As she slipped past his room, she heard glass shatter, and a curse, dark and violent echo from it. She sneered. Poor baby was upset? Over what? She would like to shatter glass over his head.
She collected her jacket from the kitchen and rushed for the front door as she pulled her cell phone from the pocket. Jacob’s SUV was still sitting there in the driveway, waiting on her, keys in the ignition. To hell with him. She would be damned if she would walk back to town, or hike out of this dirty little hole. She would drive out in style and he could sit his ass there until he found other transportation.
As she jumped into the driver’s seat, she keyed in the number to Hawke’s cell phone. She tucked the phone between her ear and shoulder as she started the vehicle, counting off each ring as she put the vehicle in gear and headed for the gates.
Remote. She reached over and flipped open the door to the glove box. Thankfully, she had paid attention to Jacob earlier when he keyed in the code. The gates swung open smoothly as a victorious snarl curled at the edge of her lips.
“What?” Hawke finally answered, his voice drowsy and cranky.
“Meet me in the parking lot of that damned bar,” she bit out. “I’m not searching for you. If you aren’t there, then I head home on my own.”
“Faith?” Shock colored his voice. “What the hell are you doing? Stay with Jacob.”
“You heard me, Hawke,” she bit out. “I’ll be there soon, you have one hour to meet me and then I’m headed out of there. Do you understand me?”
She didn’t give him time to answer before she disconnected the phone. She wiped at the wetness on her face, amazed at the tears that still fell from her eyes. Why was she crying? She should have known what to expect. She had known, she had just refused to face it. Jacob was the classic lone wolf, he didn’t need her. He never had. Her breath hitched, infuriating her. Damn him, he had made her cry. He had made her cry when all the long, desperately painful nights aching for him had never pushed her to that point.
She drove the SUV down the rough track that led back into town, there she found herself helplessly lost amid the back roads and narrow alleys she managed to enter. She cursed Jacob, Wolfe and the damned cell phone beeping its battery operated little brain out beside her.
“What?” she snarled into the device as she turned along another side road.
There was a small silence; enough to make her frown as she sniffed back her tears.
“If I don’t pass you heading back to the house, then you may not like me much once I get hold of you, Faith.” She had never heard Jacob’s voice so cold, so furious.
“I don’t like you much now,” she bit out. “I did my job, you have your papers, now I’m going home.”
“Faith, you won’t get out of town before I catch up with you, baby,” he growled. “And I promise you, you’ll regret leaving like that.”
“Catch up with me then, you son of a bitch,” she told him furiously. “Come on, Jacob, find me. I promise, you’ll be the one who won’t be pleased.”
She disconnected, pressed her foot to the gas pedal and eased onto the main road leading directly into town. She accelerated the vehicle as fast as she dared, racing to the bar. If Hawke wasn’t there, then she swore she would leave his ass sitting.
He was there, with Danson, standing beside a vehicle identical to the one she drove. She squealed to a stop beside them and waited impatiently as Hawke strode quickly to the door. He had it opened before she could stop him, jerking the keys from the ignition and facing her furiously.
Surprised flared through her.
“What are you doing?” She snatched at the keys, jumping from the vehicle as he moved back quickly. “Damn you, give me the keys. What the hell are you doing this for?”
“Faith, you can’t leave, dammit,” he told her angrily. “Do you think I spent two months busting my ass to get you in shape to meet up with Jacob just to have you turn tail and run? I never took you for a coward.”
Faith stilled. She felt a chill race over her spine as she faced the Enforcer, seeing the steely determination in his dark blue eyes as he stared down at her. This wasn’t the friendly, charming soldier she had fought with for two months. This wasn’t her friend or her partner. He was an Enforcer, and answerable to Wolfe and Jacob before anyone else.
“You called him,” she whispered hopelessly.
“Hell yes, I called him.” He raked his fingers through his short black hair and stared down at her. “Faith, honey, you can’t leave him yet. You know that. Dammit, you’re so f**king hot any Breed in a two-mile radius could track you. You’re becoming a danger to yourself and to the Pack.”
She shook her head desperately. “I don’t live with the Pack.” She should know, she suffered that isolation every day of her life. “I’m alone, Hawke. All alone for a reason, damn you.” Because the man who had marked her had deserted her.
“And soon you’ll be alone and dead, woman,” he growled. “You know as well as I do there are still Breed soldiers out there following the commands of their puppeteers. Goddamn it, the smell of your lust will see you raped before they ever get around to killing you. Is that what you want, Faith? Do you really think those vibrators are easing your lust enough to still the scent of it? I promise you, it’s not.”
Faith fought to breathe. She wanted to scream, to rush him, hurt him. She still held enough control, just enough to realize it would serve no purpose.
“Please give me the keys, Hawke,” she whispered desperately as she heard a vehicle speeding towards the parking lot. “Just let me go home. Please, Hawke, before he destroys me.”
She could feel fear clawing at her insides. She wasn’t afraid of Jacob, she was terrified of herself. The demands of her body, the surge of her desires, her emotions, were tearing her apart.
“Faith, your death will lay on my head if I let you go,” he told her gently. “Fight this out with Jacob. It will work out.”
“He doesn’t want me,” she screamed out as a motorcycle’s headlight speared through the area. “Why are you f**king doing this to me? If I have to be pity f**ked, then you do it. Goddamn it, it wouldn’t hurt nearly as bad.”
There was silence as her words struck each man. Jacob, who had just halted and switched the motor off to the lethal black cycle he rode, and Hawke who stared at her in shock.