Without Regret (Pyte/Sentinel 2)

He knew why all the other Masters wanted her and knew it wouldn’t be long before Demons and shifters caught wind of what was going down and joined the hunt for the same damn reason. They hoped to infiltrate the infamous Sentinel network and take down every Sentinel. It would require an elaborately organized one day assault that he didn’t think they’d manage to pull off since that meant trusting each other enough to work together.

Never going to happen.

In his long life he’d lived through more than a hundred vampire wars and more uprisings against the Sentinels than he could remember and not once had they ever managed to do anything more than piss of the Sentinels. They were great loses on each side, but the Sentinels always won and for one very important reason.

The Masters were too f**king stupid and greedy to make it work.

Except for Logan of course. If anyone could make it work and take control of the situation it would probably be Logan and if Kale had thought for one minute that was Logan’s intent, he wouldn’t be here right now. On an individual level he could care less if a Sentinel lived or died, but on a massive scale they were a necessary evil. They kept a lot of sick bastards in control and for that reason alone Kale would not help bring them down. Logan’s reasoning for keeping out of this asinine plan was simple; he liked having the Sentinels around to bring down his competition.

He didn’t bother asking what the man’s plans were for the girl simply because he didn’t care. As long as he got paid and there was even a small chance that Logan would forgive him he would do his job.

“Where is she?” Logan demanded yet again.

“Sorry, can’t tell you,” he said, not just because he didn’t have an exact location on her, but because he didn’t want any interference.

“You realize I could just have you tracked, right?”

“Don’t f**king insult me. We both know that if I wanted to I could grab Isabella McGuire and you would never find us,” he reminded the man, who really should have known better that to bullshit him. He’d been doing this a long time and knew how to cover his tracks.

After a pause, Logan said, “Just don’t f**k this up, Kale. I need her.”

“Why?” he found himself asking, even though he really knew better.

“Never mind. Just bring her to me, alive. If she’s found her mate and he gives you any trouble kill him, but if you can manage it bring them both to me.”

“Not a problem,” he said, knowing he wasn’t about to add any bullshit onto an already f**ked up contract. If Isabella McGuire found her mate then the bastard was good as dead.

**********

“Just say the word and I’ll let you go,” Isabella said, tightening her hold around Chris’ neck as she prepared to take him down to the ground where she would up her attack by kicking his ass.

When he first threw down his little challenge she’d admit that she’d been a little reluctant about it, but once she realized that this may be her only chance of escape she threw everything she had into it. After a few mishaps that were more embarrassing than painful she was sure she was in the zone now. Another minute, two tops and he’d be crying uncle and she’d have her chance at a reprieve so that she could buy herself a little more time to plan an escape.

As she tightened her hold around his neck and continued her kicking assault on his legs she actually started to feel a little bad. Then she remembered that he’d stolen her chocolate and all the other hell he’d put her through and kicked harder.

“This is just getting sad,” he said, sounding bored when he really should be begging for her mercy at this point.

“Look, Munchkin,” he said, placing his hands on her h*ps as he tried to pull her off of him, “as much as I appreciate a good hug, I’m afraid we’re going to have to end this now.”

“No!” she snapped, trying to wrap her legs around his waist but he wasn’t having that. He gripped her h*ps tightly and managed to pull her legs away, but she refused to release her grip around his neck.

The bastard was going down!

“Are you going to let go?” he asked, sighing heavily as she moved to wrap her legs around him again, but somehow he managed to block her once again.

“No!”

“Fine,” he said as he pulled her off and tossed her away, earning an embarrassingly high squeal from her as she landed on the middle of the double bed.

She sat up, shoving her hair out of her face so that she could glare at the man. “I get another chance.”

“You’ve had ten already. Give it up, Munchkin. In a few hours you’ll be leaving for your own good.”

Just as she was about to explain that she wasn’t going anywhere a cell phone went off. Without another word Chris pulled out that sleek black cell phone that she’d love to get her hands on and left the room, closing the door behind him.

For all of ten seconds she debated on staying to get her answers, but then decided that she could probably find everything she needed to know on the internet. After one last glare at the door she hauled ass to get the hell out of there.

She opened the window and screen as quietly as she could and carefully climbed out into the pitch black night and perched on the windowsill. Swallowing hard, she did her best to convince herself that the distance to the large oak tree branch that she was currently pining all her hopes and dreams on was less than six feet away. When her brain reminded her that she wasn’t an idiot and that it was at least ten feet away and that she was going to fall flat on her face she hesitated.

Of course she’d rather take her chances and fall then put up with people pushing her around, hanging her upside down, dragging her off to watch men turn into large scary beasts and having her chocolate stolen.

That lost thought gave her pause. Now that she thought about it, she realized that they probably wouldn’t give her any chocolate.

A life without chocolate?

She’d never survive, she realized as she sucked in a deep breath and shoved away from the window. As it became painfully obvious that she wasn’t going to reach the branch she squeezed her eyes shut and hoped for the best and for once luck was with her. Thankfully she didn’t break her arms or her legs when she hit the hard ground, but if the pain was any indication she may have actually broken her ass.

As quietly as she could she climbed to her feet and cringed once or twice as pain shot through her right cheek. She was actually quite proud that she hadn’t screamed one or two choice words. It had been a close call, but then she remembered that Ephraim and Madison had super hearing. With that thought in mind she began to wobble as quickly as she could towards the backyard and what she hoped was freedom.