Dani said, "It's not what you think. Nobody lives through it, but sometimes they keep them alive for a while, I think – "
Holden interrupted. "Your father, if he's involved, he's got to be doing something more than snatch and kill, why would they even bother to take shifters if they're just killing them? Snipers could pick off anyone who's out of the closet shifter, easier, and if these people don't care what happens to them because it's a cause –"
She had just enough time to say, "It's not a cause, it's hate, and money – "
She was going to finish, Dressed up as a cause.
But the doors burst open and they came for them then.
In the instant before armed men burst into the room, she looked again at Holden. Something flickered in the pit of her stomach that made no sense, based on a crush and maybe 30 minutes of conversation.
Her thoughts as the men leveled another dart at Holden and started screaming at her were, Idiot! Why didn't you run?
Why didn't you run? And take me with you?
* * *
Chapter Five
They were coming. For him and the girl.
In the moment before the armed men hit the doors, Holden got ready.
The light coming through the window set high in the concrete wall had broken with the shadows of legs. Only for a second.
Dani hadn't noticed it.
Holden had. All the shifters he knew were hyperaware. No one knew if it was the effect of the animal spirit inside, healthy paranoia or just part and parcel of being different in today's world.
He knew they were coming and even as she started to answer his questions about what happened to disappeared shifters, Holden pushed himself.
He shifted, just so far. Enough to heighten senses again. Enough to hear them on the stairs outside the doors. To sense how close they were. To judge by the way they moved and the thread of their voices, that they were armed.
He guessed they'd come with tranqs. Nothing else made sense. Taking the time and putting themselves at risk just to get Holden into a cage and kill him here, trapped in a cage, made no sense.
It wasn't even likely as setting an example, first because no one ever saw the results of such a thing or they'd all know what happened to taken shifters. And second because there was no point setting an example.
Shifters were shifters. Nothing they could do about it.
Even if they wanted to.
It would be stupid for the men who grabbed him to risk themselves moving him to begin with. He'd been out. He'd been vulnerable.
And killing him didn't produce return on investment. Seemed like there was more than hate going on. Hate would have him dead now.
Money explained finding himself in a cage.
Just before the men outside reached the doors that thought had left a bad taste in his mouth.
They could shoot a tranq into any part of his body. There was nothing in the cell to cover his body with anyway. Hay, maybe, tucked under his clothes, if he had time. If he'd thought of it before they were on their way into the prison where he was trapped.
If he wouldn't have to be bulky as the Scarecrow from Oz in order for it to block the damn needle from sinking through into his flesh. Anyone would be able to see that and make the decision what to do with him.
Aim for uncovered skin.
Or just shoot to kill.
The only other thing he could think of doing to stop the drugs was the rage. Hormones freely coursing through his system triggered shifts when he raged. Not the only time. He could shift at other times. But the only time a shift might happen whether he wanted it to or not.
If he did that, and they didn't come, he'd be a live, furious, hideously strong bear in a cage with a breakable girl he liked.
If they came too late, he'd be a grizzly with little control. They'd tranquilize him and by the time he woke up – if he woke up –
--and meanwhile they'd do what to the girl?
And all the while he felt the heat rise, the hackles along his back rise, fur along his spine, his face still felt human, his jaw human, his teeth not fangs, his hands, held flexed wide open, were hands.
He was bigger. Stronger. His heart pounded hard and fast.
The rage filled him.
The doors burst open.
There were four of them. Four huge thugs, the same men he'd seen before, the ones he'd found interchangeable and he'd watched them but not close enough.
Somehow he hadn't expected quite so many musclebound types to be on the captures. He'd expected guns. Maybe more of the type of man who stepped out from behind the hired muscle, his face schooled to boredom but Holden saw the light of sadistic glee in his eyes. The man Holden was looking at got off on causing pain. He'd do what he was doing even if there was no personal gain involved.
"Daddy!" Dani's voice echoed in the room. She sounded terrified and furious.
He hoped the fury would carry her through. He wouldn't have told her what he planned even if there was time. It needed to look like she really thought he was out, and she hadn't seen the changes in his body, distracted by the sounds of the men coming down outside metal stairs.
Holden held onto human by a thread.
They carried a variety of weapons. Dave and Jeff carried tranquilizer guns like zoo officials would.
Stuart and Sam carried riot guns.
Walter Sjoberg carried a Dirty Harry gun that looked heavy enough to throw the tall, thin man off balance. Now he looked at Dani and grinned, his eyes flinty cold, the smile malicious.
"You did a good job with this one, baby. He's one of the Tyrells." The fake smile vanished and he turned his attention on Holden, his lip curling. "Fucking freak." He nodded, and the goons with the tranquilizer guns raised them.
Dani stepped in front of Holden, her arms out, as if she could block everything. All they had to do was circle the cage and they'd be behind Holden.
He didn't think it mattered. They'd probably shoot her if they had to. Even if they just used the tranquilizers on her, she might be hurt – Holden was considerably bigger than she was and had a totally different constitution. A dose of drugs meant for him and given to her might be deadly.
He moved her easily, shoving her out of the way. To keep her safe. And because with her right next to him, his new size had to show.
She bounced back to him like a boomerang. This time clinging. "Daddy, don't! Don't do this! Please, what if I – "
Sjoberg didn't even bother looking at her. Just snarled, "Take him down."
Holden sensed the man behind him, focusing through the bars of the cage. He let his frustration with Dani crescendo into rage and shoved her hard away from him this time.
Her eyes were on his when she fell. Holden let no emotion show. Later, if there was a later, she'd understand.
In that second, he saw fury and concern and something that confused him: hope.
Then he'd looked away and whirled on the man behind him. Too late. The gun barked with a hiss of compressed air and the dart sank into his thigh.
Holden squeezed his eyes shut, called up all his attention and felt the drug sliding through him. Some of it.
Not enough. The rage was beating it back. Like adrenaline overcoming a nighttime sleep aid when an emergency happens.
He sank to one knee. He roared.
Outside the cage, three of the goons looked uncomfortable. The fourth, Dave, leered at Dani.
You'll be first, Holden thought. Then he locked bear eyes on Walter Sjoberg and sank down into exaggerated stillness.
The last of the shift rippled through him. He was grizzly, lying still on the bars on the bottom of the cage.
Waiting to see what would happen.
* * *
Chapter Six
They shot him!
But the horror was tempered. She'd seen something in Holden's face right before he fell. About the time the harmless crush started – about the time she'd never have been able to talk to him if she met him because she wanted to too
much – Dani had started riding seriously, wanting to compete. She'd spent her time watching all her heroes – live, on television, in videos. She watched Brianna Jackson, who'd roomed with Eddie Tyrell's girlfriend Dakota, and she watched each and every Tyrell, the way they competed, the way they trained.
She knew that, for Holden Tyrell, right before he went into any physical challenge, his eyes closed, just for a second, like he was running internal systems checks, making certain everything was good to go.
He'd just done that.
He's not out.
If her father and the others knew – no, just her father, the others wouldn't understand the subtlety – looked at Holden, he'd probably figure out the bear was faking it.
Once again, her father's outrageous arrogance played in her favor. Now all she had to do was pretend she didn't know and that she was afraid when they came into the cage after her.
… actually, that part wasn't that hard.
"What are you going to do?"
Her voice was shrill. Her hands shook as she spread her arms in front of Holden, as if she stood a chance of keeping the four men off of him.
Dave picked her up easily, pulling her off Holden. His hands brushed her breasts, and her crotch, manhandling her as he yanked her to her feet. He threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, his hands very close to places she didn't want them.
Dani fought against him, screaming for her father. She knew the ultimate destination for the shifters. She didn't know what happened in between and this wasn't how she'd meant to find out.
"Daddy! Daddy, stop them! Please, help me, Da – "
Her voice broke off with a pained squeak. Someone had grabbed a mass of her hair and yanked her head up. Dani sucked in a breath.
And let it out again.
Her father stood right in front of her, one hand up and apparently buried in her hair up to her scalp.
"Shut the fuck up, little girl." His breath was 150 proof. His eyes were rattlesnake cold, and dead. Her father had frightened her before. His rages. The way he treated her mother despite the fact he loved her.
He scared her because she stood no chance of getting Lisa or her mother away from him. It wasn't just money. Walter Sjoberg had the usual hold over his family, the kind of Stockholm Syndrome abused families fell into.
Even now, her fingers curling into claws, wanting to scratch his face and gouge at his eyes, she held back. He still had Lisa. He still had Dani's mom.
He still held all the cards.
The smug, asshole smile on his face said he knew that.
What he didn't know was that Holden wasn't out. The chance she and Holden might have was so slim as to nearly not exist. But an unbound bear who could move against humans who might just relax their guard? Better chance than most of the shifters had.
She went on pleading. Begging. She'd been stupid. She'd reacted stupidly. She'd panicked. She was sorry. Please let her go. Please!
She didn't expect anything in return. Instead, she was just giving him what he expected. It worked. Walter snarled, "Get them in the truck," and dropped her hair at the same time. He wheeled on his heel and stalked away, leaving the others to bring the bear.
And his daughter.
The back of the panel truck was unpadded corrugated steel. Dani scrambled from where she was dropped to cower against the paneled side. Dave grinned at her, a look that left little to her imagination. Sam had come with them. Stu and Jeff were following in another vehicle, she guessed. Didn't matter – they had a tranq gun and a riot gun between them. More than enough, especially with the bear unconscious.
Her father rode in the cab of the truck. That didn't surprise her. He might insist on every luxury possible – if for no other reason than to prove he could afford and deserved such luxuries – but when it came to money, he rode herd on whatever he had to.
Holden had given no sign whatsoever of consciousness. Nothing.
She was starting to worry he really was out.
The sudden sunlight in the back of the truck was blinding. The doors crashed open and there were guns leveled at Dani and the bear. She had to assume the guns were in part for her because she was the only one awake. At least that's what they assumed.
If they were afraid of her, it was because she might make enough noise to be heard. They definitely weren't afraid she'd suddenly become a 1000 pound mass of claws, teeth and death. She was still a tall, thin, helpless woman.
Let them believe it. And let them look away long enough for her to get to the phone in her back pocket. For all Dave's manhandling her and touching her ass, he hadn't felt the phone in her pocket. She could set the recording device.
She'd had it on during the attack in the arena facility, when Holden had come to her rescue. She'd had it on again in the cell in the instant her father's men had burst in. But it had to have timed out by now.
"Come quietly, princess," her father said coldly. He stood at the back of the truck, staring in at her.
She hated it when he called her that.
Dani stood and made her way to the edge of the truck and jumped down before Dave could grab at her. Feet on the asphalt, she stood still, giving no one any reason to touch her.
No one did, but Sam kept the gun leveled on her while Dave and Jeff went into the truck and swore until they forced Holden's body onto a reinforced gurney. Walter grabbed her arm then, his own gun in his right hand, held down along his leg. His left hand curled around her biceps hard enough she could instantly feel her heart beating there.
Dani darted a look around her, blinking. Abandoned desert. This looked like an abandoned military base, maybe something from the 50s. Low concrete buildings that looked like desert outcroppings. She tried and failed to remember if there was anything like this close to town.
Wherever they were, the asphalt was cracked and springing up with sticker-filled green weeds. The buildings were old, cinderblock with the kind of wire-reinforced windows that elementary schools used to have. Chain link fence topped with razor wire surrounded the compound. The gates had already shut.
Walter yanked her by the arm then, and Dani stumbled into step beside him. The men wheeled the bear off in front of them.
From the buildings ahead of them came a rumble of male voices cheering.
Dani began to shake.
* * *
Chapter Seven
Holden hung onto consciousness through rage and burgeoning fear. Even in bear form he knew fear for others and for himself.
The place he was being taken smelled wrong. It smelled of blood and fear and death. There were sounds from the facility he could hear as soon as the panel truck opened. Sounds of animals fighting for their lives.
Sounds of animals being killed.
Straps held him to the gurney but they were just to stop the 1,000 pound bear from tumbling off. Not to hold him on it. No straps could do that.
His head ached, a pounding, rattling ache that he'd experienced in the arena right before Dave appeared, calling him boss and making nice in a slimy, insubstantial way. Probably something Holden had eaten or had to drink before the actual setup with Dani had been drugged. Easier, he supposed, than the risky attack on the girl. Appealing to the chivalrous nature of the shifters to try and rescue an apparent victim was a good ruse. But it depended on no one else being around when it happened. A handful of cowboys, shifters or not, rushing to the rescue would mean the hired muscle went down.
Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2) Page 118
