Unleashed by Katie MacAlister Page A

going,” I said to Avery’s back. He snored softly in response. “I agree completely. If I tell her, she’ll just insist on turning around and accompanying me, and while Albert knows and trusts me, he doesn’t know Cora. And his whole group is rather skittish where people are concerned, so really, the best idea is to just leave a note and go from there. Right? Right. I’m so glad you see things my way.”
    I scribbled a brief note and taped it to the spotted mirror that grimly reflected images with a sense of futility and hopelessness that was beginning to get on my nerves. I blew a saucy kiss to the blond man snoring gently on the bed, and I escaped the depressing confines of the room.
    The motel was made up of twelve little cabins spread out in a drunken line on either side of an equally squalid office, all of which clung to the side of the highway that ran up into the mountains, through to the eastern side of the state. I took stock of my surroundings, pulled up a map on my cell phone, and scurried around behind our cabin to the dense alpine growth. I knew from times tramping through the region that there was a narrow dirt road about a mile away used by utility officials to maintain the large power lines that ran up and over the mountain pass. If I remembered correctly, the western edge of Albert Baum’s land wasn’t more than another mile east of that track. It wouldn’t take me more than an hour to hike across the Baum land to Albert’s compound, have a quick chat with him, and be back before Avery woke up.
    Twenty minutes later, as I ignored a weathered No Trespassing—Private Wildlife Preserve sign that hung from one corner on a listing fence pole to climb a rotting wooden fence (no barbed wire for the animal-oriented Leshy group), I congratulated myself on my smart thinking. “I’ll have Albert Baum all taken care of by the time Avery wakes up. Maybe Albert can even remove whatever it is he did to Avery.”
    A thought occurred to me in a voice that sounded almost identical to that of my sister. “I’m not compelled to help him,” I argued with what I knew she’d say if she was with me. “He’s a nice man, no matter what you think. And don’t ask me how I know; I just do—I could see into his mind, and although he’s very full of himself, he’s . . .” My voice trailed off as I trudged across a small open meadow, and I struggled for a word to define what I felt inside of Avery.
    A female Roosevelt elk and her calf, no doubt one of Albert’s transplants from the Olympic National Park, emerged from the dense growth of trees and watched me warily as I followed a game trail through the knee-high grass. I made an abstracted mental note to check my clothing over carefully for deer ticks before I entered Albert’s compound.
    â€œHonorable, that’s the word,” I said finally as I left the meadow and struggled up a short, sharp incline. “He’s honorable.”
    â€œAye, but you’re not,” a man’s voice said from behind me. I spun around, out of sheer instinct my hand on my tranquilizing gun, only to find a tall, lanky man with long brown hair scowling at me.
    â€œOh, hello. You’re Franz Baum, aren’t you?”
    â€œDieter,” he corrected me, taking a step toward me that was filled with enough menace to have me scrambling backward up the hill. “Franz is my brother.”
    â€œThat’s right. I don’t know if you remember me or not. My name is Jacintha Ferreira and I’m—”
    â€œYou’re the female from the government. The one who’s always after Da.” He continued to stalk toward me, lifting his chin to sniff the air. “You’re not in heat.”
    I blinked a couple of times as I crested the hill, glancing quickly behind me. In the distance, about half a mile away, I could see the earth-tone tops of the half dozen