The Last Warrior (Shifters Unbound #13) - Jennifer Ashley Page 0,68
did not know.
The SUV driver turned into a compound not far from the park. A huge iron fence surrounded the place and an electronic gate slid open as the SUV approached. A guard in a gate house waved them through, then the gate rolled closed again. The quiet click as the electronic lock reengaged was ominous.
Ben did not want to be separated from Rhianne, but Bureau men marched them to different cells. Rhianne, surrounded by guards, strode on without looking back, her head high.
The interrogation room Ben was taken to wasn’t bad as far as interrogation rooms went—a small space with a bullet-proof glass window, a few chairs, a table, and a bottle of water. He hoped Rhianne had the same or better accommodations. If they put her into a cage, he’d have to kill someone.
They’d taken Ben’s cell phone, but they hadn’t searched him, so Lady Aisling’s crystal still reposed deep in his pocket. She couldn’t do much to help from her side of Faerie, but she might be able to contact Jaycee who could alert Kendrick, who could put plans in motion to get them out of there.
Ben would resort to the crystal if he had to, though he’d rather not betray that he had means of communication. The not-so-discreet cameras around the room told him he was being watched.
He was thirsty but decided not to drink the water. It was in a sealed bottle, but Ben wouldn’t put it past Shifter Bureau to inject a drug into it to make him pliant and communicative.
They kept Ben in the room long enough for him to be worried, then bored, then resigned. He’d probably be stuck here overnight, and hoped the house would understand.
Ben was toying with ideas of how to lure the Shifter Bureau goons out to the house and let his unpredictable abode deal with them, when the door opened, and the leader of the pack entered, half a dozen guards covering him from the hall.
“Well, you got your wish,” he said. “Danielson’s here.”
“Oh goody,” Ben said. “Did you put out the tea and fancy cakes for him? He likes that.”
“Shut up,” the man growled. “Come on.”
“You mean he’s not coming into my parlor?”
“Just get out here.”
As soon as Ben stepped outside the room, the six guards surrounded him. They all had guns of some sort. Ben wasn’t an expert on guns, but basically these were black, shiny, had triggers, and probably spit bullets pretty fast.
The guards ushered Ben down the hall, which was lit with overhead fluorescent lights. One of the lights flickered and couldn’t quite stay on. Places like this always had that one bad fluorescent bulb that sputtered and hummed. The Bureau dudes must deliberately change a good bulb for a bad to maintain the effect.
They took Ben into a larger room at the end of the hall that looked the same as the one he’d been in except there was space for more guys.
Walker Danielson, a tall human man with very pale hair and light blue eyes, stood behind a table. Danielson’s skin was darkened by the sun and lined with white creases from his military tours in far-off lands. His hard face had taken on a gentleness and a sort of wonder ever since he’d moved in with a large bear Shifter who was the love of his life.
Next to him, to Ben’s immense relief, stood the giant form of Tiger.
Rhianne’s cell was an improvement over the one Walther had dropped her into—it had clean walls, a window, a table and chair, and no chains or old bones—but regardless, her body itched with her confinement. She sensed the impatience of the eagle inside her—its need to roam without fetters.
Her magic had recharged overnight, and training with Ben, not to mention the explosive sex afterward, had definitely helped restore her. She could blast out the window with one word of power, spring into the corridor, and hunt for Ben. If they’d dared put hands on her mate …
The only thing that kept her in place was fear of what would happen to Ben if she caused problems. Would they kill him for her disobedience? For all she knew, those pristine-clothed men might even now be torturing him in a dank cell.
Ben could turn into a goblin and break out if he wanted to—perhaps he was worried about what the Bureau men were doing to her.
Then again, maybe these humans had found a way to subdue him. They’d seemed to know Ben. What kind