Slow Burn (22 page)

Derrick held Rob up. He patted the man’s back to comfort him
but he could smell the rancid chemicals racing through his system. “They
drugged you pretty badly, didn’t they?”

“They…thought…thought I was one of you.”

“Fuck. Max, listen. Take him to the hospital. I know what
they gave him. He needs emergency care now. Something’s wrong with Carmela.
Those Spetznaz were not shifters, were they?”

“No man. Pure humans. I’ve never encountered this woman, but
something was definitely wrong in the brain department. Did you see the way she
shook?”

“Like she was losing control of her nerves?”

Max nodded. “Yeah. What’s her game?”

“No idea. Take Rob in.”

“I’ll meet you back at your place in an hour and we can
pinpoint that signal. I have some business to tend to.”

“Right.” Max slung one of the rifles over his shoulder,
picked up a clip that fell by the other two guards, and gave them both one last
kick in the ribs for good measure.

* * *

An hour later both Max and Derrick had made it back to the
loft.

Derrick paced back and forth while he glanced out the
window. The moon hung just above the horizon while the first rays of daylight
began to break through the sky.

Max stood over his bench, screwdriver in hand, tinkering
with a cell phone. “They got Rob in right away and administered antidote. He
should be fine in a day or two. I left him with someone I trust. He should be
safe.”

“Shayla?”

Max didn’t answer.

Point for him. Shayla was good people, even if she
occasionally played for the wrong side; her heart had always been in the right
place. Now if she and Max could ever figure out how to find that balance and
happiness…he dropped the thought. It took him how long to realize his fate had
been with a woman he couldn’t ever imagine loving? Instead, he simply nodded.
“Good. Now, where is Sonja?”

Max didn’t miss a beat, nor did he look up from his cell
phone. “Impatient to ruin my bed, are we, and make sure the pregnancy sticks?”

Derrick held back a snarl as surprise grappled him. “What?”

“Tell me you didn’t already know.”

Derrick cocked a brow. “Sonja’s pregnant?”

“With your child, man. Good job.” Max didn’t look entirely
unhappy about this news but Derrick couldn’t read his brother’s expression as
shocked as he was. “Probably happened the first time, honestly. Dad told us.”

Nodding, Derrick closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh.
“She’s pregnant.”

“With your child.”

“You just said that.”

“I know. It bears repeating because this is a game changer.”

Max had a point. But fuck, now? How would Sonja react? She
had trouble at first with the bond; this would ruin her career wouldn’t it?
What about her life? Derrick sensed she’d try to run once this was all over but
he wouldn’t let her. He planned to convince her to stay with him, try a
relationship, even though neither of them had any real-world experience outside
of casual flings. But they could try. They could make it work if they both were
patient.

He’d have to convince her he was good for her. Easy.

But a baby?

How could he have missed that?

Derrick ran his hands down his face, looked up, then back at
Max with renewed determination. “This changes nothing right now. I want her
safe because…” He had to admit to Max what Max already knew. “I love her. Do
you know what they’re going to do to her?”

Max nodded, flicked the lighter in his hand open and closed,
then slid it back in his pocket. “Yeah, I heard. Ark-KaotiK will be playing and
all of us will be eliminated. The thing I want to know is how are they
generating buzz in such a short time?”

“I’m curious to know that, too. But if we can stop the
show…” He closed his eyes in thought. “No, that wouldn’t work.”

“No.” Max interrupted the silence. “We can’t stop the show.
The Anti-Shifter League has money and power along with a healthy dose of
influence. If they’re promoting this show, there has to be a political reason
for it along with the obvious destruction.”

“You must have missed the whole shifter-human war bit
Carmela ran her mouth about.”

“I did, man. I was coming in and out of a drugged trance
thanks to her little bitch help.”

Derrick rubbed his eyes and looked at his brother. Max’s
hair stood on end from the shower, looking slightly funny, but somehow the look
still fit him. He wore black around him like a cloak, as though night wasn’t
dark enough for him.

It made Derrick realize he had more in common with Max than
he’d ever thought.

Max lifted his head and set the screwdriver down. “You’re
going after your mate with me. We’ll find her because she’s wearing your trench
coat. There’s a transmitter in the collar of the coat. Let’s hope she still has
it on. Using this cell phone, I can pinpoint her location. We can figure out a
plan on the way in.”

“You’re always one to rush in and play hero.”

“Hey, it’s your girlfriend. And I want you two out of here.”

“Thanks, brother.” Derrick frowned and leaned against the
kitchen counter he’d fucked Sonja on earlier.

Max grinned and puffed on a cigar. “It’s nothing personal. I
just have a life, too.”

Derrick snorted. Things must be getting interesting with
Shayla. He glanced sideways at his brother, saw his unreadable expression, and
decided not to press the issue. There’d be time for that later, if they made it
out alive. “So be it.” He looked out the window. “You know Carmela’s a shifter,
too, right?”

Max looked up from the cell phone. “Yeah.” He set the
screwdriver down, searched the workspace for something, then picked up a file
and tossed it to Derrick. “Here.”

Derrick grabbed the manila folder and began thumbing through
it.

“She hides her identity well. A medical condition once
thought to be cured by shifter blood. But in the end, it just made her worse
and drove her slowly insane. She’s also a known epileptic, prone to fits,
though usually medication handles those pretty well.”

“I see that. I’m guessing she’s off her meds.” Derrick
leafed through papers, articles with headlines about the atrocities the
Anti-Shifter League supposedly prevented, led by Carmela. But what stuck out
for him was her medical file. Outlining her neurological damage and the attempt
at containing and healing it by introducing the shifter gene into her body, the
record showed progress, then regression. “She has some sort of palsy that fucks
not just with her muscle coordination but her mind. It's a mutated version of
the disease that's come into existence because of the shifter community.”
Derrick looked at Max, watched him tinker with the cell phone and screwdriver
again.

“Yeah.” Max flipped the cell phone shut.

“That explains the hate mongering bullshit but… still leaves
us hanging.”

Silence filled the space until Max came around and stood
before Derrick. “You do intend to tell her you’ll never leave her, right?”

Derrick stiffened. “What are you talking about? It’s not
entirely my call. Once she realizes she’s pregnant, this is going to cause a
whole fuck load of mess, not to mention the shit storm the media will create
once they find out…if she decides to keep the baby.”

“Dude, you two have spent a lot of time together. Trust me,
the reality of that on your heart must be in your mind. I get it. But…” Max let
out a long breath, his shoulder and chest heaving. “She’s carrying your child.
I don’t think she’s the kind of woman who would up and abandon that
responsibility.”

“I could—”

“No. You both could. Just trust me.”

“Yeah.” Derrick shrugged. “She knows. We’re bound.”

Max dropped his cigar and his eyes widened. “Dude, what?”

“You couldn’t tell?” Derrick blinked. “I thought you’d be
the obvious one to point it out.”

“No, man.” Max picked up his cigar, dusted off the ash, and
flicked his torch open. The click echoed in the space between the silences. “I
smelled the pregnancy, that’s much easier to detect. I had no idea, but then
again I’ve been drugged up for the last several hours. And avoiding this place
for even longer.”

“She’s the one that told me. I…she brought me into a trance
with her voice and let me run through the jungle as a puma. It was…” Derrick
blinked again, then closed his eyes and focused on the stillness in his mind.
“Amazing.”

He opened his eyes to see a cloud of smoke rising from his
brother’s cigar. “Yeah, I can imagine. It’s been said that the binding of two
mates is incredible, but according to legend you should be going insane from
lack of contact.”

“I know.” Derrick rubbed his forehead. “I know. I don’t know
why I’m not feeling any of the effects of the bond.”

“That is odd. Also, this is really the first time it’s been
mentioned. Even Erick didn’t say anything when Sonja came into the shop a few
days ago.”

Derrick nodded again. “Yeah. How weird.” He retrieved a
cigar from Max’s humidor, cut the tip, and used Max’s torch to light the foot.
It took a few seconds, but finally the smell of sweet earth and cocoa filled
the room, and then whispered across his palate. He ran a free hand through his
lengthy mane. A realization hit him. “If they’re going to play a show then
they’re going to want to get the word out to all the shifters.”

“Locating them is the obviously easy part. We could probably
sneak in through the back and have you planted in the audience, since that’s
really more your scene than it is mine and you blend in better than I ever
could.” Max snorted.

“Oh, come on, what’s not to like about head-banging chicks
who like to fuck and get a little rowdy?” Derrick rolled his eyes.

“Look at me. I fit in with the Goth crowd but I’m not as
dark and brooding as you guys.” Max chuckled. “Besides, you need to get as
close to Sonja as possible.”

“No, you’re angry like us. What if they have guns trained on
the band?”

“I thought of that. We need to make it look as though
working for us is not as bad as what will happen if they continue to work for
Carmela.”

“So we’ll do a basic infiltration and corner her second in
command.”

Max blinked and punctured the air with his cigar for emphasis.
“Exactly. I’ve got a team ready. I’ll call Honey Badger One and get him to put
things together tonight.”

Honey Badger, what a funny thing. Derrick hadn’t thought of
Roman in months but apparently he’d still been working covert ops with Max.
Good for them both. The loner had a reputation even darker than his alter-ego
was rumored to be, according to Slovich. “We should probably hit the bars now
and find out where the show is. I’m betting it’ll be an underground type thing.
Since her goal is to wipe out as many lives as possible, it’ll probably be a
guarded secret. What’s the best place here to find that crowd?”

Max closed his eyes and crossed his arms. “I’m not really
sure. I don’t go out much outside of the local bar scene with a few friends who
work with me on occasion. I’ll have to make some phone calls.” He opened his
eyes and took a draw off his cigar.

Thick smoke blew past Derrick’s sensitive nose and added to
the already humid air. Florida and California were almost opposites in weather.
Well, beautiful scenery and hot girls abounded in both states, but he’d found
his mate so the skin held no real appeal to him. “Guess it’s time for bed then
after we finish up here.”

Max nodded. “Time is on our side.”

“If we’re lucky.” Derrick could only hope they had time. It
would probably take half a day to canvass the bars in downtown Miami, and maybe
spread out. Though he had to wonder if Carmela had made this a public thing on
TV since she’d mentioned televising the show. If that was true, why wasn’t the
news covering it?

The late night news probably wouldn’t waste time on a death
metal band, but surely daytime TV would broadcast it.

He’d be a father soon. Possibly. He didn’t know what the
birth rate was for half-human, half-shifter babies and how many actually
survived. He’d never bothered to ask, figuring he’d never have kids because he
wasn’t the committed type.

At least not when he was a spy. Now that he was…otherwise
employed, what next?

And again, what of Sonja’s feelings? How will she deal with
this? How could he even tell her when she was who knows where? Was she okay?

Worry niggled his stomach while he flipped through channels
on the TV, finding nothing and feeling frustrated. Of course, it was still
early. They’d returned around three a.m., showered, lit up cigars, poured
drinks, and talked. But now, they needed rest. Daylight had barely broken and
the sun’s first rays peeked over the ocean in the distance.

* * *

Several hours later, the two spread out, canvassing local
biker bars and known shifter haunts for news on the underground metal show that
posters were promoting as the end of all metal shows. Dread worried Derrick but
still, he and Max had dressed appropriately for the show. The location bordered
the eastern coast near the Jacksonville area, making it a lengthy drive.

Derrick had begun to crave Sonja’s touch more. It made him
twitchy; even a few scotches couldn’t calm him down.

Max drove. Fast.

In his restored Mustang, he sped down the highway and both
men had weapons a plenty. The play was simple: infiltrate, remove the head of
the viper, and do it all under the cover of loud music while the crowd
suspected nothing.

Relying on the puma’s aggression helped center Derrick’s
nerves. He’d started to lose his human rationale because his mate and their
child were in danger. Still surprised at the prospect of being a father, he let
his mind drift. What kind of world would their child be born into? And what if
Sonja kept the baby and left him?