Body Thief (32 page)
Authors: C.J. Barry
He handed Ernest a thumb drive that contained the information that Cam had given him about Thaniel. Ernest closed his eyes as he took it. “You didn’t tell Cam?”
He had his reasons, none of which mattered anymore. Maybe XCEL would have found Thaniel by now, maybe not. Either way, it was probably too late. “No. How long will it take to locate him?”
Ernest pursed his lips. “I don’t know. A couple hours, or a couple weeks. Depends on whether or not her brother wants to be found. He’s a Shifter, for Christ’s sake. He could be anywhere, anyone.”
Griffin glanced at the door. “Don’t tell her.”
Ernest made a face and shook his head. “She deserves to know the truth, Griff.”
“You want your life back?” Griffin asked. “Then don’t tell her. I’ll do it later.”
Ernest blew out a long breath as his shoulders hunched. “I hate this.”
“Sorry,” Griffin said. “You can start looking for her brother, but first priority is stopping the attacks. Do you have a line on the next one?”
Ernest rubbed his eyes. “They’re onto us. Moved the files, set up a bunch of dead—”
“Ernest, yes or no,” Griffin said, his patience wearing thin.
“Not yet,” he said. “Give me an hour.”
Griffin’s cell phone rang. He checked the incoming number and didn’t recognize it. “Hello?”
“We hear you’re looking for us,” the familiar voice said.
His pulse jumped. “Who is this?”
“Meeting, tomorrow morning at eight A.M. Same place you met your informant.”
The Shifter informant. He
was
working for the Shifters. “I’ll be there.”
was
working for the Shifters. “I’ll be there.”
“And please bring Camille with you.”
Please
. That was new. “Absolutely.” The call ended.
. That was new. “Absolutely.” The call ended.
“What is it?” Ernest asked.
“Our Shifters want to meet,” he said.
“And that’s good?”
Griffin pocketed his cell phone. “Yes. Unless they plan to kill us.”
“Oh,” Ernest said, his smile fading. “Right.”
“They replaced my informant with one of their own.” At exactly the right time, and that was too much of coincidence for Griffin. “How would they do that?”
“No shit,” Ernest said, clearly impressed. “I’ll see what I can find.”
“Find the next attack first,” Griffin reminded him.
“Sure.” He turned to leave and then stopped. “By the way, your GPS trackers show our three guys are out of jail. I put their signals in your phone.”
That was something. Maybe they’d be willing to talk. “Thanks.”
Ernest said as he left, “Don’t thank me. You might not like what you find out.”
That was the truth. Nothing was turning out as he expected.
Griffin stared at the bed where he and Cam had made love last night. He knew he should tell her about her brother, but he needed her for this, especially if they were going underground. Besides, it wasn’t his fault that Harding lied to them both. And Ernest was looking for Thaniel now. He was doing everything he could.
Right.
So why did he hate himself for holding out on her?
“My entire class of people has gone down since I hooked up with you, Mercer,” Cam said.
She scanned the manufacturing facility they were hiding in, waiting for someone to show up with a bomb. It was two A.M. and the place was shut down for the night, quiet except for the hum of air-conditioning.
Pallets were stacked four high in the staging area. During peak production, steel presses pumped out product that ran along conveyor belts to packaging and shipping. This company made baby bottles. Bastards, playing the baby card.
She walked between the rows, looking for a box with a bomb. Only one problem. There were thousands of boxes in here. She felt herself give a mighty sigh. All XCEL had to do was set a timer to blow. They could do that anywhere, anyplace, anytime. How could she and Griffin stop them all?
Griffin walked around a stack of wooden crates toward her. The heat of the city continued to bake the metal structure, leaving her hot and bothered.
He said, “What surprises me is how easy it was to break into this place.”
She replied, “It helps when you have a geek who can remotely shut off alarm systems and change the security personnel schedules to give them all the night off.”
“True.”
“And an XCEL agent who can pick a lock or two.” She batted her eyelashes at him. “I noticed you didn’t have any problem with that.”
His dark eyes met hers. “Practice.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I like practice.”
A slow smile spread across his face as he reached her. She slid against him with ease, fitting to him like they were custom-made. He kissed her deep and slow. Cam moaned and gave in to the potent lust. And that’s what it was and would ever be—lust.
He’d lied to her. She’d overheard his conversation with Ernest about Thaniel. All this time, no one searched for him. The lie was only slightly mollified by the fact that he’d been desperate, but so had she. And that’s what hurt. Granted, Shifters were accustomed to being used and abused, but this was Griffin. The man who’d managed to gain just enough of her trust to make it mean something.
Did he not think she’d stick this through without something holding her to it? And why wouldn’t he? That’s exactly what she’d normally do. Make a run for it. Start over, create a new identity. It was so much easier than suffering in one place.
But this time, she wasn’t running. She’d realized over the past day that her father would die soon. Very soon. Even if Thaniel was standing right here, even if they gave their father a transfusion, he’d probably still die. Cam wasn’t certain when she’d accepted that, or if she really had yet. It didn’t change reality. She could hate Griffin for lying to her, but she couldn’t blame him for the merciless ticking of time.
So lust it was. Because she’d never be able to trust him with more than that. Besides, it only hurt when she thought about it.
Distant footsteps broke the bittersweet moment and the kiss. She focused on the large overhead doors and the smaller entry doors. Cam stepped away from Griffin and moved toward the staging area where trucks picked up the shipments. Then she stopped. The footsteps were everywhere.
“Something isn’t right,” she whispered.
She heard Griffin unholster his gun. “Like what?”
Lots of footsteps stopped in various places around the building. “Like, I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
“Can you be a little more specific?”
She turned to him, dread filling her to the bone. “There are at least twenty men outside. We’re being systematically surrounded.”
“Goddamn,” he said, scanning the exits. After a few seconds, he asked, “What about the roof?”
She focused above her. Scrapping sounds, dragging metal, footsteps. “Maybe two.”
He grabbed her by the hand and headed for the stairs. “Let ’s go.”
They raced up three flights and through an access door for the flat roof deck to find two men checking their gear. Griffin rammed the first one at a dead run, laying him out cold. Cam shifted and knocked the second one out just as he raised his rifle. She checked for others, but it was clear.
She shifted back to human and checked the man she’d hit. He was dead, and she swallowed the remorse and stole his rifle. Then she turned to Griffin, who was relieving the other man of his weapons and his communications headset.
She moved to the edge of the roof, pressing against the three-foot-tall ledge that ran the perimeter of the roof. The grapple hooks used to scale the three stories were still in place. If she tried to move them, the men below would definitely notice. She peered over the edge to find XCEL agents everywhere. Her long-distance night vision picked up more men gathered a hundred yards away beside a cluster of trucks. Damn, these guys were serious.
“I really hate XCEL,” she said.
“They’re not XCEL,” Griffin said, sidling up next to her.
She turned to him in shock. “Please, you can’t still be defending them.”
“I’m not. XCEL weapons, XCEL gear, but not XCEL agents.”
She shook her head. “How do you know that?”
“XCEL agents don’t carry their wallets with them when they go on a mission,” he said and showed her a driver’s license as proof.
She read the name. “Then who is Jim Whiteman?”
“No idea,” he said as he peered over the edge.
Cam couldn’t believe how calm he was. How many people were after them? How did these guys know they were coming here? Did someone tip them off? She’d think about that later. Right now, survival was top priority. “Tell me you have a plan.”
“Sure don’t,” he replied. “You?”
It was only three stories; she’d survive jumping from here, but it would be bad for Griffin. “Not unless you can fly.”
Then he put his finger to his lips to silence her as he listened to the voice in his headset. He flipped on the comm and said in a gruff voice, “In position,” and then turned it off.“We have two minutes.”
She watched the agents get into position below them and wondered if she could jump three stories carrying Griffin. She’d never tried that before. As Ernest would say, it’d be a beta jump. Didn’t sound like good odds to her.
Griffin had pulled out his phone and was talking on it, but Cam wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation. The grapple hooks were an option, but it would take precious time to descend that distance, and they’d be completely exposed. She could do it quickly though and shield both of them. It was their best bet.
He hung up and leaned over the edge of the roof. “Less than a minute left.”
She sighed and shifted to her Primary form. Time for Plan Beta. “As soon as they all enter the building, we go over the edge. I’ll use the rope to slide down and take you with me. I think I can protect you from any fire we draw, and of course, from splatting all over the concrete.”
Griffin turned to her with a look of surprise. “And you’d probably kill yourself in the process.”
She shrugged. “I heal.”
For a long time, he stared at her, his expression softening. It was becoming a more frequent transformation, and one she had come to crave, which was a real shame.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “But I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
He grinned. “Wait for it.”
She shook her head in confusion, and then all hell broke loose. Alarms rang out in unison everywhere, spotlights came to life, flooding every square inch of the property with white light. Cam heard police sirens screaming toward their location, and men shouting as they retreated in droves.
It finally occurred to her what had happened.
Ernest.
Ernest.
“Nice one,” she said aloud.
“I thought you’d like that.”
“And what about
us
?”
us
?”
“I’m thinking a warm bed would be good.”
She smiled and realized she was in Shifter form. He’d suggested sex while she was a shapeshifter. Talk about progress.
“But until then,” he added, “we need to get out of here before the good guys show up.”
She shifted back to her smaller human form as they headed down the stairs. The place was empty. They were out the back door and climbing over the fences like common criminals. It felt weird, and yet, strangely comforting.
When they finally got into the car, she broached the bad news. “They set us up with that attack.”
He frowned in the dark. “Yeah.”
She rubbed her eyes. “How are we going to know if our intel is right anymore?”
“We won’t,” Griffin said, sounding discouraged as he started the car. He didn’t even have to say it. The enemy was closing in around them, and they knew no more about what was going on today than they did yesterday. She wanted to ask him what they should do next, but she was exhausted.
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