by A. C. Arthur
“There are other curanderos in the tribe. They can take over. If she does not want to help here, maybe she can elsewhere,” Alamar said, turning to Ary. “You are a great talent and will be missed. I understand your desire to go. And even though you will no longer be in the forest, you are still bound by our laws. The laws of the Shadow Shifters.”
Ary nodded. “And I will honor those laws. Except for the one that would hold me here.”
Alamar shook his head. “That rule will be changed. It is not our goal to hold our people captive, but to promote growth and loyalty.”
“I agree,” Rome added. “Loyalty and prosperity need to be the foundation for the Shadow Shifters worldwide. We will all work together to see that our new direction is fully embraced.”
Nick reached for Ary’s hand, but she pulled away.
“I’m returning to the healing center to get my things,” she said softly.
“I’ll help you,” Kalina volunteered.
Nick took a step toward Ary but was held back by X. “Let her go. Kalina will be with her. She’ll be fine. There’s something I need to show you and Rome.”
Squelching his discontent, Nick followed as X and Rome left the santa casa, moving toward the far corner of the amizade. Alamar also followed the threesome.
“Sebastian sent me an email last night,” X said, pulling out his iPhone. “It was long and very informative.”
Rome slipped his hands into his pockets. “What’d he have to say?”
“One of his guards witnessed a boat coming in the night before last. He reported crates with black symbols on the outside being unloaded from the boat and put into two Hummers. They broke off, so the guard could only follow one of the vehicles. He followed it all the way to Albuquerque to a gated property there. The guard snapped a picture of the symbols.” X had been pushing buttons on his phone while he talked. Now he turned the phone to face Nick and waited. “Look familiar?”
Nick looked at the screen and cursed. “Shit, it’s the same symbol I saw on those crates leaving here all those years ago.” The same shield, but closer up he could see it had four smaller shields inside.
This time Rome cursed, too, which got the attention of all three shifters since he normally held his emotions in solid check.
“Sabar needs capital. There are rumors that he is no longer Boden’s liege. Yet he craves the power his former captor had. He needs to establish himself in our world and in the human world,” Alamar said.
Boden had been a sadistic killing machine, ravishing and killing female shifters and humans without remorse. He’d been the first to go rogue from the tribes, taking Sabar with him.
“So he’s selling drugs to get money. Using the money to set up safe houses across the country and recruiting new Rogues,” X went on.
Rome sighed. “All of this is the calm before the storm. Whatever he has planned for the shifters is going to be big. We have to be ready for it when he comes.”
“Or we can diffuse the problem now.”
Everyone looked to Nick, not with surprise on their faces, because really, what did they expect him to say. “Stop him now before he has the chance to kill anyone else. He killed those prostitutes back in DC just like I believe he killed that senator and his daughter. Hell, his Rogues were probably responsible for the deaths you saw here in the forest. He’s making his moves right in front of us. And we’re not doing anything but talking.”
Rome shook his head, still not convinced. “We don’t know that for sure. I agree he might be responsible for some of what’s going on, but not everything.”
Nick frowned. “The cops don’t know for sure, Rome. But we do. We know exactly what Sabar is capable of. And if he’s been in the forest messing with poisonous herbs and wanting Ary to help him break them down into a drug, then he’s about to launch an all-out attack against the humans. Either way, he’s a threat that needs to be neutralized. And the sooner, the better.”
To everyone’s shock, Alamar nodded in agreement. “He is right.”
X switched his phone off. “I’m going to set up a meeting with Bas. I’ll probably have to fly out there to see what’s really going down. But if he’s shipping his stash through New Mexico, he’s gonna need runners to bring it to him in DC.”
“You think he’s headquartered there?” Nick asked.
X nodded. “Almost positive. There’s something in DC that he’s connected to or he wouldn’t have been there before tracking Kalina and Rome. He could have focused on any Faction Leader, but he picked you and our city. I’ll bet everything I own he’s there right now.”
“You’re probably right,” Rome agreed. “We need to get back to the States and inform all the FLs of what’s going on so they’ll be on the lookout. Then we’ll get a smaller group together to focus on tracking Sabar.”
“We should track the drug he’s selling as well. Get a lock on that symbol and trace it wherever it’s seen throughout the country,” X said.
“True,” Nick agreed. “Ary refuses to help him enhance his drug but that’s not going to stop him.”
“It’s going to make him more desperate to find her,” Rome added solemnly.
“So he’s going to come for her,” Nick said. “And when he does, I’ll be waiting for the sonofabitch.”
Chapter 12
Washington, DC
Regrouping. It seemed like he was always regrouping. Sabar was more than a little tired of this and swore the next time he came face-to-face with those shifters—the East Coast Faction Leader and his crew—he was killing every one of them. Whether it was by using the heat he was now packing or by shifting and ripping their fucking throats out, he was going to be rid of them once and for all.
He’d wanted to do that in the Gungi, but when they surprised him at the dope house he’d been unprepared. It was four of them against his one—Franco wasn’t one of his trained Rogues, and he would never have been able to kill them. Kalina had also been fighting right beside them, the traitorous bitch. He wanted her to die an especially gruesome death. And he’d hated leaving the curandero. She was the sole purpose for him being back in the Gungi. His shipments could come to the States without him overseeing them.
But he swore he wouldn’t leave the Faction Leader and his groupies breathing another time. And he’d make sure they wouldn’t catch him off guard again.
Walking down the steps of the brownstone he’d had renovated, Sabar let his manicured fingers run over the silky soft wallpaper that lined every room on the first floor. It was blood red with silver swirls and matched the thick cranberry-colored carpet perfectly. Most of the furniture still needed to be delivered, but this was a good start.
Sabar moved through the rooms surveying the progress, noting everything the cocksucking designer—who liked looking at Sabar a whole lot more than looking at females—hadn’t done. His name was Freid and Darel had found him, so Sabar had agreed to give the guy a shot. But the first time he made an out-of-line comment about Sabar or his sexuality, the bastard was fired!
Darel had been with Sabar the longest and was his most loyal Rogue. Sabar relied heavily on him, which was big since Sabar didn’t trust anyone. That’s why he’d left Darel in charge while he’d traveled to the forest. Now Darel was on his way to New Mexico to take possession of the shipment that had been sent. Sabar figured it worked best if he and his product were in different places. That’s why he’d also bought that run-down old warehouse near the Virginia border. While he and Darel had sleeping quarters there as well, he didn’t want them to be taken down if his drugs were ever traced.
Speaking of which, his cell phone rang. Sabar slid it from the holder at his waist.
“Talk,” he commanded, and the voice on the other end obeyed.
“Pickup successful. On my way back now.”
That was precisely what Sabar wanted to hear. “Good. What about the females?”
“They’re at the warehouse.”
See, that’s why he’d known he could leave Darel in
charge. The Rogue knew automatically Sabar would not want any dirty-ass strippers in his new house, so he’d left them in the warehouse. Fucking fantastic.
“They’ll bring the curandero here. But I don’t want to wait. Is Hanson ready to get started?”
“He’s a bit jittery. Maybe you should talk to him again,” Darel said drily. “He’s a punk with a big ego and an even bigger mouth. I’ve got Gabriel sitting on him now.”
Gabriel was a new shifter. He’d come to Sabar after escaping Boden’s clutches. The sonofabitch that had taken Sabar from the Gungi liked young boys. He just never counted on those young boys eventually growing into strong shape-shifting men.
Sabar nodded, rubbing his fingers through his thick locks. He did that when he was thinking, usually when he was thinking about his money. And Hanson, the chemistry student they’d plucked from Georgetown a couple of weeks ago, might be messing with his profits. The kid thought he was the shit. He thought all his scholarships and the pharmaceutical companies and research labs dogging his heels for him to work for them once he graduated made him a step away from God. Then he’d met Sabar. Funny how, as smart as the kid appeared, he didn’t seem to get how huge a mistake he was making if he didn’t do what Sabar wanted.
“Yeah, I’ll check on him. Make sure he knows the plan and his place in it.” Either alongside Sabar as an employee or in a body bag in bits and pieces. “You just get the product here safely and we’ll go from there.”
“No problem,” Darel said.
Disconnecting, Sabar smiled. That’s the shit he liked to hear—immediate agreement. Darel was his second for a reason. He wasn’t his partner. Sabar would never have any equal on any level. But Darel was a good second Rogue. He’d have to repay the shifter, maybe give him one of the strippers they were using when they finished. That was the least he could do.
Law office of Reynolds & Delgado
Washington, DC
Working was futile.
Nick dropped his pen and let his head fall in his hands. Then he thought about tomorrow’s nine AM deposition and figured he’d better move on. He reopened the manila folder he’d previously closed and started reading.
The case was of a female who had been forced to abort her twenty-eight-week-old fetus because of an erroneous amniocentesis that misdiagnosed multiple sclerosis. Nick represented the doctor’s firm and felt sick to his stomach each time he read the deposition testimony of the female who had been orphaned at birth herself, then in an abusive marriage, and lastly losing the one thing she’d wanted most in this world—a child—because of a doctor’s mistake.
Normally, this was open and shut for Nick. Defend his client’s actions and obtain a favorable verdict, or at the very least minimal payment to the plaintiff. But on this morning, with the beautiful woman lying in a bed in the guest room of his apartment, he couldn’t focus.
They’d arrived at the shifters’ private airstrip just outside DC close to three o’clock this morning. Eli and Ezra, the top guards for the East Coast Faction, were there with vehicles to pick them up. Rome and Kalina were driven to their house by Eli. Nick had instantly ushered Ary to Ezra’s SUV, with X climbing in with them as well since his condo wasn’t that far from Nick’s in the city.
“I will get my own residence soon,” Ary remarked as she settled in the backseat.
Nick had been either too tired to argue, or too distracted. Probably a little of both. But he’d remained quiet for the duration of the ride home.
When they’d arrived at his place, Ary had taken her duffel bag and entered the guest room without speaking another word to him. Waking only hours later to come into the office, Nick decided it was better not to disturb her.
In actuality, he was keeping his distance. Every time he was around her, he either said or did the wrong thing. Or what she considered the wrong thing. And damn if he knew what the right thing was. He’d saved her life. She should be a little more grateful instead of so spiteful. And he’d admitted to the part he’d had in whatever pain she’d harbored in her life. Wasn’t that enough?
On his now cluttered desk Nick’s phone buzzed.
“Yes?” he answered with about as much irritation as he was feeling. Or possibly more.
“Mr. Scher’s office called to cancel tomorrow morning’s deposition. They’ll be sending more dates shortly.”
Nick sighed. That meant he didn’t have to sit here and review all the medical records in this case right at this very moment. “Fine, Kerry. Thank you.”
“Ah, and there’s someone here to see you, sir,” his assistant added just as Nick was about to push the button that would disconnect their call.
“I didn’t have anything scheduled” was his reply.
He never had anyone come in the day before a deposition unless it was the client; there was no need for him to talk to the doctor who was facing multiple medical malpractice charges about this specific case. Nick knew all he needed to know and was just trying to figure out how he was going to defend the idiot.
“It’s, um”—Kerry cleared her throat and continued in a whisper. “She says she’s your sister, sir.”
Nick frowned. He only had one sister and she’d been gone for about five years now, traipsing along the globe—doing what, Nick had no idea.
“Send her in,” he said wondering if it wasn’t Ary visiting and afraid to use her real identity.
Of course that made no sense to him. Still, Nick stood from his chair and adjusted his tie. He was walking around his desk when the door to his corner office opened. In that instant it seemed as if all the air had been sucked out of the room.
Another blast from the not-so-distant past hit him and Nick had to catch his breath. Her hair was straight and dark as sin, hanging down her back in layered sheets. Even her eyes were dark, or smoky he figured would be a better description of the long lashes and thick arched eyebrows. She was his sister, so looking at her body was weird, but he’d be blind if he didn’t recognize how she’d matured since the last time he’d seen her. Dressed in a short black skirt, netted stockings, and a white shirt that looked as if breathing wasn’t a priority for her, she came closer and put her hands on her hips.
“Dominick.” She spoke his name with just a hint of an accent, and Nick couldn’t figure out where she would have picked it up. Her lips twisted into a smile and her eyes lit up as he opened his arms to her.
“It’s about damn time,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and holding tightly. “Damn, Caprise, it’s been a really long time.”
She hugged him back, laughing as he swayed her from side to side the way he remembered their father used to do when she was younger.
“You’re choking me,” she said, smiling.
Nick released his hold only slightly. “You’ve been killing me staying away all this time. Where the hell have you been?”
She pulled out of his arms and waved a hand at him dismissively. “Doesn’t matter. I’m back now.”
“So I see. What are you doing? You working? Going to school?”
Caprise was four years younger than Nick; she’d just celebrated her thirty-first birthday a month ago. Nick grimaced at the fact that she may have been alone on that special day.
Dropping her lithe body into one of his guest chairs, she crossed her legs and let her arms fall in her lap. Bangles dangled at her wrists, and he noted a large sterling silver ring in some weird shape that encompassed almost three of her fingers.
“I’m looking for a place to stay. And no, not with you. There are a few apartment buildings I’m going to check out this afternoon. So I figured now was better than any other time to stop by.”
He partially agreed with what she’d just said. “Now is a good time since I just got back in town earlier this morning.”
“Really? Where were you this time? In Hawaii with the flavor of the month? Or was it Turks and Caicos? You still love it down there?”
Nick smiled and went back to sit in his chair. “You know it. The best tropica
l getaway ever. But that’s not where I was. I went to the Gungi.”
Nick knew the minute he said it that she’d grow quiet, possibly irritated. He was surprised to see her shrug.
“So we should get together for dinner or something. I don’t really know what siblings do anymore.”
“You don’t know what siblings like us do anymore,” Nick corrected her and was rewarded with her frown.
“Don’t start, Nick. I’m trying to make some progress here. To move forward with my life.”
“I’m still trying to figure out what caused the progress to stop five years ago. You just left and you never called or tried to contact me.”
“You didn’t try to contact me, either,” she rebutted as if she were the litigator.
Nick drummed his fingers on his desk. “You can thank Rome for that. I wanted to tear up the nation trying to find you but he suggested I give you some space. I obliged, but I didn’t like it.”
Caprise smiled, and Nick’s heart melted instantly. He couldn’t be mad at her, not when he was so damn happy to see her.
“That sounds like something Rome would say. Is he still fine as ever?”
Nick shrugged. “I’m not answering that. But I will tell you he’s mated.”
“What? Get out! Roman Reynolds settled down with one woman?”
Nick chuckled because it was still a little hard for him to believe. “Kalina’s cool. She’s a shadow like us.”
Again with the blasé look. Caprise had never embraced her heritage, even after her time in the Gungi. And it seemed she wasn’t about to start now.
“Hooray,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “How’s work?”
And that was all his little sister planned to say about being a Shadow Shifter or being in the Gungi. After the trip Nick had just taken, he wasn’t so sure he could blame her.
“The firm’s doing well. How about you? What are you doing with yourself?” Sitting back in his chair, Nick really looked at his sister.
On the outside she was a lovely young woman, with stunning features that any man would look at twice. On the inside, however, Nick suspected there was something totally different going on. At one time he and Caprise were as close as twins, but that was before her acrodado and before the death of their parents.
