I gape at him.
Darius shifts the car into top gear. “I love my twin. We have our differences. He’s a bit quicker than me in a fight, and I’m… better looking.”
I snort.
“After the thing with Tiffany, he was hurting. Deep down, I think some part of him blames me because I was the one who found out, and I was the one who told him.”
“Darius, what in the heck–”
He holds up a hand, and I shut up in case he takes both hands off the wheel while the car is whipping around a bend. “Listen. What I’m saying is Teddy holds onto things more than most. Since the thing with Tiffany, he hasn’t been in a serious relationship. At all. He threw himself into military service and then worked with the Black Wolf pack to get their security business and his helicopter one off the ground. But now he’s just wallowing.”
My mouth hangs open. I’m trying to wrap my head around what Darius is saying, while bracing myself in the car seat. Two seconds ago, I was headed to a vampire. Now Darius has done a literal 180, and I’m headed back to Teddy?
It feels so right, I think I will cry. But it doesn’t matter if Darius thinks mindwiping me is a mistake, Teddy still believes it’s the right thing to do.
“He used to be a happy go-lucky guy. To his friends, he still is. But when he feels things, he feels them deep.”
“I don't think he’s happy around me. He can be a total grump.”
“That’s because you make him feel. You make him want more. He shut that part of him down a long time ago, and he’s grumpy because you’re waking it up.”
“How would you know? All you guys do is fight.”
“I’m his twin,” he says simply, as if this explains why he’s the expert on Teddy’s inner feelings. “And you’re his–”
“Don’t say it.” I raise my hands, palms up, like I’m stopping traffic. Or surrendering. But I really don’t want to hear the word mate. Matthias hinted something, and it got my hopes up. “If it’s true, why would he let me go?”
“Teddy overreacted. He made a mistake. But you’re his only hope of rescue, Lana, and I can’t let you throw your memories away because my brother’s a giant dumbass. You’re his mate.”
I flinch.
“You are. You know how I know? Tiffany ran to the newsrooms and the cameras to get a second of fame. You’re already famous, and you’re running to get your mindwiped, so no one can pry the secret out of you. That's love. And I’m not going to let Teddy throw it away.”
I open my mouth to say something, I don’t know what, but moonlight flashes on an obstacle in the road ahead of us, and I scream, “Look out!”
The sport’s car has great brakes. Darius makes good use of them. The tires shriek, and I bounce off the passenger door, but we stop.
There are a bunch of huge black SUVs blocking the road.
“Fuck.” Darius shifts the car to reverse and guns it backwards, turning in the road and hurtling back the way we came. “Bentely must've called in the big guns.”
Oh right. I almost forgot–my stepbrother’s trying to kill me. “More assassins?”
“A whole team of them.”
I crane my neck just in time for Darius to brake the car, hard. Another phalanx of black SUVs is blocking the road ahead of us. There’s nowhere to go. We’re in a canyon of some sort, with hills on either side and no off roads or traces of civilization around. We’re trapped.
“Fuck,” we both say at the same time. Behind us, the SUV doors have opened, and a few men in black get out.
“Okay, here’s the plan.” Darius reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone. “You’re going to take this and run into the hills.” He punches in a code and hands the cell to me.
“Should I call for help? There’s no signal.”
“Don’t need it. There’s a special tracker on there. I just activated it with a distress code.” A ghost of a grin flashes over his face. “Teddy programmed it himself. He did it for everyone in the family.” He reaches over and grabs my door handle. “On my signal, you run.”
“Wait! What about you?”
His smile shows all his teeth. He looks like a shark. “I’m going to be bait.
“But–”
“You’re my brother’s mate. I’m going to do what it takes to get you out of this alive.”
“Darius,” I whisper.
“Don’t worry, kid.” He boops my nose, looking so much like Teddy I want to cry.
“Oh, and I’m taking this.” He grabs my glow in the dark backpack. “You ready?”
My chest heaves, like I’m starting to hyperventilate. I gulp and nod.
“On three,” Darius says. “I’m going to distract them. And…don’t get caught, sweetheart. I need you to send my brothers to rescue me.”