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Vaguely, I noted that my guide had left and closed the door behind her. But I didn’t bother to check whether I’d been locked in yet again. Instead, my entire body expanded as if it had been filled with helium. I crossed the intervening space like Harper racing for an ice-cream cone.
But Tank didn’t look at me. Rowan did from behind a gleaming mahogany desk, a fleeting glance. Then he dismissed my presence and kept talking to Tank.
“Nodes don’t move,” the alpha growled, brows drawn together in what could have been annoyance or confusion.
Tank shrugged. “I didn’t think so either. But Lupe’s the boss and Lupe says the node is now here. In your territory. She recommends your entire pack vacate the premises until after Samhain....”
His reasoning was cut off by Rowan’s hand gesture. “We’re not running away.”
“Have you forgotten what happened three years ago?”
I had no idea what had happened three years ago, but Rowan clearly did because the intensity of his gaze averted. A lapse in alpha dominance, one Tank could easily have pounced upon.
Instead, the scarred male glanced in my direction as if only now noticing I’d entered. The tilt of his head suggested vague interest in my presence, but—hidden from Rowan’s view—his eyes told a very different story.
Irises flashed yellow. Wolf. Alert, focused.
My own inner animal responded, pushing me into his personal space. My hands rose without my permission, seeking contact....
And Tank’s eyes shuttered. Rather than reciprocating, he twisted slightly so his hand could reach mine shielded by the back of the armchair. Something slid into my fingers, something I didn’t twist my head to look at.
After all, Rowan was focused on us, interested in our moment. He couldn’t know that Tank had just slipped me a phone.
“Whether you leave or not,” Tank continued, eyes leaving mine as quickly as they’d made contact, “Lupe requests the return of our team mate.” He was once again facing forward. Once again entirely focused on the alpha who owned the room.
“Well, of course Athena will be made available during working hours,” Rowan agreed easily. Too easily. He leaned forward, chin resting on steepled fingers. “In fact, I’ll lend you a few of my wolves to keep her company.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Tank stood, his size a shield I hadn’t realized I needed. Taking advantage of the moment, I stuffed the phone into the only hiding place available to me. The dress pushed my breasts together so tightly they formed a pocket. I could only hope the illicit item would stay put.
“Not necessary?” I couldn’t see Rowan around Tank’s broad shoulders, but I could smell the pressure of his alpha dominance. “Of course it’s necessary to send an honor guard along with Athena. After all, she’s an unmated female. In high demand.”
The alpha paused, then he angled his body until I was once again speared in his sightline. Hairs rose on my arms and neck as Rowan acknowledged me with the tiniest hint of a smile. “And it would be appropriate that Athena spend her evenings here.”
The cage I’d unwittingly walked into closed back around me. The last of Tank’s uplifting helium pressed out of my lungs with an audible wheeze.
***
SPENDING ANOTHER NIGHT in my cell wasn’t happening. But Tank merely shrugged. “Lupe will be here within the hour. Perhaps Athena could take a few minutes to clean up?”
I skittered backwards, cheeks reddening. The mangled dress, the grime on paws that had transferred to fingers. I’d forgotten what I looked like, but Tank had noticed.
Rowan’s eyes glinted with amusement. He liked seeing me thrown off balance. “Of course.” He pushed a button on his desk and the door opened, revealing my guide. “Take Athena to the showers.”
“Yes, alpha.”
Tank didn’t even look at me as I left.
But the phone was there, evidence that he hadn’t come solely because of a node that may or may not have changed location. Tank had been the only one aware of my plan for our vacation. I refused to believe it was coincidence that I went silent and he showed up.
No, Tank had come here looking for me. I’d never had dependable backup before. The helium returned with a vengeance.
But I needed to focus. Because Tank clearly thought it was too dangerous to face down Rowan directly. Instead, he’d slipped me the cell phone...an object I needed to get rid of before I stripped to take advantage of the showers we’d returned to.
“Do you think you could find me clothes?” I asked the woman who’d led me there, wanting to get rid of her. “Something I can work in.”
She looked dubious but nodded anyway. “I’ll see what I can do.”
I waited until she disappeared down the women’s corridor before assessing my options. I could try to flee down the tunnel I’d originally come in through...but I remembered the door grinding shut and suspected it would be neither fast nor easy to figure out how to open it. Instead, I pulled out the cell phone and powered it up.
There was no passcode, which seemed entirely unlike Tank. Or, rather, just like Tank if he’d expected to slip the phone to me surreptitiously. The screen woke straight onto a note app, which confirmed the guess.
“Your sister is fine, but she’s not with my pack,” Tank had written. “Her father came this morning to collect her. Threatened to call the cops on us if we didn’t let her go. Mentioned money he was owed. Harper seemed disappointed but not frightened. I sent two wolves trailing them to keep her safe.” Then he included Harper’s number, as if I didn’t know it by heart.
I dialed the digits...and nothing happened. There were no bars here. The underground bunker was shielded from satellites, perhaps by design or perhaps just by encircling earth.
My guide wouldn’t be gone for long, but I had to get through to my sister. I padded around the tiled shower room, hunting any hint of reception.
There. By the tunnel leading out. One measly bar.
I glanced back over my shoulder, saw nothing, then crouched and crawled inside.
***
HALFWAY DOWN THE TUNNEL, the call went through. “Hello?” my sister said, voice uncertain.
I needed to get out of the tunnel and hide the cellphone fast, but my shoulders relaxed anyway. Harper might sound tense, but she wasn’t hurt. “It’s Athena,” I greeted her. “Where are you?”
“Home.” The single word sounded as bleak as the prison I’d spent the last thirty-six hours in. “Dad dropped Clara off at school. She won’t answer my texts. She hates me.”
“I doubt she hates you. She’s probably disappointed.” I hated the tremor that had entered my sister’s voice, but the clock was ticking. And Harper was physically safe if thoroughly depressed.
So I stuck to the point. “Why did Nick take you home?”
“He said the school called about a check not working?” Harper’s voice rose at the end, a question she was afraid to ask.
Marina’s check. I’d meant to check on that transaction, but for obvious reasons I’d dropped the ball. “It will work tomorrow,” I told my sister, hoping I wasn’t lying. “But that has nothing to do with your dad.”
I pressed the phone closer to my ear, catching the rumble of a sports announcer in the background. I could just see Nick, sacked out on the couch munching chips and ignoring his daughter. He’d taken Harper home to mess with me. And, as much as I hated it, I could do nothing about that fact right now.
Meanwhile, through my other ear, I caught the faintest click of a door closing. Was that my guide leaving whatever room she’d entered to hunt for work clothing? If so, I needed to wrap this conversation up fast.
But Harper wasn’t done with her questions. “Dad said you owe him money too?” Her voice grew quieter and quieter. “That when you pay him, you can pick me up.”
Her last four words came out as a plea. It was the same voice Harper had used to ask for a puppy four Christmases ago.
I’d had to deny her then, and I had to deny her now. “I can’t, Harper.”
Shoes clicked on concrete. If my guide was close enough for me to hear her footsteps, I was close enough for her to hear my voice.
And yet, Harper was still talking. “Please. I know I’m only your half sister, but....” Her voice dropped into a quaver at the same moment Nick called out an order.
“Get off your ass and bring me a beer.”
He wasn’t an alpha wolf, but Harper was his daughter. Stuck in his house all week unless I sprang her from prison.
But I couldn’t. I needed to deal with Rowan and Marina and Lupe. Meanwhile, my sister was safe. I knew that. I trusted Tank to choose pack mates who would keep the fae far away from her.
Worst-case scenario, Nick would keep Harper on house arrest until I finished this job and wiggled out from under Rowan’s thumb. The so-called vacation would be unpleasant, but my sister would survive it.
And footsteps were getting closer by the second. I wriggled out of my dress and started crawling back down the tunnel toward the showers.
At the same time, I gave my sister the only thing I could—an apology. Cupping my hands around the phone, I whispered just barely loud enough for human ears to pick up on.
“I’m sorry,” I told Harper, not certain she even heard me before reception was lost.