The Enchanted: Council of Seven Shifter Romance Collection

by Juniper Hart

  “We’ll see about that. Tell me about your boyfriend.” Elle thought quickly.

  “I don’t know that guy. I just met him at the park.” She was just getting warmed up as she formulated a story in her mind.

  “Oh, yeah? The two of you looked pretty cozy on the bench there a minute ago. Are you a working girl?” Indignant, Elle wisely shut her mouth. “Ah, so it’s like that, huh? Okay, sweetie. We’ll be at the station in a minute.”

  “Why are you arresting us?”

  “Well, your boyfriend dropped a bomb on the front doorstep of Geoluad this morning. Lucky for him, it didn’t detonate, or else this conversation would be going much differently.”

  Elle felt a great sense of relief overcome her body. Thankfully, the bomb actually didn’t go off.

  “What makes you think that guy did it?” she asked in spite of her will to remain quiet. The policewoman chuckled.

  “A little birdy in his whack job activist group ratted him out.”

  “What birdie? A guy or a girl?” The officer’s grin broadened.

  “If you don’t know anything about this, why do you care so much?” she purred.

  “Guy or girl?” Elle questioned again, wracking her brain to think of who might have done such a thing. Avery? B? Could it have been Vern himself? Did he do this out of spite?

  “You’ll find out at the hearing, won’t you?”

  “What hearing?” Elle snapped. “You haven’t arrested me, and you have some crappy charges based on what? The word of some disgruntled member of our group? Do you have any idea how many people we’ve had to kick out because they are too extreme?”

  “Do you kick out your own leaders, sweetie?” Elle went completely silent, because then she knew. Dane had been right all along. Vern had set them up.

  “Dane was with me all day,” she volunteered angrily.

  “Oh, yeah? I thought you just met the guy at the park.”

  “I was speaking out of nervousness. You can’t hold that against me.”

  “Sure I can,” the officer chirped back at her.

  “Not if you haven’t arrested me,” Elle shot back. Officer Class laughed but didn’t reply. “I want to make a phone call,” Elle snarled as they pulled into the stationhouse.

  “Oh, see? You know the drill! I knew you had done this before! Have your lawyer meet you at the sixty-eighth precinct.” She led Elle from the car into the building, still handcuffed from behind. Once inside, she pushed Elle into a cell and unlocked the silver bracelets. “You can get your phone call in a few minutes,” Officer Class told her, slamming the door closed. Across the hall, Elle could see Dane being fingerprinted. He maintained the same fazed expression he had held in the park.

  Damn you, Vern! How could you do this to us? Elle realized that Vern had not done anything to them but only to Dane directly. He had wanted the golden boy out of the picture from the first day he had laid eyes upon him, jealous of his connection to Elle. How could I have been so blind and stupid for so long? He doesn’t care about anyone but himself!

  A few moments later, Elle watched Dane being taken to another cell. Officer Class returned for her. “You can make that phone call now.”

  One of the women catcalled her as she walked down the hall, but Elle was far too lost in thought to notice.

  “What? You’re too good for us, Red?” the inmate screamed at her. Elle did not acknowledge the woman’s anger and instead took a seat at a desk inside the stationhouse. Officer Class dialed the number Elle had given her and handed her the black receiver. Someone answered on the first ring.

  “World’s Worth.”

  “It’s Elle. Dane and I have been arrested.” There was a sharp inhaling on the other end of the line.

  “Are you in Springfield?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. Say nothing.”

  She hung up the phone, her blood boiling still. There was nothing to do now except wait.

  She had asked to see Dane, but of course they were kept apart. Even her telepathic communications weren’t getting through, only fueling her anxiety. Have they hurt him? Is he okay?

  “You two don’t get an opportunity to get your stories straight,” Officer Class told her condescendingly. “Anyway, you guys have an old friend coming to visit.”

  Elle paled. How the hell does she know he’s coming? Did Vern call and tell her? Or was the phone call being recorded?

  This was such a new experience for her that she couldn’t create a feasible story. The truth was, she was actually a terrible liar. Guile was not something which came easily—she had lived her entire life being as forthcoming as possible. She thought of her sister, Samantha, and her easy ability to tell people what they wanted to hear.

  Why can’t I be more like her? Or like Mom? Why can’t I be anyone but myself right now? She was not thinking properly, worried that Dane may discount anything she would say, rendering them both in more trouble than they had started with. She tried to keep her mouth shut, but she was overflowing with the need for answers.

  “You can’t just keep us here based on something someone told you!” Elle yelled out into the room from behind the holding cell bars.

  “Did ya hear that, guys? Fire crotch is a lawyer!” one of the night cops called out to the group. There was a gentle chuckle, but no one bothered looking up at her, infuriating Elle further.

  “You got nice tits for a lawyer,” one of her cellmates offered, ogling her perversely.

  “I’d take your motions anytime!” another one leered. Elle scowled at them.

  “I’m telling my lawyer that you have kept us here without charging us!” she continued bellowing. There was another guffaw from the policemen, but still no interest.

  “Save your energy, sweetie,” Officer Class called from her desk. “You’re gonna need it to defend yourself in court. Anyway, your boyfriend has been charged. You, on the other hand, are a material witness. We can’t very well have you wandering the streets unprotected. What if something happens to you?”

  “A material witness to what?” Elle yelled, red faced with frustration. “I didn’t see anything!”

  Their interaction was clearly over, and eventually, Elle gave up and went to lay on a cot, her eyes bright with fury. She was going to murder Vern when she saw him.

  “Hey, Red, wake up. You have a visitor.”

  There was a sudden clang as the cell door smashed open, and Elle jumped up, startled by the noise. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but apparently, she had finally dozed off sometime in the night. Morning light was spilling into the grim cell through a tiny square window in a far corner of the room.

  “Who is it?” Elle asked, rubbing the grit out of her eyes. She was bone tired, exhausted to her core by the events, but she forced herself off the lumpy cot mattress and stood. A giant beast of a man put handcuffs back on her wrists and led her into the main part of the building. “Is this really necessary?” she complained. “I’m a hundred pounds.”

  “Yeah, well, bombs are only like five pounds, but they do a lot of damage, you know?” the officer retorted, pulling her along like she was on a chain gang.

  “Where is Dane?” she demanded.

  “Oh, don’t worry, he’ll be there, too,” the man replied, and Elle thought she heard amusement in his voice, though she could not see his face as they plowed through to an interrogation room.

  At the door, the huge officer peered back at Elle and grinned a wicked smile which sent chills down her spine. They stood, apparently waiting. A moment later, Dane appeared in tow of another police officer.

  “Dane! Are you okay?” Elle lunged toward him, but the cop yanked back on her bracelets, as if she was a puppy being trained.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” he laughed. “You can’t hug it out here, you know.”

  Elle glared hatefully at the brute and then turned back to her lover.

  “Are you okay? Did they charge you?”

  “Yes. I stand accused of depositing explos
ive devices in an establishment name as Geoluad,” Dane reiterated like he was reading from a script. “They have coffee here also, but I find the taste and texture quite off putting.”

  “Don’t worry, love. We’ll be out of here soon,” she told him reassuringly. She smiled with confidence she did not possess. I shouldn’t be promising him things like that. I have no idea if either one of us will ever see the light of day again.

  “You shouldn’t lie to your boyfriend,” the big cop chided mockingly, as if he could read her thoughts. With that, he flung open the door, and they were staring at Officer Justine Andretti. The slender policewoman shook her head at the pair.

  “Yep. That’s them, all right.”

  Dane and Elle exchanged a look. Elle could feel her future slipping away.

  You need to break out of here, she told Dane urgently. The same way you got out of the police station back home.

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Elle moaned. “Why is she here?”

  “Oh, she volunteered to come, princess. She had business with you after we’re done here. She says you helped him resist arrest in Boston. Is that true?” Elle blinked at Officer Andretti.

  “How did I manage that?” she challenged.

  “I don’t know how you did it, little girl, but it happened. Dane was there before you walked in and gone after. And then so were you.”

  Elle shook her head and ground her teeth together. How can this possibly be legal? They can’t keep us here based on speculation!

  “I had nothing to do with it. Did I, Dane?”

  “No.”

  “How did you manage to get out of there, Dane?” Officer Andretti pressed. “We were having such a nice chat before you disappeared. And you, Red, you had me fooled there, pretending not to know this guy. Clever trick. The problem is, when you do stuff like this too much, you’re bound to get caught. That’s why you guys are here right now. You can’t make a fool out of people your whole life.”

  Dane remained silent. Justine shrugged her shoulders and rose to her feet.

  “Well, I’m glad you got them. And I’m glad no one got hurt down here, but I want them back in Boston for the tear gas charges. I bet they both had something to do with that.”

  Officer Andretti gave them another big smile and exited the room, leaving Elle with her heart in her feet.

  13

  Time became a blur of activity, and Elle was finding it very difficult to understand what was happening. She was fingerprinted, processed, and led back to her cell. There had been a flurrying of meals, possibly breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner, but Elle did not recall eating a thing. She seemed to be simply existing in a strange fog where she was there and also wasn’t.

  I am Schrodinger’s Elle, she thought to herself with woe. The other inmates made lewd comments about her figure and face, but she heeded nothing. She was beginning to think that she was literally fading away into oblivion. And if this is how I’m doing, imagine how Dane is.

  She was going to prison for acts of domestic terrorism.

  She had finally found her true love, the other half of her soul, and not only had she lost him, she had ruined his life. She was devastated, watching her life flash before her eyes in a series of Polaroid snapshots.

  She was three and rolling around in the grass with Harmony. A baby bird had fallen from a tree, and she carefully put it in her basket, carrying it home and nursing it back to health. She was ten and being picked on by some older boys at school. She punched them all in the face, one after the other, remembering all the UFC she’d watched at home with her sisters.

  She was sixteen and learned about the clubbing of baby seals. She swore to be a vegan and fight for animals the rest of her life. She was twenty-two and at a animal rights convention. An intense man with brown eyes approached her and asked her if she wanted to join his cause, World’s Worth.

  She was in her late twenties and in love with a kind, generous, patient man who loved her back just as much. And she had ruined both of their lives because of some unwavering faith to a man who had sold her out after years of dedication and loyalty to him.

  I have the gift of eternal life, and I’m going to spend it locked away.

  She was already planning an escape, even though it was risky. As a fox, she could heal faster than most mortals, but not as fast as her immortal counterparts. If she was shot or hurt, there was no guarantee that she would make it out alive.

  “Hey, Jagger. Get up.” The giant officer was back, but Elle didn’t want to move. Depression had overcome her, and she wanted to die in that spot at that moment. “Did you not hear me? Get up. You’re needed in court.” Elle remained perfectly still.

  Maybe if I lay like this, he’ll think I’m dead and leave me be.

  “Princess, you have three seconds to get up before I come in there and get you up. And I promise, you ain’t gonna like the way I do it.”

  “Ooh, I’ll wake up Fire Crotch!” one of the inmates cackled.

  Slowly, Elle rose to her feet, heeding the unspoken threats with clarity.

  The ride to the courthouse felt like the drive to her execution. It was over. In the blink of an eye, her life had unraveled. And nothing was even done! No one was hurt! What a way to go out!

  Inside the courthouse, she looked around listlessly. Then, her heart leapt in her throat with hope as her eyes fell on the front row. Avery sat, smiling encouragingly. Elle tried to smile back, but it did not shine through. She was defeated, depleted, and depressed.

  Dane was already at the defendant’s table, in the midst of his hearing. He sensed her come in and turned to stare at her. Again, Elle tried to smile, but she could not muster anything other than sadness on her lips. Beside him was Gerry Kincaid, the public defender for both of them. He had met with the couple earlier that morning to discuss their defense. The giant gently pushed her into a pew and walked away.

  “Your Honor,” Dane’s lawyer was saying. “My client is not a danger to anyone. He had the misfortune of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that is not a crime. He did not commit the act of mischief in Boston, and he has nothing to do with these crimes, either.”

  “Well, you have to admit that it is quite a coincidence. However, we are not here to address the issue in Boston. We are here to determine bail. How much are you looking for, Mr. Jackson?” The judge turned her brown eyes on the prosecutor.

  “Given that Mr. Hawthorne has absolutely no history whatsoever, no identification, and no desire to cooperate, we would like remand. We are confident he will disappear without a trace.”

  “Your Honor! Mr. Hawthorne is an honorable man who—”

  “Who has no roots, no ties to the community, and no way of proving his existence, do you, sir? For all we know, he is using an alias, and we’re sitting on the Zodiac killer here.” The prosecutor turned inquiringly to Dane, who returned his stare without blinking.

  “Your Honor!” the public defender yelled, but the judge had heard enough.

  “Remand. Next case.” The gavel slammed, and Dane was led from the courtroom. He looked to Elle, his eyes boring into hers, and she could feel his disappointment. She was wracked with shame.

  Just break out. I’ll come and find you! she begged him, knowing he wouldn’t, not without her at his side.

  “Elle Jagger, case number 8735492. Charges are conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and aiding and abetting.”

  “How do you plead, Miss Jagger?” the judge asked. Gerry Kincaid nodded at Elle for confirmation before answering,

  “She pleads not guilty, Your Honor.”

  “Bail, Mr. Jackson?”

  “Your Honor, Miss Jagger is a known environmental activist who has committed various acts of domestic terrorism—”

  “Objection! There is no such evidence of such crimes! Known to whom exactly?”

  “Actually, Your Honor, I have Vern Mills here ready to testify as to the extent of Miss Jagger’s actions while employed at a charitable organization known as
World’s Worth. He is willing to testify that she was a rogue agent, acting against the wishes of his agency.”

  Vern stood up from the galley, and Elle almost had a stroke where she stood.

  “What the hell?” she screamed, unable to stop the words from flying out of her mouth. She was more incensed than she had ever been in her life. The entire courtroom turned to stare at her in amazement.

  “Miss Jagger! You will watch your language in my courtroom!”

  “She apologizes, Your Honor. The unexpected presence of her employer startled her.” The judge glared daggers at Elle.

  “That is hardly a reason to act like street trash. Step forward, Mr. Mills.” The judge waved her perfectly manicured hand at Vern, who obediently stepped up to the prosecution table. He carefully avoided eye contact with Elle, who glared fire beams in his direction.

  “Is that accurate? Miss Jagger is employed with your company?”

  “Yes, Your Honor. Well, I should say, was employed. She was dismissed after attempting to bring Dane into our group.”

  “That’s bullshit!” Elle snapped, turning to her lawyer. “Can’t you find him some duct tape for his mouth? Lies keep falling out of it.”

  “One more, Miss Jagger, and I will have you remanded without bail and held in contempt. Go on, Mr. Mills. Why did you feel the need to let her go at that point?”

  “Dane was obviously an extremist, and our group is based on doing good in the world, not hurting anyone. Dane had other ideas. I feared it would get to this point. I’m sorry I didn’t say something to someone. I’m just so relieved that no one got hurt.” Vern turned his sad eyes on the galley and then toward Elle. She caught the gloat of satisfaction, and it took every fiber of her being not to fly across the table and punch him in the face.

  I’m Enchanted! I’m a Vulpes! How could I not have seen right through him? She wanted to vomit all over the floor, the betrayal striking her more deeply than anything she’d ever felt in her life.

  “Well, that is tragic. You could have done a lot of good, Miss Jagger. There was no need to resort to violence,” the judge reprimanded. “Remand without—”