“I’ll remember that,” Lee said, staring at Dev with new respect.
Dev climbed back up the hill and held his hand out to help me up. “Is that satisfactory?”
I looked down on the small forest that now obstructed the roadway. It was better than any little detour sign. There was no way even a large truck was blasting through that thicket of strong trees. What took nature twenty years, Dev had managed in a minute. And he could reverse it at the end of the job. He would wave his hands and the whole grove would be back to seeds. The road—not so much. There were going to be some serious traffic jams in the morning.
“It’s hard to remember you used to be crappy at magic.” When we’d met, he’d struggled with control.
“That was before I found my goddess.” He touched the place where the gold medallion rested under my shirt. “It means what it says. It will only be stronger once the ceremony is performed. Declan is meeting us at the Gathering. He hasn’t said he’ll give his consent yet, but he will act as witness. I have no doubt I’ll convince him. I’ll get the real one around your neck. You’ll see.”
I still didn’t understand why we needed royal consent to perform a fertility ritual. It wasn’t like it wouldn’t work because Declan didn’t give us his blessing. I’d started to notice the insane amount of pregnant females living in our building. I’d heard the women joking about something being in the water. It wasn’t in the water, but he was living in the penthouse. Looking at those shiny green trees, it struck me that Dev’s power had grown in leaps and bounds since he met me. If his power over plants had grown exponentially, then I had to figure his fertility powers had done the same. It made me want to up the strength of my birth control shots. I shook my head because that was just one of those problems I didn’t like to think about. It seemed like something I would inevitably have to deal with, but I didn’t want to borrow trouble.
“Truck’s coming,” Lee said, his hearing able to detect the advance of our prey far sooner than we could.
I touched my earpiece. “Zack, is anyone else coming?”
“That’s a negative.” Zack watched far too many movies. “It’s all quiet here.”
“Let me know if that changes,” I replied.
There was the grinding sound of large brakes pumping furiously at the unexpected obstruction in the road. I pulled the ski mask over my face, getting ready for about ten uncomfortable minutes. Dev and Lee did the same. The three of us ran down to the road, weapons at the ready. The brakes groaned under the pressure and the truck started to jackknife, but finally the large vehicle came to a stop just as it bumped against the incomprehensible bit of nature in the middle of the highway.
“What the hell is that?” a male voice asked as one of the doors to the truck came open. He had an incredulous look on his face, and I knew I’d made the right call. If I’d tried anything vaguely normal, they would have attempted to turn around and gone into lock-down mode. There would have been no avoiding gunfire.
“I have no idea but I’m calling it in,” the other voice said. This one came from the driver’s seat.
“I’m going to have to ask you not to do that, gentlemen.” I held the Ruger steady, the driver’s head in my sights.
Lee moved quickly and before the driver had a chance to hit the call button, he was being hauled out the door. Lee pulled him by his shirt and held him a good two feet off the ground. “You ready?”
Dev nodded, not saying anything he didn’t have to. He worked gloves over his hands and took out the plastic restraints we’d bought for just this occasion. The guy in my sights watched us, hands held in the air. He wasn’t panicking, and I was grateful for that. Calm kept everyone alive.
I stepped up to my guy. “I’ll need the gun, buddy. Reach one hand into the holster, carefully lay it on the ground and kick it over here, please. No heroics, okay? They can both move faster than you think, and they won’t take kindly to you trying to shoot me.”
“I have a wife and two kids,” he stated quietly, looking at the ground rather than me. He knew what he was doing if he didn’t want to get shot. He played at my humanity and made no move to be able to identify me later.
“I’ll make sure you get back to them in one piece.” I had zero desire to hurt some guy for doing his job. This is why I greatly prefer cracking safes. Safes don’t tell me about all the people who’ll miss them if they’re suddenly dead. “My partner over there is going to tie up your friend. Then we’ll get to you. Would we tie you up if we meant to shoot you? We’re not even going to take the truck. We’re interested in one item and then we’ll be on our way. Now, I really need the gun.”
He nodded and slowly, carefully slid his weapon from his holster and laid it on the ground. He used his foot to kick it my way and then dropped to his knees, assuming the proper position for turning oneself over. Dev had efficiently restrained the first guard and placed him on the side of the road facing away from us. I had given him this particular duty because he was damn good at it. Having been tied up by Dev on numerous occasions, I knew our victims would suffer no ill effects from his talents.
When both men were properly restrained, I started for the truck. Luckily, I knew what I was looking for. “It’s in a wooden crate marked fifty-seven.”
He nodded and we started toward the back of the truck. I could still feel the heat of the day on the asphalt and the quiet in the air around seemed slightly ominous. I shook off the feeling and tried to concentrate on the job, but I was still worried about Daniel. It wasn’t like him to be late.
Heavy locks held the doors of the truck together. I could easily pick the locks or I could have brought some liquid nitrogen to freeze them and then break the offending material. Why bother when Lee could just pull it off? With one hand he easily broke through hundreds of dollars of security. The door came open, showing us the well-packed exhibit. In the moonlight, I could see the stacks of crates.
Dev jumped up and switched on his flashlight, illuminating the interior of the truck. There was enough room to maneuver through the rows of packages. He held his hand out and gave me a quick tug to bring me to his side. I glanced back at Lee, who had the strangest look on his face. He stayed back, which was odd because he always preferred to go before me. He typically shoved me back when I tried to go first and, despite the fact that Dev was here, I expected him to protest. He took his job seriously and probably wouldn’t even trust Daniel to do it right.
“What’s wrong, Lee?”
“I don’t want to go in there, Zoey,” he admitted, because Lee was nothing if not honest. If there was one thing I’d learned about Lee, it was that he followed his instincts. “Whatever is in there, I don’t want it anywhere near me. There’s something bad in that truck. My every instinct tells me to get the fuck away from that thing.”
I nodded, not wanting to push him to do anything he didn’t want to do. It gave me a great confidence that we were getting exactly what we wanted. The artifact must be powerful for Lee to be able to sense it through all the packing material. “It’s all right. Dev and I can handle it. You watch our two guests. We’ll be done in roughly two minutes. Give me the crowbar.”
Lee handed me the metal tool, and Dev started to check the numbers on the crates surrounding us.
I was a bit startled when Zack spoke softly in my ear. “Zoey, you have a car coming. It’s moving fast.”
“Understood. We’ll be out of here in five minutes tops. Get your furry ass here now. We’ll pick you up on the way.” I’d hoped to have more time, but it looked like our two drivers were going to be rescued pretty quickly. I had no doubt whoever came across them would call the police immediately.