“Now what?” she asked herself.
Hide or get far away from here? If they found her here, they might suspect she’d stashed something. Andrei seemed perceptive, and he may have even read the lies on her face.
She heard footsteps just outside the door. Shit! She hadn’t heard the door latch shut, had she? It wasn’t locked.
She ducked down in a corner away from the drawers and found she didn’t have to act scared. She was fucking terrified, so she let that come to the forefront as a man with a big scary gun strapped to his shoulder burst inside.
“Stand up!” he said. She was bad with accents, but this guy was not vaguely Eastern European. He was totally American. So an international team of terrorists? Or mercenaries?
She stood up and put her hands up where he could see.
He flicked the barrel of the gun toward the door. It was the first time a gun had been aimed at her, and the blood drained from her face at thinking that her life was gone if this guy’s finger moved a half-inch.
She walked toward the door slowly, not wanting to set him off. “Stay in front of me, hands stay up, and walk quickly.”
She did as she was told, but she found it awkward to walk quickly with her hands in the air, and with a long-ass tooth pushing into her boob.
They wound through the dinosaur exhibits, the ancient pottery, and then finally they were in the lobby. The man with the gun grabbed hold of her and shoved her down into a line of hostages, including Laurence, sitting on the floor.
“Sit down, shut up, and don’t move,” he said.
He was gone before she could acknowledge the order. Judging from the terrified expressions and utter silence of the other hostages, these men were serious.
She saw her boss and some other co-workers, but they were staring with blank expressions, not noticing her at all.
“Ah,” she heard the vaguely Eastern European voice say. “There she is!”
She hadn’t told anyone but Laurence and people from other museums about the tooth. Thank God. She looked over at him.
He locked eyes with her and then shook his head almost imperceptibly. That meant he hadn’t talked. He widened his eyes at her, asking “did you get it?” She nodded back to him.
Andrei was holding a pistol while most of his men had bigger machine guns with fancy grips and shoulder straps. He holstered the gun and walked toward Violet.
She felt herself shaking. At least he’d put the gun away. She looked down, trying to will him to not exist.
He took hold of her chin and gently tilted it up until she was looking right at him. His eyes were a cool and steely blue. “Where should we look?”
“I don’t know what you’re looking for.”
“Tooth,” he said. “About this long.” He held his fingers out and gestured about the exact length of the tooth in her bra.
“I told you—”
“No,” he said. “It wasn’t there. I have very limited time. Where else should I look?”
“Maybe if you weren’t holding me and all these people hostage, I would be more willing to—”
“I didn’t want this!” he yelled. “This was the backup plan, carried out with regret! Some people much worse than me are coming for me, so tell me where to look.”
“There’s a sorting room,” Laurence said.
Smart. He knew she took the tooth, so she’d tell him where it actually had been.
But no, shit! She had left the label there. “Tooth. Large mammal or reptile. Found in Poland. Reburied. Unknown Origin.” Andrei would see row after row of labelled artifacts and then that tag with nothing there.
“Go check,” Andrei said to one of the men with the guns. “No, wait. Two of you go. If you find it, do not touch it with your bare skin. If SHIFT intercepts, hide it from them at all costs.”
What was SHIFT? And should she be worried that she’d touched it countless times with her bare hands?
The men nodded and hurried off.
CHAPTER 9
ASHER
Asher had suited up fully in Metin’s SUV. He had a Glock with an extended magazine, a knife on each leg, a flashbang, and, most importantly, his inner bear ready to come out.
All of his weapons were attached to SHIFT clothing: his black body armor, his belt, and his leg holsters. SHIFT clothing expanded with him when he shifted. This allowed him to shift at will and have his weapons ready to draw when he shifted back to human form.
They pulled up to an alley, and Asher spotted the white plumbing van parked nearby. It would be full of SHIFT squad members.
Metin hit a button on his keys, and the door slid open. Metin stepped inside, and Asher followed.
There were three other men inside, fully suited.
The first was a blond man with striking features and a towering height. He sat quietly and gripped a submachine gun laying across his lap. “I’m Alex,” he said.
“Animal?”
“Snake,” Alex said. “Anaconda.”
Asher sniffed. “Snake? Doesn’t smell like it. I don’t really smell anything on you.”
“Get your nose checked then,” Alex said, slamming a magazine into the gun.
Metin said, “The other two are Haller and Demian.”
Haller was thick with muscle and broad-shouldered. He smiled wide at Asher, his razor-sharp cheekbones jutting out. He had the kind of face that—despite its scars—could turn the heads of every woman in the room..
“Wolf,” Haller grunted.
Demian was lithe and sinewy and had piercing, gray-green eyes. “Tiger,” he said.
“How are we getting in?” Asher asked.
His stomach churned. He would disobey orders if Metin ordered these guys to sacrifice the hostages. He needed to know now if that was what Metin had planned. He had to save Violet, and even if he had to fight all of SHIFT to save her, he would, but he needed to start planning and mentally preparing for that now.
“Stealth entry,” Metin said. “There’s a service entrance that isn’t used anymore. Demian’s already gone in and broken it open. You’ll enter through there, and we’ve got some new tech that will mask your scent.”
“We all going to go in smelling like snakes?” Haller asked.
“No,” Metin said, and pressed another button on his key. Mist shot out of a vent in the ceiling, filled the van, and suddenly both Demian and Haller were as odorless as Alex.
They all sniffed. Asher could still pick up Metin’s distinct musk of pricey cologne and shoe polish, but no shifter scents.
“Nice,” Demian said.
“It looks like Andrei’s hired humans for this,” Metin said, “so it shouldn’t be too difficult. Still, don’t underestimate Andrei. I trained him myself.”
“And this Andrei guy can’t even shift?” Haller said. “Total cakewalk.”
“I hate to say this,” Asher said, “but listen to Metin. You can’t underestimate Andrei even if he can’t shift. I’ve never seen anyone better with a knife, and a Dragon’s strength, even in human form, is insane.”
“Pines has first-hand experience with Andrei. The two of them trained together. Heed Pines’s warning.”
The others nodded.
“Pines,” Metin continued, “there’s a rooftop cafe with a clear view into the lobby. I want you up there with a sniper rifle.”
Asher nodded. “Tranq darts?”
“No,” Metin said. “Live rounds. Shoot to disable. Kill only if necessary.”
“Haller and Demian,” Metin said, “you two stand by in the service entry. Right near the front, there’s a flight of stairs that leads to a utility closet right behind the front desk in the main lobby. When Asher gives you the signal, it means he’s ten seconds from firing. You go up those stairs as soon as he signals and take down any armed resistance. Do not hit the hostages.”
Asher let out a relieved sigh.
“Are we sure these are hired guns?” Alex asked. “Will the body fall when we cut off the dragon’s head?”
�
��Serpent’s head,” Haller corrected.
“Snakes don’t like that expression,” Alex said.
“It’s possible the others will try to flee or just surrender if Andrei is downed,” Metin said, “but prepare for the worst and be ready to fight. Alex is running point when you go in. I want him on Andrei.”
They all nodded, and Alex slid the van door open.
***
Asher left the other three behind at the stairway to the lobby. He continued on with the gun case in hand. It would weigh a lot for a human, but it was light for a grizzly bear shifter.
He crept up the last stairway, going all the way to the second floor, and exited into a filing room near the rooftop cafe.
He sniffed at the door, smelled nothing, and slowly pried it open, his pistol in hand.
He swept the cafe, saw it was clear, and took cover immediately anyway. He needed to limit his exposure and make sure no one spotted him moving around up here. The museum was U-shaped, and the rooftop cafe’s outdoor seating looked out over an inner courtyard, and beyond that were tall ceiling-to-wall windows. The ones Asher would shoot through to take down his former squad mate and friend.
A bear sniper. It sounded so stupid, even after all this time. The idea of SHIFT was to use a shifter’s animal to offset the disadvantages of a given role. In human form, a bear was just as good with a sniper rifle as a hawk. A sniper was weak when flushed out or in close-quarters, so put a bear behind the sniper rifle to negate that disadvantage. It was the same reason a wolf and a tiger were doing the infiltration. They could take cover and create a lower profile in close quarters by shifting, and if they really needed to do damage and go on the offensive, they had guns.
He hadn’t quite figured out why the snake was running point. He’d never fought with a snake before, and he really didn’t see what even a giant snake could bring to the table. Anacondas slowly constricted the chest and lungs of their prey. Outside of some kind of interrogation scenario, Asher didn’t see the advantage in slowly squeezing the air out of someone in the middle of a firefight. Maybe if he wrapped around Andrei, the hired guns would be afraid to shoot?
He pulled out a pair of binoculars from the case and eyed the lobby. Only two men with submachine guns. He panned around and then spotted Andrei. Shit. He was talking to Violet. Of all the thirty-something hostages there, why did it have to be her?
Violet is in front-front quadrant. Andrei also in front-front quadrant, Asher’s bear said. Very helpful.
He needed to get his gun out and take the shot. End this before something happened.
Asher went prone and then overturned a table so the top was facing the lobby window. He got behind it.
He popped open the case and pulled out the main body of the sniper rifle. He grabbed the stock and attached it, and then he began opening up the tripod, which he planned to set up before screwing in the barrel.
The whiff of man hit his nose, and then he heard the sound of shoes squeaking on tile.
Shit! Someone was in the cafe. It would take him another ten seconds to ready the gun, and then another one or two to readjust the gun to point the other direction, back into the cafe. It might be worth it, if he could get in position before the man saw him. If not, he’d probably get shot in the back.
This was why SHIFT put grizzly bears behind sniper rifles.
Asher dropped the tripod, pulled out his pistol, and spun toward the cafe.
He saw a man raising a submachine gun.
He had no cover. He could kick a table over, but even SMG rounds would go right through these flimsy tables.
With no time to even aim, Asher raised his pistol and fired five or six shots while rushing toward the shooter. The glass shattered, and Asher couldn’t tell if he had come close to landing a hit.
The barrel of the SMG exploded like fireworks, and Asher heard bullets hitting everywhere around him, but luckily none hit him. After Asher’s tenth or twelfth shot, the shooter dropped his gun and grabbed hold of his shoulder. Hit.
Asher holstered the gun and shifted.
His SHIFT clothes expanded with him, and he became a big giant bear with a big dumb vest.
He leapt through the broken window, slid painfully across the shards of glass, and jumped atop the shooter. He roared in his face and pinned his arm down with his paw.
Asher shifted back, his paw becoming a hand, which still held the man down.
“What’s he after?” Asher asked.
The man bit down, and a rancid odor hit Asher’s nose. Cyanide.
Foam filled the shooters mouth, and his eyes rolled back in his head. He was dead already. There was nothing Asher could do.
He grabbed the SMG, pulled out the magazine, and checked. There were probably fewer than ten bullets left.
He dropped the SMG and pulled out his pistol.
Andrei definitely had heard the shots, and so there was very little time left. Asher rushed down the stairs—the public stairs, not the service entrance—and raced into the courtyard.
Shots rang out from the lobby, and the glass panes began to shatter. Asher ran faster.
He barreled into the lobby with his gun raised. Where was Violet? The hostages were all flat on their stomachs, heads down, and many even had their hands over their ears.
Andrei’s men shot wildly as a wolf and tiger raced through the lobby, and Andrei himself turned to face Asher as he approached.
“I thought I smelled you,” Andrei said, raising his gun.
Asher did the same, pointing the gun right at Andrei’s heart.
“My reactions are still just as fast,” Andrei said. “I can get a shot off before the bullet even hits me.”
“It’s over, Andrei,” Asher said. “Just drop it.”
“Would you?” Andrei said. “If they took away from you what you are? Do you know how it feels to be grounded? To never be able to fly? Imagine if you could never fish from a stream with your claws, or really smell the forest. Would you not fight for that?”
“I wouldn’t hurt innocents,” Asher said.
Andrei let out a sarcastic and frenzied laugh. “No, Asher, you wouldn’t. But see?” He tilted his head toward the hostages. “I haven’t hurt any of them, I just need this tooth. Drop your gun, help me find it, and I promise no one gets hurt.”
Human guy attacking from right-right quadrant, his bear said.
Shit! He actually hadn’t noticed that. He had his gun raised and was sneaking up on Asher’s right flank.
A gun went off, and the man clutched his leg and crumpled over. Alex moved toward the downed fighter, gun in hand. He kicked the SMG away and cuffed him.
Asher heard the faint oscillations of a helicopter in the distance. Was that Metin’s or Andrei’s?
Asher looked past Andrei, struggling to find Violet, but he couldn’t identify her. Was she okay? He wouldn’t risk asking for her directly and making her a bigger target.
Asher and Andrei held the guns fixed on each other, but Alex moved up with his gun fixed on Andrei. Now Andrei was flanked and outgunned.
“I’ve always been a really good shot,” Andrei said, “so remember this mercy. It’s the last I’ll give you.”
He jumped and rolled and blasted a shot off. Asher fired back but hit nothing but air.
Something exploded on his belt, and a blinding flash of light lanced across his vision and a clap of thunder filled his ears. An intense ringing took over, and he could hear nothing.
Andrei had shot the flashbang on his belt, and now he was blind and deaf.
But he could still smell.
He sniffed and smelled the distinct scent of dragon drawing nearer. He ran blind toward it, focusing on it.
He shifted and jumped into the scent.
He felt his claws catch clothing, and then a knife bit into his side.
Asher roared at Andrei but couldn’t hear himself over the ringing in his ears.
His vision returned enough to see Andrei’s face below him, and Asher dug his claws into
his shoulder so he couldn’t worm his way loose.
With his free paw, he slammed down Andrei’s knife hand, which resulted in the knife cutting the wound open even more. There was blinding pain, but as long as his guts didn’t spill out, he’d heal.
Asher looked around to survey the scene. He saw Demian and Haller escorting hostages one-by-one toward the exit, and Alex still had his gun out and trained on Andrei, who was pinned beneath him.
“Get them all out,” Alex yelled. “Pines has Andrei pinned.”
Alex was inching closer, which meant all Asher had to do was hold Andrei down until they could restrain him.
He hated to admit that the constricting thing was exactly what he needed Alex to do right now. Even SHIFT-issue cuffs couldn’t hold a dragon shifter.
“Keep him pinned,” Alex said. “I’m almost there.”
There was a flash, and Alex fell, grunting as he went down. Asher was trained well enough to not let go of Andrei out of instinct. There was a shooter, but as soon as he let go of Andrei, there’d be two shooters—one of which had superhuman strength. The only reason he’d been able to pin Andrei in the first place was because his guard had been down. It wouldn’t happen again so easily if he let him up.
Asher spotted the shooter. It was a man who had looked dead, but he was now pointing his gun toward the hostages.
He spotted Violet’s face, looking right up at the shooter.
He didn’t think, just acted.
He began to shift back and reached for his gun, jumping off Andrei and toward the shooter. Andrei slipped out from underneath him and ran.
The helicopter was loud and directly overhead, beginning its descent into the courtyard. He heard Andrei running behind him now but didn’t care.
The man who had shot Alex steadied his gun toward the hostages, and Asher saw Violet raise her hand up, shielding her face. Asher raised his gun and fired at the shooter’s chest.
The shooter went down and fell still.
Asher looked back to see if he could get a shot off at Andrei and stop his escape, but the helicopter’s door was slamming shut.
Unbearable Arms (The Grizzly Next Door 4) Page 4