Aaron Drake wasn’t far from her, and Ranger was with him. Mac and a few other Drake employees were with us, and Mac was running the op. Bobcat and I sat in chairs off to the side. Observers who were expected to remain silent.
We watched four screens. One was the security cam at the front of my house, the other was a camera they’d put on my car, positioned for a good view once it was parked. And the other two were the vampire’s body cams, front and back.
Everything seemed fine until the vampire took a step to the right and then fucking disappeared. It looked like a blur from the camera mounted on the car, but she disappeared on the other cams.
We heard the shot on the cams. It seemed as if we heard it as she disappeared, but she obviously heard the sound of the gun being fired before the bullet arrived.
Not even ten seconds later, Aaron told us she was with him, and she hadn’t been hit.
The Concilio has all kinds of rules about what can and can’t be shown on camera. Strigorii are allowed to do their disappearing thing, and they’re allowed to blur themselves. Either of these things is super easy to replicate with a little editing, so as long as they don’t have a huge live audience, it’s acceptable. Shifters, however, are never allowed to change on camera.
“We’ll need to find the bullet and see if it’s silver,” I told them. That would tell us whether they knew I was a shifter or not. Or at least whether the assassin was aware.
“Aaron’s scouting for the shooter,” Mac told us. “Ranger’s getting the vampire out of the area. We have other personnel close, but we need to hold off before they start looking for the bullet.”
We heard Aaron a few seconds before he turned his body cam on.
“Who hired you?”
Our view was of a man on the ground looking up. A boot was over the man’s throat, and we noted the barrel of a gun pointing down.
The shooter glared up at Aaron, his mouth sealed.
“Easy way or the hard way,” Aaron told him. “You’ll talk. Do you know who I am?”
A tiny nod.
“Do you know who hired you?”
His chin shifted left and then back to center, but his eyes never left Aaron.
“Ah. Middleman? We can work with that.”
The next couple of minutes were of Aaron standing the man up, securing his hands behind his back, stripping him of all weapons, and then marching him out of the small wooded area. An SUV was parked nearby on the road, and Aaron put the man into the back seat before connecting leg irons and a four-point locking harness.
And then Aaron told us, “I’m signing off. I’ll let ya’ll know when I have more information.”
The screen went dark, and Mac spun his chair around to face us. “That’s it. We hold positions here until we hear from Aaron.”
“Clearly, I can’t function without security, but I’m tired of being holed up.” I wasn’t going to whine and throw a pity party, but damned if I didn’t want to.
“Completely understandable. If you can continue to let your associates handle your upcoming court cases, we’ll sit down with you and figure out whether to keep you here or move you elsewhere.” Mac glanced at Bobcat and looked back to me. “I believe we’re going to advocate against Bobcat returning to you once he goes in to work Tuesday night. He needs to return to his normal schedule.”
“My associates can handle everything until Thursday. I need to be the person to try that case. My client deserves me, not my associates.”
“Then we’ll make that happen. I’d like to walk you back to the bunker now.”
I shook my head. I did not want to go back. I knew I had to, but my mongoose needed some fresh air. I did, too, but she was about to go beyond irritable straight to bitchy. “I’d like to change and roam the spa’s grounds. Are the customers gone?”
“Give us an hour or two and we’ll make that happen,” another of the men told us.
Mac lifted a brow. “That work for you?”
“Sure.”
Bobcat
The cat was glad Tess had asked for time outside. We both changed in the garage of one of the homes, ate the meat we’d brought up — buffalo for me and chicken for Tess — and slunk out into the shadows. I knew where I could run unseen, so I headed for the trees near the fence line, and then ran full out until the cat was ready to stop. Running on four legs is so freeing. My cat is a powerhouse, designed for running, pouncing, and killing. There wasn’t anything worth killing on the spa grounds, but that was okay. We’d had plenty to eat before coming outside.
Tess, however, found a squirrel, and she was busy eating it when I followed her scent trail. She bowed up at me, threatening me against taking her food, and I plopped down three of my body lengths away to watch her eat. She kept an eye on me, at first, but eventually seemed to understand I was watching her back, and she could relax and enjoy her second meal.
When she finished, we moved away from what was left of the carcass, to a darker section. I rolled over on my side, and she made two circuits around me. Sniffing. She even smelled my breath. And my eyeballs.
Finally, she climbed on top of me, stretched out, got comfortable, and slept.
Totally relaxed, with the scent of trusted guards watching our backs, I followed her into slumber. The cat is always aware, even when asleep, but he was most pleased with the situation. The mongoose was ours. She trusted us. She nested on us.
Tess
The mongoose woke when the cat moved. She’s ridden Scout plenty, so she readjusted and moved as the cat stood, and rode him back to the human dwelling. We jumped off when the cat shook a little, taking that as a sign he was tired of being ridden. But then he changed, and it was still dark outside. The mongoose wasn’t ready to go into the background again. She went to leave, but the cat-in-the-shape-of-a-human picked us up and held us so we couldn’t bite.
“I need Tess back.”
Tess. That was the human. Scout never demanded we change back to human. The wolf was used to our timing.
“Tess!”
We heard the urgency in his voice and noted that the garage door was closing. The human came forward, the mongoose sank into the background, and we were suddenly standing in front of Bobcat in all of his naked, human glory.
“I wasn’t ready to come back.”
“I scented unknown humans. The wolves watching us did, too. They’re closing in on them, but I think your enemy may be looking at all possible known locations for you.”
I shook my head. The mongoose isn’t keyed into being on the lookout for humans when she sleeps. Snakes, moles, rats — sure. Humans can’t fit into her burrows and tunnels, so she doesn’t care about them. The cat’s senses had likely awakened him at the first hint of a strange human scent.
“Human? Not shifter?”
“Humans with guns and knives. Lots of metal. We should move downstairs. Protein bars until we figure out what’s happening and can spend time cooking.”
I didn’t ask how he knew what they had. Guns smell of gunpowder, and knives are made of different kinds of metal than firearms. They smell completely different.
Two security guys herded us into the house and down the steps. Doors were open and waiting for us, and I heard them closing and locking behind us as we went into the bowels of the underground bunker.
Two wolves went into the bedroom, walked the perimeter, looked in the closet, and left. Bobcat barricaded us in, opened a drawer, and tossed me three protein bars.
Vampire quarters are as safe as they come. The guards didn’t have to look under the bed because it’s a locked cage. If a vampire wants their blood servant in the room with them but doesn’t trust them a thousand percent, they can lock them in the handy under-bed cage.
“What must it be like, to be locked into that cage before sunrise, knowing you won’t get out until the vampire above you reanimates?” I mused aloud.
“You’re avoiding the conversation we need to have about the fact people are actively looking for you.”
; I shrugged. “You only smelled humans. They have no way of smelling for me, and likely don’t know I’m a mongoose. There’s no way they know I’m here. Like you said, they’re searching all possible locations. I’m friends with the MC, and this is one of their properties. They didn’t get in, right?”
“Some of the security humans know about shapeshifters,” he pointed out. He’d put jeans and a shirt on as soon as we walked in, and now he sat to lace his boots. I followed suit in case we needed to leave in a hurry.
“True, but they aren’t often sent out in teams of only humans. There would’ve been at least one shifter with them, or vampire, or someone who could catch my scent. You said it was a human team. I’m not worried. Drake can easily protect me from them.”
He shook his head. “Some of the ex-special forces guys are formidable. Doesn’t matter they’re human.”
I felt my temper growing and I didn’t do anything to suppress it. “So what do you want me to do? Cower in a corner?”
He closed his eyes a few seconds, and I saw the cat looking out when he opened them. “A little bit of fear might be healthy, but I don’t believe that’s the mongoose way, so no. Mainly, I just want you to analyze why Andretti’s still after you, and if it isn’t him, who it might be, and why.”
“Because I still have information on him, of course.”
“So how do you get him to back off?”
“Kill him or neutralize him.” Once I said it, I realized how cold it sounded. I usually try not to let people see how brutally efficient I can be, but perhaps Bobcat needed to know.
He smiled. “Very good. So, we need to figure out which to plan, and then how to pull it off.”
I turned my back on him to walk to a chair. I was much too pleased with his response. Had I wanted to push him away by showing him the real me? If so, the plan had backfired horribly, because my inner mongoose wanted to jump his bones.
I sat, felt my stomach turn, and looked towards the kitchen area. “Why did we eat the protein bars instead of cooking?”
“We may need to fight or leave.”
“You said they were human?”
A soft ding sounded, and I looked to the monitors above the door. Ranger was outside, alone. Instead of opening the door, I used the speaker.
“What’s up?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Bobcat
“Raid. Aaron wants me barricaded in with the two of you.”
I opened the door, let him in, and barricaded it back.
“Raid on the spa? With a search warrant?” I asked.
He nodded. “Feebs, not local. They’re fingerprinting the entire damned place. Using the blue light and attempting to get DNA from the rooms, too.”
I shook my head and leaned against the table. “Fuck.”
“That isn’t the worst of it.”
“Just say it.” Tess sounded as irritated as I felt.
“Their search warrant includes the business and the residences. All of them. They have teams of people.”
I paced. Normal LEO would never find the bunker, but the Feebs? There was no way to know exactly what technology they had with them.
“What does Aaron say?” I asked.
“We didn’t have much time to talk, but he’s clearly concerned.”
“There’s an escape tunnel with a motorcycle at the other end. It leads off the property, but it’s still a risk.”
Ranger rubbed his jaw. “There’s a risk either way, but I don’t like feeling trapped.”
I nodded and looked to Tess. “One motorcycle. Whoever rides bitch needs to have you in a backpack, so we can fit all three of us on the bike. Plus, they’ll be looking for a man and a woman. Not two men.”
Tess nodded, and I looked to Ranger as he told me, “You make a better bitch, with your pretty hair.”
“I’d offer to arm wrestle you for it, but the deciding factor needs to be who can pilot a bike better.”
“I’ve had defensive driving lessons for every vehicle imaginable, include bikes, but I don’t regularly ride. You do.” He looked to Tess. “Looks like I’ll have the backpack. Your mongoose going to be okay with that?”
She nodded, and I turned to my own backpack. I pulled three mags out, situated them in my pockets for easy access, buckled my holster and weapon onto my belt, and pulled a black sweatshirt on over my shirt. “The tunnel leads out of the fire escape room. I have extra space in my backpack, and it looks like Ranger’s is empty. What do you need to pack to take with us?” I asked Tess.
She grabbed her toiletry bag from the bathroom, and a few items of clothes from her suitcase. “We should put everything that points to me into the fire escape room, in case they make it this far.”
“Once we leave the escape room, we can’t get back into it from the tunnels. At that point, our only option is to follow it to the end.”
“Knowing the MC, the other end is well hidden,” said Ranger. “Still seems safer than staying here.”
“We need to wipe everything down, just in case they make it this far. Also, wouldn’t hurt to take the sheets with us, if they’re checking for DNA.”
Tess looked around the room, and I knew what she was thinking — there wasn’t a surface in the room we hadn’t had sex on. No, we hadn’t been on the nightstands. So, two surfaces.
Five minutes later, we were all in the bathroom, and the bedroom was wiped as well as we could without spending an hour on it.
If you push the button from the bed, it dumps you into the escape room and leaves the bed at an odd angle. So, we’d need to use the bathroom hatch, conveniently situated between the shower and toilet. I pointed out the four squares we should stand on, and then leaned to push the hidden button on the base of the chair rail. The floor fell out from under us, and we all landed in a crouch, ten feet below.
The ceiling over us closed, and I held my breath while I walked to the wall and pushed the button to reoxygenate the room. Vampires don’t breathe, so it’s a safe fire suppression system for them. Shapeshifters and humans need oxygen, though, which is why there’s a button, since so many vampires keep their food source close at hand.
“You should change now,” I told Tess. “We’ll want to make a fast exit once we leave the safety of this room.”
“Why can’t we stay here?” she asked. “Even if they find the bunker, they aren’t likely to find the escape hatch.”
Ranger shook his head. “The Feebs use ground penetrating lidar and radar to find cavities. If they see a room and can’t find the door, they’ll cut their way through. Local LEO wouldn’t find it, but the people serving this warrant very well might.”
Tess handed me her clothes as she took them off, and I folded them into my backpack. I’d spin it around to my chest before I got onto the bike if we were in a hurry. If we had time, I’d latch it onto the back.
The magical sparkles once again preceded Tess turning into a small mongoose. I gently lifted her and let her crawl into Ranger’s backpack. She went in head first and then popped her head out of the top to look at me. I zipped all but a few inches, and then looped the top flap over. She poked her head out the side, and I blew her a kiss.
The little mongoose rolled her eyes at me, and I grinned before moving into Ranger’s view. “Okay. She’s good. No one’s touched anything in here, so we don’t have to wipe anything down.” I still had the washcloth I’d used in the rooms above, and I used it to push the right sequence on the panel to open the door to the tunnel. This room was a square metal box, with nothing flammable. The control panel was the only thing breaking up the walls and ceiling.
All RTMC Birmingham members have to learn how to play the chorus for a number of songs. Mary Had A Little Lamb. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Werewolves of London. Sweet Home Alabama. A few different stanzas from Bohemian Rhapsody. The kicker is that we had to learn to play it on a keypad. There are twelve in all, and each is color coded. The black and white striped dot on the right-hand corner told me this was the song from Beetle
juice, so I keyed in the sixteen-number sequence for the song.
“That’s a long damned code to remember,” Ranger noted.
“It is.” And I’d be taking this idea home to Chattanooga.
The tunnel is narrow and dirty. Concrete blocks on the side and treated plywood over the top until we hit an old natural cave.
“I’ve never actually been through here, but Mad Dog said take the first left and then every right.”
Ranger was in front so I could keep an eye on Tess. Not that she was going anywhere, but I felt better when I could see her.
“I don’t smell people. I take it this is a little-known system?”
“That’s my understanding. It’s around four miles and we’ve been, what... a mile?”
“Not quite. We’ll drive into downtown. We have a king cab truck parked at a hotel two blocks from the courthouse. We’ll park the bike in another garage, hold hands while we walk to the truck, and then I can drive us to the safehouse.”
And Tess could change back to human in the backseat without being seen.
“Two men on a bike won’t trigger anything.” I noted. “Neither will two gay men. They’re looking for a woman.”
“Exactly.”
Tess
My mongoose wasn’t a fan of riding in a backpack on a motorcycle. I had to work hard to keep her hidden and calm.
By the time I could change back to human, I wasn’t in great shape, but I managed to get dressed and eat a half-dozen protein bars
“Anything I can do to help?” Bobcat asked from the passenger seat.
“No. The mongoose didn’t like the bike ride. At all. I mean, daytime when she can look around, she’d probably be okay, but from the inside of a backpack...” I shook my head and tried to think of something else. Anything else. “Where are we headed?”
Bobcat (Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham Book 2) Page 15