by April Kelley
Markie smiled and then closed the distance between them, pressing his lips to Jalen’s cheek. “Thanks.”
Jalen smiled but knew it didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“I’d like to come to dinner, if that’s still an option.”
“I’m sure Uri would be happy you came. I know he’s been trying to get you to come for a while.” Jalen turned again and headed for the door.
“But I meant as your da—”
“Have a good day, Markie.”
“Jalen. Wait.”
“I’ll be late getting on the ferry.” Jalen didn’t turn around, not even after he stood on the ferry dock.
Chapter Three
Jalen was sanding a piece of wood down, smoothing the surface. It was Jalen’s job to make some specialty pieces to go into the space they were building. Apparently the office would be for the higher up generals or something. Jalen wasn’t sure how the human army did things or what the bigwigs at the top of the food chain were called, but those were the people occupying the space.
Willard was working on a ladder a couple yards away. He was an older paranormal and had at least twenty years on Jalen. It barely showed on his body, though. The construction job kept him in good shape, although his shifter genes probably had something to do with it as well.
“Hey, Willard. When’s the new guy showing up?” Jalen didn’t stop the back and forth motion of sandpaper on wood as he spoke.
“Don’t know anything about a new guy. Best ask the boss.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll finish this section then go ask.” It should only take him another minute or two.
Willard hammered a nail in place and then climbed down from the ladder. “John wants to know if you’d build him shelves.”
“Sure.” Jalen knew he was blushing but couldn’t help it.
“Don’t agree right away. He can be picky. It’s why I’m not doing it. He wants, and I quote, That hot new guy on your crew to do it. He’s precise.”
Jalen chuckled. “Where did he hear that?”
“From me. I was braggin’ on you the other day.”
It was one thing to be told he was doing well from the boss. The boss had to tell him he was doing a good job from time to time. Or maybe Fred didn’t have to, but he did all the time. While it was nice to hear, it meant a bit more coming from his co-workers, who didn’t have to say a word. “Thanks, Willard.”
“You do understand that John will likely be spying on you the entire time you’re making the shelves just to get a good look at your body. I would too, but I get to do it all day long at work. Figured I’d give him a chance.”
Jalen blushed. “Dirty old men.”
Willard snorted out a laugh.
“I can come by and talk to him tomorrow.”
“That works. Thanks.”
“It’s my pleasure.” That felt like reward number three. It boosted his spirits a bit after the conversation with Markie had gone so far south.
He was just about to say something else when he heard chains clinking together and feet shuffling on the pavement. Usually, the sound came from far off, and he barely paid attention to it. It had been background noise, just part of the army base, like the buildings and the training fields. When the chains sounded as if they were only a few feet away, he looked up, confused by their closeness.
Seeing men in jumpsuits all chained up but still walking by as if out for a summer stroll sent him shuffling on his feet. His stomach flipped, and he held his breath as he watched them walk by. For a man who had to fend off criminal and perverts, he shouldn’t be reacting so strongly to them. He knew how to handle criminals better than anyone on the construction site, as he was the only one raised as a single.
Five prisoners made up the small row, and two guards stood on either side of them with guns held loosely in their hands.
Jalen met the gaze of one of the guards, who looked at him with contempt.
Jalen’s eyebrows drew together. Why would the guard care enough to look at him that way? He was a nobody construction worker from the island.
He looked over at Willard, who also watched them. Willard’s whole body tensed. “Something’s going on.”
“Definitely not a normal day.” Whatever compelled Jalen to put his sandpaper down and walk through the skeletal building they were erecting, he couldn’t say. Some force drove him forward until he stood just on the edge of the pavement.
He looked at each prisoner as they passed. The second he saw the demon, he knew the guy had a hold on his mind. His dark hair and black eyes were the only reason Jalen could identify him as a demon.
The demon sniffed the air as he passed and suddenly his mind was set free. “Tell the alpha the humans aren’t honorable. Then get the hell out of here.”
The guard behind the man raised his gun, pointing it first at the prisoner and then at Jalen. “No talking.”
Jalen raised his hands. “Sorry, sir.” He looked at the demon, whose eyes had gone human again. The demon nodded his head. Why the demon had chosen Jalen to possess, he didn’t know. Maybe it was possible he knew Virion and smelled his scent on him. Jalen had to smell like the people he lived with to some degree. He was around Team Five all the time. They had been too far away before, but even the couple yards that had separated them would allow a demon to smell his connection to Team Five.
Jalen walked up to Willard. “I’m gonna talk to Fred about that new guy now.” Hopefully, the new guy would get there soon and tell him what to do. The guy obviously worked undercover for the alpha, so he’d know what steps to take next.
Jalen waited until the guards and prisoners moved far enough away before jogging to Fred’s office. He knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for his boss to answer before going in. His boss looked up from the papers on his desk.
“I need to use your phone.”
Fred just nodded and went back to what he was doing. He was a man of few words, and Jalen didn’t always know what he was thinking, because his expression was always the same, like a statue. One thing Jalen appreciated about his boss was the respect and trust he gave all his employees. No one had to earn it, just lose it if they screwed up.
Jalen’s hands shook as he picked up the receiver. He dialed the number for home. He knew Virion probably wasn’t home, but maybe Uri or Casey was there. He didn’t have the number for the Rogue Army alpha, but the cabin was close enough to the alpha building maybe one of his brothers could run over and let them know the problem. Either that, or one of them could go get Virion from the training field.
It was Uri who answered the phone.
“Go get one of the Alphas.”
“Hello to you too.”
“Just go, Uri. It’s an emergency.”
“Are you okay?”
Jalen ran a hand through his hair. “I’m fine. For now. There’s a problem on this base.”
“What kind of problem?”
“They’re holding two paranormals prisoner.”
Fred looked up at him then and put his pen down. He stood and left the building.
Jalen heard Uri call to Casey, telling him to go get Virion or an alpha, “Someone’s coming. Just hold on.”
He could hear Uri breathing, and then the line went dead. His stomach dropped, the butterflies going wild for a second before freezing in fear.
He practically dropped the phone as he made his way over to the door. His hand was on the knob, and he was about to turn it when something in the back of his mind told him to wait. He clicked the lock instead and went over to one of the windows, moving two of the plastic blinds aside just enough for him to see through.
Fred wasn’t even three feet away from the building when a guard grabbed him. Fred fought the guard, demanding to know why he was being detained.
Detained?
Jalen swallowed the lump in his throat and looked beyond the struggling Fred. Military soldiers led every member of the crew away, pointing guns at them
. They all had their hands clasped together behind the back of their heads as they walked. It wasn’t just the paranormal workers that were getting carted off like prisoners, but the human ones too.
Shit. What the fuck was he supposed to do?
He saw movement just at the edge of a far-off building. He thought he saw the brown leather of a tool belt and the flash of the sun as it reflected off something shiny, like the small tab end of a tape measure. The image was gone so quickly he didn’t know if what he saw was even real, or just his mind playing tricks on him, wanting the undercover guy to be real.
Jalen moved his finger away from the blinds and turned, sitting on the floor of the office trailer. He closed his eyes, leaning his head against the wall at his back, and trying to think past the pounding of his own heart. The sound of it filled his ears. His breathing was labored as if he ran a marathon.
He realized all at once he was having a panic attack but didn’t know how to stop it. He just kept thinking about not getting back to Uri and Casey. He might die in that trailer. It would become his coffin.
He banged the back of his head against the wall and immediately regretted it because of the noise it made. Did they even know he was in the office? God, he hoped not. If they completely overlooked him, then he had a chance of getting back home sooner rather than later.
The Rogue Army wouldn’t just leave them there to rot. The phone call would clue them in, and maybe he really had seen the undercover new guy.
What if the human soldiers decided to kill the crew or the paranormal prisoners? The soldiers had let them all do their jobs until just a few minutes before. Everything had been as normal on the human army base as it had on Roguefalls Island.
Why didn’t they take them sooner?
Jalen didn’t know. He couldn’t think about it anyway. He had to find a way to hide.
Jalen ran a hand down his face and opened his eyes. He took a deep breath.
Okay, think, Jalen.
He stood up and turned back to the window. His heart lodged in his throat, and he held his breath as he put a shaky finger between the blinds. He had a mental image in his mind of seeing a face on the other side of the window when he looked out. His hands shook when he lifted one of the plastic slats again. All he saw was an empty construction site and guards with guns patrolling around the buildings.
Why they didn’t think to check the office trailer was anyone’s guess and his fortune.
He couldn’t stay there forever, though. He had to try and get to the others.
He moved away from the window, shutting the light off as he looked around the space. He ran his hand over the wall as he moved to the desk. On top were financial papers, a can full of pens, and a tape measure.
He sat down in his boss’ chair and pulled open the long drawer in the center. Jalen sighed when he discovered it empty. His boss was a minimalist, apparently.
One of the side drawers had keys in it. He recognized them as being his boss’ car keys. The key fob gave that fact away. Jalen put them in the pocket of his tool belt and pulled open another drawer. A stack of files lay inside.
He’d wait until darkness before moving out, although he had no idea how to get out. He couldn’t very well go through the front door. Every military building lay out in front of the office trailer like big barbarians waiting to club him in the head. At the back of the building was an open field most of the soldiers used for training. It wouldn’t be occupied at night, though.
He walked over to the edge of the room. Thankfully, his boss didn’t have a lot of shit he had to attempt to quietly move out of his way.
He took his hammer off his tool belt and began lifting the flooring as quietly as he could.
Chapter Four
Lights on the base buildings filtered in through the blinds, but it wasn’t enough to light up the hole Jalen had made in the floor of the trailer. It had grown dark outside.
With the boards he’d pulled off the floor, he made a hatch of sorts. He couldn’t hammer in nails very well because that particular sound traveled well, so it had taken longer than he would have liked.
He took the small flashlight off his tool belt, shining it through the hole he’d made in the floor. He looked around for any creepy crawlies he might need to move out of the way. He saw a spider crawling on a web a few feet away but nothing else.
Jalen put the flashlight in his mouth, holding it between his teeth before jumping in the hole. The floor of the trailer only came up to mid-thigh. When he’d tested the hatch, it had fit perfectly back into the floor, so he knew his whereabouts wouldn’t be obvious.
The door handle jiggled just as he had the hatch in place.
Shit.
He crouched down on his knees. Taking the flashlight in hand, he clicked it off.
He held his breath and waited.
All was quiet, and then he heard footsteps on the floor. They walked around slowly and stopped at the desk.
Something crackled and then beeped. “No one’s here. The one who made the phone call must be with the others. Tell the general we got them all. Over.” The crackling and beeping came again.
Jalen sucked in a breath. That explained why they had taken them prisoner when they did. They were listening to the conversation.
The door opened and closed again. Nothing moved overhead.
Flimsy aluminum panels covered the bottom of the trailer. Normal wear and tear had bent one corner of a panel at a weird angle and Jalen could see a few lights illuminating an open field.
He stuck his face closer to the opening, wanting the fresh air. Anything to replace the dust and mildew filling his lungs.
He thought he was going to pass out when he heard the door open and click shut again. It didn’t bang against the trailer’s thin walls, which was what he expected.
“Come on, Mate. Show yourself. I can smell you in here.” The voice was muffled by the floorboards, but he could still hear it just fine. Weirdly enough, the way the guy spoke it almost sounded like he was a paranormal.
Maybe he was calling him mate on purpose just to clue Jalen in to the fact that a rescue had come or maybe it was a human soldier trying to trick him into giving up his hiding spot
The minutes that ticked by felt like hours, and then feet stepped on the board over his head. The board squeaked and dipped down slightly. Jalen scrambled onto his stomach, no longer caring about the noise he might make as his lungs seized up.
He wiggled his way through the opening, making it bigger. The metal popped and scraped when he did. He slid his body out and ran for his boss’ truck, which sat on the army base road all lonely and abandoned. His tool belt jiggled around his hips as he ran, making noises. He put his hands over the pocket on his belt, trying to quiet the keys inside, as that was the main source of the sound.
He was almost to the door when someone tackled him from behind. All the air in his lungs left once again when his body hit the pavement. His mind froze, and he couldn’t think. Arms wrapped around him so tightly they were almost painful. They were halfway under the big truck before their bodies stopped.
About the time he was able to pull air in was about when his mind caught up and he finally thought to fight the man holding him down.
With the guy’s weight on him, he could barely move. Jalen wasn’t a small person. He was over six feet tall. Well, maybe by an inch, but still on the taller side of normal height. He might be lean, but he kept in shape.
The guy on top of him was much larger and, if the feel of him was any indication, he had muscles on top of his muscles.
Shit. Jalen was going to die with one twist of his neck.
He must have made some sort of sound, because the guy’s massive hand covered Jalen’s mouth. “Quiet, mate.”
A long, tattooed arm came into his peripheral vision, and a finger pointed at something up ahead. Guards patrolled around the field in front of them.
Jalen nodded and relaxed his body. The hand l
eft his mouth.
“Are you hurt?”
“No.” Beyond a few scrapes, Jalen was fine.
“Do you know your way around this base?”
Jalen shook his head. “I’m part of the construction crew. I’m not a soldier.”
“I know that, baby. If you were a soldier, you would have waited longer and wouldn’t have headed for this truck.”
Jalen would take offense to that statement later—after he let the guy rescue him. “I’m Jalen Etters. Virion Cataldi is my brother’s mate. I live on the island, not on this base.”
“Do you know where they took your crew?”
“Behind us. But there’s paranormal prisoners as well. We need to get them out.” Before Jalen knew what was happening, an arm snaked around his waist, and he was hauled up like a sack of potatoes.
His rescuer pulled him backward. From the foliage around them and the familiar scenery, he could tell the rescuer was leading him back to the office, although his back was turned to it.
He saw a guard come around the building then, and he sucked in a breath. The guy’s hand came around his mouth. Jalen pressed himself into the hard body behind him.
With wide eyes, he watched the guard walk right past them to the edge of the field and over to a building off in the distance. “So much for patrol. Humans suck at that.”
The hand left his mouth again. “I’m human.” Not that he took offense, he just thought he should point that out just in case the guy got even more judgmental.
The hand around his waist moved over his abdomen, and then the guy actually kissed him on his temple, as if they knew each other. “I know. Get back under the trailer and wait for me.”
“Fuck that. You’re not leaving me here.”
“I need to set the others free.”
“Let’s go, then.” No fucking way was he getting left behind.
