Lavos Read online

  “She’s going to stay here where she’s safe. I’m going to return to where the truck is to take care of that location. I want you to get Garson. It’s time to place that call to my brother. We’re going to need some help with this mess.”

  “No shit. We’ve got bodies and we’re going to need a few tow trucks. Do you think we should call Lord Aveoth too?”

  Lavos shook his head. No way did he want the GarLycan leader involved. He’d never allow Jadee to return to her world with her memories intact. Since she seemed immune to mind control, the other options weren’t good.

  “Remember what I said about using the head above your shoulders to think with? I’m saying it again, my man.”

  “Shut up, Kar. Get Garson and drive until you find a cell signal. Call Lorn. I left the keys to my Jeep in the ignition.”

  “What do you want me to say to him?”

  He paused. “Give him all the facts. Tell him I’m calling in that favor he owes me. He’ll understand.” He jerked his head. “Go.”

  Chapter Eight

  Jadee felt better after showering. The RV had hot water but she wasn’t sure how much longer that would last. She’d have to check the water tanks and batteries. The silence bothered her after Lavos had left her alone. He’d gone to take care of Peggy, Mark, and Brent’s bodies.

  She felt the worst for Peggy. She’d never have that garden or meet a man who truly loved her. Mark has been a user. Brent had been a devoted brother but he’d been as addicted to the hunt as her father. It had gotten all of them killed. It just proved to her that life was too short and it shouldn’t be wasted.

  She heated up a can of soup and forced it down. She hadn’t eaten since grabbing a microwave burger at some gas station between the airport and her father’s camp. She wore one of his button-down shirts. Her backpack was still tucked behind the passenger seat of the rental, all her spare clothes inside.

  “Shit. I should have asked Lavos to grab it for me,” she muttered aloud. It was too late. She’d have to keep borrowing clothes from her dad’s closet or put on her dirty ones. The oversized shirt and the pair of borrowed men’s boxer shorts she currently wore wasn’t something an airline would appreciate.

  Depression set in hard and deep. There would be no funeral for her father or his team. It would be easy enough to trace that she’d gone to Alaska. She’d have to talk to the authorities at some point. It would look suspicious if she never reported them missing, especially since she could spend her dad’s money. He had put her on all his accounts. Families and friends of the team would eventually notice they hadn’t heard from them either.

  She glanced toward the stove. Lavos had been gone for about forty minutes. She wasn’t even sure when he would come back. He’d demanded she give him the code to open the RV door. That conversation had been short.

  “We have trust, remember?” He’d peered deeply into her eyes. “I’d have killed you already if I wanted to.”

  He had made a very valid point. He’d saved her ass a few times.

  “I don’t have time to waste. I need to leave. Give me the code and please don’t bar the door from inside.”

  She rattled off the six digits and nodded, agreeing to his demands. She did have one of her own though. “Just you. I don’t want you to tell Kar or anyone else how to get in.”

  “I wouldn’t do that. You’re a smart woman, Jadee. Don’t open that door to anyone. Do you understand?”

  Did that mean she was still in danger? Weren’t all those horrific circus acts dead? Was something else lurking out in the woods that would kill her, besides bears? She didn’t voice her concerns, already beyond her limit of stuff she never wanted to know.

  “Yes. I understand.”

  He’d left then. She’d picked up some of the mess inside the RV that Mitch had caused with his fit of rage when he couldn’t reach her inside the back bedroom. All the broken glass had been disposed of in the trash or vacuumed up. She’d done her best to clean up the bloodstains. The remaining weapons had been returned to their hiding spot in the closet before she took her shower.

  Now, every minute seemed to pass at a snail’s pace.

  The slight beep startled her when it finally sounded, followed by the bolt inside the door sliding. Lavos entered without knocking. He closed the door behind him and she tried not to stare. He dropped something on the floor, distracting her from his body.

  She glanced down. “My backpack.”

  “I found it in the truck.”

  She studied him again. He still wore just a pair of shorts. They were boxer briefs, made of some satiny material. Dirt coated his hands and almost every other part of his body. It didn’t hide the fact he was all muscle and tight skin. She locked her gaze on his face to avoid staring at his abs.

  “I’m going to borrow your shower.”

  Don’t look down. “Okay.”

  He turned away. She watched his beefy ass as he headed toward the bedroom area. He had a firm one, not some flat bottom like most of the men she knew. She resisted the urge to lean over to watch him walk until he entered the bathroom. The door closed and the water came on within seconds.

  She figured he wasn’t going to like the tiny closet of a shower. He was too tall for the showerhead. He probably wouldn’t even be able to bend to scrub his feet in the enclosed space. She’d had a hard time doing that and he was much bigger than her. She got up and passed the bathroom, entering her dad’s bedroom.

  Victor hadn’t been nearly as tall as Lavos but her hero would need clean clothes. She found a pair of cotton gray sweatpants that would stretch to fit. The legs might fall a few inches short of his ankles but she knew he couldn’t exactly squeeze into her father’s jeans. She placed them on the bed and returned to the living room area.

  The bathroom door opened and Jadee called out to him, “I put something on the bed for you to wear.”

  “Thank you.”

  She wondered if he walked those few feet naked into the bedroom or had a towel wrapped around his waist. It was tempting to peek but she held still. The bedroom pocket door rolled closed and she waited. It opened seconds later and Lavos came striding down the hall.

  The light gray color of the sweatpants flattered his tan skin. He had to spend a lot of time outdoors to get that way. His hair was wet. All the dirt had been scrubbed away. He paused in the kitchen.

  “Do you mind if I get a drink?”

  “Help yourself.”

  He yanked open the fridge and took one of her father’s bottled waters. He approached her and took a seat across the table. “It’s done.”

  She didn’t want to ask about the bodies. “The truck?”

  “A casualty of a ravine. I covered it with brush. I doubt anyone will find it for years, if ever. We get a lot of abandoned vehicles up here. People break down on the highway or have accidents. It’s too expensive to have them towed to a larger city in some cases. I did grab your purse too. It’s outside, since some blood got on it. You can take out the contents but the bag needs to be burned later.”

  “Understood, and thanks. Any suggestions on how I explain a missing truck to the rental place at the airport? They frown on that shit.”

  He had such striking eyes, and it wasn’t fair that a man got such big, stunning blue eyes. “You tell them it was stolen. I’ll have one of our people grab a state trooper and a report will be filed. Be vague as hell. You weren’t sure where it happened exactly. You had to pee, stopped on the side of the road, and it was gone when you came back.”

  “That makes me sound kind of stupid. Did I leave the keys in it?”

  He chuckled. “Do you care what they think?”

  “No. I left the keys in it but took my backpack because I spilled soda on me, wanting to change clothes. I’ll say I pulled over on the side of the road to change in the woods. How about that rather than I had to pee? It sounds more believable. Nobody wants to keep driving if they soaked themselves with something sticky.”

  “Go with that. Say you