I wasn't expecting that. I wasn't quite sure what else to say.
"I understand if I need to move out and find my own place." He took a deep breath and sighed. "I'd been thinking about that the past couple weeks, but with the recent threat, I'd planned to hold off."
"You need to stay here for now." There was no way I'd want Ella and him to put themselves out there as easy targets. "We can figure the rest of this out later. Right now, we need to warn the packs and visit the ones we haven't been able to yet."
A phone rang, and Kassie pulled hers from her pocket. "Hello?"
There was no telling what King Adelmo had done. My stomach churned as I waited for her to end the call.
"I'll be there shortly." Kassie hung up the call, and her forehead lined with worry.
"What's going on?" She just needed to tell me.
"We've got a problem." Kassie paused, but her eyes locked with Tommy's. "Richard and Debra have escaped from prison."
At first, the words didn't make sense. "My cousin and aunt?" That couldn't be possible. They hated my guts, and we had them locked up in the most secure location.
"Yes."
Someone had to have helped them to escape, and I had no clue who it could have been.
Chapter Two
Out of all the possibilities that had run through my head, my aunt and cousin escaping wasn't one of them. "Both of them?" I probably sounded like a parrot right now.
"Get the guards to track their scents." Mason took off his suit jacket and threw it on a chair. "This is ridiculous. If they can't do it, I will."
"Whoa, there." Tommy lifted his hand. "I can't have the royal I'm protecting running straight into enemy lines."
"It's our prison." I was with Mason on this one. "We're going."
"Of course they are." Kassie sighed and shook her head.
"If it was anyone else but her, you'd be impressed." Mona snorted as she patted Kassie on the shoulder. "And really, we only have ourselves to blame."
That was true. They'd trained my ass on self-defense and proper weapon usage over the past twelve years. "I promise to not run off unprompted."
"Girl, you don't think we noticed the last word of that sentence?" Ella rolled her eyes and leaned against Louis's shoulder. "That wasn't even worth promising."
"It only makes it worse." Louis nodded his head in agreement.
"I think I liked you better before this …" I said as I waved my hands between the two of them, "happened."
"You and me both." Mason sighed. I got the pleasure of walking in on them one night.
What? How do I not know about that? It was better him than me.
It was in the apartment before we moved here. He stepped closer to me. When you were injured. His green eyes scanned my face.
That was before we moved into this place. The vampire prince had his eyes set on killing Mason, and I’d jumped in front of him, taking the dagger in my heart. I should've died, but hell, I got to visit my parents in what could only be the realm between life and death. Somehow, I had gotten enough of the vampire prince’s blood in my system to save me from death. I had been able to protect Mason and see my parents once more, which made everything that happened worth it. However, I'd never have admitted it to Mason.
"Let's go," Kassie growled the words.
"I'll pull the car out of the garage and get it started." Tommy ran out the front door, scanning the area as if Richard and Debra were going to appear right there.
"Damn him," Kassie grumbled as she ran after him with her hand on the side of her hip to easily grab her gun if needed.
"Go on." Mona pointed to the door. "I'll take the back."
"Hell, yeah." Ella hurried out the door first. "This is so much better than a movie."
"Something isn't right with her." Mason shook his head and glared at Louis. "You need to keep her in line."
"Oh, like you do Elena?" Louis smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Criticize me after you're able to do that with her." His gaze landed right on me.
"Don't even try." As fun as this was, I needed to get to the prison and fast. I hurried to the door, leaving all three of them behind.
"See." Louis chuckled. "She just left your ass too."
"Not funny." Mason rushed and caught up to me as I climbed into the Suburban.
Mona stood right by the door, scanning the area for any threats.
I went straight in so that I was sitting in the middle row, then Louis and Mona could climb in the back.
"Let me get in first." Louis jumped in front of Mason and clambered into the vehicle, crouching low as he made his way to the back seat next to Ella.
It wasn't long before Mona and Mason got in, and Tommy took off to wherever we kept prisoners.
Mona groaned, and a hard slap could be heard from the back. "Don't make me do another hand check while I'm back here."
I didn't even want to touch this one. "How far away is this place?" The longer it took us to get there, the harder it was going to be to find them.
"Not far." Kassie glanced over her shoulder from the front passenger seat.
"But this is the heart of NYC." The fact that I didn't know the location of the prison was super disturbing.
"Actually, you were living right above it and didn't know." Tommy glanced in the rearview mirror.
The NYC apartment's modern building we'd moved from appeared in front of us.
"Are you talking about that?" I pointed to the building. They had to be, but that didn't make sense. That was starkly different than a prison.
"What you might not know is that you own the entire building." Tommy turned into the parking garage beneath the building.
It was one of the most luxurious accommodations, especially compared to our new home. Here, there was a parking garage, whereas our new home was lucky to have the single car garage that the guards insisted on.
"You don't rent out the basement." Mona leaned forward, trying to gain some distance from the two in the back. "And we use it as a holding ground of sorts."
"So there really isn't a prison?" Mason's forehead lined, and his brows furrowed. "That doesn't make a lot of sense."
"Actually, it does." Kassie turned around and met Mason's eyes. "Your guards are the best trained in the entire world. We should be the ones over the security."
"Fat lot of good it did for tonight." Ella snorted and shook her head. "I wouldn't be bragging like that when two escaped."
She had a point, but now wasn't the time to voice it. I glanced over my shoulder to see that Louis was frowning at her and had to be speaking to her mentally. Sometimes, I forgot he was a good ally to have. He understood the politics of it all.
"Anyway." Mason's words were brash. "How many people are down there?"
"Not many." Tommy rolled the window down and reached out, scanning his badge. "Normally, packs take care of their own when it comes to disobedience. So we have the stragglers like Richard and Debra down there."