by Reina Torres
Cage felt his stomach twist into a knot. She was so used to just getting in a car and going.
“And then Maggie ran out of the diner and jumped into her own car to follow.” He blew out a breath. “Down the road after they were stopped at a light, Maggie started to exit her car, presumably to approach the other car, but before she could get out, another car came out of an alley and t-boned Maggie’s car. The last we see of them at that point is a white unmarked panel van that blocks the camera. When it pulls away, Maggie is gone, and her car was left abandoned on the side street.”
A roar tore through Cage’s throat, his back bowed into an arch and his eyes, when they turned back to the event organizer shimmered with power. “Tell me. Tell me who has them!”
Devlin turned to listen as well, but the man who had organized hundreds of professional fights paled and his mouth opened, but barely made any sound.
“I can’t,” he gasped, “it can’t be him.”
“Who?”
Cage took a step forward and Devlin got in between them. It was a dangerous position to be in. Violence was a foregone conclusion, but they’d have to avoid deadly, at least with so many witnesses around. “Who?”
Devlin looked back over his shoulder at the other newcomer. “Dom?”
Taking off his shades, the other man stepped forward and tucked the sunglasses into his jacket pocket. “I think I can answer some of that.” He looked at the man shaking at the knees. “You started your career running illicit bare-knuckle boxing matches in the backrooms of London and some outer lying communities. That’s where you met Charles Hallsworth, whose official title is Viscount Wently.”
Cage made a grab for the other man and two of his fighters jumped in to hold him back. He knew that any other day they would have gladly helped Cage pull the man apart, but Cage was more beast than man at the moment and they needed the man alive.
Later would be another story.
“This was your plan from the beginning?”
“No,” the man shook his head, flinging drops of sweat from his skin, “no. When Wently came to me with an idea for this I thought he was crazy. I knew what he thought about shifters, but he convinced me that he just wanted to make money and to hear him tell it, if one of you died during the event, especially with it being broadcast for pay, that it would be fine with him and only make more in the end. Infamous is better than famous any day.”
Devlin cut in. “Where’s the girl?”
“I have no idea.” He shrugged. “He didn’t even tell me they were going to take her. He just said he wanted to see her again, make some peace and money to go with it.”
“And money he needs,” Dom provided, “Frances’ family, on her mother’s side is near destitute and Frances, she holds the key.”
Gordon was looking for a way out, but by that moment, there was a whole crowd formed around them.
Cage reiterated Devlin’s question. “Where are they holding them?”
“I don’t know!” Gordon started to clutch at his chest. “I’m just here to run the event. It’ll make everyone a lot of money!”
“As if that matters!” Cage was so close to shifting. His jaguar wanted blood, lots of it.
“Give me their phone numbers.” Devlin took out his phone. “We’ll start a trace with their cell companies.”
Dom reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a packet of papers and held it out to Cage. “You’ll want these to give to your lawyer.”
Cage narrowed his eyes but took the papers.
“I doubt you have a copy of this. I managed to dig it out of,” he looked at the gathered crowd, “of somewhere.”
Shaking his head, Cage tossed it to one of his men. “I don’t have time to slog through the words. What is that?”
“The Trust that your friend left for his daughter. Its value is a cool million and change.”
“Fraces’ phone isn’t on the grid,” Devlin looked up at Cage, but I’ve got Maggie’s phone pinged between three cell towers in the old warehouse area,” he met Cage’s eyes, “only about ten minutes from your place.”
Cage pushed through the group and grabbed Gordon by his shirt. He had him a few inches off the floor and could have taken him further, but the man sounded like he was going to have a heart attack. “The only reason I’m keeping you alive right now is because we haven’t found my cub and my mate. Once they’ve been found? All bets are off, Gordon.” He tossed him to the side and one of the men caught him easily. He looked at Devlin. “We taking your car?”
Devlin nodded. “It’ll give me a chance to test the suspension on it.”
Dom shook his head. “How many we got?”
Cage turned around and saw all of the local fighters waiting for instruction. “Looks like we’ve got more than enough.”
Maggie was still standing in the center of that big plastic tarp when one man came back out. She wasn’t leaving anything to chance. “What happened? What did you do to her?”
He shrugged. “We knocked her out with Ketamine. She’s no bigger than a kid. And even when we used enough to put down a horse and keep it down, she burned through that before you were awake.”
“And the next dose?” She didn’t want to encourage him, but she wanted to keep him talking. Any information she could get was helpful.
Information was necessary since she was already in trouble. Her arm was still numb? What kind of damage had been caused by someone slamming into her car? Well, she’d worry about that later. She just needed to know what parts of her were still in working order. The way she was now, the best she could hope to do was slow the men down and give Frances a chance to escape if the opportunity arrived.
“The next dose?” He swore under his breath. “I had my hands full keeping your little Poison Ivy from biting off my arm, so I had numbnuts in there give her the shot. The second one wore off even faster than the first. He probably can’t see for shit.”
“She’s probably afraid, you can’t hurt her. It’ll only make her mad.”
He glared at her. “I can handle one little bitch. Just like I’m going to handle you.”
He raised his gun and fixed it at the center of her chest. “You should have just let us take her. Smart people don’t play the hero where they’re not wanted.”
“I couldn’t let you take her,” she found some strength in the anger she felt, in the way it crawled across her skin. “She’s family to me.”
He swore under his breath. “People like you are sick in the head, lady. I’m doing the world a favor if I get rid of you and her at the same time. You think you’re tolerant or enlightened. You’re just as flawed as these… these monsters are!”
“Think what you want, but that young woman in there is one of the best people I know! I love her like a daughter and I love Cage. Don’t do this.”
“We’re leaving in a few minutes. Maybe I’ll do us all a favor,” he grinned at her and her blood ran cold, “maybe I’ll save you and let the kitty cat have a bite to eat later. Then again, why worry about dragging the two of you around?”
He pulled back the hammer of his gun, the click echoing in the room.
“At least you won’t go sticking your nose into other people’s business anymore.”
The bang echoed off the walls.
Chapter Fifteen
As the car sped along through the streets, Dom and Devlin argued over using the sirens. Cage, desperate for a distraction met Dom’s eyes in the mirror. “What were you doing in London?”
Dom’s eyes were steel grey, but they had a bit of warm humor in them. “Probably the same thing your Colonel is.”
Cage heard the sarcasm in the other shifter’s voice and answered him in kind. “Spotted him?”
He shrugged. “Considering that we were both digging around in the same family tree it makes it hard not to bump into each other with our shovels. He’s fairly good with the local tone and dialogue. I may have a job for him later if I need an inside man.”
Cage nodded. �
��Just remember he doesn’t come cheap.”
“The good ones like us usually don’t,” Dom grinned back at Cage from under his mustache, a sly smile that spoke of confidence to the bone. Cage knew bravado when he saw it, and that wasn’t Dom. The shifter in the car with them was confident because he could back it up.
He didn’t know Dom well, he’d met him when they’d both been helping Devlin with the search for Paige after she was taken. Since then, they’d had a few occasions to work with each other on some of Dom’s undercover work as part of Devlin’s unit in the Sylvan City PD. It took special skills to solve preternatural crimes and Dom was a wolf shifter, but those that knew how easily he was able to blend into situations joked that he was more coyote than wolf.
Cage rolled his right shoulder remembering the rather impressive and painful way that Dom had dislocated his shoulder during one of their fights to establish Dom’s undercover persona. It hurt like fuck, but it was worth it in the end. Or so Dom had said. Devlin had taken Cage out to get drunk off his ass on the top shelf stuff, so it all worked out.
Devlin’s radio flared to life. “Kerr, status?”
“We’ve got unmarked cars circling the blocks between the towers. So far, no signs of anyone in the area.”
Lifting up his eyes, Devlin met Cage’s in the rearview mirror. “Anything? Random cars, unlocked gates? Something?
“We’ll keep looking, Sir.”
The radio squawked and went silent. Cage felt his jaguar push so far forward into his body he was amazed he didn’t rip through the upholstery where his fingers were digging in. “Shit.”
Devlin swore under his breath. “We’re going to find them. I swear it.”
Fear tore through Cage and left him gasping for breath. Yeah, they would find them, but would it happen soon enough to save them? These men wouldn’t hurt Frances, they needed her, but Maggie. Maggie didn’t mean anything to them.
All he had left was faith or a little good luck. And Cage wasn’t a man who believed in either.
Maggie was waiting for the pain to start. For the rest of her life to become the last few grains of sand in an hour glass.
And when she opened her eyes, she knew it was coming but all she saw was a blinding light up ahead, and a man walking out of the glow.
She opened her mouth to say a prayer and realized she’d drawn a blank.
“Close the damn door!”
She blinked and saw the blinding glow fade into the left-over sunlight trying to make it through the closing side door of the warehouse.
“I thought you were going to get rid of her.”
Her captor raised his gun into the air. “I was about to. Don’t you knock?”
Their new addition gave the man a one fingered salute. “Don’t you ever stop fucking up?”
Waving his gun in the direction of the back room he told the new guy, “Go help him with the girl. We need to get her in the van and off this fucking island.”
As he walked past Maggie, he gave her a long look and a smile that made her face heat with anger. Assholes were always going to be assholes.
“What are you going to do with Frances?”
“We’re going to transport her home to jolly ol’ England.” The man’s accent sounded more like a leprechaun than an Englishman, but then again, he wasn’t anything like Colin Firth. For that alone, she wanted him to die a long slow death.
The side office doorway was suddenly filled. Between the two men they carried her out of the room, one man at the front holding her knees as if they were stretcher poles and the other man with his hands hooked under her arms. Frances’ head lolled to the side and as they moved her, her limbs looked lifeless as they dangled from the men’s hands.
Maggie couldn’t help the dismayed sob that burst from her lips, but she saw her captor’s smile and spat a few words at him. “If you’ve hurt her, Cage is going to kill you.”
“Honey, I’m not a rookie at this. I’ve been… ‘retrieving’ people longer than the little kitty cat has been alive.”
She could have killed him for the air quotes he’d used earlier. “But you’ve never taken a shifter before, have you?” She didn’t make it a question. She knew the answer already. His ineptitude with the tranquilizers was telling.
Latching onto that tidbit, she tried to get things under control.
“I know you haven’t.” She followed the two men who were carrying Frances to the door. “I can tell you where you went wrong.”
He jerked her hand back and swung her around. Holding the gun level with her head he ordered her to talk.
For a second, she almost laughed. The adrenaline rolling through her veins made her brash and apparently the threat of a bullet in her head wasn’t as scary as it had been the first few times he’d thrown it at her.
“Her metabolism. It’s not the same as a human.” She had to delay a move as long as possible and she needed to find a reason for the men not to separate them from each other.
The man holding Frances’ arms stopped walking. The man at the front stopped out of necessity.
“Yeah, so? What, she’s going to be hungry? We’ll throw her a steak.”
“That’s why you’re burning through the ketamine. It takes more to have the same effect on humans.”
The newcomer hissed. “We’re wasting time and she’s getting heavy. Let’s go.”
“I’m guessing you made your plans based on her weight and her age. It’s not going to be enough,” she told them, and put as much authority into her voice as she could muster. “It’s not going to be nearly enough.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Unless you have a corner drugstore in mind to pick up some ketamine on the way between here and the airstrip that I’m guessing you’re headed for, somewhere thousands of feet in the air, you’re going to have a pissed off lioness ready to rip out your throats and whatever other fleshy bits she can bite off with her fangs.” She let the words sink into the dull brains of the three men and then added a little kicker because she was suddenly more pissed than scared. “Don’t forget her claws.”
Now the newcomer was paying attention. “I didn’t sign up to die.”
“You signed up for kidnapping! What? You thought there wasn’t a chance for things to go south?” Her captor’s temper was nearing a breaking point. “I thought you were supposed to be some badass special ops soldier.”
“So, was Cage,” she shot back, looking at all of them in turn, “I wonder if your chickenshit employer did as good of a background check on Cage as he did on what it would take to drug Frances?” She looked at the newcomer, trying to gauge his reaction. He was the biggest question mark. “What are you? Army? Marine?” No reaction. “Not a SEAL. No, they have better manners and more skill.”
The gun came back up. “Shut up.”
“They didn’t have an official designation for what Cage did. He worked under my father. I doubt you even found records on them. The only thing anyone ever said about Cage and his men, were that they were resurrectionists. They walked into hell and saved souls.”
She saw a reaction in two of them as if her words had called up memories or hints of stories. Stories that had seemed like works of fiction then, but now… now they were thinking.
“Leave her. Leave now.” She turned to the man holding Frances’ shoulders and she saw the long tears in his sleeve, the hint of blood beneath. “Tell the coward that hired you that it wasn’t worth spilling your guts on the floor.”
She looked at the man with the gun at her head. Her bravado had limits, and she was nearing it. Oh, she wanted to be strong for Frances and Cage, but she was terrified. And even in this room with four other people she felt small and afraid.
“So go, I’ll take care of Frances. We won’t tell anyone.” She closed her eyes and prayed. “I couldn’t tell them what any of you looked like if I tried. So just go. And you can save yourselves.”
Devlin grabbed at his radio. “Kerr.”
“Sir, we spotted
a gate open.”
Dom lifted his eyes toward the ceiling. “Does he know how to tie his shoes too? Or does he use Velcro?”
“Anything else?”
There were a few seconds of silence on the other end. “Circling around, sir. Earlier the gate was closed. According to the computer, the building has been abandoned for more than a year.”
Cage sat up in the back of the car, his jaguar lifting his nose into air scenting for blood. If he didn’t find Frances and Maggie soon, he was going to lose control over his human side and end up prowling the streets as his animal. A jaguar big enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with most men.
“Keep a hold of yourself, Gamble.”
Turning on Dom, Cage knew what the other man saw. His eyes glittering with power, dark as midnight, his skin stretched taught over the animal underneath. He hadn’t seen Dom’s wolf, but he was likely just as big, perhaps a little more slender, but wolves made up for their lack of mass with wicked determination.
“I’m holding on.”
“You don’t look like it.” Dom ran his tongue over his teeth and sucked in a bit of air between them. “You don’t smell like it either.” Turning to nail Cage with a dark look, Dom narrowed his eyes. “You keep your shit together, Gamble. You have a child and a mate out there who fucking need you. You lose yourself in your animal now, and you’ll be all fighting instinct and maybe you won’t have a mind behind it that wants more than blood.”
Animals could smell bullshit.
They could smell a lie easier than that.
Cage’s jaguar curled back inside of him on Cage’s sheer will alone. “I’m going to need out of this car soon, or Devlin’s going to need new upholstery.” He looked down at his hands and saw the claws tipping his fingers.
“Sir?” The voice on the radio was slightly higher, excited.
Devlin let out a relieved hiss of breath. “What?”
“The open gate? There’s a van pulled up to the delivery ramp. Sylvan City Electric on the side, but Sir...”
