Loving Their Vixen Mate (Pack Wars Book 4) (25 page)

“Do you have any idea who’s parked in the drive?” he whispered.

She didn’t dare say the head of the Colters. That would imply she knew who that was. “No.”

“Look. We don’t have much time. Get in. Please. We don’t need anyone looking out the window and seeing us.”

“Seeing me? Or seeing you?” Mac wasn’t sure why she felt the need to push his buttons.

If Paul Statler was this new arrival, and he spotted her, he’d remember her for sure. The man was smart enough to connect the dots about her wanting to find Cheryl. He’d question her about what she had on William Daniels, and the scenario would no doubt end badly.

“Both,” he said.

“I appreciate you coming to my
rescue
, but I don’t know anything. You must have mistaken me for someone else.” The sarcasm leapt to her tongue.

The man in the backseat scooted out, picked her up, and dumped her in the car. “When he tells you to get in, it’s best to do what he says.” He slid in after her.

“Hey.” She twisted to face the man so that her hands were free to open the door, but the damn thing wouldn’t budge.

“It’s locked from the outside. You can’t escape,” her seatmate said.

The first man slid into the front seat and tossed a set of keys to Mr. Backseat, who promptly unlocked her cuffs. Just as she rubbed her bruised wrists, he reached across her, lifted her left arm, and clamped the other half of the cuff to the overhead handle.

“Is that necessary? You just said I can’t escape.”

The man in front started the engine. “She sounds like Chelsea, doesn’t she?”

Mac should be scared shitless being in the company of these two brutes, but two things struck her. One, if they worked for Paul Statler, why not take her into the house? Secondly, the man in front said the woman’s name with affection. The name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it.

“Who are you guys? You just can’t kidnap someone without cause.”

Mr. Backseat chuckled. “We didn’t kidnap you. We saved you.” He leaned closer, and she expected to be repulsed, but the man did smell nice. “You were trespassing, taking pictures without the owner’s knowledge.”

She lifted her chin, trying to appear as confident as possible when all she wanted to do was tremble. “How do you know Mr. Daniels didn’t hire me to take pictures of the man who arrived?”

His brows pinched. “You can do better than that. Who are you really?” Mr. Backseat glanced to the man in front. The driver said nothing. Clearly, they were mentally discussing what to do with her.

Mac had no intention of giving them any information. There was a chance they were security for Mr. Daniels. “If you wouldn’t mind, could you drop me back off at my car? I’ll be happy to get on my way, never to return.” They were turning out of the neighborhood, but it wouldn’t be too much out of their way to go back. Since she kept her tone quite nonchalant, she thought they might agree.

“We’ll bring you back tomorrow if you answer all of our questions tonight.”

Tomorrow?
That would be disastrous. Sam and Brandon would freak when they came home and found her missing. Well, Sam would anyway. She had to make them see reason. “Okay. My name is…” She could go with the one she used to get into Roger Medlock’s house or use her real first name. Since she didn’t want to be associated with yesterday’s disaster, she told the truth. “Mackenzie.”

Mr. Backseat picked up her camera, turned it on, and scrolled through the pictures. “She was doing some kind of reconnaissance.” He set the camera next to her and faced her. “What were you hoping to learn?”

“I’m not saying anything more.” She could say she was with the DEA, but if these men were dealing in drugs that would give them even more reason to kill her.

Kill me?

Would they? At the possibility, her palms dampened and her stomach sickened. She couldn’t die without finding Cheryl first.

“Guess we’ll have to torture her, Kurt.”

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror. “I’m game.”

Were they serious? What could she really tell them? Other than the list of possible names of men who might have bought women, she truly was in the dark. “I told you, I don’t know anything.”

“People who don’t
know
anything don’t hide behind trees taking photos.”

“You don’t get it.” She tugged on her restraint, but the metal wouldn’t budge. With her free hand she could have dug into her pocket for her lock picks and been freed in seconds, but Mr. Backseat would have stopped her in a flash. Besides, she didn’t want to let them in on one of her many talents.

If this was the end of her life, she refused to cry and beg. That would just make her last day on earth all the more pathetic. Her biggest regret was that her death would upset Sam and Brandon. Upset? Hell. They’d be tormented. They’d blame themselves for not watching over her, when in truth, she was her own woman. She’d taken the chance and failed.

“Enlighten us,” the man in the front seat said.

If only there were some tidbit of information she could toss these two to make them want to keep her alive.
Think
. Then it came to her.

“Did you know Mr. Daniels was arrested once for trying to bring drugs into the United States, but he got off?” She prayed her assessment of these two as not being affiliated with Daniels was correct.

Mr. Backstreet glanced at her. “We did. What else you got?”

She had to take a chance they weren’t working for the man. “His business is floundering and his wife’s medical bills are growing. I think he might be desperate for money, which might account for his recent trip to Mexico.”

“Makes sense.” The man was good at keeping a straight face.

“That’s all I know.”

That and the belief he bought one or more woman. If she told them that, however, and she was wrong about them, they might warn Daniels. For sure, that would be the death of her cousin.

“W
here the hell is she?” Sam paced in front of the dining room table.

Brandon pulled out the laptop. “I’ll check the tracking device.”

“When I find Mackenzie, I’m going to lock her in the house, and she won’t get a breath of air until we have Cheryl.”

Brandon booted up, and then tapped away. Sam stepped behind him, but then he was unable to watch. It was happening all over again. First Donny disappeared, and now Mackenzie. Had it been his fault to let her stay by herself? Possibly, but in all fairness, they’d had to do their job, and they sure as hell couldn’t have taken her with them.

Brandon looked up at Sam. “It says she’s here.”

“What do you mean here? Did you see her car in the drive? You don’t need to answer that. That bug must be defective.”

His cousin leaned back in his seat. “Those bugs have never failed before.” He snapped his fingers. “That little vixen. I bet she found the device and left it in the house.”

That was something she’d do. “I’ll kill her. I swear to God.”

His cell rang, but he wasn’t in the mood to speak with anyone.

“Aren’t you going to see who it is? It could be Mackenzie.”

Fuck. Sam pulled the phone from his back pocket. “No. It’s Kurt.” He didn’t know why one of the Pack members would be calling him, but it must be important. “Sam.”

“I have someone here who needs rescuing.” His good friend had the nerve to chuckle.

His fist clenched at the female voices in the background. He recognized them. “You have Mackenzie?”

“Yes. I gotta hand it to her. She was calm the whole time, even after we caught her not twenty feet from Statler and cuffed her. Then when I said I was going to call you, she kind of freaked. Even begged me to drive her to her car so she could go home.”

“Are you at your house?” Once he realized she was safe, his anger built. He’d tie her up and lock her in their playroom. For life.

“Yes.”

“I’ll be right over.”

Kurt hesitated. “Bring Brandon. I’m not sure Drake and I are strong enough to keep you from pummeling her.”

“I’ll be right there.” He couldn’t even form enough words to say what he was feeling.

Brandon looked up. “She’s at Kurt’s?”

“Yes.” He grabbed his keys.

Brandon jumped up to follow. Thank goodness his cousin was smart enough to keep his mouth shut as they drove the five miles to the other Pack members’ home. What the fuck had Mackenzie been thinking? And how had she ended up with Kurt? Jesus. The chances of a Pack member finding her instead of a Colter had been slim. She was damned lucky.

Sam pulled behind the sheet metal building and cut the engine. Kurt and Drake lived on the second floor of the warehouse with their mate Chelsea. He bet she never gave those two this much grief. Dear God, why had he and Brandon been saddled with a woman who had no common sense? Didn’t she know she could have been killed?

Sam pressed the door buzzer and was let in a second later. He and Brandon rushed up the steps. Had Kurt not opened the door then blocked his path, Sam might have shifted and charged at his mate. He’d never been this furious in his life.

“Calm down, Sam. It’s all good,” Kurt said.

Easy for him to say. He and Drake didn’t have to deal with Mackenzie.

She stood, her gaze on his face. She might appear calm, but from the way she was clasping her hands together, she wasn’t expecting a warm welcome. Good. She wasn’t going to get one.

Mackenzie held up her palms. “I can explain.”

He bet she could, just not to his satisfaction. Chelsea and Drake were sitting side by side on the living room sofa. Mackenzie stood in front of a chair across from them.

“Why don’t you two sit and hear what she has to say,” Drake said.

He acted like Sam might be reasonable. That was a mistake. It took all of his control not to shake her. Brandon nudged him.
She’s our mate, Sam. Be good
.

Fine
. Sam sat on the edge of the chair only because he was in Kurt and Drake’s home. “Tell me.” He shot her a glare.

“You need to know that I was just trying to help.” She explained about wanting to scope out the area on the off chance Cheryl was at William Daniels’s house. “I thought with his business failing and his recent trip to Mexico, he might have taken Cheryl with him. My cousin looks a lot like his wife. Same build and the same hair length and color. I called in a favor in Indiana, and my source at airport security told me that Daniels traveled with a woman—a woman by the name of Connie Daniels.”

Brandon looked over at him. “Connie is his wife. Only we know his real wife is in hospice care.”

“Exactly,” Mackenzie said. “So who was this traveling companion?”

Sam glanced between Kurt and Drake. “You think this woman was Cheryl?” As pissed as he was at Mackenzie for going off on her own, he was pleased with the intel.

“Do I think it could be her? Yes. Am I positive? No. The woman in the surveillance video had her head down.”

He turned to Kurt. “Did you two know about this?”

“We knew Daniels had gone to Mexico, but not that the woman might be Mackenzie’s cousin. We hadn’t gotten that far in our investigation. I was more concerned about his drug dealings. You know how I feel about that.”

“Yes.” Kurt’s brother had worked undercover for the Colters as a drug carrier. When his cover was blown, they killed him a little over two months ago. Kurt was still reeling, and Sam couldn’t blame him. It was why the two of them had become good friends. They’d both lost someone they loved to those sick bastards.

“We’ll see if we can get a photo identification of the woman. When we do, we’d like Mackenzie to check it out.”

She smiled, but her lips trembled. “Thank you.”

“You learn anything else?” Sam’s tone came out harsher than he’d intended, but damn it, just because their mate had provided good information didn’t mean she hadn’t been in the wrong.

Brandon moved across the room and sat on Mackenzie’s chair arm. Did his cousin really think he’d harm the woman he’d grown to love? Sam should have been surprised at the concept, but in truth, it felt good to have someone else in his life. Someone to care for and grow old with—assuming Mackenzie lived that long. His fist clenched.

She straightened her shoulders. “I went there to take photos of any activity inside the house. While I was waiting to see if Cheryl happened to step in front of the window, a car pulled up. Holding my breath, I waited. From the back, it looked like Paul Statler.”

“Maybe Daniels wanted some legal advice about transporting drugs,” Sam said. “You only saw the back of his head, so you can’t be sure it was Statler.”

Drake leaned forward. “Mackenzie took a picture of the license plate, but we knew the car belonged to him.”

Damn. “How did Mackenzie end up here?” Sam was pleased he’d kept his tone close to civil this time.

Mackenzie glanced between the two men, probably to see if they’d give the details.

Kurt spoke up. “We were doing surveillance on Daniels’s home when we saw Statler’s car in the drive and a young woman hiding behind a tree taking photos. I stopped and got out, trying to figure out if she was working with the Colters.”

Kurt always had been astute. “It was a good guess. Did she tell you her cousin is Jay Wagner?”