Temptation Rising (40 page)

He nodded. “What did you find on Roman Reynolds?”

“Nothing,” she answered immediately, confidently. “There was nothing in his records that supported the charge of facilitating a drug cartel.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“I’m positive that I found nothing to prove that allegation.”

“What about Ferrell?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing. I found it odd the amount of pressure he put on me to speed the case up. That’s why I was calling you—to find out what his deal was.”

“Ferrell was dirty.”

Why didn’t that surprise her?

“He’d been working with some of the lower-level dealers for years.”

“Then why did you put him on the case with me?”

“We were hoping his employers would take an interest in your investigation, maybe slip up somewhere along the line.”

“Wait a minute, you sent me to investigate Roman in an effort to reveal another drug lord and to expose a dirty cop?”

Wilson shook his head. “We wanted to know what Reynolds was doing,
and
we wanted Ferrell and his employers.”

Sonofabitch,
she thought to herself. They’d used her and lied to her. The very people she’d wanted so desperately to work for hadn’t even had the decency to tell her what the real assignment was. Maybe being a cop wasn’t her destiny. Maybe she’d had it all wrong. It certainly felt like she did.

“Did you get what you were after?” she asked finally.

“Not everything. Ferrell’s in jail crying like a baby, but not really giving us much.”

“That’s strange. I figured a punk like him would be singing names and addresses right about now.”

“He’s giving names, but none that we know. He’s also talking strange stuff.”

Kalina felt a ruffle against her neck and sat up straighter. “Strange like what?”

“Like big cats killing and selling drugs in the city. You know anything about that?”

Kalina smiled, slow and full. “Why would I know about something so preposterous? I’m just a city cop trying to get a paycheck,” she said. “Are we finished?”

“If that’s your full report?”

“It is.”

Wilson hesitated a second. “Then we’re finished.”

Kalina stood, going to the door before turning back to him. “And just in case you were thinking of offering, I decline the opportunity to work for the Drug Enforcement Agency. I like to face the lying and deceitful criminals head-on instead of working alongside them.”

Wilson didn’t say a word as she closed the door behind her and walked out of the building.

*   *   *

“Sabar’s leading them, and now he’s pissed that Rome has Kalina,” X said, rubbing his knuckles as he sat at Rome’s conference room table.

Elder Alamar nodded solemnly. “He was a problem years ago. We thought he was gone, that he had moved on to other things.”

“Apparently he was simply laying low,” Nick said. “He’s making his comeback.”

“Now he’s hiding,” Rome surmised, still not at all pleased that Sabar had been the one stalking Kalina all this time. The fact that Sabar thought she was his mate just made Rome hate the Rogue more.

The cheetah they had in custody had finally decided to talk, right about the time he realized that Sabar wasn’t planning any daring rescue for him, and that one of his cohorts was already dead: Chi, the jaguar Kalina had killed, the one who’d killed Rome’s parents years ago. Rome figured now that the hit had probably been ordered by Sabar, giving him yet another reason to hate the SOB.

Rubbing a hand over his chin, he tried valiantly to let the bitter feelings he still harbored inside go. He’d wanted his parents’ killer and Kalina had gotten him. And now he had Kalina. All should be well in his world. The operative word being
should.
“It won’t last,” he surmised.

“You are correct,” Alamar agreed. “He will return. It is power that drives him, and he will not stop until he attains it.”

“Or until we dispatch him,” X added.

“Kalina had some interesting information to share after her visit with the DEA,” Rome offered. His mate had come home earlier today eyes burning with fury, and only after much coaxing did Rome manage to get the story from her.

“Melanie was the other shifter in the room that night, the other one Kalina shot.”

“Melanie from work?” Nick questioned. “We’ve got to do better screening our employees, Rome.”

Nick had been in an even testier mood since that night in the city. He’d stayed behind to help Ezra and Eli burn the house, and Rome suspected that the act had brought back memories for his friend.

“Ezra figured out Melanie was a shifter after he’d picked Kalina up from her house,” Rome said.

“And nobody thought it was imperative to inform me?” Nick questioned, feeling like an ass since Melanie had come into his office acting strange and asking all kinds of questions about Kalina. Had he known what she was, he would have killed the bitch then. “Okay, so she was a shifter. We’ve already talked about having some sort of registry for the stateside shifters. When did she go Rogue? And why didn’t we pick up her scent?”

“There are ways to mask a scent,” Alamar offered.

Rome nodded. “All the more reason we need to implement that registry Nick just mentioned. Melanie’s mated to Peter Keys, a low-level jaguar who mainly keeps to himself. But she was also sleeping with one of our good friends—Ralph Kensington.”

“That’s why Kensington stank of shifter back in LA,” X added.

“Exactly. So by sleeping with a human and a shifter, the change in her scent wouldn’t have been noticeable. We would never have known she’d gone Rogue.”

“Dammit! So she was working with Sabar, too. And they knew about Kalina even before we did.” Nick wasn’t liking what he was hearing.

“It seems that way,” Rome admitted.

“What about the threat from their government?” Alamar asked, bringing more silence to the room.

X spoke up first. “They don’t have any positive proof, just some reports from people who think they’ve seen things. If we go under the radar, it may die down.” He looked pointedly at Rome. “But they are the government. They lie and cheat for a living. My guess is they’re going to keep investigating until they find something tangible.”

Rome had a sick feeling in his gut. “You mean until they actually find one of us.”

X only nodded.

“One of our biggest fears is becoming a reality,” Alamar said solemnly.

Baxter slipped into the room at that moment, coming to stand by the Elder, handing him a piece of paper.

The older shifter’s usually restrained features changed, his lips drawing into a tight line.

X and Nick looked at Rome, who waited a few seconds before asking, “Is everything all right, Elder?”

Alamar shook his head solemnly. “There has been trouble in the forest. One of our cherished
curanderos
has been taken. No one has seen her for two days now. There is great concern from her family.”

Curanderos
were imperative to the tribes’ survival in the Gungi. They were considered saviors to the shifters, providing remedies—be they medicinal or spiritual—to the infected. Without
curanderos
the tribes would almost certainly be near extinct. There were only one or two within each tribe, and they usually carried on from their parents’ training, so losing a healer was not a good thing for Shadow Shifters.

But for the three shifter friends, this announcement held a different message—a much more personal one.

The air in the room crackled with tension as they each sat up just a little straighter, listening intently.

“Which one?” Nick asked, ignoring the fact that Rome should have been the one speaking first.

Rome and X were perfectly still as they waited for Alamar’s answer.

“It is Aryiola.”

“Nick,” Rome said, immediately standing from his chair. But it was already too late. Nick was up, wrenching the door open and letting it slam against the wall.

“I’m on it,” X said with a slight bow to the Elder before going after Nick.

Rome sighed. “She was his first love.”

Elder Alamar only nodded. “She is his
companheiro
. I have known this for some time. Go to him,” he told Rome. “This will not be easy for him or his cat. I will leave for the Gungi in the morning.”

Rome bowed to the Elder and moved to the door himself, stopping to add, “We’ll be going with you.”

Chapter 29

The Gungi rain forest, Brazil

The scents hit her first. From the moment they stepped off the boat that carried them from the village where two jeeps had taken them after picking them up at the airport, Kalina had been inhaling deeply. It was the euphoric scent from her dreams, the one she’d sworn was heaven. It was here, in the rain forest.

A seemingly small boat had carried her, Rome, Nick, Elder Alamar, Eli, and Ezra and all their luggage smoothly down a river with gurgling water and jutting rocks. Everywhere she looked was green, fresh, and filled with vitality. It was such a contrast to the smog-filled city and the hustling and bustling of people.

Rome helped her out of the boat, his hands sliding from her hips the minute her feet hit the ground. She heard it then: birds, lots of them. She looked ahead, down a hill of grass, to trees as tall as her neck could stretch. Above, the sun beamed as humidity rose to an almost stifling rate. But she didn’t feel hot, she felt exhilarated.

Her breath came in short quick pants, her eyes moving here and there trying to take in everything as quickly as she could. It was surreal, this feeling overwhelming her, this sense of immediate acceptance in a land that for all intents and purposes should feel foreign.

“She’ll want to get loose, to run free. Stay with me for now. She’ll have her chance later,” Rome said, taking her hand and leading her down the hill.

He was talking about the cat within her—that’s how he referred to it, as if it were another person inside her. He referred to his own cat the same way. Kalina wondered if she’d ever become that comfortable with the two parts of herself.

Anxiety swamped her the minute they entered the deep foliage of the forest. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen except in books or on documentaries on television. Vines and mosses roped through the terrain like some intricate road map that only the natives would understand. Eli and Ezra were in front of the group carrying packs on their backs and bags in their hands. They knew exactly where they were going. Beside her Rome’s breathing seemed to change, his eyes drinking in the sights just as she did.

Elder Alamar walked with a regal air, his feet lightly touching the thick vegetated lining of the forest floor. X moved agilely, which was something of a mystery for a man built as he was. And Nick—Kalina’s heart went out the man and the beast. He was a solemn form of anger, walking but not experiencing this lush forest.

He’d lived here for eight years of his life, so there was no doubt that he’d walked this same path before, had seen the wonders that Kalina was just experiencing. But there was pain here as well. It all but emanated from his body and was etched over his face. This woman, the
curandero
whose name was Aryiola—pronounced
ah-re-olah,
as Baxter had informed her—had once been very important to Nick. Baxter, who was quickly becoming a great reference guide for all things Topètenia- and rain-forest-related, had told her a little about Nick and his first love. Her heart had broken at the what sounded to her like the jungle version of Romeo and Juliet.

Now Aryiola was in danger. They believed she’d been kidnapped. Rome and X had even discussed Sabar’s possible involvement last night. Kalina still wasn’t clear on the Rogue’s intentions. She knew the thirst for power and money well but was having a harder time digesting the rule-the-world mentality. Then again, she’d only known of her heritage for a matter of days. There was still so much she had to learn.

Her mind was so deep in thought Kalina hadn’t been watching where she was going, and she tripped. The downward descent was halted when Rome grabbed her around the waist, lifting her up then setting her down again.

“Sorry,” she said, feeling as foolish as she possibly could when she looked down to see she’d tripped over a tree root. But this wasn’t any tree root, it was gigantic, as big as the entire trunk of a tree back in DC. The spidery-looking limb stretched upward beside others just like it, sprawling above to one mammoth tree that branched out hundreds of feet above.

It was then that she noticed how dark it had grown. She wondered where the sun had gone.

“It’s okay, take a few minutes to get your bearings,” Rome said, pulling a bottled water from the backpack he carried. “The jungle’s a tricky place when you’re here for the first time.”

“Tell me about it,” she said, taking the bottle he offered and drinking. “Where’d the sun go?”

Rome chuckled as he nodded to the others to keep moving ahead.