by Amelia Jade
What was in plain sight, however, was a black van.
“That doesn’t look very pedestrian,” Josh muttered under his breath.
Hannah was forced to agree. “That looks rather…military.”
The big shifter grunted an agreement. “I’m almost surprised it only has two axles. A third would fit on there just fine.”
“The street-legal versions aren’t allowed to have them,” Connor said quietly. “Only the military versions have three axels. But otherwise, it’s going to be mostly the same. Bulletproof armor and glass, reinforced everything. Those things do not play around. What the fuck is going on, Josh?”
Hannah looked at the driver.
“There’s a group of mercs after her,” he said. “Shifters too, and good ones.”
“You didn’t tell us that before,” Connor said tightlipped, pulling the truck to the side of the road. It was marked as a no-parking zone, but they didn’t expect to be long. The other vehicles followed suit.
“I didn’t know that they were either of those things myself,” Josh said. “But I found out the hard way.”
Hannah was distracted by what she saw at the door.
“Chad!” she cried, hand going for the door handle.
“Hannah wait!” Josh cried, his arms snaking around from behind the seat and holding her in place.
“But they have him!” she protested. “We need to go help. Come on! With all of you, we can easily take them on. They won’t know what hit them. Please?” she said, struggling to break free, but the big shifter was just too strong for her. Plus she didn’t dare use her strength just yet. Surprising the other members of Josh’s team like that would not be a good way to earn their respect.
“Hannah, look,” Josh urged.
“What?” she said.
“He’s not being taken against his will, Hannah,” Connor said softly.
She looked again as her brother walked toward the vehicle. A pair of mercenaries walked on either side of him, the sun’s light making it easy for everyone to see exactly what was going on.
“They’re wearing police-like uniforms. Maybe he’s been tricked into thinking they are the authorities?” she said angrily. What were they trying to say?
“Unlikely,” Josh said. “Your brother avoided the police the other night just like we did, remember?”
The hidden meaning in his words was clear. Chad knew better than to let himself be apprehended by the police in King City. With the Agency on the loose and government at various levels in almost outright collusion with them, a shifter—especially a werewolf shifter—would be very wise to avoid being taken in by the “authorities.”
Or at least, she hoped Chad knew better.
“And even if he was being taken against his will, he doesn’t look beat up at all. His clothes aren’t disheveled, ripped, nothing. Your brother doesn’t seem like the type to go down without a fight,” Connor told her.
Hannah looked at them all, then back at the scene of her brother and his captors. She was sure they were captors. But as much as she wanted to deny what the others were saying, it did make a lot of sense. Besides, where had her brother been while she and Josh were fighting for their lives to escape? He hadn’t been in his room, and he hadn’t responded to any messages either.
“What if they got him first, and are now pretending that they have me, to make him go along peacefully?”
The bear shifters exchanged a look that didn’t go unnoticed by her. It said, “Maybe, but we don’t think so.”
“Shit,” she swore, still not convinced, but not able to deny it either. “What do we do now?” she asked, sitting back in her chair, making it clear that she wasn’t going to try anything foolhardy, such as charging out at them all alone.
“We’re going to follow them, of course,” Josh said, nodding to Connor who spoke quietly into his phone, before hooking it to the dash.
Hannah frowned. “Okay, so why aren’t we moving then? In case you missed it, they just pulled away.”
Josh rubbed her shoulder gently. Her right shoulder, the one Connor couldn’t see. She smiled to herself at that, and resisted the urge to reach her hand up to make contact with him.
We really need to put this out in the open. I can’t see the others missing it either. They’re all very smart.
Connor started speaking, interrupting her thoughts. “It would be dangerous for all of our vehicles to follow them at once. So we’ll take it in turns. Right now, Justin is on his bike, staying close to them.”
Hannah looked behind them and saw that he was right. At some point the motorcycle that had been parked at the rear of their little convoy had disappeared. Even as she watched, the last truck in line eased out into traffic as well, and in seconds was swept away. Another minute went by, and then the third truck.
Finally it was their turn, and Connor moved smoothly back into the flow of vehicles, listening to a voice through the phone. He nodded, then put it on speaker and set it in the dash. Justin was speaking, updating them on street movements. They followed him, until he switched out and Jared began to follow them.
“Wait,” Hannah said softly, turning to look at Josh. “There are four of you on your team, right?”
He looked at her. “Well, it’s Jared’s team actually,” he looked sheepish.
Hannah smiled. “I know that, but there are four, correct?”
Josh nodded. “Correct. Why?”
She did some quick mental math. “So, two of you are here. Justin is on a bike, and Jared is in one of the trucks. So who is in the other—”
A woman’s voice came over the radio. “Okay, I’ve got them now. We’re headed north on Duke Street.”
“That would be Shay and Madison,” Connor told her.
“Right.” She sat back in her seat, contemplative.
Hannah had met both of them, and had known Shay to be a driver of considerable skill. But she hadn’t actually believed that they were allowed out on missions. Yes, Madison was the boss, but that was still a change that she had not expected.
They let their women go into harm’s way.
No, that wasn’t right at all, Hannah realized as she continued to think about it. It was highly unlikely that Connor and Justin willingly let them go, no matter how competent they knew the pair of them to be. It was far more likely that they respected the fact that if they tried to say no, they would lose. Smart men.
She idly wondered if Josh would continue to allow her to be an active part of things if she stuck around. They had fought together in the park, and fought together well, but that had been out of necessity, not by choice.
The idea continued to flit around her head, growing steam as it did. For years now Hannah had accompanied her brother as he made his speeches and tried to raise awareness for the plight of shifters in the world at large. She had thought she was doing her part to help, to right the wrongs that were being committed. But perhaps she needed to be more hands-on. The idea of digging in and doing something felt…right.
I wonder…
***
“They just pulled up in front of the Kingsguard Hotel,” Madison said over the phone.
Hannah looked at Connor. “How far is that?”
“Right there,” he said with a nod of his head. “We were about to switch off with them, so we had gotten close.”
They found a parking spot with view of the front entrance and waited as the big van slowed to a halt. Men jumped out and walked around the vehicle. It shouldn’t have looked weird to Hannah, but something about it did.
“Why does this look strange?” she asked aloud. “What am I missing about this scene?”
One of them reached and opened the door, standing aside so her brother could exit.
“Uh,” Josh said slowly. “Does it look to anyone else as if the mercs are looking out? Like they’re watching the surroundings for threats, as opposed to keeping an eye on Chad? Like guards?”
There was silence in the truck and over the phone.
; Hannah felt her stomach sink. There was no denying it anymore. Her brother was working for the mercenaries for some reason.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why would he work for them? Over the past year they’ve attacked us a number of times. We’ve always managed to get away, but he knows what they’ve tried to do to us before. Why switch sides now?”
“I don’t know either, but I think we need to find out.”
“Guys,” Justin said, his voice coming over the phone. “Tell me I’m not seeing what I think I’m seeing.”
The truck and the phone conversation went instantly silent.
Hannah looked around, trying to figure out what it was they had seen.
“What?” she asked.
There was no response, though both Josh and Connor shifted uncomfortably in their seats as they stared out the window. Hannah looked at it too, but she couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Her brother had just disappeared inside, and the big truck was just sitting there with its hazard lights on.
“Someone care to tell me what the hell the big deal is?” she asked, letting a bit of an edge into her voice.
“In the parking lot,” Josh said softly. “The first vehicle behind the row of potted plants.”
Hannah shifted her eyes past the front doors and valet/drop-off area, to the parking lot. “It’s a silver SUV,” she said. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
Connor looked uncomfortable, but Josh spoke first again, so he didn’t have to say anything.
“Hannah, that is the personal vehicle of J. The head of the Agency.” He paused. “Something is very, very wrong.”
“Agreed,” Jared’s voice came over the phone. “Thoughts?”
There was a long silence.
“We go get my brother back,” Hannah said fiercely, her brain still not comprehending the sheer enormity of what was going on. “We can’t let the Agency get to him. If they find him here, they’ll kill him!”
“Hannah,” Josh said, his voice loud enough to carry through the phone to the others. “If J is here, it means he’s here because someone told him to be. He knew ahead of time that your brother was coming. He had to. The man, or whatever he is, is too smart for that.”
“What does that mean?” she asked, confused.
“I haven’t the damndest idea,” the big shifter said, equally unsure. Then he raised his voice. “But I vote we fight too.”
“J will be in there,” Justin said, his voice muffled a bit by the helmet he was wearing.
“Then we’ll finally have a shot at him,” Connor said firmly, his tone casting his vote.
“Any objections?” Jared asked, but his words were followed by silence. “Let’s move then,” he said.
Hannah blinked as Connor killed the truck and exited the vehicle without hesitation. She scrambled to follow, Josh staying close to her side as they dodged traffic and crossed to the hotel. There was no one left in the truck, which meant everyone was inside.
“Okay, there are at least five mercs,” Josh said as they filed inside the lobby. “All shifters, all highly trained. So be careful, and try to tag team them. They don’t fight well together.”
“We still need to find out what room,” Jared said, looking around the lobby as the group filed in after him.
Shay, Hannah had noticed, stayed with the truck. Driving was her skill, and she would be their getaway driver if things went south in a hurry.
“I’ve got that covered,” she told the others, heading for the front desk. As she moved, her shoulders came back a hair, her chest straining a little more against the V-neck shirt she had put on. Her hips began to sway.
A second later Madison fell in step beside her, the taller woman matching her gait and subtly thrusting her chest out at the hapless teenage kid working the front desk.
“Can I help you?” he all but squeaked as they leaned over the counter, using their feminine assets ruthlessly.
“Yes, my brother is here with some friends. They just came in and I missed them. He said to stop by the front desk for a key?” Hannah said.
The kid started to shake his head, but Madison pushed her arms together slightly, pressing her breasts up and out at him. Hannah wanted to laugh; she could practically see the sweat beading off his forehead, but she didn’t. What they were doing was mean, and would set back equality a few years, but damn it, it was working, and her brother was in trouble!
“H-here you are,” he said shakily. “Room 505.”
“Thank you,” she said, taking a deep breath in and arching her back a little bit as she got up, giving him a long look down her shirt.
She thought he was going to faint.
“Elevators are that way?” she asked, nodding to her right where she had seen Josh and the others disappear.
The teenager nodded.
Hannah smiled. “Thank you,” she said with a slow wink, then turned and moved away from the counter with Madison at her side.
The pair of them shared a knowing wink and giggle as they moved around the corner.
The group of Sentinels was waiting for the both of them at the elevators, holding the doors to two of them open.
“All right then,” Josh said after a moment, turning and ducking into one of the elevators.
Hannah followed and silently handed him the keycard. “Fifth floor,” she said, loud enough for the others in the second elevator to hear them.
They rode up in silence.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she told Josh. “It was the quickest and easiest way without scaring the poor kid half to death. I did him a favor.”
Josh and Jared both just shrugged and looked around innocently as if they had no idea what she was talking about.
Hannah spun, facing the back of the elevator as she stared both of them down. “Get over it boys, you’re all susceptible to us, and you’re only smiling because you know it would have worked on you both at that age too.”
The men shared a look, and then shrugged.
“True,” Josh said. “But that was... wow, ruthless, I think is the best word.”
Hannah smiled. “I know.”
The look on Josh’s face changed from laughter to horror as the doors suddenly slid open behind her. Hannah realized she had missed the chime, if there was one.
Josh knocked her aside as he dove forward. Hannah heard the sound of flesh on flesh and a grunt, and then a crash. Jared went flying by her on the other side before she could orient herself to the doors.
The pair of them were already heavily mixed up in a brawl, but there were others in the hallway. Many others. More than just the mercenaries, she realized suddenly. The different cut of their uniform told her they were probably Agency men.
Hannah snarled and went for the nearest man as he went for a gun.
This one is human! The thought startled her, but she wasted no time in ensuring he couldn’t fight anymore. She whirled and fell to her knees to avoid the punch from one of the mercenaries. Wincing at what was coming next, she drove her hand into the man’s crotch, squeezed, and then turned her wrist viciously.
The Agent screamed and fell to the ground in a heap where she wrapped her hands around his neck and twisted it violently until it snapped. Bile rose in her throat at the sound it made, but just then, Hannah had only two thoughts on her mind:
Help Josh.
Find Chad.
Everything else was secondary.
The second elevator finally opened and the remainder of the team boiled out into the hallway, already warned by the sounds. The brawl spread out as pairs squared off. Hannah found herself caught up in combat with another Agent. This one knew what he was doing, and was strong. She had to use all of her knowledge and skills just to avoid his blows, and the ones she managed to land in return were ineffective at best.
How is he so strong? He’s not a bear shifter, I’d smell that! He’s human. But…not.
Her mind immediately reminded her of what the Agency was doing, the serum it
had created that Madison had told her about. She was fighting one of them. What had they called it, Extremis? Yes, something like that. They were supposed to be deadly.
She dodged a jab and her fist connected with the man’s face, breaking his nose. Blood began to spew everywhere, and he shook his head to clear it after the blow. Hannah darted in with her speed and rocked his head back with a one-two combination that had him backpedaling in an effort to buy time to recover.
Hannah went after him, faked high and went low. She realized her mistake at the last minute. Her fist smashed into his kneecap, and she felt it buckle. But it was too late. The Agent had anticipated her move, and his hand snatched her hair, hauled her to her feet, and slammed her into the wall with enough force to make her see stars.
His one leg buckled, and Hannah knew if she could recover he was done for. But her limbs were liquid after the blow, and he lifted her clear of the floor, standing on one leg.
“Fuck you,” he said with a grin.
“No, fuck you,” she said with a grin as Madison loomed up behind the man. Bladed hands slammed into either side of his head, followed by cupped blows to his ears. The man’s eyes rolled up into his head and he fell. Hannah collapsed to the floor as Madison bent to ensure he never got up.
“Thanks,” she croaked, recovering enough to stand.
The remaining enemies had all retreated behind a door marked 505. By her count, two mercenaries and three or so of the Agency men were all that was left standing.
“That’s the one I got the keycard for,” she said.
The bear shifters exchanged looks, then shrugged. “Battering ram?” Justin asked with a grin.
“Battering ram,” Connor replied, matching his look.
“Battering ram?” Hannah asked, looking over at Madison. The leader of the Underground shrugged.
“I have no idea,” she said softly.
The pair of them watched as the two shifters looked at the door, touching it in several spots.
Then they backed up, pounded fists with each other and charged the door.
“Oh shit!” she exclaimed, not realizing they were moving that fast.
The two men struck the door simultaneously. Their hands hit it first, near the outside, followed by their shoulders on the inside. Hannah had expected the door to shatter, but it didn’t. The two men ripped it clean off the hinges and simply kept charging forward, using the thick wooden door as a shield as they barreled into the room. She heard thuds and shouts, along with a staccato of impacts against the door before it finally shattered.
