by Nalini Singh
Clay was enjoying this but no one insulted Talin in front of him. “Hey, Tally.”
She glanced over her shoulder. “What?” Her tone was close to a snarl.
“You think I should show him how refined I can be?” A quick flash of lengthening canines, eyes cat-green.
The maître d’s face went white behind her.
Clay barely held back his laughter.
Talin smacked his arm. “Behave, you’re not helping.” She returned her attention to the maître d’. “Now, where were we—Are you all right? You look very pale.”
“I’m, uh, fine.” His fear an astringent irritant to Clay’s senses, the maître d’ ran his finger along the screen of his little computer tablet. “Who did you say you were meeting?”
“Mr. Devraj Santos.”
The man’s voice was reedy when he spoke. “Mr. Santos booked one of our private dining rooms. If you’ll follow me.”
Clay put his hand on Talin’s lower back as they climbed the stairs behind the other man. “I don’t think he likes me,” he whispered in her ear.
“I thought I told you to behave,” she hissed. “Why did he react like that?”
“Because”—he pressed a kiss to her jaw, sensing her amused mood—“he figured out that I was a big, bad pussycat.”
Halting, she glared at him but it was without heat. “This is a leopard town—they should be used to you. What do you guys do to people who cross you?”
“We don’t eat them…well, not often,” he teased. “But a reputation is a handy thing.” The reality was that people were starting to realize the cats controlled several major parts of the city. “We have massive clout.” However, since DarkRiver was a disciplined unit, not a band of thugs, they didn’t, as a rule, go around flaunting that power.
On the other hand, an occasional reminder by one of the senior pack members—as he’d given tonight—ensured no one got complacent. That happened, other predators would start trying to move in, human, changeling, and Psy. “They know we can make life difficult.”
“Like the mafia?” Reaching out, she fixed his hair, tone affectionate.
He preened under the attention. “Hey, we don’t ask for protection money.” And they didn’t pursue petty vengeance, but the maître d’ didn’t know that. “Plus, cement shoes are so last century.”
“You’re terrible,” she whispered, and started climbing again. “You scared that poor man half to death.”
“He deserved it.” He squeezed her hip with his hand, wondering if she really was against biting—’cause he was dying to test his teeth against the sweet temptation of her butt. “No one except me gets to be mean to you.”
She rolled her eyes, but he saw her fighting a smile. “Ditto, kitty cat.” That smile peeked out at his scowl. “It was kind of funny, but I’ll deny that if you ever call me on it.”
When they cleared the steps, it was to find the maître d’ standing in front of an open door midway down the hall. “If you would like to wait inside,” he said, careful to keep his distance from Clay, “I’ll show Mr. Santos up as soon as he arrives.”
“Thank you,” Talin said.
Clay paused long enough to give the other man the cool smile of a predator on the hunt before Talin dragged him inside and shut the door. “Enough.”
Liking the fact that she was comfortable enough to give him orders, he searched the room for a secondary exit. The window was high but more than big enough. He could climb out with Talin on his back. Satisfied, he walked back to where she stood against the door.
“Most people don’t react as badly as that guy,” he said, bracing his arms palms down on either side of her head. He left enough room that she didn’t feel trapped, but still, his leopard purred when she remained in place. “He must be one of those humans who thinks of us as animals. Probably waiting for me to order live venison.”
“Don’t take that high-and-mighty tone.” She poked a finger into his chest. “Unless you don’t know of any changelings who think of humans as prey.”
He winced. “You’re right. Some of the predatory species tend to lump humans in the same group as cattle and deer.” Prey, kept safe only because even in animal form, a changeling’s mind was half man.
“What do you think?” she asked, tone arch.
“I think I don’t want to feel the sharp edge of your tongue.” Pushing off the door, he walked to the western side of the square table and pulled out a chair. It was a position that would allow him to keep an eye on both exits. “A seat, my lady.”
She wandered over, looked him up and down. “Funny, you look like Clay.”
He jerked up his chin in a silent question.
“You’re being charming.”
If she knew the control it was taking to keep the brutal possessiveness of his nature from taking over, she would’ve been terrified. His hands clenched on the back of the chair as she sat, the high tail of her hair brushing over his fingers. Though he knew she didn’t consciously realize it, her acceptance of the seat—of allowing him behind her—was an act of primal trust, baring as it did the vulnerable nape of her neck.
He wanted to lean down and press a kiss to that creamy skin. Tally didn’t have freckles there. “Don’t worry,” he assured her, intrigued by his discovery. “I’ll be back to surly and uncommunicative soon enough.”
“Idiot.” She laughed as he took a seat beside her, on the side closest to the door. No one would be able to get to her without going through him. He was about to give in to temptation and reach out to play with a strand of her hair when he heard footsteps. Rising, he went to the door and opened it.
A tall man—dark hair, dark eyes, possible weapon in a shoulder holster—exited the staircase behind the maître d’. Clay heard him dismiss the restaurant employee and head directly to the door. “You must be Clay Bennett.” Reaching him, the man extended his hand.
“And you must be the SOB who tried to pin a tail on me this morning.”
He heard Talin gasp but ignored it, his attention on Santos’s reaction as their hands dropped away from each other. The man was smooth, he’d give him that. Not a flicker of surprise marred his expression. “You sound very sure.”
“He sang like a canary.” Clay had taken care of the tail before going Down Below.
“Ah.” Santos raised an eyebrow. “That explains the lack of a communiqué from him. Is he still alive?”
“For now.” Clay moved back, allowing the other man to enter but blocking his access to Talin.
Santos closed the door behind himself. “Talin, you’re looking well.”
“Uh-huh.”
Clay was pleased to see Talin’s skeptical expression as she eyed her boss’s elegantly cut suit. The man looked like a corporate shark, but Clay’s animal saw him as something far more interesting—a predator clothed in human skin.
Giving them a meaningless smile, Santos took a seat. “Perhaps we should order first?”
Clay returned to his chair. “We’ve already eaten, but coffee might be good.”
Talin picked up the menu pad and input selections for both of them. “I’ll have coffee, too. Maybe a slice of cake.”
“You’ll excuse me if I eat. I’ve had a rather hectic day.” Santos made his selections and sent them through as Talin sent hers. “I’ve just come from a private hospital.”
“One of the kids?” Talin’s concern colored the air.
“I’m afraid Max is no longer in play.”
Clay tensed at the tone of his voice. “What happened?”
“He was attacked.” Santos’s eyes went flat, deadly. “Beaten into unconsciousness.”
Talin sucked in a horrified gasp. “Is he—”
“He has several broken bones and some cranial swelling but he’s alive, thanks to an interruption by a group of civic-minded individuals.” The Shine director passed over a card. “That’s the private facility where we moved him after we realized what had happened. It’s far more secure than the public hospitals.”
>
Clay looked at the card, recognizing the area. “Any idea who attacked him?”
“We’re assuming it was the same person or persons who vandalized Talin’s home—Max wasn’t able to tell us anything.” He folded his arms in front of him and smiled. It was a shark’s smile, full of teeth. “He got one of them, though. The others took the body, but from the blood splatter and tissue left behind, it was a head shot.”
Clay was surprised to find he liked Max, was furious the cop had been targeted. “Let me guess—DNA came back ‘record unknown’?”
“Of course. But we were able to determine the race as human.” The hand he’d placed on the table clenched. “Casualty or not, the attack succeeded in taking Max, and therefore Enforcement, out of the equation. We believe he’ll recover fully but until then, you appear to have become our best source.”
Talin took a shaky breath but her next question held an edge. “Dev, you keep talking about ‘we’ and ‘our.’ Who are the others?”
“Shine’s backers. They control the board.”
Clay heard a sound coming from inside the walls and identified it as a dumbwaiter, likely part of the “olde-worlde” charm advertised on the restaurant’s menus. “Tally, would you do the honors?” He had no intention of turning his back on Devraj Santos.
A quick, adrenaline-inducing brush of her hand on his thigh and she rose. “Just don’t start expecting this every day.”
Santos remained in place while she went to retrieve the dishes. “Thank you,” he said when Talin put them on the table. He didn’t attempt to reach for his plate until she’d retaken her seat. Trying to appear friendly. Harmless. Yeah, right.
“Why come to us instead of going to another cop?” Clay asked, ignoring his coffee. “Our chances of having anything are close to nil.”
“We’ve had an interest in DarkRiver for some time.” Santos took a bite of his pasta. “You’re surprised by my candor.”
“Yeah.” What surprised Clay more was that though he’d forced Santos to take the less secure seat, the other man had subtly angled his chair so he could keep the exits in sight. Interesting. He’d expected a desk jockey and gotten a soldier.
“I don’t understand.” Talin pushed aside the cake she clearly no longer had an appetite for. “I thought this meeting had to do with the missing children, not DarkRiver.”
Santos’s face became a cool, dangerous mask. “It does. But the abductions are part of a larger issue.”
“Is Shine behind them?” Talin asked point-blank.
“We aren’t taking them off the street, but we are responsible.”
CHAPTER 24
“Why?” Talin whispered. “Why would you hurt them like that?”
“We aren’t killing the children.” The other man put down his fork, having finished his meal despite the distasteful topic. Another betraying act. Soldiers ate when they could. “We’re responsible because we’re too good at identifying them. At which point, somebody is betraying that information to the others.”
Clay couldn’t figure out one thing. “From what I know, Shine has a lot of political power—why didn’t you push harder with Enforcement?”
“It’s not a secure system—leaks happen on an hourly basis.” Santos took a long drink of water. “We chose Max because he has a natural shield against Psy interference and integrity. There aren’t many like him. To pressure Enforcement would’ve done more harm than good in this case.”
“Why?” Talin insisted. “No one else is doing anything to find these kids.”
“On the contrary, we’ve been trying from the start.” His skin pulled taut over his cheekbones. “But our enemy is too good at hiding. That’s why we’ve stopped recruiting.”
“I wondered about that,” Talin murmured. “You haven’t sent out street teams for months.”
“We can’t risk fingering any more children.” He shook his head. “We’re also trying to protect the ones already in our system, but you know these kids. Most of them move to their own rhythms.”
Talin didn’t argue. “What can you tell us?”
“They’re being taken because of their abilities.”
“We already knew that,” Talin responded.
“We think the Psy are taking them.”
Clay kept his face expressionless in spite of that unexpected bit of news. “Why?”
“These children represent the best humanity has to offer. They are the brightest stars in our arsenal—a potential threat to Psy power.” He nodded at Talin. “Your ability to remember everything you ever see is almost a Psy ability in itself.”
True enough as far as that went, but Clay didn’t buy it. Neither, it seemed, did Talin. “There are gifted kids around the world. Heck, a lot of them are in special schools, ripe for the picking. Why take only Shine children?”
“Because”—Santos’s tone turned bitter—“we’ve painted bull’s-eyes on their backs.”
An answer that told them exactly nothing, Clay thought. “Why the interest in DarkRiver?”
“You have Psy connections.” The other man leaned back in his chair but continued to keep both hands in view. “Your alpha is mated to a cardinal. Sascha Duncan’s mother, Nikita, is a Councilor.”
“That relationship has been terminated,” Clay said, knowing he was betraying no secrets. Nikita had made it publicly clear that she no longer considered Sascha her daughter.
“You also have Faith NightStar, the strongest F-Psy in the world. She has ongoing links with the PsyNet.”
“She subcontracts her services.” Clay shrugged. “She’s not in the Net.” The biggest information archive in the world, it could only be accessed by those Psy uplinked to it. Sascha and Faith had both cut that link on their defection to DarkRiver.
“That doesn’t mean she’s not in touch with others who are uplinked.” He paused but Clay remained silent. “The deciding factor is that DarkRiver has shown itself both capable of, and willing to, go up against the Psy. The foundation’s backers believe you may prove amenable to helping us mount a search and rescue operation for the children.”
“You had to have followed me to get to Clay, so you know the pack’s already agreed to help,” Talin said, cutting through the bullshit in her direct way. “You could’ve told us your theories in a simple call.”
Santos’s lips curved at her arch reference to the fact that he hadn’t given them anything worth shit. “I wanted to express the foundation’s support of DarkRiver’s actions. You will have our total cooperation.”
“We want to put people inside Shine to weed out the spy,” Clay said.
“We can’t allow that, but we’re taking all possible measures to corner the culprit.”
“Nice definition of total cooperation,” Talin muttered.
“So, in a nutshell—you have nothing we don’t already know and you came to give us permission?” Clay let the leopard’s arrogance out to play. “Is that right?”
Santos’s hand fisted against the tablecloth. “There are things we’re not ready to share.”
“How about the complete files on the missing kids?” Talin’s tone was harsh. “The ones you gave Max are doctored.”
Santos couldn’t hide his surprise this time. “You don’t simply remember everything, do you, Talin? You rearrange the pieces until you find a pattern. I forgot that aspect of your abilities.”
“Answer the question. Can you get her the files or are you even more useless than you appear?”
The other man’s eyes turned assassin cold. “Careful, Mr. Bennett. I’m not the easy prey you think I am.”
“I think you’re a wolf in corporate clothing but as far as the search goes, you haven’t given us shit. Either front up or get out of it.”
“These are our kids.” Santos’s voice held a raw protectiveness Clay hadn’t expected. “Everything we do is to keep them safe.”
“Then give me the files,” Talin pleaded. “You said it yourself—I see patterns. Maybe I’ll see something that’ll help us
find the children.”
The Shine director didn’t say anything for several minutes. “I’ll have hard copies couriered to DarkRiver’s Chinatown HQ by tomorrow morning. Destroy them after you memorize them.” He pushed back his chair. “I have a flight to catch.”
Clay rose. “We’ll call you if we find anything.”
“I’ll give you what I can.” His sophisticated mask slipped to display the ruthless interior. “There are those who want to go softly, but I’m not having any more children die on my watch.” He seemed about to say something else but then glanced at Talin. “Read the files without the blinders of knowledge. Let’s see what patterns you find.”
Dev waited until he was in his soundproofed rental car before making the call. “You underestimated them.”
“We can’t risk—”
“Yes, we can.” His hand threatened to crush the phone. “Children are dying.”
“We need to know if DarkRiver is secure enough to entrust with this information.”
“Who are you afraid will find out?” He was an inch away from throwing the phone through the windshield. “They already know. That’s why they’re taking our children!”
Talin was irritated and tired by the time they parked the Tank in its hiding place next to the lair. She had wanted to visit Max, but Clay had nixed that idea on the grounds that they could lead danger to Max and vice versa. Instead, he’d made a call on a secure line and been told that Max was unconscious but stable.
Frustrated by her own inability to protect those she cared for, she struck out. “I can’t believe Dev’s hiding things that might help us find Jon!”
“He did give us one crucial piece of information,” Clay said, his hand on her lower back as they walked toward the lair. “The Psy.”
She shook off his hold. Her skin reacted to his touch in ways she found disturbing—because, her bold statement to Faith aside, she wasn’t sure what the hell she wanted. Only that she couldn’t lose Clay. “We have no proof of a Psy link. Max is a good cop—he’d have found it if it existed.”