Page 53 of Furever Loyal
“Solid steel plate armor,” he answered casually.
“Well, okay then. Is this entire thing encased in that?”
Kincaid—still barefoot after losing his clothes during the transition, she realized as she doffed her own—walked into the house and toward another door. “No, just underneath the floor to protect the basement. The rest of the house is kind of a shell.”
She followed after him, deciding to grab her shoes, just in case. The door led into what appeared to be a storage closet, but Kincaid reached down and slid the floor out of the way. The casual ease with which he slid the panel compared to the heavy grinding it made told her that he was perhaps even stronger than she’d thought.
“How strong are you?” she asked curiously as she followed him into the basement, pausing as he slid the panel shut behind them and secured it.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re stronger than a normal human, aren’t you?”
Flicking on the lights, he waved a hand at the illuminated area for her to see what they were working with.
“Yes,” he answered, following her down the stairs, to an area suitable for leaving her shoes and a jacket if she’d had one. “Much.”
“Oh.”
“I heal faster too.”
For the first time, Haley realized that many of the marks and bruises she’d seen on his face had faded since he’d first been deposited into the cell next to her. “Holy shit!” she gasped, reaching up to touch him, to examine his skin. There were still some areas that were purplish or yellow, but the swelling was gone, and many of the marks were completely gone.
“It’s a nice feature. Comes standard,” he joked, then suddenly wobbled, reaching out for the countertop of the kitchen that ran down the middle of the room, parallel to the stairs on the far wall.
“Kincaid?” She rushed to his side, wondering if she could support him if he fell.
“Fine,” he said, his voice unsteady. “Just…low energy. That run. Took a lot out of me.”
“What can I do?”
“Cupboard. Food.”
“I hate to break it to you,” she said, “but none of the food here is going to be any good after ten years.”
Kincaid rolled his eyes at her, as he slid to the ground, his face growing wan. “It’s not been that long. Probably some tuna, some soup. Things like that. Energy bars.”
Rummaging through the cupboard, she grabbed a selection and then dumped them in his lap for him to choose from, while she sat down next to him, munching on a trail-mix bar of some kind that had an expiry date still six months from then.
“Listen, Kincaid,” she said after a few minutes of silent eating. “I think it’s time we discussed why I came with you.”
The huge shifter turned his head to her, lifting an eyebrow. “You mean it wasn’t just to help me out?”
“No.”
He didn’t look surprised by her answer. Haley hadn’t expected him to be.
“I’m going to take the keys now,” she said, standing up and taking them from the counter where he’d dropped them. “You’re safe, you do you.”
“Where are you going?”
“To the authorities,” she said. “The proper ones. Ones that won’t arrest me for not having done anything wrong. I’m going to tell them that Kvoss has threatened me and imprisoned me in his house. I won’t say anything about the shifters or anything. But I’m going to have him stopped. I’m going to follow the rules, Kincaid.”
Even as she spoke the words, delivering the speech she’d practiced in her head over and over, Haley couldn’t help but question her own motives. Was this really the right move, involving the human authorities? What could they possibly do against a family as powerful as the Ursidae? Anything? Or would she just be putting herself in danger?
“You can’t do that,” Kincaid told her. “It won’t work. There’s no proof, and the authorities are rather unwilling to touch us. We…provide a lot of donations and funding.”
“You bribe the fucking cops, you mean,” she said dryly, understanding the implication. “Is there anyone in this town youdon’town?”
