Shifters, Inc. The Bear Who Loved Me (A BBW paranormal romance) (13 page)

              “I told you to stay out of the way,” Pierre snapped at him.

              “Well you made it very clear we don’t work for you anymore, so I can do whatever the hell I want,” Tom taunted.

              “So can I,” the Beast snarled, lashing out with a single punch to the jaw that sent Tom spinning, then collapsing into a heap on the deck.

              Tonya was quickly hustled to the security office and into an interview room. When the door slammed behind her, a sense of hopelessness settled over her like nothing she’d ever felt before.

Chapter Fourteen

              “Keep it together, and stop pacing,” Jake snapped at Heath. “You’ve literally worn a hole in the carpet. Once we get back to shore, we can do a better job of investigating this.” The internet had been shut down again, they were totally cut off, and Heath couldn’t decide who he’d kill first.

              Heath glanced at the carpet of Jake’s floor. Yeah, he’d worn a hole in it, because he kept shifting and his claws were ripping it to shreds. It was one-thirty in the morning, she was still being held in her cell and insisting she had no idea where the money or the explosives had come from, and Heath wanted to kill everyone who wasn’t Tonya.

              He met Jake’s gaze with a challenging glare. “She can’t stay in a jail cell all that time.”

              “Heath, with the evidence they have, it’s understandable that they would insist on holding her.”

              “That’s my mate they’re holding!” Heath went bear again, for about the dozenth time since they’d taken Tonya, and for the dozenth time all the other Shifters, Inc. employees shifted, dove on him and pinned him to the ground until he shifted back.

              They weren’t even bothering to get dressed anymore. Too many shredded articles of clothing.

              They all climbed to their feet, grumbling and muttering.

              The Beast snapped his fingers at Heath to get his attention. “You want to help your mate? Use your brains. Normally, and it causes me actual pain to admit this, your strength is that you know when to use your brain and when to use brute force. Brute force isn’t going to accomplish shit here, so if you want to help her, start thinking and figure this out. If you’d rather show what a big tough bear you are, keep on shifting and we’ll keep on knocking you down. I’m here all night.”

              Heath hated to admit it, but the Beast was right. He wasn’t one to lose control in an emergency; it was his feelings for Tonya that were summoning the animal within him.

              “All right,” he said evenly. He took a deep breath and ignored the part of his brain that was screaming,
Rescue your mate! Kill! Destroy!
“Tonya could easily have gotten very close to Reshef or Benedetta – they both invited her to be their companion. For that matter, Duncan’s been out and about on the ship – it wouldn’t have been hard to get close enough to assassinate him. Tonya hasn’t made a move, which to me indicates that she isn’t the assassin.”

              “To play devil’s advocate, she could have been waiting until the boat was almost at port,” Jake said. “More chance to escape.”

              A brief surge of rage flowed through Heath and he forced it down. “Very risky,” he said. “Waiting until the last minute like that would mean there was a good chance her target would be doing something else, indisposed, whatever, and she wouldn’t be able to get to them.”

              He sat down, racking his brains. “The money was deposited before Tonya even knew she was coming on this ship. Jake, from what you tell me, you can’t tell where the money came from.”

              “Not yet,” Jake said. “By the time we’ve landed, our IT team will probably have been able to track it.”

              “Somebody, somehow, knew Tonya was coming on this trip before she did. Tom was the one got her on board. It’s likely he took a bribe.”

              “From what we’ve been able to determine so far, the money actually went into that account shortly before Interpol contacted the Shangri-La owners to warn them,” Jake said. “Somebody was already arranging for her to come on the ship before Hammersmith was contacted. So it would probably make sense to take the Hammersmith operatives into custody as well, until we’re on shore.”

              “The question is, how and why did they target Tonya to take the fall for this?” Heath growled, pacing the floor. “And when did they meet her? I need to talk to her, ask her if she’s met anyone new or if anything unusual has happened in the past few weeks.”

              “I’ll go,” Jake said evenly. When Heath started to protest, he said, “Pierre and his crew won’t let you in. I’ll be right back.”

              Before Heath could protest, he got up and walked out.

              Fifteen minutes later, he strode through the door.

              “She wouldn’t talk to you?” Heath said.

              “She was sleeping very heavily,” Jake said. “She wouldn’t wake up. The guard went and checked, and she was okay, she was just asleep.”

              Something about that… Heath shook his head.

              “She fell into a slumber like that on the first day we got here, where she couldn’t be woken up,” Heath said. “But that isn’t normal for her. Other times she slept normally. This was practically like a coma. To me, that says some kind of magic control.”

              “We could consult the ship’s wizard,” the Beast suggested.

              “We could, but I want to talk to Antonia first. The wizard works for the cruise company – he’ll be representing their interests. She’ll want to help Tonya, and from what I gather, she’s got at least some magical ability.”

              Jake asked for Antonia to be sent to their room, and the shifters quickly got dressed in the extra clothes that Jake always kept on hand for them. Shifters went through a lot of outfits.

              It took about half an hour, but Antonia came marching in, looking sleep-rumpled and angry.

              She stomped up to Heath and slapped him in the face, hard. Then she kicked him in the shins. Everybody tried not to snicker. She was human; Heath would barely feel it.

              “You arrest my friend? You son of a bitch! She is good person!”

              “Yes, I know,” he said, exasperated. “I had already come to that conclusion.”

              She stared at him, narrow-eyed. “Then why you are not get her out from jail?”

              “I’m working on it! My understanding is that there is some magic in your family,” Heath said. “Is that true?”

              “Yes. Our particular talent is charms that repel the black magic and protect from curses. Why?” She looked puzzled.

“Like the charm you gave Tonya.” Heath turned to Jake. “This deep sleep that Tonya’s falling into…the first time it happened, it was before she wore that charm necklace. And after the ship’s security took her necklace off, it happened again.”             

              Antonia went pale. “Deep sleep? That sound like, how you say, mind-control spell. You must put necklace back on!” She pulled her own necklace off and shoved it into Heath’s hand. “Use this one. Go now, go!”

              Heath headed for the door before Jake could say anything. Jake and the Beast hurried after him.

* * *

              The Chameleon, lying on Tonya’s cell bed, opened Tonya’s eyes. It was two a.m. and, even on a party cruise like this one, most people would be in their cabins by now. It would be easy to get into Reshef’s quarters.

              The Chameleon felt around Tonya’s throat. Thank God they’d removed that cursed necklace; it had nearly ruined everything. Reshef should have been dead already, and Tonya should have been blamed for it.

              With that necklace on, it had been impossible to control Tonya or see her thoughts – for days. Of course, there had been secret communications from the traitor in Reshef’s camp, the bodyguard Tabari. Tabari had pointed Tonya out to Reshef, had done his best to lure Tonya into Reshef’s room, but with that stupid bear hanging on Tonya’s every move, there had been no way that would happen.

              No matter. The Chameleon always had multiple backup plans.

              The cell door was shut, and nobody could see through it. The Chameleon quickly popped Tonya’s fake fingernails off. They also contained explosives, and when the right three nails were pressed together, they had a powerful charge.

              Tonya-Chameleon hurried over to the door, pressed the nails together and stuck them to the top and bottom hinges. Smoke sizzled out, and the Chameleon backed away quickly, retreating to the far corner of the cell.

              Seconds later, there was an enormous boom and the door fell inward. The Chameleon hurried out of the cell.

              Two human guards were already rushing forward, but the Chameleon disabled them both and had them unconscious on the floor within seconds.

              Now to get to Reshef’s room. Tabari would let Tonya in. He’d claim that he’d done it because Reshef had already invited her to be a companion. She’d have to kill Reshef quickly. She wouldn’t get to use the poison she’d concealed in one of the other fake nails. Then the bodyguards would kill Tonya. It was far from an ideal scenario, but the most important thing was the success of the mission. The target must die.

The Chameleon scowled and strode towards the door.

Chapter Fifteen

              Tonya woke up with a start, standing in a corridor of the ship, crushed between Heath and someone else. She was in the middle of a giant man sandwich, and for some reason her heart was hammering and she was gasping for breath and her throat felt raw, as if she’d been screaming. Her hands throbbed with pain as if she’d just punched someone.

              “What the hell?” she demanded.

              Heath let go of her and so did the man behind her. She turned and saw that it was the Beast.

              Heath’s nose and lip were bleeding.

              “Tonya?” He stared at her with a peculiar expression, wary, as if she was about to attack him.

              “Of course it’s me. Who else would it be?”

              “Whoever was possessing you and turning you into a demon from Hell,” Heath said. “Let’s go back into the holding area for now. I’ll explain.”

              How had she gotten out of her holding cell? “Where are we?” she asked shakily.

              “Outside Reshef’s quarters.”

              Tonya felt a wave of dizziness sweep over her, and clutched at Heath, who put a steadying arm around her and held her up as they walked back towards the security office – only to be passed by medical personnel carrying out two security guards on stretchers.

              “What happened to them?” she asked, flexing her aching hands.

              “You happened to them. Or rather, whatever was possessing you happened to them,” one of the shifters who was with Heath told her.

              “Oh, come on,” she protested. “I couldn’t take out two security guards. That’s crazy. I was just… I swear I just fell asleep.” Her brain still felt a little foggy, but it was clearing. Instinctively, she reached down and touched her charm necklace. But hadn’t the security guards taken that from her?

              She let Heath lead her back into the security office, where Pierre and a group of his men were waiting with angry expressions.

              “Hold off,” Heath said gruffly to Pierre. “She was not in control of her own body when she attacked your men.”

              With the other shifters standing by, Heath sat her down on a bench in the waiting area and explained both to Pierre and to her what had just happened. He held her hand in his as he spoke.

Tonya listened with growing horror. Somebody was controlling her body? Making her attack people? She felt sick and violated.

              “Did I hurt anybody?” she asked, tears burning her eyes.

              “Everyone will recover, and the ship’s wizard is on his way here to examine you,” Heath said.

              “This all is so confusing… Tom Hooper only invited me to come on this cruise the day before we left,” she protested. “How would anyone even have known to take over my body? Why me and not somebody else?”

              “Well, physically you are Reshef’s type, so it would have been very easy for you to get close to him,” Heath pointed out. “Whoever was hired to assassinate Reshef would have been provided with that type of information – what kind of women he liked. And believe me, Tom will be questioned very thoroughly about this.”

              “Is Reshef safe? You should warn him that he’s a target,” she said shakily.

              “We have,” Heath said. “He’s said that he won’t come out of his cabin for the rest of the cruise. The ship is returning to port early because of all this row.”

              He looked up. A short, mild-looking man with thick, round glasses had just strolled through the door, carrying a briefcase. “Ah. That must be the wizard,” he said.