“No.”
Flame sighed. “Let’s find him. I’d make some calls but we’re on high alert right now and I don’t want to bother anyone when I can sniff him out.” He drew in air a few times through his nose and pointed to a hallway to the left. “This way. Male, human, and recent. His aftershave stinks and not in a good way.”
She grinned. “Most guys are clueless and wear stuff that reeks.”
“We tend to be sensitive to smells. Most of our people use natural-scented products. Humans don’t.”
Tammy followed him through a maze of hallways. “Are you on high alert because the two women were taken in town?”
He nodded. “Yes. We have tightened all incoming security and put our snipers on top of the walls in case someone decides they want to try to breach Reservation. We will never forget the attack that happened at Homeland.”
She’d heard about that on the news. A hate group had attacked the New Species Homeland right after it had opened. They’d rammed the front gate and a bunch of men with guns had invaded with trucks.
Deaths had resulted from that attack. Luckily those killed had been mostly the hate-group members. Tragically, a few human security guards who worked for Homeland had also died. It had been shocking that something like that could happen. Obviously the New Species were afraid of another attack and she didn’t blame them.
They found Charlie Artzola on the second floor in one of the offices. He sat behind his desk digging inside a drawer. He glanced at them both when they entered and he smiled.
“That was quick.”
“I told you I’d escort her immediately.” Flame leaned against the wall right inside the office.
“Have a seat, Miss Shasta.” The attorney jerked his chin at a chair. “You and your men can come inside and have a seat too. There’s four chairs and they may as well get used.”
“It’s just us. I’m fine standing.” Flame relaxed his stance.
The attorney nodded. “I’m looking for the notes I made. I’m very sorry about this. I was nervous and think I wrote the information down wrong. I might have just put in a wrong license number and the computer system will find you so we don’t have to fax it to them.” He leaned over farther behind his desk as Tammy took a seat closest to him. “Aha! I found it. I’m sure this is just an error. I probably just have it off by one or two digits.” He closed the desk drawer.
Tammy leaned back against her seat and set her purse on her lap. The attorney straightened. She barely had time to react before seeing it wasn’t a paper he lifted from behind his drawer. It was a weird-looking weapon he pointed at Flame and fired. Tammy gasped. Flame grunted behind her and crashed to the floor.
Tammy jerked around in horror to stare at Flame sprawled on the carpet. The gun hadn’t made a loud sound. Flame had fallen on his side by the door. She gawked at him, too stunned to do anything else for long seconds. She didn’t see any blood as she sat motionless. She finally regained the ability to move. Her head turned toward the attorney to discover he’d pointed the strange gun at her.
“You will do exactly what I tell you to if you don’t want to die, Miss Shasta. I have no qualms about killing a woman.”
Her mouth opened but no sound came out. The gun was no more than three feet away, pointed right at her face. She knew he wouldn’t miss at that close range. The attorney slowly rose from his chair with a frown twisting his lips. The wide muzzle never wavered.
“Stand up slowly. I will shoot you in the back if you try to run.”
After a long moment of trying to get her body to move, she managed to rise to her feet. Her purse slid to the floor since her fingers refused to hold onto it. The attorney motioned toward the door with the weapon.
“We’re going to walk outside to my car and you are going to get inside the trunk. I’m going to kill you if you don’t. Do you understand me?”
She swallowed. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
He glared at her. “Someone I know wants to talk to you. He’s deeply worried that you’ve been compelled into marrying a New Species.”
Her brain began to function. The attorney wouldn’t be threatening to kill her if someone just wanted to talk to her. He was lying about that. She bit her lip and took a tentative step. She didn’t see any way to get away from him without being shot. He couldn’t miss her if he fired the weapon.
Her gaze dropped to the fallen New Species. He wasn’t moving at all but she still didn’t see blood. As she took slow steps toward Flame and the door, she realized two things. Flame’s eyes were closed but his chest rose and fell, proof that he was still breathing. She had to step over his arm and then his leg to exit the office.