by A. C. Arthur
“And because they’re the gift that just keeps on fucking giving, let’s not totally count out Darel. He’ll want to finish the setup out here himself now,” X noted.
Rome shook his head. “I doubt that. He’ll want to stay close to his current money flow, that’s why he sent Palermo out here in the first place. What he will do is find someone else to do the job as quickly as possible.”
Nick nodded his agreement. “That’s why we need to nip his ass in the bud too.”
“There are quite a few things that need to be nipped in the bud,” Rome continued. “One in particular that I thought we’d already settled.”
And here it was, Bas thought, the real reason behind the Assembly Leader’s surprise visit to Perryville. Tonight’s activities had happened only about an hour and a half ago, not nearly enough time for Rome and his crew to make the trip all the way from D.C. No, the leader had been called earlier, much earlier and Bas was fuming at the possibility that his second in command had been the one to make that call.
“Is there something you want to tell us, Bas?” the leader asked.
Bas looked to Jacques, who with the slightest motion of his head told him that he hadn’t said a word. Then he looked to Rome. “The reporter from the Post showed up here a week ago. She’s still here now.”
There wasn’t another sound in the room as Rome sat back in his chair.
“You mean she’s still looking for her story? The one where she exposes the Shadow Shifters,” he said slowly, succinctly.
The thought of lying never crossed Bas’s mind. The situation was what it was, Priya had a goal just as all of them did in their own lives. She had a family that she cared about just as much as Rome cared about his mate and the Stateside Shifters. In the most basic of ways, she was no different from them.
“She has a job to do,” Bas replied simply even though he knew this situation was anything but.
“And what happens when she finds out the truth? What happens when the existence of the shadows is revealed to the world? Whose job will it be then to deal with the consequences?” was Rome’s next question.
“How long were we realistically going to stay a secret, Rome?” was Bas’s quick comeback.
He hadn’t even known he’d planned to say it until the words tumbled free. The already chilly aura surrounding them grew downright frigid as angry eyes bore down on Bas while he spoke.
“Our law states…” Rome began.
“Fuck that law!” was Bas’s immediate outburst. Rarely, just about never, had any of the shifters in this room heard Bas take this tone, a fact evidenced by the stunned looks around the room. On the table in front of him, his hands remained quiet, the rest of his body giving away none of the fury roiling through him at this very moment. Only his tone and his words had exposed him.
While Rome still sat quietly, his demeanor never wavering—most likely because Kalina had reached out a hand to touch his arm immediately following the outburst—Bas spoke again, with only a slightly less agitated tone.
“I know that we’re not supposed to purposely expose ourselves to the humans nor are we supposed to pull one up off the streets and tell them about our tribe. I’ve lived according to those laws all my life, sacrificing my own needs and desires to keep that exposure from happening. Hell, my teams are trained explicitly in taking down the enemy without shifting, period. So I don’t need you to fly all the way out here to tell me what the goddamned laws are.”
This was where friendship came into play, because from the standpoint of the leadership hierarchy, Rome could have stripped Bas of all his duties and inflicted whatever other type of punishment he could think of on him and he would have been well within his authority to do so. And everyone in that room knew this and they all remained silent to see if that would be the next event on their impromptu agenda.
Instead of adding to the drama, Rome simply sat there, staring at Bas, not actually in surprise, but with another look that had Bas’s temples throbbing even more incessantly.
Then a softer voice spoke, a spirit almost as composed as her companheiro’s. “What happened to change your mind about the laws, Bas?” Kalina asked.
Bas took a breath as he looked at the First Lady. “Nothing happened,” he told her. “I’m just saying that the laws were created in a different time, a different place. It was a lot easier to keep us a secret when we only populated the rainforest. We could hide within the trees and for the most part never be discovered by humans. But even then the shamans knew and they talked. And anyone superstitious enough to believe them knew about us. Don’t you see, it’s never really been a well-kept secret? There are some out there who knew and have known for centuries.”
Even though this was the first time Bas had spoken the words, he knew firsthand how true they were. It was after he’d buried Mariah in the forest all those years ago, when he’d stood in the rain, his body numb to its moistness, his mind in a frenzy over what had just happened, that he’d felt the presence. Standing at the base of a tree, buttress root snaking along the ground so that it looked as if it held him captive, was Yuri, the old shaman who lived just outside the forest. The tall, wiry man had looked on with weary but knowing eyes and had never said a word. Not even when Bas had turned and walked away from the site. Throughout the years, Yuri continued to keep the secret, even when he came to the States and had tormented Nick’s mate. But he knew just the same.
“You’re right,” Kalina said quietly. “There are some who are bound to know and there are more who suspect.”
Once that was said, Kalina looked to Rome who caught his companheiro’s glance and apparently her meaning as he began to shake his head.
“Thinking you know something, thinking that you’ve seen something is entirely different from actually knowing anything,” Rome said vehemently. “Giving this reporter proof is dangerous, Bas. Letting her stay here especially now when all this unsettled business is being taken care of, is a mistake. Not to mention the fact that you kept it a secret. You should have told me immediately!”
It was Bas’s turn to nod. “Because we can keep our secret from an entire world, but I cannot have one to myself.”
“I don’t think that’s what he’s trying to say, Bas,” X interjected. “The safety of the entire tribe needs to be considered.”
Bas looked over Rome’s shoulder to the Assembly Leader’s Lead Enforcer. The man stood more than six feet tall and was built like a wide receiver, his tattooed arms bared by the short-sleeved shirt he wore.
“I’ve put this tribe and its safety first all my life. Why do you think I put the Mountain Zone’s headquarters all the way out here in the desert? I could have had a penthouse in a thriving city with women falling at my feet, ready to heed my every command,” Bas replied.
“She’s no fool, this reporter,” Nick spoke up. “I figured she wasn’t going to give up. We shouldn’t have underestimated her, we should have taken her sooner.”
“We’re not kidnappers,” Bas objected.
Rome shook his head. “No, we’re not.”
“And we don’t kill humans just for the hell of it, or because they think they know something,” Bas continued, looking directly at Rome. It was imperative to everything that Bas had been taught to believe, to the man that he’d become, that the friend and the leader he followed agreed with him on this point. Bas didn’t even want to consider what he was going to feel compelled to do if Rome said anything to the contrary.
“No,” Rome said, holding Bas’s gaze, “we do not.”
Even though nobody moved or spoke for the next few seconds there seemed to be a collective sigh among them. No doubt this was still a problem, one more to be added to their growing pile.
“So what do we do now?” Jacques prompted, but nobody seemed in a hurry to toss out a solution.
Until she walked in.
Chapter 27
Priya looked taller as she entered the conference room, closing the door quietly behind herself. She’d changed i
nto jeans and a pink T-shirt that displayed the resort’s name and logo in tiny rhinestone letters. Her short hair was damp, curling at the top and slicked down at the sides. She wore no makeup, no jewelry, nothing, as if she’d just slipped on her clothes after showering and left the room.
Bas stood immediately. Nick and X moved in closer to Rome. Ezra and Jacques looked equally stunned and on alert and Jax rushed to stand as Kalina was already up and on her way across the room to stop where Priya now stood.
“Hello,” Kalina said with a warm smile, extending her hand to Priya. “I’m Kalina Reynolds.”
Without hesitation Priya accepted Kalina’s hand, offering a tentative smile of her own. “I’m Priya Drake.”
“Yes,” Kalina replied. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Drake.”
“You can call me Priya.”
With a slight tilt of her head Kalina continued, “And you can call me Kalina.”
“I told you I would be back,” Bas said, coming to stand beside Priya, instinctively touching his hand to her elbow.
“I can help you,” she told him then looked to Kalina and to everyone assembled at the table behind her. “I can help all of you.”
“We can talk about this later,” Bas told her. “You should go back and lie down.”
“No,” she replied adamantly. “I want to tell you how I can help.”
“It’s not necessary,” Bas insisted.
“I want to hear what she has to say,” Rome interrupted.
Bas frowned but knew any further argument was futile. Short of tossing a kicking and screaming Priya over his shoulder to the dismay of his First Lady, he really had no other choice. But he would not leave her side, Bas vowed, and guided her over to where he’d been seated.
As she sat, Bas wavered, for only a second, but he stood completely still, his eyes riveted on the back of Priya’s head. Inside of him there was movement, no, it might be better described as an awakening.
“Are you all right, Bas?” Kalina asked him.
He looked up immediately at the sound of her voice. Clearing his throat and trying like hell to ignore this new feeling, Bas stood up straight. Jacques had vacated the seat right next to Priya, so Bas sat there.
“Fine. Let’s just get this over with,” he replied quickly.
“This is a surprise seeing you again, Ms. Drake,” Rome said to her.
Priya didn’t look at all nervous. In fact, she sat forward in her chair, arms resting on the table. For all intents and purposes she looked as if she were a part of this meeting, as if she actually belonged here.
“What happened tonight is going to be all over the media, if it’s not already,” she began immediately. “I’m sure that growling and roaring could be heard for miles beyond where we were standing. Everything echoes off those mountains. So why not use my connection with the paper to put your own spin on what happened, you know, sort of do some damage control,” she said in what seemed like one complete breath.
Bas sat back in his chair waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop as Priya had basically just informed everyone in this room that not only did she know what they were, but that she was willing to help them hide it. Well, actually, she hadn’t said it in those exact words, but he knew that’s what she meant. He kept his own query of why to himself as he looked around the room to assess everyone else’s reaction.
“You want to distribute a public statement for us?” Rome asked. “What makes you think we need a statement?”
“Nobody wants bad press,” she said. “The resort would definitely lose business. Or worse, you’d have all sorts of crazies booking rooms just to see if they too would hear the weird sounds or get caught up in some type of otherworldly drama. I’m proposing that we get a proactive jump on the media frenzy that is no doubt about to begin on the West Coast, since the East Coast buzz has already made its debut.”
“You’re referring to the rumors of cat people robbing a bank and the supposed sightings of men dressed as cats at the museum,” X stated, it seemed for clarification, but he was looking at Priya strangely.
Bas had to think of something quickly, he had to put a stop to what was going on before it was too late.
“I’ll write a statement and let the resort manager issue it to the press in the morning. The police will leave shortly because they’ll have received all the answers they could get from everyone here. I have an entire marketing team that will no doubt come up with some sort of incentive package that will counter any lost bookings due to this incident. We’ll rise above this and in a few weeks it will be old news,” he said as if it were actually as simple as his spoken words.
He didn’t want Priya involved in this, no more than she already had been. He definitely did not want her and Rome in the same room, not until he had a chance to tell the Assembly Leader that she was off-limits. Things seemed to be continuously spiraling out of control here, in the place that was once his safe haven. Now, it was up to him to stop it.
“I think Priya has a good point,” Kalina began. “She’s a notable reporter, even if so far it’s only been in print. Why not utilize her skills and her very generous offer to our advantage?”
“Because I’m not one hundred percent certain we can trust what she’ll say,” Rome countered. “Not too long ago, she was writing stories in an effort to expose some sort of conspiracy. Now, we find her here, in the midst of more trouble, and I’ve got to wonder if this is not somehow working out the way she planned.”
“That’s out of line,” Bas interrupted. “And it’s not why she’s here.”
Bas would have said more but shaking her head, Priya put a hand up to stop him, then she looked to Rome.
“That’s not how I operate, Mr. Reynolds. I am a reporter and I am committed to bringing accurate and meaningful stories to the American public. I was there tonight so what I report will be more accurate than anything Bas’s manager could possibly come up with.”
“So you plan to tell the American people everything you saw or think you saw tonight?” Jacques asked from his seat down the table.
“I plan to tell the American people that there is no need to fear any malicious beings in this area. Other than the normal murderers that skulk the streets in any other city. This statement is not about exposure, it’s about damage control. You need damage control right now more than you need to be afraid of me revealing any of your secrets. Keeping a good reputation will be helpful if or when there is ever genuine exposure.”
“It makes sense,” X interjected.
Kalina sat back in her chair, smiling at Priya then looking up at Bas to give him the same response. “It makes a lot of sense. And frankly, I don’t see how we can turn down her offer.”
That last sentence was directed to Kalina’s companheiro who had continued to stare at Priya, until her last comment at which time his gaze had gone directly to Bas.
“Get your people to set it up for first thing tomorrow morning. Until then nobody from this room will leave this resort. Is that clear?” Rome stated.
“I will leave after the press release,” Priya announced, somewhat defiantly, before standing to leave.
Bas took a step back and moved with her. “Jacques will handle the specifics and I will make sure Priya is at the designated space in the morning.”
“Bas,” Rome called to him.
He and Priya were almost to the door when Bas stopped and turned to face the Assembly Leader. He knew that Rome wasn’t finished talking to him, knew that the revelation that Priya knew about them wasn’t finished being discussed, but he’d decided it would be finished for tonight. It had to be.
Kalina had stood as well and moved to her mate’s side quickly, putting a hand on his shoulder as she stood on tiptoe to whisper something in his ear.
Rome cleared his throat a couple of seconds later and continued, “We’ll see you at the press release,” he finished with an obvious frown.
Bas nodded his agreement and led Priya out of the conference room and ho
pefully out of the line of fire—or was that the position he was in himself? It didn’t matter. All that mattered for tonight was that Priya was safe. That’s all he was going to allow himself to think about.
* * *
“Does he know?” Rome asked as he took his seat at the head of the table once more, clasping his hands together.
“I’ve come to believe that with some male shifters it isn’t so much knowing as it is accepting,” Kalina told her companheiro as she stood behind him massaging the tenseness from his shoulders.
The others had filed out of the room with their assignments clear. Jacques would first secure rooms for the Leader and his companheiro, then for the visiting guards. Then he would work on the arrangements for the press conference. In the meantime, Nick, X, and Ezra would join Bas’s teams in securing the resort and keeping watch for any new intruders. Jax would remain close to Kalina, most likely standing right outside the door of the conference room. And Kalina would do her best to convince her husband that Priya Drake was now one of them regardless of her human status; it was clear as day the woman was in love with Bas and had offered to help them because of that love.
“She’s a human, Kalina. As long as she knows we exist she has the power to destroy everything we’ve built,” Rome told her.
Kalina sighed. “Or she has the power to take us to that other level you talk about so much. What if she really is our ally, Rome? What if she’s appointed our public relations spokesperson? She could counter all the swirling accusations, and there will be more. You know this as well as I do because the rogues aren’t finished, they’re just getting started.”
He lowered his head then and Kalina knelt down beside him. Running the Stateside Assembly had been a huge undertaking for Rome, a responsibility that everyone assumed he was born to handle. Kalina didn’t for one moment doubt her mate’s ability to lead and she’d vowed, the moment he was elected, that she would do everything in her power to make this job as easy for him as she possibly could. Even if that meant telling him things he didn’t actually want to hear.
