Sawyer froze along with Harley and everyone else in the room. It was Jake who finally shook off the shock first and asked the question that was on the tip of Sawyer’s tongue.
“You mean all the other captives can control electricity like you?” the alpha werewolf asked hesitantly, like he was trying to work through the implications of what she’d told them.
Adriana shook her head. “No, they aren’t like me in that way. None of them can control electricity. But they all have special abilities. One girl could hear what a person was thinking if she touched them. Another one could start fires with her mind. An older man from Serbia not much bigger than I am was so strong he could bend the metal bars of his cell. Well, he could if he wasn’t drugged. The guards took him and the mind reader away earlier in the week. Most of the other captives wouldn’t talk about what they could do because they were too scared someone would use the information against them, but I’m certain every one of them was special in some way.”
“Do you know where they took the strong man and the mind reader or what they did with them?” Harley asked, concern etched on her face.
Sawyer didn’t have to try that hard to know what Harley was thinking. Like him, she was probably worried whoever had kidnapped them had killed them.
“I’m not sure where they took them,” Adriana said. “I overheard the guards talking about a lot of different cities, but I’m not sure if that was where they were heading or where they’d come from. But I heard enough to know they were planning to sell the people. They mentioned an auction where rich people go to buy oddities.”
Sawyer thought he was ready for anything, but he’d been wrong. Bloody hell. There was someone out there collecting supernaturals and putting them up for auction. He suddenly wondered if any of the people they’d kidnapped had been a werewolf. What would a collector of human oddities pay for a werewolf? It was too insane to even think about.
“The guards told me that I’d end up on the auction block, too, if I didn’t fall in line and take the job the woman had offered me,” Adriana added. “The way they said it made it obvious the auction wasn’t a place I wanted to be.”
“Adriana, you said you overheard the guards talking a lot, right?” Harley asked.
The girl nodded.
“Would you be willing to sit down with Tessa and our other intel analysts to go over what you remember from your captivity? It’s possible you know more about what they’re up to than you realize.”
“Of course,” Adriana said. “I’ll talk to anyone you need me to for as long as you need me to. But only if you promise I can go with you when you rescue the other captives, so I can help get Kristoff back.”
On the other side of the table, Jake gave Sawyer a questioning look. Sawyer wasn’t sure taking Adriana with them was a good idea, but they needed information. And if he was being honest, he wouldn’t mind having someone with her abilities along on this mission, either. He nodded at Jake.
A moment later, everyone but Caleb left the room, eager to finally get some sleep. The big werewolf looked at Harley questioningly.
“I’m going to hang around downstairs for a little bit,” she told him. “I’ll see you later.”
Caleb hesitated, his blue eyes darting to Sawyer, his expression unreadable. Mouth tight, he gave Harley a nod, then walked out, leaving her and Sawyer alone. Now that they were by themselves, the raspberry-and-cream scent was even more powerful, not to mention definitely mouthwatering.
“You aren’t tired?” he asked, walking around to where she stood on the other side of the table.
She smiled, tilting her head to the side a little to look up at him. “I am a little, but I’m also hungry, and I can’t sleep on an empty stomach. Besides, I’m in Paris with a few hours to spare, which means I can get to sightsee before we go after the bad guys.”
Sawyer returned her grin. “You want to catch a few of those sights together, then have dinner?”
Harley’s smile broadened, her blue-gray eyes twinkling. “I’d like that.”
It was scary how happy that simple answer made Sawyer.
Chapter 4
“You realize there’s no way we can see the Louvre, Notre-Dame, the Eiffel Tower, walk the Champs-Élysées and still have time to get something to eat, right?” Sawyer asked in that sinfully perfect accent of his as they strolled toward the Seine River. Behind them, the late-afternoon sun bathed everything in soft light. “You’re probably going to need to trim down your wish list and focus on where we can go on foot.”
Harley groaned in despair but knew Sawyer was right. As much as she might want to spend the rest of the day exploring the city, they weren’t going to have time. The truth was, Jake could call any minute to say they were on the move. She didn’t want to waste time riding a bus or taking a train to get to one of the farthest tourist sites and end up missing everything.
“What do you think we have time to see?” she asked.
“Well, we could cross the river and walk along the south side until we get to the Eiffel Tower, then hang out there for a while before following the river to the Pont Alexandre,” he suggested. “From there, we can take the bridge across the river to the Champs-Élysées and pick a restaurant we like.”
There was no way Sawyer could know it, but that was the perfect itinerary. The Eiffel Tower was number one on her must-see list, and it was hard to go wrong with any tour that included the shops along the
