by Cara Adams
* * * *
Andreas looked forward to the time when Dakota and whoever she was partnered with for her shift would look through the doors of the gym and check that everything there was going smoothly. Of course, if ever there was serious trouble he’d call security, but he still liked that part of the guards’ routine was to drop in and speak to him each shift.
It didn’t always happen. Sometimes they were far too busy to do any courtesy checks, but with Dakota, especially, it was always a part of his day he appreciated. Andreas spent most of his day out on the reception desk. Sometimes he sat behind one of the computer terminals checking numbers of guests and customers, ordering more supplies, and answering e-mails. Other times he stood behind the desk talking to customers as they came in, keeping in touch with his clients and what they were interested in.
It was after eleven and the fitness center was officially closed. He’d already locked the front door and checked the entire building to ensure no one was hiding anywhere or still in the showers unaware the gym was closed. Once he’d even found a guest sound asleep on a bench out by the lap swimming pool. But today, once he was sure the building was empty he’d clicked the switch on the door so anyone with a swipe card could still open it, and he sat behind his terminal looking at fitness clothing. Marbella, the wolf who taught aerobics classes, had told him his clothing lines were boring and if he’d stock more interesting attire he’d sell plenty of it.
But the problem was it was “girl stuff” and he had no knowledge of girl stuff. He had no sisters, no wife, and not even a girlfriend right now. Of course, he could let Marbella choose it, but he didn’t want to relinquish that much authority to her.
Andreas was still frowning at the screen when there was a tap on the door. He looked up to see a friendly wave from Berian, a fellow werewolf shape-shifter and one of the other security guards. Berian, a burly blond man, swiped the door open and stood in the doorway. “Everything okay here, Andreas?”
“Yes, thanks. I’m closed, just trying to catch up on paperwork.”
“I know how you feel. Sometimes I reckon it takes as long to write up the incident report as whatever it was that happened,” joked Berian.
Dakota joined Berian in the doorway. “All secure over there.” She tilted her head in the direction she’d come from.
“Dakota, you’re a woman. Come and look at these and tell me what you think.” Andreas spoke before he’d thought it through, but the idea of her standing close beside him was nice, even if she laughed at the exercise clothing on the screen.
Both Dakota and Berian walked around the reception desk to where he sat, but Andreas noted it was Dakota who stopped to check the door was secured behind her. She was incredibly hardworking and thorough.
“Oh, nice. I like,” said Berian staring at the screen.
Dakota laughed but scanned the outfits carefully. “I think some of these things are for people to stand around in, not exercise in. I mean, they’re meant to look good, not necessarily be functional. Like those bikinis that you can’t actually wear into the water. They’re just for wearing when you sunbathe or whatever.”
“They make swimwear no one can swim in?” asked Berian.
“Yes, sure. Andreas, if you want to start selling these sorts of things, and I agree you should think of expanding this area of the business, you might consider talking to Quintana. She’d be able to advise you about what would and wouldn’t sell and what women really would like.”
“You don’t think she might be angry and think I’m competing with her store?” Quintana was very focused on becoming successful. He really didn’t plan on getting in her way. There was no reason to, after all. His fitness center was profitable in its own little sphere.
“She would only be interested in selling the kind of clothing a woman would wear to lounge around in, not the type of outfit meant to get perspiration on it. You wouldn’t be competing with her, and Quintana has a real talent for choosing things people will buy,” said Dakota.
“Thank you, Dakota. You’re absolutely right. I’ll do that.”
Dakota smiled at him and Andreas’s cock went from limp to erect in about a nanosecond. Damn, she was sexy when she smiled. Well, actually she was always sexy. But her smile was an aphrodisiac in itself.
“We’d better keep moving. See you tomorrow, Andreas.” Dakota walked toward the door and Berian waved and followed her. Lucky Berian, getting to spend hours in her company like that. It was almost worth becoming a security guard just to be with Dakota. But better yet would be convincing her to mate him. Well, him and Lewis. The lone wolf adored her and he couldn’t steal her from him.
* * * *
Dakota wished she could stop and talk to Andreas for longer. She liked the blond, blue-eyed, broad shouldered, and devastatingly muscular fitness center manager, and it’d been a while since they’d had a proper conversation. She guessed they were both just too busy. Plus, by the time she came off duty from this shift he needed to be home in bed if he was to be up again in time to open the gym. She sometimes wondered when, or even if, Andreas slept. He was there at six to open up the fitness center. He was there all day, usually at the reception desk greeting customers and talking to them, and he was still there late at night.
Dakota shrugged. Likely he took a nap in the middle of the day. Although, to be fair, she’d dropped in during her rounds and he was always there. Well, maybe he was just one of those people who didn’t need a lot of sleep. Unlike herself. She got grumpy without a regular seven hours’ rest.
But when she walked past the fitness center on the way out to the parking lot, although the door was locked, lights were still on inside. She swiped her card, made sure the door locked again behind her, and walked down the dimly lit hallway into the spin room. Dakota leaned against the wall just inside the room and grinned. Andreas and Lewis were on adjacent bikes pedaling furiously. The shorter, slighter man, his light brown hair damp with sweat, was giving the blond owner a good challenge. Dakota watched as the lights on the mini-computers attached to the bicycles flashed out colors and graphs, and then she clapped as both went green with the final result simultaneously.
Both men turned startled faces toward her, and Lewis’s eyes glistened with fear before he recognized her. Dakota felt a momentary pang of guilt at surprising Lewis, but she was pleased the two men were enjoying themselves in a male bonding kind of way.
“When do you sleep, Andreas? Don’t you need to open the gym again at six tomorrow?”
“I never go to bed until after midnight,” he said.
Dakota noticed he hadn’t answered her question. Okay, he must not need much sleep. She could imagine how much more time in the day she’d have to get things done if she didn’t become so tired.
Andreas jumped off his bike and walked over to the water cooler, pouring a cup for himself and one for Lewis and then asking, “Water, Dakota?”
“I’m good thanks.”
“I enjoyed the bike race. Thank you,” said Lewis.
“Did you ride bicycles in the mountains, or was it too steep?” she asked.
“We were surrounded by very high mountains and they blocked us from getting reception for television, or Internet, or cell phones, until a repeater station was built on a mountain in a direct line from us. But in our—well, valley isn’t the correct word but it wasn’t exactly a plateau either. We were in the fold between several higher mountains, sheltered by them from the worst of the weather. Anyway, to make a long story short, there was enough more-or-less sort-of flattish land for us to drive trucks, ride bikes, and do everything other people do. It’s just that there were very few people. The land was harsh and not very productive but we did grow vegetables and hardier trees.”
“How many people were there in your village?” asked Andreas.
“Even calling it a village is a bit of a stretch. There were seven families in the pack when I was a boy, including one other child, the boy five years older than me who left when he was seventeen
. But by the time I was a teenager one family had left and an elderly couple had left as well. My parents moved down into a small town when I was twenty, which is when I decided to look for a pack. I could have gotten a part-time job with the National Parks Service as my father did. But I wanted to find other werewolf shape-shifters and my parents agreed I should do that.”
“How long ago did you leave?” asked Andreas.
“Do you regularly contact your folks?” asked Dakota.
“Three years and every few months. But Rhion told me to buy a cell phone so I’ll be able to call them soon. Up until now I’ve had to write them a letter and they couldn’t write back because I’ve never known where I’ll be going on to next.”
Dakota had a lot of other questions she wanted to ask, but she didn’t want to push Lewis. He was shy yet independent and she didn’t want him to think he had to talk to her. He turned the tables, anyway, by asking, “What have you been doing today, Dakota?”
“Apart from working, I contacted Jackson Hamilton at the well-being center in step one of the plan to find out more about him. I told him about my grandmother’s dementia and I e-mailed him her latest assessment which clearly shows she needs to be in care.”
“But you aren’t going to let him see her are you?” Lewis’s voice had a harsh, brittle edge to it.
“No, I most definitely am not. She’s already in a very nice care facility where they have an interior courtyard garden and she loves sitting out there with the plants. The area is partially roofed so she can sit under shelter if it’s too sunny or wet and still be in the garden. The staff has instructions to let her outside whenever she wants to go there. Being in the garden relaxes her and keeps her happy.”
“You aren’t going to be alone with Hamilton at all are you? You won’t agree to meet him at this place?” asked Andreas.
“I expect I’ll have to. I won’t be able to prove he’s doing the wrong thing unless I’ve actually been to the well-being center and seen people being mistreated or locked up or whatever he does to them. But I won’t be going near him without some kind of backup or support. People will know I’m there and meeting him. I won’t take any risks.”
“But you are taking a risk. A huge risk. Simply by seeing his center you risk him finding out you’re trying to prove he’s done the wrong thing,” said Lewis.
Once again Lewis was sounding stressed and worried. But he wasn’t fearful for himself this time. He genuinely cared about her. That was amazing. Dakota smiled at him. “Lewis, I’m not a wolf and I’m not helpless. I’m a trained security guard. I can disable a perpetrator holding a weapon. It’s what I do.”
“I’d like to be close enough nearby to help you if something goes wrong.”
Knowing how terrified he’d been of being recaptured, and how fearful he was of Hamilton, Dakota was hugely touched by this statement. He’d put all his doubts, fears, and uncertainties aside to protect her.
“Lewis, that’s a huge commitment for you. I can’t ask it of you. You’re far more likely to be hurt by him than I am.”
“But Lewis is correct. We will both be somewhere nearby in case you need us. Let’s go somewhere more comfortable and private to talk about this,” said Andreas.
“But don’t you have to be at work in just a few hours?” she asked.
“One of the girls can mind the desk. I’ll have to go talk to Quintana about the new stock as well. Maybe I’ll take tomorrow off completely.”
Dakota blinked. Andreas take the day off work? She’d never known him to do that before.
He ushered them out of the room and flicked off the light then led them to the rear of the fitness center.
* * * *
Andreas was impressed by the other wolf. He’d shown his true wolf heritage by putting Dakota’s safety ahead of his own trauma. Andreas was coming to like Lewis more and more as he learned more about him. The wolf had overcome some pretty huge disadvantages, and although his natural approach was both careful and tentative, it wasn’t for lack of courage and passion. Andreas was certain that between them they could look after Dakota and keep Lewis away from Hamilton as well.
He led the way out back to the staff lunchroom. It wasn’t much of a space, just a table, a few hard chairs, a sink, refrigerator, microwave oven, and coffeepot. He filled the coffeepot and turned it on, then sat at the table, waving the others to the chairs as well. “Okay, Dakota, what are your plans?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t really gotten any. I mean, I’ll have to go and look at the place to see if people are locked up there, but that’s all.”
“Won’t that be terribly dangerous?” asked Lewis.
“No, it’ll be a total waste of time. He’ll only show you what he wants you to see. It’ll be a completely sanitized tour.”
Dakota leaned forward. “Yes, but that’s the point. Lewis can tell me where he was kept. Have you got a notepad? Lewis can draw me a map now. After I’ve been I’ll know where I was taken. Between that information we’ll know where his victims are housed.”
Andreas had to agree that was logical. Not that he liked the idea of Dakota walking into danger. But it was important the man be caught, convicted, and put out of business, and that could only happen with solid evidence against him.
Andreas walked back to the reception desk and opened and shut a few drawers there until he found a large sheet of blank paper and a couple of pencils, which he took back to the lunchroom. “Here, Lewis, draw what you know about the well-being center.”
Lewis gave him a bit of a panicked look, then seemed to call up his inner strength. He began by sketching a rough rectangle on one side of the paper and a fence on the very far edge of the sheet.
“I don’t know anything about the other side of the building. I was brought out through a back door here”—he marked an X at the rear of the rectangle—“and was taken for runs over here.” He waved at the open space.
Then, to Andreas’s astonishment, he began putting marks on the paper, labeling trees, plants, shrubs, bushes, and pathways. Every plant he named, either with its Latin heritage or at least by its common name, and he even knew how many feet apart each group of garden beds had been set out. His memory must be phenomenal. But it wasn’t going to help them catch Hamilton unfortunately. Unless Lewis had such a detailed memory of the inside of the building as well.
Lewis turned the page over and drew the building much larger, now adding hallways and rooms. Once again he knew how far apart the doorways were but very little about what was inside each room. Some he’d glimpsed inside as he was escorted past, but mostly the doors were kept closed and locked, he said.
Andreas continued to watch in amazement as Lewis described his own small room vividly. It held a bed, a chair, a toilet, and a sink, with a television bolted up near the ceiling, which showed only one movie per day, after the evening meal, and before the light was switched off. “The prisoner had no control over the lights or the television and there was no window. Even the water in the sink only ran for a short time. Several times I tried to wash my whole body and the water always stopped running long before I was done. I was taken for a shower every second day and they evidently considered that was good enough for personal hygiene,” said Lewis.
“I assume there was a CCTV watching you, though,” said Andreas.
“I’m sure there was, and my guess is that it was hidden in the light fitting as I couldn’t see it anywhere else. I used to stare at the light fitting after the light had been switched off, trying to see if there was any pinpoint of light still coming from it, but I was never sure,” said Lewis.
“You’ve done an amazing job, Lewis. You have a much sharper, more detailed memory than I have,” said Dakota.
“I had nothing else to do,” explained Lewis.
“And you like plants,” she added softly.
“But you won’t be shown a room like that,” said Andreas, looking hard at Dakota. He was sure she understood the danger she’d be in. She was plenty smart enou
gh to have worked it out.
“Oh hell no. I’ll be introduced to a couple of elderly people in pretty rooms, with every possible frill an old lady could want. Fresh flowers even, and her own personalized tea set no doubt. But it will show me which part of the building is the “for show” area, and where the prisoners are held.”
When she said “tea set” that reminded him he hadn’t served them their coffees. He did that as he thought about the situation. He didn’t like it, really, really didn’t like it. But he didn’t like the idea of Jackson Hamilton continuing to capture and hold werewolf shape-shifters in his clinic either. Or imprison anyone else for that matter.
He gave them coffee and they sat and talked some more, but there wasn’t much to say. He could tell Lewis was on edge about the situation, and that Dakota was acting tougher than she felt, but it was basically a done deal. None of them liked it much, but it was the only logical way forward.
“Don’t meet with him without telling us, Dakota, okay. We’ll organize some unobtrusive backup for you,” he said.
“I’ll be buying a cell phone tomorrow. Well, I suppose it’s today now. As soon as I have it I’ll give you my number,” said Lewis.
“I’ll let you know the details, but you need to promise to stay well back, and out of sight. Frightening him off will only drive the business underground. It won’t make him go straight, you know?” asked Dakota.
“Yes, I do know.” The only thing that would cause Hamilton to behave was a jail term, Andreas believed. And even that wasn’t guaranteed to be successful. Not all criminals repented and became model citizens after all.
Andreas escorted Lewis and Dakota out of the gym, he and Lewis walking her all the way to her car before coming back inside and entering the professional suites and going to their own apartments. Once again Andreas had only a few hours before he was due to open the fitness center in the morning. There was a sofa in his office in the fitness center that he sometimes napped on during the day. If he was too tired this afternoon he’d take a nap while both the receptionists were on duty. Or maybe he’d spend the time sitting at the reception desk as usual and try to think up a plan to protect Dakota.