by A. C. Arthur
“Forty-two seconds,” Bianca said, spreading her legs wide for him.
He decided to indulge, sending his hand on a journey upward until he touched the moist bare skin of her pussy. She licked her glossed lips as his fingers pushed past her folds, pressing hungrily into the stretched opening of her center. He’d been in and out of her so much in the weeks since she’d been with him. And he loved it. Had longed for it for years. No, he wasn’t likely to let her go easily.
* * *
Three bank tellers behind the marble counter and bulletproof glass looked on in fear, each of them backing away from the counter, reaching into their cash drawers and pulling out stacks of bills.
George Fletcher had seen them coming, knew from the moment those four goons stormed into the bank there was going to be trouble. George was a relationship banker; his office was across the room from the teller windows, about forty feet or so. He didn’t have a door but a walk-through and a glass wall so he could keep an eye on the happenings in the bank. Today he wished like hell he had a door and a steel wall to encase him in his office. Instead he’d been ordered to the floor, facedown—even though he looked up every few seconds to see what was happening next. He should have kept his forehead on the floor. What he was seeing could not be real.
Their faces were huge, as if the bones beneath were too large and the skin had no choice but to stretch or be ripped free. Eyes the color of gold coins surveyed the area. One goon rested his on the door to the safe. He tossed his head in that direction, and one of the others followed him, a vicious grin on his face. That grin allowed George to see sharp elongated teeth and feel his entire body shake with fear.
They walked like humans and even talked like them, but they weren’t. Of that, George was positive. Sure, movie makeup could create this as some form of disguise, since they hadn’t bothered to put on masks. But George had a feeling that wasn’t the case, either. These weren’t humans. But they were robbing the hell out of this bank.
Already they had three duffel bags full from the teller drawers and the drop safe at each teller station. Since the vault was located across the floor, there was a cash cow—the steel safe on wheels, which held even more money so tellers would not have to travel back and forth to the vault—behind a wall close to the teller line. They’d emptied that as well. Now two of them were standing in the vault, filling another set of duffels. Another of the intruders was near the door, looking at his watch then out the door. And the last was walking around scaring the hell out of everyone else in the place. He bared his teeth and actually growled. When Lenny, the security guard, made a move for his gun the robber grabbed him by the collar, lifting him until Lenny’s feet dangled off the floor. Then he roared loudly, right in Lenny’s face. George felt like crap as Lenny wet his pants. He used his elbows to scoot along the floor and was planning his own little heroic move about a second before he watched the robber twist Lenny’s 210-pound body in his hand like he was some kind of rag doll, and planted those sharp-ass teeth into Lenny’s skull.
Women screamed, men turned their faces to the floor, probably peeing in their pants as well. As for George, all pretenses were given up the second that freak’s teeth broke Lenny’s skin. He yelled like a sissy and covered his eyes. An act that only served to draw the attention of the freak at the door, who was in George’s office faster than a blink. Next thing George knew his feet were dangling in the air, too. Then George didn’t know anything.
* * *
Sabar watched his enforcers walk out of the bank as if they’d just gone in to check their safe-deposit boxes. With Bianca’s orgasm still permeating the interior of the car, Sabar licked the wet fingers that brought her that mighty climax and waited for his cell to ring.
When it did, he answered quickly. “Yeah?”
“Done.”
“Fucking A!” he said, sitting back with a huge grin on his face.
Chapter 28
“She wasn’t supposed to leave the house,” Nick said, glaring at Ezra, who in turn glared at Nivea, one of the female guards with too many piercings to count, who was assigned to watch Rome’s house.
“Leo is with her. She’s not alone” was Nivea’s reply.
Leo Arrington was also one of the guards. He’d had a rough childhood, having been adopted by a man who despised everything Leo was. But in the years he’d been with the shifters, going on five or six now, Nick couldn’t really pinpoint, he’d grown into a respectable man and valued shifter.
“Get him on the phone and find out their location,” Nick directed Ezra as he climbed the stairs heading to the room now occupied by his sister.
He hadn’t spoken to her alone in the weeks since she’d been at the house and had been wondering how she was holding up. If he knew Caprise, the answer would be not good. Not good at all. She’d been moved down to the second floor, where the rest of them had rooms. All the third-floor rooms were now occupied by guards. It was a bit crowded, a fact that irritated Rome just a little. He’d put the plans for Havenway into action immediately and wanted to move in by the end of the month. Since he would still own this property, Nick had talked him into letting it be transformed to a training facility for new guards. Of course Rome didn’t like the idea, since there was a good chance Sabar knew the location, but he’d finally agreed noting that training facilities would also be added on to Havenway eventually.
Running scared just wasn’t Nick’s thing, but he’d held off telling Rome that he and Ary would soon be finding their own house to live in. Nick didn’t want them to live in the condo forever, so he’d already had his secretary contact a real estate agent to see what was available. Ary could work at Havenway, but Nick wanted them to have their own space.
Arriving in front of Caprise’s door he paused, scenting anxiety in rippling waves coming from the other side. He knocked quickly and turned the knob to go in. Of course, it was locked. And when Caprise came to tug it open, she glared at him with all the discomfort she was feeling.
“Oh, it’s you,” she said before turning and walking back into the room.
“Were you expecting someone else?” Nick asked, entering the room and closing the door behind him.
“Your melodramatic friend or those two military goofs he has following me,” she tossed over her shoulder.
She fell onto the bed, flipping through magazines, not looking at him. Nick sat on a chair that had been positioned by the window.
“X is doing his job,” he told her.
“Then give him a raise, why don’t you?”
“What’s up with you, Caprise?” Nick raised his hand when her head snapped up and she prepared to tell him nothing. “Don’t lie to me anymore. I asked you before and you asked for space. I gave it to you and decided to just wait until you felt you were ready to tell me. Your time’s up.”
“I told you I was fine.”
“And your lies are stinking up this room. So here’s the deal: You can tell me what the problem is or I’ll search until I find out.”
Their gazes held, and for a minute Nick thought she was going to give in. Then she shrugged. “If you want to waste your time looking for nothing, go right ahead.”
“Where did you go when you left?”
“I went away.”
“Why?”
“Because I needed to think.”
That’s how the exchange went, question, answer, question, answer. But Nick didn’t feel like he was getting any real information. The sense that something was really bothering his sister increased. And yet he realized in that moment that she wasn’t going to tell him what had happened to her. He’d have to find out on his own. Fine. He’d get X to do some digging as soon as he left.
“Sabar’s got his new drug on the streets already. It’s more dangerous than any drug that’s been out there before. We’re worried about the human death toll this is going to take.”
As he expected as well, she looked at him with concern. It was blanketed by a smirk, but Nick knew she wanted to know more
. Maybe, just maybe, if he kept her in the loop about everything going on, she’d reciprocate.
“There’re always going to be drugs on the street. You’re never going to win that war.”
Folding his hands and resting his chin on them, he nodded his agreement. “You’ve got a point. But we can stop Sabar, if we kill him.”
“Then that makes you no better than him,” she said sadly.
“That’s not true. We’re fighting for peace.”
“Uh-huh.” She nodded. “By killing?”
Nick sighed. “You’re starting to sound like Ary.”
“Yes, let’s talk about Aryiola Serino, the sexy little shifter doctor you rescued.” Caprise unfolded her legs and let them fall off the side of the bed. She leaned forward on her knees and watched him carefully. “Are you in love with her?”
The question was quick, succinct, no-nonsense, just like Caprise. And Nick thought he had an answer, but realized with a start that he didn’t.
“She’s my mate,” he said instead.
Caprise shook her head. “You don’t believe in those jungle laws.”
“I do, and you should, too. They’re our heritage. Mom and Dad would want us to uphold their beliefs.”
“Mom and Dad were doing something behind our backs and you know it. They lied to us on a daily basis and now you want us to put them on some type of pedestal. Give me a break.” She’d waved her hand and stood from the bed. On the dresser a couple of feet away Caprise picked up a pair of earrings and put them on. She lifted her hair and pulled it into a quick ponytail.
“You knew they were lying about something, too?”
She turned, her hair swinging with the motion. “I’m not an idiot, Nick. I could hear the arguments you and Dad had. I overheard conversations he had with his friends. I heard him and Mom arguing one night. See, if you keep quiet people tend to overlook you. They never even knew I was there half the time.”
Nick didn’t argue that fact. Caprise had just entered high school when they’d returned from the Gungi. He remembered she’d been very involved in activities at school and tended to spend more time there than at home—or at least that’s what he’d thought. Their parents had died five years ago, killed in a car accident on Interstate 95, and Caprise had disappeared two days after they’d buried them.
“What did you hear?” he asked her seriously.
She eyed him for a few seconds like she was considering whether or not to tell him. Then she folded her arms and stood with one hip leaning against the dresser. “He set up a lot of meetings. Mentioned Loren Reynolds’s name a lot and continuing what he’d started. Mom didn’t always like whatever he was doing. She told him it was dangerous, he told her it was necessary.” Her shoulders hunched. “That was about it.”
That was about what Nick already knew.
“I think he was doing something illegal, or at the very least a betrayal of the tribes. But I can’t prove it.”
“You want to prove it? You want to prove to the world that our parents were no good? I mean, if nothing else, they loved us and they loved each other. Sort of like I believe you’re in love with Ary.”
She was making him dizzy. On the one hand she wanted him to know that she thought their parents were liars. On the other she questioned his quest to prove them as just that. “Caprise, you don’t know everything that’s going on.”
“And I don’t want to know. I just asked you about the woman in your life. She’s really pretty.”
He nodded. “She is.”
“And she’s going to be a doctor.”
“Right.”
“And she’s in love with you,” she said as if she were telling a secret that Nick should have already known.
Nick ran his hands down his face. “Why am I talking to you about this? You’re my sister, for God’s sake.”
“Because I know you better than any of those females you’ve messed with before. You’re in love with her. I can tell.”
“How can you tell?” He wanted to know, especially since he wasn’t 100 percent sure of that fact himself.
“The fact that you’re still dealing with her after the rescue is the biggest clue. You’ve never had a long attention span when it came to women. And you’re keeping her locked up in this fortress Rome calls a house just like you are with me.”
“It’s for your safety,” Nick said, exasperated. This conversation was not going the way he’d planned. “It’s for everyone’s safety right now. I told you Sabar is—”
Caprise held up a hand. “Yeah, yeah, Sabar’s dangerous and all that. I get it.”
The door to her room opened unexpectedly and Ezra walked in.
“Leo’s in trouble. Rogues at the museum. He needs backup,” he said, his brow furrowed, lips twisted in rage.
“Fuck!” Nick cursed, standing from the chair.
* * *
The phone call had been weird and suspicious. Ary knew that right away. Just as she’d known there was no way she could resist following up. She had to know for sure.
Walking into the museum Ary tried not to be too enthralled by the exhibits—she’d never been to a place like this and made a mental note to come back and check out all the buildings of the Smithsonian. He said he’d meet her near an exhibit titled Communities in a Changing Nation. And wasn’t that highly appropriate.
The Shadow Shifters had come here and built their own community. Now that union had evolved to the point that a democracy was being created and security was becoming an issue. Their kind was on the brink of change, and if not for everything being more than a little scary, Ary might say she was excited.
Until she saw him.
He walked with a limp. Wearing human clothes for the first time she knew of, Davi Serino moved around a particularly large statue of some sort of beast, lifting his head slightly so he could look at her. He’d been hurt badly in that fight in the village. Actually, Ary thought he’d been killed. That’s what Rome had reported, that all the shifters—Rogues and the ones the Rogues were looking for that night—had been killed. Yet here he stood, her father. And right behind him was another she’d trusted.
“Yuri.” She whispered the shaman’s name even before she was close enough for him to hear her.
With movements much slower than they used to be, Davi motioned for her to join them in the corner where they stood. She looked around, placed Leo about ten feet from where she was standing. He was watching her intently as he had been since Ezra assigned him to her. She lifted a hand to let him know she was okay and to show him where she was going. His look remained dour, and Ary figured he’d come closer no matter what she said. So she’d be quick with this meeting.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she asked Davi the moment she was near him.
“I’m finishing what I started,” he said, grabbing her by the elbow.
“Get off me!” Ary said through gritted teeth. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
“That’s what your friends wanted you to believe. They think they’re in control. They are not, Aryiola. Sabar is, and you need to understand that.”
“I understand you’re a spineless coward. Doing the bidding of another coward. And you,” she said to Yuri. “You were my friend.”
“There is much you need to learn about the world, dear curandero,” he said in that whispery soft voice of his. He’d put on human clothes, too. The loincloth he usually wore would definitely draw too much attention in a place like this. As for the tribal bone through his chin, that was covered with a thick wool scarf that looked totally out of place for early September in Washington, DC.
Yuri reached out, and Ary knew he meant to grab her other arm. She twisted away from him and yanked her arm from Davi. “Both of you can go to hell! That’s what you get for working with the devil,” she spat and turned to walk away.
When she did she slammed right into two men she knew were shifters. Each of them stared down at her with gleaming cat’s eyes, and Ary swore she wouldn’t scream. She
would run, but only after she let them know she wasn’t afraid of them. With quick self-defense motions she’d learned from Lucas back in the Gungi, Ary performed a one–two punching combo that landed right in the first Rogue’s groin. She spun in a circle, dodging shifter number two, and when he reached for her landed a kick to the side of his jaw. That was all of her training she was able to show before Leo appeared, gun drawn.
He pulled Ary behind him, extending his arm with the gun to Davi and Yuri, who were still dumbfounded by Ary’s moves, and the two groaning Rogues that were quickly recovering.
“Don’t even think about it,” Leo barked when the Rogues looked ready to pounce.
They stopped but bared their teeth and growled so loudly that a few passersby stopped to see what was going on. If it weren’t so serious it would be funny the way they looked at the replica of a prehistoric elephant with tusks as long as Ary was tall.
Then they saw the gun and all hell broke loose. There was screaming and running and Leo turned, pushing Ary ahead of him. “Go!” he shouted.
She had no idea where she was going and eventually he must have figured that out because he ran up beside her and grabbed her arm, taking the lead and pulling her behind him. Before Ary could turn and see if Davi, Yuri, and/or the Rogues were following them she was pushed through a door and would have fallen down the steps if Leo hadn’t caught her by the legs, throwing her over his shoulder. Later she’d tell him she didn’t like the Neanderthal treatment, but for right now she kept her mouth shut.
Pandemonium did not accurately describe the scene outside. People seemed to be running frantically everywhere. When they finally made it to Leo’s car, two trucks pulled up right beside it. Doors opened and shifters poured out from all directions. The one her gaze locked on was Nick.
Leo was putting her down as Nick skirted the car, coming to her and grabbing her to him. “When we get home I’m beating that pretty little ass of yours for not listening to me.”
