by Zoe Chant
The phone had a dialing ring instead of a keypad. With shaking fingers, she dialed.
It rang once, twice..."Hello?"
"Levi!" Maria whispered. She wanted to shout in joy.
"Maria? How did you call me? Where are you?"
"I'm at Lisle's compound. Mansion. Something. I can give you directions."
"Do it." His voice was implacable. Something inside Maria's chest relaxed. He was all right, and he was already on his way.
Carefully, she described the route that they'd taken out of the city, the highway and then the back roads. "And then after about ten minutes there's a dirt track off to the left, which turns into a paved driveway once it's out of sight of the road. At the end of the driveway is the mansion."
"I'll be there as soon as I can." Levi's voice softened. "I love you, Maria. I'm coming for you."
He hung up, leaving her standing there in the dark with her mouth open, astonished.
Then the lights came on.
She shrieked involuntarily, and spun around to see Sutherland standing in the doorway, another man behind him. They both had guns.
Well, she guessed this answered her question of whether they had a guard posted at night.
"Maria," said Sutherland. "You shouldn't be out of your chair."
"Screw you." She eyed them. The urge to try to run away was incredibly strong, but that would be stupid. She had to wait for Levi.
"Now, that's not very nice." Sutherland came forward, looking ready for anything.
Don't run.
It was harder to wait and let him come take her arm than it would have been to run away. She never wanted him to touch her again; he made her skin crawl.
But she made herself go with him when he gave her arm a vicious yank, stumbling along after him. The other man brought up the rear.
"You were standing by the phone, Maria," Sutherland said in her ear. "Did you call someone? We heard your voice when we were walking by. Who memorizes phone numbers these days? Which phone number would you have memorized?"
Maria stayed stubbornly silent. She didn't want them to have any time to prepare for Levi coming.
God, she hoped he didn't get shot. Trust him, she thought. He'll know what to do.
"Laura?" Sutherland said. "Did you call your little sparrow? She can't do anything now. Even if she brings in the police, they're not going to believe her. We have them on our side, remember?"
Only one of them, Maria thought stubbornly.
"She'll call them," Sutherland continued, "and they'll go to Lieutenant Moyer, and he'll say, of course, I'll go check it out personally. And he'll come here—that is, if you told her where we are. Do you even know? It was dark when we drove out."
Yes I know, you asshole. She kept her mouth shut.
"So maybe he'll come here. And if he does, we'll invite him in, and we'll take him to see you. I think he'll have a thing or two to say to you, after you messed up his plan. It was so nice and neat."
"What do you mean?" Maria couldn't help but ask the question. If it was about Levi—
"He's had that animal under his command for two years now," Sutherland said. "He didn't want to take him into his department at all, but he figured, better where he could keep his eye on him, make sure there weren't any bears raging through the streets. Give him enough cases to keep him happy, nothing where violence would be an issue at all. And then give him some big break, something high-profile...and dangerous."
Maria seethed.
"Imagine his surprise when this came up. We brought the plan to him, and he said, wonderful. I'll put my shifter on it. Please feel free to do away with him."
"So why didn't you shoot him in the first place?" Maria said. "He was there at the Capitol building last night."
Sutherland shook his head. "Wasted opportunities. We weren't expecting him to be there, so I didn't know it was him. Unfortunate coincidence. But Moyer arranged for a second chance."
"Which you blew," Maria pointed out.
His fingers dug into her arm and she stifled a gasp. She was going to have bruises there for weeks. "And I haven't thanked you properly for that yet," he said. "But Lisle wants you undamaged for now, particularly if you're going to be making a statement to the press."
Maria wanted to proudly declare that she would never make any statement of the kind, but she knew that that would just result in him threatening her again and she was sick of listening to his threats. So she kept her mouth shut.
There was a long pause, and then he yanked her forward again, stalking ahead. Annoyed that he didn't have a chance to go on a long rant about everything they were going to do to her, Maria thought, and almost smiled. Small victories.
Sutherland shoved her back into the room she'd been in, and did a double take at the cut ropes. "How did you do that?" he demanded.
Maria shrugged.
His expression changed. "Guess I'll have to search you for your tool, then."
Her knife was still tucked into her bra. Maria wondered if he would overlook it...then wondered what would happen if he didn't overlook it.
And she knew he wouldn't stop looking until he found something. His hands would be all over her...
He pulled her in closer. She shoved a hand down her cleavage and pulled out her knife.
He took it. "Nice and warm. Lot going on right there, no wonder you can hide something in it. Maybe I should search you anyway, make sure you don't have anything else living in there."
Please no, please no...
But Sutherland glanced at the doorway where the other guard was and said, "Maybe later."
Lisle must have left orders not to do anything drastic to her unless he gave the okay. Maria let out a silent sigh of relief.
Sutherland tied her to the chair again. The rope pulling tight around her abraded wrist hurt a lot. Her bloody and bruised upper arm hurt a lot. Having her limbs forcibly pulled at awkward angles and tied in place hurt a lot.
She was so tired of hurting.
Sutherland stood up, satisfied. "Now! You tried to escape once, so you're officially a flight risk. That means that I'm going to stay in the room with you for the rest of the night. Doesn't that sound like fun?"
That sounded like the opposite of fun.
"Go report what's happened to Lisle," Sutherland told the silent guard in the doorway. "Then roust someone else to be your patrol partner for the rest of the night. I'll be staying in here."
"Yes, sir," said the guard, and left the room.
Sutherland settled himself down in the room's single other chair, his gun resting casually in his lap. The barrel was pointed toward her, almost as though it was accidental. Maria was pretty sure it wasn't accidental.
"So," said Sutherland. "What should we talk about?"
Maria shut her eyes.
* * *
"Levi, man, you're going to get us killed before we get there!"
Levi had the siren running for now; he was going to kill it long before they neared the compound, because sound could travel long distances out in the country and he didn't want there to be any hint at all that they were coming.
But the advantage of the siren was that they could drive as fast as possible.
Danny was clutching the handle above the seat and swearing at regular intervals. "The siren and the lights are going," Levi said reasonably, keeping a careful eye on the road. There were hardly any cars out at this time of night, though, especially away from the city, and what cars there were had pulled over immediately as they blew past. "We're fine."
"I am not fine." Danny gritted his teeth, his eyes fixed on the road. "How much longer?"
"Ten minutes until I kill the siren and slow down. Another fifteen or so to reach the place, assuming I can see the turnoff in the dark."
"It was dark when they brought her here," Danny said. "It can't be totally invisible. We'll keep a careful eye out."
Levi nodded. "My eyes are a little better in the dark, anyway. It should be okay."
It had
better be okay.
"Just don't kill us before we can find out, that's all I ask." Danny swallowed as Levi took a sharp curve.
"Oh, believe me," said Levi grimly, "we are going to be plenty alive when we get there. You can count on it."
* * *
Maria had been afraid that Sutherland was going to keep up the creepy threats, but it seemed like he was done with those for now.
Instead, he was evangelizing.
She'd assumed, when she thought about it, that his little speeches over the phone to her about the shifter agenda had been staged. They hadn't needed to convince her that they were right. They'd only needed to give her a plausible reason to set up the meeting in the Starbucks so that they could swoop in and kidnap her without dealing with a (real) police presence.
But it looked like this was just Sutherland's standard conversational mode—he started rambling about shifter conspiracies and evil agendas and he just couldn't stop.
"They're animals," he assured Maria. "They have instincts that they can't resist. Powerful, violent instincts. And when they get out of control, anything can happen."
Maria was trying as hard as she could to ignore him and think about Levi. But when he said that...anything can happen...she couldn't help wondering what that would be like.
Powerful...instincts.
It was a good distraction from being tied to a chair. She spent a little bit of time imagining Levi, overwhelmed by his instincts, back at the safehouse. Or at her apartment.
Had he really said, I love you?
It seemed impossible to believe, but she knew what she'd heard. He loved her. But how was it possible? Maria wasn't a shifter. The odds of a non-shifter woman being Levi's mate...she didn't even know, but it had to be incredibly low. She wasn't anybody's idea of a good mate, anyway. She worked too hard and she was argumentative and she liked to get her own way. She was irritatingly self-sufficient. Or at least so her former boyfriends had seemed to think.
I love you.
Maria hadn't let herself think at all about what she felt for Levi. Even after they'd had sex—hot, hot sex, her brain reminded her—she'd completely shut down any speculation about how she felt.
Because it was useless, she'd thought. There was no way it was going anywhere—sex on a kitchen chair with a cop who was protecting her and her boss from a hate group? That was not the basis for a relationship! When you added in the fact that he was a shifter, and so waiting for his one and only mate, it was clear that even if they could date for a little while, ultimately Maria would be dumped in favor of The One And Only.
But if he loved her...could shifters fall in love with someone other than their mate?
Or...could Maria be Levi's mate?
It would explain the way she felt.
Because she did feel. She felt something larger than she knew how to deal with, more powerful than anything she'd ever experienced with a man before. So intense that she could barely handle thinking about it.
So she hadn't thought about it. But she was thinking about it now.
Surely it was impossible. Surely she was just making up a fantasy. She remembered seeing that bear in the woods when she was a kid, how she'd wanted to run away into the woods with him, meet the other bears, learn their names and talk to them and see what they were like as people. Was she just projecting that fantasy onto her adult life, making up a destined prince who would sweep her away forever?
She didn't...she didn't think so.
She thought it was real.
And that thought drowned out everything Sutherland was saying to her.
* * *
Levi eased the car up onto the dirt turnoff and turned off the engine. "Walk from here," he said to Danny. "We don't want them hearing the car."
Danny nodded, and they both carefully opened their doors, shutting them with exaggerated caution to keep the noise from carrying.
Then they started up the drive, keeping their heads down, guns out and covering each other.
The house came into view after five minutes or so, looming as a dark shape in the night. Levi remembered Maria saying, Mansion. Compound. Something, and thought that she was right. There was no wall around it—probably too conspicuous, he thought—but he could see a dim glow coming from the window above the door that suggested a security system.
He motioned Danny in, and whispered, "Alarmed."
"What do you want to do?" Danny whispered back.
"Stay behind me.” Levi holstered his gun.
"What are you—oh my God. Oh. Okay."
Levi was shifting. He settled into his bear form, flexing his claws against the ground, and scented his mate. She'd been here, on this driveway.
And there were hints of blood in the air.
Levi could feel a roar rumbling in his chest. He kept it down by force of will.
His mate had been hurt. She'd been scared and hurt, and taken here against her will, and she was inside that building, he knew it for absolute certain.
Levi charged.
800 pounds of American brown bear hit the front door of George Lisle's house with a roar. The door made a faint splintering noise and gave in without a fight.
Inside the house, Levi could smell Maria's scent all around. Was she in that room right off the hall? No, she'd been there, and then she'd been taken down the hall...he could smell a gun.
That door. She was behind that door.
The door crunched as it opened, and he shouldered his way past the pieces to see Maria inside, bloody and tied to a chair, with Roger Sutherland behind her, holding a gun to her head.
He'd been in this position once already today. He was not letting this happen again.
"Stay back!" Sutherland's voice shook. "Or I'll shoot her!"
His hand was shaking too. That was dangerous. His finger could hit the trigger at any moment.
“That’s right,” said a voice behind him. Levi turned clumsily in the small space, splintering a little table in the process.
George Lisle stood in the doorway. “He can shoot her,” he continued. “And you can’t do anything about it. In fact, he’s going to shoot her, when I give the word. Unless you leave right now.”
Levi growled.
“Although,” Lisle continued, “it doesn’t matter.”
What?
“If you leave, then we will have succeeded. However, if you murder Mr. Sutherland, we will also win. You will have mutilated a member of my organization. I’m sure it will be child’s play to ensure that Ms. Hernandez appears to have been the victim of a bear attack as well. So please. Make your decision.”
Lisle disappeared from the doorway. Levi couldn’t chase him and leave Maria behind—as much as he deeply, furiously wanted to.
He turned back to Sutherland, who had at least stopped shaking. The gun was pressed to Maria’s temple.
Levi had to make a decision.
“Freeze! Police!”
Danny’s sudden appearance made Sutherland jerk the gun up to point at him.
Levi leapt.
The gun clattered out of Sutherland’s hand with one swipe of Levi’s paw. Sutherland went sprawling backwards, landing on the floor with the wind knocked out of him, and Levi went after him.
He pinned Sutherland down with a paw on each shoulder and watched real fear enter the man’s eyes, as he realized that he was going to be mauled by an 800-pound brown bear.
Then Levi shifted.
When he was fully human again, he said, “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney…”
Sutherland’s face transformed as he was Mirandized, from primal fear to outrage. “You can’t do this!” he shouted. “You’re an animal!”
Levi smiled at him with real satisfaction. “I’m a detective with the Springfield Police Department, and that means that I can do this. What do you got, Danny?”
“Couple of them surrendered already, what with the giant bear bre
aking down the door and all,” Danny reported. “I’ve seen two more ducked behind corners, but I don’t think they’re really sure what’s going on. The bossman disappeared up some stairs.”
“Thanks,” Levi said, and handcuffed Sutherland.
Then, finally, he could go to Maria.
She was flushed and beautiful and hurt, and he cupped her face and kissed her once before he did anything else. “Are you all right?” he asked against her mouth.
She nodded. “Get me out of these ropes.”
He made short work of them and helped her to her feet. She wrapped her arms around him, and he buried his face in her hair for a long moment.
“I was sure you’d come,” she said into his chest. “I knew it. I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Forget me, how are you? You’re bleeding.” He could smell the coppery tang in the air, and it made his bear growl protectively.
“I’m okay. Mostly this arm.” She held it up, and he backed up enough to look. Her wrist was bloody and abraded, and the graze on her arm from the bullet had opened up again. Surrounding them were reddened bruises in the shape of handprints.
“You know,” said Levi conversationally, “I thought that handcuffing him and taking him in was the best solution, but I might be changing my mind. Do you want me to maul him?”
Maria quirked a smile, and shook her head. “No. He should go to prison for a long, long time.”
“So should some of these other guys, if you’ve got a minute,” Danny called from the doorway.
Levi looked helplessly at Maria. “I’m sorry, I—”
Maria stepped back. “I understand. Do your job.”
He leaned in and kissed her one more time, then went with Danny.
Arresting the couple of remaining guards was simple. When the bottom floor was clear, they returned to the room Maria’d been held in. She was cradling her wrist and looking thoughtfully down at Sutherland, who was glaring at the ceiling.
“This is extremely satisfying,” she told Levi when they came in.
“I’m so glad,” he murmured. “We’re going to check out the upstairs. It’ll be safest if you’re with us, just in case someone comes in from outside or there’s another way down from the second floor.”
