Good. Because I didn"t want to be anywhere near the b.a.s.t.a.r.d, disguise or no. "Anything else I need to know before I board the bus this afternoon?"
She hesitated. "There will be eleven other women with you, all either shifters or weres. At least one of them is not who she pretends to be."
I raised my eyebrows. "Another plant?"
"No. She wants revenge."
Then maybe I could enlist her help sometime over the next few weeks. "Who?"
Dia smiled. "That I shall let you figure out yourself. I"d hate to influence your instincts."
"Meaning you"re not entirely sure of your own guesses?"
"Meaning, I cannot say whether she will be a help or a hindrance to what either of us want."
Uh-huh. Typical psychic avoidance of the question if ever I"d heard it. "Why only twelve of us?"
"Because three women stayed on after the last moon dance."
"Why only three? I would have thought the money would be enticement enough to stay longer."
"I honestly don"t know. Perhaps they simply wish to go home."
Or perhaps there was more going on behind the scenes than Dia was aware of. "Will it be safe to talk to you once you arrive at the estate?"
"In the house, no. As I said, there are voice monitors in the halls. But I will endeavor to be outside whenever possible. I have made it a habit to wander the grounds, so Starr will not think it unusual."
"There"s nothing else?"
"Not that I can immediately think of."
"Good." I half held out my hand, then dropped it. Not because she couldn"t see the action, but because she might do another reading. I had a feeling I wouldn"t like what she might see. "I"ll see you there, then."
She simply nodded. I flung the backpack over my shoulder and escorted myself out. I"d barely made it through the wrought iron gates when a black van cruised up beside me, the side door opening even as I looked up.
"Get in," Jack ordered, both in my ear and out loud.
I did. As the van cruised on, Jack swiveled away from a bank of com-screens and monitors that lined one wall of the van and held out a hand. I gave him the notebook and contract.
"This is a bit of a risk, isn"t it?" I plonked down on the other swivel chair and scanned the monitors. They were showing nothing more than fences, trees, and a long expanse of lawn.
"Dia knows who we are. And if what she said about Starr holding her daughter hostage is true, then he has no need to monitor her when she is not at the estate. Nor have we found any evidence of it."
Didn"t mean there wasn"t. If Starr knew about the Fravardin, what was to stop him creating similar creatures for his own use? I watched Jack flick through the notebook"s pages, then asked, "Anything useful?"
He looked up, then gave me back the book. "Lots. Memorize it, then I can arrange to get the information to Kade and Rhoan."
I raised my eyebrows. "How? Neither of them are telepathic."
"No. But we currently have use of the seconded hawk-shifters, and only the fence line is fully monitored."
Which is basically what Dia had said. I nodded toward the monitors. "That the estate?"
"Yes. We"re trying to get cameras closer to the house, but they"re doing regular checks and it"s making it extremely difficult."
I raised my eyebrows. "Stepping up security because he"s called all his generals in?"
"I suspect so. After all, what better time would there be for another cartel to strike?"
"Given what Dia said about the vampire attack, he may be installing infrared, also." Which would put a serious dent in my nightly activities. I could shadow as well as any vampire, but infrared would pick up my heat trail.
"We"re monitoring the infrared companies. So far, no order has been placed."
"What about the black market?"
"The devices can certainly be bought, but installation requires specialist knowledge, and there are only a dozen or so qualified people in Melbourne." He pointed to the notebook. "Start memorizing."
He went through the work agreement as I studied the notebook. Starr"s estate consisted of over fifty acres of forest and paddocks. The house itself was a huge, square-shaped, double-story complex that featured not only a soccer field sized arena in the middle of the square, but an Olympic sized pool and a huge gym complex. Set apart from the main building were several smaller ones, including quarters for security and the prost.i.tutes. The barn and the zoo were on the opposite side of the complex to these. Behind them was a manmade lake apparently big enough to yacht on.
"Standard work agreement," Jack said, after a while.
"The only interesting point is agreeing to have your memories "rearranged" when you leave."
"Which is what is happening to the wh.o.r.es."
He nodded and glanced at his watch. "We"ll drop you off near the meeting point at one. That gives you an hour to read the rest of the notes as well as the contract."
So I read and memorized while he studied the banks of monitors. What he was looking for I had no idea, especially since there didn"t seem to be a lot happening on them. At one, they dropped me off at a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. Obviously, he"d heard my stomach rumbling. Either that, or it was a last meal for the doomed. I grabbed a dinner for two-once again thanking my lucky stars that a werewolf"s increased metabolic rate made it almost impossible for me to gain weight once I"d hit adulthood-then headed down to the meeting point to see who else might be waiting.
Three women were already there. Two were sullen excuses of womanhood, thin and rangy looking-in that long distance runner sort of way. The third was taller, broader, with spiky, bleached-blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. She had tats up her arms and trouble written all over her sharp features. I would have categorized her as punk, except for the way she stood. It wasn"t the typical, bite me or fight me stance that so many of the street kids in need of an att.i.tude adjustment had, but rather that of someone who fought for a living. Light on her toes.
I gave her a nod, ignored the other two, and sat on a nearby brick fence to eat my chicken. Animosity rode the air, coming from the direction of the rangy chicks rather than the toey one, but neither of them said anything as other women began to roll up. By two, we had a full complement, and a good cross-reference of shapes, colors, and race. I didn"t see another werewolf, but there were werecats, a bear-shifter, bird-shifters, and a sly-looking woman with red hair and reddish skin who surely had to be a werefox. The arena was going to be interesting, to say the least.
The bus rolled in about five minutes after the last woman had arrived, and a big man with slate gray hair climbed off. "Okay, ladies," he bellowed, in a drill sergeant tone. "When I read your name, you will board the bus."
He began snapping off names, and like obedient little soldiers, we rose and entered the bus. I hesitated on the top step, my gaze sweeping the semidarkness. There were plenty of empty seats, but most of the women already aboard had chosen to sit near the back. The bear-shifter sat about halfway down, her large frame barely squeezing into the seat. Her gaze, when it met mine, was challenging, as if daring me to sit with her, so I walked down the aisle and plonked down on the scat opposite hers.
"The little wolf is game," she said, her voice a rumble that seemed to come from somewhere deep. "Most of the others seemed a little afraid to come close."
"The wolf is only little compared to some." I made a show of looking her up and down. She was a big woman-in all ways- but the crow"s-feet touching the corners of her brown eyes, along with the dimples in her cherub cheeks, suggested a good nature that was at odds with the att.i.tude she was projecting and the fierce reputation bear-shifters had. "But with mitts like that, you can hardly blame them. I think they should be labeled an unfair advantage."
She laughed-a booming, merry sound that had me grinning. "You could be right there, wolf." She leaned forward and offered me one of her oversized paws. "Bernadine. Berna to my friends."
"Poppy." I grinned as her hand wrapped around mine. Though her grip was strong, it wasn"t menacing or testing. A woman confident in her own strength and not needing to advertise the fact to others. "Pencil me in as a friend, Berna. I"ve got a feeling it could get dangerous to be considered anything else."
"And you might have that right, too, wolf." She grinned. "Sorry, but Poppy just doesn"t seem to suit you."
"It"s not a moniker I would have chosen, but my parents didn"t exactly give me the choice." Nor did my G.o.dd.a.m.n boss.
The two sullen-looking women climbed on board, hesitating as I had on the top step as their gazes swept the bus. Both sneered when their gaze came to rest on me, then they turned as one and sat two seats in from the front of the bus.
Berna gave me an amused glance. "Are we taking bets on the fact that they"re twins?"
"Twins don"t echo each other"s movements like those two do." h.e.l.l, my brother would kill me if I started parroting his movements like that. "The sync of those two is almost creepy."
"Which is why I bet twins. Separated at birth."
"Or they"re just plain weird."
She chuckled. "I think we"re all weird. After all, here we are, sitting on a bus, waiting to be taken to G.o.d knows where."
"The money made me do it."
"Me, too. Have to wonder about some of the others, though."
Military guy climbed on at that point, cutting off the immediate chance to ask what she meant. As the doors swished shut, he said, "Okay, ladies, listen up." He waited until the slight murmur of conversation died, then continued, "As you will have noted in your contracts, the owner of the estate you are being driven to wishes to keep its location secret, so the windows will be blacked out in a moment and a curtain pulled across the front of the bus. The interior of the bus will be monitored, however, and anyone caught attempting to look out the windows will lose their position."
"I can"t remember any mention of paranoia in the contract," I muttered.
Berna snorted softly. Military guy gave me a glare. "You have read and signed the contract, have you not?"
"I have."
"Then you will know backchat is not acceptable."
"And if you have read my file, you will know that is one of my more charming personality traits."
"Riley, shut the f.u.c.k up," Jack said into my ear. "You do not need to be shoved off the bus just yet."
I bit my bottom lip to restrain my grin and wished I could remind him that he was the one who"d made Poppy the mouth, not me.
Military guy"s expression was less than happy. "Insolence may be good for the ring, but it will lose you money out of it."
"You"d dock my pay?"
"It was in the contract."
"b.u.g.g.e.r. Guess I should have read it better."
His frown darkened, but his gaze moved on. Several of the woman sitting in the back of the bus shifted uncomfortably, and I wondered whether the cause was military guy"s fearsome gaze or the realization they might have gotten themselves into more than they bargained for. Certainly I could "feel" concern in the air-and the mere fact that I was sensing that was a cause of concern for me. Since when had I been able to sense emotions? I"d always been able to sense Quinn"s, true, but that was due to the extraordinary connection between us... wasn"t it?
"Those of you who have read the contract"-the emphasis left me in no doubt who that particular comment was aimed at, but then, it didn"t exactly take a rocket scientist to work that out-"will no doubt be aware that there is one final test on reaching the estate-an obstacle course. If you do not complete this course, you will fail and be returned to the pickup point. If you shift shape during the course, you will also fail."
"Why no shapeshifting?" I piped up.
He gave me a deadpan look. "Because that is the wishes of your new employer."
"So why employ shifters and weres if you don"t want them to shift?"
"Why don"t you just shut up before I stop this bus and boot you out?"
I shut up.
"Those who make it through the obstacle course will be prepared for the arena. It is hand-to-hand fighting, with some wooden weapons allowed. The winner gets a substantial monetary bonus, and will spend the night with my employer"s lieutenants. This is not negotiable, and anyone uncomfortable with this can leave now."
He aimed that last bit at me, though why was anyone"s guess. Poppy was supposed to be half-wolf, and wolves didn"t place the same sort of emphasis on s.e.x that many of the other races did. It was just s.e.x, something to be shared and enjoyed rather than hidden behind closed doors and puritanical att.i.tudes.When I kept my mouth shut, he went on, "Any injuries received in the arena will be tended to by the contestant. Failure to show up in the arena due to injury will result in the loss of that night"s pay."
These boys were all heart.
"There are two areas out of bounds for all contestants," military guy continued. "The zoo, which no one shall enter without proper guidance, and bas.e.m.e.nt levels which contain my employer"s personal quarters."
It also contained the small lab area, which meant getting to Dia"s daughter without being seen was going to be doubly hard.
"Anyone found in my employer"s quarters, for any reason beyond a personal invite, will be instantly dismissed."
No mention there of being returned home. I had a bad feeling that wasn"t actually an option under those circ.u.mstances.
He glanced at his watch, then added, "We are now going to black out the bus. It"ll take approximately one hour to get to the estate. Until then, please sit back and enjoy the ride."
I snorted softly as darkness fell within the bus. "Yeah, I always enjoy riding into parts unknown in a pitch-black bus."
"And I came out of hibernation not so long ago, so black places are not on my list of favorite things at the moment."
I raised my eyebrows. "A bear who doesn"t like the dark?"
"Oh, I have no problem with the dark, wolf. I just don"t like being in it when there"s no real need."
"So you sleep with the light on?"
She snorted. "Of course not. Nor do I make love with the light on. The wobbly bits look better in the dark."
I grinned. "And if you don"t like the look of your partner, it"s easier to imagine you"re with someone else."
"h.e.l.l, yeah." She paused. "So what do you think this is really all about?"
I shrugged, and half-wondered why she was asking that question. I mean, she had no idea who was listening in or who I really was. For all she knew, I might be here to sort out any possible spies. But then, bear-shifters, for all their fearsome att.i.tudes, also had a reputation for brutal honesty. Maybe she simply thought that because I was here, in the middle of the bus, that I was trustworthy.
Or maybe she was the plant.
But for some reason, I thought not-and I have no idea why, other than the fact that I liked her. Considering my low batting average of late when it came to picking friends, I really should be taking that as a sign to be more cautious around her.
"I think we have a rich, eccentric recluse who likes to show off to his friends by throwing wild s.e.x parties."
"But the arena? I like fighting, don"t get me wrong, but this seems a little more serious than the stuff I usually do."
"You fight for a living?"
"I"m a wrestler by trade."