by Anya Nowlan
The barest hint of surprise flitted across Travis’ face as she spoke. Sienna forced herself not to shrink under his gaze as she stared at him defiantly.
“I’m sensing you have some demands, something you want in exchange for this good girl behavior?” Travis inquired, not breaking eye contact.
He seemed to take her seriously, at least.
He was reluctant to do so, obviously, but she had to imagine that this squad wanted to get home as fast as they could as well. If she could make it happen for them, it could only be a good thing.
Besides, dealing with her father, The Firm had to have figured out by now that Antonio was a man who liked his demands followed to the letter, or else.
Sienna sat up straight and put on her most confident tone.
“I want leniency for Arlen. And I want it promised to me by someone who actually matters.”
She was digging deep in order to emulate the air of haughty superiority her father had when he demanded things. It always worked for him. Only difference was, she wasn’t sure if she’d get what she asked for or not. She didn’t have an industry of goons backing her up like Antonio Marquez did.
Travis glared at her, clearly finding her distasteful. She couldn’t blame him, she was being obnoxious. But she would do anything to keep Arlen’s punishment to a minimum.
After a pause, the man got back on his radio before sliding away the door that separated the back of the van from the cabin. He sat down in the passenger seat and closed the door after him as his radio buzzed to life.
Sienna was left sitting in the back, not being able to hear what Travis was saying.
“Impressive, right?” she asked the guy sitting next to her, easily twice her size, who was staring sternly right ahead.
He didn’t say a word. The guy on her other side was much the same.
Not talkers, I guess.
She wondered what Arlen was doing right now. Did being separated torture him like it did her? A part of her hoped it didn’t and a part of her hoped it did.
She knew what they had was real, even though they hadn’t known each other for that long. Arlen had showed her who he was in all the ways that mattered and for the first time in a long while, she had put her trust in someone and not been disappointed.
Her heart ached with the thought that she was the reason he was going to be ‘disciplined’. Her stomach churned, as it had almost constantly for the last two days.
Maybe it was better they got separated sooner, rather than later. More time would have only meant deeper feelings, and she was already in way over her head. Their relationship was never going to work out in the long term, as she had reminded herself time and time again.
All she could do now was to try and keep the physical pain he had to endure to a minimum and hope to forget him in time.
The door slid open and Travis returned, holding the radio up. Sienna held her breath, not sure what it meant. Were they really going to accept her conditions?
“This is Foster, Arlen’s boss. I am giving you my word Arlen Johnson won’t be killed or unduly harmed.”
Sienna didn’t miss the ‘unduly’ thrown in there, and she was well-aware this was less than a binding contract, but this was probably the best she could do under these circumstances. She had to count on these guys’ code of honor and trust they kept their word.
“Then I will cooperate fully with your men,” she said towards Travis’ general direction.
Travis returned to the cab and remained there for the remainder of the drive. She was probably not his favorite person at the moment, but as she’d promised, she behaved like a model prisoner.
As soon as the van came to a stop, the two men remaining in the back flanked her and guided her outside. Travis was already there, waiting by the back doors.
Sienna looked up at the huge glass building they were pulled up in front of and sighed, recognizing the hotel.
Nothing but the best for Antonio Marquez, she thought with distaste.
She was escorted inside and into the elevator, riding up to the twelfth floor. Her hands began to shake as the doors dinged open and she was nudged out and into the hallway. She hadn’t seen her father in a long while, but she doubted that it had been long enough for him to change even a little from the monster he used to be.
Travis led the way to a gorgeous marble foyer and knocked on the heavy wooden doors there. The doors opened, and two security guards stood in the doorway, giving Travis evaluating looks.
“We are here on behalf of The Firm to…” Travis started.
“I know why you’re here,” a voice came from within the suite, chilling Sienna to the bone.
Antonio Marquez came into view, dressed in an impeccable navy suit, with a Greubel Forsey watch on his wrist that she knew cost more than the average person made in a year. He was a bit softer around the midsection and had a few greys in his immaculately styled dark brown hair, but otherwise, he was still the tall, imposing man she remembered.
“You can leave now,” he instructed, barely glancing at Travis.
Instead, his dark eyes locked on to Sienna with thinly veiled anger and annoyance. It made her feel small, like before, when she was younger. She squared her shoulders, determined to not shrink before him.
I’m not that same little girl… I’m not! He won’t scare me!
But deep down inside, he still did.
“There is just the matter of…” Travis started.
It seemed he would not be allowed to finish a single sentence.
Ah, feels like old times already.
“Any unfinished business I will settle with your superiors,” Antonio snapped, staring pointedly at Sienna’s forehead. “Now do as you were told,” he continued, voice rising as he motioned for Travis to disappear like the gnat he evidently thought the agent to be.
Sienna looked over at Travis. His jaw was tight and eyes narrowed, but all he did was nod and gesture to his men to leave. He gave her what almost looked like a pitying glance before turning to walk away.
“Hello, daughter,” Antonio said, his voice pure ice. “Why don’t you come inside so I can tell you how much trouble you’ve caused me?”
And so it begins.
Twenty-Five
Arlen
Arlen sat in a dark apartment, waiting for his friend to come home. Graham was in for a surprise, and one he would probably not like very much. He had already asked the man for one possibly career-ending favor, and he knew he was pushing his luck with another.
But Arlen was beyond being polite at this point. He would do anything necessary to get Sienna back. Getting Graham involved and thereby possibly getting him in hot water with The Firm was not something he wanted to do, but he feared he was running out of time.
He couldn’t do it all on his own.
Arlen could hear footsteps approach from the corridor and stop in front of the door. This particular apartment building was crawling with shifters, seeing as it was very close to The Firm’s local operations center, so Graham hopefully wouldn’t be able to smell him until it was too late.
The door swung open, then closed and the lights flicked on as Graham entered his home, sighing deeply as he did. It was almost comical how quickly the man’s head swiveled to Arlen’s location, sitting silently in an armchair in the corner of the room like some sort of budget Bond villain.
Graham drew his sidearm and aimed it at Arlen’s forehead before he could even realize who was sitting there. Good old US military reflexes.
As the initial shock wore off, Graham lowered the gun and scowled at Arlen, looking distinctly displeased.
“What are you trying to do, scare the tail off of me? You shouldn’t be here.”
“I couldn’t exactly call ahead, seeing as The Firm is keeping a close eye on all of my known associates,” Arlen replied, unmoving in the chair.
Graham only nodded, running a hand through his hair in an annoyed manner.
“You know they’ve taken Sienna?” Arlen asked as G
raham paced around the apartment.
“Yeah,” Graham nodded. “That was the big news today. They’ve already handed her off. The rumor around the office is her father isn’t the most pleasant man to deal with. But he paid the price that was agreed on, so no one really cares that much.”
Arlen gripped the armrests tighter. He knew how much Sienna despised the idea of being under her father’s thumb again, and from the little she let slip about the man, he figured she had a real reason to be fearful. The thought of her being in harm’s way sent him reeling with anger and the need to get her to safety.
“They are still in town?” he asked, stopping Graham in his tracks.
“That’s why you’re here? To get information so you can track them down? Have you completely lost your mind?”
“Why else would I be here?” Arlen countered coolly.
“To talk out the best way to turn yourself over to Foster, to Spade?” he replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“I can’t do that.”
“And why the hell not?”
“Because I love her.”
Graham stared at him for a moment before putting his gun back in the holster. He sat down and placed his head in his hands. Arlen’s heart was beating just a tad more quickly than usual.
He hadn’t said those words out loud, not even to Sienna, but it was the truth. He loved her with all his being and there was nothing he could do about it.
“You’re serious,” Graham finally said, looking up at him. “You’re in heat, aren’t you? You reek of it. You’re talking out of your damn dick because of the Bonding.”
Arlen’s jaw clenched.
“She’s the one, Graham. And she doesn’t want to be with her family. She’s spent years getting away from them. She might not even feel the same way, but that doesn’t mean I can just walk away. I have to help her. His father is holding her against her will. And heat or no heat, she’s my mate. I know it.”
Arlen leaned forward, staring Graham in the eyes. Would he help him? He had already asked for one favor from the man, and had promised there wouldn’t be another. Arlen hated going back on his word – in fact he never did it. But the circumstances warranted some desperate actions.
Graham gave out an exasperated sigh.
“Even if I wanted to help you, I can’t. I only know Antonio, her father, has some business in Chicago so they’ll be staying for a few days, but I don’t know where. They know you called me once before, after you told Foster off. I’m not in the loop about these things anymore.”
Arlen smiled. He had already won Graham over, even if the man didn’t know it himself.
“Oh no, wipe that grin off your face, you’ve already gotten me in enough shit,” Graham growled.
“You know it’s the right thing to do. The Firm had no right to make decisions about Sienna’s life like that. I’m not the first guy to do this. You know about Shifter Squad Six. They all did what they had to do for their mates. And I’ll be a miserable bastard until the end of time if I don’t get to at least tell her how I feel, if that matters at all to you.”
Graham could tear out throats with the best of them, but Arlen also knew he was somewhat of a hopeless romantic. And he wasn’t above playing with the man’s emotions to guarantee his assistance. Graham muttered something under his breath.
“I knew I shouldn’t have watched Moulin Rouge more than once.”
“Look, Sienna’s family comes from old money, so it’s only fair to assume they’re going to be staying somewhere high-end. It could be a hotel, or they could be even renting a place. Either way, if they’re only in town for a couple of days, I may not be able to get the right location and come up with an extraction plan in time, not all on my own.”
“If I start asking questions about where the Marquez’s are staying, that’s going to be more than a little suspicious,” Graham replied over his shoulder as he stood and walked to his fridge.
“I know, and the last thing I want is for you to get in trouble for helping me. There has to be a way you could find out what I need without drawing attention to yourself.”
Arlen stood, ready to follow his friend. Graham threw a beer over his shoulder, no warning, and the bottle whizzed by Arlen’s face, almost smashing into the wall behind him before his hand shot out and snatched it up at the last second.
“Still got you reflexes at least, even after you’ve lost your wits,” Graham commented while opening his own bottle.
“Hilarious,” Arlen replied sardonically, popping the cap and taking a swig.
“I’m guessing you have a plan for me?”
Finally, getting to the meat of the matter, Arlen thought, swishing the beer around in his mouth.
“Every time a vehicle is signed out, there is a log of who did it and when. That log is something you could get a look at, right?”
The Firm worked on a system of layers. Every active combat team had something they were responsible for, and a small unit of people clustered around them to make their missions and goals attainable. Graham was one of the backroom guys for intel, but it served to reason that Foster might not allow him access to everything anymore. Not with his ties to Arlen.
But the beauty of The Firm was that it was spread out across the globe. Most of the show runners were based in California. That was a long way to keep an eye on everything that was going on in windy Chicago.
“In theory,” Graham replied, brow furrowing.
“And if you can see which car Travis signed out, you could access its GPS data to see where it stopped throughout the day.”
“So I’ll be doing all the work for you. Typical,” Graham said with a playful eye-roll. “You know I always tell intel that it’s us who should be getting the commendations and the bonuses, not you chumps out on the front lines.”
“I’m going to be the one charging into wherever Sienna is being held,” Arlen reminded him.
“That does make me feel slightly better,” the man admitted after a moment’s consideration. “Up until the point I get thrown into The Hole over your love affair.”
“It’ll be worth it,” Arlen assured him.
If Graham pulled through on his end, Arlen could actually stand a chance of getting her back. He almost didn’t dare imagine it. Too many things could go wrong and he knew if his plan failed, it would devastate him. The tiger inside him paced around anxiously, filling his head with dissatisfied growls.
Hang, on Sienna. I’m coming for you. It better not be too late.
Twenty-Six
Sienna
Sienna sat on the couch, staring out at the amazing view of Chicago through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Her father was glaring at her, looking primed for a tirade. At least he was standing far enough away from her.
The door to the parlor opened and Sienna’s mother walked out, wearing a fitted, cream dress and gold heels.
Carmen Marquez was a picture of perfection, always had been. Expertly applied makeup and some nips and tucks here and there made her look a decade younger than she actually was. As a parent, she was far more well-meaning than Antonio, but her own interests still came first before anyone else’s.
And since Antonio gave her the lifestyle she had always wanted, she would never challenge him. Carmen was very good at looking the other way. Sienna remembered how she would pretend not to see the bruises on her arms, the black eyes or the broken bones. Or how she pretended not to hear her cries when she was locked inside her room for days.
“A little plastic surgery will fix that right up,” Sienna remembered Carmen saying after Antonio had broken Sienna’s nose.
All of it made the genuine smile on Carmen’s face even more chilling.
“Darling!” she called out, walking towards Sienna with her arms held out.
Sienna stood to reluctantly return the hug and even managed a smile.
“Hello, mother.”
Carmen held her at arm’s length, assessing everything about her. She always had a kna
ck for picking out what someone was most self-conscious about and loudly suggesting ways to correct said shortcoming. It wasn’t ever malicious, exactly. She thought she was helping.
“I like your hair long,” she commented, pursing her red lips. “But you’ve gained a bit of weight, haven’t you? I’m still working with that personal trainer we got you before you left, I’m sure he can squeeze you into his schedule,” she said, fussing with Sienna’s curls.
“Mother, I don’t want to be here and I don’t want to go back home with you,” Sienna said sternly.
She knew her wishes didn’t count for much right now, but she could at least make her objections clear from the start. There was no need for anyone to fool themselves into thinking this was some sort of happy reunion.
Carmen released her with a sigh and walked to the dining table, where a chilled bottle of wine and a couple of glasses were already waiting. So her fondness for drinking hadn’t changed.
She couldn’t blame her mother, just feel bad for her. Sienna would probably seek solace in something too, if she was married to a man like her father.
“Stop upsetting your mother,” Antonio ordered, folding himself into one of the armchairs.
The parlor was nice - spacious, full of light, expertly decorated in creams and golds. The huge twin couches could accommodate a baseball team and the electric fireplace added a touch of coziness. There was even a grand piano under one of the windows.
She remembered the one time when her father had slammed her fingers between the lid of the grand piano at their home when she’d missed one key too many. It made her shoulders hunch up.
“Do you know what you’ve put us through?” he asked, staring right through her.
Because you are definitely the victims here, Sienna thought bitterly.
“I am sure you are going to tell me.”
Antonio bristled at her sarcastic response but she had no intention of reining her attitude in. She had spent most of her life cowering to this man. No more.
“All the lies we had to tell our friends about why you were gone, a gap year in Africa, vacationing in Dubai… It was only a matter of time before people got suspicious. Thank god no one found out you were massaging people for money, or…”
