Shadows Strike(33)

The door burst open.

Zach stepped into the room.

Ethan’s scowl deepened as he reached down and dragged the blankets up to his waist.

“I thought you said you weren’t working,” her father said in her ear.

“Say you’ll do it,” Zach whispered, his deep voice barely audible.

Ethan bolted upright.

For a second, Heather thought he was going to jump out of bed and kick Zach’s ass.

Ignoring him, Zach pointed an authoritative finger at her. “Tell him you’ll do it.”

Not knowing what else to do, Heather complied. “You know what? It’s fine, Dad. I can come in. I just need a little time to finish up what I’m doing here. Can you give me an hour?”

“That’s fine. You’re at home?”

Heather looked at Zach, who nodded. “Yes.”

“The car will pick you up there in an hour.”

Heather ended the call.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Ethan ground out, glaring daggers at Zach.

Lisette peeked around the door frame, then entered and stood beside Zach. Both were garbed in black pants and black shirts similar to the ones Heather had seen Ethan wear.

“Why the hell did you tell her to do it?” Ethan demanded.

“If Gershom is interested in her because of her connections,” Zach said, “then removing those connections could—”

“What?” Ethan interrupted. “Make her safer? Take her off his radar?”

“Possibly. Or it could get her killed. The Other we’re dealing with is mentally unstable. We don’t know how he will react if we take away his toy. And as long as he thinks he can use her, we can use her to locate and destroy him.”

All of the happiness that had filled Heather upon waking in Ethan’s arms vanished.

“So you want to use her as bait,” Ethan spat, his amber eyes brightening with fury. Throwing back the covers, he rose and faced the powerful elder.

Heather scrambled to ensure the sheet still covered her. Crap. This wasn’t good.

Lisette tossed Ethan a pair of sweatpants she found Heather-didn’t-know-where.

Ethan swore and pulled them on.

“Yes, Ethan,” Zach responded, his face darkening as he took a step forward. “We want to use Heather as bait. We want her and you to help us prevent Armageddon.”

“Zach,” Lisette cautioned, touching his arm as Zach’s eyes acquired a golden glow.

Ethan’s eyes glowed even brighter. “We can find another way—”

“What way?” Zach snarled. “We can’t find the fucker, Ethan. We’ve been looking for him for a year now and have nothing to show for it. This is the first real opportunity we’ve had to lure him into our clutches since we found out he was behind Shadow River. Something about Heather has caught his attention. There’s something or someone in her life that he thinks he can use to his advantage, and we aren’t going to find out what or who if we keep her hidden in Lisette’s basement.”

“It’s our basement now, darling,” Lisette murmured.

Ethan motioned to the doorway, every movement stiff with anger. “It’s the middle of the fucking afternoon! I can’t protect her out there!”

“But I can,” Zach said. His tone softened. “I can, Ethan, and I will. I vow it to you. Heather will not leave this house without me. I will go wherever they take her. And I will keep her safe.”

Ethan’s anger seemed to cool a bit at that.

Heather hesitantly raised an index finger. “Actually, about that . . .” As all eyes focused on her, she really wished she weren’t naked and wrapped in a sheet. “My dad only sends a car when the case I’ll be helping them with is highly classified.” She studied them. “It doesn’t happen often. But . . . when it does I usually don’t even know where I’m taken. The windows in the back of the car are blacked out. A partition like the one in limos keeps me from seeing the route we take. The car parks in a basement parking garage that looks like all basement parking garages do. Then I’m escorted into a nondescript elevator that takes me to this or that floor in a building I can’t identify.”

All stared at her.

“What?” she asked as the silence stretched.

“What the hell do you do for your father?” Ethan asked.

She shrugged. “Exactly what I told you. I read the minds of men they’re interrogating and let them know if the guys being questioned are bullshitting them. If I see anything important in their minds that can’t be passed off as something I gleaned from reading their expressions, I tell my dad later when we’re alone.”

Lisette frowned. “Have these suspects been legally detained?”

“Of course,” Heather assured her. “Some are innocent, and I help clear them. Others pose a serious threat to national security.”

“Are members of the military present in this building?” Zach asked.

“Yes. The guards are definitely military, as are most of the other men and women I encounter there. Anyway, my point is, you won’t be able to accompany me inside. There’s no way you’d get past security. You also won’t be allowed to accompany me in the car. And I doubt the soldiers in the front seat would react well to your following us on the drive there.”

Ethan sighed. “They won’t know he’s following you. Zach can shape-shift.”

Heather’s mind went blank with surprise. She looked from Ethan to Zach. “What?”

“I can shape-shift,” Zach told her as casually as he might admit he could play the piano. “I’ll shift into the form of a bird and follow the car to whatever installation you’re taken to.”

Heather just stared at him. “Seriously?” It sounded so . . . B-movie.

Zach released a beleaguered sigh. In the next instant, his form melted into that of a huge lion as empty clothing fell to the floor.

“Holy shit!” Heather scrambled backward off the bed, keeping a death grip on the sheet.

Ethan threw up a hand. “It’s okay, Heather. It’s okay.”

Lisette buried the fingers of one hand in the lion’s thick, dark mane.

His paws planted on the clothing Zach had been wearing, the lion turned his big-ass head and rubbed it against Lisette’s chest.

Heather pointed a shaking finger at the beast. “He just . . . I mean, he just . . . He was . . .”

The lion shifted back into Zach.

Heather got a brief glimpse of the elder’s naked body before the clothes at his feet covered him as though he had never removed them. Her eyes bugged. “Y-you . . . you . . . you . . . and then . . . huge lion . . .”

Zach raised his eyebrows, lips twitching.

“Seriously?” she blurted in a near shout. “You can do that?”

The immortals all laughed.

Heather looked at Ethan, who shrugged.

“I told you there were a lot more exciting gifts out there than mine.”

Heather returned her attention to the elder. “You weren’t kidding.”

Zach arched a brow at Ethan. “So we’re a go?”

“Not until I talk to Seth.”

Zach grumbled something Heather couldn’t hear.

Ethan must have, though, because he arched a brow and gave Zach the finger.

Leaning back against the wall, Zach closed his eyes and tilted his face toward the ceiling. “Seth?” A pause. “No, Ethan just has a question for you.”

The Immortal Guardians’ leader appeared out of nowhere, a baby held against his chest. “What’s up?”

Heather blinked. Seth was a daddy?

The large male swayed from side to side, adding a slight bounce while he patted the baby’s back with one large hand. Seth’s eyes met Heather’s. “She isn’t mine. I’m just watching her so her parents can get some rest.”

Heather titled her head to one side so she could get a better look at the little one. She was a beauty. With solemn green eyes and flaming orange curls. Pale skin. Cute little rolls of fat.

Lisette reached up to brush a hand over the baby’s hair. “She’s not sleeping well today?” Smiling, she whispered a greeting to the baby.

The baby reached out and grabbed Lisette’s finger for a moment, then tucked her hand back against Seth’s chest once more.

Seth shook his head. “She’s having nightmares again.”

Babies had nightmares?

Heather hadn’t been around little ones since she was a teenager, but didn’t remember any of the babies she had babysat having nightmares. “How old is she?”

“Almost a year,” Seth answered. He glanced at Zach, then Ethan. “So, what’s going on?”

Ethan filled him in.

Seth nodded. “I agree with Zach.”

Ethan swore.

“I don’t like it either,” Seth said, “but Zach will protect Heather and keep her safe.”

Lisette crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re all forgetting something.”

The men looked at her in question.

“None of you have asked Heather what she wants to do. Her life is the one that will be in jeopardy. And she is the one who will have to lie to her father and pretend nothing is amiss.”

All eyes focused on Heather.

Her heart fluttered with sudden nerves.

Ethan circled the bed to stand in front of her. “I’m sorry, Heather. Lisette’s right. This should be your decision, not ours. I didn’t mean to try to make it for you. I’m just worried.”