“I’ll ask again, what exactly do you know about Carro?” He demanded, following my step backward and invading my personal space, obviously acutely aware of how uncomfortable he was making me.
“I know he’s been taken. And I know who was behind it. I can help.”
In a flash of movement so fast I wouldn’t have had time to defend myself had I seen it coming, the changeling pinned both of my arms to the windows of my Jeep, one arm stretched out to my left, the other pulled roughly across my chest, jerking my shoulder hard enough to bring tears to my eyes and drop the knife to the forest floor. Obviously, my covert attempt at arming myself hadn’t been as subtle as I’d hoped.
“Who are you?”
I ignored the pain slicing through my wrists trapped in a hold hard enough to bruise. “Adriana, Adriana Rojas. I’m a journalist with KHG. Press badge is in the car. Front pocket, black bag on the passenger seat.” I took a short breath, waiting for him to move. He didn’t. “I’ve been investigating the missing persons in Bogotá. I think I can help you—”
“Stop.” He shook me to punctuate the order. “How could you know he was taken? Explain.” His voice was a violent command, and even I could feel that faint compulsion that marked an alpha, tugging at the edges of my consciousness.
I spoke quickly, telling most of the truth. “Source came to me a couple hours ago, told me about the abduction. I’ve got eyes on Dariel. I know I can help. I need to speak with—” I hesitated. I knew exactly who I was talking to, but to expose that would be to expose my own sensitivity to that knowledge. Most humans simply couldn’t sense the alpha pull...consciously at least. “Joaquín,” I finished, deciding to play dumb for the moment.
Those auric eyes flicked between my own, assessing. Without another word, the Bear was moving and dragging me with him. Never releasing his grip on my wrists, he prowled through the brush at the edge of the road.
“But my Jeep,” I whined.
No response.
I let this man bully me along through the thinning brush and into the forest depths, all the while questioning my decision to be a journalist, to investigate Dariel. If I’d been an accountant I would be in bed right now. My nice, cozy bed.
I figured we would walk for a while, so I was surprised into a stunned little pause when we pushed through a fall of lush green leaves to find an ATV. My captor shoved me toward the machine, the sudden movement making me stumble over the thick undergrowth that littered this area in sticks and seedling greenery. I shot him a venomous look before I took another step forward and swung my jeans-clad leg over the seat. He was being kind of a jerk, but I couldn’t really blame the guy. For all he knew I was part of the Snake crew and attempting to stage some kind of trojan horse situation here. As long as he wasn’t trying to kill me, we were good. What can I say? I’m not one to hold a grudge.
He didn’t give me much space though. The second I was seated on the quad, he was shoving me forward with his body, pasting himself to my back and trapping me between his thick arms as he flicked a switch on the machine and kicked something down by our feet. The engine purred to life.
“You try to escape, I’ll kill you.”
I held up my hands as far as I could, given the cage of his body.
“Just wanna help. Swear.”
He flicked his wrist and we were being shoved back by the force of his acceleration as he drove the ATV over a small, heavily concealed path which I guessed ran in parallel with the main road through this area. His body behind me was hot, and hard, and disturbingly assured of its position of dominance between the two of us. That dominance made me want to roll my eyes. That alpha crap wouldn’t work on me.
I was not a dim person. You didn’t survive on the front lines of the world’s bloodiest conflicts for as long as I had by being stupid. I knew this was the alpha I was dealing with from the way he seemed to burn brighter than any other man I’d ever met—he emanated intensity, was shrouded in the stuff like an aura of sheer physical power. What I couldn’t figure out was why he was here, roaming the fringes of his territory like a common soldier. My heart threatened to beat out my chest as I sat in the circle of his arms. I was in very real danger here. I’d essentially trespassed on a military controlled perimeter. I stood a very good chance of becoming a victim of changeling justice. My information was now my only bargaining chip. This had been a calculated risk, but a risk nonetheless. And we were about to find out if my gamble had been worth it.
I had expected to be taken back to the den, but we stopped only a few minutes later in front of a structure that was so ensconced in greenery, I almost didn’t realize it was there at all. The soft glow of artificial light seeping out from behind the massive leaves springing from vines snaking up the side of the building, the only giveaway. On the way over I’d heard at least one other ATV following us, but I still couldn’t see anyone. That meant there had to be more paths running through this area. Roadways through the forest only the Bears knew about. I considered this fact, and what it might mean for the abduction.
The alpha and I were effectively alone...for now. The moment I was taken inside that building I knew I’d be subject to all the formalities a criminal would be. I needed to make it clear, while I had this moment of privacy with him, that I was a friend. I needed to do some fast talking. Good thing this wasn’t my first foray into hostile territory.
“I know who you are,” I said, changing tactics, deciding on more of a shock and awe strategy. I turned in my seat, squinting at the man behind me in the blackness barely alleviated by the lights from the building.
“Oh, do you?” If I hadn’t known he was alpha before, I sure as hell would now. The arrogance in his tone was almost impressive. The man clearly did not lack in the confidence department.
“Yeah. I do. And I can help. I’ve been investigating Dariel and his abductions since the start. That specific interest has apparently not made me very popular with that side of the gene pool.” The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? “If there is anybody in this country who can help you get Carro back, it’s me.”
Those piercing, molten gold eyes studied me. His gaze felt like a caress over my hair, my face, my breasts.
“You’re a brave one, reinita. And what makes you so sure that we need your help?” The man’s voice was deep and harsh. It was a voice made for our beautiful Spanish, and it sent chills down my spine.
I made a move to slide off the ATV, but one of those thick arms that had been stretched out on either side of me until now, clamped around my waist, his big hand a brand on my hip, even through the simple cotton top I wore. I narrowed my eyes at him. I still couldn’t see him worth a damn, but changelings were known for their heightened senses. I wondered if he’d caught the glare I was giving him until I felt his body rumble with the faintest hint of laughter.
“The feisty ones always taste better,” he whispered, his mouth just barely brushing my ear. Or was I imagining that? He might have been trying to scare me, but my stomach flipped with a distinctly feminine reaction to the double meaning of that statement.
“I know you need help because Justice refuses to investigate the disappearances, not a single body has been retrieved, and I have information that you don’t.” It didn’t matter that I was talking to an alpha, it didn’t matter that this man was bigger, stronger than me. It didn’t matter that I was a trespasser in changeling territory. It didn’t matter that this man had made a feminine awareness in me sit up and pay attention. The reality of the stakes we were all playing with wiped out the fear in me.
“How do you know it’s Dariel’s people?” His willingness to allow me to keep talking was either a sign that he understood the danger his man was in right at this moment, or that he was stalling, waiting for some kind of back up to arrive. He didn’t exactly strike me as a man who needed back up.
“Dariel’s abductions have a clear pattern. They take people with strong political voices or prominent positions. People with an audience. Each of the thirteen—
now fourteen—people taken have been in a position to make things difficult for the new regime. Carro fits the pattern.”
“Carro was mid-level management at best. He wasn’t a politician.” The statement was pointed, unyielding, but I could feel the tension in his body. He was testing me. He was testing me because he needed help.
“Carro was the most senior level systems admin for the majority controlling electricity company in the city. And Carro was making a powerful political statement by throwing sections of the city into blackouts for the last three days.” I figured that this wasn't the moment to start pulling punches. I had one chance to make this man hear me out. I had to take it. I could hear footsteps in the forest to our left. Something heavy making its way toward us. I was running out of time. “I know the Snakes question them first. We have about twenty-one hours from right this instant before they dump the body.”
Chapter 6
“Why would a human come out here…into the dark, just to help a pack of Bears?” The woman’s voice shattered the intimacy of our discussion. Joaquín didn't move an inch from his position over me...around me. The woman remained a shadow even as I jerked away from the alpha and craned my neck in an attempt to look around him. “There are things out here that bite, you know.”
If she thought she was going to scare me, bitch was barking up the wrong tree.
“I will help you because you are just as much my people as the humans living in Bogotá. This forest is just as much mine as it is yours. This country will crumble under Dariel, and the forest and the cities and the humans and the changelings and everything in between those lines will crumble right along with it.”
“I could slice you down where you sit, human, and no one would ever find your body.” The words came to me through the darkness in a hiss, but they didn’t hold the malice her first comment had.
“Rora, be nice,” Joaquín laughed.
“Why haven’t you killed her yet?” the woman demanded, but she spoke as one would to a sibling. An intimacy to her tone that hinted at history, at tolerance.
Joaquín dipped his head, brushed his cheek along mine in a wholly inhuman action. “Because she smells too nice to leave to the animals.” He chuckled darkly at his own joke.
“Fucking men, they’re all the same. Humans, Bears, I’m sure even the fucking rats are dogs.” Obviously, this woman held a rare position among changelings—at least from what I could tell—which allowed her to speak to her alpha like that.
“Amen,” I mumbled, hoping she hadn’t heard me.
She did.
And she laughed. “I like her.”
I felt Joaquín climb off the ATV behind me. “Shit. Now there’s two of ‘em,” he grumbled before he clamped strong hands around my waist and lifted me off the seat. “Alright human, you’ve got thirty seconds to tell me what you know about Carro.” He dropped me on the ground with a force that reverberated through my bones, and the second I had my balance his hands disappeared, only to manifest as a sharp tug on my braid. “And be convincing.”
Ugh. Bears. This was where my plan started to get a little fuzzy. See, I didn’t exactly know anything about where Carro actually was...but I did have a feeling that I needed to be here tonight. How could I explain my uncanny knowing to these people? I needed information from them though if I was going to have any chance at finding the missing man. But I needed to be careful about how much I gave away. Self-preservation and all that. And speaking of self-preservation, I knew that changelings usually had heightened senses. Could see, hear, and smell more acutely than humans. I didn’t know the biological facts of the Bears off hand, but I wondered on the subject. Could they smell a lie?
“I know he was a prime target for the Snakes.” Truth. “I know they question the abducted before they kill them.” Truth. “I’ve got a source inside Dariel’s camp,” meh, half-truth. It was spyware. “I might be able to find out where they took him, but I need to see the scene.”
Joaquín stood in silence for a moment. I felt like I was facing an ultimate judgement. And maybe I was. If I’d said the wrong thing, if they didn’t believe me, I could be cut down where I stood, given a forest burial—my body left to rot and nourish the creatures that crawl through this place.
It was Rora who spoke first.
“We need to do something, Joaquín. This is something.”
His head whipped around to address the other woman. “A something who just happens to appear like a Godsend on our front door in the moment of our greatest need? It seems a little biblical, no?”
“You can think of it as a Godsend,” I cut into their discussion, “or you can think of it as a rebel affiliation.”
“So, you’re a rebel now?” he asked, unhidden skepticism in every syllable.
Funny that I hadn’t really thought about the term before now. Was this how rebellions were formed? Circumstance and phrasing? The label fit, and I was determined to save my country. That sure sounded like a rebellion.
“As of about six hours ago, absolutely.”
“Rebel or not, this is something,” Rora pleaded with Joaquín as she whipped a cell phone I hadn’t even heard ring, to her ear. The alpha stood stock still, arms crossed over a wide chest. The conversation was short, and she hung up after barking coordinates into the phone.
“Boys confirmed her identity. She checks out,” she called out as she shoved her phone into the back pocket of her jeans.
I mourned silently for my beloved Jeep with its totally cush leather seats that I’d only just paid off that year. It had probably already been torn apart by bear claws.
A moment of taught silence stretched between all three of us, broken only when Joaquín let out a growl that sent ripples of primal terror running down my spine.
“Site’s back there. Right on the main road.”
“Show me,” I demanded.
Joaquín however did not move. The dark was still too thick, too strangling to let me see his face, read his expressions, but I could feel his hesitation. There was no reason for him to trust me. I’d done nothing that would make him believe I cared for his people. Unless of course you counted the risk I’d taken to come here like this. Both Rora and I held our breath in anticipation of his decision. This was not a man who trusted easily. Not one who would be easily fooled. Joaquín was a power and he hadn’t gotten there by accepting sweet promises without proof.
“Joaquín,” Rora broke the silent tension with a plea. I’d never know what she would have said though because her alpha cut her off with a roaring growl that seemed so animal it took me a moment to accept it had actually come from the man in front of me. No more sound came from Rora’s direction. It appeared as though there were moments she could argue and moments when she was forced to yield to this man’s dominance. Joaquín shoved me with a hand at my lower back, not toward the house, camouflaged in the forest, but toward the unbroken blackness of the forest to our left.
He’d made his decision. Decided to take the risk and let me investigate.
I couldn’t see for shit in the night. I stumbled heavily over the brush and detritus of the forest floor. More than once I would have ended up flat on my face were it not for the strong arm the alpha at my back had shot out to catch me.
The three of us walked in silence, but I could hear things prowling on our periphery. I had questions that needed answered. I had to figure out an angle to work here, what my next steps would be before these people lost their patience with my shot in the dark methodology, but I couldn’t fucking see. Most of my concentration was simply devoted to walking. We weren’t following any kind of cleared path. Leaves and branches swept over my legs. Rora was ahead of us. She must have been clearing away major obstructions from this natural route with a machete. I could hear the distinct thwack of the weapon in the darkness, and it made me flinch every time.
My shin connected with something hard I couldn’t see.
“Carajo! You people couldn’t find a damn flashlight?” I cursed.
; The man at my back snickered, laying a hand over each of my shoulders, steadying me and unsettling me at the same time.
“I could carry you, reinita.”
“Over my dead body,” I snapped.
“That remains to be seen,” he whispered to me. His damn voice was like a physical touch, stroking over my skin with honey-thick sensuality dripping from every word.
I scolded myself, needing to focus. I did not have time to be distracted by an arrogant male who smelled like an ocean breeze and freshly cut grass. I hadn’t even seen his face yet and still my most feminine instincts were screaming.
We walked for another several minutes before the sounds of the forest changed. In the instant before my boots hit pavement, an eerie hush fell over the jungle around us. Almost as though even the insects knew what kind of predators lurked here.
The blazing white light that so suddenly cut through the blackness blinded me. I threw up an arm, covering my face and blinking against the halogen assault on my pupils. After a few seconds I was finally able to reorient myself, and when I looked around I immediately understood why the creatures in the trees had quieted so quickly.
I stood on the surprisingly intact concrete of a ‘major’ rainforest road. There weren’t a lot of these through this part of the wild. The packs tended to have their own ways of moving around the forest and human roads were generally limited to well-worn dirt tracks. This throughway had to be one of only a handful of paved, single lane paths through here, and it was all but guaranteed to have been marked on a map somewhere. That meant that the kidnappers were relying on publicly available information for this job. Snakes were just as at home in the green as Bears were, but they were foreigners in this particular area. Would be disadvantaged with the terrain.
The white light was coming from a large truck, clearly outfitted for the harsh jungle environment. But the truck wasn’t what held my attention. As I looked around the space, I counted six more Bears. Three men and a woman stared back at me, lit in a washed out gray from the truck’s combination of rally lights and headlamps. Two other sets of eyes also stared back at me, however, not from the bodies of men or women, but from the wild, black-furred faces of Bears.
Fragile Bonds Page 4