Chapter 23
Chapter
Twenty-Three
The next morning, Tammy and I had breakfast consisting of the leftover snacks from last night while we devised our plan of capturing a strong, muscular human man who appeared dangerous. We would have to wait for a moment when the two men split.
We had lost our minds.
We didn’t know his intentions or who he worked for, so we couldn’t predict his reaction when we cornered him. He could flee like the last time I tried to approach him in front of the shelter. Or the stranger could fight us, and Tammy and I would be in trouble.
Unless we were prepared.
While I changed my clothes with some of Tammy’s, my best friend sat cross-legged on the bed, buying the most important supplies a woman would need in a dark alley on her phone.
We’d buy our supplies online and then go to the store to pick them up.
“They don’t have those cool taser guns that shoot out wires, Bree. We have to buy from the options they have available here,” she said, eyes glued to her phone. “All other tasers will put us at close contact with the man. But it says that it can penetrate through thick pieces of clothing.”
She lifted her gaze and grinned.
“I’m so matching the pink taser to the pink pepper spray they sell. We will go in style,” she said, and I sighed.
Tammy was helping me with my mission with too much enthusiasm that scared me.
After I got dressed, I used a towel to dry off my hair. I walked into the bathroom and hung it on the plastic curtain rod.
“Tammy, I don’t know if it’s a good idea. I was trained my whole life for danger. And I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me.”
“I don’t want to hear it anymore, Bree. I said I’m coming,” she said as a matter-of-fact, and I sighed again.
Tammy had always had that spark for danger. She enjoyed watching the so-called shows in the fake vampire club, and she’d taken the news about the existence of the supernaturals as if she’d known her whole life, but only now had she received a confirmation of vampire and werewolf existence.
I brushed my teeth with the supplies I’d received at the shelter, foam dripping on my chin.
“The taser won’t work on supernaturals,” I said.
“But you said this man was a human. Your witch instinct told you so.”
“So you trust my gut feeling so easily?” I raised my eyebrows and twisted my head to look at Tammy.
She kept her eyes on the phone while clicking and swiping the screen.
“Of course I do. You’re half witch and royalty, Princess Bree.” Tammy giggled. “If I knew about it earlier, I wouldn’t have missed seven years of teasing you, Your Majesty.”
She finally looked at me and laughed, pointing at the white foam around my mouth. She slightly shook her head, but her smile never disappeared.
I rinsed my mouth.
Although we would be reckless but prepared, I was glad Tammy was happy and healthy, with no side effects from Torin’s compulsion.
“I’m so finding handcuffs with pink feathers on them,” she said, and I let out a small laugh.
“Please don’t. We don’t want to give the man the wrong impression.”
“Speak for yourself, Princess Bree. I haven’t had a boyfriend for…I don’t know. Six months.”
“Please don’t buy the decorative handcuffs. Even a human man can get out of them.”
“Okay, okay.” She paused. “Done. The supplies will be ready to pick up in the afternoon.”
We watched TV and chatted some more until it was checkout time. A cab dropped us off at the store, and we hid our supplies in our backpacks. Then we walked downtown and ate in a cafe, looking around for Torin, but we didn’t see him.
He wouldn’t be able to find us, even if he knew we were in downtown Los Angeles. The city was big enough for us to hide.
“But what if the man brought more people?” I said. “Even if he’s a human man and we could apprehend him, we can do so if he’s alone. But what if his friends are around?”
I trusted my fighting skills but only to an extent. I wouldn’t be able to fight a bunch of men at the same time while focusing on Tammy to make sure she didn’t get injured. An unsettling feeling formed in my stomach, tightening it into knots.
But I swallowed my worries, pushing them deep down.
“We can do this,” I said as we walked toward the shelter. “Something is not right at the shelter, especially during the nights. I have a feeling the supernaturals are involved somehow. And since I need a distraction and mostly a break from the people who lied to me, here we are.”
I pointed to the building across the street.
There was a long line for dinner, just like when I’d first arrived.
“This is the shelter?” Tammy asked.
“Yes. And here are the spots where I saw the two men.” I pointed to the tree and the nearby lamppost. “We need to find a place to watch these spots when the men show up.”
“I’m so glad I’m doing this with you, Bree. This is our second time staking out a place. Remember when we were waiting for Hayden to leave your apartment in London?”
“How can I forget?”
For some reason, I was always running away from Hayden, who had shown me nothing but support. I would owe him more apologies later.
Tammy and I walked farther down the sidewalk and found a small convenience shop with the Closed sign illuminated at the door. To get inside, there were several small steps where Tammy and I sat and waited.
“I’m glad I can do this with you,” I said, nudging Tammy on her elbow.
“Me too, Bree,” she said, but something in her voice made me look at her.
Her eyebrows furrowed, the wrinkle between her eyes deepening. Tammy extended her legs on the stairs and wiped her palms on her jeans.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Well…do you think I can visit the kingdom when you decide to go back?”
“Absolutely. If I could bring a vampire on the territory, no one would mind me bringing my human best friend.”
Her mouth fell open as she stared at me. “What did you do?”
And then for the next fifteen minutes, I told her the story about the vampire spy and Lucy and how all the Alphas were outraged by their future Queen’s behavior.
Tammy smiled. “Why am I not even surprised? But that’s who you are, Bree. Don’t change for some big-ego, stubborn Alphas.” She giggled. “So are the Alphas hot?”
“No way. Focus, girl.”
The line for food across the street dwindled, and everyone eventually took cover inside. The streetlights turned on as night fell. The temperature dropped significantly, and I felt it in my bones and numb butt.
As the streets quieted down, a white sedan parked not too far away, and the two men from that night climbed out and took their usual spots at the tree and the lamppost.
“There are two of them,” Tammy whispered.
It was too many when Tammy would be next to me. I couldn’t completely focus on fighting one man if I had to watch Tammy’s back. I just wanted her to be safe.
“We wait, Tammy.”
“For what?”
“Until they change their position.”
Watching the unmoving men from a distance was the longest hour in my life. But eventually, as anticipated, one of them started walking toward the shelter. He crossed the street and headed to the side alley, his back disappearing in the darkness.
The other man watched him and then walked to the other side of the shelter.
“Now we follow.”
We crept slowly to the alley where the first man had disappeared. My mind went through various what-if scenarios to ensure I had a solution for each situation. What if the second man followed us? What if more people hid in the alley? What if the supernaturals jumped out of the darkness?
I didn’t know how Tammy and I would escape these other tricky situations.
I sucked in a deep breath. I couldn’t show Tammy I was nervous. She was in such a good mood with her silly grin and bright, excited eyes.
We stood at the only entrance and exit of the dark alley, but I couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead of me. I stepped forward with slow but confident strides until my gaze landed on the man in front of us.
He stood at the alley's dead end with his arms crossed over his torso.
“Do you ladies think this is a game?” he said in a deep voice.
His gaze traveled over Tammy and stopped at her front jeans pocket. There, half of the handcuffs hung over her thigh. He grinned at her, and Tammy blew a strand of hair off her face.
Good. He was distracted. How was I supposed to signal Tammy to move forward with me and keep distracting him while I tasered the guy?
I only took a step forward when Tammy walked toward the guy without glancing at me. What was she thinking? He was still dangerous.
When she was a few steps away, my gaze fell on the pink taser poking out of her back jeans pocket.
Before I could react, Tammy stood in front of the man. My heart dropped to my stomach as I imagined him swinging a punch into her face, but he didn’t.
His eyes followed her every move. Tammy twisted a strand of hair around the fingers of her left hand, and with her right hand, she reached for the pink taser.
She shoved the taser into the man’s stomach. The electricity crackling echoed in the alley. The man groaned and hunched over, but Tammy didn’t turn off her stun gun. The man finally fell onto his knees.
It took longer than the advertised thirty-second nervous system incapacitation feature. The stranger convulsed as the energy passed through his body. The man was muscular and heavy but eventually dropped on the ground like a sack of potatoes.
The loud zapping stopped as Tammy stepped away from the unmoving body. Her face turned pale.
“Bree, did his heart stop? Is he breathing?” She put her hands over her face, the taser hanging from her wrist band. “Is he okay?”
I dashed to her side.
“He’s only unconscious, but he’s okay. I promise,” I said, and on cue, the man’s body twitched.
Tammy gasped. “Bree, give me the pepper spray.”
This girl.
“No need. Put the handcuffs on him.”
Tammy put the taser in her back pocket and pulled out the handcuffs. I helped her move the body and then placed the metal around his wrists.
The man grunted, and his eyes fluttered opened. His gaze focused on Tammy and me.
“Why are you watching the shelter?” I asked.
He shook his head and winced. “You really don’t expect me to answer that, right?”
“I expect you to do so, if you want to live.”
Tammy’s eyes grew big, and she stared at me. I wasn’t going to kill the man.
“Who do you work for?” I asked.
“I work alone,” he said.
I sighed. He wasn’t going to talk to us. Even though he lay on the ground handcuffed, he didn’t see me and Tammy as a threat.
Tammy moved behind the man. “I have an idea that will make him talk.”