“I can’t sit here.” Shepherd rubbed his left inside forearm where, beneath his jacket, he had a large compass tattoo with Hunter’s name above it. “He’s got my kid. You want Keystone? Fine. But my kid isn’t part of the deal.”
The door abruptly opened, and Christian swaggered in.
I gave him a once-over. I hadn’t seen that dark-green sweater before, yet it wasn’t new judging by the loose threads and holes. His shoes were dirty and his leather pants broken in. “Where are your silver duds?” I asked, wondering if he’d gone home. The clothes fit him too well to belong to someone else.
He leaned against the wall to my left. “I was mistaken for a pimp. Had to ditch the party clothes and put on something decent.”
“Grand Central!” Gem sang when the door opened and someone else came in.
Blue cursed when her cape got caught in the door. After yanking it free, she strode into view and put her hands on her hips. “The dogcatcher has him.”
Gem’s mouth was agape.
Claude groaned. “The fates are against us.”
Christian dipped his chin. “What happened?”
“Viktor’s wolf got out,” I said. “Blue, do you know where the facility is?”
She sat on the foot of the bed next to Claude. “I followed the truck. Because I’m able to shift in my clothes, I ran up to the man and told him the wolf was mine. He said since there was a report of an attack, he had to take it in. I’m not sure they’re going to let him go. Do you think they’ll euthanize him?”
“No! They can’t do that!” Gem burst into tears.
“Jaysus wept.” Christian stepped away from the wall. “I’ll get him.”
Blue flipped her hood over her head. “You can’t. They’re closed to the public today. Besides that, they won’t release him since he bit someone.”
Christian flashed his wallet. “Oh, they’ll release him.”
She tugged the clasp on her cloak. “Not if they think he has rabies. He’s also a wild animal. They see wolves all the time because of the packs, but we can’t claim him. I’m pretty sure owning a wild animal is illegal. The packs probably get away with it because they have false paperwork about being a wildlife preserve or something. If we walk in, they might call the cops—especially if that guy presses charges. And without Viktor or access to our accounts, we have no means to free ourselves.”
Christian tucked his wallet into the back pocket of his leather pants, and I admired his ass for a moment. “I can charm them. Are they open tomorrow?”
Gem surged toward Christian, her cheeks wet as she glowered at him. “You can’t leave him in there until tomorrow! What if they euthanize him? What if he shifts inside the cage? What do you think will happen if workers find a Russian man sitting inside the kennel wearing party clothes? They’ll call the police or put him in a straitjacket. I won’t sit here and let that happen. We have to do whatever it takes to free him.”
My lips twitched. “So what you’re saying is we should break him out of doggie jail?”
She rolled a marble-sized energy ball between two fingers. “Bingo.”
“I’ll go tonight,” Christian said decidedly. “After dark.”
I patted his shoulder. “We’llgo, partner. We could also use Shepherd’s help.”
That was a lie. Shepherd had his talents, but I wanted to keep him busy so he wouldn’t run off and get himself killed trying to free Hunter all by himself. We could only manage one crisis at a time.
Gem scooted behind Claude and Blue and put her arms on their shoulders. “I want to go. I can help you get inside.”
“Aye, lass. And you could also incinerate the poor creatures before their execution date.”
She sat back. “Good point. Maybe I’ll skip this one.”
Blue rested her elbows on her knees and wrung her hands, her hood shielding her face. “What if they’re staffed after hours? If you barge in and someone in a back room calls the police, you’ll screw this up. Shepherd and Raven can’t sneak past them in those clothes.”
Shepherd got up and stretched his back. “Fucking hell, we’re not breaking into the Pentagon.”
Christian clasped his hands behind his back and paced to the door before turning around. “She’s right. We don’t know if they have an alarm system or surveillance cameras. I think we need at least twenty-four hours to cover our bases. We can’t afford to make mistakes. We don’t have our usual resources to erase footage, so we should plan carefully.”
I hated waiting, but after my run-in with the cop this morning, I realized how careful we needed to be. “Blue, can you call them and make sure that his wolf is okay for the night? Tell them you’ll come by in the morning to sort all this out. That’ll allow you to check things out from the inside.”
