by Holley Trent
Setting those three papers aside, she had the kids dump everything else into the bag.
Eric pulled into a McDonald’s drive-through line. “Their dumpster is wide open. Toss that bag, Maria, will ya?”
She groaned, tugged the bag up, and carried it to the door, waiting for him to tell her when.
He put in an order for two coffees, two sodas, and a crapload of hot apple pies, and when he inched up the queue to the pay window, he said, “Go.”
Using the RV to cover her from the worker at the window, she ran with the bag, tossed it, and hurried back. Then, she perched on the edge of the front seat and glowered at Eric.
“Don’t give me that look.” He thrust the receipt at her and nudged the RV up to the pickup window. “Can you file that in the envelope in the glove compartment? We’re supposed to submit expenses.”
She did it, but not without some grumbling. “I hope that if you ever have anything important, nobody tries to rip it away from you without you having a say.”
“Nothing’s more important than life. Stuff is replaceable.”
“They’re just kids, Eric,” she whispered.
“I’m following orders. You may have a habit of skirting them when it suits you, but I tend to follow rules. The rules are there for a reason.”
“Sometimes rules are too rigid.”
“And sometimes rules are made because the people who made them know more than we do about why they’d be necessary. You’re an intelligent woman. This shouldn’t even be a discussion.”
“I can be intelligent and considerate at the same time.”
He handed her the drink caddy and the bag of hot food, and then rolled up his window. “In my many years of observation of you, it’s seemed to me that you’ve always had a problem doing both at once.”
“Excuse me?”
“It’s always one or the other with you. No in-betweens. You always let passion overrule your sense of self-preservation. You know, you can be caring and methodical at the same time.”
“Fuck you, Eric.”
“If it makes you feel better to say that, fine. And call me whatever you want and get the words out of your system. I’m not going to lie to you, Maria. That’s me being intelligent and considerate at the same time.”
“Being an asshole is what you call considerate?”
“No. I’m giving you what you need in the softest way I can manage it. Don’t forget what our overarching mission is. We’re not just here to wrangle the kids. We’re trying to undermine Gene and cut off his avenues for terrorism. Think forward, Shrew.”
“Are you telling me how to do my job, Bear?”
“No. I’m here to help you do it. Don’t forget that. This isn’t about you and me.”
“I never said it was.”
“So remember that the next time you want to criticize me for thinking tactically.”
She left his coffee in the caddy, set it on the floor out of his reach, and carried the rest of the stuff back to the kids.
Think tactically about that, doofus.
CHAPTER NINE
While Eric ran around inside a superstore gathering replacement clothes for the kids, Maria carefully photographed all of the odd notations she’d found on the backs of the kids’ schoolwork and sent the images to Dana.
Maria took the remote from Gabe, fixed the television’s satellite dish input for him, and then snapped up her phone when it vibrated on the kitchenette table. She hit the speaker button. “Hey, Dana. Whatcha got for me?”
“I’ve got nothing, but Peter Ursu has something for you. I’m back at the office in Durham for the moment and Peter just happened to be nearby.”
“Just happened to be. Right.”
“Yeah, I thought the same thing. I sent Drea out for a very long lunch, so that should keep Bryan from getting too snippy.”
“Bryan?” Nina popped her head up from the pillow she’d been burrowing against for the past half hour.
Maria shook her head. “He’s still in the mountains, precious.” She turned off the speaker and put the phone to her ear. “So, what does Mr. Ursu think we’re dealing with?”
“Well, unless mating season has turned his brain into a vat of pudding, he might be on to something. He thinks it’s code.”
“What kind of code?”
“It’s not a common one, but Peter recognized it. He and his father encountered a lot of them working with the shifter groups in Eastern Europe.”
“Isn’t Marty from the Czech Republic or somewhere around there?”
“Chechnya, I think, but he’s a made-Bear. He wouldn’t have known about how those Bears operate. It’s not the same sort of code they use there, but the intent is pretty much the same.”
“What does it say?”
“Well, according to Peter, one page is an apology, one is a love letter, and the others are coordinates.”
“What?” Maria let out an involuntary scoff and turned her back to the kids who were staring far too intently. “Wait. Apology to whom and love letter to whom?”
Dana snorted. “Not concerned about the coordinates, huh?”
“Not at the moment.” Maria cut her gaze to the kids. They huddled under a blanket, now staring at the television mounted beside the cabinets. “Hold on.” She left through the exit between the kitchenette and back sleeping area, and closed the door gently behind her. “Okay, go ahead. I didn’t want to disturb the kids’ television-watching.”
“You know, I’m starting to like the idea of there being a Shrew RV for missions like this. We’d have to get a bigger one, but it would be useful for when we’re traveling en masse.”
“You’re thinking about conveyance when we’re in the middle of a staffing crunch?”
“Hey, we’re doing better than we were six months ago. We could still use some fresh blood, but at least we’ve got all these guys working with us now.”
Maria rolled her eyes at the mention of those guys and how she was having a hard enough time dealing with the one she’d been partnered with for the mission. She sighed. “Tell me about the papers. No, wait.” She spied Eric approaching from several rows up. “Here’s Eric. Tell us both so you only have to say it once.” She put the phone on speaker again.
“Well—” Dana started.
“Hold on,” Eric interrupted. “Give me a minute.” He shifted the heavy-looking bags to one hand, opened the door, and hurried into the RV. He returned a couple of minutes later and closed the door. “Okay. What’s going on?”
“Dana got Peter to decipher Marty’s scribbles,” Maria said.
“Huh. Okay. Tell me about them.”
“All right,” Dana said. “Like I said, the first page was an apology note. Short one. It pretty much said that he was sorry for scaring the children, if he did. He didn’t want it to come to that and he hopes they’ll forgive him.”
Eric’s brow furrowed and lips parted, and Maria covered his mouth with her hand before he could say anything. “Wait. It gets better.”
“The second letter is to his wife,” Dana said. “He says he was sorry he seemed so different in those last few weeks, but he needed to make her believe it.”
“Believe what?” Maria asked.
“He doesn’t say,” Dana responded, “but I guess he assumed that Keely would know. We can ask her whenever you meet up. What’s your ETA to Buffalo, by the way? We’ll get word to her.”
“Not until tomorrow sometime,” Eric said when Maria let her hand fall. “We’re taking the long way around, and I can’t speak for Maria, but I need to get some sleep before we get too close, just in case shit hits the fan.” He cut his gaze to Maria.
She put up a hand in concession. She couldn’t really argue that they were both burning the candle at both ends, and already, she was having a difficult time following conversations. She needed rest.
“And the third paper?” Maria asked.
“They’re suspected locations of Gene’s hideouts. I would have thought they were completely bo
gus and some kind of trap if it weren’t for the fact Bryan knew about a couple of them. So, we know at the very least Marty isn’t lying, and Marty doesn’t know how much Bryan knows, only that Bryan probably knows what to do with the information.”
“But why would Marty give up that info?” Eric asked. “It doesn’t make sense if he’s working right beneath Gene.”
“Bryan thinks that Marty might be one of those guys who doesn’t want to be working right beneath Gene. According to Bryan, Marty doesn’t make an obvious choice for a Bear lieutenant. He was one of the ones who was quote-unquote promoted after Bryan rounded up all the guys in Gene’s inner circle.”
Eric grunted. “That kind of makes sense. I don’t know much about Marty, either, but the couple of times I happened to cross paths with him, he quickly went the other way. He didn’t seem eager to have a confrontation of any sort.”
“I doubt he would have. The guy was in seminary before getting tangled up with Gene.”
“How’d you find that out?” Maria asked.
“Bryan remembered it when he was giving Peter’s translations of Marty’s codes the fuzzy eyeball treatment. He was trying to think of any reason not to trust the guy, and he’s becoming less certain Marty isn’t trustworthy.”
“How the hell did he get mixed up with Gene?”
“The same way so many others did, I bet,” Eric said drily. “By force. I’ll be right back.” He retreated into the RV, closing the door softly behind him.
Maria stood staring at the closed door for a moment, scratching her head. Then she turned the speaker off and put the phone to her ear. “What’s going to happen to him now? Marty, I mean.”
“I don’t know. I guess it depends on how much Gene cares that the kids are gone. It may be a while before he finds out.”
“Marty had to have some kind of plan if he was expecting someone to come extract the kids.”
“Unfortunately, we’re not the kind of psychics who’d be able to discern what that plan would be. Don’t worry about Marty. If we come across any information about him while we’re researching these addresses, we’ll pass it on to you. Otherwise, be safe and keep us apprised of your movements. Oh! What’s working with Eric like? Bryan worried that since we don’t know which Bear turned Eric that Eric might be unpredictable with the season.”
“Cranky, on and off.” Maria didn’t think that had anything to do with Bear hormones, though. Just history.
“Eric is cranky? That doesn’t sound like him.”
Because you don’t know Eric like I do. Maria was probably the reason he was behaving that way. She couldn’t tell Dana that, though.
“He should be all right, at least until he gets near Keely. We don’t know if she and Marty actually have a mate connection or if they’re just legal spouses. If they’re not bonded mates, she might come onto Eric’s radar as available. Just keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything out of character.”
Maria ground her teeth. “Mm-hmm.”
“Anything else?”
Maria shifted her weight and fondled her pendant in her palm, rubbing it as she thought and trying to gather her thoughts. What if Eric did find some lady Bear to settle down with? Maria had always assumed that one day, he would drift away to something—someone—more permanent, but maybe deep down, she hoped it wouldn’t actually happen.
“Maria, are you still there?”
“Yes. Um…” Maria groaned and pounded her free hand gently against the side of the RV. “This isn’t related to this assignment at all, but if you or Sarah had some downtime, I wondered if you could look into something for me.”
“What’s up?”
“I need you to find someone.” Maria fondled the pendant again and turned it over to study the tiny engraving on the back. It was a bare foot’s print. It had never meant anything to her before, but she had a hunch now that perhaps it was significant in a way. Her grandmother had always been the kind of woman who never did anything without intention. Every small gesture had a purpose and meaning.
“Not find them,” she corrected, closing her eyes and hoping less stimulation would allow her to focus her words. “I know where they are. But, I wondered if you could possibly find a phone number. It’s probably easier for you with all the software at your disposal.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“A woman in Jamaica. Her name is Hattie Stevenson. She might be dead. I don’t know how old she is.”
“Who is she?”
“My father’s mother. I just…wanted to… She used to live in Falmouth. She’s probably still there, if she’s alive.”
“Everything okay?”
“Just curiosity, I guess. And I just…I…” Need to connect with someone.
“Okay,” Dana said softly. She always knew when to back down—when not to press. Maria envied her for the prescience. “I’ll have Sarah look into it when she comes by later. I’ll tell her to call you.”
“Thank you.”
“No worries, honey. Keep us informed.” Dana disconnected.
The RV door swung open, and Eric stepped down followed by both kids.
“We’re gonna run in to get them their own pillows and pajamas, and let them pick out new bags,” he said. “If they’re going to be traveling over the next week or so, they should have some things.”
Oh. Maria got out of the way of the door.
“You coming?” he asked.
“Sure.”
He locked the door, and then followed Nina and Gabe as they skipped merrily toward the superstore entrance.
Maria brought up the rear, looking at them but not really seeing anything.
She didn’t understand people. She always thought she was so good at it, but she wasn’t. People didn’t make sense, so why did she expect to make sense of herself?
Eric walked backward and waved her up. “Come on, Shrew. I didn’t even make you put on shoes. You’d better hope the greeter doesn’t notice what you’ve got beneath that skirt.”
She snorted. “Bare feet and two knifes strapped to my thighs. He’d be in for a rude awakening.”
“Or an arousing one, depending on how kinky he is,” he whispered.
“Ha ha.”
He looped his arm around her shoulders when she approached his side, and he moved her a little faster. “Kids are excited.”
“I would be, too. This is probably the safest they’ve felt in months, and that’s sad.”
“It is, but don’t let that stop you from doing what you have to. I know you can be vicious when you’re working, and you need to keep that locked and loaded inside you in case you need to draw on it. Just don’t draw on it when you don’t need to.”
“It’s not always easy to discern when those times are. When I’m in certain moods, I feel like a hammer, and everything looks like a nail.”
“Can you tell when those moods start?”
“No, they come on gradually. There’s usually a trigger that’ll make them peak, but I think being angry is just part of my cycle.”
“We’ve got to figure out a way to break it.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because I—” He dropped his arm from her shoulder and shook his head. “Never mind.”
The greeter pushed a cart toward Eric. “You back again?”
“Yep. Just couldn’t stay away from all the deals, I guess.”
Maria walked quickly ahead with the kids so the guy didn’t pay too much attention to her. “This way, I think,” she pointed toward the middle of the store. “Luggage is usually in there. Maybe we can find you rolling bags you can strap onto your backs if you have to.”
“Fancy,” Eric said, catching up.
Maria chuckled. “No kidding. When I was a kid and moving around all the time, I didn’t even have a suitcase. We just tossed everything into sacks and piled it into the back of my mom’s station wagon. I remember sleeping on top of those lumpy bags on the backseat and wishing that for once, she’d spring for a m
otel room.”
“Can we sleep at a motel tonight?” Gabe asked. “We’ve never been to one.”
Eric winced.
Maria gave him a poke with her elbow. “We can find something off the beaten path. Something even Google Maps can’t pick up.”
“Those places usually don’t have toiletries or cable.”
She gestured for him to lean down, and when he did, she whispered, “Those kids aren’t going to care.”
“Let me think about it. No promises. Lately, I tend to do what the bear in me says when it comes to potentially dangerous situations, and he hasn’t checked in yet.”
“When’s he going to check in?”
“Who can say? We’re talking about a wild animal inside me. The only reason he can’t do whatever he wants is because my skin is in his way.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Does what hurt?”
They paused in front of a wall of rolling bags and duffels and the kids made their way down, studying each one.
Spotting a stock clerk on the other side of a nearby short display, Maria cleared her throat and leaned in to whisper, “Shifting.”
“Hurts like hell.”
“Can you control it?”
“For the moon? No. Only born-Bears can ignore that pull. Other times? Maybe. If he feels like he needs to come out, I can suppress it if I think of certain things. It’s hard sometimes, but, you know, mind over matter.”
“I guess if you can compartmentalize like that, I can, too.”
He made a noncommittal noise and pushed the cart forward a little.
She followed, only to stop in her tracks when his energy seemed to double over itself. She’d never sensed that from him before, and the hostile taste of it scared her, more so when a low growl rumbled in his chest.
“Eric, what’s wrong?”
He scooped the kids in closer and had them duck behind a shoe rack. He waved Maria down. “I just saw a Bear.”
“You sure?”
Eric grunted.
“Where?”
“Heading toward sporting goods. Toward the guns, probably.”
“How do you know it was a Bear?”
“It was a Bear,” Gabe agreed. “Made-Bear.”
