Saving Briar

“They won’t let us see her. Hell, they won’t even admit that she’s here or that they know who she is.” Ted sank into the booth that Theon and Torin were occupying in a corner of the bar downstairs in Rose Industries largest hotel. Ted had reached out to a young woman he had taken care of a couple of years earlier that he knew had spent time working for Mr. Rose. The woman in question was a deer shifter who had been badly injured after returning to Alaska and attempting to keep her income going by turning the same tricks that she’d used when she’d worked for a year at the Dragon’s Lair.

Tania had been hurt by another shifter, she wouldn’t tell Ted who during the entire time she was under his care, and while he had his suspicions based on the nature of her injuries, he’d known that the woman was unlikely to get justice when she looked like she’d been attacked by a wild animal. Besides that, most shifters tried to stay off the radar of local human authorities, and that was especially true when it came to some of the shyer types of shifters, which included most of the deer shifters that Ted had met.

Still, he’d had her phone number in his cell phone and he’d called her once he knew for sure that they were headed to Vegas, hopeful she might give him some insight into the process that Briar was likely going through. At the very least he hoped that she could point them in the right direction, literally, to find where Briar might have been taken.

Tania had made him promise he wouldn’t tell anyone where he’d gotten his information from, and after he’d reassured her she had asked whether or not the girl that they were searching for was a virgin. That, she told him confidently, would make a big difference as to where she went when she first arrived in the city.

If she wasn’t, she would head straight to The Dragon’s Lair to start work. When Ted had indicated that he thought she likely was a virgin, Tania had sucked in a long breath, and Ted had gotten the distinct impression that she really didn’t want to get involved with whatever it was that they were doing. He knew she was only helping him because she felt that she owed him, and also probably in large part, because she lived half a world away from Hudson Rose and that undoubtedly made her feel a bit safer.

“If she is a virgin, they’ll hold an auction. Mr. Rose usually moves fast on those, so I would expect it to be within forty-eight hours of her arrival in Vegas. Probably sooner. She might not agree to it, and he won’t force her, but she’ll probably make as much as she would in a year in that auction. And if she’s already coming down there and planning on selling herself, she might as well cash in. And I don’t know if it has changed because it’s been a few years, but when I was there they took the new girls to a special area in the Rose hotel that’s on the strip. There’s no way you’ll be able to get in there though. Security is tight. And honestly your best bet of getting her back is probably in the auction. The girls go for a lot, but it would guarantee you getting into the room with her.”

Ted had thanked her for the information and then quietly repeated the words to Torin once they were in the SUV they’d rented at the airport, heading in the direction of downtown.

Torin had only nodded silently, his jaw clenching harder, if that was even possible, at the latest news.

“I have an idea.” Oaklyn had been quiet for the entire trip, so when she spoke, her eyes narrowing as she surveyed the room, all three men sitting at the table fell silent. “Stay here. I’ll try to get all of us in but I might only be able to get you in. If that’s the case don’t blow this.” Theon’s eyes widened in surprise when she indicated that he was the one she might be able to get in.

All three men watched as she got up and walked confidently in the direction of the bar. She leaned forward against the bar and made eye contact with the bartender, but Torin could neither see nor hear what she was up to over the noise coming from the nearby casino, and the music being played over the speakers in the bar.

The bartender frowned and moved closer to Oaklyn, bending his head so they were close enough to speak without being overheard by anyone else at the bar. Then she tilted her head towards their table, glancing in their direction for just a moment, but a few seconds later the bartender’s gaze darted to their table and his brow was furrowed as he stared at the three men that Oaklyn had obviously brought his attention to.

After a few more minutes of conversation, Oaklyn straightened, and reached over and touched the bartender’s arm lightly before nodding and turning back towards their booth. When she reached the table she scooted into the booth next to Ted, who had looked ready to follow her to the bar from the moment she had headed in that direction.

“Is he on the phone?” Oaklyn’s voice was low and toneless, and Torin was certain that only the men at the table could hear her.

“Not yet- oh- yes. He is.” It was Theon who responded, as he continued to watch the bartender, not bothering to hide what he was doing.

“I told him that we need a meeting with Mr. Rose. Of course when I said it he practically laughed in my face. Or he would have if he wasn’t trying to get in my pants. Anyways, then I told him that Theon here is mated to the girl that Mr. Rose is about to auction off. That got his attention, and by his reaction to what I said I think that our guess is right and there is going to be an auction, although I couldn’t confirm it was Briar, since I was acting like I already knew way more than we actually do know for sure.”

“I told him that we would be here for half an hour, but that I thought he should probably want to send word up to Mr. Rose that he needs to meet with us, because if this guy so much as touches anyone else before their mate bond is broken, Mr. Rose’s newest employee will be unconscious and more or less useless for the better part of a day. I don’t know if that’s true but Mr. Bartender over there is a dragon shifter, I can guarantee, and I’d be willing to bet that he doesn’t know for sure either. He finally said he’d make the call, but he couldn’t guarantee a meeting.”

Five minutes passed before a large, intimidating man stopped in front of their table. For a moment Torin thought that they were going to be thrown out, but despite the scowl on his face the man didn’t tell them to leave when he opened his mouth to speak.

“Mr. Rose says he’ll meet with the two of you. The blonde and the girl’s mate. You two can stay down here until Mr. Rose is done with them.”

Torin ground his teeth together, his hands in fists on the table but managed not to say any of the things that were going through his head. Oaklyn seemed relaxed and clearly had a plan as she rose, giving the two men remaining at the table a reassuring smile.

Torin hoped she knew what she was doing. They were running out of time if Briar really was going to be part of some sick auction later that night. Gripping the glass of water on the table in front of him he let out a long, slow breath. He shouldn’t have let Briar leave to begin with, but now that he was in the same town that she was in, and probably even in the same building, he wasn’t going to let her slip away a second time because he was afraid to repeat the past.