by Amelia Jade
He wasn’t the boss.
She wasn’t sure what had tipped her off to that fact, but she had vaguely become cognizant of the fact that, although he may be in a position of command, he wasn’t the guy.
“Who, exactly, do you plan on telling then?” he said coolly, trying to play it off, but they both knew it was too late.
“Whoever’s yacht this is,” she said, spreading her hands.
“And what makes you think that he would deign to speak with you?” Gray asked, conceding the point without further argument.
Whatever he was, he was smart, and Shay began to wonder if he was already planning something else, something she wasn’t seeing.
“Shifter-boy talks in his sleep,” she said with a sneer. “There were a few things that he let slip that didn’t make sense to me then, but make more now, and probably would be clear as day if you heard them.”
“You’ll have to give me something to go to him with,” Gray said.
Shay frowned. He had a point. So shit, what the hell did she have? Her entire plan had been to get to meet the boss to either open up an avenue of escape, to try and kill him, or to stall for more time. Not necessarily in that order.
But if she were to see him, she had to give up something. How could she do that without endangering Justin? There had to be something! She thought furiously, going over every individual conversation and statement she had had with Justin about his team.
“Anything?” Gray prodded.
The problem here was she didn’t actually know anything. So, that led to the question, how could she make it sound like she knew something they would want to know? What would they want to know? What information could she hint at knowing that they would be interested in?
Their headquarters. The base of their enemy, a place they could strike at Justin and his friends. That would be tantalizing. It had to be.
“I know where to find their headquarters,” she said at last, trying to sound reluctant at giving up even that bit of information.
“And where would that be?” he pressed.
She snorted audibly, the sound echoing off the walls around them. “Do you seriously think I’m that dumb?” she asked. “Bring me your boss first. I’ll talk to him. Not you.”
Gray smirked. “We shall see. Don’t forget though, confident as you may be now, that you sneaked in here. We didn’t have to do anything to capture you.”
Shay had seen that one coming, and didn’t acknowledge the remark. Instead, she just made a shooing motion toward the door.
Gray laughed aloud and nodded at her. “You certainly had me fooled,” he admitted, heading toward the door. “When you first got here, I thought you just a weak little thing. Perhaps there is an inner fire in you after all.”
“You have no idea,” she said, fire burning in her voice as she sat back against the wall, waiting for him to return.
To her surprise, he was back in less than ten minutes, as best she could judge.
“Come,” he said brusquely, with little of the politeness he had shown earlier.
Trying to conceal her frown at the change in his demeanor, she followed him from the room, and then off the yacht entirely.
Where is he taking me? Shay had assumed all along that his boss was on the yacht. What she had seen before being shoved inside her prison cell was rather opulent. Far too fancy for her own tastes, that was for sure.
As she was pushed forcefully onto the pier, she saw an expensive-looking silver SUV pull through the gate in the distance and head down the pier toward them. Gray must have called his boss. That was how he got such a quick answer.
Things seemed to be moving so fast now that Shay wasn’t sure what to expect to happen next. Her bluffs so far had all paid off, and now she was going to get the meeting she wanted with the big boss.
Wanted? I think we’re being a little hasty here. I don’t want to meet him at all! But if I can keep stalling, hopefully I can come up with another plan to help keep me alive.
Shay was under no preconceptions about the ruthlessness of these men. Justin had killed their men, and made it clear that a war was being waged in King City between his team and this Agency. At night, the back alleys and abandoned buildings was where they fought and killed each other regularly. The death of one more person, a woman nobody knew from out of town, wouldn’t even make them blink. She had to tread carefully, and hope that whatever it was her father seemed to know would be enough to keep her alive when this plan fell through. If it could be called a plan.
They walked along the pier to where the SUV had stopped.
“Couldn’t it have come to us?” she complained. “It would have been faster.”
Gray smiled coldly. “I do not tell Mr. J what to do. If he chooses to stop there, then there is a reason for it.”
A chill ran down her spine at the way he referred to his boss. The reverence and respect in his voice almost masked something else, something that she was sure Gray would prefer she didn’t know.
Almost.
He was afraid of this J. Not just nervous, but flat-out terrified of him. Which meant that Shay should be going away from him. Not toward him. She was scared of Gray—whatever his real name was—let alone his boss. What was it about this man that made him so intimidating to his employees?
Her stomach tightened into knots as they neared and the rear door opened. From inside a man lithely stepped out, his every move a thing of grace and beauty. There was something raw and powerful about his grace that made her shudder. It was equal parts a dancer’s fluidity combined with the all-powerful look of a god.
“What are you?” she whispered as his unnatural orange-brown eyes locked on to her.
The man smiled, the whites of his perfectly ordered teeth so brilliant it was almost blinding.
“Why, what does it look like I am?” he asked, eliciting a more powerful tremor within her at the sound of his voice, a mixture between the powerful roar of a waterfall and the silky smoothness of some sort of fantasy creature.
She just stared until he responded with a slightly disappointed tone.
“I am human, just like you,” he said, spreading his arms wide. Then he winked at her and added. “Well, maybe not quite like you.”
“That’s for sure,” she said softly, surprised at her own confidence.
It apparently caught Mr. J off guard as well. He rocked back slightly, fixing another smile in place. “Why, you were right, Cronin. She does have spirit in her. I like her,” he said, clasping his hands together in front of him. “Come, sit inside,” he said with a gesture at the vehicle behind him.
Shay hesitated, looking around furtively, trying to seek any source of escape. All she could see were containers to the left of her, and water to the right. There was the yacht and the speedboats next to it, but they may as well be on the other side of the world at that distance. She would never get there in time. Even if she could, she noticed a big cargo ship was anchored very close in the middle of the harbor. Getting past that would be a nightmare as well.
“Inside,” Gray—no, Cronin, she corrected—said and shoved her forward none too gently.
The force of his push made her stumble and she banged into the open door hard enough to open a cut on her arm. “Ow,” she muttered, shaking the limb slightly.
“Cronin. Treat our guest more gently than that,” J snapped.
“Of course, boss,” Cronin replied deferentially, stepping back and closing the door gently behind her as she slid onto one of the seats inside.
J smiled at her. “Now,” he said, “I understand you have some information for me?”
Shay did her best not to cower in terror. His power seemed to fill the interior of the vehicle, pressing down on her from all sides. It was practically choking her, even though he wasn’t actually touching her. She wanted to scream, to claw her way to safety.
“Yes,” she managed to get out after several tries, her hands gripping the seat on either side of her to try and stop them from shakin
g so violently.
“No need to be shy!” he said with a shake of his head. “Come on now, let’s hear what you have to say.”
Shay licked her lips, trying to relocate her spine. It had gone missing.
She was going to die here, she thought suddenly. At his hands.
Calm abruptly settled over her as she came to that conclusion. It was as if accepting that her death was imminent meant that there was no reason to fear. Whatever J was, he wasn’t entirely human, and killing her would likely be a footnote in his daily routine. But if she was going to die, then what use was there being afraid, cowering in the corner from him?
Steel flooded her spine and she sat up straight, her eyes narrowing as she looked over at him defiantly. “Yeah, I have some information for you,” she confirmed, shocked at the strength and sarcasm that entered her voice.
“Good, does that mean you’re finally going to tell me?” J said, drumming his fingertips on the armrest in boredom.
Shay smiled and prepared her words.
Then the windows of the vehicle shattered and blew out around them.
Chapter Sixteen
Justin
He watched the feed on his phone, the tiny screen not capturing nearly as much as he wished.
Next to him the rest of his team was all doing the same as they bobbed up and down slightly. The motion made some people sick, but Justin had never had an issue with the constant motion of the sea. Even now, perched on the railing of a little fishing trawler, he almost felt himself rocked to sleep by the soothing motion.
The wetsuit, flippers, and mask perched on his head ensured he wouldn’t actually fall asleep though.
“So, this is your plan?” Josh asked for the seventh time, fiddling with the rubbery material around his crotch. “This thing pinches in the worst places.”
The others chuckled, but nobody disagreed. The truth was, they did pinch, and it was certainly not pleasant. But then again, finding four wetsuits for veritable giants hadn’t been easy to begin with. They were stretched a bit.
Okay, a lot.
The video being relayed to them shook for a second as the person holding the camera moved slightly to get a better position. “Okay, everyone ready?” they asked, the voice stuttering as it came from the four different phones at the same time.
Jared spoke into his throat mic, confirming his team’s readiness.
A split second later the camera panned back, revealing the view of the Shipyard from the street in front of it. The operator swung it to the right, and suddenly there was a speeding short bus in the field of vision. It was barreling down on the steel gate that protected the Coleforn Shipyard.
The boom as the truck hit the gate and disappeared in a massive fireball was audible even from their location, the noise shaking the water and then the boat. Connor was forced to grab for the rail, but the others barely swayed. The camera operator was also thrown back, but they quickly refocused on the scene, and Justin felt his jaw drop.
“It worked,” he said, half-impressed, half-surprised. “I’ll be damned, it worked.”
They had loaded the bus with tons of scrap steel, weighing it down as much as they could, before adding in several big drums of gas and a handful of highly illegal blocks of military-grade explosive that they had been saving to use on the Agency headquarters. Justin had had to argue fiercely with Madison to get her to use them, but in the end the leader of the Underground had relented.
Now, as the fireball born of the gas and explosives cleared, he saw that the thick steel gate was now warped and twisted, the thick metal peeling away from the intense heat of the explosion. In the middle was a gaping hole.
“Time to go,” Jared said.
The four of them tossed the phones down into their gear bags, pulled the masks over their heads, and rolled backward into the harbor waters. Justin took a quick second to orient himself with the others, and then they dove below the surface. Each of them had small metal chambers with compressed air in them. It would provide the big shifters with approximately ten minutes’ worth of air, which would be more than enough to get them to their destination.
As they approached the big cargo ship that had conveniently hidden their approach to within a few hundred feet of the pier where Shay was being held, Justin dove down deeper. They followed the curve of the hull, the reddish-orange material covered in thick-sludge.
The flippers attached to their feet allowed the big shifters to practically fly through the water, their powerful legs propelling them forward with a speed any normal swimmer would have envied. They went through the air faster as well, but it didn’t matter. Less than three minutes after dropping in the water, they were at the pier. They kicked off the flippers and mask in the water.
“Ready?” Jared asked, looking at his team as they got ready to hurl themselves out of the water and onto the concrete fifteen feet above them.
“Affirmative,” Justin replied. He was holding onto a thick rubber wheel that had been fastened to the pier. The others had found similar outcroppings that they could use to exit the water quickly.
“Go.”
His arms were flexing the instant Jared spoke, and he nearly jumped from the water like an exuberant fish. That illusion was dashed as his feet found purchase on the tire and propelled him up even more. He leapt hand-over-foot like a monkey, until he was on top of the tire. A powerful push on his legs and he landed atop the pier a moment or two ahead of everyone else.
The team immediately sprinted for the gate. A crowd of Agents had appeared there, and the Sentinels took them from behind by surprise. Many of them were human, and they went down with ease. Once again Justin was careful to maim, not kill. He ensured they were out of the fight, but he didn’t end their lives.
Before meeting Charles, Shay’s father, he had never thought of the Agents as individuals before. They had been alive, and had been people. But never an individual, with a life story to them. Now he knew better. Part of him knew that most of them couldn’t be saved. They were bad, through to the core.
But until he figured himself out, he couldn’t kill them.
They ran into several Extremis Agents as well, which provided more of a challenge, but just as the enemy lines seemed to be stabilizing, he saw forms appear in the blazing fire of the gate. Seconds later, the newly formed Second Team of the Underground slammed into their enemies from behind.
Madison, Ajax, Arianna, Milos, and Andre caught them completely by surprise.
The battle was fever-pitched as more Agents continued to stream in from the Shipyard. Justin snarled as another Extremis Agent appeared in front of him. He ducked beneath the first blow, then blocked the second with an upraised arm, before driving his fist deep into the Agent’s stomach. The man doubled over and Justin chopped an elbow down at the back of his head. The Agent collapsed and he turned to look for another enemy.
Ajax grunted, and suddenly a metal spike the length of his finger sprouted from his back. Justin’s eyes immediately jerked upward to the walkway that spanned the two buildings on either side of the burning gate. A team of Agents up there had pulled open windows and were beginning to take aim on those below.
“Up!” he roared and darted toward the building nearest him. Footsteps sounded behind him. As he entered the building he spun, but the person following him was one of his own. Arianna nodded up the stairs and the two of them took them three at a time.
Justin rounded the corner to the walkway, already calling for his bear. The feral animal surged forward, its power rushing into him swiftly. His limbs thickened and sprouted hair as he jogged. The increasing weight of his body forced him down onto all fours as he picked up speed.
The Sentinels hit the Agency team like a freight train, shouldering them aside with abandon. One of them went tumbling out the window he was firing through, his scream cut short as he impacted on the pavement below.
Justin’s bear had far fewer reservations about killing than he did. Its delight at being able to save his companion
s overwhelmed his human side’s knowledge that he had just sent a man to his death. He spun, claws scrabbling for purchase on the gray metal floor as he turned to survey his destruction. Behind him, Arianna finished off the remnants of his destructive path with an ease that belied her relative newness to this life.
He didn’t envy her having to learn how to exist in his world, and part of him cried out for the innocence she had lost. Shifting back, he took a deep breath to steady himself.
Arianna closed with him, her eyes burning brightly as she glared at him. “Don’t take pity on me,” she growled, jerking a thumb over her shoulder. “They were shooting at my man.” With that she shouldered her way by him, taking the stairs down.
Justin stared after her for a second, something about that comment echoing around in his head. Something important had just been said there.
He walked to one of the now-open windows, still contemplating what Arianna had said as he glanced down and then jumped through the window. He fell to a knee upon landing, noting that the battle there was down now, his team doing the final cleanup.
Rising, he turned and looked out over the pier. So far there had been no sign of—
A scream pierced the air, drawing his attention to the end of the pier.
Shay was there he saw, her form distinctive from the others that surrounded her. Behind the little knot of forms, a sleek yacht pulled away, quickly gaining speed as it made a dash for the harbor entrance.
His feet slapped across the pavement as he picked up speed. Around him the Underground teams did the same, until they bore down on the remaining Agency men, a veritable wave of destruction that flung aside anything in its path.
“That’s far enough!”
The voice rang out at the same time the man next to Shay easily hoisted her aloft, his hand around her throat.
Justin growled loudly, but he slid to a halt anyway, seeing red as his woman—yes, she was his if she would have him!—beat her hands uselessly against the arm holding her up, fingers digging into her throat.
As the rest of his team slowed to a stop a half-step behind him, the man put Shay down, though he now gripped the back of her neck instead of the front.
