Hunger's Mate (33 page)

“Not at all. But I'm guessing that being a martyr is a much harder job than giving lap dances.”

“How dare you?” she asked, outraged, lifting her hand to smack the woman.

But Priya grabbed her wrist before it could connect. The other woman stood so they were now face-to-face. She dropped Jewel's arm and said without pretense, “Don't let this ring and my newfound status fool you; if you smack me, I'm going to smack you back. Now, if it's a fight you want, if that's what it's going to take to put some sense into your head, then fine. We can do this. But if you really want to lash out at someone, it should be yourself, because you're the one that walked into this situation, you're the one that decided to run away and steal that man's diamonds, and now you're deciding to let a good man walk away because once again, you think running is the only option.”

“I made the best decisions I could!” she yelled back. “And you don't have any right telling me otherwise.”

Priya shook her head. “I'm not trying to tell you otherwise. Yes, you did what you thought was best at the time, but you have to understand that those were your decisions. You made them and then you ran away from the repercussions.”

“What was I supposed to do, stay there and take his abuse just so he'd keep giving me money?”

“No, you were supposed to kick him in the balls so hard he got the news flash that you weren't his whipping post. You were supposed to walk away with your head held high and take care of yourself and your father in another manner.” Priya sighed. “See, it's easy for me to stand here and tell you that now, after all is said and done. But believe me, Jewel, I know how hard it was for you to make the decisions you did. I know how it feels to be desperate and running out of options. All I'm saying to you now is to not walk away from all that is standing before you. As long as you and your father are here with us, Bas will never let Crowe touch you.”

Jewel shook her head, not ready to absorb all that Priya was saying. “It's not his responsibility to care for my father.”

“You're right,” Priya conceded. “But you are Ezra's.”

“No. I'm not,” she argued.

Priya simply smiled. “You're his mate, Jewel. I smelled the
companheiro calor
the minute I walked into this room. You belong to him and he belongs to you.”

Heart pounding, tears threatening to fall once again, Jewel continued to deny. “I do not belong to anyone.”

Priya nodded. “Right. So pack your bag, get your sick father out of that medial facility, try to sell those diamonds that have already been reported stolen, and hit the road. Call me in twenty-four hours and tell me how that's all working out for you.”

Jewel sighed. She walked away from Priya, running her fingers through her hair once more. It was all so overwhelming, hearing all that, those words she'd been saying to herself for so long.

“Remember that you are in charge of your life and that while your father is sick, he's not dead. Carting him around in hiding and attempting to lie to him is disrespectful and hurtful to him. You have a chance at something more permanent here, something beyond anything you could have ever imagined.”

“Something that may get us all killed,” Jewel said quietly. “If I stay, Crowe continues his hunt and that will lead him here, to all of you.”

Priya chuckled, putting a hand on Jewel's shoulder. “Girl, I know you know exactly what they are. I knew that the first day I saw you. Do they look like they're going to be killed easily?”

“You're not afraid of them?” Jewel asked.

Priya shook her head. “No. And neither are you, or no amount of fear from a human could have kept you at Perryville, holding their secret, for as long as you stayed. You trusted Jacques and Bas and now you need to trust Ezra.”

“He's so bossy and demanding,” she complained.

“They all are,” Priya stated, laughing out loud this time. “But they're also loyal and trustworthy and special on a level we could have never imagined. I never thought I'd want to belong to any man either, but Bas isn't just a man, he's a part of my soul and I don't want to live another day without him. I want you to sit down and be completely honest with yourself and if you still feel like you're better off someplace else, then the decision is yours.”

She left her alone then and Jewel sat on the bed. She reached into her backpack and pulled out the pouch of diamonds. She thought about her father and his health and the continued strain of running with him. Because there was no doubt she'd always be running from Larry. As long as that man lived he would hunt her. And one day he would find her again, or her father would die from the strain of being uprooted all the time and worrying about her, and then what?

Tears filled her eyes, falling from her cheeks to disappear into a dark spot on the black velvet bag.

*   *   *

“These were in Crowe's safe with the diamonds,” Ezra said, tossing the flash drives that Jewel had given him onto the marble-top table in Bas's private room.

Rendezvous's floor plan was like an H, with bedrooms along the two longest sides and connecting with the medical facility, a kitchen and dining area, and a large meeting space in the center. It could house up to one thousand shifters at a time. Right now, there were only about two hundred of them, the guards that Bas had employed to work the Sedona area. Once Perryville went up in flames they'd all been radioed to come here.

Bas, who was still pretty damned pissed off about his prized resort being destroyed, and internalizing the pain of his best friend's death, sat at the head of the table and didn't make a move to reach for the flash drives.

“She said he's been working on the Genesis Project for a while, that he's planning to build more of those like ADAM, and then sell them either to the U.S. military or the highest bidder.”

“It makes sense,” Paolo said, to Ezra's chagrin. “I mean, look, he obviously managed to capture a shifter. If you were captured, how long do you think it would take before you shifted?”

“So you're saying he caught this shifter then found out what it was and figured he'd capitalize on it?” Ezra asked.

Paolo shrugged. “It's the American way.”

“I want this bastard dead, now!” Bas yelled into the otherwise quiet room. “I want his head on a platter, frozen and kept in storage so that every time I think of Jacques I'll know that he was avenged.”

Ezra, Paolo, Dyson, and Syfon, the only ones in the room besides Bas, all looked at the FL in silence. Bas never lost control, he never exploded—well, except for when it involved Priya. But what Crowe had done to Perryville, to Jacques—he'd crossed the line. If there was ever a moment that Ezra realized that fact, it was right now.

“He might go back to the labs, to try and salvage the project. Since I killed ADAM, he'd have to start over with another prototype,” Ezra told Bas.

“If we can get in there and get all his shit before he does, the bastard has nothing,” Syfon added.

Paolo cracked his neck by moving it from side to side. “Or we can go there, get his shit, then wait for his ass to show up and take him down. No witnesses, no loose ends.”

Ezra looked to the younger shifter. “I like how you think.”

Bas tapped the table as he sat up, leaning in and looking at his men. “Give us a rundown of the security system there. We'll go in tonight. He's cocky so he's probably thinking we've run away. But I don't want to waste another moment.”

“Right. The iron's as hot as it's going to be, we strike now and we strike hard!” Paolo added.

“We kill this sonofabitch before he creates something that will kill millions more, before he tells who and what we are,” Ezra said solemnly.

 

Chapter 23

Security was tight at the government facility, especially in the dead of night. A caravan of eight SUVs was bound to set off alarms. So about a mile before they reached the facility, the order came over the com link for all drivers to turn off their headlights and slow down. Heavy tires rolled over the dirt road, crackling lightly as the first truck approached the gate.

Ezra rode in the front seat of that first truck. The plan was to use his work ID to get at least two of the trucks behind the entry gates. Once inside, Dyson, who was riding in the second truck, would disable the alarm system so the others could come around the back entrance. By that time, Ezra, Bas, Syfon, and Paolo would have already entered the lab. They would gather what intel they could, then destroy everything else in the place that even referenced the Genesis Project and, if Crowe wasn't there, they'd get the hell out. It was a good solid plan.

But there was something to be said about the best-laid plans.

Ezra rolled down the window, extending his arm to swipe his ID card through the card track and waited. It took a moment, which seemed like eons, but the light finally blinked green. The locks holding the gate closed disengaged and Ezra drove through, the second truck following directly behind him. He drove around to the employee lot and once parked, eight shifters disembarked and headed for the side door. His card worked again and he and the others moved quickly inside.

And that's when he felt it.

Like something weaving its way up his spine, dread sifted slowly into his body. His cat went instantly on alert, chuffing just beneath the surface as Ezra continued to walk. He inhaled deeply, attempting to sniff out the trouble he suspected was close, but there was nothing. Not to be deterred, he listened as he walked, concentrating on whatever might be ahead of them, trying desperately to get a bead on it before it had them. Nothing.

Fuck! It was an inward curse, one his cat shared as they both realized the repercussions of having that dark entity exit the premises. His senses weren't as heightened as they had been, or at least they didn't feel like it. Or was it that whatever danger that was up ahead was stronger than even he could predict?

Dyson had already split from them, heading to the utility room where the main board for the building's security was located. One guard had gone with him while Ezra and the others headed for the bank of elevators and made their way up to the third floor. The minute the elevator doors opened, the six of them filed out, their boots moving quietly over the carpeted floor. There was another code to the lab door that Ezra didn't have. They were relying on Dyson to have it opened by the time they got there, but when Ezra tried the knob, it was still locked.

“We're in position,” he mumbled into the com link.

There was no answer.

“Dyson?” he called, remembering all too well the last time he'd been listening so hard to his com link and had heard Bas's news about Jacques.

“Cleve?” Bas called to the guard who was with Dyson through his com link. “Answer me, goddammit!” the FL added, his voice rising slightly.

Ezra looked over to Bas to make sure he was still steady. He should have already known that answer. Above all else, this was a Shadow Shifter front-runner; he would lead, no matter what emotional turmoil he might be going through. Bas had lifted a hand to Paolo who had his hand on his gun already and was probably about to tear down the steps until he found out what happened to the other shifters.

“We're here!” Dyson answered finally.

Ezra wanted to breathe a sigh of relief but the weight against his spine prevented him. Suddenly, he didn't want to be here, didn't want to go into this lab and do what he knew they needed to do. He'd rather be with Jewel, trying to convince her that she belonged with him. But right now, that was not an option.

“The locks,” he grumbled to Dyson through clenched teeth.

Before the word was complete there was a slow beep and the lights on the keypad to the right of the doorknob flashed green. Ezra was beginning to really like seeing that color.

In the next seconds they were all inside the lab, spreading out, guns drawn. They went to work immediately, looking for anything that mentioned the Genesis Project, whether it be files or specimens. Ezra headed directly to the computer in the far left corner. It sat on a black-topped counter, beneath long white cabinets, as if it were trying to hide. It was a hunch but he thought this might actually belong to that nervous guy he'd seen a couple of days ago in the computer room where he'd been working. The one that had been talking to Captain Crowe and another soldier. The moment he touched the keys a scent filled his nostrils, putrid, offensive, familiar. He cursed, thinking he'd have to enlist Dyson's help in breaking into the computer, but when the screen lit up, it showed that it had already been logged into. There were timed security locks on all the computers at Comastaz, as Ezra had learned while pretending to be an IT tech. If an employee left their computer idle for more than three minutes it not only went black, but it locked. There was a one-minute window between the computer going black and its locking. This one had not had the chance to lock, which meant … Ezra looked around, his neck snapping with the motion.

“We're not alone,” he said, more to himself even though he knew the others would hear him.

Eyes narrowed, his nose twitched as he searched for the scent.
Fear.
Bas had apparently picked it up as well because he held up his gun arm and nodded toward a door six feet from where Ezra stood. In the next instant Ezra was standing opposite Bas, the door between them. They didn't even bother with a three count, but nodded to each other just before Ezra kicked the door in. There was a cracking sound and then a very high-pitched yell, followed by the commotion of someone hitting the floor.

Paolo went in first, yanking the human by the leg and dragging him out of the supply closet until he lay holding his nose while he moaned in the middle of the lab floor. Bas reached for him then, yanking the man to a standing position by the back collar of his white lab coat.