“A cleanup crew,” Sakura supplied. “I can’t believe he had the presence of mind to do all of that after finding Mom.” Her voice held pride and pain.
Deveron looked at her in disgust. “You admire him?”
“Your people killed my mother. I don’t care if we slaughtered every one of you. It doesn’t equal her life.”
Deveron flattened his hands on the desktop and rose in degrees. Adam repositioned himself in front of Sakura. She stood and moved to his side, no doubt refusing to be cowed by the likes of the older fox shifter.
“Another car pulled up to the motel, and a woman got out. She spoke with your father a few minutes and then went inside the room. He left in another vehicle, along with his men. I was in no condition to attack the woman, not knowing her skill or that of the guards she had with her. Then she called in help, still another vehicle, this time a van. She didn’t wait for them or speak to them at all. She left, and the men from the van took my friend away. We followed. They dumped him in a place he would never be found by any human, but we were there. He was almost dead. Five shots to the chest, a slice across his eye.”
Sakura dropped to the chair she had vacated. Adam grasped her hand in his. “Savino. That’s who you’re talking about, isn’t it? That big dude who works for you, obedient like a servant?”
Deveron continued speaking as if she hadn’t said anything. “I knew the kind of man your father is, and I knew the truth. We withdrew from Miami. In fact, we completely left America. We traveled back to Italy, Savino’s homeland, and stayed there for four years. When he was strong enough and agreed, we returned.”
“With another plan,” Adam said. “To take down her dad.”
Deveron shook his head. “I don’t have to.”
Sakura surged to her feet. “Who gives a crap about your plan? I want one thing only. I want you to bring that no good son of a bitch Savino out here so I can kill him.”
“He’s suffered enough!”
“Not yet, he hasn’t.” She pulled her knife from its holder. “I’m going to carve out his other eye before I kill him.”
Adam spoke up. “Why did it take him so long to heal? I thought all shifters have a natural accelerated ability to recover.”
Deveron shrugged. “Savino has a lot more than you know to deal with, but his inner demons are his own. Either way, he did not kill your mother.”
“Deveron,” Sakura said, a warning in her tone, and Adam doubted she would hold it together much longer. He laid a hand on her shoulder and felt her pull against it with a strength that far exceeded what she’d had as a human. Still, he hardly flexed a muscle to keep her in place. He had another question, since it was obvious Sakura was too worked up to put together the clues Deveron presented them with.
“Deveron,” he said over his mate, “what was the woman’s name who arrived at Kasen, Sr.’s calling?”
“I didn’t know then, but I learned much later. It’s Gladys, your dad’s lover and former best friend to your mother.”
That’s when Sakura figured it out. The same woman who dumped Savino in a place where no human would find him had hired men to kill her and Adam. The coincidence was too great otherwise. The next question was, did Kasen, Sr. order her to do so?
Chapter Thirteen
“Why did she hire lowlifes to take care of the body? Why not leave it to the cleanup crew?” Sakura speculated. “After all, they had other dead shifters. Deveron said so. If he can be believed, that is.”
Adam tossed his suitcase on the bed. They had determined it was ridiculous to occupy two different rooms at two different hotels. Besides, when they’d gone back to his, Laila had been there, sexy and kittenish—so unlike her alter ego—waiting naked in his bed. Adam had scarcely been able to control his hellcat at that point. He almost missed what Sakura said, now remembering her leap through the air and the shockingly fast way she’d pulled out her knife and nicked Laila’s face with it. On instinct, Laila had hurled Sakura across the room with a strength no normal woman should have. The situation really got out of hand when instinct also kicked in for him—and he had ruined another set of clothes.
Him in bear form woke Sakura out of attack mode, and eventually the women came to an unhappy truce. Laila would back off and return to Texas, and Sakura wouldn’t hunt her down like the beast she was. He still marveled that his mate didn’t think of herself as a shifter. Laila had left him with the warning that if he didn’t control his emotions, he would end up revealing their existence, and that couldn’t happen.
“You don’t have to defend her at every turn,” Laila said in parting, jealousy clear in her eyes. “This ain’t her first rodeo. She’s strong enough to take care of herself.”
“I know, I know. Hard habit to break. I’m Sakura’s protector. Even if she didn’t need me as much then and maybe less now, the emotions are a hundred times stronger. I’ve got her back, and I won’t allow anyone to hurt her—even you, Laila.”
Laila had threatened something about coming back to warm his bed when he was ready, and he waved her off onto a shuttle to the airport. Then he had spent the rest of the night demonstrating to Sakura no woman could please him like she could.
“Adam Michael Martinez, are you even listening to me?”
He dropped on the bed and lay back, pulling her with him. “Every word, mami.”
She swatted at him and rolled away to start unpacking his bag.
“I can do that.”
“You never unpack. I’ll do it. Anyway, I was saying I’m calling my dad and asking him about Gladys. I’m just trying to figure out how to go about it so he doesn’t clam up like usual.”
“Just come out with it and don’t take no for an answer.”
“Have you met my father? He can be stubborn.”
“Once or twice.” He grinned and then sobered. “You think Deveron was lying about Savino?”
She frowned. “I don’t know. I kind of think he doesn’t believe Savino did it, but that proves nothing. He said himself, back then Savino was more a friend than a servant. Deveron was prepared to kill my dad, so it stands to reason Savino would have no qualms about attacking my mother. I mean, she didn’t go out on assignments a lot, but she was still a trained hunter.”
“True. So?”
“So I want to know why Gladys didn’t follow protocol, and then I’m going to learn who Deveron is protecting. If it’s not Savino, then I’ll find out who it is, and that person is going to die.”
He shrugged. “Okay, let’s do it.”
A knock sounded at the door, and they both said, “Roger!” at the same time.
Sakura started to answer, but he barreled past her and wrenched the door open to jerk the man into the room. Roger’s feet dangled in the air, and he offered an ingratiating smile that did nothing to lessen Adam’s dislike of the man.
“Why are you here, Roger?” he demanded. “If you still think you have a chance with Sakura—”
“No way, man. I know she’s your mate. I’m strictly hands off.” He strained to see Sakura around Adam. “Tell him, Sakura.”
She studied her nails. “Why should I? You could have been the one to turn me. I might have been a bear like Adam right now.”
Adam’s eyes widened. Did she really mean she would have liked him to have turned her? Thinking that, his hold on Roger’s collar tightened until the man gagged and coughed. Adam eased up. “Again, why are you here?”
“If you let me go, I’ll explain.”
Adam opened his fist, and Roger fell to the floor. He rubbed his neck and shot Adam a look of irritation. When he stood, he faced Sakura. Mentally, Adam dared Roger to take a step toward her. Roger wasn’t such a fool. He remained where he stood.
“Please believe me. I’m not the one that turned you. Deveron’s smarter than that, but I couldn’t stick around for you two to jump to that conclusion and kill me without questions. Anyway, I think you should call your dad.”
“Gee, thanks.” Sarcasm dripped from Sakura’s
words.
“Hear me out. I’ve been on the scene a lot longer than you think. Remember I told you I travel a lot? Well, I spent a lot of that time in Italy, working for Deveron. That fact wasn’t common knowledge when your dad hired me.”
“Obviously.”
“Deveron tried the physical thing and almost got killed for it, so he decided to use his brain.”
“We pretty much got that from him,” Adam spat.
Roger folded his arms over his chest. “Did you also know I had contact with Shiya long before she went to Juneau?”
Adam stared. Sakura shouldered by him and grabbed Roger’s shirtfront. “You better explain real quick.”
“Happy to. I gave Shiya all the information she needed to figure out that Birk was a shifter. I pretty much sent her to Juneau.”
Adam ground his teeth. “You’re bragging about risking her sister’s life?”
Roger held up his hands. “She was never in danger of being killed. We have all the data figured out, and we monitored everything she shared with Birk.”
“You pervert!” Sakura drove a fist into his jaw, and Roger hit the floor once more. Adam sighed and reached for his mate.
“Hold on, baby. I think he’s got a lot more to share. You don’t want to punch his face in before he gets to say it.”
“He’s filth! He hacked into Shiya’s computer, and he sent her to Juneau knowing she could have been killed.”
“She wouldn’t have. I know it,” Roger insisted. “By the time she went, Birk was already half in love with her, and from the signs he gave off, Deveron suspected she was his mate. No shifter has ever murdered their mate. It’s not possible. Birk would have died before he let her come to harm. What’s funny, though, is with all Deveron’s scheming, he never thought Kotori would also mate with her.”
“You find my sister’s love life funny?”
Roger scrambled back a few steps once he had regained himself. “All I’m saying is Deveron orchestrated most of what happened. We even had a backup for all the data. It was never gone. I know I told you different, but I wasn’t ready to tell you everything then. We had to make your father desperate.”
“So you could come in all fresh and brilliant to save the day,” Sakura quipped.
He grinned. “Yeah, something like that.”
“Well, it’s water under the bridge. What does it have to do with me calling my father?”
For some reason, Adam tensed. All that Deveron and Roger shared so far blew his mind, but he had a feeling truths a lot more unsettling were about to come out, and he would have to do whatever it took to ensure Sakura came out on the other side unscathed, or nearly so.
“Do you ever have to return to a city or country, Sakura,” Roger asked, “after your assignment is over?”
She rolled her eyes. “More times than I care to admit. Often, we get new information about a shifter who moves into an area we just left. Or more often, another seems to spring up in the same family. That’s why my father and brother started talking about killing all the members of a family if even one shifter were born among them, even if they are human.”
Adam clenched his hands into fists. He had heard of Kasen, Sr.’s and Jr.’s plan and despised it even before he became a shifter. The Keiths had made it a point to protect humans at all costs, but recently because the shifter population refused to be denied, the heads of the family had decided to abandon their principles from generations past. From the first he had heard of it, he had determined to stand in Sakura’s way should she dare go that route. So far, she had ignored the order.
“Have you ever had a mission or heard of one of your sisters having a mission in Miami?” Roger asked. “I mean other than five years ago?”
She gaped at him. “No, I haven’t.”
“And you wouldn’t have—ever. As I said, I monitored all of your communications. I even sent a few tips your way to direct you. Every single reference to Miami was wiped from your database the moment it appeared. All tips were ignored and evidence of them destroyed.”
She paled. “W-why?”
“Ask your dad.”
“You’re not going to convince me my father was up to something.”
Roger ticked off the points on his fingers. “He lied about the city where your mother was killed. He deleted all references to Miami. You know how you all have kept up with practically everything that goes on in the world. Are you going to tell me he didn’t know Deveron was back in the U.S. and living in Miami? The very place one would think he’d monitor because experience dictated more shifters arise in places where they thrived previously.”
Sakura sank down on the side of the bed and put her hands over her face. “You’re right. I know he was grief-stricken to lose my mother, but this isn’t grief. This is suspicious.”
“Good. My work here is done,” Roger announced. With a cheerful wish that they have a good day, he turned and left. Adam sank beside Sakura and drew her into his arms. She moaned and clutched him tight, but no tears wet her face. He waited in silence, stroking her back until she was ready, and then she picked up her cell phone to dial her dad.
* * * *
Adam leaned against a wall outside of the room where Sakura met with her dad. Kasen, Sr. rented the mansion and then insisted they meet there. Adam had slipped away while Sakura slept to give the place a once over and to determine that her dad hadn’t set a trap. Avoiding the guards since he had no idea whether Kasen, Sr. had given the order to have him killed, he had cased the house and found Gladys, but he hadn’t approached her yet. Adam watched the woman with Kasen, Sr. through a window. He heard her words with ease as she comforted him in his agitation about being back in the “hated city.”
“Don’t worry, honey bunny,” she purred to Kasen, Sr., “this nightmare will be behind us soon, and you can have Sakura back home again.”
Adam gagged at the endearment and missed Kasen, Sr.’s response. He considered it enough to know the woman who wanted them both dead was in town. They could deal with her later.
Coming back to the present, he listened to Sakura speaking in the other room, her tone deceitfully calm, but he didn’t sense her about to fly off the handle. “Dad, I wanted you to come down here because I want you to tell me to my face what happened to my mother. I know she died in Miami and not in Las Vegas, so don’t start feeding me a bunch of bullshit.”
“Young lady, you will not talk to me that way,” was the heated response.
“We’re not going riding a merry-go-round, Daddy Dear!”
“Sakura, this is my final warning.”
Her caustic laughter filled the air. “Okay, I see I’m going to have to be first in laying my cards on the table.”
Adam shook his head. He knew what was coming. Sakura intended to reveal the thing Kasen, Sr. feared the most—that he would lose his last daughter to the shifters. Knowing what was coming, Adam turned away and walked down the hall, pulling his cell phone from his pocket as he went. He found a room no human guards occupied, or were close enough to overhear, and dialed the number he had programmed into his phone.
A deep voice sounded across the line on the second ring. “Adam, how’s it going outside?”
For a moment, Birk’s choice of words threw Adam off, but then he recalled a fact he had learned not long ago about Alaskans. Any other place outside their state was termed “outside.”
He shook his head. “Everything is…I guess you can say up in the air at the moment. What I do know is Sakura needs her sister. She needs her family, so I’m calling to invite you to bring Shiya to Miami. It’s not any kind of trap. You have my word.”
“I’m not worried about that,” Birk assured him, sounding amused. “I talked to Laila.”
Adam winced.
“She says you’re one of us now. I’m glad. What about Sakura? She accept you?”
“Uh…well…we’re mated, anyway.”
“What aren’t you telling me, buddy?”
Adam ran fingers through his ha
ir and paced the room. “She’s a shifter.”
“That’s fantastic!”
“She’s not a bear.”
The line went silent.
“Birk, are you there?”
“Just what kind of animal is she?”
Adam felt his cheeks warm, and he cursed under his breath. “She’s a fox. There’s a…clan, group, den? Whatever you call them, down here.”
Birk whistled. “Didn’t see that coming. Blows my mind.”
“Who are you telling?” Adam complained. “So will you come? It’s more than just about Sakura’s change. She’s confronting her father right now about their mother’s death. She needs Shiya, and I think Shiya would want to be told everything in person.”
“Miami? Kotori and I don’t really do warm weather.”
“I’ll fill the tub with ice for you.”
“Haha, funny. Okay, I think you’re right. Shiya will want to be there. She misses her sisters, especially now.”
“Now?”
“Never mind. We’ll come. Give me the address and the name of a good hotel.”
Adam studied the room where he stood, one of many lavishly appointed rooms in the villa on Collins Avenue in South Beach. The price had been steep, he knew, at over five thousand dollars a night, but it would house the family.
“We can accommodate you here,” he said. “Just come.” After he had shared the address with Birk and confirmed Birk would send him a text with their flight information, he hung up and paused. He didn’t have a contact number for Shae.
Determining to rejoin Sakura, he left the room and stepped into the hall. At the opposite end, he spotted a familiar face and frowned. He followed the man to a door, which he discovered to lead to an office. He stepped in and shut the door.
“What are you doing here, Roger?” he demanded.
Roger swung around as if surprised, but he knew it was an act. “Me? Don’t you know? I’m everywhere.”
“If you’re plotting for Deveron—”
Miami Heat Page 12
