KACELA
Bob ordered pizza to be delivered to the room and the five of us worked on a plan. We decided that Earl and I would go in and talk to some of the workers directly. Nellie, Bob and Theo were going to go snooping around.
I ate my pizza and listened to Nellie argue with Earl about what would be the best way to go about doing the snooping. I didn’t often go in with a plan, preferring to wing it most of the time. I tentatively offered that opinion up.
“Hey guys, I’m kind of new to the whole group project thing, but I generally don’t go in with a plan.” Earl looked at me with outrage. I hurried to continue. “I go in with a general idea, but I find that I can’t have a cut and dry plan. If I do, it limits me thinking on the fly.”
Nellie turned to Earl with a look of triumph. “See?” she asked. I snorted.
“You had a
KACELAUnfortunately, I was three floors up. I opened the small window and poked my head out. The office building was located at the edge of the shipping yard and formed a natural barrier to the boundary. I was looking out on to a busy street; cars were whizzing by.There was also no handy balcony nearby or tree that was a few feet from the window. I wasn’t spiderwoman, so I wasn’t going to be able to climb down the sheer wall of the building. I sighed and then looked up. That was going to be the direction I was going to end up going.I opened the window wider, and then sat on the sill. I wiggled out and then grabbed the brick molding outside the window and then stood, balancing on the sill.I scooted out a little further, gripping the edge with my toes and reaching down to close the window. Below me a car blew his horn as he passed by; I was pretty sure it was a comment on his abilit
KACELA“Earl! Where are you hit?” I shrieked, grabbing at the man and running my hands over him. He grabbed my hands and gave me a little shake.“Kacela! I’m not hit. You are!” He forcibly turned me and pushed me down on the seat, pushing my head into Nellie’s lap and frantically pulling my sweater up. I looked down and saw an ugly wound in my side, puffy and purple, oozing blood.“We got to get her to the clinic!” he shouted at Bob who took a turn too quickly, causing our backend to swing out.“Can’t, boss! They’re right on our tail!”I tried to sit up to look out the back window but Earl pushed me down just as another bullet hit the back of our car.“Head for the interstate,” I shouted. “They won’t shoot at us with so many people around. We can lose them there.”
KACELATo my relief, I was able to find a copy of the file that was too big for me to put on my drive. I quickly downloaded it from the cloud to my hard drive and then I pulled all of the files from the jump drive. I sat back, sighing in relief.“Can we please take care of this now?” Earl asked in exasperation.I nodded, examining it. “Yeah.” I probed at it with my finger. “I’m going to have to pull out the bullet. It’s still in there.”Earl looked distasted. “I figured. I’ve got some basics. I’ll pull it out.”I was relieved. “That would be good,” I said. “It’s hard to do this stuff on yourself.”Earl nodded. “I know,” he said, shortly. I looked at him with interest. There was a story there.I leaned sideway, lifting up my sweater.&n
KACELA“It’s one of our old warehouses. It hasn’t been used in a while. It’s actually on the market to sell but no one wants it. Location isn’t great and it’s been vacant since we quit manufacturing furniture ten years ago.”I looked at Earl. “Are you sure this is safe? They found us at the hotel.”He shrugged. “It’s under the old company name. There’s quite a bit in this town associated with Borderline Timber. It will take them a few days to work through all of that before ending up at an old Circle L Lumber warehouse.”I nodded. This was better than sleeping in the woods or on a beach, that’s for sure. Theo drove up to a door and Bob slid out of the seat beside me, going over to the door and snapping the padlock off. He raised it up so we could drive through, dropping it with a heavy crash. I was onc
KACELAWe were following Earl to the little office he had set up when something occurred to me. “What are you doing here?” I asked Wyatt. It took three hours to get here. I was still up on the roof in the shipping yard three hours ago. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.Wyatt had the good sense to look ashamed. “I couldn’t take it,” he said. “I sent Julie to Spokane on some errands and then I had a helicopter bring me to Seattle.”I stopped and turned to look at him. “A helicopter?”“Yeah,” he blushed. “I panicked, okay? I had visions of all these horrible things happening to you.” He gestured to my side. “And I was right, okay? I needed to be here.”I looped my arms through him. “You need to get over yourself. We were highly effective. And I’ve been shot
WYATTI stood in front of my mate, not wanting to force her to do anything but knowing I would if she didn’t do as I had asked. I felt a surge of protectiveness towards her and my Lycan was warring with me. He wanted me to pick her up and throw her over my shoulder, taking her back to the castle where she was safe. I wouldn’t be able to handle it if anything happened to her.She eyed me up and down before turning and lifting her sweater to pull it off and over her head. I reached forward to help, knowing that she was in pain. I kept my poker face, but my insides were screaming when I saw the wound.It was purple and puffy. I recognized a field stitch and I knew that Earl had probably stitched her up. I leaned down and sniffed it, feeling relieved when I didn’t smell any infection. She giggled.“What’s so funny?” I asked mildly.“You’re sniffing me
KACELAWyatt gently shook me awake a few hours later. I got up and put on jeans, combat boots and a flannel shirt over a tank top. I braided my hair and pinned it to the top of my head, letting one small braid drop down over my eye. I was ready.I joined Wyatt at the railing, looking down at the main level. There were eight SUVs now parked in there and the door opened to allow another one to drive in. Warriors were milling around.Wyatt tapped my arm. “Earl is mind linking me. He wants me to give you a heads up. He’s going to have you talk to the men.”I nodded. I was surprised and a little concerned that the men might take exception to that, but it that’s what Earl wanted, I would definitely rise to the occasion.Someone gave a sharp whistle and the chattering stopped. Earl climbed to the top of the SUV and garnered the attention of everyone.“Warriors
KACELA The car I was in parked at the back of the lot that was in front of the building. The other vehicle circled around back to find a way in that way. We got out, pairing up, and I grabbed a warrior named Jack. “I’m going to lean in to you so they can’t see my eye and my scar,” I told him. “Don’t freak out. I’m not hitting on you.” We all enjoyed a chuckle at the joke, even though Jack seemed a little uncomfortable having the King’s mate hanging off his arm. We split up, another couple behind us a few people and then, down the line, two more warriors hanging off from each other. The line moved a little faster than some clubs that I’ve been to, but it was still slow. When my turn came I showed one of the many fake IDs I carry, this one identifying myself as Devon Jackson. I giggled and rubbed up against Jack who fist bumped the bouncer and called him “Bro.” We were admitted and I pushed away from Jack,