A Forbidden Love (8 page)

Something had to be done.

Alison couldn't explain exactly what happened to her at around eleven that morning, but it wasn't good. Her stomach was in knots and even though it was an unseasonably nice, bright day, she felt trapped and skittish under the blue skies. Something was very, very wrong.

Was she coming down with something? Caught a cold, perhaps?

That couldn't explain her paranoia. No, it must be something else.

After pacing around her little flat for a good fifteen minutes, unable to find rest or figure out what she should do with herself, she finally knew she needed a change of scenery. Alison put on her coat and rushed out the door.

While wondering if a walk in the park would do her some good, her feet carried her forward almost involuntarily. She walked on and on until she realized she was getting close to the edge of town, heading toward the neighborhood where the Alliance building was located.

Jamie
.

She had to see Jamie. He would know what to do.

Alison's throat felt tight, like an invisible hand had grabbed hold of her and squeezed her tight.

The closer she got, the faster she walked, until she was ready to break into a jog. It was crazy, like one of those dreams in which someone's chasing you. Of course that was silly. No matter how often she looked back, there was nobody in sight.

She was out of breath by the time she reached the door where she'd seen Jamie for the first time. It was shut and there was no sign of activity anywhere in the building. If she didn't know any better, the state the dilapidated warehouse was in would have suggested it was abandoned.

With her heart still pounding in her chest, she took a step back to look up. The windows were boarded up, so she couldn't see inside.
Damn.

The entrance was offset from the main road in a narrow service alley. Perhaps she'd have better luck on the other side of the building?

Although she wasn't sure what was happening, Alison knew Jamie was in there somewhere. She could sense his presence nearby.

She hurried around the side of the building, turned the corner, and finally found a breach: the front door had been smashed in, the frame left in splinters.

This was Gareth's work. There was no other possible explanation. Somehow, despite Alison's best efforts to blow him off, he'd discovered the Alliance's location on his own.

Alison didn't know what she would find inside. She was unarmed and terrified. If Gareth didn't already know she'd been bullshitting him, he certainly would if she came face-to-face with him after wandering into the Alliance office, proving the fact she had known its location all along. But at least Jamie was still alive. She would have felt it if he wasn't.

Now what? Call the police?

"Hey, what are you doing here?" a familiar voice made Alison jump.

She turned around and found an equally frazzled looking Aidan looking right at her. "Long story. They've been attacked!"

Alison pointed at the broken door and waited while Aidan inspected the damage and peeked inside for a moment. He seemed different, much less stoic and controlled than usual.

"I know. The silent alarm was triggered a short while ago, when I was already on the way back. That doesn't explain why you're here though." Aidan gave her a suspicious look, then glanced back up at the building.

Aidan had never particularly warmed towards her and always seemed a bit suspicious. Turning up at the scene of an attack wasn't helping. She had to find a sensible explanation... Screw it, she had nothing. Jamie had made it clear that the truth wouldn't be particularly popular with anyone, including his own people, but it was the only chance she had of earning Aidan's trust.

"This is going to sound really crazy, but Jamie and I are mates. I felt he was in danger." Alison's bottom lip was trembling while she spoke. She still felt the risk, and if they didn't hurry up, things could get a whole lot worse.

"Okay." Aidan looked away from her again, fished his phone out of his pocket and read something on its screen.

"Really. I know it's not acceptable, considering I'm not one of you, but-"

"Calm down. I believe you."

Wow, that was easy.

"My mate is inside too," Aidan added, looking up from his phone to make eye contact with her.

Finally his demeanor started to make sense. They were in the same boat together. He'd been brought here not by some silent alarm, but the same feeling of uneasiness that had spurred Alison into action. The alarm had just served to confirm the danger he'd already sensed himself.

"So what do we do now?" Alison wondered aloud.

"We're going in, of course! Backup is arriving shortly." Aidan put the phone away, straightened his back and started marching towards the door.

Shit
. This was it: the moment of truth. She knew she couldn't do anything to betray Jamie, but Gareth was in there. Despite everything, he was still her brother. Her dad was in there too, more than likely.

She had to pick a side and it would no longer be possible to keep her relationship with Jamie a secret from the rest of them either.

"Wait! What do you mean,
shortly
?" Alison rushed into the building behind Aidan. She wasn't going to be much use in a fight, but considering everything was already unraveling around her, perhaps she could use her position to her advantage.

"Ten minutes, tops." Aidan scanned the empty office space. Wherever Gareth and the guys were, it wasn't in here.

Alison felt Jamie more keenly, and her feet wanted to carry her ahead to his position, making it nearly impossible to focus. Every second they wasted discussing what to do increased the risk of escalation inside. She had to be proactive, and get Aidan on her side.

"I haven't been entirely truthful with you." Alison turned to face Aidan, who paused. "I don't have time to get into it now, but they know me in there. I'm going to stall them, try to get them away from your people if possible. You stay out of sight until the backup gets here and then surprise them."

Aidan's jaw tightened. He wasn't happy to find out she'd played him, but seemed to accept this wasn't the time to argue about it. "Fine. Don't make me regret this. I don't have to tell you what will happen if anything happens to Hei- them."

Aidan's threat didn't faze Alison. If something happened to Jamie, she wouldn't be able to live with herself anyway. "Okay then."
Here goes nothing.

Alison looked back at Aidan one last time before heading for the door leading out of the cluttered office space. It creaked heavily as she pushed it open, making her flinch. Hopefully nobody had heard her.

She listened for any movement up or down the stairs. She knew that she'd been kept upstairs during her interrogation. That must mean that the prisoners had been locked up downstairs...

Alison tiptoed down the steps until she heard muffled voices, though she couldn't make out what they were saying exactly. There was another door at the bottom of the staircase, which led into a dimly lit corridor.

Alison pushed the door open. Its shrill squeak sent shivers down her spine. There they were. Heads turned in her direction and she recognized the faces of the two armed guards waiting in front of one of the doors leading off the hallway.

"Lads," Alison mumbled.

The two skinheads exchanged a look and then shrugged and nodded at her. So far so good.

"Gareth called me in, where is he?" Alison asked, hoping they wouldn't detect the slight tremble in her voice.

"In there." One of the men gestured at a door further down the hall.

Alison kept her shoulders straight as she marched onward past the pair of them. She managed to steal a glimpse out the corner of her eye at the door they were guarding, but there was no window to see inside. That's where Jamie was, she could feel him. Hopefully he could feel her, too and then he'd know that she was here to help.

Her feet felt like they were made of lead as she forced herself to move ahead, when all she wanted to do was rush inside that first room to make sure Jamie was okay. Assuming there was nobody else inside the room where the Alliance people were held, the current scenario was ideal for a rescue. As long as she could keep most of the Sons out of the way.

Could she risk a quick message to Aidan to let him know? No way, the two geniuses by the door were probably still gawking at her.

She pushed against the door the guards had pointed out to her and was greeted by a half-dozen surprised faces clad in combat gear, along with three in civilian clothing. The room looked depressing, barren except for a bed and mattress. Paint peeled off the ceiling and walls, revealing damp patches in the concrete. This must have been one of the cells where the Alliance had held their prisoners.

"Alison," Lee Campbell said. "What are you doing here?"

She cocked her head to the side, then jumped ahead to give him a hug. "Dad! I'm so glad you're okay."

Tears burned in her eyes. This was an impossible position to be in. Of course she was glad he was unharmed. He was her father. But since the first night with Jamie, he wasn't really her family anymore.

She let out a sob as his arms tightened around her. "It's okay, darling. It takes a whole lot more than a few days of confinement to bring me down!"

"Sis..." Gareth's voice spoke behind her. "What
are
you doing here? How did you know where to find us?"

She didn't move, just sniffled into her dad's shoulder for a moment while considering her answer.

Of all the familiar faces she'd seen coming into the room, one had been missing: her ex, Ian. Perhaps...

"Ian called me, thought you could use some help handling the prisoners. After all, I'd spoken to some of them before," Alison said, while turning around and smiling at Gareth. "Good to see you've got the situation under control."

"Right." Gareth stared at her in silence for what felt like forever, but then turned to face one of the other former prisoners, inspecting the bandage on his leg. "I think we should get Bob, here, to a doctor as soon as possible."

"Can I have a look?" Alison asked. She'd had some first aid training, so it was only natural to ask.

Gareth stepped aside and waved her over. "What do you think?"

Alison's mind was still racing. If she could stall everyone in here until Aidan's backup arrived, perhaps she’d have a fighting chance of defusing the situation without endangering Jamie and the others.

"This might hurt," Alison whispered, as she carefully pulled away the cotton gauze covering some of the man's wounds. His leg was in a bad state, though there was no sign of infection so far and it was starting to heal a little.

"I don't think he should walk," Alison concluded, while making more of a show of inspecting his leg than strictly necessary. He probably could walk without any issue, but it was all she could think of to buy some time.

"Do you think you can use some of those blankets to make a stretcher of some sort?" Alison asked Gareth, who looked at their father for confirmation.

"Really? Can't we just prop him up and let him limp out of here?" Gareth argued.

"He's not bleeding right now, but if it starts we'll have no way of stopping it and he could be in real danger," Alison lied.

"She's right, better safe than sorry," their dad chimed in.

It hurt. He was supporting her in front of Gareth, yet here she was fighting for the other team. Then again, they wouldn't hesitate to kill Jamie if they knew about their affair. And for what? For being a different species?

Alison had to wonder if other than for reasons of vengeance, shifters had ever actually attacked and harmed humans. More often than not it had been the Sons who struck first.

She bitterly remembered the origin story of the Sons that her dad had told her when she was little, about a bear who abducted a human woman to be his bride many centuries ago. The story of Eileen and Bhaltair. The rescue team sent in by the woman's father, Lord Domnall, were the first of what was to become a long line of shifter hunters. But that was just myth, surely?

Since then, had shifters actually done anything wrong? Most of them seemed to live their lives in secret, separate from human society to prevent anyone from knowing the truth about them... Torches and pitchforks were never too far away when shifters revealed themselves as
different
, as Jamie had rightly remarked.

Alison was certain she was now on the right side of this fight, but she didn't want these Sons dead either. She'd grown up with some of them. She observed Gareth and his men fold and arrange the blanket, tearing strips to secure to bits of wood scavenged from what had been a bed frame only moments before. It took them a while, but in the end, they had a makeshift stretcher.

Now what?
Alison had started to panic over finding another reason to keep everyone in here when the door finally flung open with a loud crash. The figures that entered didn't belong to the other guards outside. They weren't even human. Aidan's backup had arrived!