Page 13 of The Last Ultimatum: Part 2

“Don’t take her. Leave her alone,” Maxine said.

“Oh, I see. A family unit then. Where did they come from? Which Tribe?” the first man asked.

“The city. They’re the ones you requested specifically, sir.”

“Really? Okay. So what makes you three so special?”

He knelt down and I saw his face for the first time. It wasn’t an unpleasant face. Any other situation and I mightconsider him handsome even, but looking at him now, in this place, I was too disgusted to give him a second thought.

“My team tells me the three of you can provide me much leverage.” He stood and spoke to the other man. “So do not kill them. Consider them my special guests and for God’s sake, get her out of that tiny cage.”

“Where should we put her. All the cages are full.”

“Then kill one of the others and make some room.”

I heard the cries and panicked murmurs all around the room.

“No,” I begged. “I’m fine here. Really? I love tight spaces.”

He seemed to consider that for a moment. “A martyr. You could be worth far more than even bargained for. I’ll admit going after that house in the city was a big risk. And we still have three missing pups out there if the pictures are any indication, but don’t you worry your pretty little head about that. We’ll have them soon enough. My intel is very thorough.”

I gritted my teeth and refused to engage.

“Nothing? Really? How disappointing. I had the feeling you were a true fighter the way you kicked and screamed until the sedative set in. Little bitch even bit my friend here. I had to send a clean up crew in to fix the mess you made.”

“Why would you do that?” I blurted out.

“Ah, there she is. Why wouldn’t I? The last thing I want is for some pitiful human to grow suspicious. No, no, no. That wouldn’t do at all. As it is everyone you know believes you’re all on a last minute vacation. And they’ll continue to believe that as long as you behave.”

“What do you want?”

He blew out a breath, but there was humor in his voice when he spoke again.

“What do I want? Let’s see, I want to make a lot of money, an insane scandalous amount of money. Enough tocontinue funding the genetic testing that I took over when your kind murdered my boss. And these Collectors have that kind of money. For the right prize they’ll pay an obscene amount for any one of you. Unfortunately, I found out a little too late that they are clueless about your kind—shifters.”

Spit hit my face as he said the word like it left a horrible taste in his mouth.

“Those morons think they’re looking for humans with special powers. They don’t know the truth the way I did. Unfortunately I learned that a little too late. So, now I’m forced to correct the issue. See they didn’t know about shifters and I was ready to present to them all sorts of shifters for the right price of course. But don’t worry. It’s our little secret. I told them your kind once existed but was eradicated over time. Unfortunately that time is now. We’ve already handled one Tribe in a peaceful manor. Then there was that other that fought back. My men were forced to slaughter them all. Pity. I keep trying to explain that I can still use the cadavers post mortem.”

My stomach lurch, but I held back my gag.

This man was disgusting and delusional. But he had information I desperately needed, so I had to play nice or at least appear to be agreeable.

“Which Tribes?” I asked. “Please, which Tribes.”

“It doesn’t really matter, beautiful, because they’ll all be gone very soon.”

Lachlan

Chapter 5

My phone had been smashed in to a million pieces and tossed in the trash shoot. To be honest, it was quite therapeutic. I didn’t usually give much credibility to hitting or pounding things like that, but I may have to reconsider and do some further research on it.

Using Taylor’s phone, I was able to get back in touch with Siggy. He had my siblings in a safe, undisclosed location, and the mysterious car hadn’t shown up again since. That was certainly a relief, but I didn’t think I would fully relax until they were out of the country. The problem with that was I didn’t trust anyone to move them like that, which meant I was going to have to do it myself, but I also couldn’t stand the idea of leaving Tilly behind to take them home. It was a conundrum, but for now they were at least safe, or as safe as could be.

Bravo team came bursting through the door as I was just hanging up from my latest call with them.

“I’m going to blow those sonofabitches up when we find out who’s behind this,” Baine said.

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