Page 252 of Secret Shifters Next Door

All four men’s faces went white with shock and surprise. The driver glanced behind Jared to the wreck. “Holy shit. The old man’s daughter? She’s dead?” He glanced at me and Tate. “What did you goddamned animals do?”

All four men started walking toward us. Before I could say or do anything, Jared stepped in front of them. “Stop.” He shouted the word, and it came out as part yell, part snarl, part roar. All four men slid to a stop, one of them actually falling on his ass. The anger that had been in their eyes a second before seeped away. Now all that could be seen was fear.

“You’ll take care of Mariana’s body. Then you’ll send a tow truck from the organization to get rid of the car,” Jared said. “Or my father will be the least of your worries. Got it?”

The four men glanced back and forth from Jared to me and Tate. There was some mental math going on there. Were they judging their chances against two shifters, or were they trying to figure out how the boss’s son was maybe a shifter, too? Either way, the driver waved at his men to go to the car. All four of them took a wide berth around us, each giving us the stink-eye as they went, but once they got to the car, they got down to business. One of them cursed and ran back to the van. He returned with what looked like a compact version of the jaws-of-life.

Tate, Jared, and I huddled together. The cold finally started to seep in, chilling me down to my bones. One of the guys pulled out a cell phone, and I nudged Tate.

He glanced over at Jared. “What’s with that?”

Jared sighed and shook his head. “I…well, it looks like I probably don’t have a home anymore, if I had to guess.”

I knew they’d find the thumb drive on Mariana’s body––our only bit of evidence, gone. I’d have tried to get to it before the crew got there, but she’d been too wedged in. Even Tate and I wouldn’t have been able to pry her out of the car. We were strong, but we weren’t Superman. It galled me that the one bargaining chip we’d managed to get was gone. Also, my friend Chris had probably died getting me the information. My lip peeled back and I growled low in my throat in frustration.

Tate kept his eyes on the crew. The guy on the phone ended his call and walked back to the black van. He pulled out a thick, white body bag and draped it over his shoulder. He walked back to the scene but stopped in front of us and stared at Jared.

He pointed to him. “The old man is pissed. He said if you ever come back home, you’re a dead man. And it won’t be quick. Got it?”

He turned on his heel and walked away. Tate took Jared by the arm and led him back to my truck. He wasn’t a captive per se, but we definitely didn’t want him running off yet. There were things we needed to do. I drove us back to the office. On the way back, I called up a team of three of our security associates to relieve Steff and Blayne at Celina’s. I needed them back at the office. We had a lot to go over.

The others met us almost as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. Steff and Blayne both raised a questioning eyebrow when they saw us leading Jared inside. I shook off any questions, wanting to wait until we were in a secure location. We got Jared a couple bottles of water and some snacks from the breakroom, then locked him in my office. He seemed remarkably chill about the whole POW treatment.

The four of us convened in Tate’s office. Tate locked the door and looked at us. “Well…things have just escalated.”

I nodded. “Antonio’s daughter just died. There’s no way this isn’t going to fuel the fire. There could be an attack at any moment. We have to be ready. Here, look at this.” I pulled Tate’s tablet off the desk and logged into my email. “Chris sent another email before he got caught. It came in a separate email from everything else. I think the first had too many attachments. I didn’t see the email until I was getting Celina settled at her apartment. It’s the one thing we didn’t give the hunters.” I laid the tablet down so they could see it. “Schematics and a hand-drawn floor plan of the factory. Chris must have done it after infiltrating their base of operations.”

“Holy shit,” Blayne said, leaning in to see the image better.

“This is real? Not some trick? Could Antonio have sent it to fuck with us? He had Chris’s phone,” Steff said, studying the map.

I nodded. “It was sent at almost the same moment as the other email. I think there was some lag in the download. Plus, itgot dumped in my spam filter for some reason. Pure luck I found it, but it has to be legit.”

Tate stood above the table. He wasn’t looking at the schematics, he was staring at me. “What’s the plan?”

I took a deep breath, preparing myself for what I wanted to say. “We’ve been playing defense for a year-and-a-half now. I say we take the fight to them. Call in every favor any of us has and attack. Full offensive.”

The room fell silent as what I said sank in. I was sure we’d all been thinking the same thought for over a year. Each of us had a stake in this. Three of us had mates, and Blayne was the next in line. Tate had kids, and we all had each other. The hunters were doing their level best to attack the only family any of us had. I could see in their eyes that the thought of going after them was appealing. It was also scary. Antonio had way more men, more weapons, and apparently drugs that could suppress a shifter’s abilities. There was no guarantee any of us would make it back alive from a direct assault.

Before we could discuss the plan further, my phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the caller ID was from Chris. Shit. “Hang on. I think Antonio’s calling.”

I answered with the phone on speaker. “This is Miles.”

“You motherfuckers. God-cursed pieces of shit.” Antonio’s voice was full of pain and anguish. It was almost enough for me to pity the guy. Almost. “My baby. You fucking animals butchered my baby girl. I’ll kill every one of you.” His voice rose in volume and sounded more venomous than anything I’d ever heard. If Satan himself had called, I think he would have sounded more in control. “All you beasts have ever done is ruin my life. Now—” He broke down for several seconds, sobbing. Finally regaining control, he continued. “Six months, you sons of bitches. You hear me? In six months, I’m bringing hell to your doorstep. A few months to say goodbye to your miserable lives.I’ll be there, gutting the ones you love in front of your eyes. I’ll make sure you all die screaming. You hear me?”

The call disconnected. Goose flesh broke out over my skin. He’d sounded like a mad man––like a man who had nothing left to lose. The only time in my life I’d been this scared was a few hours ago when Mariana had put that gun to Celina’s head. Even when I’d been bleeding out on Tate’s bed, I hadn’t been that scared. That had only been fear for myself. This was more visceral. An ancient fear of the unknown. A terror for the ones you loved. I looked at my friends, and they all had the same look of concern on their faces.

“Six months?” Steff asked. “Why six months? Why not bring the hammer down now?”

“He needs time to prepare. Consolidate his forces,” Blayne said.

I shook my head. “This isn’t medieval France. He could have every hunter in his employ in Lilly Valley in less than a week. I think he’s going to try and recruit even more hunters and maybe finalize his attempt at creating super soldiers. We saw he’s working on giving them speed and strength of our kind. That must be what he needs time to prepare.”

Tate nodded. “Makes sense. Plus, for the next six months, we’re going to be stressed the fuck out. Looking over our shoulders. Never getting a good night’s sleep. We’ll be worn out by the time his guys roll into town. Easy pickings.” He looked at me. “Six months is a lot of time.”

I knew what he was getting at. I nodded. “Plenty of time to hit him first.”

Tate grinned. “Let’s make the calls, boys. Any friend you have. Every shifter who wants a piece of these assholes, see what we can pull out of our asses. We’ll need all the help we can get. I’ve got a few favors I can call in. How about you all?”

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