They wouldn’t find anything. They’d probably prefer he stick around for a while, but Ellie was right. He needed to get on that plane and back to Fort Worth, back to the Costas compound. As it stood, he wouldn’t be in great shape to contest Blake or any of his allies should they discover him and Ellie. He’d never felt more worthless, more useless than when the woman he’d been ordered to protect from rival shapeshifters ushered him out of the motel and into her car. Here he was, the supposedly invulnerable shifter, brought down by his human side and by placing his faith in the wrong person. Not only that, but he was forced to rely on Ellie to get him from point A to point B. He’d really be up a creek without her at this point.
The world was still shrouded in darkness, but the blast of cold air on Carter’s face helped revive him. It also made the wound in his side ache worse, reminding him that he needed further medical care. In the car, Ellie locked the doors and turned the heat up before backing up. Carter glanced around. She’d really picked a winner to hide out for a few hours, like he had for her.
“What time is it?” he asked, settling back in the seat, trying to ignore how bumps from the potholes in the parking lot set his side to aching and his teeth on edge.
“Almost 4 A.M.”
He attempted to mentally compute how long he’d been out but gave up.
“Sean must have gotten right on sending a flight.”
“Yes. Thank goodness.”
Her attention was on the dark streets, lit only by her headlights and intermittent streetlights. There were few in this section of town. Even in the sparse illumination he could see the tightness of her jaw, betraying her anxiety, her nerves. She didn’t talk much on the way out of town and to the tiny air strip a few miles outside city limits. Neither did he. In less than thirty minutes they were there. A small private jet sat waiting, engine whirring, ready to go.
“I’ll come around and help you get out,” she offered.
He hated feeling so helpless. Nevertheless, the ache in his side reminded him that he was human as well as shifter, and certainly not invincible.
The next thing Carter knew, the car door was opening and Ellie was there, glancing all around, over her shoulders, before she stooped, leaning across him to unbuckle his seat belt and then to assist him to stand. He caught a moan with his teeth, dropping more of his weight than he should have across her. She stumbled a split-second before her legs strengthened themselves. She pushed back against him, taking the weight, adjusting her stance.
“Got you,” she murmured. “Let’s get over to the plane.”
They hobbled across the dead grass to the air strip, where two or three figures emerged from the darkness, approaching. Carter felt his guard go up, then he recognized familiar faces—Tracy, among others.
“Got yourself into another mess, huh, Carter?” the Sioux Deer Woman asked quietly.
“Blake’s a bastard,” he growled.
For that, Ellie nudged his armpit with her shoulder.
“What? He is. His parents weren’t married. Technically that makes him a bastard. In every sense of the word.”
Ellie shook her head at his attempt to get around the injunction against swearing in front of her.
“Hey, Ellie.”
“Tracy.” Carter could hear the relief in Ellie’s tones. “It’s good to see you.”
“Sorry it had to be under these circumstances. Maybe one of these days we can sit down and visit over coffee where someone’s life isn’t on the line.”
Ellie didn’t drink coffee, but she didn’t inform Tracy of that. All she said, with a dry laugh, was, “Is that likely to happen?”
“Probably not,” Tracy chuckled.
Stepping up beside Carter, she also slid an arm around him, taking some of his weight off the smaller, slighter woman.
“You’re heavy, man,” she groaned. “How did Ellie get you out here?”
“It wasn’t easy,” Ellie said.
“I heard that,” Carter grumbled.
He was trying to maintain a façade of toughness, but that was pretty hard to do, walking between the two women. Truthfully, without their support, his knees likely would have buckled. Especially as they attempted the short flight of stairs leading up into the plane. It wasn’t easy, but finally they were aboard, he was sinking into a seat, and a man in medical scrubs that he didn’t recognize was there, bending over him, asking if he could assess his injury.
Carter grunted and pulled open his shirt, allowing the guy access to the bandaging. His focus was wavering and he could feel a cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. From somewhere distant, he heard Ellie’s soft voice, explaining what she’d done for the wound, what painkillers he’d had, how long ago it was…all sorts of medical stuff he really didn’t care about. At this point, he simply wanted something to knock the edge off the pain. Getting the wound stitched back up so the healing process could commence wouldn’t be bad, either.
He was dimly aware of the flight crew moving about, preparing for departure. Of Tracy behind him, reclining his seat as far as it would go. She also kept a hand on his shoulder as if to comfort him or remind him not to move while the doctor—he assumed it was a doctor—messed with the bandages hiding his wound. Carter kept expecting to hear Ellie tell him goodbye, then walk off the plane. It wasn’t until he heard the pilot bid the flight attendants to prepare for takeoff that he realized he hadn’t heard any farewells and Ellie was still there, on her knees in the plane aisle beside him, watching everything the doctor did with an expression somewhere between concern, distrust, and hope. After the fake nurse’s attempt on his life mere hours before, she probably wasn’t too trustful of anyone right now, but that paled in comparison to the fact that she was still there.
“Shouldn’t you—be leaving?” he grunted.
Ellie’s chin swung around, her hazel eyes meeting his.
“I’m not letting you out of my sight until I’m sure you’re home safe and sound,” she replied.
“You think Tracy can’t look after me?”
“Shut up, Carter,” Tracy said, slapping his shoulder lightly. “Just be grateful somebody cares enough about your sorry hide to stick around.”
Carter was grateful, but he didn’t like being beholden to Ellie any more than he already was. It shouldn’t be this way. He was supposed to be protecting her from enemy shifters, not her him. She had no business being here, but she didn’t look like she planned on leaving.
“What about…your car?”
She’d left it at the airstrip.
“Sean sent people to start moving my family,” Ellie replied, bending close to his face. The ends of her hair fell over her shoulder, tickling his neck. “They’re dealing with my car. Stop thinking about details, Carter. Relax. Dr. Adams and I are going to take care of you. You’ll be back in Fort Worth in a few hours.”
Maybe it was time to surrender, although the word surrender normally wasn’t in his vocabulary. Still, for some reason, he felt calmer, safe. Maybe it was the duo of pills they’d handed him along with the glass of water that Ellie held for him so he could drink. Maybe it was Tracy behind his head, someone he’d worked with and known for years. Maybe it was being surrounded by allies. Or maybe it was the young woman beside him who’d faced down both Bigfoot and a deadly wendigo for him tonight.