by Moira Rogers
Trip spun in his chair and shrugged. “Never checked her out beyond the basics. I could figure it out, but it might take me a few hours.”
It was an inexcusable breach of trust against someone he was trying to forge a business relationship with, but that wouldn’t stop Zel. Not if he was going to entrust Devi’s crew with the life and well-being of his sister’s eldest child. “First find out where they are. Then find out everything you can about why that girl’s got a black-market chip. Hell, find out everything you can about all of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
Zel snagged his handheld from his desk and shoved it into his pocket as he rose. “Ping me when you have their location. I’m going to gather Lorenzo and a few soldiers. They’ve got relatives of three of our people on board those trucks, and if there is trouble…” It was Zel’s responsibility to see them safe.
Trip had already turned back to his task, but there was a smile in his voice when he spoke. “I’ll find them for you, boss.”
He’d find them because he was the best, but Zel couldn’t resist prodding him as he strode toward the door. “You’d better. No letting an uppity kid with purple hair outwit you.”
“Hey, you just make sure the diesel queen doesn’t dazzle you stupid with her big baby blues.”
Zel walked backward toward the door so he could flip Trip his middle finger. “Less talk, more walk, buddy.”
Trip took the rude gesture with another broad smile. “Your heart rate and blood pressure skyrocketed.” He nodded to the desk. “Telemetry doesn’t lie.”
Figured Trip would get pushy. “Get your nose out of my vitals and track down your little playmate.”
“Got five searches running right now. You’re the one making small talk.”
As soon as he was out into the narrow hallway, Zel dragged his tablet out of his pocket and brought up the display. Concentrating on the glowing screen made it easier to ignore the way the sloping concrete walls seemed to close in on him as he walked. Fifty years ago, his office had been a security hub, a windowless, claustrophobic room buried in an underground maze. Fifty years before that, it had been dirt, the ground on which one of the country’s top hospitals stood.
A hundred years ago a lot had been different.
As he shoved through the double doors that led to the wider corridor, his tablet beeped, indicating a connection. “Lorenzo, you better be wearing pants, because we’re about to go topside.”
There was no answer for a few moments, and Lorenzo laughed. “Okay, now I am.” He sounded a little winded, and a woman giggled in the background. “What’s going on, Zel?”
“The truckers out of Nicollet freaked out in the middle of our meeting, started wiggling their fingers at each other in some sort of secret code and dropped out of the network.”
“Hmm. If I believed in omens, I think I’d be concerned right about now.”
“Unless you want me sending the people whose relatives are on that truck after you, I suggest you and your newfound concern meet me in the weapons locker.”
A door chime echoed over the connection, and Lorenzo sighed. “I’m already on my way. We heading out to find them?”
Zel reached the concrete stairs and took them two at a time. “She said they were two hours out, but I’m guessing she meant to get there early so she’d have a chance to scout. Trip’s tracking down their exact coordinates now.”
“And she didn’t say what was happening?”
“She didn’t seem the trusting type.”
“Then what makes you think she won’t shoot us on sight if we show up, all in her business?”
He’d gotten the distinct impression that Devi never shot without considering her actions and making a reasonable business decision…and if he admitted as much to Lorenzo, he’d have two jackasses ragging on him. “Good point. I’ll send you in first.”
“As long as she’s got eyes, we should be reasonably safe, then.”
The thought of Devi laying those big blue eyes on Lorenzo and liking what she saw brought jealousy to a low boil. Zel’s demon heritage afforded him an array of skills suited to killing, whereas Lorenzo’s demonic parentage had given him the preternatural ability to seduce damn near anyone. His friend’s cocky assertion was more fact than ego, and Zel didn’t like it.
But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t use it—or at least redirect it. “Forget about the leader. If you feel like charming someone, see if you can sweet-talk their techie into spilling some dirt. Trip said she’s got a black-market chip.”
“You’re no fun.” The transmission cut out, and Lorenzo joined him as he rounded the corner. “Have I told you that lately? How you’ve lost every single bit of personality you used to have?”
“Depends on your definition of lately.” Zel tucked his tablet back into his pocket as they bypassed a group of sleepy-looking women herding their toddlers toward the nursery. A little boy with corkscrew curls and eyes like cut emeralds broke free of his mother and charged at them on stocky legs, arms wide open and face full of glee.
He pounced on Lorenzo, who swept the boy up and over his shoulder. “Oh, I caught him. That’s a good thirty pounds of kid, Zel. What do we do with him?”
Zel’s joking retort died on his tongue as silence swept through the hallway. Too many eyes watched him, some set in faces made old from stress and some heartbreakingly young—and not just the kids. The little boy’s mother was barely more than a girl herself. Only a few years older than Zel’s niece, yet Kaya’s hand curled around the swell of another pregnancy and the green eyes she’d passed onto her son looked hard in her young face.
So many fragile lives, all his responsibility now. And Lorenzo wonders why I don’t have any fun.
Kaya was the one to break the uneasy silence, stepping forward with a nervous smile. “Come on, honey. We can’t be bothering the warrior.”
“Pretty ladies and cute kids are never a bother.” But Lorenzo tickled the boy’s chin and lowered him to the floor. “Run on. Your mama says it’s time to go.”
The boy grinned and scampered back to the safety of Kaya’s arms, and Zel turned his attention to his destination: a pair of glass doors emblazoned with a blue and red logo that had once marked this sector as a bank, a place to store valuable things.
Which it still was—if you found weapons valuable.
Lorenzo headed for the vault. “What do we think this is? A little mishap or a full-fledged shitty situation?”
“I think we’d better plan for the worst.” Devi hadn’t seemed like a woman who spooked easily, but something about the hand-signs her tech had flashed had put nervousness in her eyes.
“If this woman runs her own hauling crew, she can probably shrug off the occasional demon attack,” Lorenzo said matter-of-factly. “Assuming it’s just some random thugs and not a warrior clan.”
“She’s not usually hauling our people or their loved ones.”
Lorenzo said nothing, and Zel glanced over to find the younger man watching him closely. “Transport’s always a risk,” he said finally. “Everyone knows that, Zel. No one would blame you if this run went south.”
Zel shrugged off the words as they reached the vault. He pressed his hand to the clear plastic bioscan pad next to the door to disengage the locks, then hauled the solid steel door open. “You trying to make me feel better, or asking if I’m thinking with my dick?”
His companion barked out a short laugh. “The second option would never have occurred to me. Now that you mention it, though, I’m pretty damn sure I know what the answer is.”
Fuck. “I’m not. Tempting, but it’s not that. A few months ago, no one would have blamed me if this delivery went south. But, in case you haven’t noticed, shit’s gone to hell. And we need that shipment of fiber optic cable, or we’re going to end up cut off.”
Lorenzo seemed to accept the explanation, and he nodded as he pulled open a locker and retrieved a shotgun. “You think we get a discount if we save her ass?”
“Bett
er.” Zel was still wearing his shoulder rig, but he snatched up an automatic rifle and a backup knife for good measure. “I think she might be able to get Rosa up north in one piece. If we could get her trained up, let everyone know we have our own healer…” The boost in morale alone would be worth it.
“You’re the boss. Wouldn’t be if we didn’t trust you.”
“I’m the boss because Oliver Wetzel married my mother.” Zel swung his new weapon over his shoulder and reached for a duffel bag packed with backup weapons and ammunition. “Or are you trying to say you just haven’t bothered to overthrow me yet?”
“I happen to like my leisure time. You work too damn hard.”
Zel choked back a laugh as they started for the elevators. “You get much more leisure time and you’re going to run out of playmates. There are a finite number of adults in this settlement, you know.”
“Didn’t you hear? Lovers are recyclable.” Lorenzo grinned. “Some simply aren’t satisfied with one night.”
Zel was saved from the obligation of coming up with a suitable retort when his handheld beeped. He tapped the side of his earpiece with one hand and jabbed the button for the elevator with the other. “Trip? Tell me you got a location.”
“Yes and no.” The boy sounded frazzled. “Well, yeah, I did, but you’re going to hope I’m wrong.”
The elevator was too damn slow, so Zel broke into a jog and kicked open the door to the stairs. “Spill it.”
“They’re less than an hour out, which is good.” Trip paused. “But they’re also stopped, which is bad.”
“Fuck. Track them and tell me if they start moving again. And keep digging for info.”
“Got it.”
Zel waited until they’d reached the top of the staircase and were already headed for the lobby before speaking. “They’re not moving. We need to take one of the Jeeps with an ADS.”
Lorenzo swore and pulled him to a stop. “Are you ready for what we might find out there? If the passengers are dead and the cargo’s gone? If you’re going to lose it, you’d be better off staying here and letting me lead the team.”
A snarl caught in Zel’s throat, and he shook his arm free. “I’m going. And I’m not going to lose it unless you piss me off.”
“Not my goal, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
The sound of men and women gearing up for a fight penetrated the glass doors in front of them. Zel closed his eyes and concentrated on the storm brewing inside him. Angry winds and rumbling thunder—his demonic half hungering for violence.
Every halfblood had another nature, the part of them that stood apart, alien and dangerous. Some welcomed a beast as an ally or battled an inner darkness as a foe. For him, it had always been the storm. Gentle rains in the quiet moments, and the vicious maelstrom he struggled to contain when anger rode him hard and close.
Leashing the fierce wildness drove him half-crazy, but he didn’t have the luxury of charging out into battle just because his skin itched with the need to fight.
Once he could have, when his stepfather had ruled Rochester and he’d been a strong right hand. Not anymore. Now Zel had to consider the good of the settlement, weigh every life risked against the potential gain. Supplies. People. The fact that if he didn’t get the warriors outside for a fight soon, the restrained energy would boil over. He had to consider all of that.
He didn’t have to consider the hauler’s gorgeous blue eyes, but that wasn’t stopping him.
Zel cursed and shot his friend a look. “You don’t have to come. Most of the others are going to climb the walls if they don’t see action, but you haven’t got that particular problem.”
“I climb the walls for different reasons,” Lorenzo agreed.
And Zel had dragged him away from his usual diversion. “Straight answer, Lorenzo. Yes or—”
“I’m going,” he interrupted. “Hailey will have to stay here, so you need me to watch your back.”
Hailey would chew his ass for calling Lorenzo before her, but his second had earned a few extra minutes of sleep after a long day of mediating increasingly hostile disputes amongst their people. “Get the soldiers organized. I have to wake her up before I leave.”
Lorenzo apparently couldn’t resist one last jibe as he backed away. “Good luck with that. See you on the surface.”
“Uh-huh.” When Lorenzo had gone, Zel leaned against the wall and dialed Hailey’s extension.
Chapter Three
Back on the road, this time behind the wheel, Devi picked up the radio handset again. “Juliet?”
“Yeah, boss?”
She tapped the monitor set into the truck’s console. “On our programmed route, we’d have to go through one more checkpoint before turning off the main road. I’d like to avoid that. How confident is Shane that the ADS is fully functional?”
A brief pause, then Shane’s voice. “Fifty-fifty at best. The thing’s fritzy as hell, but I need at least an hour to get it running at full capacity. An hour where we’re stopped, I mean.”
It was risky. All the major trade routes were wired with widely spaced emitters, funded by cooperation between territories and cities. They pulsed with low frequency sound, so low humans couldn’t hear it, just feel the intermittent vibrations, and the coverage was sparse. It only worked at all because it was meant to protect fast-moving vehicles equipped with their own ADS systems.
If they took the trucks offroad again, they’d lose the scant protection offered by the highway system. Still, they didn’t stand a chance against another assault from an unmanned checkpoint. “I’m willing to chance it if everyone else is,” Devi said, raising an eyebrow at Tanner.
He looked less than thrilled, his full eyebrows drawing down over eyes the color of dark chocolate. “Did you ask the smartass if he figured out why the last one tried to take us out?”
“Do you want to suggest he access official logs while we’re out here on unofficial business?” she shot back.
Silence for one heartbeat. Two. With the third, Tanner sighed. “Into the wild we go.”
“It’s either this, or cross our fingers and hope the problem back there wasn’t ours.”
Juliet came back over the radio. “We’re game if you are, Dev. Gear it up and keep it running, and I’ll be right behind you.”
“Got it.” She tossed the handset to Tanner and rode the accelerator harder. There was a sign, one of the few still standing, signaling the turnoff on the small two-lane road. “Think the truck can handle it?”
“No.” Short, to the point, and eminently cynical. Typical Tanner, which is why his next words surprised Devi. “But we’ve been through worse, and you’ve pulled our asses out in one piece. Which I’m always grateful for, you know, seeing as a fine ass like mine is a rare commodity.”
“Do you need a sign for that ego? Oversize load, maybe?”
“You’re just bitter because your precious rule about fraternization puts me and my hot ass off limits. Ruiz’d do me though. And Cache would too, if she wasn’t too busy knocking virtual boots with Shane. Did you know those two have been uplinking to make with the kinky virtual fucking?”
“I’m going to have to kill you now.” The threat lacked heat, because Devi was too busy brooding. Her precious rules were, indeed, putting some hot ass out of her reach, but the man from the bar topped the list.
Zel, she reminded herself. At least half-demon, which made him dangerous, but that didn’t deter her libido one bit. The dark hair and quicksilver eyes would have stopped her in her tracks, if only—
If only this wasn’t work. Except that it was, and there was no getting around it.
Off limits.
Tanner had taken her threat as an invitation to keep talking. “—and when I grabbed her arm, she damn near planted her heel between my legs. Has Ruiz been giving her self-defense lessons on the sly? Because every time I suggest them she uses her special ‘Fuck you, Tanner’ gesture.”
“Uh-huh.” Devi slowed for a rough patch of road. “Try
to remember that gesture is an insult, not a suggestion.”
The look Tanner shot her combined disgust and annoyance. “C’mon. I’m a horny bastard, but I’m not an ass. And I’m glad someone’s teaching Cache to kick ass, but if she wants to learn, it should be from me. Ruiz can stick to teaching her about rocket launchers.”
“She says she’s not teaching her to kick ass in general, only yours.”
That made him laugh, the rich, warm laughter that attracted female attention wherever they went. “Juliet Ruiz just got a lot hotter.”
“Right.” The last thing she had to worry about was Tanner making a play for another member of her crew. For all his swagger, she couldn’t even remember the last time she’d seen him with a woman.
Juliet’s voice crackled over the radio again. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Dev, but we’ve got another problem.”
Not now. Not here. She keyed the mic. “Please don’t tell me that.”
“Think my fuel sensor’s hosed. It’s been riding half-mast since we patched the tank, but the gauge just bottomed out into the red all at once. I’m on fumes.”
Devi groaned. “What about the ADS, Shane?”
“It’s sending out bursts now. It might discourage demons while we’re on the move, but if we stop, I wouldn’t make any bets. I can get back under the cab and send Cache up top to see if she can work a little networking magic, maybe boost the signal.”
Devi downshifted and swore. “Pull off after me. We’ll keep both running until we can get everything irreplaceable moved over to this trailer. We can’t stick around. We’ve got to get out of here.”
Shane spoke over muffled noises. “Cache and I are getting ready now. We’ll tackle the ADS while you guys shift equipment. Ruiz is pulling off.”
“Five minutes.” She didn’t dare give them longer.
The dust they’d kicked up still hung heavy in the air as Devi jumped down from the cab and rushed back to meet the other truck. Air brakes screeched as it slowed and stopped.