Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [776]
Dragos chuckled on the other end of the line. “I’ll leave the specifics of her treatment up to you, Herr Roth. Contact me as soon as you learn anything more.”
“Yes, sire,” Roth answered.
He flipped the phone closed and began to imagine the many slow, sadistic ways he could make Claire scream.
CHAPTER
Twenty-six
Claire dried her hands on a brown paper towel as she came out of the public restroom of a small gas station situated on a rural stretch of two-lane blacktop somewhere near the northwestern border of Connecticut. At midafternoon, the sun was already beginning its descent toward the tops of the brushy pines and the leafless oaks that covered the hilly forested region of the state. She squinted, shielding her eyes from the blinding orange rays and wishing they had a few more hours to continue their search.
They were so close now; she could feel it all the way to her marrow. For the past couple of hours, she and Renata and Dylan had been circumnavigating the area where the blood bond Claire had now grown to hate beat the strongest. They were tightening the noose on Wilhelm Roth mile by mile, systematically narrowing down the range of locations where the Order was likely to find him. Another couple of hours combing the area and Claire was certain they’d have his location nailed to within an easy square mile.
If only the late-autumn day could stretch a bit longer, she thought, impatient as she tossed the used paper towel in a trash can and walked the short distance back to the Order’s black Range Rover parked at the gas pumps. Renata was filling the tank for the return trip to Boston, her stance cautiously casual as she leaned against the vehicle and watched the digital gauges clock on the pump’s display. Claire didn’t miss the fact that the female’s right hand was crossed over the front of her body and hidden beneath the folds of her dark trench coat, no doubt either resting on the butt of a pistol or wrapped around the hilt of one of her blades. She was as vigilant as any of the warriors, and, Claire imagined, just as deadly when the situation warranted lethal force.
Nodding to Renata as she approached, Claire climbed into the SUV and gently closed the passenger door behind her, careful not to wake Dylan, who was taking a quick doze in the backseat. It had been a long day, made even longer by the fact that none of them had gotten much sleep before they’d left the compound that morning. Claire was exhausted, but she couldn’t stand the idea of giving up before they’d gotten a solid lock on Roth. She reached around the seat to pick up the map that they’d been working from, which was now highlighted in color-block patches of yellow, green, and orange, to indicate the range of areas where her sense of Roth had been the strongest.
“Where the hell are you?” she whispered low under her breath, tuning out the ding of the station bell as a car pulled into the full-service pump next to her. She put all her concentration into that beat of dark, visceral awareness that ticked in her pulse, trying not to think about the fact that Roth must be sensing her in much the same way.
Did he know how close she was to finding him right now? He must, surely. Only the simple fact that the sun had yet to set gave her any kind of comfort when she thought about the fury she would face if she ever fell into his hands again. He would kill her, she was certain. But not before he took his anger out on her and made her wish she was dead.
Rattled by the thought of him, Claire pivoted in her seat again to stow the map.
It was then she noticed the two men getting out of the car beside her. They were big men, both dressed in black from their zipped-up leather jackets to the fatigues tucked into the tops of their combat boots. They looked her way as she watched them, and a chill settled deep in Claire’s bones. Their eyes were cruel, strangely vacant.
And this wasn’t the first time she’d seen the pair of human males today.