“I’ll drive,” Zan said. “Zier? Kel?”
“Zier,” Kel said.
Zier was Rhys’s other mate. His eyes held quiet strength and Cade didn’t have to wonder where his loyalties were. It was clear he was supporting his family no matter what.
“Baby, I have to go,” Daisy said frantically. “That was Alice, she said something’s going on in my parents’ neighborhood. An explosion.”
“Come on, Travis.”
“I’m with you,” Kel said, getting to his feet, as well. “Rhys.”
“I’ll stay here and go over the security protocols again,” he said. “Everyone be careful.”
“I’ll send Alexa out there,” Dade said. “She keeps accusing me of trying to keep her out of things so I can cover up for you guys.”
Cade noticed the brothers seemed to ignore him as they all scattered, even Rhys.
“Come on, Cade,” Zan called.
Cade and Dade hurried after the others.
The drive took only fifteen minutes but rather than being on just the judge, Cade’s thoughts were on the cats, as well.
The first time the government had come to town, they’d been run out, and now he wondered if they were back and prepared to drag all of the cat community in.
“I wonder what’s going on with Daisy’s family,” Jaxon murmured.
“We’ll check in shortly,” Zier said. “Their elders are probably staging some kind of demonstration. They have to still be worried about the feds coming back as we all are.”
“I thought our fears of that would have been put on hold since I lost,” Jaxon murmured and climbed out of the car after Zan cut the engine.
Cade glanced to Zan, who shook his head, and then they climbed out and quickly made their way up to the courthouse. The judge often worked late finishing up paperwork or looking up case law. He was conscientious and sympathetic to women or those not favored by the law. He often tried to find a way to render a fair verdict without anyone getting too badly hurt.
The security guard inside held up a hand to bar their way as Dade breezed past.
“We’re the judge’s lawyers,” Jaxon told him.
“He doesn’t need a lawyer,” the cop muttered. “He was attacked.”
“Is help with him?” Cade asked.
He shrugged. “The clinic’s line was busy, so not yet.”
“Bastards,” Cade snapped. “How could you just stand there—”
“Get out,” he said coldly.
Zan cocked a brow at him. “Do you want to still have a job in the morning, Coburn?”
The blond male sneered at them but stepped aside. “I’m glad Jarvis won,” he called after them. “You’ll be gone soon, Andron, and you gays will stay in your place or regret it.”
Cade led the way down the corridor to Judge Logan’s office. They took the stairs up to the third floor and ran the rest of the way to his office.
“Percy, get someone over to that damned clinic and tell them to send me transport. Judge Logan has been badly hurt.” Dade was on his knees beside the judge when they burst in.
Cade went to kneel next to the judge on one side while Jaxon stood next to Dade. “Judge, do you know who attacked you?” Cade asked, reaching down to loosen the older man’s tie.
His face was red with one eye almost swollen shut and his shirt stained with blood.
“Anchors,” he rasped out. “They’re looking for them so they can stop the transformation, but they can’t. As long as even one of them is alive nothing can.”
“Don’t try to talk,” Jaxon said, pushing Dade aside to take his place next to the judge.
“There are pieces in all the books. The original elders all kept a set of records, but no one knew who the anchor families of each direction was. Travis is one of the southern anchor.”
“Judge—”
“The package…” He trailed off and his eyes closed. His breathing slowed and his head fell to one side.
Cade felt for a pulse. “He’s gone.”
Dade stalked from the room and Cade glanced to Jaxon and then Zier.
“Do something,” Jaxon ordered. “He’ll probably try to kill that stinking guard.”
“Good riddance,” Cade muttered and got to his feet to go after him. When they got to the front, Zan was leaning casually against the wall near where the guard’s desk while the guard was on the floor struggling to get up.
“I want to file charges,” the blond said. “He attacked me.”
“Did he?” Cade asked. “He was with us.”
“Dade, you can’t do this.”
“I didn’t see anything,” Dade said coldly. “For all I know, your brain was too busy trying to swallow to tell your feet not to trip over each other.” Dade helped him up.
“You’re going to have to answer for this, Dade.”
“No, Coburn, it’s you and whoever was playing this little game with you who’ll be answering for the judge’s murder.”
The front door swung open and in strolled the petite Wilson. Her brown eyes took in the situation and sharpened. “Is the judge okay?” she asked.
“Get the security footage,” Dade ordered. “First, get Simone over here. I need prints taken.”
She nodded and pulled her cell phone from her belt loop to make the call.
Dade removed his own phone from his belt loop and tapped in a number. “Alexa,” he said a moment later. “How are things out in the east?” His expression tightened and his eyes burned with rage. “Get more units out there, now,” he ordered. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He disconnected and glanced at Zan.
“How bad?” Zan demanded.
“There were four explosions and already several dead,” he said. “Daisy’s parents’ home no longer exists.”
“Oh my god,” Jaxon whispered.
“Get out there, and let me know if Alexa’s gotten help to them,” he said. “Stop by the fire department. I want the fires contained.”
They were on their way within a few minutes with Jaxon firing off questions to no one in particular, expressing the fears they all felt.
“It’s going to be okay, Jax,” Zier assured him. “Kel and everyone else will be fine.”
“I don’t understand why this is happening,” Cade said and Zan gave his thigh a brief squeeze before backing out.
“Let’s not start imagining the worst,” Zan said.
“How can we not?” Jaxon demanded.
“Because we don’t have enough facts,” Zier replied gently.
Jaxon made an annoyed sound and Cade seconded that, but sat silent. He was eager for information, but there was no need to get into a fight right now. Both Zan and Zier were right. They didn’t have enough facts.
The drive was tense, and Cade imagined the worst, but it didn’t prepare him for the reality as they pulled into the far side of the eastern community. Smoke rose high into the sky and homes were already burned out blackened shells of the casual elegance they’d been. Bodies lined the sidewalks and parts spilled out into the streets making the neighborhood look as if a bomb had gone off.
“Have mercy,” Zier said in a hushed tone. “What. The. Fuck?”
Zan brought the car to a stop and put it in park before leaping out. Cade followed even though he was afraid of seeing any more than he already could in the semi-dark. A pale wisp of light came from somewhere, but it wasn’t clear where with the street lamps gone.
“What did this?” Jaxon demanded softly, stumbling.
“Frezite,” Zier muttered.
“We have to check, see if anyone is still alive,” Jaxon said breathlessly.
They waded in, checking the dead, but it was clear after twenty minutes, there were no survivors.
Chapter Seventeen
Zaria pulled Daisy back out of the line of an oncoming orb. The item crashed into the side of the house and brick immediately exploded. The force threw them to the ground and Daisy let out a soft, horrified yelp.
“Are you okay?” Daisy
asked and ducked as debris fell around them.
She winced. “Yeah.”
“We better move,” Daisy said and helped Zaria to her feet. The neighborhood was black now and most of the homes around them were gone. Alicia’s was burning, slowly.
A Persian cat limped from the ruins of the house and Daisy took off toward it. “Ali.”
Zaria studied the cat thinking how she was the woman who’d probably made Cade so reticent about letting a woman into his life. The engine of a car drew her head around and her eyes glowed bright in the darkness. The car coming toward them moved slowly, unlike the last one.
The crystals at the base of her spine heated and she knew it was because one of her own kind was near. So she turned back to see Daisy kneeling next to Alicia. She went over, not sure what she could do.
“Alicia!” Zan came charging over, stripping off his shirt, and Zaria’s eyes were riveted on his hard body and rippling muscles.
Jealousy ate at her, but she tried to fight it back as Cade joined them. She saw something similar in his face and went to him.
“It’s like this all over the area,” Cade told her softly. “We haven’t found many survivors.”
“We only found six,” she said. “My parents transported them back to the Androns’ where the cats’ healer is setting up shop to heal them along with Kel.”
“Can you tell what happened?” he asked.
“Me and my parents came up here for a meeting. A couple of the cat elders and northern elders were meeting with my dad. My dad convinced the two elders that we needed to get an alliance ironed out with the cats. When we got here, there was fighting going on, so we stopped to help,” she said. “I’ve been here an hour, and I’ve never seen anything so vicious as this attack.”
“They got kids,” he said sadly and she hugged him. “Unfortunately, it’s too early to tell how many cats survived.”
“We have to get her out of here,” Zan said. “I’m going to stay behind, but, Cade, you need to get back.”
“I’ll stay. You’ll need my help with the search and possible rescue.”
Zaria nodded. “It’ll be easier if there are more of us.”
* * * *
Jarvis couldn’t help smiling as he listened to the blow-by-blow Anthony gave him.
“I told you the tamarrin I swiped from the Androns would enhance the frezite,” one of the other men said.
Jarvis threw George a look, grinning. “Next, we bomb the Androns’s asses,” he said and laughed gleefully.
“We need to hold off,” Ashley’s killer said. “After tonight, people are going to be questioning the deaths, the destruction. Let it cool down a little.”
“Cool down a little?” he asked coldly. “Is that why you didn’t do your job with Snow today?”
“That’d be George,” Ashley’s killer told him acidly.
“He was stronger than we thought,” George burst out. “He had some freakish ability to disrupt molecules and he got the ring.”
Ashley’s killer back-handed him. “Making excuses for your sorry-ass actions isn’t going to cut it anymore.” He held out his hand. “You want to see how the ability works? Then take notes.”
George’s back bowed almost immediately and a strangled cry escaped him as he rose an inch off the ground and his breastbone cracked.
“Stop it!” Jarvis screamed.
“The Androns will figure out who stole the stones from them sooner rather than later and he’ll be a liability.”
George screamed as his ribs and every bone in his body was broken while he was held motionless.
Jarvis shoved the killer, who then punched him in the jaw.
“I never promised I’d play nice with your cronies,” the killer said, glaring at Jarvis. “Next time anyone in this room is asked to do a job, he’ll be more discreet, including Alexa. She should have called in the fire at Snow’s and your pal at the Judge’s office should have called in the attack. Carelessness or sloppiness won’t be tolerated.”
Jarvis punched him back. “This is my operation and these are my people. You’re just one among many, so remember that next time you get the urge to kill anyone without my permission.”
“Or what?” he asked silkily.
“Or you’re a dead man,” Jarvis retorted. “Now clean that up.”
“You do it,” Ashley’s killer told him. He turned to leave the room and Jarvis glanced around at the faces of those gathered.
He knew he had to do something vicious or lose their respect.
So he extended his hand and the ring on his pinky glowed. The beam of energy rushed forth, and the killer was thrown into the wall.
Jarvis rushed him, and the killer turned and reached up to curl his fingers around Jarvis’s throat. He squeezed hard enough to cut off his airway.
“The next time you come at me, Jarvis, be man enough to look me in the eye, or I’ll behead you like I did Daniel.”
Jarvis paled. Daniel had been a reporter and the first casualty of this war. Jarvis had never intended for his friend to die. He hadn’t even known who’d killed him.
The killer threw him back and got to his feet. “Yeah, I killed him, and if any of you are entertaining any ideas about getting revenge, forget it. I’ll let the entire town in on what you’ve been up to. You’ll be dead before you can call in your pal in the bureau.”
Jarvis rubbed his throat drawing in gulps of air. The man was dead as soon as he could arrange it.
* * * *
By the time they’d called off the search of the eastern community, Zaria was ready for a shower and a bed. She was surprised when Zan took her home with him and Cade. His cabin smelled like Cade, but the shirt he’d given her to wear after her shower smelled like Zan.
She sat down on the bed in the dimly lit guest bedroom and sighed as she sank onto her back. She didn’t understand why anyone would go after the cats. They kept to themselves mostly.
Tears stung her eyes and she decided her father was right. Something bad was coming.
“Zaria?”
Cade’s voice drifted across the room and she turned her head to see him standing in the open doorway. She hadn’t bothered to close the door when she came out of the shower.
“Cade.” She sat up. Her gaze drifted over him in a pair of dark shorts and a T-shirt that hung past his waist. He was sexy with an innocent look on his face.
“Mind if I come in?”
“No. It’s okay,” she said, heat snaking through her. But it wasn’t just sensual. It was emotional. The gentle look in his eyes told her he was there to check on her, not accuse her of maneuvering her way into his territory.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded. “This is all just a lot to take in.”
“I know.” He sat down on the bed next to her and she chanced a look at him. “How did you guys end up there?”
“Dade asked us to go up. He wanted to make sure help was getting there.”
“I don’t understand what took so long,” she murmured, anger gnawing at her.
“How long?”
“An hour and a half,” she exclaimed. “Some of them would have survived, Cade. Alice died in my arms forty-five minutes after I called.” Tears filled her eyes afresh and coursed down her cheeks.
Cade’s stare was filled with turbulence and it warmed Zaria inside giving her a tiny hope that he might care a little. Then, he took her in his arms, the solid strength closing around her. She burrowed into him, but he only tightened his arms as she cried.
The horror she’d seen tonight finally sank in, the weight of it threatening to crush her. The cruelty still shocked her and left her unbalanced. Tonight’s actions weren’t how their town used to be. A rift had been created by Jarvis and his cronies that might not be easily repaired, if ever.
* * * *
Cade woke the next morning with a blanket pulled over him and Zaria curled in his arms. The soft woman-scent of her hair, the delicate weight of her against him, and the memory of her tea
rs washed over him.
He’d wanted to crush something, hurt someone for putting the pain in her heart and bringing tears to her eyes. That was a perfectly brotherly thought, he told himself as he stared up at the ceiling.
The truth was, there was nothing brotherly about the strength with which he wanted to inflict harm on someone. That didn’t mean he wanted her in his life though, right? He might want her body, but that made him bisexual, not in love.
No, not in love but touched deeply by her enough that Cade knew protecting her was important to him.
He gently extricated himself from her and headed from the room. Coffee, rich and heady, drifted on the air and he smiled.
“Mmm. Now, that’s love,” he said softly and padded into Zan’s bedroom. The room was empty, so he headed to the bathroom hoping to find his man there. Again, that was love.
Alone, he brushed his teeth and washed his face before going back out into the bedroom for a change of clothes.
“Morning,” Zan murmured from the window where he now stood.
Cade gave him a smile and went to him. Zan drew him into his arms and brushed a kiss over his lips.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Cade asked.
Zan shrugged. “You two looked so peaceful. Did you sleep okay?”
He shrugged. “I guess. I’d rather have woken up next to you.”
Zan smirked. “You’re here now,” he said and kissed him again. This time, Cade’s lips parted and Zan’s tongue dipped inside to taste him slowly.
Cade moaned and ran his hands beneath Zan’s shirt, up his back. Cade backed up but Zan didn’t release him as he moved to the bed. Once there, Cade broke the kiss and pulled the T-shirt over his head and tossed it to the bed.
“I want you naked,” he said and slid his hands up Zan’s chest.
Zan gave him a slow smile and pushed his shirt over his head and discarded it before reaching out to take Cade’s hands and put them on the waistband of his lounge pants.
“Then help me.”
Cade kissed Zan’s jaw and pushed his hands down inside Zan’s pants to shape his firm ass before pushing his pants down along with his shorts. “I love kissing you,” Cade whispered in Zan’s ear.
Passion’s Brewing Storm [Alien Passions 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 10
