Hunter's Moon Read Online Free Page B

though, not even when he used a knife to cut open the tip of the shoes so that his toes could stick out. They were simply too cramped and uncomfortable, and he had to forgo them, praying no one would notice an absence of shoes.
    “Ready?” Kieran spoke to him, and for the first time Gabe had the chance to actually look at his mate. There were gray slivers of steel within those blue eyes, and his hard-lined face had more than a few old white scars. Gabe wondered if the man ever smiled. The absence of laugh lines around his mouth and eyes suggested he never did. “Take his ball cap. Hide your face as much as you can.” Gabe put on the black baseball cap, and added to the disguise with the sunglasses from the guard’s chest pocket. “Take his gun.” Gabe complied without argument. He did not like guns in any way, shape, or form, but he was fluent in their use. “That is a semi-automatic, and you load it—”
    Before Kieran could finish, Gabe had already taken a clip, inserted it into the gun, and made sure the safety was on before sliding the gun into the hip holster and strapping it on. He noted the mix of prideful awe and disconcerted suspicion in Kieran’s eyes as he took stock of what Gabe had just done. Then Kieran shook his head, as if to clear it from wayward thoughts, and went up the stairs to the door. Glancing over his shoulder, he said gruffly, “If we come across anyone, let me do the talking. Our destination is the side entrance. There’ll be vehicles there. You understand?”
    Gabe nodded in response. No point in wasting time with small talk.
    The outside corridor was empty, but there was a breeze, suggesting a doorway nearby. Gabe remembered they hadn’t walked far inside before he’d been led down the stairs to his underground prison. Painted light yellow, the walls around them closed in narrowly and indicated they were in the back of the mansion, far from the wide-open spaces reserved for guests.
    The scent of gardenia, jasmine, and waxflower filled the fresh, cool air even with the occasional hotter gust from the outside, and Gabe felt like sneezing. He preferred cold mountain air and the scent of grass, the earth, and pine trees. He’d hated the pungent smells of the Deep South when he’d been here nearly a hundred years ago, and not much had changed since then.
    His clothes constricting his movements, Gabe followed Kieran down the hall to the back door, which was, surprisingly, unguarded. Outside, under the shade of massive magnolia trees with moss hanging amid the foliage, there were two parked black SUVs and no one in sight.
    “Must be my lucky day…,” Kieran murmured under his breath as he took quick stock of the area before hurrying to the first car with a silent Gabe in tow. The car doors were unlocked, and the keys were in the ignition. Kieran started the car and eased down the driveway. “If and when we make it to the front gates of the estate, keep your head down, but for Christ’s sake, play along if necessary. Can you do that?”
    Gabe took a good look at his rescuer and saw how pale his skin was, slick with a light sheen of sweat, how shallow his breathing was, and how his features had hardened into sharp angles and rough lines in anticipation of their escape plan going awry. All Gabe said was, “Yes.”
     
     
    C AN the fucker sound any calmer?
    Kieran gritted his teeth, annoyed at how little emotion Gabriel seemed to display, but he knew this would have been the wrong time for that mess anyway. All he could do at the moment was hope they got out of the compound in one piece.
    The driveway was at most three hundred yards in length, but the drive from the back of the mansion to the front gates felt like a hundred miles. Fuck . Cursing inwardly, Kieran was aware that the only reason he felt so nervous now was because he had a charge he needed to protect. If it had been just him, he would have been able to bluff the pants off the president of the United States. As it was, his