“No, someone tipped off the press. The story broke and the police had to play catch-up. They did everything they could, but they were outplayed.” Cynthia picked up her coffee cup and drank the bitter liquid, grateful for the buzz of caffeine. “We were lucky Cracol was already in police custody or we might have lost him, too.”
“Wow, that’s terrible.” Hunter shook his head. “I had no idea how deep this went.”
“Very deep. Bribe the right people and you can get away with anything. For a time.” Jenna pressed her lips together, she’d seen firsthand how corruption spread if left unchecked.
“So whoever sent the letter figured you’d speak to Michaela and then go back.” Flint didn’t sound convinced.
Cynthia inhaled deeply. “After Michaela’s interview with the press where she accused the police of abandoning her son, I made a request to the team in charge of the investigation.” She looked up, meeting the eyes of the other people around the table. “I requested a new search of the forest. I offered to find the funding they’d need. I was turned down.”
“You think they were hiding something? The police investigation into the trafficking ring had been infiltrated?” Hunter asked.
“No.” Cynthia shook her head. “I know the detective in charge of the operation, and he is as straight as they come.”
“Then why?” Jenna asked. “Usually these things are about funding and resources. If you offered to finance it, why did they turn you down?”
“Because they didn’t need the publicity that would come with it. They didn’t want it to become a media circus.” Cynthia could understand their reasoning, even if she didn’t agree with it. “Their conclusion was that the children from the farmhouse were gone, either dead or sold. They’d done a helicopter search and found nothing. To divert the public’s attention back to the farmhouse and the forest would have delayed other areas of their investigation.”
Cynthia’s heart ached for Michaela. How could she ever rest? How could she ever get on with her life if she believed Horatio was still alive?
“Someone thinks they know you well enough to persuade you to go and look for Horatio yourself.” Flint got up and refilled everyone’s coffee cup. “And they would be right.”
“It makes sense,” Cynthia continued. “I have gone over every other person I’ve ever had dealings with. Every person who I have helped jail and none of them fit in with the letter. It has to be connected to this case, to the farmhouse and the forest.”
“Agreed.” Jenna smiled as the children broke out into peals of laughter in the next room. “Although I don’t want you to go, I think having Thomas and Laurel here will show Jake and Marion it’s okay to be a child. And it’s okay to be a shifter.”
“They’re good kids. We’ll figure it out.” Flint put his hand on Jenna’s shoulder and squeezed it.
“You knew they were shifters.” Jenna half turned to face her husband. “Didn’t you?”
“I had my suspicions and so did Fiona, which is why she thought they would be a good match with us,” Flint admitted.
“You knew and you didn’t tell me,” Jenna accused. “What about being honest with your mate?”
“I didn’t know for sure and I didn’t want you to feel out of your depth.” Flint sat down in his chair and tried to explain further. “All this talk about shifters being superheroes, I didn’t want you to feel as if you might not live up to their expectations.”
“That is very sweet,” Cynthia told Flint. “I don’t know about Jenna, but it is hard not being the same as you guys.”
“It is.” Jenna leaned against Flint, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders. “At least this way I got to know them a little first.”
“And proved to yourself what a good mom you are.” Flint kissed her and then turned his attention back to tomorrow and the mission to rescue the children. “This has given me something to think about. Shifter children hiding out.”
“It has?” Cynthia asked and then she understood what Flint might mean. “The reason why Horatio hasn’t tried to make it out of the forest is because he is dealing with shifting for the first time?” She ran her hands through her hair, excitement building. “Horatio was in his early teens. You said children don’t shift until they hit puberty.”
“That’s right.” Hunter was following her train of thought with enthusiasm. “If he can’t control it, if he can’t shift back, he can’t ask for help. Especially if he’s stuck.”
Flint nodded. “He might also have trouble shifting back to his human form. Sometimes, especially if emotions are running high, it can be difficult to shift back the first couple of times.”
Hunter rubbed his hand over his chin. “He might be stuck.”
“First we have to find out if Horatio is a shifter,” Jenna gave Cynthia a pained look. “You’ll have to call Michaela again tomorrow and somehow ask her if her child is a shifter.”
“I’ll have to think about how I can do that without just asking outright,” Cynthia said thoughtfully.
“Just ask,” Flint told her. “If she has no idea what you are talking about, just explain it away and move on.”
“I can do it,” Cynthia said. “And if he is a shifter, I’ll find out what he is so we will at least know what animal we need to look for.”
“I hope you can bring Horatio home and reunite him with his mom.” Jenna’s face contorted in pain. “I never knew how hard it would be taking in two children who have lost their parents. I’d give anything to reunite them with their mom and dad.”
“But we know that isn’t going to happen, so we have to be the best parents we can be for them,” Flint reminded her.
“I know. And now that we know what we are dealing with, we can be, we can get ready.” Jenna gave a nervous smile. “Even though I have absolutely no idea what to expect.” She glanced at Flint. “They can get stuck?”
“Not if they have a good teacher who is patient and sensitive,” Hunter replied, with a swift look toward Flint.
“I have patience,” Flint insisted. “Sometimes.”
“Well you have a few years to cultivate your patience,” Jenna told him. “Because when they start to shift, we have to be ready. We have to have earned their trust.”
“We will. Don’t worry. I’m very trustworthy.” Flint might be gruff on the outside, but Cynthia had to agree he was one of the best people she’d ever met.
“I would totally trust you with my life,” Cynthia said. “And the life of my children. Which is why they are staying with you both.”
“We’ll look after them, just as we did before,” Jenna insisted.
“So this forest?” Flint steered the conversation back to the reason they were leaving the children. “It’s big and dense. If Horatio has shifted, he could be anywhere in there.”
“I know, but I’m confident we can find him.” Hunter’s confidence made Cynthia feel more at ease. She’d seen the size of the forest when the farmhouse was discovered as a hideout. It would take months for a police search party to cover it all, but she was confident her two superheroes, Hunter and Guy, would get the job done. In days. Was she hoping too much?
“I was looking at the landscape earlier,” Flint got up from the table and fetched a laptop, which he set down in front of them, the screen turned toward Hunter and Cynthia. “I believe this is a good location to start. But that was before we factored in the chance of Horatio hiding out because he’s a shifter.”
Hunter pointed at the screen. “This area might contain an old cave system.”
Cynthia peered closer. “Yes, the ground rises up. There might be shelter there. But Horatio wouldn’t necessarily have known that.”
“He would have traveled across the forest, hunting and looking for shelter.” Flint sat back in his chair. “It’s all speculation since we have no idea if Horatio was taken into the forest. Or if he’s alone. If we factor in him being dumped with other children, that changes things significantly,” Flint stared at the screen, as if willing
it to send him a subliminal message.
“In what ways does it change things?” Cynthia asked, her face pale. “Would he hunt the other children?”
“No, he has control over his instincts, he’s still Horatio inside, he just can’t bring the human side of himself back into this world,” Hunter reassured her. “But this is all speculation. We don’t know that shifting is even a factor in this.”
“So all of this is just guesswork?” Cynthia’s work depended on facts, that was how she’d brought down Cracol in the first place. But those facts had to be carefully distilled for the information at hand. Information they could only gather when they reached the forest.
“Yes, all guesswork. When we reach the forest, we will have a better idea of what happened to the children. If there is any scent left behind, we should be able to follow it,” Hunter exchanged a quick glance with Flint, which Cynthia caught. Her job relied on her picking up the smallest of changes in body language or expressions. Those minute changes often told much about what a person was thinking or feeling.
“What’s wrong?” Cynthia asked.
“There’s nothing exactly wrong,” Hunter assured her.
“But?”
“But the strongest scent would be from a cadaver.” Flint grimaced as he said the word.
“So if Horatio or any of the other children are dead, they will be easier to find.” Cynthia pressed her lips together. She understood only too well. “We’re going in to find the children, and the best way to find them is if you pick up their scent, but that might mean they’re dead.”
“Pretty much,” Hunter confirmed. “But even if there is no scent, we can find them.”
“You’re lucky, Guy has managed to persuade Liam to come with you,” Flint looked pleased with this new information.
“Liam? That’s such good news,” Jenna replied. “He’s an eagle shifter, he’ll be able to cover a lot more ground. Or sky.”
“Excellent,” Hunter agreed. “He’ll be our eyes in the sky. If he can scout ahead, we should be able to split up and look for the children in a more systematic way.”
“One piece of good news,” Cynthia said. “I’m more nervous about this than I have been about most of my investigations. I’m too emotionally involved in this to look at it with a clear head.”
“You’ll feel better tomorrow when you are on the ground,” Flint assured her. “Whenever we were going out on maneuvers, it was always the night before that was the worst.”
“True, the anticipation can be hard to handle,” Cynthia agreed. Looking at her watch, she picked up her coffee and drained the cup. “We should go and get an early night.”
“The children could have stayed here overnight,” Jenna offered. “That way you could have gotten an early start.”
“I’d like them to sleep under the same roof as me one more night. But thank you, Jenna. And you, Flint, for your kindness.” Cynthia hugged Jenna.
“I wish we were coming with you,” Jenna admitted. “I’d love to help find those children and bring them back home.”
“If there are any more orphans, shall I send them your way?” Hunter asked Flint.
“I think we might have our hands full with the two we’ve got.” Flint’s expression softened. “But never say never.”
“Let’s hope we can return the children to their homes.” Cynthia’s expression faltered. “I just hope we find them alive.”
“Were there many children still missing?” Hunter asked.
“Yes,” Cynthia admitted sadly. “Although they were not all at the farmhouse and they had disappeared over a number of years. Cracol had been operating this child trafficking ring for some time.”
“We can’t dwell on the past,” Hunter told her. “We have to focus on what you accomplished when you brought them down. You stopped Cracol from being able to hurt any other children. You should be proud of yourself.”
Cynthia recalled Connor and how he knew about Cracol all those years ago. If only she’d been able to bring Cracol down then. But Hunter was right. She’d done her best, she had to console herself with that. And now she had a chance to do more.
“I am proud, but it hurts to know there are people like Michaela out there, mothers who lost their children and might never know what happened to them.” She rolled her shoulders, straightening her back. “I want to do this in the hope that if there is one child out there who needs to be found, we’ll find them.”
“We will,” Hunter agreed. “So let’s get home, get some sleep and start a new day tomorrow, with a new mission.”
They said their goodbyes, the children seemed to have gotten along well together, which alleviated some of Cynthia’s concerns. As they got into Hunter’s car, she hoped that when they returned from the forest, she would be able to put all of this behind her and concentrate on her future and her family’s future without this nagging guilt hanging over her.
One child. If they could only return with one child, she would let it go. That was the promise she made to herself as they drove back to Hunter’s house. More would be a bonus, of course. But she would settle for one child.
Chapter Twelve – Hunter
He woke the next morning with his mate by his side. They had shared a bed, but no more. This wasn’t the time for anything more intimate. She didn’t have the same urge to mate as he did. And he respected that. He was willing to wait for as long as she needed.
One thing that wouldn’t wait was Thomas and Laurel. They were up early, full of excitement at spending a few days over at Flint’s house with Jake and Marion.
“Anyone would think you are glad I’m going away,” Cynthia teased as she poured the orange juice and made toast in the kitchen.
“We’re going to miss you,” Laurel told her mom, giving her a hug.
“But Flint promised he’d take us into the mountains. We might even visit Walt’s cabin.” Thomas chewed his toast and looked longingly at the high mountain peaks.
“I see.” Cynthia watched her children indulgently. “It would be nice to see the mountain without snow, that’s for sure.”
“Yes,” Laurel pretended to shiver.
“The last time we were in the mountains, it was covered in snow,” Cynthia told Hunter. “We nearly never made it off. There was a big snowstorm coming. Liam and Kit came and got us on their ATVs.”
“Wow, you really did see the mountain at its worst, and survived.” Hunter sat down with his coffee and two pieces of toast. He’d normally have cooked a big breakfast, but they were eager to start the day and drop the children at Flint’s before meeting up with Guy and Liam at the office.
“It was cold. Luckily it didn’t put any of us off being in the mountains,” Cynthia finished her breakfast and began cleaning up. It was strange having someone else in the kitchen, even stranger for someone else to clean up.
“When we get back, I’d love to take you up there and show you some of my favorite places,” Hunter said as he drank his coffee. “It’s such a wonderful place. In the summer we can go and swim in the mountain pools.”
“Can we?” Laurel asked excitedly. “I’ve just learned to swim.”
“I can swim with armbands,” Thomas said.
“We can all go. Although the water in the pools will be cold. Some of it is from the ice melting on the mountain peaks.” Hunter finished his coffee and helped Cynthia, while the children went upstairs to brush their teeth and get ready to leave. “Are you okay?”
“A little nervous,” she admitted.
“About the children going into the mountains?” he asked.
“Yes, but not because I don’t trust Jenna and Flint, but because they’re exposed out there if anyone approaches.” She looked up at him with concern deeply etched into her features.
“The thing with the mountain is it kind of clears your brain. Clears your senses,” Hunter explained. “It’s the same with the forest.”
“What do you mean?” Cynthia asked as she handed him a cup to dry.
�
��You know the saying, you can’t see the forest for the trees?” he asked, and she nodded. “Well, in the town or other populated areas you can’t sense an individual. You are surrounded by shifters and ordinary people. Any one of whom could mean the children harm. But on the mountain, it’s wide open and clear with hardly any people.” He glanced at the mountain through the window. “Practically no people at this time of year.”
“So if you sense someone, you can pinpoint them on the mountain, but in the town, they would just be background noise?” Cynthia asked, looking happier as she understood Flint’s reasons for taking the children into the mountains.
“Yes, and the mountains are his home turf, he knows them better than most people. And I’m sure they’ll take a satellite phone.” He lowered his voice. “And if they were really in trouble, there is a local dragon or two who might swoop down and breathe fire over the bad guys.” He widened his eyes and nodded sagely. “That is one thing you cannot do in a crowded place.”
Cynthia burst out laughing. “Now you are teasing me.”
Hunter pulled back and shook his head. “I promise you it’s true.”
“And a shifter can’t lie to his mate?” She still wasn’t convinced.
“Exactly.” He finished drying the cups and checked his watch. “We should get going, we have a long way to travel today.”
“Maybe you could ask the dragon to carry us to the forest,” Cynthia suggested, but she kept her voice low so the children could not hear.
“I admit, I don’t know who it is. Although I do have my suspicions about a certain social worker who has a nose for shifter children.” Hunter turned around, but Cynthia grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back to face her.
“You mean Fiona? The woman who placed Jake and Marion with Jenna and Flint?” Cynthia looked like a dog who had picked up a scent.
“That is purely speculation,” Hunter told her. “And is strictly between you and me. What do you journalists call it…off the record?”
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