Trust Me

Jericho’s POV

“Word of mouth is the best form of advertising,” Ash informed me when I told him my new plan. “Public opinion is fairly easily altered because people love to judge others. It’s easier to point out others’ flaws than look within.”

I jotted all his advice down, taking notes as Draven mapped out a route for our challenge.

Ash’s voice piped up through the speaker of the cell phone again.

“It’s really a basic concept. You start with a question: Where are all the young, eligible women in town? You ask this in enough places, it gets everyone rousing the question among themselves. What is the common denominator in all these missing women? I’m sure it’s been asked before but either silenced or ignored. The idea is to connect Knox with these missing women and his trafficking ring.”

“How?” I pressed. “So far, all I know is that the Black Society itself has brought women through other regions. Nothing has Knox’s actual name on it.”

“Knox is the Black Society,” Ash reminded me.

I didn’t like to admit that, but he was right.

“For now,” I grumbled.

“I’m sending you more men, but that’s going to have to be the last of it. I need the rest here. I’m having some troubles of my own with one of the newer… takeovers.”

I smothered a sigh. I wasn’t ungrateful. Quite the opposite, but I wasn’t winning any wars with so few.

“I can connect with Atlas out of Elavoc City. His oversight of Nyfor gives him access to some shadier types who might be able to help in your cause.”

I chewed on my inner cheek as I thought about it.

“Not yet,” I told him. “Maybe as a last resort.”

“I’ll put him on notice. Atlas is the type who’ll expect something in return for that kind of gift.”

“I remember,” I muttered. “Never mind Atlas right now. I’m going to try to deal with this intelligently.”

“I hope you don’t run out of time.”

He was only saying what I was already thinking.

Disconnecting the call, I turned to the men and Lora, who had made it through the night unscathed.

“You know what to do?” I asked the team, and everyone rose from their respective places, nodding in unison.

I peered at Lora, whose color had returned to normal since I’d last seen her.

“Have you heard from Aria?” I asked.

She appeared surprised by my question.

“No,” she admitted. “She didn’t show up to do her deliveries yesterday, but Knox didn’t seem to notice.”

I thought about the single-lined text I’d received from her, asking me not to contact her. She’d kept her word about contacting me by noon, but she hadn’t returned to the hotel like she’d said.

I couldn’t sit around and wait for her.

“I’m taking this area here,” I told them, pointing at the blocks closest to Aria’s house.

If I happened to run into her, it would be a coincidence.

“You can’t!” Lora told me, her eyes enlarging.

Annoyed, I looked at her. “Why not?”

“Because Knox and Elle live right here.”

She pressed her finger at their location, and my jaw slacked slightly. I hadn’t realized just how close their houses were to one another.

“It’s far too risky for you to be that close to their place and the warehouse,” Lora went on. “And I can’t take that area, either. It will have to be one of those guys.”

She pointed at the trio.

“I’ll do it,” Silver offered. He eyed me meaningfully. “And if I see Ms. Morrow, I’ll inform her that you’d like to hear from her.”

I nodded curtly, gathering the map and signaling everyone out the door.

“We’ll meet back here at five. If you get into any trouble, kill anyone who gets in your way. We’re not going to be sitting ducks again. Got it?”

* * *

This was the first day I’d been freely out since the day I’d arrived in Amestris. It was the first time I’d been in my town with my memories intact, wandering through the familiarly unfamiliar streets, odd twinges of lost nostalgia plucking at my chest as I tried to place the new buildings with old landmarks.

I ventured into storefronts off the ancient boardwalk in the main core. That had always been there, grounding me to my place in reality. Very few things remained the same, and the realization was a bitter pill to swallow.

Shifters all aged differently. Originals, like me, were immortal. Some shifters lived hundreds of years. Some only lived decades, like humans.

I thought that some of my old friends and associates would still be alive. But those I thought might recognize me had aged so much, most of whom were senile.

I was a stranger in the town I built, but that was going to change starting today.

Making my rounds through the shops like a newcomer to the area, I made pleasant small talk with shop owners and restaurant servers, planting the question that had been clearly weighing on everyone for many years.

Where had all the females gone?

“Oh, Amestris doesn’t offer a lot in the way of opportunities for young ladies,” one nervous middle-aged human told me as she shuffled coco bars onto the shelf of her grocery stand. “They move onto better things.”

“Oh, yeah? Where?”

She shifted her shoulders away, the conversation clearly making her uncomfortable.

“My sister said she was heading to Fabrice,” she explained in a low voice. “That was many years ago, though.”

“Does she like it there?” I asked.

The woman, whose name was Becca, twisted her fingers nervously. “I’m not sure if she ever made it there,” she admitted. “That seems to be the way of the wild lands sometimes, you see? They’re not very forgiving.”

“Because of the desert?” I asked pointedly.

She finally met my eyes. “Because of the animals in the desert.”

This is the worst kept secret in Amestris. Everyone has known about this! How could Aria not have seen it?

I swallowed to think of how lucky she had been not to have been sold herself.

“I sure picked the wrong place to find me a wife, didn’t I?” I joked, studying her face closely.

Once again, Becca turned away from me, her cheeks staining red, as if she had said too much.

“You’ll do better to look elsewhere for a partner,” she agreed, exhaling nervously. “There are some in this town that don’t much care for competition. It’s gone to hell since my granddad first settled here.”

My brow rose, but before I could press her for more information, a reddish-blonde head passed by my gaze out the window.

Aria!

“Excuse me,” I growled, my quest temporarily forsaken as I pushed out of the grocery store toward my mate.

She walked quickly, her shoulders slumped inward as if her pack weighed a ton on her back.

I waited until she slipped through one of the alleyways to catch up to her. As my hand touched her shoulder, she whipped around to take a chunk out of my hand.

Laughing, I backed away.

“Whoa! Easy there,” I chuckled, reaching for her.

Relief buckled her knees.

“You’re okay!” she breathed, hugging me quickly but withdrawing just as fast. “I was worried about you.”

“I was worried about you,” I corrected her. “You promised to come back, and then you sent me that cryptic text.”

She sighed and stared up at me, her aqua eyes luminous and concerned.

“What are you doing out like this? It’s dangerous, Jericho!”

I cupped her face and smiled. “Don’t worry,” I told her.

She scoffed and withdrew.

“How can you say that?” she demanded. “All I’ve done since you’ve been back is worry. Knox wants you dead!”

“He’s going to have to try harder than he already has to kill me,” I reminded her. “Come back to the hotel with me—”

“I can’t! You and I can’t even be seen together,” Aria rasped. “Knox’s men—”

I caught her lower lip with my mouth, silencing her endless doubt for half a second. Against her will, she softened against me, the pulse of her heart quickening.

“What is your endgame, Jericho?” she whispered when we parted.

I brushed a strand of hair out of her face and kissed her forehead sweetly.

“You,” I told her. “You’re my endgame. You always have been. That’s why I was led back to you. Can’t you see that?”

Aria closed her eyes. “Then let’s just get out of here,” she begged me, balling her fists to place them pleadingly on my chest. “Let’s forget about Amestris and go start over somewhere else. We can go back to Van Zanth or—”

Again, I stopped her with a long kiss. This time, she pulled back.

“Stop trying to silence me,” she whimpered. “I’m afraid, Jericho.”

Wrapping her in my arms, I rained kisses over her face and neck, willing her to let go of her fear and trust in me as she once had so implicitly.

“I won’t let anything happen to you,” I rasped, my tongue lashing out to capture her earlobe. “You need to trust me.”

“I do…” she mewled, succumbing to my arms as they wrapped around her waist, drawing her up against my hardening cock.

“Don’t be scared, Princess. I will always protect you.”