Page 53 of Raven's Instinct
“Yes, we just sent her in the ambulance, Roderick. She should be there in just a few minutes.”
Cherry was silent, but her shoulders went stiff. “Yes, I’m sure.” She pulled the phone away from her face. “Roderick says the ambulance only just left!”
“Then who did we just give Addison to?” Alan demanded. He already knew the answer, and guilt gutted him. The EMTs had been wearing generic scrubs, and it wasn’t that hard to get an ambulance at an auction and refurbish it. They had been tough-looking individuals, but Alan told himself that wimps didn’t do ambulance field work.
“Stork?” Kendra guessed in horror.
Alan said a bad word that made Gil stop crying and stare at him in astonishment. “Owen was released a few days ago.”
“Addison’s ex, Owen?” Cherry gasped. “They guy that shot at her cousin Wendy and Jackson’s mom? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Roderick swore so loudly that everyone could hear him through Cherry’s phone.
“I didn’t think he’d be able to move this fast,” Alan said. “He’s on house arrest in Florida.”
“Wait, wait.” Kendra was trying to comfort Amy, but was clearly growing more anxious herself by the moment. “I was at Veronica Chase’s office when she got a phone call from someone who had been gone a long time. And after that, she changed her tune completely about canceling the Tiny Paws lease. Could that have been Owen? Didn’t you say they had history?”
“Veronica was here a few days ago talking about upgrading the internet cable,” Cherry said. “Could she have planted a listening device? I’ve been careful about cameras, but I didn’t think aboutbugs!”
“Alan,” Kendra said, clutching his arm. “What if Charlie didn’t work at just any pharmaceutical company?”
“You think he worked at Stork?”
“If he got wind of their real work while he was poking around in their computer system, he might put two and two together and realized that he’d met a shifter. Or his wife did, when he told her. That could be why he suddenly decided to pursue custody!”
“It’s possible they are related,” Alan said, hating that it might be. “We don’t know for sure that there is a connection. But what we do know is that someone has taken Addison from right under my nose and I have to get her back.”
“An ambulance is kind of obvious,” Kendra said. “Cherry, can you watch Amy and Gil a little longer by yourself?”
“You aren’t responsible for this,” Alan protested. “I should go alone. It’s my fault she was taken.”
“It doesn’t matter whose fault anything is. We’ll cover more ground working together, and I see better in low light conditions.” Kendra sounded absolutely cool and collected now that it mattered.
“Go out the back,” Cherry advised, peeling a very reluctant Amy from Kendra’s arms. “You can take off from the back yard without anyone seeing you. This property reallyisperfect.”
Alan took Kendra’s hand as they sprinted for the back door and flung it open. Outside, the sky had darkened to the twilight promise of night. “Be careful,” Alan warned her. “They’ll be on the lookout for us. For any animals acting human. Damn, I wish we had walky-talkies that we could use while we were shifted.”
“Wait, do you have the white raven?”
Alan dove a hand into his pocket and folded the token into Kendra’s outstretched hand. The connection the first time had been surprising, but this time it was like two nested gears fitting into each other perfectly. He could feel her entire essence, the calm core of her under the arrow-sharp determination. “Let’s go get those bastards,” Kendra said.
Then they both launched into the air and flew into the sky, a silent white owl and a black shadow.
38
KENDRA
Kendra loved to fly.
Whatever hassles and forced secrecy came with being a shifter, the ability to rise up into the air and defy gravity was a beautiful gift that made up for all of it.
There was so much freedom in the sweep of her wings, so much finesse in the way a simple tilt to her fanned tail could change her trajectory. The whole world went small beneath her and seemed to stretch out and make sense again. The road beneath her was a string of red and white Christmas lights, the sky above was deep blue velvet just starting to show sparkles.
There was no time to enjoy the flight this time. Kendra strained for the sky and felt Alan fall effortlessly in at her wingtip. The token in her human hand seemed to have become part of her owl’s claw, and she could feel Alan—his presence and his emotions—as if they were one person.
He loved her.
He’d said as much, twice now, and Kendra had been too cowardly to admit the same. Could he feel it from her anyway? Did he guess, or was he certain?
