by Dean Murray
"He's got wire taps up and running, he's monitoring their e-mails and texts, he's controlling the flow of information and he's basically got a knife to the throat of anyone who's ever even thought about resisting him."
I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times and still couldn't come up with anything truly helpful to say.
"There has to be some way to do this, something we haven't thought of yet."
Taggart shook his head, looking truly defeated for the first time since I'd met him. "I've gone over it inside of my head again and again and I can't come up with anything. I've thought about every single pack and come up dry, there's nothing any of them can do to help.
"The vampires can't be trusted even assuming I was willing to try and recruit them, which I'm not. The werewolves are barely even sentient and even if I had a way of getting them to the right spot and the right time there's no guarantee that Puppeteer wouldn't be there waiting to take control of them."
I interrupted him before he could say anything else. "What about the jaguars?"
"No, I thought of that too. The jaguars hate all wolves equally. They'd sooner sit back and watch us kill each other than lift a finger to help any of us."
"Sorry, Taggart, I said that wrong. What I should have said is what about a jaguar. The girl I told you about, the one from Minnesota, the one who tried to warn me away from Jackson. What if I asked her to help us?"
"It's better than nothing, but one shape shifter isn't going to make much difference either way."
"But what if she isn't by herself anymore?"
I had his attention now.
"Why, did she say something about having joined another group?"
"No, but she was really different this last time when I saw her. She looked healthier, like she'd been eating more regularly, and she seemed less scared—like maybe she's found somewhere safe."
Taggart started moving some of the dishes over to the sink, buying himself time to think.
"It's worth a try, but I don't think you should try to do a bunch of negotiating by yourself in the dream. There's too much you still don't know. We'd pretty much have to meet up in the real world with her and her friends."
"So that's a risk, right? But saving your friend would be worth taking that kind of risk, wouldn't it?"
Taggart's nod was reluctant, but we were back to having at least the beginnings of a plan.
"Yes, a real-life meeting is worth the risk, but try to arrange it so that it's just me who meets with them. There isn't any reason to risk both of us."
I looked at him doubtfully. "I don't think she'll go for that."
"I know, but at least try. It will help me sleep at night to know that we did everything we could to keep you out of the line of fire."
"Okay, I'll try and get her to meet with just you. It feels good to have a plan again."
"Yes, for however long it lasts."
I stepped closer and put my hand on his arm. "If this doesn't work then we'll find something else."
"I hope so. If we can't then I'll have no choice but to ally with Alec Graves and that will probably be the death of us all."
There was something about his voice. It told me more than he would have chosen to.
"You've talked to him, haven't you?"
"Yes, just a short time ago. I've had so much time asleep lately that I'd managed to talk to everyone I needed to so I went to him."
"How did you form a new connection so quickly? Usually it takes you a month of trying to find someone new."
"I'm sorry, Adri. I let you think that I didn't have a connection to him, but I sought him out years ago. I thought that it would be prudent to be able to spy on Kaleb's heir and when the necessity arose I might not have time to waste trying to establish a new connection."
I wanted to be mad, but at the same time I was almost giddy at the fact that I finally had some connection, indirect though it might be, to him.
"What did he say? Did he ask about me?"
"It wasn't exactly that kind of conversation."
My anger was starting to move to the forefront now. "What kind of conversation was it exactly?"
"A very strained one. We nearly came to blows on a couple of occasions. I'm sorry. I tried, I really did, but he just reminded me too much of his father. It wasn't just his face, it was the way he moved and his certainty that he was right. We struck sparks off of each other in ways that I hadn't anticipated."
"You didn't hurt each other then?"
"No, but there is something you should know."
I held a hand up to block his words, and talked fast in the hopes that he'd be too much the gentleman to interrupt me.
"I know you don't trust him, Taggart, but I do. I talked to him when he was at his lowest and I was nobody. There wasn't any reason for him to believe that he'd ever see me again or that I'd ever be any kind of player in his world. He doesn't trust his father."
Taggart sighed. "Nobody trusts his father. Even the rest of the Coun'hij doesn't trust Kaleb to do anything that isn't in Kaleb's best interest. I'm sorry, Adri, but that really doesn't prove anything."
My bottom lip was quivering, but I wasn't going to cry. I hadn't been a child in almost a decade and I wasn't about to start crying just because Taggart didn't agree with me.
"I understand why you don't trust him. You have a lot of bad history with his dad and there's a lot at stake, but you're not going to stop me from believing in him. There's a bond between the two of us that I can't even begin to describe. It's like nothing else I've ever felt. All I can say is that I think we are somehow meant for each other."
Taggart closed his eyes as though gathering his strength. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. You haven't said so in so many words, but I could tell that your encounter with him was more than just a run-of-the-mill meeting. It's been obvious from the way your expression shifts whenever you talk about him that you feel strongly about him, but he doesn't feel the same way."
"You don't know that! There isn't any way you could possibly know how he feels."
I turned to go, but Taggart grabbed my arm. The grip was gentle despite the strength underlying his grip, but it was the first time I could ever remember Taggart physically forcing me to do anything.
"He's got another girl with him. She looks a little like you, but that's not the worst part. He's addicted her to his touch."
"I don't understand."
I was impressed with myself. The words came out almost normal despite the fact that it felt like I was dying inside.
"It's another side effect of being a shape shifter. We transmit a kind of low-level energy whenever we touch someone. With other shape shifters it's pleasant but hardly noticeable. For humans it's more than that. A human who has prolonged exposure to the touch of any one shape shifter almost always becomes addicted to the sensation. It's like they become heroin addicts, junkies who will do anything for another fix.
"He was dreaming of her when I first made contact with him. The signs were obvious. The way she was hanging off of him…it was shameful. No decent man, shape shifter or otherwise, would do something like that."
"I refuse to believe it is as bad as you're making it out to be. It was some kind of accident. They came together by mistake and now he's too good an individual to just send her away."
The compassion in Taggart's eyes was enough to finally push my tears over the edge and they started running down my face.
"He was ashamed of her, of what she represented. As soon as he realized he wasn't alone, he banished her in an attempt to try and hide what he'd done. That's better than if he was so far gone that he didn't care, but it's still not a good sign.
"I wanted to be wrong about him, wanted him to be a decent man, for your sake if for no other reason, but I'm afraid he deceived you just as he's trying to deceive everyone who is fighting against the Coun'hij. I think that's what pushed me over the edge with him right from the very start. I can understand trying to entrap the resistance, Kaleb has bee
n trying to do much the same thing for decades now, but there was no need to shatter your heart along the way."
I turned and ran out of the kitchen without looking back. Taggart called after me, but I didn't stop running until I got to the small bedroom just outside of the master suite and locked the door.
Later I would go to sleep and do my best to contact Dominic. I'd hate myself for being able to function and do my duty when it felt like my insides were shattering into a million pieces, but I would do it. For now I was just going to cry.
Chapter 18
Alec Graves
Two blocks from the Rest Easy Hotel
Rio Rico, Arizona
Going from the cold of the Tennessee mountains to the dry heat of southern Arizona was a bigger shock than I'd expected it to be. For all practical intents and purposes it just meant that we made another quick shopping trip to make sure that Brindi had some clothes that would help her avoid heatstroke, but the heat seemed to drag at me with surprising strength.
I hadn't noticed the same kind of issue the last time I'd been in Rio Rico, which made me think that it was all in my head. Coming back, even after just a few weeks' absence, was harder than I'd expected it to be.
Part of that was the fact that we were walking back into the lion's den, but that wasn't the only reason. Purposefully putting myself within a mile of Brandon was a good reason to be jittery, but Rio Rico was more than just a place where I'd spent a week or two in between combat missions. Rio Rico was where everything had started to change for me.
I'd been here when I'd found out that my mother was lying to me and when I'd realized that Kaleb and Brandon were massacring people and then blaming the deaths on the jaguars. Even before that I'd told myself that Kaleb was a bad guy, someone who couldn't be trusted, someone who was capable of terrible things, but it was Rio Rico that had finally opened my eyes completely.
Rio Rico had even been where the seeds of Rachel's near-captivity to Vincent had been planted. Kaleb had been putting Brandon off until our pyrrhic victory at the end of my time down there had caused Brandon to start pushing Kaleb harder.
Everything had changed in Rio Rico and if I'd had my way I never would have come back, but I couldn't stay away and still pay off the debt I'd incurred while I'd been down here. I probably would have sat there lost in my thoughts, Brindi at my side, for hours if my phone hadn't started ringing. It was Jack.
"It's done, you're good to move forward with your side of things."
"Thank you, Jack. Your wolf got out okay then?"
There was a long pause as Jack tried to decide how much it was safe to tell me over an unsecured line.
"Yeah, so far. There have already been a couple of close calls, and none of us are in the clear yet, but the contingency plans we worked out should be enough to make sure that we get a clean getaway unless they chase us down in the next hour or so."
"Okay, best of luck to you all. I couldn't have done this without you guys."
"That's the understatement of the year, but it's worth it if only because it means Kaleb will get knocked down another peg or two. We need to talk as soon as you can meet up with us. There were some interesting developments up here."
Part of me was dying to know what he was talking about. He sounded a little rattled, which was unusual to say the least. Jack was usually a pretty cool customer; most older dominants tended to be that way. Jack was more than a hundred and fifty years old. He knew his capabilities and it took a lot to rattle him, but this was obviously something he felt needed to be shared in person.
"Understood, we'll see you all shortly."
I hung up and turned to James who was sitting in the driver's seat. "Any word from the girls?"
"Yeah, the target is following her usual route and she's right on schedule. You've got about sixty seconds before she'll be running right past us."
"Thanks, James. Tell Jasmin and Jess to get out of there, things could get awful hot in this town in the next few minutes."
I looked over at Brindi and sighed. She seemed to be mostly healed. It was hard to be sure without access to the advanced diagnostic equipment you'd find in a hospital, but she moved around without flinching now and she wasn't sleeping all of the time anymore. Unfortunately she still deteriorated quickly when she wasn't with me. She could make it an hour now before she started showing the outward signs of withdrawal, but that still wasn't much time to work with.
"I need to go outside for a few minutes and it's best if you stay here."
Brindi nodded. "Is what you're about to do dangerous?"
"Yes, but no more so than anything else we've done over the last few days."
I could see how badly she wanted to argue with me, to plead for me not to put myself in harm's way, but we'd already had that argument today. I owed Brindi a debt for saving my life, but I couldn't let my debt to her stop me from paying down the other people I owed.
Brindi nodded again and then I was opening the door of our SUV and stepping out into the harsh Arizona sun. James' estimate was spot on. Alison came jogging past the alley where we were parked right on schedule.
"Alison, we need to talk."
She turned towards me with the inhuman quickness and poise that we usually tried not to display in public.
"Alec? Are you insane? This is the last place you should be. We've got an op tonight. Brandon has pulled in everyone he can get his hands on for this one."
"I know, that's part of why we decided to come today. Brandon's going to be faced with choosing between going forward with the operation or trying to catch us."
She looked like she wanted to hit me, but that wasn't much of a change from how she'd acted when I'd been here the last time. She was skinnier now than she'd been when I'd last seen her and she hadn't much, if any, excess body fat on her then.
The red streak in her hair, a symbol of defiance that she'd sported for as long as she'd been down here, hadn't changed, but her black running shorts hung lower on her hips than I remembered from before and her white tank top revealed arms and shoulders that looked like they'd been carved out of rock. She was all hard planes and angles and looked like nothing more than willpower was keeping her from giving up. None of it pointed to anything good. Juan had been a great team leader, maybe the best, and in a lot of ways he'd been the glue holding Alison together.
He was dead now and that was one more reason for Alison to hate me. Juan had died protecting me from the Ancient that had been part of a trap designed to kill all of Brandon's people. Juan had died and then I'd been whisked away to Sanctuary to recover from my wounds in safety while Alison had been left here to be fed back into the blender.
"You just can't leave well enough alone, can you? You made it out, free and clear, but you have to come back here and drag me into some kind of asinine plan that is almost guaranteed to get me killed."
"It's not like that…"
She cut me off before I could get another word out. "I'm not going to help you, Alec. I'm done with all of that crap. It's past time for me to just keep my head down and try to last as long as I can. You may have inspired Juan, but that won't work on me."
"Your mom left Sanctuary a few minutes ago, Alison. Kaleb probably knows she's gone by now, but the people with her have been planning their escape route for the last week. They've got fallbacks for their fallbacks. It might take a day or two, but eventually she'll disappear and Kaleb will never find her. She's not important enough for him to dedicate the kind of time and effort that he spent looking for Agony."
"So that's your play? You came down here to tell me that you're going to use her to blackmail me? You really are just like your damn dad."
James turned on the SUV. It was a signal indicating that we didn't have much time.
"I'm here to give you a chance to get out. Some of my friends risked a lot to get your mom and Chloe's parents out of Sanctuary. There isn't anything holding you here now. Come get into the car with me. We'll leave and you don't ever have to come back. No tri
cks, no threats. I'd love to have you help me, I can always use another good fighter, but if you want to walk away I'll tell you where your mom is, give you a hundred thousand dollars and let you go to her."
She knew I was telling her the truth, but she was still having a hard time believing it. Alison was roughly my age, but she'd been down on the border fighting jaguars in one desperate battle after another for months. I'd always thought my life was pretty rough, but in some ways Alison had been through even more.
"You swear to me that it's not a trick?"
"I swear, Alison. I can't guarantee that we'll get away and every second we stand here talking reduces our odds, but we've got a plan. It may fall apart and we may all be caught and executed, but I'm going to do everything in my power to get us all out and then you can start making your own choices again."
She nodded jerkily and started towards me, but she only made it a couple of steps before her legs gave out. I caught her before she could hit the ground. She'd never been very heavy, but as I picked her up and carried her to the SUV it felt like there wasn't anything left of her.
I was still hoping to get Agony out and eventually overthrow Kaleb, but I'd already accomplished more than I'd been worried I might. Saving Alison might have seemed like a small thing to some, but it had been important to me and it would make all the difference in the world to her, her mother, and the parents of her best friend, a girl who hadn't lasted for even two weeks in the hell that Alison had been facing for months.
Chapter 19
Adriana Paige
Downtown Parking Emporium
Houston, Texas
Things between Taggart and I were strained. It wasn't because I didn't believe him, and I didn't blame him for telling me about what he'd seen with Alec. He hadn't done anything wrong, but it was hard to know what to say or how to act around someone who had seen me humiliated so badly. I was pretty sure that most of the awkwardness would eventually disappear, but that wasn't particularly helpful right now.
