Free to Love (The Tribe MC: Chase of Prey Book 3) Read Free Page B

thing was happening to the Fallen.
    It was on the news, which most of them were watching on their mobile devices. Looking around at the people gathered close to their phones and tablets, or huddled inside the RVs where they could pick up satellite signals, made Cara chuckle even as it made her sad.
    What would the Tribe of old say if they could see them now? Would they be amused or shamed by the path that they had taken? Here they were, relying not on their senses and their ability to learn things from nature but on news reporters with glued–on plastic smiles to tell them what was going on in the world.
    It was a very tense and dispirited group that was gathered at the huge old plantation house situated on the outskirts of the city. Many of the people gathered there were not people at all — they were Fallen. The Fallen had had a large amount of cash on hand and they had managed to get some of it out before the raid came down, but many of their hiding places had been cleaned out. None of the places that they had designated as safe houses were safe anymore, so they had taken shelter with the Tribe.
    They were not simply staying to escape the DEA agents or the vice cops. They stayed because the Fallen was being torn apart from the inside out. Their King was dead and his son, Gregory, was leading the revolt against order.
    Ion had known where almost everything was, but Nico was a secretive and incredibly smart man. He’d held back secrets, even from his daughter and the ones he trusted the most.
    This house was perhaps one of his best secrets, but they all knew that if they were being tracked by Gregory and his fellow rogues, they would be found eventually. The rogues would literally sniff them out.
    The old house was concealed by massive oak trees whose long limbs stretched across the road as if the trees were reaching for each other. Besides these dripping live oaks there was a grove of cypress, knobby and gnarled, that further screened the house from prying eyes. Those trees kept light from spilling out onto the small, almost forgotten two–lane highway that ran along the front side of the property.
    Even when one turned down that tree-lined alley they would not immediately see the house. Riding down the bumpy red clay road, Cara had to wonder if they had gotten lost. Her father seemed sure of where he was going, but she had not been, at least not until she saw the stark outline of the house rising up in the darkness.
    The house was completely off the grid. There was no power, and while there was running water, it was pumped in by a series of conduits and a windmill that stood not far from the house.
    The RVs parked around the house cast their own light into the darkened windows while those within the house cleaned, trimmed and lit the oil lamps.
    Cara was grumbling over the lack of electricity went Sebastian walked past her and said with a cheeky grin, “I remember when electricity first came into being.”
    She turned to face him. “Sebastian, do you realize how that makes you sound?”
    “Like I’ve seen everything?”
    Cara gave him a sharp smile and retorted, “No, like one of those old men that sit around in the Square talking about the old days when sodas were a nickel and they had to walk miles across town just to go to school.”
    “There’s no need to be nasty, little girl.”
    Her face flushed with indignation. “I’m not a little girl!”
    Sebastian drew closer to her. He reached out one finger and gently brushed a smear of dirt from the tip of her upturned nose. “I know you’re not.” His voice was as gentle as his touch, but the desire that rose up in her was burning and intense. It would turn into a full–fledged conflagration if she was not careful.
    She looked at past him at the people gathered in the huge room that had once been a ballroom. Chairs had been brought in and furniture dragged in from other parts of the house so that everyone would have a place, but there were still people