Page 17 of A Lion's Heart
CHAPTER 5
“Are you out of your mind? What the hell were you doing out there with her?”
Keller didn’t waste a moment, jumping right in and making his feelings absolutely clear.
Decan had just walked into the small, dark room where he knew they would be meeting. It was the only room in the entire bunker that was not monitored by cameras or audio. He moved slowly, pulling out a chair and taking a seat before responding.
“I’ve got it under control,” Decan replied and ignored the look of disbelief on the cougar’s face.
“So you knew that rogues were less than twenty feet away from pouncing on both of you while you—”
“I said I’ve got this!” Decan interrupted.
“They’re looking for her,” Gold said, his deep voice breaking through the tension.
“Rome said the threat was down here,” Decan spoke to his longtime friend. “He was certain they were below ground.”
“Doesn’t mean they’re working alone,” Gold continued.
“You need to get her dropped off as quickly as possible. She’s jeopardizing our entire mission,” Keller insisted.
Decan stared at him directly. “Sheisthe mission,” he said coolly. “For now anyway.”
Neither Keller nor Gold spoke. They were most likely as confounded by Decan’s words as he was. Decan had known Keller for ten years, since Decan’s return to Oasis. He and the cougar had shared a similar experience above ground and had both vowed the vengeance on the same human. Gold, on the other hand, was the same age as Decan. They were neighbors in Houston, only nine years-old, when Gold’s parents were killed in a train crash. Maura Canter had announced at the double funeral that Gold would be moving in with them and Jalil had known better than to argue. Decan had been cool with the new arrangement, preferring to have a surrogate brother, over his sisters any day. A year later when their home in Houston was almost burned to the ground as the humans hunted a cheetah shifter who had taken refuge in their cul-de-sac, Decan was sent to live with his grandparents and Gold, who had gone into his shift early and attempted to attack one of the human police, was taken underground with rest of the Canter family.
Now, the three were together, with a job to do. Nisa was interfering with that job.
“This is not what we planned,” Keller insisted.
“I don’t need you to tell me about the plan,” Decan told him. “I know what the plan is because we’ve talked about nothing else for I don’t know how long.”
“It has to be the priority, Decan,” Keller told him. “You know what happens if we don’t succeed.”
“We will succeed,” Gold interjected again. “We have the best cover now to not only get into the Central Zone headquarters, but to also get above ground.”
Decan looked at his old friend standing at his full six-feet four-inches. Gold was a big guy, tall and bulky with eyes the bold color of his name. He spoke in a deep voice with a slight southern twang and fought like the vicious white lion he could so quickly shift into.
“How is that?” Keller asked then, turning his attention to Gold.
Decan knew why Keller was really pissed at him and if he let himself think long and hard about it, he’d be angry with himself as well. But he wasn’t going to do that. Forward movement was the way he liked to proceed. Looking back never did anybody any good.
“There’s a big function above ground day after tomorrow. Every member of the Ruling Cabinet will be there, along with some other international players. We can put somebody in position to infiltrate the Cabinet and feed us the information we need for the final leg of our plan,” Gold told them.
“How do you know about this?” Keller asked.
“Who do you plan on sending to infiltrate the Cabinet?” Decan spoke simultaneously.
Gold folded his beefy arms over a massive chest that pressed almost violently against the material of his black shirt.
“The answer to both questions is Kyss,” he said.
Keller shook his head. “Who the hell is that? More baggage you’ve picked up?”
Both of those inquiries were directed at Decan, who was getting tired of Keller’s tone and attitude. The cougar definitely lived up to his reputation of being all smiles and charm with the females, and a perpetual ass with anyone else.
“She found us,” Gold said. “But I’ve had a chance to check her out a bit since we’ve arrived here. She’s not registered in the database. But there are twin cheetahs who are. Their family goes straight back to Brazil. The mother of the twins had a sister who gave birth twenty-nine years ago. There’s no record of the baby and none of these cheetahs are listed as residents in any of the bunkers here. I suspect they’ve been living in the caves down here for whatever reason. The interesting part—which I was able to get from Kyss—is that they go above ground. A lot.”
“Without permission like someone else, I’m guessing,” Keller stated.
