by Amelia Jade
“Such as how to be a bodyguard for a woman who doesn’t want you around?” she teased.
He chuckled. “No, it did not prepare me for that last part,” he admitted. “But you can rest assured that between my training and the goings-on here in King City lately, the bodyguard part is well looked after. I’ll do my best not to get on your nerves too much, though if I knew why you were so opposed to having me around, it might make it easier.”
Oh, very smooth bear, very smooth.
“I’m twenty-six, a full-blown adult,” she said dryly. “Why would I want to be babysat all week? I realize my brother is fairly well known, but I can handle myself,” she said firmly, making it clear she wasn’t going to elaborate on that statement.
“Fair enough. Let’s hope things go smoothly for both of us then.”
“Agreed.”
Their food arrived and they dug in, both of them quite hungry by that point. She jealously eyed the stack of pancakes on his plate, but knew she had already pushed it with her sides of bacon and sausage.
“What exactly is going on here in the city that’s helped you prepare to deal with me?” she asked, setting her knife and fork down on the empty plate a few minutes later.
“You don’t know?” he said with a frown, having finished even before she did, despite the larger quantity of food.
He continued when she shook her head. “The shifters here have been under attack by some unknown group. Not just beating them up in an alley either, but full-fledged murders and kidnappings. It hasn’t been pretty. I’m part of a team sent here by Genesis Valley to try and stop them.”
Hannah felt her eyebrows rise the more he talked.
That would explain the bodyguard I guess. Shit, I wish I’d known ahead of time that this is why we were coming here.
She made a mental note to do some more research into this conflict on her own time. It would pay to be aware of those sorts of goings-on, though she hoped they would be in the city only briefly and they wouldn’t get swept up in it.
“I’ll be right back,” Josh said suddenly. “Just have to use the boys’ room,” he told her with a wink.
As if that wasn’t enough to set her blood flowing, he laid his hand down over her wrist, his fingertips dragging gently across her skin as he passed. A rippling sensation followed the path of his touch.
Her eyes blazed with emotion as she tried to clamp down on what the big shifter had brought to life with her.
But she couldn’t. It was too late. Power welled up and threatened to overwhelm her control.
Hannah shot to her feet, frantically looking for the exit as if she’d already forgotten where it was. Her instincts were already changing as she began to assess for threats, her footsteps lightening as she fled from the restaurant, ignoring Josh’s shout of surprise as he saw her take off no more than a handful of seconds after he left the table.
She couldn’t stop, not even for him. Not here, not now. Her hands pawed at the elevator button, hitting it repeatedly as if that would help it open faster.
Another man walked in just before the doors closed, nodding politely at her as she clutched the waist-high bar for dear life, eyes tracking him with a nervous twitch. He punched the button for the sixth floor, and Hannah felt herself almost keel over just then. Her every nerve was on fire as she fought to keep herself together.
Sweat beaded on her brow. The floors seemed to take forever to tick by, each ding from the speaker overhead forcing her fingers tighter around the bar until her knuckles turned white from exertion.
“Are you okay?” the gentleman asked as she felt her leg buckle, sending her into the mirrored wall with a bang.
“Just. Fine,” she gritted out, the majority of her effort focused inward. She had to prevent herself from losing control.
Almost there.
“All right,” the man said skeptically as the elevator doors swung open on his floor.
She smiled. “Have a. Nice. Day,” she managed to gasp out as he left.
The moment the doors closed again she sagged to the floor, her feet thrashing about. Pressing her hands to her face, she rocked back and forth. She was trying to hold herself back until she could get to her room and lock the door.
The double doors opened again and she dragged herself out, shaking her head fiercely, trying to control it. Her lips pursed together as she struggled to get to her room.
“Hannah?”
She spun at the voice. It was Chad, on crutches, staring at her in horror from the door to his room as she stumbled down the hallway, visions flashing in front of her eyes.
She stared at him for a second before resuming her quest for her door.
Almost there.
Fingers closed over the keycard in her pocket, and she pulled it out, her entire arm shaking as she tried to slide it through the reader.
“Hannah what’s wrong?” Chad said, his crutches making a slight squeak as the rubber soles on them carried him down the marble-tiled hallway to her.
“It’s happening,” she snarled, finally opening the door and all but flinging herself into the room.
“What? Now?” her brother exclaimed, flinging the door closed as he moved into the room after her. “How is that possible?”
“Argh!” she cried out, stumbling and falling, her shoulder clipping a table as she hit the ground. A vase flew from the table and smashed on the ground. “Shifter. I don’t know,” she got out.
“You’re safe now,” he said, throwing the deadbolt on the door. “You can let it out. It’ll be okay.”
She spun on all fours, looking at him with wide eyes. “Are you sure? Your leg?”
Chad rolled his eyes. “Are you that far gone already?”
Hannah snarled at him.
“Let it out,” he commanded, standing up straight, letting the crutches fall to the side. “It will be okay.”
She shook her head, trying not to panic.
“Hannah, it will be okay. I promise,” he said softly. “Let it out.”
She howled with frustration at her inability to control herself.
“Let go, Hannah,” her brother urged, stronger this time. “Let go!”
Hannah looked up at him one last time. Then she let go.
Chapter Five
Josh
The car slowed to a halt near an open park downtown.
So much for this thing being inside. At least it doesn’t look like it’s going to rain today.
Josh had tried to convince Chad to change the location and move it somewhere indoors, where it could be secured and not visible to the public as a whole. There had been no give in him however, and in the end Josh had been forced to relent.
The muscles in his thick neck flexed, turning his head to look over at Hannah as he pulled on the handle and prepared to exit the truck.
She was staring out the window at the buildings on her side of the road. He frowned, but didn’t say anything.
Ever since her outburst at breakfast the day before, she had been distant. First she had disappeared into her room for hours, locked in there with her brother. When she had emerged, she had remained aloof and uncommunicative about what had happened.
After several failed attempts to understand—all of which resulted in her trying to shrug it off—a barrier had arisen between them, and he didn’t like it.
His eyes scanned the park as he walked around the car to open her door. They were in a rectangular spot near downtown, mostly grass, with tall trees scattered around to provide shade. He had parked the truck on one of the long sides, behind the band shell where Chad had a team of people setting up things for him to speak. There were already people beginning to congregate toward the open area on the far side. Groups here and there streamed past.
Nothing immediately presented itself as a threat, so he opened the door and Hannah emerged. She looked phenomenal, wearing a red off-the-shoulder shirt, exposing copious amounts of skin that threatened to have him look at her instead of everyone around them. The black
dress pants and matte-black shoes ensured that the shirt was the focus, while also being comfortable enough for her to move around in.
“Thank you,” she said stiffly as he closed the door behind her.
“Just doing my job, ma’am,” he said, a little more sarcastically than intended.
Hannah looked hurt for a moment, then she set her mouth and started walking, following the black pathway that cut through the grass and led around the band shell.
Josh grimaced, angry at himself, but there was nothing more he could do now. The comment had been made, and he would have to deal with the consequences. Hopefully, when whatever it was that was bothering Hannah was settled, they could sit down and he could apologize.
He fell in behind her as they cleared the edge of the band shell, eyes roving the crowd that was beginning to grow. There was a large concrete pad in front of the stage, which had been roped off, though that wasn’t stopping anyone from ducking under or hopping over the flimsy barrier. To his eyes, it was just an accident waiting to happen. The stage on the band shell was covered in a swooping, rolling white roof that looked like a wave.
He gazed over the crowd of mostly jubilant younger people, cheering and holding up signs, among other things. Here and there, a flag waved in the air.
Josh’s eyes narrowed as they walked closer, the details on the flags becoming clearer to him. He recognized them from somewhere, but it was just tickling at the edge of his mind.
“Something wrong?” Hannah asked as his steps slowed. She came to a halt, twisting slightly to glance back at him.
“Uh,” he said as his eyes took in the flags waving here and there. Then it came to him.
Oh we’re in deep shit now.
“What?” Hannah asked, slowing to allow him to move alongside.
“Those red flags,” he said, “look suspiciously like Shift First flags.”
Her eyebrows rose slightly. “That would be because they are,” she replied, as if he should have known that.
“Shift First. As in, big time controversial shifter group? That Shift First?” he asked cautiously.
“Uh, yeah?” Hannah said with a shake of her head. “What? I thought you knew.”
Josh spun around, looking at the nearby buildings, eyes searching windows and shopfronts. “No, I did not,” he said tightly. “You said equal rights. I thought you meant like, civil rights, that kind of thing.”
Hannah fully turned to face him as he continued to scan the nearby area. “My brother works for Shift First. He’s one of their public speakers.”
“Not good,” he muttered. “Not good at all.”
“What? Why?” she asked, looking confused.
He stared at her in disbelief. “Remember when I told you about the fucking war being waged here in King City? Against my kind?”
Something flickered in her eyes as he said that, but right then Josh didn’t have time to worry about reminding her of the incident the morning before.
“We need to go. Now,” he urged, taking her upper arm and pulling her back toward the car.
Hannah shook her head, resisting his pull with surprising strength. “What? We just got here.”
“Listen to me,” he hissed, still looking around them and not at her, as the noise started to grow from the crowd in front of the band shell. “We need to go before this gets ugly.”
Chad took the stage. Behind him, a black covering came down, revealing a huge Shift First banner to the delight of the assembled supporters.
“You can go,” Hannah said. “I’m going to stay to support my brother.”
Josh looked at her, trying to push home his point. “Do you really think that this city would allow this war to go on if there wasn’t a deep-seated, anti-shifter sentiment to it? These people are all in danger, not just you and your brother,” he explained. “There will be a protest movement. I guarantee it.”
Hannah rolled her eyes and pulled him after her. “That’s ridiculous. It’s going to be fine. We’ve done this a thousand times before.”
He allowed himself to be pulled along behind her. She took him to the side of the stage, and then up a set of stairs. A pair of men in black shirts with white-stitched lettering that read Security moved aside to let them pass. Josh noted several other sets of guards on the stage and walking around the crowd.
Much to his relief Hannah stopped at the edge of the stage, not taking them right out onto it. Chad was working the crowd now, building their excitement as he worked toward the point of his speech.
“This is going to get violent and ugly, Hannah. Please, believe me,” he pleaded. “I’ve been here for months now. There is next to no sympathy for shifters in this city. Those that are sympathetic are scared to support us. This is a mistake.”
She looked over at him with pursed lips. “The crowd is smaller than I would have expected,” she admitted slowly, but she stopped at that, refusing to give in any further.
Taking a deep breath, Josh tried to settle himself, realizing she wasn’t going to leave. He couldn’t exactly pick her up and haul her away either. Not without drawing more attention than he wished.
Chad was a gifted speaker, he realized, as he whipped the crowd into an impassioned frenzy with what appeared to be little work on his end.
“He’s good.” Josh kept his voice low so that only Hannah could hear it. “Really good.”
She smiled proudly, and for just an instant, the glacial barrier between them melted away.
His eyes flicked over, meeting hers. For that second, he saw beyond her guarded walls and into her core. Hannah blinked and turned away, but in that momentary lapse, Josh had glimpsed something dark within her. She was hiding a secret, and it was tearing her up from the inside.
Teeth clenched as he forced himself to not ask her, to not reach out and put his hand on her smooth shoulder and tell her she could trust him. It was the truth, but now was not the time for that. He would be better off waiting and hoping that she would come to him eventually. In the meantime, he had a job to do. That would guarantee him time around her, which he hoped to use to thaw out their relations some more. To get it back to how it had been yesterday morning.
“What’s that?” Hannah asked, cocking her head to one side.
He listened intently, using his augmented hearing to his advantage. “I don’t—” Then he heard it. A dull vibration, as if the ground were shaking.
“Earthquake?” Hannah asked.
A roar sounded from behind him, chilling Josh to the core. “No,” he said softly. “Much, much worse. The three of us need to get out of here now!”
“Again with that?” she asked, exasperated.
“Yes,” he urged, spinning around to watch as a group of people clad in red and black clothing appeared from the street side of the band shell, masks tied around their faces. “This is going to get ugly, and quickly.”
For once, Hannah didn’t argue.
***
The protesters slowed as they came close to Chad’s supporters, no more than a yard or two between the two groups. On stage, Chad was pleading with the newcomers to disperse peacefully.
“This isn’t going to work,” he told Hannah. “Can I get you out of here yet?”
“How?” she asked. “They’re between us and the car.”
Josh swore as he realized she was right. More and more of the red and black clothed protesters were appearing from behind his field of vision. They chanted “No More Freaks!” and “Humanity doesn’t want your insanity!” Many of them had profanity-laced signs that indicated their distaste for his kind.
“This isn’t random,” he said, hearing several voices stronger and clearer above the general din of noise as the two groups hurled insults at each other.
“What do you mean?” Hannah asked, standing behind him, her hand on his arm. He realized she wasn’t nervously clinging to him, though she wasn’t against putting him between her and the crowds.
“You can hear some voices better than others,” he said. “The
y have a military level to them, like a drill sergeant. These people are being used,” he said. “There’s going to be a group in this crowd that isn’t what they seem they are.”
He took her arm and started pulling her out onto the stage. They would collect Chad, and then make their escape on the far side. It wasn’t much of a plan, but for the moment it was all he had. His hand flew over the buttons on his phone before jamming it back into his pocket as the noise level increased again.
Chad was still pleading for peace, but he was fighting a losing battle. Out of nowhere, a bottle soared over the crowd and hit someone standing in the second row of the protesters.
“Shit,” Chad said dully, the single word evident over the speakers.
The protesters roared in anger and charged at Chad’s followers. The Shift First crowd wasn’t ready for violence, however, and as Josh watched in horror, they crumbled under the attack. Here and there he noted people fighting back.
So there are some hardline types in Chad’s crowd as well. Interesting.
The tide of red and black swept across the open space, and a tightknit group of them rushed the stage.
“Get him out of here!” he yelled at the security guards now running for Chad on stage to escort him away from the danger.
“Time to go,” he told Hannah, this time prepared to haul her away if need be.
To his relief, she didn’t fight him this time. Instead, she actually led the way, her flat-bottomed shoes slapping across the stage. Heavy footsteps quickly followed them. Glancing over his shoulder, Josh realized he was going to have to fight if they were going to escape. A knot of four men had caught them. The others were chasing after Chad, who had been taken down a ramp at the back of the stage to a door marked Exit.
He frowned. That would expose them to any protesters on the far side though! Idiots!
“HEY!” he roared, his voice cutting through all the din. “Not that way, you fools!” One of the men glanced over his shoulder at Josh, smiled, and then pushed Chad through the door.
