Chapter Eighteen

Rosie

Six days.

Rosie entered the town, driving the white SUV loaned to her by Mila for the drive. She slowed, moving with the pace of traffic, which was sparse, but nobody seemed to be in a hurry. Not wanting to piss anyone off yet, she went with the flow, trying to find the place that Kassian had directed her to locate.

After several minutes of driving up and down streets looking, she gave up, pulling over to the side of the road. Her window went down and she called out to a pair of women walking by.

“Excuse me!” she called.

They came closer with polite smiles on their faces, and Rosie asked them where she could find the building. Immediately the smiles became scowls, and the women walked away from the car.

“What the hell?” she asked into the empty air, staring after the two women, who were walking away quickly. “You’d think I’d asked them where I should set up my dildo shop or something. Yikes.”

Rosie waited at the side of the road until another person came by. This time it was a man. She called him over, and pretended to be lost, acting as ditzy as she could, while asking for directions.

“Why do you want to go there?” the middle-aged man asked, his bubbly-personality closing down immediately when she asked for directions.

“I…” Rosie faltered. “Is it that big of a deal?” She looked around. “You’re not the first person to get all angry with me when I asked for directions. Is there something I’m missing?”

“Yeah. Like stay away,” the man replied grumpily, then pushed off from her car and continued his way down the sidewalk. He glanced back at her once, but all he did was glare.

“This is getting weirder and weirder.”

Rosie pulled back out onto the streets, and began to do a grid-pattern search of the town. Up one street, down the next, back and forth, until she found it. If she had to, she’d start taking all the streets perpendicular to the ones she was on now. It was long, boring and inefficient as hell. But it worked. Twenty minutes later she pulled to the curb in front of the building that had to be her destination.

Which was right when her nerves kicked in.

“This is crazy. Ridiculous.”

You’re going to be fine, she reassured herself mentally after the verbal outburst. Look around you.

She did. There were still humans in sight. Real, honest-to-goodness humans, like the ones that had ignored her earlier. Not shifters. She’d yet to see a single one of them, despite what Kassian had said she should expect to find. There were none. In fact, she was starting to wonder if she was in the right place. But the building in front of her matched the description perfectly.

The big wooden structure was two stories high, and stained a dark-brown color. There were six poured-concrete steps that led up to the double doors that served as the entry. That much matched. The twin peaked roofs on the left and right sides of the building also matched. It was in the right part of town too. Everything that Kassian had told her pointed here, to this building.

But there were things missing. There were no people on the streets. No barricades as she approached the building. It was so quiet, she would have assumed the place was deserted. No humans came down the street though. It was as if it were haunted or something. She saw several crossing the street at the intersection well behind her, but none of them turned down toward her. She was alone.

What the hell is going on here? Nobody wants to give me directions, nor do they want to come near it themselves? Am I in danger?

Putting the car in park, she killed the engine and got out. Kassian wouldn’t have sent her on a wild-goose chase on purpose, would he? It seemed unlikely. Unless… Unless he was planning something really stupid and wanted to get rid of her, to try and keep her safe. That was something he would do.

But he’d told her his plan. It was a stupid plan to begin with. She’d known that, but it was also the only one they could come up with that stood a chance in hell of working. For it to work though, her mission here needed to be a success.

Looking around, she tried to identify any signs that the building was occupied. The windows weren’t boarded up, so that was a start. The sun was still high in the sky though, so she couldn’t identify any lights on inside. No figures appeared to be moving that she could see, but that didn’t mean a whole lot of anything either. The building was plenty big enough for her to not be able to see what was happening.

Wondering what the hell she was getting herself into, Rosie locked the car and headed toward the steps, climbing them swiftly, until she stood in front of the double doors. She hesitated there, her hand gripping the cool metal pull-bar on the right-hand door. This was it, her last chance to turn around and figure out what was going on before she went inside.

“No,” she said stubbornly. “Kassian said he needed me to do this. So dammit, I’m going to do it.” Before she could have second, or third thoughts about it, Rosie yanked on the door.

It opened smoothly, on well-oiled hinges. There was no squeaking or protesting from the metal. That was her first sign that someone was home, and taking care of the place. The second was the interior. It was spotless. The off-white tiled floor was as sparkling clean as such an ugly pattern could get. The columns looked freshly wiped down as well. Gold filigree dotted the place, and it too was free from dust and debris.

Looking back and forth, she approached the front desk, a semicircular wooden shape. There was nobody behind it, nor was there a bell for her to ring. This was as far as Kassian’s instructions had taken her. He’d been unable to provide her with any more detail, since he’d never actually visited it himself. All his information had been secondhand, compiled by him and his brothers from what they’d been told and overheard from others.

“Hello?” she called softly.

There was no response as her voice bounced gently off the walls, echoing several times before fading into silence.

“Okay, fine,” she muttered, stepping around the desk.

Rooms would be up the curved staircases that flanked the welcome desk, hugging the wall as they curved inward. There was a platform between them that overlooked the lobby area, but it too was empty. Rosie ignored those, as well as the hallways that led to the wings to the left and right. Those would be more rooms. Instead, she moved around the desk and toward the rear wall of the lobby. In the center of it was an elevator, which wouldn’t be of any help to her.

But off to either side ran small hallways, clearly not designed for guest use. This was likely where she would find anyone. A small staircase was tucked away in the back left, leading down into the basement. The sign to the right of the elevator read Conference Rooms. That seemed as good a place to start as any. She took that hallway, heading down it.

Door after door was closed. She tried one or two, but they were locked. Rosie had almost given up hope and was thinking of turning back when she noticed the next door on the left. It was closed like the others, but where it differed was the yellowish glow of fake lighting that spilled out from underneath it.

There was a light on inside it. A light likely meant it was occupied. Which could mean it was the people she’d been sent to find. Her shoes made little noise as she approached the door. The soles were covered in nonstick rubber. Normally she was thankful for it. Right now though, Rosie kind of wished they would click on the tile, to warn the occupant that someone was outside. After all, what if they weren’t friendly? Or if someone else owned the building now?

All sorts of horror scenarios ran through her mind, but Rosie discarded each one with cold, hard logic. She was going to be okay. All she had to do was reach up and knock on the door. Like she was doing just now. If she could do that, she would summon whoever was inside, and then she could help Kassian out.

Wait.

She was knocking on the door!

Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit!

The sound of a chair moving back sounded from inside, and Rosie almost fled back down the hallway as fast as she could. Whether it was fear or courage that held her rooted in the spot, she wasn’t sure. Either way, she was standing there, facing the doorway when it opened.

“Who are you?” a suspicious voice asked before it opened all the way.

“Umm, my name is Rosie,” she supplied.

“Why are you here, Rosie?” There was no anger in the words, none that she could detect at least. Just suspicion.

“I was sent here to look for help.”

“For help? There’s no help here.”

“I was told to come here,” she persisted. “That I could find shifters from Cadia here.”

The door flung open and the form from inside emerged. A hand wrapped around her head and she suddenly found herself pinned against the far wall. The figure held her there with a casual ease that belied terrifying strength contained within his form.

His face reminded her of someone, but she couldn’t quite place it. He had short brown hair, perhaps finger-length at best. It was left to fall on his head, without styling or parting, just a short untamed mop. His face was clean-shaven, with long features. It was attractive in an almost regal sort of way. Except for the eyes. The eyes burned with an intensity that scared her.

“Who are you?” he asked, repeating the question.

Her hands pulled at his fingers, trying to loosen his grip, but he held tight. His arm didn’t even flex as he held her up so that she could only stand if she used her toes.

“Rosie,” she gasped through the chokehold, trying to inhale as well. It was tough; only a bit of air was getting through.

“Who sent you?” The voice was filling with anger now.

“K-K-Kass. Ian. Ko-Koch-e,” she tried to say, the words coming out in parts.

The grip relaxed slightly. “Who?”

“Kassian. Koche,” she repeated after sucking in a deep lungful of air, thankful for the reprieve.

“You’re serious?” the person, obviously a shifter of some sort, asked. The suspicion and anger in his voice was gone, replaced by what sounded like disbelief.

She nodded.

“Why did he send you? And where is he? He’s a wanted fugitive, you know.”

“I’m aware,” she told him. “But this is bigger than that. He needs your help.”

The brown-haired shifter looked at her for a long time, as if evaluating her claims. Just as Rosie was beginning to doubt that he would believe her, the tall man stepped back from the door.

“Come in.”

Rosie stepped inside the office. Behind her, the unknown shifter closed the door.

“So, tell me everything…”