Authors: A. C. Arthur
She shook her head, not wanting to hear what he was saying.
“But I will do everything in my power to get them back for you,” he continued, lifting his hands up to cup her face. “I just need you to be completely honest with me about what’s going on. I can’t help if I don’t know who to fight for you.”
Her heart was pounding, her mind whirling with possibilities. She’d made a promise never to tell. Rome had found out about part of what Richard was doing on his own, not with any help from Nivea. And Richard had gotten himself caught by daring to come visit her at Havenway. She’d kept up her end of the bargain when really, she should never have had to bargain with her father for her sisters’ lives in the first place.
“I know he hurt you,” Eli continued. “I want to rip his balls off for all the pain he’s caused you, but I can see that you’re stronger than that type of revenge. You’ve beat him on all levels that he could never measure up to and for that I am most proud of you.” He leaned forward then, kissing her forehead before pulling back and resting his against hers, looking straight into her eyes.
“Tell me what he’s doing so I can stop him. I’ll get your sisters back, I promise. I just need you to trust me with the truth.”
Nivea swallowed to keep her lips from shaking and her eyes from tearing. She hated crying and hated feeling helpless. But she had to admit that being in Eli’s grasp, having him say he was proud of her and that he would do anything to help her, kind of kicked helpless in the ass.
She inhaled deeply and said, “His foundation is bogus. He gets kids from the Gungi and he either sells them on the black market or kills them straight out. He hates being a shifter and would do anything to wipe us all off the face of the earth. His investors have no idea he’s a murderer and neither do the Elders.”
“What about Comastaz? How did he become hooked up with them?” Eli asked, a muscle ticking in his jaw.
Nivea shook her head. “I don’t know. When you sent me the text with that letter from Richard to Slakeman, I had no idea what it meant. Until I saw the foundation’s logo at the top of the page. One of the dead men at the cabin had a tattoo on his wrist. The tattoo is of a snake, winding its way around anything it gets close to. It’s the logo for Richard’s foundation. It was applied to all the children they were so-called helping, all of the ones they would threaten for the rest of their lives if they ever revealed they were Shadow Shifters.”
A sharp pain coursed through her chest as she remembered seeing that same tattoo wrapping around her father’s bared back, the night everything in Nivea’s life had changed.
“When I was seventeen I found the pictures and a list of all the kids’ names in his office. He branded all of them when they were brought over with that logo. I guess this guy was one of the few that managed to grow up.”
“Yeah, he grew up and decided to get even,” Eli said. “Maybe he was the one to call the meeting at the cabin in an attempt to expose the shifters to the Feds.”
“That would have really pissed Richard off. He never wanted anyone to know about the shifters, never even accepted being one himself,” she said.
Eli nodded, feeling like pieces to this puzzle were really starting to fall into place.
“Text your sister that we’re on our way. I’ll call for some backup to go with us. Try to keep her talking if you can, but tell her to be careful.”
Nivea did as he said, didn’t hesitate and didn’t argue.
* * *
Nivea hated waiting.
Eli reached for her hand and held it. The fact that Ezra and the Sanchez brothers were standing in the truck stop parking lot looking at him only made him mildly uncomfortable. The deep, steadying breath Nivea took as a result of him holding her hand was enough to dismiss the male shifters altogether.
Amina hadn’t sent another text, but Brayden had been able to tap into her phone’s GPS.
“It’s been hours since her last text,” Nivea said, looking down at her phone again, then back up toward the road. “Maybe we should just go.”
Eli shook his head, rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand. “We’ve been over this before. It makes much more sense for us to stay where we are considering Brayden’s report that the phone has crossed from New York into New Jersey. They’re heading south, so it’s not smart for us to get on the road now. We’re liable to pass them. We’re going to wait until that signal stops and then we’ll go to wherever that location is.”
“What if she’s not alive by then?” Nivea suggested, her worried gaze resting on his.
“She will be,” he told her unequivocally. “She sounds way too much like you, strong and determined. Besides, if whoever has her wanted her dead, I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t have had the opportunity to send those first few texts at all. And they wouldn’t have bothered to take her cell phone with them after they’d killed her. When it’s a hit, that’s what they do—kill. And they don’t take you and your phone with them when they leave.”
“How do you know? Don’t let me find out you’re watching those true crime stories on TV, Eli.” She gave him a withering smile and he squeezed her hand, loving her attempt to evoke humor in this situation.
“They’ve stopped in Maryland,” Brayden announced. “The signal’s been stable in one spot for the last twenty minutes so I think they’ve finally stopped.”
Nivea’s eyes widened and then she nodded. “They’ve stopped. Okay, we’re going to rescue them from … who? I don’t even know who has taken them,” she said, looking up at Eli.
“Rogues maybe?” Eli replied.
“Why would rogues take them?” Brayden asked.
“Considering all that’s been going on, I think it’s safe to say everybody’s a player in this game,” Caleb added.
Ezra nodded. “That’s what I really don’t like about this situation. It’s one thing to fight one enemy, but to have two or three coming at you at once?” He shook his head. “Definitely stacks the odds against us.”
Eli rolled his head on his shoulders. “Not if they’re all connected, which I’m almost positive they are.”
“How are you so positive?” Ezra asked, giving Eli a concerned look.
Eli took a deep breath, still not ready to share the epiphany Baxter had laid on him with anybody else just yet. Especially since his gut instinct in this regard had nothing to do with any vision he’d received. Although, while they’d been riding to the truck stop, he had thought that a vision showing him where Nivea’s sister was and who she was with would have been pretty damned convenient. But that would mean he was accepting what he’d been told about what he truly was. Eli wasn’t ready to take that leap.
“Doesn’t matter,” he told Ezra. “I’m ready for whatever and I’m not scared, are you?”
“Not on your life,” his twin replied.
“We’re ready to rock ’n’ roll,” Aidan announced.
“We should get on the road so they don’t have a lot of time to do whatever before we get there,” Nivea told them.
She was already heading toward their truck. Eli decided to simply follow her.
“Got a bossy one there, huh, little brother?” Ezra said, clapping him on the shoulder as he walked by.
Caleb and Aidan both chuckled as they moved to their designated spots, while Brayden simply shook his head.
“I know how it feels, shifter females are a handful,” he said, giving Eli a look of commiseration.
“Tell me about it,” Eli replied, climbing into the backseat beside Nivea.
Twenty minutes later Brayden, who had been keeping his eyes glued to the map on his iPad, shouted an address. Aidan, who was driving, punched it into the SUV’s GPS. Seconds later the younger shifter made a growling sound.
“What?” Caleb asked his brother.
“That address is deeded to Robert Slakeman too,” Brayden told them.
“Like I said,” Eli whispered. “It’s all connected.”
“They’re both here,” Brayden said the moment he stepped out of the truck. “Rogues and hybrids. The stench is mixed and it’s foul as shit.”
Caleb and Aidan got out and sniffed the air, both frowning their agreement. Eli heard them from inside and scowled. He did not want her to be here, did not want her to go into that house and do what he knew would need to be done. But how could he tell her to stay behind? This was her family.
“Stay close to me,” he told her instead.
“I’ll make sure they’re safe,” she told him, as if to say she was going to do whatever she had to do regardless of what he said.
“Nivea, please,” Eli attempted.
She shook her head, holding up a hand to stop his words. “This is my family, Eli. My sisters and my mother. I’m going to get them with or without you.”
Her words burned through him like a torch and Eli gritted his teeth. There was no “without” him as far as he was concerned. He was not only going in there with her, but he was going to be on her like a second skin making sure she was safe, whether she liked it or not.
“Let the Sanchez brothers go up to the house first. They’ll scope out the grounds, see what security we’re dealing with,” he told her.
She looked at him impatiently. “They’d better make it fast.”
“Eli, can I see you a second?” Ezra called to Eli from outside.
“I’ll knock when they’re back,” he told Nivea.
She nodded tightly and Eli moved in closer. He wanted to kiss her, to promise her this would be better and that once it was over he would … they would … what? Live happily ever after? Walk blissfully into the light of joining and be mates forevermore? What the hell was he going to say to her when all of this bullshit was over? More importantly, how was he ever going to walk away from her?
“Go,” she whispered before looking down at her phone in her hand. “Just go.”
He did as she said because if Ezra was interrupting him, it was for a good reason.
“Okay,” his brother began the moment he was out in the early morning air. “Slakeman makes guns. He works with the military. Crowe is a Marine.”
“Nivea’s father was sending money to Comastaz and probably sending them shifters as well,” Eli offered.
Ezra paused, lifted a brow, and Eli continued.
“He’s been getting kids from the Gungi for years, selling them or killing them himself. Crowe couldn’t get Shya and he used the one shifter he had in custody to make his first hybrids. We were wondering how he’s been producing others. I think Cannon’s been giving him those children.”
“Sonofabitch!” Ezra cursed. “She’s known this all along and she never said a word?”
His brother pointed toward the truck, his eyes blazing green with fury. Eli stood right in his face. They were the same height so they were eye to eye. “The Sanchez brothers and I followed the GPS origination signal that we lifted off the hybrids at the charity event. It was to another one of Slakeman’s houses. In his office there was a letter from Cannon.
That’s
how Nivea found out about her father’s connection to Comastaz! And it was just a couple of weeks ago.” Eli was only partially lying to his brother, but he felt like he had a good reason to. He had to protect Nivea.
“Then she should have told us a couple of weeks ago! Or you should have told us, Eli!” Ezra yelled back in his face.
“Why? So you could put her in a cell like you did her father? Hell no! She’s not at fault here. She had reasons for what she did and I stand by her.” No matter what, Eli thought.
“You stand by her lying to us, betraying us?” Ezra inquired angrily.
“Just like Dawn lied to you back in Sedona,” Eli snapped back.
Ezra clamped his lips shut, fury still vibrating through him. But Eli knew the argument had ended. Dawn knew about the existence of the Shadows long before Ezra told her and she’d kept her mouth shut. She also knew that Crowe, her ex-boyfriend, was doing some type of developing with damiana at the Comastaz Labs. So there was no way his brother was going to stand in his face and even consider going after Nivea. No. Fucking. Way. And if he did, Eli was prepared to take him down.
“This is not over,” Ezra told him. “Rome and Nick are going to be livid when they find out.”
Eli still did not waver. “If they don’t already know.” When Ezra looked at him quizzically Eli continued, “They’ve been down there questioning Cannon more times than I can count and they never take either of us with them. You think Cannon’s keeping his mouth closed? He’s a worm, a shifter that has never been trained, never wanted to be any part of our tribe. I’ll bet he’s told them everything and Rome and Nick are just keeping it tight until they have a game plan ready. And if he hasn’t, it doesn’t matter, I’ll tell Rome and Nick the same thing I just told you. I stand by Nivea.”
Ezra shook his head. “Yeah, and being mated to you might be the only thing that saves her ass.”
Eli didn’t bother to tell Ezra that they weren’t mated, that he simply understood why she’d done what she felt she needed to. He’d never tell them the reason she remained quiet, would never betray her that way.
“Nobody’s guarding the outside,” Caleb said, coming up behind Ezra. “There’s an alarm system but I think they tried to yank it right out of the wall when they went in. I can see it hanging with wires exposed through the front door.”
“So we can go in hot and go in now,” Aidan suggested.
“We don’t know where they are, Aidan,” Brayden added. “Maybe we can have Nivea send her sister another text.”
“No!” Eli said emphatically. “Enough of that. They’re not driving now so they might see her texting, or they’ve probably tied her up and that’s why she stopped texting in the first place. Let’s just go in like Aidan said.”
“He’s right.” Ezra sided with Eli, which was a slight surprise considering their most recent conversation. “We go in hard, Nivea can get to her sisters, and we can take those bastards dead or alive.”
“Remember, a live one would be good,” Eli started. “But don’t hesitate to kill every motherfucker in there to get those women out safely.”
When all the men nodded, Eli knocked on the back door of the truck and Nivea immediately came out.
“Let’s go!” she said, moving quickly between all of the guys and heading up the small incline to the house.
* * *
“The rogue scent is stronger here,” Ezra said, looking up at the deck that covered the entire length of the back of the house.