The Great Disapurrance: BBW Shapeshifter Surprise Pregnancy Romance (Chicago Catastrophe) (8 page)

S
ienna had pressed
her ear to the door as soon as she heard Arlen’s voice coming from the other side. She could have just opened the door and asked Arlen who he was talking to… But to be completely honest, and despite how much she wanted to, she couldn’t quite trust him yet.

And it seemed she was right not to. His words echoed through her mind, filling her with terror.

“Return her to her parents in exchange for the money, right.”

From what she could gather, he was talking to his boss or someone who worked at The Firm. He’d promised to keep her out of Holland’s reach, but her family was a whole other ballgame. She wasn’t foolish enough to think Arlen would place his job at risk for someone he barely knew.

Not to mention, the money her parents were offering for her return was probably very generous.

I will never go back to the way things were,
she swore to herself, hands trembling at the memories that came rushing back.

She needed to get out before Arlen gave her to his employers to be carted off to New Mexico. She heard him moving around in the kitchen, but his voice was too low for her to make out any more of the conversation. After a while, everything grew silent.

As soon as she was sure his call had ended, she stepped out of the bedroom, rubbing at her temple and putting on a grimace of pain.

“I think I’m getting a migraine,” she complained, before Arlen could get a word out.

Arlen started to step closer but stopped himself, hovering by the table instead.

“Can I get you something?”

“I think I saw a pharmacy close by when we drove up, would you mind going and grabbing me some Advil or something? It’s really starting to feel like someone’s building a house up there,” she replied, grabbing hold of her head with one hand.

Arlen hesitated for a moment, looking like he was going to say something else, before settling on “Sure.”

He looked coiled up like a spring, tense all over. His grey eyes were steely and his jaw tight.

“Why don’t you go lie down? I’ll be right back.”

He brushed past her, giving her shoulder a little squeeze, on his way to get his leather jacket. Sienna’s stomach constricted at the touch, heat spreading through her.

Stupid body! Haven’t you gotten the message? He’s a traitor!

“That’s probably a good idea,” she conceded as he made his way to the door.

He gave her a little nod before stepping out. Pain roiled through her as the door fell shut behind him. The thought of having allowed herself to trust him was so visceral it nearly gutted her.

Focus. You’ve got this. Move on, bitch about it later,
she told herself.

As soon as his footfalls cleared the hallway, she leapt into action. She got her own clothes out of the dryer and quickly dressed, closing the bedroom door after her once she was done.

Opening the front door just a sliver, she peeked out into the hallway, just to make sure Arlen hadn’t played her and wasn’t lurking around somewhere. She let out a breath when the coast was clear.

Sienna tiptoed out of the apartment and down the stairs, looking both ways when she reached the front doors of the building. She didn’t spot him anywhere so she bolted to the nearest bus stop and got on the first bust that headed even remotely in the direction of her apartment, all the while cursing her naiveté.

I knew I couldn’t trust him.

* * *

S
ienna arrived
at her apartment building and cautiously made her way inside. She had some cash stashed away in a hidey-hole inside the bedroom wall, and she would need it if she was going on the run.

Add in some clean clothes and a toothbrush and she would be ready to run.

I promised myself I wouldn’t have to do this again,
she thought bitterly, making her way up the stairs.

That was of course if there was anything left in her apartment at all. The door had barely been on its hinges when she was dragged off. Someone could have already helped themselves to all of her stuff.

At least the money was well-hidden. She had hoped at least that would be untouched.

Most people didn’t have a secret cast stash in their apartment, but keeping some emergency funds and a to-go-bag ready had become second nature to her over the years. She had gone undisturbed since arriving in Chicago a couple of years back, but that hadn’t made her complacent.

It looked like her father had given up on trying to drag her home, but being hunted down and hauled back to New Mexico more than once had left its mark on her, in many ways. Sienna traced a finger along the small pale scar that ran from her shoulder to her elbow, shivering at the thought of ever seeing her father’s face again.

Taking deep breaths, she forced herself to focus on the present, pushing the painful memories back into the dark, rarely visited corner of her brain.

She already cooked up some semblance of a plan while riding the bus. Lucy, her friend who had worked as a receptionist at her parlor when she still had one, lived close by. Sienna was pretty sure she could crash on her couch until the situation simmered down. Or maybe she’d really have to skip town.

She’d cross that bridge when she came to it.

Sienna felt confident there was nothing to fear by returning to her apartment. Since she was taken from Holland instead of escaping on her own, the man had no reason to suspect he’d find her there.

He couldn’t keep lookouts everywhere, after all.

Logic aside, her pulse still quickened as she climbed the steps to her floor. For a second, she wished Arlen was there with her. He was definitely equipped for these kinds of situations.

If only he wasn’t too busy selling me back to my parents,
she thought bitterly.

His betrayal cut deeper than was probably proportionate, given the short amount of time they spent together. He had seemed genuinely decent and caring, which made his true colors all the more shocking. And that pull she felt between them? That couldn’t be faked.

At least she hoped it couldn’t.

On top of it all, she would miss his skills in the bedroom. Just thinking about it made her knees shake a little.

Sienna stepped into the hallway that led to her apartment with her heartbeat thundering in her ears. She told herself to calm down as she quietly snuck to her door.

Someone had propped it back up and even managed to close it in a way that looked halfway decent. Maybe a well-meaning neighbor? Sienna got along very well with most of them, so she assumed on of them had done it.

When she got closer, she heard voices coming from inside, making her pause.

Could it be someone robbing her? Or maybe it was the opposite, and the cops were investigating her disappearance? She crept closer, but as soon as she made it to a foot from the door, it swung open.

A tall, familiar, curly-haired man stepped out, glancing back to bark orders at someone still inside. His eyes locked on to hers. At first, he looked surprised. Then, pleased. Sienna didn’t stick around for a reunion, turning on her heel and making a run for it.

“She’s here!” she heard Holland shout out, but she didn’t look back.

Her body was shaking, but she didn’t let that stop her, pushing her muscles to their limits as she dashed out of the hallway and back into the stairwell. Holland would expect hear to head for the exit, so she sprinted upwards, instead.

He or his men would catch up to her eventually, so hiding until she could slip past them without them realizing would be her best bet. The fact that she could process this thought went to show how much she’d had to ponder her escapes lately.

She raced to the top floor as silently as she could, holding her hand over her mouth in an attempt to quiet her gasps for air.

Come on! I deserve a tiny bit of good luck!

Reaching her destination, she found a little hiding spot behind a protrusion in the wall and pressed herself into it, sitting down and hugging her knees to her torso. She heard heavy footfalls running around downstairs, among shouts to spread out.

“Cover the exits!” someone said and Sienna’s heart sank.

They would sniff her out, that much she knew. Tears sprung to her eyes. She wasn’t even sure which was worse – getting recaptured by a pissed off shifter or returned to her parents. Pressing her forehead to her knees and holding back sobs, she realized it didn’t even matter.

I’ll never belong to myself again.

A
rlen stepped into the apartment
, holding a bag full of painkillers. He walked around quietly, in case Sienna managed to fall asleep. The bedroom door was closed and everything was silent. Even though he didn’t want to risk waking her, he couldn’t resist seeing if she was alright.

Something felt off in the apartment. His tiger stirred.

He carefully opened the door, peeking inside. The bed was empty.

Strange,
he thought, a cold feeling sweeping through him.

If she wasn’t sleeping, then why was it so quiet? It was like she wasn’t there at all.

Panic set in at that thought. Arlen rushed into the bathroom, but it was empty. He ran back into the living room, scanning his surroundings, even though he already knew she wasn’t there. The open plan didn’t really give many chances to hide, and why would she?

It didn’t even matter. He’d felt her absence the moment he’d walked in.

There were no signs of a struggle and his clothes, the ones she had been wearing, had been neatly folded into a pile on his bed. She left of her own free will.

As a last ditch attempt to find her, he sprinted up the stairs and onto the roof.

“Sienna?” he called out, checking every nook and cranny as wind billowed in his clothes.

She wasn’t there. She wasn’t anywhere.

His tiger roared, urging to be let out, ready to run through the streets of Chicago until he tracked her down and found her. But that would take too much time, as well as draw way too much attention. She could already be in trouble. Now that Arlen knew how much she was actually worth to Holland, he was sure the man was combing the city for her.

Why would she do this? What made her run?

Arlen picked up the burner that Holland texted, but there were no new messages and the call log was the same as before. So it had to be Arlen himself that she wanted to get away from, and the migraine story was just a way to get him out of the house so she could get away.

He had made it all too easy. She had given him no indication she was unhappy with their deal. He could beat himself up about letting her slip away all he liked, but it wouldn’t change the outcome.

It seemed she had started to trust him. Clearly that wasn’t the truth. Whatever made her leave, the reason didn’t matter right now. Finding her did.

Arlen pushed his feelings aside and focused on where she could have gone. The night with Sienna had cleared his head enough that now without her there, he could actually focus again and be the operative he knew himself to be.

All Sienna had was the clothes on her back. She didn’t have any money or any supplies. If she was going to make a real attempt at being on the run, those were things she would need.

He grabbed his phone and dialed Graham’s number. He was a friend, a fellow member of the intelligence unit who managed their cyber security, including their databases. Word of Arlen’s disobedience had probably already spread within The Firm, but he hoped Graham would help him anyway.

“Arlen? Are you out of your mind?”
Graham whispered after a couple of call tones.

“I think I might be, but that’s not why I’m calling.”

“You need to bring the girl in and finish your mission if you want any chance at making this right,”
Graham warned, still whispering.

“There’s a problem with that. I seemed to have lost the girl.”

“You
what
?”

Graham sounded like he was about to choke on his own tongue.

“Calm down. I need you to look up her address and give it to me. I’ll get her back and everything will be fine.”

He didn’t exactly believe that, but hey, whatever got him the information, right?

“You are too involved. You have to be if you’re telling Foster off and refusing to do your job. I’ll send a squad to that address, it will be better for everybody. Spade will skin you alive and hang you up in the LA ops room for this.”

“No! Graham, listen to me. I have to be the one to do this. If you were ever really my friend, you will give me that address and keep your mouth shut.”

He held his breath as the line went silent for what seemed like forever.

“Fine,”
Graham ground out. “
But this is the last favor you’ll ever get out of me.”

“It’s the last one I’ll ever need. Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah,”
Graham replied, accompanied by the sound of typing.

* * *

A
rlen pulled
up in front of Sienna’s apartment building. He rushed out of the car, only to grow still when he smelled the scent of tiger in the air.

That’s not good.

He snuck up to the front doors and listened. He could hear a flurry of movement inside, many pairs of feet stomping up and down the stairs.

“This floor is clear,”
he heard someone call out.

They were looking for someone, and Arlen had a pretty good idea of who that someone was. The only upside was, it sounded like they hadn’t found her yet.

He needed to get to her, but he couldn’t just march inside without being spotted by Holland’s crew. Looking around, he noticed an old fire escape hanging off the side of the building.

Improvising, he ran to it, leapt up, grabbed the lower bars of the ladder and pulled it down. The metal creaked and groaned under his weight.

Arlen started climbing up, quickly and cautiously, as the thing shook and swayed beneath him.

Almost there.

When he reached the roof, he couldn’t hear the men’s shouts anymore. It could be the wind and the fact he was further away from them now, or it could be that they’d found her. Arlen’s hands balled into fists as he ran to the hatch that led from the roof to the stairwell.

He grabbed hold of the edges and pulled. The metal screeched and folded under his strength, until he was able to pull it out of the way completely, tossing it to the side. His tiger was going wild beneath his skin and his protective instincts were working overdrive. He would destroy everything in his way to get to Sienna, no matter what.

He stepped into the stairwell, head on a swivel. Heavy breathing and a rustle of fabric drew his attention to what looked like a hole in the wall. He was drawn to it immediately.

There, crumpled up into a little heap, face wet with tears, he found Sienna.

She looked up at him, and for a second she looked relieved, but that was swept away by anger a moment after.

“Stay away from me,” she hissed, irrationally backing into her cubby even deeper.

“Sienna, come on, we don’t have time for this. Holland’s goons are going to be here any second,” Arlen said, reaching out a hand.

She was obviously pissed at him, but they could figure it out later, when she was safe.

“Maybe I’d rather go with them than with you. Afraid you’re going to lose out on your reward for handing me back to my father?”

She hiccupped through her words, tears fresh on her cheeks.

So that’s what this was all about. She had overheard him talking to Foster and had come to her own conclusions. Her conclusions were wrong, but she didn’t know that. And he hadn’t exactly given her a lot of reason to fully trust him, clearly.

Footsteps were now getting closer and closer. They were running out of time.

“I was never going to do anything without talking to you first. You just never gave me a chance to fill you in and explain. I pretty much told my boss to get bent when he said I had to hand you over.”

Some of the harshness left Sienna’s face, but she was still considering him more than a little suspiciously. Booted steps echoed on the floor beneath them.

“Can you trust me?” Arlen pleaded in a last ditch attempt, grabbing her hand into his and leveling her with his gaze. “I’ve never lied to you and I never will, can you believe that?”

For a split second, Sienna looked torn, like she could go either way. Then she squeezed her fingers around his hand and nodded. Arlen stood, pulling her up with him. He guided her back to the fire escape and they climbed down, Sienna going first. Every second mattered and she was far slower than he was, but he had to keep her pace.

When his boots hit the ground, she was already there waiting for him, looking around anxiously.

“Come on,” Arlen said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and pulling her toward where his car was parked.

A loud thud made him turn back toward the apartment building. The heavy doors swung against the walls as a tall, curly-haired man with a birthmark above his right eyebrow stepped outside, wearing a nasty snarl.

Arlen had never seen him before, but recognized him immediately.

Holland.