We run back to the car without a word, knowing the smallest noise could wake Sloan, who is in desperate need of medical attention.
Gray and I exchange looks of trepidation before he turns the key and backs down the path.
We both know that whatever we’re about to walk into, it’s sure to be more than we can handle.
I can only hope we’re not too late.
13
House of Ruin
Paxton
The closer we get to the address Sloan gave us, the more I have to work to talk Gray down. “Easy, brother. You’re going to break the steering wheel, choking it like that. In my vision, Arlanna was scared, not harmed.”
“It’s not that.” Gray grimaces. “Well, it’s not just that. She’s calling for Rafe. I couldn’t feel it before, but now that we’re getting closer, I can hear her. Or, well, my wolf can hear her. Over and over, she’s screaming for Rafe. I can’t drive much longer. I can barely concentrate.” His chest is leaping in and out. “Can you drive?” He’s sweating as he turns onto the shoulder of the road, throwing the car into park.
“Of course,” I lie. “I have a driver’s license.” It expired ages ago, but it exists. I’m sure that just because the last time I was behind the wheel was the day I passed my driver’s test doesn’t mean a thing. It’s like riding a bike.
Except it’s driving a car.
I do what I can not to fiddle with too many knobs and levers. The car is already running, so that’s done. “D is for Drive,” I murmur to myself.
Gray turns his entire body to face mine. “Are you having a laugh? Did you just say ‘D is for Drive’?”
“Did I get that one wrong?” Now I’m worried I haven’t remembered as much as I was hoping.
Gray swears under his breath and hurtles his body out of the car so we can switch back.
Gray’s tone is authoritative with frustration, but to his credit, he’s a champ at keeping himself under control. “D is for Drive, yes. We step down on the brake while we move the stick into gear. See that? Then we go forward by easing onto the right pedal, which is the gas.”
“Right. Brake on the left, gas on the right.”
Gray takes off down the road again. His befuddlement over a grown man not knowing how to drive a car overrides his anxiety about Arlanna calling for Rafe. “How is it that you are twenty-nine years old, and you don’t know how to drive a car? You’re the prince of the free world!”
I straighten in the passenger’s seat, doing what I can not to shrink under my mild coating of shame. “Yes, I’m the prince who isn’t allowed to drive. The prince who’s always had guards and drivers to take him everywhere and plan out his every step. There was no hopping into the car to go hang out with friends. There was no picking a girl up for a date by myself. I was required to pass my driver’s test because it would be a spectacle if I didn’t. Then I’m fairly certain I never got behind the wheel again.”
That shuts Gray up for a good few miles. “Sorry, Paxton. I didn’t mean anything by it. Or maybe I did, but I shouldn’t have. I don’t know your life. Your upbringing was different than mine. Once things settle down, I’d love to know more about it all.”
“If this is what having a brother is like, then I sorely missed out, growing up an only child.”
Gray chuckles and then grimaces, clutching the wheel as he lets out a frustrated grunt of pain. “Easy, boy. Easy. We’re getting to her as fast as we can.” Then he really steps on the gas, jerking the car to drive faster than any speed limit would tolerate. “Distract me, so I don’t lose control and crash the car when Rafe busts out of me.”
I scramble for anything relevant, but the only thing I can think of is the object of our chase. “I taught Arlanna how to read.”
Why that’s the first thing that pops out, I’ll never know.
“She had a hard time grasping sight words when she was four, so when I came over, I would read to her and teach her the words. I mean, I know Sloan helped, and she had tutors, but I was part of that team.”
Gray snorts. “That’s cute. Tell me more stories.”
“When our fathers used to fight, I would suggest we play in the attic, so she didn’t have to hear the angry sounds. She loved her dad, which I still don’t understand. I didn’t want her to have to deal with any of it, so we sneaked into the attic of her home and set up whole villages. Post office, school, grocery store, bank… Every part of our world we weren’t allowed to go to, we created in the attic, using discarded boxes, sheets, old tins and whatnot. It was our little world.”
I stop when I recall the games we used to play up there, being the bosses of our own destinies. Doing reckless things, like going to the store without a guard.
I watch the trees blur by. “It kills me that she doesn’t remember most of it. I keep hoping it’ll come back to her, but I suppose the few memories she has of me will have to suffice.”
“Making new ones will help. And some have started to come back to her.” Gray scratches his chest. “Cheers, Paxton. That helped. Rafe is hard to control when his mate is snatched at.”
“His mate?” I question, unused to hearing such talk.
Gray’s chin lowers. “I tried to keep him away from her, but it’s no use. She calls to him, and he can’t hold himself back. He belongs to her, maybe even more than he belongs to me. I didn’t know it would feel like this—so out of my control.”
“Being in love is like that,” I comment, sounding wise about the thing I’m only just figuring my way through for the first time, too. “We’ll find her, Rafe.”
The faster Gray drives, the more his shoulders relax. Rafe settles marginally when he knows Gray is doing all he can to get to our girl.
It’s odd sharing affections for a woman with Gray, though not terribly so. But sharing a girl with Rafe is an adjustment. The animal isn’t as easy to reason with, or to calm down.
“Just up there,” Gray finally informs me, slowing the car to a stop. “What do you think: park here and get a sneak attack going, or drive up to the house so we can make a quick getaway if we need to?”
I survey the grounds, checking for multiple cars or suits scouring the area. “I don’t think they have much backup. I vote the quick getaway option. It might just be Conan and his guard with Arlanna. There’s no point in trying to be sneaky; I’m too recognizable, and you’re too big.”
“Sounds good.” Gray drives up to the front of the house and parks at an angle in the driveway, making sure no cars in the garage can drive away, escaping with Arlanna.
He’s a smart one.
I jog up to the front door and try the handle, unsurprised to find it locked. “Open up, Conan,” I call, hoping my voice carries. I’m not wearing my sunglasses, and I hope the knowledge that I could light him on fire strikes fear into what’s left of his soul.
Around us are too many trees, thick with unbothered foliage.
For the first time, I begin to understand why the Valentine family would choose this spot for a vacation home. It’s buried back in the woods with no other homes in sight.