Page 6

Luckily, the EMP did not render the car inoperable, even if all of his devices were dead.

His laptop with all his notes to put Dr. Grimm away for life was a large paperweight at this point.

He’d put himself—and Ariel—at risk by saving any of it anyway.

Did Dr. Grimm know that he’d secretly been holding on to evidence?

Whether he did or not, Dr. Grimm would know that the EMP was triggered—assuming the device had been planted by Grimm.

Anson had to assume so. He’d been very careful to bury his ownership of the house, so it was unlikely that FUC could know about it, and even then, why would FUC want to trash his devices?

They’d much more likely want to confiscate them and pull any information from them that they could.

The EMP had to be planted by Grimm. What’s more, Grimm hadn’t been targeting Anson, that much he was sure of. The device had been in a drawer that Anson rarely opened, holding paperwork he rarely accessed, but the drawer would definitely be rifled through if agents were investigating his place.

Exactly like Nari had done.

Anson pressed his lips together, refusing to share these thoughts with the woman who was clearly already upset with what she’d done.

He focused on a bigger question: how did Grimm find his house?

Perhaps he’d actually cared enough to follow Anson at some point in the three months Anson had been working for him.

Or… maybe he’d forced the information out of Ariel…

Anson didn’t want to think about Ariel enduring torture. Especially if he was the cause of it, now that he was no longer controlled by Grimm.

He wished he could turn back time and prevent Dr. Grimm from finding his sister altogether. If he couldn’t rewind time that far, he’d make different decisions and never allow Dr. Grimm to force him to become his henchman.

Anson sighed. There was no such thing as turning back time, though. He’d have to live with the consequences of his choices. They already haunted him at night.

“I’m really sorry I blew it back there,” Nari said after they rode in the car in silence for a few miles.

She didn’t even glance his way. Anson assumed she was afraid to make eye contact with him, which was odd for her.

Up until now, she’d been annoyingly confident, if not almost arrogant.

This humbled side was new for him, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. It was unnerving, to say the least.

“It wasn’t your fault,” he found himself saying softly, though he had no idea why he cared to make her feel better.

Nari exhaled sharply. “But it was.”

“The only bad guy here is Dr. Grimm, remember? The man who set the trap. You can’t be so hard on yourself for accidentally triggering it.”

“That’s nice enough for you to say, but imagine how this is going to look. I’m here, trying to show that ASS is better than FUC, and meanwhile, I really shit the bed.”

“I have something that might make you feel better.” He couldn’t bear her sounding this down on herself. “I was able to access my encrypted email, and there was a message from Grimm.”

Her eyes widened, though she kept them on the road, but before he could elaborate, her eyes flicked to the rearview mirror and narrowed. “Hang on, I think we’re being followed.”

“By whom?” He whipped around in the bucket seat to try to look out the back window. A large black SUV was trailing them. Though seeing it didn’t help him identify the occupants. It could be FUC, or any number for Dr. Grimm’s cronies. They all seemed to enjoy buying black SUVs.

“I don’t know!” Nari shouted as she passed a vehicle in front of her with a car coming in the other direction. She swerved to the right just in time. The oncoming vehicle honked angrily.

Anson’s stomach flipped. He did not want to die in a car crash.

Nervously, he rubbed his hand up and down his seatbelt.

If he did it the correct number of times, it would keep them safe.

He knew that wasn’t true, but it helped him to feel better.

It kept his brain off the image of him bleeding to death in a car wreck.

Anson turned to look out the rear window just in time to see the mysterious vehicle passing the same car to keep up. “They’re still following.” He wiped at a bead of sweat trickling down the side of his face. It had nothing to do with the heat of the summer day.

“I know!”

His heart thrummed in his ears as Nari passed another slow vehicle in a no-passing zone.

The SUV behind them followed suit. She turned right at the next intersection, nearly taking out the vehicles waiting at the traffic light.

The tires squealed beneath them. Anson closed his eyes, holding on to whatever he could grab.

His stomach felt like it leaped into his throat.

As Nari made a quick left at the next street, Anson nearly hit his head on the side window.

Finally, she turned between two tall brick buildings into a concrete parking garage. “I think we lost them.”

She weaved through the garage, looping up a few levels before finding a place to hide the bright red car.

Anson hopped out the second Nari tucked it in between a large truck and a van.

Where she turned, they shouldn’t be spotted from the street.

He scurried to the nearest gap in concrete to look over the railing.

The sparse traffic on the street kept moving.

No black SUVs stood out amongst the vehicles.

Anson tried to see back to the closest intersection.

No vehicles seemed in an abnormal rush. No one made a last-minute turn toward the parking garage.

His heart was pounding so fast he was almost able to ignore the oily smell of the dirty concrete. Almost.

Nari propped an elbow on the half-wall, leaning out, looking very much like the bird of prey she was.

She narrowed her eyes at the street below them.

“I don’t see anyone out of place.” She scanned the people and vehicles below.

“Wait. There.” She pointed to a man and a woman glancing in the windows of the nearby shops and pausing at every alley.

“And?” Anson huffed between breaths. He saw the pair but wasn’t sure why he needed to be concerned by window shoppers. Maybe Nari didn’t have the excellent eyesight he thought eagle shifters had. Maybe being an agent for so long had made her paranoid.

“Why are they staring down every alley? They’re clearly looking for someone.”

Anson was preparing a snarky response when the woman below pointed to the parking garage. “I see your point.” Pun intended , he nearly said out loud, but the situation was anything but funny.

“Get back in the car,” she ordered, but he was already on his way.

“Are they friends of yours?” he asked, wondering if the pair were agents. They looked official in their neat suits and well-styled hair. It wasn’t often someone dressed better than he did.

“No. I assumed they’re hired guns for Dr. Grimm. Don’t you know them?”

“Do you think we have company mingles where I meet all his henchmen?” Seriously, what did FUC and ASS think the shifter underworld did? Throw cocktail parties?

“I don’t know!” she spat, climbing back into the driver’s seat.

He hopped in next to her, barely buckling himself in before she peeled out of the parking spot.

Tires squealed as she looped around the parking garage, making their way back down to street level.

He grabbed onto anything that could help him stay in his seat.

They cut a car off as they left, ignoring the honking driver.

The suspicious pair on the street pointed to them as they passed, running after them.

“That seemed stupid to try to find us on foot,” he managed to squeak out with a dry chuckle. Just then, the SUV pulled up, blocking them at the end of the street. Apparently, the pair following them had a driver.

“Hold on!” Nari cautioned.

Anson shut his eyes, feeling the car swerve.

He flew off the seat as they hit a series of bumps.

The seatbelt wasn’t built for this kind of driving.

After a few honks and screeching tires, he opened his eyes, immediately regretting it.

Nari was swerving through traffic on both sides of the road.

He shouldn’t have taken a peek. His stomach was flipping.

The few bites of food he had earlier were threatening to come back up.

“Let me know when it’s over,” he groaned, squeezing his eyes shut.

Hopefully they lived through this. He’d ask to take a train next time.

“Shit!” Nari’s voice cut through the air like a knife to his ears.

Anson was about to brave another peek when the sound of busting glass collided with him being tossed around like a rag doll.

His ribs burned from the seatbelt digging into him.

Metal screeched and tires squealed on the asphalt beneath them.

The smell of burning rubber filled his nostrils, an oily scent that seemed to cling to his nose hairs and clothing.

He opened his eyes to find the car pinned between the SUV and a telephone pole.

“We’re stuck! I can’t get the car to budge.” Her voice held an edge of fear.

Anson stared at Nari. The panic on her face barely registered.

He felt out of his body, watching the scene unfold.

It didn’t feel real. It seemed more likely he was watching a movie of himself.

He watched Nari unbuckle herself. She turned to Anson, but he couldn’t fully hear what she said.

Darkness bubbled at the corners of his vision.

Nari put a hand on the side of his face, bringing his attention back to the car.

She unbuckled his seatbelt. “Hurry.” She pointed to the broken window next to him.

“Get out the window.” He stared at her. Her words didn’t seem to match the movements of her lips.

Time didn’t even seem real. Then she pushed him in his aching ribs.

“Ow!”

“Anson, we have to move. Now!” she urged. Her voice was thick with fear. Her beautiful brown eyes grew to large pools. He could see his reflection in them, and it wasn’t good. His usual olive skin had turned a pale, grayish tone. Blood splatter mixed in with his freckles.

Somehow, that jerked him back to reality.

Wrapping the edge of his shirt around his elbow, he hit the rest of the glass out of the door.

His arm felt on fire. His elbow burned. The shirt wasn’t thick enough to fully protect his flesh from the glass shards.

When the lower edge of the window was as clear of debris as he could make it, he pushed himself out of the opening.

His upper body screamed in protest, but he had no other choice.

The hot air smelled of oil and gas. He wiped a warm liquid from his forehead before turning to help Nari out of the car.

She staggered for a moment before planting her feet, putting a hand on the car to steady herself. Her eyes widened as they took in his face. Her delicate fingers brushed his jaw and forehead. “They look superficial. Can you shift?”

He wasn’t sure what she was talking about. Superficial? Wasn’t that a jab at someone you found shallow and conceited?

She grabbed him by the elbows, her grip no longer delicate but firm and intense. “Anson!” A wild look filled her eyes.

“What?” Why was she yelling so loudly? It made the pounding in his head worse. The ground shifted beneath his feet as the world around them blurred at the edges. He just wanted to lie down and sleep. Sleep would help.

“Do you trust me?” Nari asked, pulling Anson from his daze. She looked over her shoulder at the wreckage behind them. The tinted windows gave nothing away. Where were the shifters who were following them? Were they conscious in the SUV or injured? He didn’t want to stick around and find out.

A wave of nausea washed over Anson as he took in the shape of the red sports car. It nearly wrapped around the telephone pole. The SUV on the other side seemed a part of the car as well, pinning it to the pole. He wasn’t sure how they were still alive.

“Do you trust me?” she repeated.

“What? No!”

Nari made a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a snort. “Do you trust me not to eat you?”

What the hell was she talking about? “Yeah. That I trust you with?—”

“Then shift!”

He did as ordered. His body shrank in size as his heart rate sped up.

Fur sprouted across his flesh, tingling across his body as it thickened.

Soon he was a tiny shrew. He wiggled his whiskers as a man and woman in suits walked around the back of their car.

The woman’s hair was tousled, and part of her blazer was ripped.

The man’s face was peppered with scrapes as he lumbered toward them with a slight limp.

The pair seemed to step out of a movie, yet seemed familiar somehow.

Anson tried to move away from them, but something was wrong with his right foreleg.

Stinging pain shot up his limb. He squeaked.

The pair pointed at him. Before he could decide what to do, long, bony fingers wrapped around his torso, lifting him off the ground.

Not fingers—talons. He looked to the scaly skin on the legs of the bird who held him.

It must be Nari. Anson was too tired to think.

His brain was too sore to make sense of things.

The wrecked car, the people who pointed at him, Nari asking him to trust her.

The black blanket of unconsciousness wrapped around him before his mind could stitch reality back together.