.”

For the first time, I see the fear, thin as a hairline fracture, behind his mask. He’s scared of me.

Hunter moves in from behind, arms loose, posture bored, but eyes deadly. “You want to do this the easy way, or the fun way?” he asks, and there’s a bite to it.

The man tries to move, but I see it coming. I slam him into the wall, hard enough to make the floor rattle. My hand is on his throat, just enough pressure to keep him pinned.

Fox is at my side, voice gentle. “Saint. Don’t kill him.”

I loosen my grip, just a little. The man glares at me, jaw clenched.

“Who are you?” I growl, the words scraping out of my chest.

“Not the enemy. I just need to talk to Brittney,” he gasps.

Fox grabs my arms so I don’t choke him harder. “Well, you won’t be talking to her. You’ll only be talking to us.”

He looks me up and down like he’s assessingmebefore saying, “My name is Robert Ryan. Brittney is my niece, and I have news for her.”

The world freezes. The name is a hammer. I remember the file Fox pulled on Brittney’s family. Her uncle is a former Marine.

Fox’s eyes go wide. Hunter whistles again, this time low and weirdly sympathetic. I release him, but don’t go far.

“She doesn’t know me,” Robert says, voice rough now. “She never met me.”

Hunter is all business now. “You never reached out to her?”

Robert laughs, bitter. “You think they’d let me near her? You think they’d let me talk?”

“What is the news?” I demand.

He turns on me, cold and practiced. “My job is to make sure Brittney knows what happened. Because if she hears it from anybody else, she’ll think she’s in danger. And if she thinks that, she’ll run. Again.”

Fox is the first to move. He sets a hand on my shoulder, a warning shot. My breathing slows.

“Tell us,” Fox says. His voice is soft, but there’s no give in it.

Robert’s hands are steady, but there’s a shake to his voice that wasn’t there before. “Her parents are dead. Car accident. Five days ago, on a trip to Seattle. I tried to reach her through official channels, but you people have her locked up like she’s a witness in federal protection. I had to see for myself she was safe and to tell her the truth.”

The words sit in the air, heavy and sour. My mouth goes dry. That was the night we saw one of her fathers.

Fox is the one who asks. “Truth about what?”

Robert looks right at me, then at Hunter, and finally at Fox. “About what happened to her family. And about who might be looking for her, now that they’re gone.”

Hunter stops pacing. “You mean the pack that tried to force her into mating?”

Robert nods, slowly. “They’re not going to let her go. Her father cut a deal before he died. Somebody’s going to come for her, soon.”