“I want a lot of things, Lazare.” He stepped closer, pushing his face into Luc’s. “Number one, stay away from my sister.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Stop it, both of you, before you cause a scene.” Nuala seemed in charge of herself again.
“Do you want her to leave?” Shade asked her.
Nuala sighed. “No, but I think it would be best for everyone.”
Luc narrowed his gaze on his sister. Did she have real feelings for this human, who could bring trouble down on them? How could she get herself involved with a cop?
“All right, then, if that’s what you want,” Shade said. “But you’ll see me again soon.”
He turned to go, but Luc grabbed Shade’s arm. “One more thing. I hear you’ve been to see my mother.” Who had always stayed away from his father’s world.
“Gracious woman.” Shade pulled his arm free. “How she got mixed up in all this...” He shrugged.
“You’d damn well better stay away from her.”
Shade echoed Luc. “And if I don’t?”
Blood coursed through Luc. He tensed his muscles so he didn’t do something he would regret. He locked gazes with the cop, who had no idea of what he was risking personally with his investigation of The Company. Luc sensed he wouldn’t stop, though.
Shade backed off and made for the exit.
Only when Luc was sure the other man was gone did Luc relax and face Nuala. “What were the two of you talking about before I interrupted?”
“Nothing you would want to hear.”
Before she, too, stalked off, Luc noticed the sea glass pendant she usually wore was missing.
Luc was still thinking about that later, when he had time to wind down.
As he approached the habitats, he looked for Jez again, but still she was nowhere to be seen, so he went inside and entered her favorite area, where a stream cut through woods. He couldn’t find her, so he signaled Clarke, a hawk who wheeled overhead and cut down through the trees.
Jez?
Haven’t seen her, not tonight.
No way could Clarke have missed her.
Odd. It wasn’t like Jez to skip a shift.
Which made Luc wonder if he should be worried.
She was as sweet as they came around here, and for their kind, a little naive. Though he’d told her things could get dangerous for her because of her association with him, Jez had simply shrugged off the warning.
Now Luc was having a hard time shrugging off the suspicion that sent a ripple down his spine.
Something was wrong.
Chapter Three
Running the fights in secret from anyone who would stop him, he’d kidnapped Jez the night before, after the police had raided them. “Take the punishment you deserve with some dignity.”
By the time anyone who cared found out where she was it would be too late. As the fight controller, he’d been following her, looking for a reason to take her. In reality, he wanted to make her pay for allying herself with Luc. He’d been waiting to get even with Cezar’s bastard son, and her death was the first step in his plan.
“This isn’t fair.” Tears spilled from Jez’s dark eyes as one of the guards pulled her into the preparation area, an office tucked inside the abandoned warehouse. Her waist-length black hair spilled over a bared shoulder. “Please, let me pay some other way.” She moved into him, palming his chest, her hand trembling. “You know I haven’t been properly trained for this, so please, please don’t send me out there to die.”
Quickening because her touch was apprehensive—he loved the taste of fear—he was tempted to let her seduce him, to allow her to think she could gain her freedom.
Tick-tock. The bettors would get violently restless if he delayed the fight for some physical gratification. Besides, Jez wasn’t the one he wanted. He ripped her hand away.
“You shouldn’t have broken the rules by shifting in front of a human.”
“Please! I was startled by that huge dog. I didn’t do it on purpose, I swear. It was animal instinct.”
Knowing Jez feared dogs—wild dogs were the panther’s natural enemy and Jez was a weak disgrace to her kind—he smirked. He’d heard it all before. The begging. The pleading. The promises. “Out there you have a chance. In here, no chance at all. Are we clear?”
Sobbing, she nodded and the bones in her face began to quiver and stretch.
Not wanting to watch her shift, he left the airless room for the big empty warehouse. This area of the city was virtually abandoned at night. The fight venue constantly changed, and they had picked the perfect location tonight.
The spectators had already gathered, and the doors were closed. On one side of the arena, a young woman was exchanging money for a plastic bag filled with white powder. In another corner, a teenager furtively checked over a handgun before slipping it into his waistband. The heavens rumbled thunder in disapproval. Tough. Drug and weapons deals had always been a staple of dogfights. It wasn’t any different here, where the contestants were a bit more unusual than dogs.
The crowds were getting bigger with each bout. And younger. He smiled. Corrupt them young, that was the boss’s motto. The young were malleable. They could go in any direction. He’d allowed kids to come for free and their parents had willingly brought them. Knowing he was sending these annoying little humans in a direction that could ruin them for the rest of their pitiful lives, he took his seat. Handlers led the combatants out to the arena surrounded by three-foot plywood walls.
A small child screaming, “Doggie!” made him smirk. The doggie was a wild dog, another shapeshifter who would enjoy punishing Jez for him.
“What is that?” someone behind him asked. “The other animal. It looks like something else. A big black cat.”
The area was still dark except for occasional strikes of lightning, so it was hard to tell for certain unless one was up close. A murmur went up through the crowd as more than a few spectators saw enough to excite them.
“This is what I been waiting to see,” Lieutenant Ryan Connelly, a burly man with sandy hair, told his pretty blond companion.
The cop’s corruption warmed the fight controller’s insides, made him salivate with anticipation.
“Won’t you get in trouble if your captain finds out you’re doing something illegal?” the blonde asked.
Connelly grabbed the blonde by the arm and twisted so hard it made her squeal. “Can it, bitch!”
“Final bets,” came over the loudspeaker. “Three minutes.”
People frantically waved over the bookies.
A sweep of the crowd revealed a few shifters in the audience, including new recruit Max Haider. The lion shifter was possibly more powerful than anyone else in The Company, making him wonder if he could enlist Haider to be part of his secret gang.
“Two minutes!”
Glancing over the crowd one last time, the controller started when a lightning strike revealed another familiar face. Another cop. Detective Shade Cross, cell phone in hand. What the hades was he doing here? He’d been taken care of at the casino days ago so he’d turn a blind eye to anything illicit—hadn’t he?
“One minute.”
When Jez’s black pelt quivered, the taste of her fear slid deliciously through him.