Shifter Challenge

by Selina Woods

  The door swung open. “What’s wrong?”

  I couldn’t speak. She must have seen the fire, for I heard her swiftly indrawn breath, and then her piercing scream ripped through the night. I grabbed her and held her tight as her wails and Derek’s name screamed over and over struck my ears. Her fists pounded my shoulders, but I continued to hold her within my arms, the rain pouring down over our shared grief.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I found what was left of him in the ashes.

  The heavy rain eventually put the fires out, and by dawn, the embers had cooled enough to permit entry into what was left of the L and D Market. There was little left of the structure—a few blackened beams still stood, half a wall here and there. Nothing remained of the food we would have sold to the neighborhood, save charred bits scattered around.

  There wasn’t much left of his body, either. Black bones, some teeth, a half-melted chain he wore around his neck. I stared down at him, numb to the grief, the pain, where not even the hot rage, the craving for vengeance, had broken through it. I remembered his dark eyes, his humor, his friendship.

  Others stood around me, silent, and I appreciated the lack of commiseration, the I’m sorry and the he’s in a better place now speeches. I didn’t want them, couldn’t handle hearing them. Derek was gone, and I would miss him. More than my friend, he was my brother, yet I could not mourn him as he deserved.

  “I want to bury him.”

  “We’ll pick him up,” Gray told me from my left. “Put him in a casket. You shouldn’t be here to see it.”

  I nodded, turned away, and, hardly seeing my way at all, went back out onto the street. Though quite early, the neighborhood’s inhabitants stood in a crowd, whispering, staring. I knew Kiana was with me, but she seemed to understand that I needed time, distance, and didn’t try to speak or touch me.

  Unable to function, I gazed, mute, at the crowd. My heart beat, blood flowed through my veins, but I never felt less alive than I did at that moment. I would have stood and gazed blankly into space all day if Caesar hadn’t driven up in the sedan, and he and Redley got out.

  Kiana touched my arm. “Logan. Come with us.”

  Mechanically, I got into the back of the car with Kiana, with Redley and Caesar in front. The crowd parted for us as Caesar drove slowly through it, me staring out the window, seeing things that didn’t fully register in my brain. At some point, Kiana took my hand, but I don’t remember her doing it. Caesar and Redley spoke softly to each other in the front, but what they said flowed through and past me, unheard.

  Caesar pulled the car up in front of the building, the armed guards staring curiously through the windows. Oddly, that sight cut through some of the fog that had overtaken my brain. I blinked several times, then opened the door and got out.

  “Ramsey has been asking for you, sir,” said one of them.

  I nodded, then, Kiana’s hand in mine, flanked by Caesar and Redley, I walked through them and into the building. The stares of the guards inside cut into me like knives, and I forced myself to not scream at them. The anger at Derek’s death finally arrived, driving through the grief and pain I refused to let myself feel.

  “Where is Suzanne?” I asked in the elevator.

  Kiana glanced sidelong at me. “A few of Mile’s lions took her to her sister’s.”

  “Good.”

  She squeezed my hand. “How are you?”

  “Pissed.”

  “Good.”

  Tony and Albert were asleep on a long couch on the far side of the sitting room, the remains of a card game scattered on the table and floor near them. I paused to watch Kiana walk over to her brothers, and then bend to kiss each of them on the cheek. Naturally, that woke them up.

  “Hi,” she said as they straightened, yawning.

  It could so easily have been them in there last night. Derek and them, too. Dead. Burned. Nothing left except teeth. I turned away from them as she sat between Tony and Albert, an arm around a small set of shoulders. Walking out to the balcony, I didn’t hear what she said to them. Gazing out at the newly peaceful sea, I wished fervently that I had made Derek come with us last night.

  “What are you going to do?”

  I glanced aside to see Caesar beside me. “Kill every enforcer.”

  “Last night was a warning.”

  “I know.”

  “We need to distribute the guns tonight, Logan,” he said, leaning on the rail. “Start waging war tomorrow. If we don’t, they’ll band together. Right now, they’re waiting to see if you got their message. Once they see you’re ignoring it, they’ll hunt you down. Take out those guards down there and pull you from this tower.”

  “Where’s the truck?”

  “Miles drove it to an old garage not far from your store to hide it,” Redley said, stepping out behind us. “We spread the word today, youngster—our fighters go to the garage and get a gun.”

  “It’ll be business as usual today and tomorrow,” I said slowly, my rage still boiling in the pit of my stomach. “But tomorrow—” I gazed into their eyes “Tomorrow, when the enforcers enter a place of business to collect taxes, they don’t come out.”

  Redley grinned, a savage expression that almost startled me. “We’ll get those bastards, youngster. Its time for some payback.”

  However, payback had to wait while our plans were put into motion. Caesar and Redley left to get the word to our forces where to pick up their guns and their instructions. Kiana insisted I call down for food, although hunger was the last thing I felt.

  “Tony and Albert need to eat,” she said sternly, her hands on her hips. “And you need to keep your strength up. An entire city is depending on you, Logan.”

  The boys appeared subdued and wouldn’t look at me. I suspected they blamed me for Derek’s death, but whatever amount of hatred they now felt for me was nothing compared to what I had for myself. The guard who came with the food also brought Ramsey with a folder.

  He took one look at me and asked, “What happened?”

  I turned my head away and listened as Kiana explained what happened the previous evening: the boat in the storm, getting the guns unloaded before the sea took the vessel, then arriving at the store to find the enforcers had burned it to the ground with Derek inside.

  “Logan,” he said, and I turned my head to look at him finally. He spread his hands helplessly.

  “I know. What have you got?”

  Sitting on the sofa beside me, he spread the folder out on the table in front of us. “Now, if the enforcers stick to their normal routines in their assigned neighborhoods, this is where four hundred of them will be, spread across town.”

  I stared hard at the map he had used to mark the number of enforcers collecting at street locations. “Will they be there in these places tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Most likely, yes. Obviously, burning your store was a warning to you. They may be on edge today, keeping an eye out for you to either signal your capitulation or your vengeance. Tomorrow, if nothing happens today, they may believe you’re going to mind your own business.”

  “We’ll distribute weapons and instructions tonight.” I tapped the map and glanced at him. “How many of these can you make copies of?”

  “As many as you want.”

  “I’ll need at least three hundred by this evening. Any sign of discontent or disloyalty among the guards?”

  Ramsey grinned. “None at all. They seem fiercely loyal to you, but I can’t imagine why, given you’re never here.”

  “Did they notice the boat gone?”

  “Boats, plural.” He gestured toward the marina. “A few other boats cracked up last night, so they told me it looked like the fishing boat sank.”

  “It did, just not out there.”

  He gazed at me long enough to make me uncomfortable. “I do believe you’re gonna pull this off, Logan. And I might just live through it.”

  “The big question is the guards here,” I told him. “I may need them in a pinch, and I
just hope they can be counted on.”

  “Don’t. The wind could blow them in any direction, so it’s best if you rely on your new volunteers out there.”

  “Ramsey,” Kiana said, waving at him, “if you’re gonna eat with us, please make Logan eat, too.”

  Ramsey shook his head. “I know what it is to lose someone. I couldn’t eat, either.”

  As much as I tried to eat to please Kiana, I could only nibble a little, and my stomach turned to knots. I got through the next few hours by simply not thinking of Derek and focusing on the war at hand. If I didn’t think of him, my throat wouldn’t shut down, my emotions wouldn’t swamp me, nor would I collapse in a heap and cry my heart out.

  Ramsey took his leave with a promise to have the map copies by late afternoon. I eyed Tony and Albert goofing around and telling each other bad jokes, then called them over to me. “I have a task for you two.”

  “Yeah?” Albert asked. “Does it pay good?”’

  Tony elbowed him. “He hasn’t paid us for work at the store yet, dummy.”

  “You do this for me, and you’ll be paid,” I said. “Duke stashed his wealth somewhere in this penthouse. You find it, you get twice what I owe you.”

  “All right!”

  Kiana chuckled as they eagerly started searching, and watched as they argued about how to begin a more systematic way of finding something hidden. “You think Duke really has a hidden place where he kept his money?”

  I shrugged. “I can’t think of anywhere else he would. I’m certain he wouldn’t have hidden it where he couldn’t get to it easily.”

  She took my hand. “Logan, maybe you should try to get some sleep. You got none last night, and you won’t tonight or tomorrow, and we all need you strong.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not sure I could.”

  She stood up and tugged on my hand, jerking her head toward her brothers. “They’ll be busy for hours. We both need some rest. We have a war to fight.”

  Caving in, I followed her to the bedroom and let her close the door behind us. She turned the bed down while I pulled off my clothes, and I crawled under the covers while she shut out the bright sunlight by sliding the curtains across the window. I watched her as she undressed, and, naked, climbed into the bed with me.

  Kiana pillowed her head on my shoulder, her fingers caressing my chest. “Tony and Albert hate me,” I murmured.

  “Don’t be ridiculous,” she retorted, lifting her head to gaze into my eyes. “Why would you think that?”

  “I got Derek killed.”

  “The enforcers killed Derek,” she replied firmly. “Tony and Albert know that.”

  “Why wouldn’t they look at me? Don’t they blame me?”

  She snorted lightly. “No. They just don’t know what to say to you. They lost their parents; they know how they felt when they grieved, just as you’re grieving. They wanted to be left alone and assume you do, too.”

  I stared at the ceiling, my arm behind my head. “I suppose I do. But I can’t let myself grieve right now. If I do, I’ll fail in what I have to do.”

  Lying half on top of me, Kiana kissed me slowly, deeply. “I love you, Logan,” she whispered against my lips.

  I smiled and kissed her. “And I love you, my Kiana.”

  My pent-up emotions were too strong and needed an outlet. Despite the guilt I carried with me for it, I pulled Kiana under me. My tongue intertwined with hers; I caressed her sleek, soft body, lightly stroking her flesh with my fingers. She clasped me tightly to her, kissing me with a passion kindled from her own emotions—love for me, fear for her brothers, anger for what happened to Derek.

  We made love as we had not before. Skin to skin, tongue to tongue, our bodies melding into one. We ignited a fire that couldn’t be quenched by mere erotic sex. I know I poured my feelings into her, just as I felt hers rising to consume me. When I entered her body, I made us one.

  I exploded into her, my rod ejaculating not just my seed, but creating a new bond of love and commitment between us. Kiana’s orgasm had her digging her nails into my shoulders; her short, soft moans in my ear pleased me that I had brought her to pleasure.

  Rolling off of her, my arm around her stomach, I cuddled her into the curve of my body. I breathed in her sweet scents, her hair teasing my nose, and managed to slip into quiet sleep for a time.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “We found it,” Albert exclaimed.

  “Ta-da.” With a flourish, Tony revealed a hidden safe in the floor under the carpeting in one of the extra bedrooms. Clad in my jeans, barefoot, shirtless, I scratched my stomach and blinked at the exposed box of metal. “How’d you find it?”

  “Deductive reasoning,” Tony explained. “But we won’t bore you with the details.”

  “Is it still locked?” I asked, dropping to my knees to examine it.

  “Yeah,” Albert replied, disgusted. “It needs some type of weird key.”

  “I believe I know where the key is,” I said, standing.

  “Yeah?” Tony asked, eager. “Where?”

  I left the bedroom and fetched the gun I had been carrying, then returned with it. Their eyes wide, Tony and Albert scrambled out of the way as I took careful aim and fired the gun at the safe. The bullet smashed the locking mechanism, the explosion blasting through the penthouse, certain to bring guards running.

  I watched the wide-eyed boys with amusement. “I found the key.”

  Kneeling again, I opened the safe and gazed down at the stacks and stacks of cash that filled the thing. Tony and Albert stared, awed, over my shoulder as Kiana burst into the room.

  “What’s going on?” she half screamed, clad in only a shirt. “Who got shot?”

  “Logan shot the safe,” Tony said, then laughed. “It was so cool.”

  “Logan,” she shrieked. “You don’t just go shooting guns indoors.”

  I eyed her in confusion. “Why not?”

  Tony and Albert laughed themselves into fits while Kiana scowled. I took several banded stacks from it, then closed the safe again. Putting the carpet back over it to hide it again, I tore several big bills from the stack and gave them to the boys.

  “Paid in full.”

  They gazed, astounded at the cash. “All this? For us?” Albert asked.

  “You earned it. I suppose the guards are on their way up?”

  Of course, the sound of the gunshot had reverberated its way down, and within moments, my guards rushed up the stairwell and arrived by elevator. Ramsey led them and entered the penthouse with a rifle in his hand.

  “What happened?” he demanded, glancing around and obviously confused by the quiet and calm.

  “I, er, it was an accident,” I said, sheepish. “I was cleaning the gun, and it went off. Sorry.”

  Ramsey glowered as though he wished he could rip me a new one while the ready guards relaxed their stances. With grins, they acknowledged that accidents happen and returned down the stairs and the elevator. Ramsey stayed behind, waiting until they had gone, then said, “Your copies are almost ready. When are we headed out?”

  “We?” I asked. “I thought you’d stay here.”

  Cradling his rifle in his arms, he grinned. “I think I’d like to tag along. I’m a fair shot, and if you need help with the maps, I’m there to explain.”

  “Then I won’t argue,” I replied. “As I suspect Kiana will also insist—”

  “Damn straight, I’m insisting on coming.”

  “Then will you ask the guards to keep an eye on Tony and Albert?” I asked. “Make sure they’re fed and watered.”

  “We don’t need a babysitter, Logan,” Tony snapped.

  “When there are almost five hundred killers out there looking to slaughter us all,” I replied calmly, staring him in the eye, “I will have you looked after.”

  He cut his eyes away. “That’s different.”

  “Yeah,” Ramsey replied with a laugh. “I have a guy in mind who can check on them, make sure they have what they need.”


  “Great. I’m gonna finish dressing.” I eyed Kiana in her state of near nudity. “I think someone else should, too.”

  Blushing, Kiana dashed for the bedroom and slammed the door closed. Under Ramsey’s amused grin, I sauntered to the bedroom and went in to dress. Her cheeks still an adorable shade of pink, Kiana pulled on her jeans and a tank top that flattered her slim figure. After tying her sneakers, she watched me with a strange expression on her face.

  “Logan,” she said slowly. “What happens if neither of us returns?”

  I knew immediately what she meant. “Maybe you should stay here.”

  “I can’t,” she cried. “I have to be with you. But my brothers—”

  Striding toward her, I took her by the shoulders. “Kiana, those boys are your priority. Not me.”

  “You don’t understand,” she insisted. “I have to know that you’re alive. And safe.”

  “Then I reckon I’ll just make damn sure you live to get back to them. Come on.”

  Leaving the bedroom, I put my gun in the waistband of my jeans and grabbed an extra magazine from the drawer. Kiana hugged her brothers, warning them to behave themselves. “Jeez,” Tony complained, pulling away, “you act like you’re not coming back.”

  “You will come back, Kiana?” Albert asked, then glanced at me. “Logan, you’ll be back, right?”

  “Sure, kid,” I replied easily. “We both will.”

  “Promise?”

  I didn’t hesitate. “Promise.”

  Kiana, Ramsey, and I headed to the elevator, and as we waited for the doors to slide open, Kiana and I both glanced back to see Tony and Albert standing silent, watching us. As though they knew I’d just made a promise I couldn’t keep.

  Ramsey drove us through the late afternoon to the ramshackle yet big garage a few blocks over from the burnt shell that once had been mine and Derek’s thriving business. My throat closed as we passed it, but I willed my emotions down, to the back of my mind, out of the way. He parked the sedan a block away, and we walked back so as to not mark our presence there to the enforcers.