Special Ops Shifters: Dallas Force: The Complete Series Collection (Shifter Nation)

by Meg Ripley

  “We moved around a lot, too,” he admitted. “My father was a military man, and he was stationed at Fort Benning when I was born. We stayed there for a little while, but I’ve been all over the place.”

  “Did you ever settle down anywhere, or do you stay on the move?”

  “I’m living in Dallas at the moment.” That was where he’d been staying ever since he was recruited by the Force, but whatever happened after that remained to be seen. “You?”

  “D.C. It’s a bit too crowded, and there’s a lot of tension there that’s difficult to get away from, but that’s where my job has led me.”

  The two of them continued their idle chatter for the next half hour, and Jack was sure that Erica was being just as careful to steer clear of anything related to their major revelation earlier that day. It was just as well. They needed things to be on a smooth, even keel when they arrived.

  Hortonburg was supposed to be one of the largest towns in this area, but when they pulled inside the city limits, Jack couldn’t help but notice it was only a bigger version of the village they’d stopped in just after crossing the Ohio River. It was spread out, with large strips of ragged grass between the buildings. The zoning laws there were loose or perhaps nonexistent, with homes and businesses mingled all along the main route. A group of teens ambled down the side of the road, where Jack noted there was no actual sidewalk, clearly looking for trouble.

  Best Value Car Sales was just on the outskirts of town. Jack noted this was where the newest stores were opening, including a strip mall and a massive superstore. The lot itself wasn’t much different than any other used dealership. Rows of vehicles were grouped together by body style, creating a section each of cars, trucks, SUVs, and even a few ATVs off to the side. A tall, electronic sign proudly proclaimed the best deals they currently had on the lot, with blinking prices and bids for urgency such as “Come in Now!” and “Get Them Before They’re Gone!” It was all so very mundane, and it made Jack’s suspicion increase exponentially. If this guy did have some sort of secret terrorist cell, then he was doing a great job of covering it up.

  Jack parked between the rows of vehicles and looked at Erica. “Ready to go shop for a car, best buddy?”

  “Only if we can get recruited into a strange cult while we’re at it, my dude,” she replied with a spark in her eye.

  The air was hot and humid, but it wasn’t nearly as bad there as it’d been further south near those old cabins. Still, it made his shirt stick to his skin. Jack plucked at the fabric as he felt his fox vibrate with vigilance. He kept a careful eye on Erica, feeling a surprising need to protect her from whatever they might encounter.

  They’d only been on the lot for a couple of minutes when an enthusiastic voice hailed them from the small white building at the back of the property. “Hi there, folks! Is there anything I can help you find?”

  Jack turned to face Ben Jones himself, who was walking toward them with large steps and a friendly smile. He was exactly the same as he’d been in the picture Mr. Worth had shown him, a salesman bent on pretending to be your friend so he could line his own pockets. Long gone was the idea of a used car dealer wearing a plaid polyester suit and cheap shoes. Ben was dressed in a short-sleeve button-down and khakis. Even his accent had been polished away into almost nothing, which Jack was sure was a good tactic for a rural area like this. “My friend here is looking to get a different car.”

  Erica waggled her fingers at the man in a girly way Jack knew she’d never do in real life. “I want something a little newer and a little cuter.”

  “Cute doesn’t matter, Erica. It’s about how well it runs and if you can afford it.” They’d agreed to keep their actual names just so there would be less to slip up on. Ben wasn’t going to bring them to his compound if he had any reason to distrust them.

  She shrugged and rolled her eyes.

  “What kind of budget are we working with, folks?” Ben asked politely.

  “Ten to fifteen,” Erica replied.

  “More like ten,” Jack corrected.

  Ben slapped his hands together in a clap and kept them there. “Great. I’ve got plenty right here that will accommodate you. Please note that all the price breakdowns are posted in the windows of every vehicle. Here at Best Value, we always want you to know exactly what you’re buying. This Toyota, for example, is only six thousand, but it’s got low mileage and the history report shows no accidents. You can also see here that we’ve put it through our multi-point inspection to make sure it’s safe and running properly.”

  Jack leaned over, pretending to study the price sheet while Erica peered through the front window to check out the interior. This guy was trying to sell them a car that was only a fraction of the price they’d said they were willing to spend. The vehicle looked immaculate, too. “It’s something to keep in mind.”

  “How about that one over there?” Erica trotted off to check out a little coupe.

  The trio continued the usual banter for about half an hour. Mr. Jones was nothing less than polite, and he didn’t give off the type of vibes that most people in his position did. If Jack hadn’t already known about Ben’s somewhat suspicious behavior—and if he lived in the area—he’d be sending all his friends to go buy vehicles from the guy. They gave him their names and told him all about how they were new in town, but they’d heard this was the place to go for a used vehicle. They talked about the weather and how the summer promised to be a nice one.

  “I think your wife will be very happy with this car,” Ben said as they headed inside to get started on the paperwork.

  “Oh, she’s not my wife. We’re best friends, actually. We grew up together, and we’ve known each other forever.” Jack was secretly glad that Winston hadn’t insisted on some other farce, like honeymooners or even an engaged couple. Things were better between him and Erica now that they’d decided on their truce, but he didn’t think they could quite pull that off. Whether Ben could see it or not, Jack could still sense a certain amount of tension in the air between them. He didn’t know how to make it just go away, either.

  “That’s right!” Ben tapped his forehead. “You mentioned you were friends. I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for, especially with the price you’re giving her.” He glanced at Erica, who hadn’t stopped smiling since they’d arrived. Clearly, she’d decided that the slightly ditzy female tactic was the best route for her. It worked well enough for their purposes, but he had to wonder how she felt about it.

  Ben brought them into the building and sat them down in his office. “What can we do for you folks in terms of financing? We have a great local bank that we work with a lot.”

  “You don’t do any in-house financing?” Jack asked. Many small lots did, and even when they had no ties to terrorism, they were usually a rip-off. He’d been cautiously watching for any signs of money laundering or other odd banking schemes that might have pointed to something shady.

  Ben shook his head vehemently and waved his hand in the air, brushing away any notion of such things. “Absolutely not. I understand a lot of folks are looking for a second chance, and they’re worried the banks won’t touch them. I actually worked at a dealership that did just that sort of financing before I started this place. I saw how much it affected people’s budgets when they were so severely overcharged, and they thought it was their only option. I don’t like that idea.”

  “That’s really great. In fact, everything about this place is great.” Jack glanced at Erica. They needed to get in. Buying a car and going back to Kentucky wasn’t going to get them anywhere. But Erica was just sitting there with her legs crossed, swinging one foot carelessly in the air.

  Fortunately, Ben pulled out a form and poised his pen to fill it out for them, asking the one question Jack had been hoping for. “So, how did you say you heard about us?”

  Jack rubbed his thumb across his upper lip. “Actually, it was your website that brought us here.”

  “Oh, you’d been shoppi
ng for cars online. That’s great. I’ve really tried to improve our web presence.” Ben made a note on the form.

  “Actually, we’ve been looking for something much more than a car. We found your other website, the blog about peace, happiness, and a better way of life. We watched a few of your videos, too, and we really liked we saw.”

  Jack’s fox had relaxed somewhat while they’d been working on buying the car. Ben was surprisingly easy to be around. Now, though, it coiled its muscles, ready to run or strike, whatever might be necessary. Like most situations in his life, Jack had rehearsed this in his head several times over. The only thing he had to do right now was to wait and see what Ben had to say.

  The salesman’s face split into a grin and he leaned back slightly in his chair. “Really? That’s fantastic.”

  “No, you’re pretty fantastic.” Was Erica batting her eyelashes at him? “Everyone these days is just out to make a buck, and they don’t care how they do it. For me, I just want to be happy. I think modern life is all backward.”

  Jack was on board in an instant. “Things are supposed to be better in this day and age with all our technology, but I think it just inhibits us. We don’t look up from our screens long enough to see what’s actually going on around us.” He knew he was just echoing some of the sentiments Ben had shared in his online videos, none of which were particularly extreme. They were a rebellion against first-world lifestyles in a very peaceful way.

  “I completely agree,” Ben enthused. “If I had it my way, I wouldn’t even have any computers here in the office. It’s a little hard to run a business that way, but in my personal life, I try to stay off the grid as much as possible.”

  Erica clapped her hands. “I’ve been reading a lot about off-grid living! I still have so much to learn, but it’s a really exciting idea. How great would it be to actually not depend on grocery stores and utility companies?”

  She was really selling it. Jack had to hand it to her. He only hoped that was what Ben wanted. The salesman smiled benevolently, steepling his fingers in front of his chest. “I do live that way, actually, when I’m not here at work.”

  “That’s so awesome,” Erica gasped. “Can you give us some tips?”

  Ben pressed his lips together, but he was only suppressing a smile. “I can do better than that. I can show you. If you’re truly interested, that is.”

  “We are.” Jack didn’t want there to be any chance of Ben recruiting Erica without him going along. “In fact, we were thinking about buying ourselves a plot of land and giving it a shot. It turns out we can’t quite afford to get the acreage we’d need.”

  Ben pursed his lips thoughtfully as he looked from Jack to Erica and back again. “I can tell you’re… special people, the kind who know how to get in touch with their more instinctive, natural sides. The kind who could go out into the wild, away from all society, and still survive. Yes?”

  Jack’s stomach stuck to his spine. So Ben could tell he was a shifter. He must have sensed something about Erica, the same way Jack had, and decided she was one of them as well. It’d been disturbing enough to tell Erica who he was, but now this stranger also knew. This was all part of the game, though. Jack nodded.

  “You don’t need any acreage at all, my friends.” Ben held up his hand to stave off their worries, and Jack noticed a bit of his accent had come back. “I have a lot of land. I started out with just a few acres, but over the years, I’ve been able to buy up the surrounding plots as people have sold them off and relocated to the city. My friends have moved there with me, and we live in peace and harmony away from the prying eyes of the government and society who might judge us for our simple ways. They’re the same kind of people you are: in touch with their true nature.”

  Erica reached over to pat Jack’s arm. “Isn’t that great?”

  “Let’s finish this paperwork, and then I’ll take you out there. If you like it, maybe you can find a new home with us.” There was that kind smile again.

  This man was a charmer. Jack could sense the shifter inside him, but it was incredibly subtle. If he hadn’t been looking for it, he might not even have noticed. Ben put out the side of him that he wanted everyone to see, and if there was anything beyond that, then he hid it carefully.

  “There’s nothing we’d like better,” Jack affirmed. “We could learn a lot from you.”

  Ben’s head bobbed. “I’m sure you could.”

  6

  “That was almost too easy,” Erica said when they were in her new car heading down the road behind Ben’s vehicle. “It really makes me wonder.”

  “You figured it’d be harder?” Jack questioned.

  “Well, yeah! I mean, this isn’t my first rodeo. It usually takes a lot more time to get involved in someone’s personal life. I don’t like the fact that he’s bringing us right back to his place. It makes me incredibly suspicious. What if he’s decided we know too much and he’s just going to get rid of us? I mean, when we went over all the other information the DHS has gathered, some of it pointed to the possibility of the recruits being killed off.”

  Jack adjusted his hands on the wheel and bit his lower lip, his jaw flexing. “Well, I have my own theory about that.”

  “Which is?” Erica glanced out the window. The land that held Ben’s compound butted up to the national forest, but in a rural area like this, it didn’t take long to get away from civilization. They didn’t have long.

  He hesitated for a moment, as if deciding exactly what he wanted to say. “I believe our new friend is a shifter. It could be that he’s recruiting other shifters, and in that case, people might be coming and going from the property in other forms.”

  Erica closed her eyes and ran her hand across her forehead. “That’s not good. I could hardly stand being around you at first. How the hell am I going to manage being with an entire compound of people with so much spirit energy? Christ.” When she’d been informed about this mission, Erica had been convinced that it was simple; cut and dried, same old stuff she’d always been doing. Instead, her entire world was changing. The things she’d already learned before she’d even gotten to the meat of the operation were staggering, and she could only hope she could deal with them.

  It would be a lot easier if she didn’t have to fight with herself about Jack. She was a professional, and she’d long ago made a pact with herself not to get involved with anyone she worked with. It was just too messy, and simply being a woman made it difficult enough to climb the corporate ladder without a relationship cluttering it up. Erica could control herself, and just because a guy was good looking didn’t mean she had to do anything about it.

  But Jack was different in every sense of the word. Not only could she justify her feelings toward him by reminding herself that he was only a consultant for the Department, he was attractive on a different level. Sure, she’d met some handsome guys, ones with broad shoulders, muscular bodies, and relaxed grins that were both boyish and sexy. Jack had all that, but the rest of it went deeper. If she didn’t know he was a shifter, she would’ve just said there was something about him. And maybe it was the fact that there was a whole other person inside him. Erica couldn’t be sure, but she felt the ripples of energy between them. She could practically see them, like shimmering northern lights that pulled them together.

  Unfortunately, there was no more time to talk about it. Ben’s car had turned up a long driveway, and it now stopped just before a large gate. A man leaned near one of the gate posts. His stance was casual, but his eyes were watchful. Ben got out of the driver’s seat and came back to Jack’s window. “My friends, as you know, we strive to get away from the rigors of the world. I ask that you each give me your cell phones. This is my way of protecting you from such unhealthy things.”

  “Of course.” Without question, they each handed their devices over. They’d known this would be part of the process.

  Ben grinned, seemingly pleased with their cooperation. “Perfect. Follow me inside, and you can park over to the l
eft.”

  The parking lot was the same as what they’d spotted on the satellite imagery, and the other vehicles already neatly lined up left no question as to where they were supposed to go. “You ready?” Jack murmured as he turned off the car.

  Erica heard the gate slam shut behind them, echoing in her blood. “I don’t think there’s any turning back, even if I’m not.” The one comfort she could take was in knowing that Jack was there with her. She wasn’t alone. She might not have trusted him at first, but she definitely trusted him now.

  Ben spread his arms as he welcomed them from the edge of the parking area. “I welcome you to our little corner of the world, where we can live happily and freely. Let me show you around.”

  Erica had prided herself on being a strong, independent woman who didn’t need a man to lean on. She’d charged into plenty of dangerous situations, and she relied on her skills, experience, and innate talents to keep her safe. For some reason, though, she found herself wanting to wrap her hands around Jack’s tight waist and lean her head against the hard planes of his chest. She could even imagine his fingers coming down to graze the small of her back in return.

  She blushed and shook her head, grateful that Jack wasn’t the one with psychic powers so he couldn’t read her thoughts.

  Erica sat on the edge of the twin bed and looked around the small room. It had anything a person could need, if not necessarily what they wanted. As Ben and his website had promised, the electronics had been kept to the barest minimum. Even the clock was analog, and she hadn’t spotted a single television or laptop since they’d arrived. Any electricity they did have was provided by the massive solar panels on top of the building.

  It was getting late, and everything was quiet. Not just the noise in the building, but inside her head. The silence made her realize just how far she’d come in getting used to Jack and his extra presence. Being there in that room was like stepping out of a crowded elevator and finding herself in the middle of a remote forest. It was a nice break, but she wasn’t comfortable enough to enjoy it.