by Amelia Jade
“The last time I was in a fight, they started it, I’ll have you remember that,” he told her with a smile.
Arianna shrugged. “I didn’t see how it went down. Besides, that’s how thugs often feel. They think they’re always the aggrieved party.” She stopped talking and burst into laughter at the look of disbelief he knew was plastered across his face.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he promised, guiding her expertly through the crowd toward the VIP area. Once there, they played the same bluff game he had played outside. Just like the first time, these guards weren’t willing to call him on it, so they let him pass.
“And just how are you planning on ‘making me pay’?” she asked, using her fingers to quote the last few words as they settled down into chairs and waited for Flint to return. He was apparently in another room on business, but one of the servers promised he would be right back.
“That would spoil the surprise,” he told her. “But trust me, it’s going to be good, and you won’t even see it coming.”
Arianna rolled her eyes.
“I don’t recall giving you permission to come back,” Flint said as he returned, slipping easily into one of the chairs across from them, forming the third point of a triangle.
“Sure you did,” Ajax said. “You said, ‘You two are always welcome back, anytime you please, as long as you don’t break anything.’ We didn’t break anything!”
Flint frowned. “I don’t recall saying that.”
“Whatever.” Ajax shrugged. “I’m sure you thought it. You just probably forgot to say it because of all the other goings-on. You’re a gentleman Flint. I knew you wouldn’t mind.”
The shifter-smuggling overlord rolled his eyes. “What do you want?” he asked, getting straight to the point.
“We found their base in the city,” Arianna said just as bluntly. “But we didn’t have time to rescue anyone or even search the entire complex. We’re going back. We need reinforcements.”
Flint had leaned back into his chair as she spoke, eyes focused intently on Arianna as he heard the words she was telling him. But at the mention of needing support, his eyebrows rose upward.
“You came to me for help?” he asked incredulously. “After all the damage you did here, you expect me to help you?”
“Yes,” Ajax replied, the single word cutting through Flint’s act. “If you need money, you’ll get it, though I suspect that you’re so used to this persona that you don’t know how to talk straight and without always trying to take advantage of those who you work with.”
Flint sighed at the chastisement. “I am sorry, actually. It has been a rather stressful day for unrelated reasons. Tell me everything.”
Ajax and Arianna began to speak, telling the story as they went, interjecting easily and weaving the tale of their escapade in the shipyard into a cohesive story that surprised all three parties in its flow.
At the end of it, Flint sat back, his lips pursed in thought as he considered everything they had told him.
“How many men do you need?” he asked.
Ajax looked over at Arianna, then back to Flint. “I think we can do with two, if they have actual combat or fighting experience.”
“Just two?” Flint looked back and forth at them in disbelief. “You really think that you can handle the rest of them?”
The big shifter didn’t reply; instead he just leveled his gaze at Flint.
The smuggler, flustered by the confident stare, waved him off. “Oh, very well then. Anything else you need?”
There were a few small things, and they spent the next twenty minutes going over the details of the plan again. Flint helped change a few things once he knew for certain which building they were targeting, but for the most part, it was a straight forward smash and grab, using the strength of the shifters as brutally as possible to overwhelm their opponents.
“But let me make this clear, you have no way to confirm that there is anyone else actually there, besides possibly a whole ton of guards who you’ll have to deal with?” he asked at the end.
Ajax looked at Arianna.
“I heard others at one point. Other confused voices, and some of the doctors’ assistants telling them to be quiet. That was before I was transferred from wherever they had put me to the medical room.”
“And you have no idea what they did to you?” Flint asked cautiously.
“Not a clue. They had me hooked up to all sorts of machines, with stuff going in and I think out of me. But I was only there for perhaps half an hour at best. How could they have done much of anything? I certainly don’t feel any different.”
Neither Flint nor Ajax had an answer to that question.
“Very well, you’ll have the men. Call me at this number tomorrow,” he said, sliding a business card across the low-slung table that the chairs were centered around.
“Thank you,” Ajax said with an appreciative nod as he rose, extending a hand to help Arianna from her seat as well.
“Just bring them back to me,” Flint said. “Alive. I happen to like the people that work for me. They’re very good at what they do.”
“I will do everything I can,” Ajax promised. He stuck out a hand, motioning for Arianna to precede him out of the VIP area.
“So, what now?” she asked as they neared the dance floor.
The bar down on the recessed oval dance floor showed some signs of wear from when he had thrown a shifter into it, but for the most part, he was surprised at how undamaged it looked.
Ajax grinned.
“What?” she asked suspiciously.
“Care for a dance?” he asked, tugging her along as he made for a ramp that led down to where club-goers bounced freely to the music.
“Are you serious?” she asked.
He could tell she was nervous at the prospect. The truth was, he was terrified as well. He wasn’t much of a dancer, but with his date looking as hot as she did, he felt he could suck it up.
“Absolutely,” he told her. “It’d be a shame for you to dress up like that and not tear it up for a bit.”
Arianna blushed, but she didn’t fight him as he led her down to the dance floor, twirling her around as they made their way into the press of bodies, eyes only on each other. His first steps were tentative, but the look of sheer delight that blazed in her eyes soon washed away any doubts, and together they danced the night away, uncaring of what the next day might bring.
***
“What were your names again?” he asked.
“I’m Milos,” the tall brown-haired shifter replied, reaching up to scratch the short beard on his face.
“I’m Andre,” the blond with finger-length hair said dully. “You’ve asked us this three times now.”
“I know,” he said, adjusting himself as best he could in the tight confines of his rental truck. “But I’ve never met either of you before.”
“Actually, that’s not entirely true,” Andre said slowly.
Ajax looked at him in the rearview mirror, his expression telling the other shifter to elaborate.
“You tossed me into the bar,” Andre said with a shrug.
“Oh.” Ajax smiled awkwardly. “Sorry about that.”
“Misunderstandings happen,” Andre replied. “We were both just doing what we had to do.”
“Right. Well, good to be on the same side with you now.”
Ajax meant that. The two shifters had been waiting for him at the back door to Route Fifty, right where Flint had promised they would be when they called him the next day to let him know they were ready. They hadn’t said much at first, but they had done as he needed without asking too many unnecessary questions. Now that they were waiting for the next phase, he felt comfortable taking time to get to know them a little better.
Staring out the window at the brick wall so close he could probably touch it, Ajax wondered if he had made the right choice. The three of them were sitting in the big black rental truck which was currently parked in a very tight alleyway nearb
y the building they had left the day before. Huge buildings loomed up on either side of them, older apartment buildings ten or twelve stories each. They blocked out much of the sunlight unless the sun was directly overhead, and right now in the early afternoon there was a bit of a shadowy gloom already beginning to descend into the tight space.
It wasn’t his location that bothered him. It was Arianna’s. She was exposed. Vulnerable. He was too far away to be able to come to her aid if she got in a bad way.
Ajax took a deep breath in, exhaling slowly to try and calm himself.
“She’ll be okay,” Milos said from the back seat. “She’s tough.”
He smiled. “She is that,” he agreed. “I still don’t like it, though.”
Andre shrugged. “We couldn’t do this if she wasn’t here. We stand out too much.”
Ajax’s reply was cut short by the hiss and crackle of the phone on the dash. They had hooked Arianna up with a Bluetooth headset to her phone, and her voice came across it now at last. She was out in a disguise scouting the building for them, trying to see what kind of things went on, if there was anyone going in or out, etcetera. It wasn’t a big building; it only had three stories, made in ultra-modern fashion with sharp clean corners and little in the way of frivolity in the design. Blackout windows covered all the sides, preventing them from seeing inside.
“No signs of any guards,” she told them. “In fact, all I’ve seen is a big transport truck—kind of like the one that brought us here—leave the underground parking.”
That bit was interesting. Not many buildings could accommodate big rigs into their underground parking. Knowing that this place could gave them an idea of what to expect down there.
“How long ago was that?” he asked.
“Perhaps two minutes ago.” The reply came right away. “I was just getting into position then.”
“Is there a gate to this underground parking?” he asked.
“No. Nothing. It’s the strangest thing,” she said. “There might be a gate in the roof, but if there is, they just keep it open by the looks of it. They must not have much in the way of security concerns.”
They’re about to.
“Okay, move to the right side of the entrance and prepare to hop in the back seat. We’re going inside,” he said, reaching forward to turn the key. The big V8 engine roared to life, the noise bouncing off the alley walls.
He rolled the truck forward to the busy street ahead, waiting for an opening before turning right into the traffic. The building was two blocks ahead on their right.
“There,” Milos said, leaning forward in his seat, finger pointed as he spotted Arianna.
“Got her,” Ajax said, slowing to a halt.
Andre reached over and opened the door as they slowed. Arianna moved swiftly and jumped in next to them. Ajax kept going straight, until the last second when he turned sharply. They disappeared from the street, following the tunnel downward. It sloped slowly, and they swiftly realized that the underground of the building was larger than its street-level footprint.
“I bet the building itself is empty and just a shell for all this,” Ajax said as they observed a decent-sized cavern approximately two stories below street level. The ramp leveled off and to their right was a parking area. It could easily fit two big transports, including room for them to turn around, and several dozen vehicles. Right now it was almost empty. There was a cargo truck backed up to what appeared to be a loading dock, but they couldn’t see anyone around it.
“This looks like a good spot,” he muttered, backing the truck into a spot that was mostly obscured from view by big rounded concrete columns that supported the roof.
So far, no commotion had been raised.
“I don’t understand,” Milos said, confused. “How do they not know we’re here?”
“I haven’t seen a single video camera,” Andre said, echoing his friend’s feelings. “Who builds a place like this and doesn’t install cameras?”
Ajax shrugged. “I don’t know, and that’s the problem. We don’t know a damn thing about this organization. It could be as simple as they don’t want any records of their existence, at all.”
“Wouldn’t they have guards then, who could at least see people like us?” Andre asked, popping the door open and getting out slowly, eyes watching the rest of the cave even as he talked to those still in the truck.
“You’d think so,” Milos agreed.
Ajax tuned them out as he turned to Arianna, who was now climbing into the driver’s seat and adjusting it for the size difference between her and its previous occupant. He smiled as the seat went way forward and up.
“A truck looks good on you,” he teased. “You should come to the country and we’ll get you one.”
Her eyes turned to focus on him and there was no humor in them, just worry. “You come back to me, and then we’ll discuss my bright purple pickup,” she said, a tiny smile breaking through her mask of seriousness.
“I promise,” he told her. “If you have to hightail it out of here, blast the horn several times and just go. Don’t wait, just go. Okay?”
This was the part of the plan he dreaded most. Leaving Arianna alone in the cavern in their getaway vehicle with a hope and a prayer that someone wouldn’t spot her before they could return with Benjamin, if he was still here.
“I know the plan,” she told him with that same strange sense of confidence that he hadn’t picked up from her when they first met.
He leaned forward and kissed her, one hand snaking around the back of her head to pull her in tight. She inhaled deeply at his touch, leaning into the kiss after a moment.
“I owe you another one of those when we get back,” he told her, stepping away from the truck.
“Go,” she urged, then pulled the door closed as softly as possible.
Ajax took another long look at the beautiful woman he and his bear knew they wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and took off at a jog with the other two shifters, heading for the loading dock and the interior of the complex.
Now if only you could work up the courage to tell her how you feel…
Chapter Twelve
Arianna
She watched the three men disappear behind the truck and sat back with a sigh. There was no turning back now.
Arianna slouched lower in the seat, keeping as low a profile as she could, while still managing to keep an eye on her surroundings. There was no movement that she could see, but that could change in the blink of an eye.
The minutes began to tick by, and her brain wandered.
Ajax wants me to come to the country with him. To wherever it was that he called home.
It hit her then. She knew who Ajax was as a person. She knew he was a good man, although he had lived through some things that had scarred him emotionally. He hadn’t said it, but she had seen him hesitate several times when it came to talking about his feelings for her. He cared, she didn’t doubt that. But something told her it had been a while since he had allowed himself to be vulnerable like that.
But what she realized now was that she had no idea about his actual life. Their time had been occupied with trying to rescue Benjamin, which was extremely important to her. She needed to see that carried out. But that had left them with precious little time to actually talk with each other. Most of their time together had been…less than verbal.
Arianna was alone, but she blushed at the memory of the past few days. The night before, as they arrived back at their hotel, Ajax had shown her just how much he liked her outfit. Twice. A smile played across her face as she recalled the way his hands had run across her body, making her feel sexy and beautiful.
But do you care enough about him to move away from the only life you’ve ever known, to some random country town? Where is Origin even?
Ajax hadn’t told her much other than the name, which meant little to her. She hadn’t even looked it up on a map. Pulling out her phone, she tried now, but this deep underground she had no signal.<
br />
“Dammit,” she cursed softly, before swiftly covering her mouth. She looked around to see if anyone had overheard her outburst.
There was still no sign of anyone. That on its own was enough to set her mind to work, dreaming up any number of scenarios where someone snuck up on her, ambushing her in the truck and taking her prisoner again. It was amazing how easily her mind allowed those fears to take root when Ajax wasn’t around. His simple presence managed to deter so many of the fears she had.
She liked having Ajax nearby. Even if they weren’t talking, she felt comfortable in his presence, the big shifter who hid his intelligence behind his musclebound exterior. The peaceful aura he exuded had seemed to reach out automatically to encompass her and bring its soothing influence whenever she could brush up against him or lose herself in his arms.
But that brought her back to the original question. She cared about the big doofus. There was no doubt in her mind that he was special to her in a way that defied explanation. There was caring for someone, and then there was moving across the country to spend the rest of her life with someone. That was a big leap. Arianna thought she was ready to make it, but she wasn’t sure.
Nobody is ever sure about these things. That’s why it’s called a leap of faith.
“And I certainly have faith in him,” she said thoughtfully to herself.
You owe him an answer, one way or anoth—
Her spine stiffened as someone appeared from behind the idle cargo truck. It wasn’t Ajax or one of the other shifters.
Her first instinct was to duck out of sight, but she suppressed it, knowing that he might catch her motion. So instead she waited until he glanced away from the truck before she ducked as far down as possible while still keeping him visible through the steering wheel.
“Please go away, please go away,” she whispered over and over again, hoping he would get the hint.
The man didn’t seem to agree with her memo, as he instead moved to the front of the big truck, pulling open the door and seeming to rummage through the front.
Arianna began to relax as she realized he must just be looking for something.
