Unfortunately for her she was scared, really scared and she had no idea what the hell she should do. If she gave up her program they’d have no reason to keep her alive and if she didn’t there was a very good chance that they’d probably just kill her, thinking that they’d find her work, but they wouldn’t. Maybe if she let them know they needed her without any real plans to give up her work they wouldn’t kill her.

“If you kill me you’ll never find my programs,” she blurted out, wincing when she realized what she’d done.

She planned on working her way up to it, explaining it with finesse even though she wasn’t exactly known for her ability to talk her way out of really big problems like this one, not that she’d ever been a life threatening situation before, but”Why in the hell do you think we’re going to kill you?”

Chris barked, looking decidedly more pissed off. “You’re my goddamn mate, Munchkin. It’s my job to protect you.”

you.”

“Now, when you say mate….,” she prompted, not really trusting that they wouldn’t kill her and be done with it once they realized how stubborn she could be.

“He means you’re his wife,” Ephraim said dryly.

Chris gave her a firm nod of agreement. He didn’t look happy about it, which was insulting and really confusing the hell out of her since he was the one that picked her and not the other way around. Not that this was a marriage in any way, but still……

She took a step back, a subtle one, but a much needed one to put some space between her and the huge men glaring down at her. “Umm, so exactly how many wives do you have?”

“Why in the hell would you think I had more than one wife?” Chris demanded, frowning.

“Because she thinks we’re a cult,” Ephraim supplied dryly.

“Religious group,” she corrected quietly, earning an eye roll and a few choice words that had her shrugging sheepishly. “Sorry, I’m not up on the cult lingo. You’ll have to cut me some slack here,” she snapped, wishing she hadn’t raised her voice to the two heavily armed big men the instant the words left her mouth.

Maybe the psychologist they made her see when she was fifteen was right and she really did have a problem with keeping her mouth shut. That kind of made her feel bad for that little virus that she uploaded onto his computer when he suggested taking away her computer for a few months.

“You’re my only mate,” Chris bit out, not sounding pleased about it at all.

“No, I’m not and I don’t want to be,” she snapped. Then took a calming breath and continued at what she hoped was a friendlier tone. “You really don’t need to kidnap woman. You’re a decent looking man,” hotter than hell, she corrected mentally, “and I’m sure you have some very nice qualities-“

“Please stop. You’re making me blush,” Chris drawled flatly.

“-that would make some woman very happy. Just not me,” she finished, ignoring the interruption and hoping she gave him something to think about.

“I’m sorry, Munchkin, but I’m afraid there will never be anyone for me but you,” he admitted with a careless shrug before adding, “and no else for you but me.”

“Are you crazy?” she demanded, regretting her slip immediately. Of course he was crazy. He lived in a commune where everyone’s relatives and spouses were picked at random.

“No, but now’s not the time to discuss how badly you want me. We have a job to do after all,” he said, not giving her a chance to respond as he physically turned her around and gave her a swat on her ass to get her to move.

“Real smooth,” Ephraim drawled.

“Thanks,” Chris said brightly, earning an over the shoulder glare from her that only managed to earn her another swat on the ass. Gasping, she turned around and increased her pace, hoping to get the hell away from Chris and his roaming hand, because heaven help her, she was really starting to like it and right now she needed to focus.

Maybe if she made a run for it again she might luck out this time and”There they are,” Chris suddenly said, startling her.

Wondering what the hell he was talking about, she looked around several times until she spotted what looked like a tiny orange glow flickering through a small opening in a thick wall of foliage.

“Who are they?” she asked, hoping they hadn’t noticed her voice cracking.

“That, my little munchkin is one of the reasons you and I were placed on this earth,” he said as he nudged her to keep moving.

“What the hell are you talking about?” she whispered harshly as she felt her heart pound in her chest.

Whatever the two of them had planned for her was about to happen and she was helpless to stop it.

Why the hell had she agreed to that meeting in the park? It felt like years ago that she was walking along the deserted street to a meeting she knew she should never have agreed to instead of just this morning.

“Please don’t do this,” she pleaded, close to tears.

“It will be fine,” Chris said firmly, giving her another nudge.

Tears streamed down her face as she stopped moving, too afraid to keep going and seeing what they had planned for her. “Please,” she said, putting everything into that one word.

Chris was silent and for a moment she thought that maybe she’d gotten through to him, but the second his hand landed on the small of her back she knew she’d failed. “This is for your own good, Munchkin. You’ll understand soon enough,” he said, pushing her forward.

“Chris,-” Ephraim started, sounding unsure, making her wonder if she could change his mind and convince him to let her go.

“This is my decision,” he said firmly. “It’s the only way.”

“Fine,” Ephraim said, sighing heavily. “Just make sure she comes home in one piece or Madison will kick both of our asses.”

“Not a problem,” Chris said, grabbing her shoulders and moving her forward when she tried to stop.

She dug her heels in hard, fighting him as he easily moved her forward. “Don’t do this!” she said, trying to twist around and shove his hands away from her, but she couldn’t move him or stop him from moving her through thick brush that seemed to swallow them whole before she found herself shoved into a fire lit clearing filled with men in various states of undress.

All the men stopped what they were doing to look their way, looking startled at first and then furious.

“Fucking Sentinels,” one of the men growled out, looking really pissed.

Sentinels? That was the third time she’d heard that word in the last twentyfour hours. When she’d been attacked this morning she’d admittedly been focused on other things to really give that word much thought and when Chris had said it earlier she’d been annoyed and pissed to be receiving the cult speech. Now they had her full attention.

She quickly processed everything she found out today, which wasn’t a hell of a lot, and came to a painfully obvious conclusion. This was just another little ploy to scare the hell out of her so that she’d give up her work.

All of their vague bullshit now made sense. They acted like they were chasing after these men, but Isabella hadn’t seen them consult a map or anything, because they’d already known where they were going to meet up with these guys. When they’d been walking through the woods they never paused or acted unsure about where they were going.