Mila

“Finally,” she sighed, rolling her eyes in relief.

“You act like we’re in a rush.”

“We are in a rush, you idiot. If you would just let me talk, I could have told you that!”

“I…what?” Pierce said, stumbling to a halt as her words sunk in. “Why? How?”

“I’m going to come around the counter now,” she said instead. “I want your word that you won’t attack me.”

“My word?” he said, laughing at her. “Why would you trust that?”

“Because you’ve yet to give me reason not to,” she said. “Look, Pierce. I know about your past. I know that you’re one of the Blackjack Bears, yadda yadda yadda. But you haven’t been that person with me.” She paused. “Well, not until recently, but that’s understandable of course. I lied to you. You have every right to be angry.”

There was no response.

“So, can I come out from hiding?”

She wasn’t really hiding. Not at all, to be fair. She was simply on the far side of the kitchen, with the counter between her and Pierce. She could see his leg sticking out, but that was about it. Mila wanted to be able to look him in the eye as she told him about his brothers.

“Yes,” Pierce replied. “I give you my word that I won’t do anything rash, like try to attack you and get tranq’d. Again.”

She smiled and moved to her right, though she still stayed a distance away from him, the tranquilizer gun pointed at him. Eventually Pierce came into view, though he was partially obscured by the kitchen table that ended up between them. Mila kept moving to her right, until she could see him fully at last.

Right hand leveled at him, she used her left to pull a chair from the table for her to sit in. The gun never wavered the entire time, and she saw Pierce eyeing it.

“You played the part well,” he said with a nod as she sat, her eyes never once leaving him.

Mila’s nostril flared at the backhanded compliment. “You know, I’m not some cold-blooded murderer,” she snapped.

“Then what are you?” he replied equally tightly.

“I guess you could call me a mercenary.”

Pierce snorted. “Just tell me the story, will you? Stop trying to defend yourself. Give me the details, and let me judge you.”

“Trust me,” she muttered. “I’ve already judged myself.”

He arched an eyebrow at that, but remained silent.

“So yes, I was part of the team that took you,” she said without preamble. “I infiltrated the team and took charge. We came and got you. I arranged for you to be put in my vehicle. Just you.”

Pierce looked at her as she spoke, angry, but also a little intrigued, she could tell.

“Then I made it sound like you’d escaped, when in reality you were still unconscious. I, as leader, had a bit of latitude. Wanting to ensure that I didn’t have to report back saying I’d lost you, I told the rest of the team to go on ahead while I hung back.”

“I see. And then what happened?”

She shrugged. “I rented a cabin I’d rented before, drove there, dropped you off in the forest, covered up the tire tracks, and then waited until a rough estimate of time had passed and tried to wake you. You know the rest.”

Pierce stared at her. “Interesting. But that doesn’t tell me why you did any of this? I mean shit, you could have just told me when I woke up the first time, instead of this elaborate ruse.”

Mila laughed. “Right. Pierce, think for a moment. You woke up in a rage and almost killed me when you thought I was an innocent woman. Do you really think if I’d admitted then and there to being the woman who kidnapped you in the first place that you’d have listened carefully, let alone refrained from killing me?”

He looked away without responding, and Mila knew she had her answer. “Exactly.”

“You didn’t have to play with my feelings though,” he said. “You could have just offered to take care of me, then told me. Hell, you could have hit me with a half-strength tranq and then told me. I’d have been too woozy to do anything, but you’d have gotten the truth out.”

“I suppose,” Mila said. “I didn’t think of that. But I also needed you to get acclimated to the city. I had no idea it would be such an ordeal. That’s what fucked it all up.” She looked at him, waiting until he met her eyes. “I didn’t plan for any of this emotional stuff to happen, Pierce. It just…sort of did, okay?”

The shifter laughed, his shoulders shaking the counter slightly as they bounced back against it. “Oh, oh that’s rich!” he said, guffawing loudly. “You did all this, and then accidentally fell for me? Excuse me while I pity you.” He kept shaking with laughter.

“Dammit, Pierce, I didn’t have a choice, okay! I was playing fast and loose, and things just sort of got out of control.”

“Easy girl,” he said, holding up a placating hand.

Her eyelids opened wide as she glared daggers at him, but it just seemed to slip right over Pierce.

“Now, there’s one big, glaring hole in your story so far.”

Only one? No, there are plenty, Pierce. Which one are you focused on?

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why any of it?” he said, finally pushing off the ground.

Mila held the tranq gun pointed at him, but he simply picked his way through the kitchen, pushing aside broken glass until he reached the fridge. Opening the door—which she noticed now had a wobble to it—he grabbed a bottle of beer and carefully twisted off the cap.

“Thanks for not breaking that one,” she said, her eyes glancing downward to the beer- and glass-covered floor.

“Yeah, about that,” he said awkwardly.

“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “That’s the least of our concerns.”

Pierce made an agreeable noise, but he didn’t speak. He just sipped on the beer and stared at her. Waiting.

“Why,” she repeated with a sigh. “You know, Pierce, I don’t really know. It just…I had to.” She shrugged. “I didn’t like what was going on.”

That…wasn’t entirely true. Well, it was, it just wasn’t the complete truth.

“What was going on?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I just know that they were giving out orders that I didn’t like. So I did what I could, and got out of there as soon as possible.”

Pierce shook his head. “So you betrayed your employer, and now you’ve just come back to your house here in the city and expect no retaliation at all?”

Mila shrugged. “I took care of it.”

“You took care of it?” Pierce asked, phrasing his words to mimic her tone. “What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounds like. We’re fine.” She frowned. “Were fine.”

He arched an eyebrow at her. “Were? As in, no longer?”

“It’s a long story. But if we’re going to go after your brothers, we need to do it now.”

“Now.”

“Yes now, what the hell wasn’t clear about those words? Our time is up, Pierce.”

“Mila, I don’t know where my brothers are, who has them, or even if I can trust you when you tell me!” Pierce took another swig of his beer, tipping the bottle up so fast that it began to foam slightly. “Yech,” he spat, licking his lips repeatedly as he set the bottle down to let the foam dissipate.

“No, you don’t know,” she said. “But I’m your only shot, so you need to come with me, even if you don’t trust me.”

“Come with you where?” he said forcefully. “You still haven’t told me shit about who has them!”

“They’re the Bothwell-Ingrim Institute of Theoretical Anthropological Studies,” she said, working her lips carefully around the mouthful of a name.

“The Bothwell…what?”

“Commonly called the Institute,” she said, but also repeated the name for him just in case he might need it.

“I see. And why does a scholarly-sounding organization kidnap shifters?”

Mila smiled. “Exactly why I have an issue with them.”

Pierce clearly knew there was more to it than that, but he shrugged. “Okay, keep your secrets.”

“It’s not so much a secret, as we don’t, have, time,” she repeated.

“So you’ve said. All right, fine. You’ve convinced me I guess. I must be an idiot, but my gut and my heart say to trust you that you’re not flat-out lying to me. I can’t figure out what’s going on, but I have no better choice.”

Mila took pity on him.

“Okay, listen. I told them that you’d escaped, right?”

He nodded.

“So I’ve been keeping them ‘up to date’ on my actions,” she said, putting the phrase in air quotes for his sake.

“You’ve been lying to them.”

“Yes. They think I’m still out in the wild west of here trying to track you down.”

“Good thinking.”

Mila smiled. “Thanks, I’ve been known to have a decent idea every now and then.”

Pierce rolled his eyes in exasperation, but she thought she caught a hint of real humor in them first. Her heart soared. Maybe there would be a chance—No. No there won’t be. Best not to let yourself think that. But maybe—No. And you know why. So stop it.

“But then you went and shifted in the woodlot last night,” she said, forcing the turmoil in her stomach out of her words.

Her problems were her problems. First she needed to do what was necessary. Then she could worry about her broken heart.

“Okay?”

“Think, Pierce. That’s not normal. Reports of that are going to get out. The Institute will hear about it, and they’ll realize you’re in the city.” Her lips pressed together into a line. “Whether they figure out that I lied, or that you just happened to evade me, I don’t know. But either way, they will come looking. Someone will be sent here.”

“They will?”

“I would, if I were in charge. Wouldn’t you?”

He was forced to nod.

“So we need to go, and now.”

“But where?”

“To get your brothers back,” she said firmly.

“And they are where again?”

“At the Institute.”

“Right. Which is where?”

“Downtown Longhorne, why?”

Pierce nodded thoughtfully. “You want me to go up against who knows how many guards, in a public area where everyone can see—meaning I’m not allowed to kill them all—break my brothers out, and then disappear. All without killing anyone or getting caught.”

“Yes. Is that a problem?”

Pierce deflated slightly. “Mila, I’m only one person. I appreciate your faith, but I—”

Calmly and without hesitation Mila lifted the barrel of the gun that she’d let drop and in the blink of an eye put five darts into the fridge, forming a vague outline of Pierce’s head.

The huge shifter looked slowly to his left and right at the quivering metal rods, none no more than two inches from his body.

“Okay, so it’s just the two of us against the whole facility. Those odds are still rather ridiculous,” he pointed out.

“Perhaps, but we have a few advantages.”

Pierce frowned. “I…okay, how do we attack it?”

She smiled. “We walk in the front door.”

“Excuse me?” he asked.

“I didn’t stutter,” she said.

“How do you plan to make that work?”

She shrugged. “I worked for them. I know them, and I know the layout.”

Pierce’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “I thought you were just brought on for the mission to take me and my brothers.”

“Ah, no,” she said awkwardly. “I never said that.”

“I see. So what’s your plan?”

“Drive in like we belong. Which I do. You do too. Sort of, in a backward sort of way. To them at least, they expect to see you.”

“I am so confused. About you, the plan, about everything.”

Mila nodded. “I understand. But listen carefully,” she said, bulldozing right over his objections. “We drive in to the employee area like we belong. You acting passed out in the back, like I caught you. So that gets us in. Then I’ll summon the duty guards and…”

She explained the plan to Pierce, and saw that although he thought it crazy, he wasn’t raising any objections to it.

“When this is done,” he said at last, moving to the front door to put his boots on, “you owe me a huge explanation of all the things you aren’t telling me.”

Mila nodded. “Fair. Most of them are details that aren’t pertinent to us right at this particular moment, so I’d really rather not take the time. We wasted enough by having me tranq you. Twice.”

Pierce’s growl filled the house at the reminder.

“Hey, it’s your fault you tried to kill me. Twice.”

The noise grew louder, but she just shooed him out the door, pulling it closed behind her. “Still, only fifteen hours or so since the incident first occurred. That’s cutting it close, but it’ll take some time for it to get back to the higher-ups, and for them to realize what it means. We should be okay. This might work out better actually,” she said thoughtfully. “They hear the reports, then I show up with you. The timeline works.”

Pierce just climbed in her SUV, not saying a word.

“I must be insane,” he muttered as she fired up the car.

“I hope so,” she replied. “Otherwise this isn’t going to work.”