We'd made it back to North Cross in less than three hours. Taryk had pulled some strings and we were given an escort. We jettisoned through traffic."We got the lock on her phone, now we just need for her to stop moving," Xander said as he dropped his shit next to his console of screens and computer equipment. "How far can the signal trace her?" I asked. I can't lose her. Not like this. "The only reason we would lose her is if they find the phone or her battery dies. Hopefully it was fully charged when they took her." The array of screens on his end of the warehouse took up the full south wall. "I've got the system set up to warn me if they stop for longer than five minutes."I nodded. "What can I do? I need to do something.""Go with Taryk. We need to do some deeper diving on information on Iron Serpent. They're either so far off the radar that they don't show, or they have some high-powered friends." Xander didn't bother turning from the screens. "I'll bring everyone i
"What's on your mind?" Ransom asked as I shut the door to my level of the warehouse. I had no idea how to say what I needed to say. To put it out there. I just prayed Ransom wasn't going to kill me for it. Needing more time to gather my thoughts, I walked to the kitchen/dining area of my home. Pulled open the fridge, grabbed two beers. I held up one for him, one eyebrow raised. "Sure."I tossed it to him. We opened them, toasted each other, tipped back the first drink. "Come on, Saint. You're fucking killing me, man." Ransom grabbed a chair from the table, pulled it back, sat down. I winced. "If we all have magic, and we're all shifters, how do you think it's going to impact not only our business, but our...sharing tendencies?"Ransom just stared at me. "We don't know yet that Kiema can touch anyone but me."I felt my hackles rise. I tamped them back down. "I know. Gaia, do I know that.""Then what the fuck, bro?"I scratched my thumb nail over the label on my
Three Days Later"CPI leadership is here, sir," the secretary said. I didn't give either Juan or the secretary time to tell us he wasn't in the office. I pushed in behind the startled older woman. Taryk, Saint, and Asher moved in with me. "Thanks. Get out." I didn't bother to turn and see if she obeyed. "Juan, Juan, Juan. You shouldn't have been such a complete asshole," Taryk said as he wandered into the room. After he'd made a full circle, he came back to my side and gave me a nod. "What the fuck are you doing here, Rans - ""It's Mr. Kolefni to you, you little fuckbite. Where's your bitch of a wife? She still in heat?"Juan's face developed a purplish undertone. "I'll take that as a yes. Get her in here. Chop, chop," I clapped my hands loudly. "We don't have all day."Juan hit a button on his phone. "Ferria. My office. Now.""I'm busy, Juan," she sounded winded. I raised an eyebrow at him. A smirk lifting the corner of my mouth. The purple color increased.
I plunged through the air, tossing and turning every which way but up. The ground was rapidly reaching up to greet me. "Shit, shit, shit," I screamed it to absolutely no one. No one else had been stupid enough to get kicked off a flying helicopter by a psychopath. "Calm your mind." The words whispered through my brain.Great, now I get to go actual crazy. This has been the best worst day ever!A laugh sounded. "You are not crazy. You are, however, about to die, so I suggest you follow my instructions," the voice called again. Whoever my strange voice belonged to, he had one of the sexiest accents I'd ever heard.Something about the voice itself was familiar, but I had no idea what or why. Pushing that all from my mind, I tried to do my deep breathing exercises. Failed. I tried to just breathe like a normal human. Failed at that, too.The cold wind blasted my face, making it almost impossible to breathe. It ripped tears from my eyes, and made my nose feel li
"What the fuck do you mean I'm a wolf?" I asked Taryk through our mental connection as he got in the van's front passenger seat. "Just what I said. You're a wolf this time."No freaking way! I looked down at my feet. Definitely not big cat paws. I tried to speak. It certainly sounded like a dog trying to tell its owner that he was an idiot. "Atlas, what the fuck is going on?" I asked."Come back to the lab. I forgot to mention some things about your medical chart in all of the ruckus surrounding Kiema," Dr. Atlas said. "Any word on her, Xander?" I asked. "Not yet, Ransom." His voice was flat, almost devoid of any humanity whatsoever. We were all feeling her loss. Like the sunshine had gone out of our lives, we were living in the shadows. The only thing that got me out of bed was taking over my father's company. That brought a smile to my face, but it had nothing to do with joy. Retribution was enough on that end for me. Within minutes, we were back at the lab i
Two days later"Wh - "A hand slapped over my mouth. "Do not make a sound. They've found us," Lukas breathed against my ear. Fuck. It was bad enough that I'd been stuck in this stupid place for the last two days without anyone telling me what was going on. But now Lukas loomed over me, his usually open and happy face dark and closed. I nodded. All I'd been told was that we were waiting for Reece. Who apparently wasn't part of Iron Serpent. Yeah, I'd believe that crap when I saw it. I pushed myself up from the cot I was sleeping on. Luxury conditions, this. I shoved my legs into my pants. Standing up behind Lukas, I tapped his back when I was ready to move. He reached around and grabbed my hand, interlacing our fingers. He opened the flap of the tent. It was pitch black outside. To the far side of the camp, I could hear dogs braying and sniffling around. Arcs of light from flashlights zoomed over the low hanging mist in the sky, setting up a lightshow the likes of
Three days laterMidnight. I pinched the bridge of my nose. Another day of fucking disappointments."T, you got a call from an unknown," Xander said over the warehouse comm system. He didn't sound tired at all. "Tracing it?" I asked. He snorted. "Yeah, up your ass, man. Who you think you're talking to? You can come here and take it." He disconnected.I pushed up from my desk on the first floor. The other offices were dark. The guys had all gone up to their various beds already. I couldn't bring myself to leave. It felt like I was failing her. Just like I'd failed...I cut the thought off. No need getting all emotional about it. Emotion clouded the brain, made it ten times harder to complete the task at hand. This was one of the single most important tasks of my life. I wasn't going to let emotion stop me from saving Kiema. I stepped through the elevator doors and right into nerd central. Every gaming console, computer system or peripheral hardware accessory, not to
"Xander, how's everything? Every...thing good on that end?" I asked as Lukas crept back out under the rock that hid our current hiding spot. "It's good, sweets. All good."I closed my eyes, they were burning with the need to cry. I just didn't have enough moisture to spare. "Good. Any idea on when Taryk should be getting here?""You're only about an hour away, Kiema. He'll move heaven and earth to get to you as fast as possible."I wiped my hand under my nose. "Thanks for picking up the phone. I know it's really late.""I was up already. We..." he cleared his throat, "I've been looking for you. You're a hard woman to find."That they had been looking for me, that he and Taryk answered my phone call in the middle of the fucking night, not only healed my heart, it melted it. These men were mine. All of them. I wasn't going to share. I wasn't going to let anyone hurt them. They were mine. I laughed, the sound like glass in my throat. I was so fucking thirsty. "Well, when H