"I'm not positive, but judging by your tone and the general atmosphere, I have a suspicion or two."
Marcus nodded for him to continue.
Gabriel gathered his thoughts, looking around the office as he did. It was a richly decorated room, but not opulently so. The Kedyns had fantastic wealth, but they spent very little of it on themselves, and what they did spend they tended to do so tastefully for the most part. They did entertain high-profile guests from time to time, so they had appearances to maintain, and their offices were one of those places. He guessed the thick Persian rug under his feet with its reds and brown hues likely cost an arm and a leg. The map, neatly framed and hung on the wall behind his desk that showed Genesis Valley in exquisite detail, also had to have been rather extravagantly priced.
But nothing screamed "Look at me, I'm a filthy-rich bastard." Which is one of the reasons Gabriel was quite content working for them. Not only did they do their best not to show off their wealth, but they also paid their employees quite handsomely. There were CEOs of good-sized companies that didn't get paid as well as Gabriel for the work he did.
"I've been working here for a little over eight years now," Gabriel began. "In that time, I've seen a number of things happen. It's a harsh, rough place to live compared to the outside world, so it's to be expected."
Marcus was nodding in agreement. Gabriel wasn't going to waste his boss's time, and as such, his boss didn't hurry him along, instead realizing that Gabriel must have a point behind his little speech.
"Death is fairly common. A shifter's life is much closer to worthless here than elsewhere. But everyone who comes here, all the miners and the others, they know this. It's made clear to anyone before they settle in Genesis Valley that their life expectancy will drop substantially. None of what goes on surprises people."
He paused.
"Or I should say, none of what goes on should surprise people."
Marcus's eyebrows, he noted, rose fractionally as he corrected himself.
"So why am I being surprised lately?" he asked his boss.
"An interesting way of putting it," Marcus replied.
"First we have a brawl between two shifter crews. Nothing unusual in and of itself. But two humans get caught up in it, and the shifters manage to kill three of their own before we even sentenced the others to their ending? That's a lot of bloodshed sir."
Marcus nodded, in complete agreement. Gabriel didn't get involved between the miner crews often, as that wasn't his job. But fighting was frequent. Nobody cared as long as no humans were harmed. The instant a human was harmed, punishment would be meted out. If the harm was on purpose, the only sentence was ending. A carless shifter wasn't tolerated in Genesis Valley, and by the time they made it to the Valley, they were out of chances anywhere else. Gabriel had been forced to end more than his share of shifters over his eight years working for Marcus. It was, as he had said, a fact of life.
But when the Onyx and Amethyst crews had brawled several months back, it had been so violent that not one, but two humans had been killed outright. Three shifters had also been killed. That was extremely unusual as well. Usually shifters fought until they were too badly hurt to continue. But to kill their own? Almost unheard of.
"And then we have a shifter show up on our doorstep without a memory? That, sir, is something I have never heard of. I've scoured the records as best I can, and I haven't been able to find anything about a shifter losing his memory."
Marcus spoke. "Unless he didn't lose it."
Gabriel started in surprise, his sharp mind immediately understanding where his boss was going. After working together for so long, they had that kind of relationship.
"You think someone took his memories, sir? I don't think Garrett is the type to make that sort of enemy. If they even exist," he added.
Garrett Hoffman was the Alpha of the Jade Crew, a new crew of shifters mining the nearby mountains. He was, to Gabriel's knowledge, a good man. So why would someone want to rob him of his memories?
"How does one even go about doing that to a shifter?" he asked aloud, unsure if it was even possible.
"I don't know," Marcus responded, deep in thought.
"Well sir, it would almost make sense if someone was behind it," he said, frantically thinking. "It would explain the Amethyst and Onyx fight, Garrett's memories, and perhaps even this latest incident."
"You're referring to the Opal crew fiasco?"
Gabriel nodded. The day before he had been at a local bar, the Tongue & Flame, operated by a resident dragon shifter. The newest mining crew, the Opals, had decided to show up after their shift in the mountains. What had resulted had been another fight when the Emerald Crew, longtime patrons of the bar, had gotten upset with the way the newcomers had first treated the bartender, a well-respected shifter, and then two women who had entered had also been harassed.
In the end the Opal crew had been obliterated, half of them being sentenced to ending, the other half somehow managing to escape, including their leader. It had come out of nowhere and surprised everyone at Lionshead. The Opal Alpha, Kent, had shown great promise as an up-and-coming leader. The complete loss of control on his part and of his entire crew had been completely unexpected, and Gabriel was still seething about it.
He had managed to save the women from death, but one of them had still hurt her neck rather badly after a glancing blow from a shifter.
Gabriel saw red for a moment as his mind inadvertently pictured Caia as the one under attack. His bear surged forward, ready to rend anyone limb from limb if they so much as harmed a hair on her body.
Fingers tightened on the armrests of his chair as he tried to remain calm, fighting down the sudden upswing in his temper. It took him several long moments and deep breaths before he returned to normal.
"We need to do something about this," Marcus told him.
Either he hadn't noticed the momentary spat of anger from his subordinate, or he was ignoring it. Gabriel hoped for the former.
"I agree sir. I'm just not sure what. Whoever or whatever is behind all of this is clearly being very careful about their movements."
Marcus nodded. "For now, I want you to take charge of locating the Opal Alpha. He'll be able to tell us what's going on, if anyone can." The gryphon shifter fixed him with a gaze that would have made a lesser shifter flinch. "We need him alive, Gabriel."
"I understand."
"Good. I know you'll take the utmost precautions, but you do have a bit of reputation of being hard-charging. But we need to be able to question this one and see what we can find out. In the meantime, while you begin to track them down, I'm going to contact the Dragon Council and see if they are willing to share any information."
Gabriel sensed the eyeroll hidden within that statement and did his best to restrain from smiling. The Council had provided the initial funding to get the Genesis Valley mining project up and running several centuries earlier. Since then, they paid handsomely for each of the dragon Heart Stones that the mining crews uncovered, thus ensuring there was a constant source of income.
They paid well, but when it came to revealing any goings-on within the wider shifter world, they were notoriously reluctant to say a thing, hence Marcus's doubt that his efforts would turn up anything.
Marcus didn't immediately continue speaking, and while he waited for his boss to carry on, Gabriel found his mind wandering. Not far, only ten steps give or take. Just enough to take him out of the office and back into the reception room, where a certain dark-haired beauty was sitting behind a mahogany wood desk.
Why couldn't he get her off his mind?
"That will be all for now Gabriel. Caia will see you out," Marcus said, his finger moving toward the intercom.
"Caia, right," he echoed. "Where'd you get her from?" he asked, trying to be as unobtrusive about his prying as possible.
"I hired her," came the simple reply. "Don't bite her head off."
"Wouldn't dream of it sir," he said, allowing some suave arrogance into his voice as opposed to the protective edge that he wanted.
Marcus made a noise that didn't quite sound like he agreed, but he didn't speak either.
The door opened to reveal Caia, sending Gabriel's heart into overdrive as he labored not to stare.
It took him a long moment to realize that the two of them were waiting for him to leave.
"I'll report back in a couple of days then?" he asked, rising from the plush leather chair.
"That'll do," Marcus said, turning back to his computer as he dismissed Gabriel.
The distance between him and the tantalizingly unknown woman closed quickly as his legs carried him across the office, something like eagerness in his stride.
He gave her a smile, gesturing for her to lead the way out.
Caia raised one eyebrow, but did not move from her position.
"Ladies first," he told her.