by Ann Gimpel
“Is there a way to track them?” Max asked, fighting for some level of rational thought.
“We don’t know.” Ryan’s voice was flat. He smeared makeup on Max’s face. “Because we need to leave this house to try.”
“Yes,” Devon leapt to his feet. “We’ll start with Audrey’s place. It was where the women were going.”
“We could have done that an hour ago if the two of you hadn’t been so rabid,” Johannes muttered. “Put some of that crap on my face, Ryan.”
“Don’t know that I need it,” Devon said. “My skin’s pretty dark.”
Ryan glanced his way. “You do. It only takes a second.”
“I’ll get us some firepower.” Max loped to the far side of the room and clicked the display of his wrist computer. A section of wall slid aside. He grabbed a laser pistol for himself and another for Johannes. Max half turned. “Ryan?”
The shifter snorted. “You’re kidding. I’ve got my own. What kind of head of security would I be if I had to borrow a gun?”
Max pushed a recessed button, and the wall moved back into place.
“Let’s take the hovercraft to Audrey’s,” Devon suggested. “We can leave from there with whatever we find.”
Max shook his head. “Uh-uh. There’s still the rule about no hovercraft within the city limits.”
“But you’re the governor,” Devon protested. “That gives you privileges.”
Max squeezed his eyes shut. They felt hot and gritty. He opened them and looked from one man to the next. “Yes, it gives me privileges. I also do not want our whereabouts broadcasted. I don’t want anyone following us or wondering what the fuck we’re doing.”
“All right.” Devon balled his hands into fists. “What do you propose?”
“We’ll take one of the cars to Audrey’s and find out what we can. I’ll collect my car. It has to be there.”
“No it doesn’t,” Ryan broke in. “The kidnappers might have shanghaied it.”
“I don’t think so,” Max said. “We probably won’t be that lucky. Taking my car would have been incredibly short-sighted. It has a tracking device so the cops always know where it is.”
“Go on.” Devon pounded a fist into his open palm and shifted from foot to foot. The need to get moving poured out of him.
“We’ll return here. By then it will be dark. We’ll leave without filing a flight plan and without electronics so it will be harder to track us.”
“I hope to God we have a solid destination by then.” Johannes’ voice was so low, it took Max’s lupine senses to hear him.
You and me both. “Come on,” Max said. “Let’s roll.”
* * * *
Audrey sat on a chilly concrete floor in what looked like a bunker left over from times when Americans were scared shitless the Russians were going to bomb them. The eight by ten windowless room was dimly lit by a single bulb hanging from the ceiling. A bucket sat in one corner: her toilet. Other than the bucket, the room was empty. She had no idea where the men had taken Kate.
She scanned the small space again, then got to her feet and walked the length of each wall, hunting for cameras or any electronic surveillance equipment. She wanted to try her wrist computer—but not if someone was watching her. Finally, she huddled in a corner. With her body as a barrier, she dragged the computer out of its pocket, powered it up, and glanced at the signal strength. Zero bars.
I really must be underground. A long way underground.
She hung her head and gritted her teeth together to manage crushing disappointment. She’d been so hopeful. A tear slid down one cheek. She secreted the computer back in its place in her pants and continued her circuit of the room. If anyone were watching, perhaps they wouldn’t think anything of her stint in the corner. After all, she hadn’t been there very long.
A faint scratching came from behind her. Audrey cocked her head and dialed in her lupine senses to listen. At least I can do that much with my neophyte shifter skills. Yes, she hadn’t imagined it. There it was again. She moved to where the sound was loudest and sat on the floor so she could make a scratching noise back.
Soon, a pattern emerged. Eleven scratches, a pause, one scratch, a pause…
Kate. It was Kate spelling out things with scratches. Audrey scratched I understand back. It took forever to communicate, but both women hadn’t been harmed—not yet anyway.
“Who cares how long it takes,” Audrey mumbled. “We’ve got nothing but time to kill anyway.” The back and forth messaging took her mind off the desperate nature of her situation. No one knew their location. They were at the mercy of an insane group of shifters who wanted Max dead and the shifter underground disbanded.
She managed to ask Kate about talking to her wolf. Kate scratched back, don’t. They were in the middle of a conversation about escape ideas when her door clicked open. Tom stood there. “Get up. You’re coming with me.”
Audrey scrambled to her feet. Terror thickened her throat and burned in her stomach. What were they going to do to her? Would they torture her? “I-I don’t know anything,” she stammered.
“Get moving. I’ll drag you if I have to.”
Maybe he’ll take me higher where I can use the computer. Audrey hung onto that thought. Hope was all she had. Without it, she’d sink into a writhing mass of hysterical nerves. They walked to the end of a hallway lined with the same concrete blocks that lined her cell. Tom passed his hand over an electronic plate; a door whirred open, and she stepped into an elevator that whisked them upward.
“How deep were we?” she asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking.
“Doesn’t matter. We ask the questions around here.”
She raised her chin. “Too bad. My next one was where are you taking me?”
He didn’t answer. She tried another gambit. Maybe if she could shock him, or piss him off, he’d spill something important she could use to escape. “I know you’re a shifter.”
He rounded on her, dark eyes on fire. “You damn betcha. A real one. Not some phony whore like you. Fucking serum. Made a whole bunch of you into what you should never have been.”
Anger kindled. It felt good and gave her courage. “Really? Your priorities are skewed. You need every single one of us to throw off the government’s yoke. I’d think you’d be grateful. I took a hell of a chance with the black market. I could have poisoned myself.”
“Too bad you didn’t.” The elevator door opened. He shoved her through so roughly, she nearly tumbled headlong. “Let me tell you something, sister. Being a shifter is a God-given gift. When you manipulate it with science, you cheapen it. If you’d been meant to be born one of us, you would have been. March.” He pointed down a long hall. This one had sheetrock walls and light spilled through the occasional window.
We’re above-ground. Now if I can just get a moment to myself. “Uh, is there a bathroom?”
“You had a bucket in your cell.”
“I was just thinking about using it when you showed up.”
His face twisted into a grimace, and he clicked his wrist computer. A stone-faced woman with short black hair and blue eyes emerged through a door and grabbed her wrist. “I’ll take you. No funny business.” She flashed a laser pistol and then tucked it back under her jacket.
The woman pushed open a door on the opposite side of the hall. Audrey’s heart squeezed. No stalls. Just a toilet in one corner and a sink. Heat rose to her face. “Are you going to watch me?”
“Yes. If you really have to go. Get it over with.”
Audrey sat and peed, careful to cover the computer’s bulge in her pocket with a hand. “Thanks.” She tried a smile once she was done, but the woman just grunted, opened the door, and turned her back over to Tom.
Questions rumbled through Audrey’s head. She’d gotten Tom talking before when she’d asked if he were a shifter. “So,” she aimed for a neutral tone, “why aren’t you blaming the government for the edict that drove you into hiding?”
“What’s the
point? Things weren’t all that bad. A lot of us were still working under the table, and the black market had everything we needed.” He blew out an angry-sounding breath. “The underground blew things all to hell.”
“How?” Despite being a prisoner and at the splinter group’s mercy, she was curious.
“You’ll be questioned inside the council chamber. Ask them.”
“Do you think they’ll answer me?”
He shrugged. “Who the fuck knows? Stop here.” He placed his palm on another glass plate; a double door popped open, and he shoved her inside.
Throat so tight it was hard to get a full breath, Audrey looked around her. She was in a large room. Tan walls, with peeling paint, and a scarred linoleum floor suggested no one bothered with maintenance. Windows looked out on other buildings. She knew they were somewhere in the North Bay, but her abductors had finally gotten around to blindfolding both her and Kate half an hour before the car quit moving.
A raised dais spanned one side of the room. Four men sat in chairs and stared at her. Two were older with long, graying hair. The other two didn’t look a day over thirty. One was the back seat blond from their drive to the North Bay. The other had short, light brown hair; Audrey didn’t recognize him. Maybe twenty-five other people sat in folding chairs scattered at random around the room. Everyone was dressed in ragged clothing with multiple patches.
Compassion cut through her fear. These were her people. Look what had happened to them. “I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“You’ll be a whole lot sorrier before we’re done with you, sister,” one of the older men at the front of the room said. “Hook her up.”
“Hook me up to what?”
“You talk too much.” Tom closed a hand over her upper arm and dragged her to a wall outfitted with large eye-bolts and leather straps. “Take off your top.”
“No.” Audrey closed her arms over her chest. Two men rose from nearby chairs. They each grabbed an arm. While they held her arms over her head, Tom pulled her top off.
“When you feel the whip, you won’t be saying no,” one observed before returning to his chair.
“Let me out. Now.” Claws pressed against her fingertips. One protruded. She considered taking a swipe at Tom, but the whole room would mob her if she hurt one of theirs.
“I know you want to help, but I just can’t see where being a wolf would help us right now.” The claw retracted.
Tom eyed her oddly. “Smart move, missy. Turn around and face the wall.”
“I’m not going to try to escape. That would be stupid.” Audrey aimed her words at the four men on the dais. “Can’t we just talk?”
“Oh, we’ll talk all right,” one of the gray-haired men snapped. “First, you’ll be punished.”
“For what?”
“Taking a drug to force your body to shift.”
Tom grabbed her shoulders and spun her to face the wall, slamming her body into it. Pain ratcheted through her. He held her against the wall with the length of his powerful body while he buckled the leather straps around her wrists.
Conversation ebbed and flowed around her. No one lifted so much as a finger to help. They talked about how soon the punishment would begin. Annoyance that not everyone is here yet, was a common theme.
I’m trapped in a bad science fiction movie.
Tom’s weight moved off her. She tugged both wrists, but the leather only tightened. Her arms ached already; she could only imagine how they’d feel if these barbarians left her like this for very long.
“How many?” a voice called.
“Twenty lashes.”
“What is this?” Audrey craned her head around and tried to look at the four men. “The Middle Ages? Flogging went out hundreds of years ago.”
“Aye, Miss,” a voice with a strong Scottish burr said. “There are those of us who are that old—and older. We remember how effective it can be.” A high-pitched whistling sound filled the air just before liquid fire bloomed the length of her back.
“Stop! No more! Stop! Stop!” Audrey screamed and screamed again. She’d never experienced pain so searing. The whip fell again. And again. After six strokes, she wished for unconsciousness. After ten, she hoped she’d die. Blood dripped down her back and spattered the floor.
“Are you going to let them kill us without putting up a fight?” her wolf demanded.
“Yes. No. I don’t know. I can’t think anymore. Hurts too bad.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” a voice rang out from behind her. There was something familiar about it, but Audrey couldn’t figure it out. Footsteps pounded toward her and then arms closed around her.
His scent and his voice clicked. Relief made her light-headed. “Daddy?”
“Yes, princess. No one’s going to hurt you anymore. I’ll get you down.”
Chapter 15
Ron Westen undid her wrists and cradled her against him. The material of his corduroy shirt felt soft and soothing next to her face. Audrey was beyond tears. Her back hurt so much, even thinking took a huge effort.
“We weren’t done,” a voice from the front of the room cracked like the whip that had done so much damage.
“Too fucking bad. This is my daughter. You will not hurt her further. Send someone with a first aid kit over here.” Every inch of Ron’s six foot four inch frame quivered. He’d kept himself in superb shape, and his blond hair only had a touch of gray in it. Blue eyes kindled with outrage as he silently dared the others to countermand him.
“You don’t issue orders, Westen.”
“Today I do.” He kissed Audrey’s forehead and took her to a chair. “I’m so sorry, princess. If I’d known one of the captives was you, I’d have been here on time. None of this would have happened.”
Audrey raised her tear-streaked face. “Is this,” she waved a hand weakly in the air, “common enough you all just accept it? You said captives as if you’ve seen a lot of them.”
Her father dropped his gaze, looking ashamed. A woman walked over carrying a red box with a white cross on it. Audrey clamped her jaws together and struggled to her feet. “That can wait.” She pointed at the first aid kit. “This can’t. You all know I work for Maximillian Sigayev, Governor of California and head of the shifter underground. It’s why you kidnapped me. What you probably don’t know is I’m also his mate.” Whispers with an angry undercurrent spread through the room; Audrey ignored them. “Kate, the other woman you snapped up, was just collateral damage. She’s a bona fide shifter and from everything I’ve heard a damned brave one. You should run down, free her, and beg her forgiveness.”
A rustle ran through the crowd. Audrey sucked in a deep breath. As long as she stood still, her injuries were manageable.
“You do not have the floor,” back seat blond thundered. He jumped to his feet and brandished a fist.
“I can’t believe Max would mate with a half breed,” someone cried out.
Audrey turned toward the voice. “Oh, really?” she mocked. “You hate him so much you kidnapped me to get to him and now you’re worried about who he takes as his mate? How touching.” She held up her right hand, so the mating wound was visible. “I’m many things, but not a liar. The cuts on my side from the ritual mating stone have probably been obliterated by the whip marks.”
“You’ve been told you do not have the floor. Sit down,” one of the gray-haired men at the front table shouted.
“Oh yes, I do,” Audrey shouted right back. “You have nothing to lose by listening to me. I have much more timely intel than you because I’ve been living in the world you ran away from.” An ugly sound moved through the throng. Audrey jumped on it. “Yes, ran away and left your fellow shifters to fend for themselves. Things weren’t going all that well—for any of you—and then the government developed that serum you all think is demon-spawned.”
She moved closer to the dais. “It’s not. It’s your salvation.” She held her hands out in front of her. “Don’t you see? It’s what will create enough of you to
get the edict repealed once and for all. Even politicians, as self-serving and dimwitted as they are, understand they can’t wage a war against half their constituency.
“I asked for the serum, goddammit. Of my own free will. I put myself at risk getting it from the black market. It might not have been pure. It could have been poison. It might have killed me.” Audrey pounded a fist into her thigh and winced as the movement set her flayed skin on fire. “I did it for you. For all of us. So we could walk free with our heads high again.”
“So now you’re some sort of Joan of Arc,” back seat blond sneered.
“No, I’m a shifter just like you.” Audrey paused to let her words sink in and then repeated them. “Yes, just like you. If I weren’t, Max couldn’t have formed a mate bond with me.” She waved her hands expansively in front of her despite waves of pain in her back. “Just look at yourselves. Your clothes are rags. This room hasn’t seen paint or even simple cleaning in a long time. This isn’t living. You’re surviving. Where’s your pride, goddammit? At least if you were part of the underground you’d have jobs and meaning in your lives other than waiting out the Gotterdammerung.”
“Audrey, princess, come sit down.” Her father moved to her side. “You’re overwrought.”
She turned to him. “Yes, I am. With good reason. Abraham Lincoln said, A house divided against itself cannot stand. We’re not any different. We have to work together.” Audrey turned back to the group in front of the room and lowered her voice. She’d been practically screaming. “You did what you thought best at the time. I know that because my father is one of the most level-headed men I’ve ever known, and he took my mother, the love of his life, and joined you in hiding.”
Ron snorted. “Your mother insisted on coming with me. Wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Someone in the crowd chuckled; it was contagious. The mood in the room split wide open with everyone talking at once. Audrey squeezed her eyes shut and sagged against her father, taking care to lean on her shoulder. “Thank God. They’re going to listen to reason.”
