Bruins Peak Bears Box Set (Volume III)

by Sarah J. Stone

  “Can’t you think of anybody who would be able to steal your codes?”

  He snorted. “If someone had the knowledge to tamper with these signatures, they would be able to break into my personal computer and steal them. Anybody could have done it—no, scratch that. Not anyone could have done it. There might be ten or twenty people in all Arion who could have done it.”

  “Then we need to find out who they are,” Eden told him. “Do you know them all? Could you draw up a list of their names?”

  “Sure, but researching them could take weeks, maybe even years. There has to be a better way. If only I could get access to a computer!”

  Eden looked around. “Well, I couldn’t bring you one here. The Police would never allow it. There must be a way to get you out of here.”

  He shook his head. “There isn’t. They’ll only take me out for the next session, and I already know what will happen there.”

  “Don’t give up,” she exclaimed. “There must be a way.”

  His head shot up. He made eye contact with her for what seemed like the first time. When had he ever really looked at her? When did he appreciate what she was and what she was doing for him? “You shouldn’t have come here. You didn’t have to do that.”

  Her face broke into a magnificent smile. “I didn’t have to. I wanted to. I want to do this, so don’t tell me anymore that I shouldn’t have. We’re gonna get you out of here, and we’re gonna crack this thing if it’s the last thing we do.”

  He blinked. We? She actually said ‘we.’ They were facing this together, against all odds. He wasn’t alone anymore.

  She started talking faster. “Maybe I could break this barrier. I could hide you somehow, or disguise you. I could take you somewhere you could work on the computer—but where? The system would track you. The minute Constable Griffin realized you were gone, he would find you and bring you back. That would only make you look more guilty, so we can’t do that.”

  “You can’t do this, Eden,” he told her. “You can’t break the law for me. I won’t let you.”

  She gasped out loud, and her eyes flew open. “I know! I’ll take you to the surface. No one will find you there. We could disappear. We could become outcasts. We could find my brother Abel. Constable Griffin wouldn’t dare follow you. We’d have our whole lives ahead of us. We could...” She stopped.

  Damian studied the halo flashing all around her. He never met a more captivating woman, and here she was, taking about ‘we’ and ‘us.’ Did she mean it?

  He read the truth in her face. She didn’t know she was saying it. It just slipped out, but now that those words hung in mid-air between them, neither could deny the reality. It was true. They were ‘us.’ This whole situation hinged on both of them. Neither could make a move without the other.

  They stared at each other for a long moment. Damian lost all track of time until she blushed. She lowered her eyelids in the most enticing way possible. His whole being screamed to grab her, to devour her. He couldn’t get near her with a hundred thousand volts running across the barrier, though.

  She batted her eyelashes and started to turn away. “I better go, but I’ll keep working on this. If I’m not here, I’m still working on it. Don’t forget that.”

  “Hey, Eden?”

  She looked back. He put out his hand. He couldn’t stop it. Electricity fizzled over his skin. His arm crossed the barrier up to the elbow, and he took her hand. “Thanks. I really appreciate it.”

  She gasped for breath. Her nostrils flared, and her pupils dilated at his touch. Only a heroic effort stopped him from destroying himself on that electrical field right then and there to get to her.

  She squeezed his fingers and let him go. The sparks cascaded down his skin, and his hand fell at his side. She raced from the room. “I’ll see you later.”

  In seconds, he was alone again, but everything changed in that moment. The rest of Arion had given up on him. They left the council session and went home for lunch, but none of that mattered. She was out there. She was working to free him. She believed in him. Whatever happened, they would do it together.

  No matter where she went, she was always with him. She shared his pain as the other half of himself. All of a sudden, the murder didn’t oppress him like it had before. It couldn’t touch him. It only hurt because he was alone. He was missing half his heart and soul. Now that he found them again, they gave him the strength of a hundred men. They gave him impenetrable armor against every foe.

  He didn’t sit down again nor did he pace. He stared at the place where she disappeared, but she was right here, right next to his heart. He would never let her go. He would conquer any obstacle to prove himself to her. Whatever she told him to do to prove his innocence, he would do it. He would even leave Arion. He would return to the surface with her, and they would run. They would flee to the far horizon. They would leave the NightShade behind and become outcast. Anything would be worth spending the rest of his life with her.

  His heart beat faster. Excitement and joyful anticipation for the future infected him. He no longer lamented every passing minute of his miserable life. He had never experienced this level of happiness, not even before the murder. Nothing thrilled him like the prospect of seeing her again, of touching her and seeing that delicate bloom on her cheeks.

  68. Chapter 12

  Eden leapt down the steps to the square. She couldn’t contain the shout boiling out of her deepest being. She had to whoop and shriek to the skies, no matter who saw or stared at her. Damian Powers! He touched her hand. They were mated. She knew it for certain now.

  She had to help him. She needed to find a way to free him so they could be together. Already she devised a plan to sneak him out of Arion. Right now, though, she had to get her head together. She had to walk slowly into the apartment building. She had to take the elevator to her grandparents’ apartment like she didn’t just meet her destiny face to face.

  Everything was perfectly normal. She wasn’t dying of mind-blowing excitement. She wasn’t planning to throw away her whole life and future on a man. She opened the door and strode into the apartment, but she couldn’t stop her glowing cheeks. She caught her breath and entered the living room—and stopped.

  Serenity sat on the couch, but she wouldn’t look at Eden. She kept her head turned toward the big windows so Eden couldn’t see her face. Tamar and Jeremiah scowled at Eden when she walked in.

  Eden glanced from one face to the next. “What’s going on?”

  Tamar pursed her lips. Jeremiah rumbled deep in his chest. “Maybe you can tell us that, Eden. What were you thinking, going to visit Damian Powers in the basement lock-up of the council building?”

  Eden’s hand flew to her mouth. “What are you talking about?”

  “You don’t have to deny it,” Jeremiah continued. “We tracked you on the computer. The system registered all your movements from the time you told Serenity you were going out for a walk until just now. You went to see him, so don’t lie.”

  Just for a second, Eden quailed before her grandparents’ wrath. She lost her whole family on the surface. She couldn’t lose this family, too. The next minute, her fear blew away and fiery anger took its place. Wasn’t Damian her rightful mate? No force on Earth could keep her away from him.

  “All right,” she declared. “I did visit him, and I don’t regret it. I would go back there again right now if I could.”

  Tamar fell onto the couch moaning. “Oh, Eden. How could you do this?”

  “Do what?” Eden asked. “He’s not some kind of evil demon, you know. He’s NightShade, just like the rest of us, and he’s suffering a lot worse than anybody realizes. What do you think it’s like for him down there, all alone? He deserves somebody visiting. He needs to hear from somebody that they believe in him. He’s certainly not hearing it from anybody else.”

  Jeremiah threw up his hands. “That’s it. That’s the last straw. You’re not seeing him again. We’ll set up another barrier at the head of the
stairs so you can’t go down there. You’re not going anywhere near him.”

  “Yes, I am,” Eden shot back. “You can’t stop me. It’s my life.”

  “Don’t do this, Eden,” Tamar pleaded. “You’re just starting out in life. Don’t throw your life away on a killer.”

  “Throw my life away? Is that what you think I’m doing? I’m not throwing my life away. This is my life. Don’t you understand?”

  “I understand you’re not seeing him again,” Tamar returned. “You won’t go to the trial, either, if this is the effect it has on you.”

  Eden spun around to confront her grandfather. “Grandpa, please listen to me. You used the computer system to track my movements. The system registers a signature for everything everybody does, so how come it’s not showing who killed Ryder? It doesn’t show Damian or anybody else meeting Ryder in the moments before his death. It makes no sense.”

  He frowned deeper than ever, but he didn’t say anything. The words tumbled out of her so fast she couldn’t stop them. “Please, Grandpa, just think about it for a second. There’s no evidence to back up Eli’s claim that Damian ever left home the night of the murder. Eli told the Police a dozen times Damian stayed home all night. Then he changed his story at the last minute in front of the council. What if he lied? Just think for a minute. What if Damian is telling the truth and someone only made it look like he killed Ryder? Don’t you think you owe it to yourself and all the rest of Arion just to consider it?”

  “You’re treading on thin ice, girl,” Jeremiah snarled. “You realize that, don’t you?”

  She rushed to his side and hung on his sleeve. “Please, Grandpa. Please, please, please. Just give Damian one chance to clear his name. If you do this, I’ll never ask you for anything again. I swear it.”

  “What do you suggest I do?” he asked. “Even if I agreed—which I haven’t—no one can clear his name.”

  Eden’s heart raced so fast she could scarcely breathe. “He needs to use a computer. He needs to break the encryption surrounding the murder so he can read the signatures of whoever met Ryder that night.”

  His eyes blazed at her. “Do you know what you’re asking?”

  She closed her eyes and bowed her head. “Please, Grandpa.”

  He let out a deep sigh. “I can see there’s no reasoning with you. You won’t let this go until you see for yourself he’s guilty.”

  She clutched his sleeve and bounced up and down. “Thank you, Grandpa. Oh, thank you!”

  Tamar smacked her lips. “You’re not going to give in to her, are you? You’ll only make it worse.”

  Jeremiah pointed in Eden’s face. “Listen to me, young lady. I’m agreeing to this with extreme reservations. If anything goes wrong—and I mean anything—it will go very badly for Damian. You realize that, don’t you? You could be making it worse for him, not better.”

  Eden got serious. “I understand, Grandpa. I swear you won’t be disappointed. Damian will behave himself.”

  “He better. I’ll let him come here, to my office. He can use the computer under my direct supervision, and we’ll see what he can find.”

  She beamed at him. “Thank you, Grandpa. I’ll never forget this.”

  Eden couldn’t sleep or eat that night. Her grandmother became seriously worried, but her grandfather told Eden to go to bed early. He retired to his office and refused to speak to anybody.

  Eden went to her room and turned off the overhead lamps. She sat on her bed and stared out at the lights of Arion. Two men hovered out there somewhere, somewhere beyond her sight. One of them killed Ryder. That man not only planned to smash in another NightShade’s head when his back was turned. He also planned exactly how to pin the blame on an innocent man.

  How could anybody do that to another person? The very thought revolted her. It flew in the face of everything Arion stood for. She spent her life on the surface surrounded by bloodthirsty Midnight hunting and slaughtering NightShade kind. She knew evil existed, but not even she could bring herself to believe such a heinous crime as this murder could happen.

  The other man remained hidden from her sight, but his presence burned brighter in the night than any star. His precious soul shone out of the council building basement. The distance between them did nothing to diminish his bright eyes gazing at her.

  She pushed the murderer aside. He didn’t matter. She spent the night with Damian. She held him in her heart and mind. They looked at each other through the weary hours. She never doubted he spent the night looking back at her in his mind’s eye.

  Fate held them together over millions of miles. The weary years apart couldn’t separate them. She had to live alone on the surface so she could come here and find him. She had to ache for something she didn’t know she needed. That’s the only way she could recognize the puzzle piece missing from her life.

  What would tomorrow bring? Would he succeed? What if he didn’t? Was she prepared to walk away from all Arion had to offer? Could he? Maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe the council would banish him to some penal servitude in some distant horrible part of the city.

  Never mind. She would follow him. She would spend her life with him, no matter what tomorrow held in store.

  69. Chapter 13

  Jeremiah Hood’s office door hissed aside, and Damian Powers stepped into the room. Four Police guards surrounded him on every side, and iron chains and electronic manacles weighed down his wrists and ankles.

  He swept the room with his eyes, and his spirits immediately lightened when he spotted Eden standing to one side. Her eyes brightened, but she kept her smile hidden. Elder Hood rose from the seat behind his desk. He leveled Damian with the worst scowl Damian ever saw. “I hope you know why you’re here, young man.”

  Damian squared his shoulders. “I think I have a pretty good idea, Sir.”

  “I think you better know,” Jeremiah continued, “I only agreed to this because Eden cares so much about you. She convinced me to give you a chance. That’s the only reason you’re here.”

  Damian’s gaze shot to Eden’s face. So, it was all true. He had barely let himself believe she wanted to help him. She risked everything to convince her grandfather to do this. Maybe this might actually work. He could only hope.

  Damian lowered his eyes and mumbled, “Yes, sir.”

  Elder Hood sliced the air with his fingers. “Take his restraints off.”

  The guard at Damian’s right side jumped. “We can’t do that, sir. We have strict orders not to release him under any circumstances.”

  “I take personal responsibility for him,” Elder Hood replied. “I’m sure Damian will do the job he came here to do and nothing more. If anything goes wrong, you have my permission to lock me up in his place. Remove his restraints, and the rest of you can withdraw.”

  “But, Sir…” the officer cried.

  Jeremiah bristled his eyebrows at the man. “Is there a problem? I don’t have to remind you that the Police work for the Elders. I’m ordering you to withdraw and leave him unchained. Do you understand?”

  The officers grumbled, but they unlocked the manacles and retreated. In a moment, Damian stood free in the center of the office. He rubbed his wrists, but already his confidence returned. Eden was here. She engineered this whole scene for his benefit. He better make the most of it.

  He stood up straighter. He wasn’t some dog locked in a cage. He was a man. He was NightShade. Now was his chance to show the world what he was made of. He would show Eden what he was made of, prove to her he deserved her love and her attention.

  “Now, young man, you’re here to use the computer.” Jeremiah stepped aside and waved toward his desk chair. “Sit down here and let’s see what you can do.”

  Damian strode around the desk and sat down in front of Elder Hood’s personal tablet screen. His fingers danced across the surface. He logged onto the central mainframe buried deep beneath Arion. He entered his personal access codes, and screeds and screeds of complicated text rolled up over the screen. />
  Eden and Jeremiah bent over his shoulders. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m searching the records for the night of the murder. Yes, here it is. Now, I’ll pull up the signal codes and see what’s what.”

  The text vanished, and a video image played across the screen. The three observers watched Ryder Law stroll down the street. The screen blipped and fuzzed for a split second, and Ryder lay bleeding on the ground. “That’s the official record. You can see where they wiped the signature of the other person.”

  “How can you get it back?”

  Damian punched the screen, and the text returned. “I have to attack the encryption surrounding the murder. It’s complicated, though. Hmm. Let’s see. Yes, whoever did this certainly knew what he was doing.”

  He worked in silence for a while. His fingers twinkled over the screen in every direction. The computer flashed and winked in response.

  “There,” he exclaimed. “Now let’s see what we can see.”

  He switched back to the moving image. Now, instead of a fuzzy blip, the black shadow of a man lunged out of an alley between two buildings. He swung something long and thin to hit Ryder in the head before he ran off into the night.

  No one said anything for a while. Damian worked over the computer, but he couldn’t crack the encryption. Sweat beaded on his forehead. He gave his full concentration to the device until he smacked his lips in frustration. “It’s no use. The encryption is just too dense. I can’t break it.”

  “What are you going to do?” Eden asked.

  “I’m going to have a look at the signatures around my own movements. Let’s see what we can find related to that.”

  In an instant, he brought up the video record from his own apartment. He played a brief segment showing himself and Eli at dinner with their parents. “Here it is. Now, let’s fast forward.”

  He touched the screen, and the image went into overdrive. He wound it through the whole evening, right up to the moment when he and Eli found Constable Griffin and his team in the living room the following morning.