“That gives me all the rights I need.”

“Your mate?” she asked, incredulously. “I believe that term, whatever the hell it means, no longer applies to you since not even two minutes ago you announced to one and all that you were getting rid of me.”

“It’s not like we have a choice,” he practically growled, his eyes dropping to her pursed up lips and he wondered if he could kiss that frown away.

“Well, you chose to send me away so I think that means I’m free and clear of you. So if you’d just go get my bag for me I can be on my way,” she said firmly, but he hadn’t missed the little tremor going through her body or the nervous way she licked her lips.

“How about this,” he said softly, leaning into her until his mouth was by her ear, “you’re going to tell me whatever I want or I’m going to put you over my knee and spank your ass. Which one will it be?”

He knew by her little gasp that he had her. She was going to tell him whatever he wanted and do whatever he wanted. It was the only benefit of having a weak mate, he decided, but not one that made him want to keep her around.

“I-” she started only to be cut off by his father.

“Chris, we have a problem. The Sentinel network has crashed and they need her to fix whatever the hell her program did to it,” his father announced, drawing his attention.

He stepped away from Izzy, frowning. “What program?”

he asked, feeling his stomach drop when his father rammed his fingers through his hair, looking pissed and nervous as hell and for damn good reason.

If their network was down they were good and screwed and if any of their enemies found out, they were good and f**ked.

“When the patrol came across her this morning there were several CDs lying on the ground with her belongings. The IT department in Boston was asked to look at them. Eric said they scanned both discs several times to make sure they were safe but,” Ephraim dropped his hand helplessly by his side, “they must have missed something. In less than a minute everything was destroyed.”

Praying the his father and Eric were wrong, Chris pulled his Sentinel phone out of his pocket and pressed his finger to the small piece of glass and waited for it to scan and for the small beep that would sound before the phone slid open. When it didn’t happen he wiped the small piece of glass clean and did it again.

“Fuck me,” he breathed as he looked up and met his father’s eyes, just as his father reached out blindly and pulled Madison into his arms.

“What does this mean?” Jill asked, shooting nervous glances between him and their father.

“It means everyone’s f**ked,” Josh said, stepping further into the room.

That was an understatement if Chris ever heard one.

With the Sentinel network down no one, not one single Sentinel or their employees could call for backup, share information or shout out a warning. Under normal circumstances this situation would be enough to make them all nervous, but with a war starting and every Master on the hunt for one woman it was frightening as hell. If they came under attack before the network was back up they’d be helpless.

“On second thought,” Izzy suddenly piped in, sounding cheerful, “I believe I’ll take a ride, a bite to eat, and a ticket home. Oh, and I want chocolate. At least five king size bars.”

He turned to glare at her only to find her smiling brightly.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he demanded.

“My price,” she said, shrugging.

“Price for what?” Jill asked, when he wasn’t able to do anything more than grind his teeth and barely stop himself from wringing his mate’s little neck.

“To save your network. What else?” she asked innocently, but he didn’t miss the little gleam of triumph in her eyes. “Oh, and you should probably know that every time one of your little buddies types in the wrong password more of your system will be destroyed,” she announced with that damn smile that had his eye twitching as she made her way towards the front door. “Now if someone could just grab my bag we can be on our way.”

Chapter 16

“Trust no one! Trust no one!” she cried out as the blood continued to rush to her head as she swayed. “T-r-u-s-tno-o-n-e! No spaces!”

“Are you sure this time?” Chris drawled as he let her swing a little further away.

“Yes!” she screamed, pressing her hands tightly against her eyes so she wouldn’t have to watch the tiled foyer floor beneath her as she swayed or rush up on her if they dropped her.

“Did you get that?” she heard Ephraim say from somewhere above her. “It’s all set,” he announced a moment later, but she noticed that no one made a move to pull her back up.

“Let me go!” she yelled.

“Sure, but it’s a hell of a fall,” Chris said, loosening his grip on the rope just enough to let her drop several more feet and earn another embarrassingly high screech from her.

“That’s not what I meant!”

“Are you sure? Because that’s what it sounded like to me,” Chris mused, sounding quite pleased with himself.

Of course that might have something to do with her bragging that there was absolutely nothing they could do to make her talk. Her plan had been foolproof. She’d had them exactly where she wanted them and they’d all known it. Perhaps getting a little too cocky about it had been her downfall, but after everything they’d put her through she’d earned it. Besides, it wasn’t as if she wasn’t going to tell them the password. She fully planned on sending them a text message when she got home and the hell away from them, but they seemed to have other plans.

And plenty of rope.

When Madison and the red headed beauty had come to her defense and begged them not to hang her upside down she’d felt touched and hopeful. At that moment they’d had her undying gratitude. Although neither woman had been able to sway Chris from tormenting her, both women seemed to be able to handle Ephraim quite well. Jill’s suggestion that they talk to her had been wholly approved by her, but the men had ignored her. That is until Jill started to call Ephraim “Daddy”

and she did this little wobble with her bottom lip that Isabella was going to have to learn one day. After that the man’s determination had faltered slightly, but not enough to refrain from floating, and yeah it was one of the coolest things Isabella had ever seen, to a small metal circle in the ceiling and thread one end of the rope through, which she refused to wonder about.

That’s when Madison brought in the big guns, suggesting once again that they handle this by talking.

When she pressed Ephraim’s hand against her stomach and gave him one of those achingly sweet kisses she’d only seen in movie she’d thought the woman had him.

At that point she’d been more than willing to sit down and discuss this like rational, mature adults after she screwed with them just a little longer and got a ride to the airport that is.

Unfortunately for her that’s when Madison’s morning sickness decided to kick in, sending Madison running for a bathroom, she assumed, and Jill running downstairs for a bag of blood and some toast to calm Madison’s stomach. The idea had done anything but calm Isabella’s stomach.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that Madison was whatever the hell Ephraim was. They both drank blood and had some really cool abilities. Plus she’d seen Madison’s eyes glimmer a bright red when Ephraim whispered something in her ear.