Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) Read Free

cigarette smoke. Smoking was no longer permitted inside, but
the smoke clung to the clothes of people who went in and out.
    Never again, she'd vowed. For Mabel's sake.
Elizabeth had half-feared that the female cop would run a check on
Elizabeth's name, but then, even if she had, the woman would have
found nothing. Elizabeth Chapman had no criminal record, and no
connection to anyone with a criminal record. Elizabeth had made
sure of that.
    After a long time, a tall black bailiff
stopped in front of Elizabeth and said in a booming voice, "Ms.
Chapman? Come with me."
    Elizabeth sprang up and followed the man,
half-running to keep up with his long-legged stride. "Where are we
going?"
    "The Shifter's hearing," was all he would
say.
    The bailiff led Elizabeth through a door and
down a hall that was eerily deserted. At the end of this, he
unbolted and unlocked a steel door that had to be a foot thick. He
took Elizabeth into a short hall, maybe five feet in length, which
had no other door but the one at its far end.
    Why was Elizabeth reminded of zoo cages? The
kind with two doors and a space in between, where an animal could
be trapped if it tried to escape. The bailiff unlocked the second
door, also of foot-thick steel, and ushered Elizabeth into a long,
narrow courtroom.
    It was a courtroom unlike any Elizabeth had
seen, and unfortunately she'd seen quite a few during her colorful
adolescence. The judge's bench, at the far end, was raised six feet
off the floor and caged in front by floor-to-ceiling iron bars. A
woman in judge's robes was just coming through a door right behind
the bench. Bench, door, and judge were unreachable by anyone on the
courtroom floor.
    Ronan sat in a large metal chair below the
bench, at a right angle to the rest of the room. His hands were now
shackled in front of him; a chain between the shackles hooked them
to a ring on the heavy chair, which in turn was bolted to the
floor.
    The courtroom was unadorned, no paneling on
the walls, no heavy wooden tables or carved benches, just a generic
linoleum floor, white walls, and two plain metal benches in the
front of the room. A nervous man in a suit, probably the
prosecutor, occupied the right bench. A man and woman sat together
on the bench on the left.
    The woman was human, with short dark hair, a
business jacket and skirt, and a briefcase. Her buttoned-up look
screamed lawyer, though she wore sandals on bare feet instead of
hose and shoes.
    The man next to her was a Shifter, no doubt
about it. He had dark hair, eyes of incredible blue, and a Collar
around his neck. He lounged on the bench, watching everyone in the
room, including the judge, with an air of command.
    Most people believed that Shifters posed a
threat to humans, and looking at this man, Elizabeth finally
understood why. Ronan was huge and full of muscle, but this
Shifter, while nowhere near as big as Ronan, exuded a strength of
presence that spoke of power. No matter that he wore a Collar, he
could be deadly, and he wanted everyone around him to remember
that.
    Ronan saw Elizabeth and lifted his shackled
hands in greeting. He looked the calmest of anyone in the room, no
matter that they were treating him like a dangerous animal.
    Granted, Elizabeth had seen Ronan as a big,
scary bear, and even now, with his buzzed hair, glittering eyes,
and muscles bulging out the Red -Hot Lover T-shirt, he
still looked frightening. But he gave her a nod--in thanks, she
guessed, for calling Kim and then showing up herself.
    The tall bailiff locked the door, the clang
of the keys loud. The judge hammered once with her gavel. "Counsels
approach the bench."
    That was it. No one else apparently would
show up to this hearing, no court stenographer, no other witnesses.
Maybe the session was being recorded, but what did Elizabeth know?
Perhaps records weren't kept of Shifter hearings.
    As Kim rose with the prosecutor and walked
confidently toward the judge, the bailiff said to Elizabeth, "Sit
over there."
    He pointed