Shifted

“Wife o’ mine, you asked for it.” Andrew lurched and slammed hard.

Nicolla threw her head backward, panting. New fire exploded. “Fuck.”

Chapter Nine

The house AI woke Kelly up in the middle of the night, telling her she had received an important call. She jumped and slid down from the bed to reach the nearest vid comm before her brain registered what had happened. The AI turned on the bedroom light automatically, and projected the holo-image of the caller right in front of her. “Gunnar,” Kelly exclaimed, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

He was driving his car, looking frantic. “It’s about Tyler. He flipped out.”

“Flipped out?” Kelly scrubbed her eyes. “Why?”

“He said he’s going to kill Strickland so we could all be free.”

“What?” Kelly was completely awake by now. “Is he nuts?”

“He’s desperate, Nick. I’m heading to Strickland’s house, but I’m going to pick you up on the way there. Maybe we can reason with him before he does something stupid. Get ready.”

“I will.” Kelly hurried to the closet and raided some clothes. By the time she’d finished putting her jeans on, she heard Gunnar beeping his car from the driveway of the mansion. Kelly dashed outside and jumped into the coupé. She slammed the door and buckled up. “Give me a quick rundown of why Tyler did something this incredibly reckless?”

Gunnar hit the gas and sped onto the main road. He looked as disturbed as Kelly felt. “He’s tired. Frustrated. And pissed. He wanted to end the main reason you’ve been so miserable all these years, so you can be free.”

Kelly pulled her hair. “He knows I just a hired a lawyer who could get us out of Strickland’s contract. Why would he do something this stupid?”

“Like I said before, he’s frustrated. He didn’t want you to be used as Strickland’s plaything anymore. That’s why he wanted to end it all.”

“By killing Strickland?”

Gunnar threw her a cursory glance. “You know that Strickland is going to cast you in Pirates, right?”

“He told me a couple days ago.”

“Tyler and I weren’t cast in Pirates. You’ll be fucking somebody else. Tyler didn’t want that to happen.”

“Tyler thinks killing Strickland will solve everything?”

“I don’t know what’s on Tyler’s mind. I was thinking we run away or something along that line. You’re not fucking any other men than us.”

Kelly glared at Gunnar. Men. Did their testicles do most of the thinking? She leant forward and pressed the call button on the dashboard. The car’s AI asked her the number she wished to connect to. Kelly gave it Durbo’s number. The AI connected the call and a sleepy voice answered from the other end. “Wake up!” Kelly barked. “We have a problem.”

Gunnar slammed on the brakes when they saw Tyler’s car sloppily parked at the kerb by Strickland’s mansion. The engine was still running and the door was ajar. Tyler was nowhere in sight, but they saw the front gate had been forced open. It seemed Tyler had buried a pick-axe into the gate’s security keypad to gain entrance into Strickland’s home. Kelly and Gunnar both swore at the same time. “I hope we’re not too late.” Gunnar unbuckled and rushed out of the car.

Kelly followed suit. “Was Tyler carrying a gun?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see him carry anything. We only talked through the vid comm.”

“Does he own one?”

“You know Tyler. He can be unpredictable sometimes.”

Kelly cursed again. She didn’t know Tyler that much. Gunnar motioned at her to be quiet. She trotted behind him as they slipped past the gate. The mansion was dark and surrounded in dead silence. It looked like Tyler had disabled the house AI so he could exact his rage on Strickland without any interference from Strickland’s securities. Kelly felt panic rising as they entered the front door. It wasn’t locked either. This was definitely not good.

Kelly had never stepped foot inside Strickland’s private residence, so she didn’t know her way around. She tailed Gunnar as he swept to the main staircase. She guessed Gunnar was heading to Strickland’s private home office.

Her guess was right. As they approached the grand hallway, they heard a man’s voice yelling from behind the closed door. Kelly sucked in her breath. It was Tyler. Gunnar kicked the door open without the slightest hesitation.

“What the fuck…” Tyler looked surprised.

“Stop it,” Gunnar barked.