by C. D. Hersh
The captain’s mouth formed an O. “You love him.” A stunned expression crossed her face. “Oh, my gosh, what did you do to get this information?”
Ashamed she’d betrayed him, Kat’s gaze swept to the floor. “I slept with him.” Her words, barely audible, sounded to her as if they reverberated against the wall.
The captain rose from her chair and knelt beside her. Wrapping an arm around her, she said, “Katrina, I’m so sorry. I should have never asked you to do this.”
“He proposed, and I got swept away in the moment.” Tears brimmed in her eyes as she raised her gaze to the captain. “It was wonderful and awful. I need him redeemed so we can be together.”
Her cell buzzed, breaking the intense moment. She pulled it from her pocket. “It’s Owen.”
“Answer it. Quick. Before he hangs up.”
“Hi,” she said, trying to keep the tremor from her voice.
“I need you, Kat. Now.”
The urgency in his voice frightened her. “What’s wrong?”
“Can you get away from work?”
Cutting her gaze to the captain, she said, “Get off work?”
Captain Temple nodded her head vigorously.
“Sure. Where are you?”
“Meet me at Papa Perro’s. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
Thumbing off the phone, Kat stared at the blinking screen. “He sounded shaken. Even afraid.”
“I’m sending shifter bodyguards with you. If he’s afraid of something it could mean Falhman is on to him. He may sense the guards.”
“What should I tell him if he does?”
“They are there to protect you. Both of you.”
The minute Owen saw Kat approach surrounded by Alexi’s shifters, he scowled. He did not look happy with her escorts.
“What are they doing here?” he demanded.
“Could you give us some space?” she asked the shifters. They dispersed around the restaurant, backs to the walls. “When you called, I was in Captain Temple’s office. I said you sounded afraid, and she thought I . . . we . . . might need protection.” She slid into the booth next to him and laid her hand on his leg. The muscle twitched beneath her fingers. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re in danger. You’ve got to leave right away.”
She snorted. “I’m not going anywhere without a good explanation. This is my home. And you . . . well, you know.”
“Exactly why you have to leave.” He shoved her hand off his leg and scooted away from her. “I should have never let you into my apartment or accepted your apology or made love to you.”
“Or proposed?” she asked gently.
“Especially that. If I hadn’t done those things you wouldn’t be in danger now.”
“I knew you were in trouble when I let you make love to me and when you proposed. I realized you had a dark past . . . a dark life . . . and I made love to you anyway. You aren’t to blame for any danger I’m in.
“I could have easily walked away. Well, not easily, because I love you, Owen. Whatever trouble you’re in we’ll get through it together.” The words flowed freely, and her heart lifted as she expressed her love. “Tell me what’s wrong, and we’ll figure it out together.” She slid closer to him and slipped her arm around his waist. Her hand rammed into something hard and cold and metallic.
Withdrawing her hand quickly she whispered, “Are you carrying a gun?”
“Yes. But I’m not going to use it.”
“I should hope not.”
“Unless one of Alexi’s goons start shooting at me.” He directed a glare around the room at the other shifters.
She moved away from him, pressing again for answers. When he didn’t reply, she said, “Here’s what I know. Someone named Falhman, whom you seem to be in cahoots with, has ordered a hit on your mother. You’re out for revenge against Alexi Temple’s husband because you think he killed your friend, Roc. You’re protecting someone’s baby from I don’t know who or what. And you’re either spying on the police, for the police, or both. Am I getting close to the problem?”
“How do you know this? I’ve not mentioned anything to you except my friend’s brother killed him.”
“I overheard some of it while tracking you one night after I discovered your shape shifting secret and before we slept together. Captain Temple told me some of it.”
“Damn woman should have kept her mouth shut. Dragging you into this.” His eyes flashed gold.
Kat held her hands out, palms facing him. “Calm down and talk to me. I can’t help you if you don’t.”
“I don’t want you to help. I want you to leave to keep you safe.”
“Not gonna happen, so you might as well tell me everything. I don’t run from trouble, Owen. I kill it. Vampires. Werewolves. Succubae. Zombies. Remember? Shape shifters in trouble don’t frighten me. Start from the beginning, and don’t leave anything out.”
He slumped against the back of the booth and ran his hands through his curly hair. “You’re impossible. You know that, don’t you?”
“So my momma always said.”
“Falhman wants me to kill my mother.”
“Kill your mother? You can’t do that.”
“I know. He says she, not Rhys, killed my friend.”
“Alexi says Rhys didn’t do it. According to her, Roc sacrificed his life for his brother.”
“If that’s true, then is Falhman right about Mom? Or just tired of her and using me to get rid of her? Playing on my need for revenge. Either way, if I don’t kill her, he’ll go after you. Which is exactly why I walked out on you the night we argued about whether I killed a man or a bear. He knew we were together and issued a veiled threat. I was protecting you.
“But when you came to my apartment and accepted the real me, and revealed your involvement in the paranormal, I let myself get drawn back in, in spite of the danger, because I love you. Bottom line, if I don’t get you and Mom to safety, we’re all going to end up dead. I’m trying to convince Alexi to help me save Mom by getting her a new identity, playing the family card.”
“Family card?”
“My father was Alexi’s uncle. I was hoping family would help family. But there’s a lot of bad blood between Mom and Alexi. So I’ve been piecemealing Falhman’s planned crimes to Alexi in an attempt to get her to help me.”
“What kind of crimes?”
“I don’t know the whole scope of them, but I think they involve some kind of chemical attack. I’m supposed to get a shipment and deliver it to a mobile lab. After I do, my usefulness to Falhman is over if I don’t kill my mother and prove myself to him.”
“You have to tell the captain everything, Owen. She can help us all escape.”
“I can’t even get her to agree to help Mom. What do you think she’s going to do when she finds out I had plans to kill her . . . and Rhys?”
Kat’s heart nearly stopped at Owen’s confession. “Are you still planning to kill them?”
“I’m done with killing. Falhman asking me to kill my mother shocked the hatred out of me. I recognized myself becoming like him. I didn’t want that.”
His gaze met hers, and she saw true repentance in his eyes. Finally, they had a chance at finding happiness.
“Perhaps if you tell her what you just told me, she’ll forgive you. Perhaps they’ll both forgive you. That’s what family does.”
“I’m not going to grovel.”
“You don’t have to grovel. Just talk to her and tell her everything. Please, do it for me, Owen. For us. If you don’t come clean we don’t have a chance, Falhman or no Falhman.” Tugging his arm, she urged him up. “We’ll go to headquarters right now and talk to her.” Reluctantly, he rose and fell into step beside her.
Giving him a bright smile, she said, “Ev
erything will be all right, you’ll see.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, dread rolled over her, and she cursed her gypsy intuition. Something bad still loomed on the horizon.
Owen pulled up the pictures of the files he copied from Falhman’s office and handed his cell phone over to Alexi, his gaze swinging between the police captain, her husband, and the Keeper of the Stone. When Owen had come into the precinct and said he wanted to tell her everything he knew to get a new deal, she made him wait until her cohorts arrived. Left him squirming under the harsh stare of Mary Kate McCraigen, who looked like she’d prefer to shoot him than bargain with him.
“It’s all there,” he said as Kat took his hand and squeezed it. “The rest of the plan of the terrorist attack on the Cleveland Rocks event. His plan to undermine the police force and lay the blame on your doorstep. The poison ingredients for sarin gas he’s shipping in and wants me to get. The mobile lab. Everything thing I know of his criminal activities. And his contract on my mother, which he just ordered me to fulfill.”
Owen extended his arm where Falhman had implanted the RFID key. “As soon as we get this out of me, you can have it, too.”
Alexi handed Owen’s cell to Mary Kate. “Get the files off the phone and return it to him. He might need it tonight.” Returning her attention to him, she asked, “What do you want in exchange? Immunity for rolling over on Falhman?”
“Nothing for me. Just get Mom and Kat out of Cleveland and give them a new start somewhere else. Some place where Falhman won’t find them.”
“Owen!” Kat gasped. “That’s not what we discussed.”
“You’ve got a better chance at escaping if I’m not with you. He’ll hunt me down once he finds out I double-crossed him.”
“Captain,” Kat pleaded.
“He’s right. The chances of survival are better without him.”
“I don’t care. If he doesn’t go, I don’t go.”
“Rhys, Eli. What do you think?”
“Now ye ask me fer my opinion, lassie? I think yer mind ’tis already made up.”
“I say yes. We’ll begin our leadership with mercy,” Rhys said.
“I vote, yes. Eli?”
“In the face o’ all this evil, the two o’ ye still believe mercy ’tis the right thing tae do here? That justice isnae served by striking the Son o’ the Moonless Night and his wicked mither down?”
“Come on, old man,” Rhys said. “Don’t tell me you never did anything wrong and needed forgiveness?”
“Mayhap a time or two, but it wasnae o’ the magnitude o’ their sins.”
“Great sin requires greater grace,” Alexi said softly. “He is helping us, and he is family.”
“Mayhap he’s rolling away from the apple tree a wee bit mair than I suspected.” Eli stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Verra well, I vote tae forgive and help, but I willnae forget, fer forgetting ’tis a fool’s errand.”
Owen’s breath rushed out in an audible whoosh. “Thank you. You won’t regret it. I promise.”
“Include him,” Kat said fiercely. “He will come, even if I have to knock him out and drag him by his curly, black head.”
“I think she means that,” Alexi said.
In his heart he was grateful Kat cared so much, but his head told him it would not happen. “Will you keep Kat with you tonight, Alexi? Rhys and I have something we need to do.”
“You can wait with me at the house, Katrina. You’ll be safe there.”
“Uh-uh.” Kat shook her head vigorously. “I go where you go. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
Gathering her in his arms, Owen held her close and whispered, “Please, Kat. Do as I ask. I need to get this RFID chip out of my arm. If I don’t know you’re safe, I can’t concentrate on the job at hand. I don’t know what else Falhman might have implanted in it. A bomb? A tracking device? If I do go with you, I don’t want to take a chance on leaving it in my arm.”
“Okay. You have a point. But after tonight, I’m sticking to you like grave dirt on a zombie.”
“Such a lovely picture.”
“Get used to it because you’re not getting rid of me.” She cupped his face in her hands and drew his lips to hers.
Oblivious of his surroundings, he gave into her kisses, storing them in his heart and mind. They might be the last ones they would ever share.
Chapter 34
Owen, shifted into a burly goon, stationed himself outside Falhman’s penthouse elevator where the guard he’d taken down earlier normally stood. Touching the earpiece tucked in his ear, he tested his communication link with Rhys. Then he fingered the elevator key and the buzzer Falhman used to contact his lobby guards, checking they remained in his pocket. Both things secured, he glanced at his watch.
The change in Falhman’s calendar had forced Owen to move his plans forward, since he had no idea when the kingpin would leave for his appointed screwing date. For that matter, Owen wasn’t even sure if Falhman would leave the building or have the hussy brought to him. Two hours standing at attention next to the elevator had started to bother his nerves.
The buzzer vibrated in his pocket, and the elevator dinged. Looking up, he saw the penthouse floor number illuminate. A minute later, the elevator door opened, and the silver-haired Falhman exited.
“Have my car brought around,” the kingpin said.
“Yes, sir,” Owen replied. Crossing the intricately patterned, marble floor, he went to the front desk, like he’d seen the guards do, and ordered Falhman’s car. Moving to the door, he said to Rhys, “Target coming out.”
When Falhman reached the door, Owen opened it and followed him out, standing behind him until his luxury sedan drove to the curb. As the car wheeled away with a swirl of white exhaust, he heard Rhys curse.
“Something wrong?” Owen asked.
“Yeah. I gotta follow him.”
“That wasn’t the deal,” Owen protested. “You’re supposed to keep watch while I search for the photo.”
“If I’ve made his aura right, there’s another person who’s in more danger from Falhman right now than you. She has no way to protect herself. Sorry, buddy. Get in and out as fast as you can. If I’m right, you’ll have less than forty-five minutes.”
The communications went silent. Owen dashed across the red carpet under the canvas, domed awning, then slammed the front door open with his palm and strode to the elevator. So much for help from Rhys Temple. When the elevator door closed he inserted the guard’s key into the penthouse lock and turned it.
The butler opened the door and intoned, “Mr. Falhman isn’t in.”
“Yeah, I know,” Owen said, in the nasal Jersey voice his mimic used. “The boss sent me back to get something from the office.”
The lean butler planted himself firmly in the doorway. “This is highly irregular.”
“I know. So’s this.” He karate-chopped the man right in his bobbing Adam’s apple. The butler crumpled to the floor. Stepping over him, Owen closed the door and waited to see if the noise brought anyone to investigate. When no one came, he zip-tied the butler’s hands and ankles and placed a gag in his mouth. Then he went to Falhman’s office.
Searching frantically, Owen checked all the desk drawers, including the one he opened with the RFID key in his arm, but found no photo. As he started to close the electronically locked drawer he noticed the shallow depth. He knocked on the wooden drawer bottom. Hollow? A false bottom?
With his thumb he pressed around the edge of the drawer searching for a lock. When he reached the right rear, a metallic click sounded and the bottom sprung open. The picture he needed lay in the false bottom. He grabbed it, snapped a photo with his cell camera, and carefully placed the item back in the drawer. After replacing the drawer bottom, he locked it and rushed out of the office.
As he left, it occurred to him he was either getting soft or turning into a good shifter. A few days ago, he’d have killed them both instead of knocking them out. Kat would like the new Owen. If he lived long enough to tell her.
Hugh’s cell buzzed in his pocket. Reaching down, he thumbed it on and held it to his ear, his middle finger shoved in the opposite ear to cut down the noise from the bar. The dock workers argued, very loudly, over who would make the Super Bowl.
“Where the hell have you been?” Rhys asked. “I’ve been calling for ten minutes.”
“Sorry, man. I didn’t hear the phone.”
“Where are you?”
“The Dew Drop.”
“Is LJ with you?”
“No. Cookie says she’s sick. I’ve got a burger on order. I’m taking it to her when it’s ready.”
“Forget the burger and get your butt over to her right now!”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think the shifter is on his way to her house.”
Hugh shot out of his seat and grabbed his hat and coat off the chair. “Meet you there.”
Once outside he ran to his car and roared out of the parking lot, running every yellow light he came to, and a few red ones. He squealed to a stop in front of LJ’s house and dashed up the sidewalk. Pounding on the door he shouted, “LJ. Open up. It’s me. Hugh.”
