Seduction's Shift

by A. C. Arthur

Diamond looked down at the card, then up to him.

  “She don’t read,” Tall Lady laughed and came around to stand next to Diamond. “All she can do is dance and fuck, that’s why they hired her.”

  Flame Hair laughed and stood beside Tall Lady. She didn’t talk—just gave X a knowing glare. “If you want real action and you got real cash, you’re gonna want someone with more experience than her.”

  “I’d like you to call me, if you need to, Diamond.” X said her name with precision and looked directly at the other two so they’d know he didn’t give a damn about their opinions.

  He felt like his arm was going to fall off, he’d been holding it out to her for so long.

  “She don’t need you. There’s fifty more johns like you inside with cash in hand ready to make it rain for her when she hits the pole. Why would she need to call you?” Flame Hair laughed as she talked.

  Tall Lady smiled, pouted her lips, and stuck her breasts out farther, bringing up a hand and bright-red-painted nails to circle her protruding nipple. “She’s right, we’ve got work inside.”

  They moved toward the door. X was about to pull his arm back and accept that he’d gotten nowhere with these women when Diamond bolted forward and grabbed the card from his fingers. She didn’t say a word, just balled it into the palm of her hand and turned away before he could say anything.

  When the door slammed shut and the threesome anything gone, X left the alley, knowing he’d hear from Diamond soon.

  He only hoped it wouldn’t be too late.

  * * *

  From a distance Rome watched Nick standing at the grave site of his parents. Henrique and Sophia Delgado were buried about five feet from Rome’s parents. Their names were scrawled on the headstones just beneath the Topètenia tribal insignia. But that was all that was left of them here, since the bodies had been burned immediately after their death. Their kind could not afford to leave any traces of themselves to be discovered. Still, the human part of them went along with the formalities of a funeral and burial. It was all a necessary pretense.

  Rome had looked for Nick at the office, then at his condo, but he wasn’t either place. Ary said he’d left early that morning. It was now late afternoon. Nick didn’t share his problems; he wasn’t that type of shifter. He would keep whatever was bothering him personally to himself, masking it with the rage he wore like an old suit. Watching him here, in the cemetery, gave Rome a heavy feeling, one he recognized as his own.

  After a while he walked toward the spot where Nick stood. He could see the lift and decline of his friend’s broad shoulders. He was thinking about the past, wondering, guessing. Rome knew because not too long ago he’d stood at his father’s grave doing the same thing.

  “They did what they had to do,” Rome said when he was close enough for Nick to hear him.

  Nick didn’t startle; he had probably scented Rome a while back. They were as close as brothers, knew each other’s minds and actions as if they were their own. Yes, he knew Rome was there, had known the minute Rome stepped out of the car to approach. Eli and Ezra weren’t far away. Too much was going on within the tribes for them to leave their leaders unprotected. But the guards would maintain their positions out of sight.

  “Was lying necessary?” Nick spoke without turning to face Rome.

  “Possibly. All I know for sure where they’re concerned is that we can’t go back and make them tell us what they did.”

  “Do you think they betrayed us? Did they tell a human about the tribes?” Nick asked.

  Rome inhaled deeply, then let the breath rip free. “I think it’s possible. X hasn’t reported on the Comastaz Lab, and Bas didn’t mention anything about it in a our last call. I found proof that my father was communicating with someone—I just don’t know if that was someone we could trust or not.”

  Nick did turn then, facing Rome and recognizing the like mind of a shifter and the connection of a friend. If there was anyone he could trust with his innermost thoughts, it was Rome.

  “I think my father knew about the shipment that went out of the Gungi that night. I think that’s why he was so adamant about me leaving and never coming back.”

  Rome was quiet at first, thinking: Nick knew. Nick wanted to do something, he wanted to roar in frustration, rip something apart, rage, yell, kill. But for the last hour he’d only stood here, looking at the headstones of two people he feared he may have been totally wrong about.

  “If he knew about the shipment, then he knew about Davi,” Rome surmised. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  “We were only nineteen,” Nick said, thinking back to that time.

  “In college. But the Assembly had already been in contact with me. I knew I’d be a Faction Leader, just as I knew I would one day help support the tribes.”

  “But you weren’t sending any money or supplies yet. So how were they getting by?” Talking seemed to cause Nick’s mind to reel a little faster, thoughts coming in quick snapshots.

  “I don’t want to believe our tribe survived off drug money,” Rome said solemnly.

  Nick shook his head, his brow furrowed. “Not wanting to believe doesn’t destroy the possibility. If someone was shipping drugs from the Gungi to the United States and using the funds to take care of the tribe, is that bad or good? Would it be called necessary or a betrayal of the Ètica?”

  Nick hated the Shifter Code of Ethics but he followed it, for the most part. The rule that shifters should obey all human laws was a sketchy one, and one he doubted the Rogues gave a rat’s ass about.

  “Today, as I lead the stateside shifters, I’d call it a betrayal. Because we’re both attorneys bound by the laws of the human judicial system, it’s illegal.” Rome sighed. “But there’s nothing we can do about the past. If that’s what they were doing, we can’t fix that.”

  “And if someone decided they’d like to pick up where our parents left off?” Nick asked.

  Rome looked at him. Nick held his glare. They seemed to communicate, silently. Both their cats roaring and pacing, sounding off their opinions.

  “We’ll find out what our parents were up to,” Rome said finally.

  Nick shrugged. “I don’t think we have any choice. Our sanity depends on it.”

  Rome gave a small smile. “Your sanity depends on it. I’m resigned to whatever the outcome is. I found out who killed my parents and have a semi-concrete reason why.”

  “But Darel and Sabar are still alive and still working side by side to bring us down.”

  “They’ll die trying” was Rome’s quick reply.

  Nick chuckled. “You’ve been around me way too long,” he said to his old friend. He was glad Rome had come, glad they could both share what was turning out to be a mutual personal problem. Nobody else would understand what they were dealing with, not even X, because his parents hadn’t been involved with the Assembly or the forest tribes. They’d lived in Atlanta and hadn’t socialized more than absolutely necessary with the stateside shifters once they’d moved to DC. Only X had been drawn to Nick and Rome and the overall cause. And he never spoke of his parents. Ever.

  “Find out what you can about that shipment and who it came from or went to,” Rome told Nick.

  “Already on it,” Nick said.

  “Good.” Rome turned and began to walk away from the headstones.

  Nick followed.

  Rome continued to talk. “I’ll contact Bas about the lab, see what’s really going on there.”

  “You heard from X today?” Nick asked.

  “Not yet.”

  “I’ll give him a call.”

  “No.” Rome shook his head. “You go home and see to your mate. I’ll talk to X.”

  Nick didn’t miss a step; nor did he miss the jab Rome had tried to slip in on him. “I already know she’s my mate, Rome. You don’t have to try to convince me.”

  “Not trying to convince you,” Rome said, approaching his car and using his remote to unlock the doors. “Just trying to educate you on the ma
ting game.”

  Nick’s car was parked directly in front of Rome’s. The guards’ SUVs were a short distance down the path.

  “I don’t need any education where women are concerned,” Nick said with a chuckle.

  Rome opened his door and was just about to move inside when he said, “She’s not just a woman. She’s a shifter and that’s totally different from the game you’re used to playing with women. Trust me on this one, man. I know.”

  Nick only nodded. “I’ll be fine,” he said.

  Slipping into the driver’s seat and starting his car, he felt only marginally lighter about what was going on around him. The fact that Rome had brought up Ary was what tipped the scales. She would be at his place waiting for him, with that luscious body and pretty smile. He sped out down the driveway, certain that Ezra was cursing trying to keep up with him in that bulky SUV he drove.

  Suddenly Nick wanted to hurry home. He wanted to get there as soon as possible, to get to Ary as soon as possible.

  Chapter 19

  Nick didn’t hate his parents. But he’d been damn upset with them for a lot of years now. He’d say almost since they’d left the Gungi sixteen years ago. And it wasn’t just because of Ary.

  After they’d returned from the forest his father had become very secretive. Where he and Nick had once been very close, his father had begun shutting himself in his study after dinner, spending hours in there doing something Nick could never figure out. When Loren Reynolds, Rome’s father, was killed, Henrique had pulled back from most of the secret meetings those two used to attend together. But it seemed to Nick that his father simply traded one secret for another.

  Of course, asking his father what was going on wasn’t productive. He’d get either a pat on his back and a bleak smile along with assurances that things were okay—or a stern look and a lecture about being true to the Topètenia no matter what. Nick knew it was the tribe and the Assembly that were taking up so much of his father’s time. He also knew that whatever his father was doing, the Assembly had no idea about it, either. He’d overheard phone calls in which his father was being just as noncommittal with the Elders about what was going on as he was with Nick.

  One night Nick decided it was time to find out exactly what his father was up to. That would mark the second time he’d seen the shield symbol.

  Henrique had left the house right after dinner, telling Sofia he was going to the office. He was an architect, and their firm had just landed a huge contract to construct government buildings. So the excuse hadn’t come off as an excuse at all. Not to anyone besides Nick.

  He’d climbed into his car and followed his father’s through the dark streets of DC until it stopped at a house in an area where college students were prone to live and entertain. For a fleeting moment Nick thought his father might be having an affair with a younger woman, but he hurriedly thought better. If there was one thing Nick knew, it was that his father was madly in love with his mother. That was a grounding fact in Nick’s life, one that probably shouldn’t have tainted his thoughts about mating—but did.

  No, Henrique was not having an affair. But he was meeting with someone. A man in an old grungy apartment building that had the same shield symbol Nick had seen on the crates in the Gungi spray-painted on the side wall. Funny how that little detail hadn’t been as concerning to him then as it was now. Nick had gotten as far as the man’s front door when there was a shooting right outside. As a college student, with his sights already set on becoming an attorney, Nick knew it was only a matter of time before the place would be swarming with cops. Cops who would be asking questions of everyone in the vicinity—including his father, who was behind the closed door. Reluctantly, Nick left without Henrique, but waited for him to come home.

  “Who was the man you met with?” he’d asked the second his father walked through the front door.

  It was well after midnight by that time; his mother and Caprise were in bed. Nick sat in the dark living room waiting.

  “What are you talking about?” Henrique asked, going immediately to one of the end tables where he switched on a lamp.

  Nick had looked into his father’s dark eyes and searched for the truth, but couldn’t tell if he was going to get it or not.

  “I followed you,” he said candidly. “I saw you go and visit that man. I’m asking you what it was about.”

  “I am the father here, Dominick,” Henrique said sternly.

  “And it is with all due respect that I ask you again, what’s going on?” Nick wasn’t backing down.

  Henrique took a deep breath and sat on the couch. He was a tall man, well over six and a half feet; his skin was the color of cola, his eyes even darker, his hair slicked down in heavy ebony waves.

  “Nothing that concerns you. I want you to focus on school. Get your education and you can help the tribes when your time comes.”

  “Was this meeting about the tribes?” Nick pressed. “Because I don’t see you communicating with the Assembly as much as you used to. It’s almost like you’ve been working on your own since Mr. Reynolds passed away.”

  That had his father jerking back as if Nick had struck him. “Loren was my best friend.”

  Nick nodded. He knew how his father felt about Loren Reynolds because he felt the same way about Rome. And he wasn’t questioning their friendship.

  “Dad, I’m here to help if I can. Tell me what’s going on.”

  Henrique stood quickly, his voice barely restraining his anger. “It is not your concern.”

  “If it involves you it is my concern.” Nick jumped to his feet, trying to meet his father eye-to-eye.

  “I am doing what is right for our people. That is all you need to know. Now go to bed.”

  He’d been dismissed, but that wasn’t working for Nick. He wasn’t leaving without answers. “Dad—”

  “Enough!” Henrique yelled. “It is enough with these questions, Dominick. You will respect me at all times. I will not tell you this again.”

  And he hadn’t. Henrique had walked away from Nick that night, leaving him to stare after him with no more knowledge than he’d had before his father had come home. And the rage that had begun to simmer in Nick when they’d left the Gungi was left thoroughly inflamed.

  In his condo, alone, because Ary hadn’t been here when he returned, Nick walked into the living room where he had a desk and his computer. He fired up the Mac and waited until the Internet was visible on the screen. As he’d walked down Memory Lane, pinpointing the second he realized his father was a liar, that symbol had appeared, proving itself an intricate part of what was going on in the here and now.

  So he typed in symbols and shields and waited. Clicking on various sites, he searched for anything similar to the symbol he’d seen, any link to what he feared was going to be a huge problem for the stateside shifters.

  His gaze remained focused on the computer screen even as his mind wandered to Ary and where she might be. He’d been more than concerned to find her not here waiting for him. Had even gone so far as to call Rome’s house looking for Kalina. Only to have Rome laugh at him and once again reiterate that there were different rules to the mating game. That wasn’t what Nick wanted to hear so he’d hung up feeling a little better that Ary was in fact with Kalina, but concerned that she hadn’t left him a note.

  He drummed his fingers on the desk reading websites that contained the keywords shield, symbols, Brazil. One in particular caught his eye. He clicked and saw an almost exact replica of the symbol staring back at him.

  It was a picture of the Portuguese flag. Portugal’s coat of arms consisted of a white shield on the flag’s red-and-green background. Inside the shield were five smaller shields that represented the five Moorish kings who were defeated by the first king of Portugal.

  Nick read the description then studied the flag once more. The five shields inside the one bigger shield looked just like the black tattoo-like symbol he’d seen on the crates in the Gungi, on the wall of that apartment buildin
g, and on X’s cell phone. Only the symbol he’d seen didn’t have five smaller shields. It had four.

  That was significant, Nick thought. It had to be. But before he could think on it any longer the buzzer near his front door went off. He walked to the wall unit and pressed the TALK button. “Hello?”

  “Hi. I’m back.”

  She sounded winded, happy. Nick’s pulse jumped at the sound of her voice, and he pressed the buzzer to let her into the building.

  He was holding the door open a few minutes later when Ary stepped off the elevator and walked toward his unit. Nick watched her move. Her muscled legs were bare beneath khaki shorts. Flat sandals with straps that wound up her calf adorned her feet, while the white tank top she wore hugged her awesome breasts. Her hair was straight, hanging over her shoulders and glittering with different tones of brown he’d never noticed before. She looked amazing. Simple and still breathtaking.

  “Spa day,” she said as she approached him at the door. She held up half a dozen small bags and smiled up at him. “I have so many things in here, I don’t even know what to do with them.”

  He caught her scent as she moved past him into the condo. Sweet and sensual, like flowers and honey. Closing the door, he watched her move into the living room, the material of her shorts fitting her ass like a glove. At his sides his own fingers clenched with the desire to grip those delectable globes just as those shorts were.

  “I’ve had a full-body massage, which was heavenly,” she said with a gushing sigh.

  Nick leaned against the wall, folding his arms over his chest as he watched her. She was leaning over the sofa where she’d dumped all her bags. Digging inside, she pulled out jars and tubes of stuff, tossing them to the side as if they weren’t what she was looking for. She talked as she moved, her voice sounding hurried and so happy he thought she’d bubble over with excitement.

  That was what kept him quiet. The light lilt to her voice, the sound of her actually happy with something she’d done or something someone had done for her. He’d never heard her sound that way in the Gungi.