Nemesis - Book 3 of the Hunted series.

Chapter 2 - Bad ideas and worse ideas ...

A/N - Warning, this has an attempted assult. Attempted being the right word. But it's still a bit dark. 

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I started the phone call when I was out of their hearing range.

"Elizabeth."

I didn't ask how he'd know it was me. Or how he'd gotten my email to begin with. "Bring them to the border."

"How far are you?"

"Twenty minutes. Fifteen." I decided I'd jog part of the way. Sooner we got them, the better. "If I don't see them, I don't come across." Okay, maybe I didn't have choice in that, but I said it anyway. "If I don't see them, it proves you're a snake. A coward."

He growled lowly and the phone was moved away from his head a moment. Then it was returned, "I have no desire to babysit a pair of annoying children, Elizabeth, I'd much prefer your company. My men will meet you. Be peaceful."

Then he hung up.

I started to jog, my legs and chest trembling, wondering what the hell I'd gotten myself into with this. Should I have told Jeremy? What if they could tell? When I felt the phone vibrate again I stared at it. Nick was calling. Damn, he really could move fast. I rejected the call and kept going. Reece called. Jeremy called three times. I finally turned it off and pushed it into a pocket. I was running out of time for this, they'd be on my trail within seconds. I had five minutes, tops. Oh boy. They'd be pissed off. 

They waited for me at the border. Men in uniforms that reminded me of swat team uniforms, guns in hand, emotionless faces waiting with the two boys in front of them. So professional, compared to the alpha's usual mob, so damn scary. Most did have crossbows, some had full on guns, and was that a fucking grenade? No. It was a water bottle. I was starting to panic a little too much.

"They've discovered I'm missing. They will be not far behind." I informed them, holding up the phone. One of the men, or was it a woman?, took it and smashed it into a tree. Impressive but it wouldn't change it. "Well, hand over the boys."

"Come this side, and we'll leave them to be found." It was a woman. I had expected all his lackys to be men. "And we'll back off. The agreement still remains. We don't enter that land and they don't enter ours. We only shoot if they do or if you attempt to run with them."

"I'll put them safely against a tree then."

When this seemed acceptable, both shaking boys were shoved at me, and I had to carefully lead them to a tree, sit them down, making sure I remained in the sight of the 'swat' team people. I murmured some comforting words, I hoped they were anyway, to Logan and Matt, both of them so frightened that they could just stammer, their teeth chattering against the fabric gagging them. 

I stepped into the other side and was escorted away, hands bound behind my back with the skill of a professional, shoved ahead fast as I was hurried away.

They spoke to someone on a radio, some sort of confirmation that they'd gotten 'her', and I heard the order to leave once they'd delivered me. Leave? What the hell? Who were these people? Had he hired some professional SWAT idiots now that we'd all but destroyed his 'pack'? I'd expected something but not this. It kind of threw me.

The look on the alpha's face, when I was shoved out of the clearing and onto the driveway in front of Stonehaven, was one of pure triumph. He had his men, who were not half as professional as these ones, nor as confidant with their weapons, take me from the more professional swat guys and girls. Once I was delivered they were gone, driving away, leaving me there with just a handful of guards.