“So you’re saying this is bigger than Scout?”
“It is, but I can’t advise you on this.”
“We’re working to figure out where they took him,” Aaron said. “My advice is to stall as long as possible.”
An hour later, the bastards told me they would cut Scout’s ears off if I didn’t make the statement by ten the following morning. After that, Scout would be hurt every four hours. He’d lose his right front leg, then his back left leg, then his right eye, then his left eye. After that, he’d be left in a room, alone with only water, until he died.
And while Mac said he couldn’t advise me, Aaron clearly thought I shouldn’t give in to their demands, even if it meant Scout was tortured and then left to die.
I had the night to decide, but I already knew I’d make the statement if Aaron couldn’t come up with a miracle overnight. I could rescind it later, once Scout was somewhere safe.
And it would kill me to do it, but if I couldn’t keep him safe, I’d send him away to be rehomed in secret.
At some point in all of this, I offered to pay Aaron every penny I could easily liquidate, which ended being in the mid six-figures. He’d told me it was good to know the total possible, and he’d give me an itemized bill when we were finished, but he didn’t think it would be anywhere near that amount.
All of this led to another thought entirely. The Master of the City. Strigorii vampire. I was on retainer to handle any criminal charges for her inner circle. Would she want someone she’d hired to be treated like this? Would she intervene simply because I was on the payroll?
I asked Aaron, and he lifted a brow while he considered the question.
Instead of answering me, he pulled his phone out and made a video call, which I assumed meant he was using his encrypted app.
“Kendra. I need to call in an official favor, please.”
After a twenty-second pause where I assume she cleared the room, she said, “I’m listening.”
“I need you to be an intermediary with Brooke. An attorney she holds on retainer is being blackmailed. We need to know who, and where they are. They’re holding the attorney’s dog and threatening to torture him. I’d very much like to get the dog back before sunrise or shortly thereafter.”
“And she’ll need me to give her a boost if she’s going to use every vampire in her city as a spy all at once.”
“If that’s an option, I’ll owe you a huge favor.”
“Yes. You will. I know you’re good for it. Give me an hour or two. Maybe less.”
She disconnected, and Aaron looked to me. “Easier to deal with her boss. Brooke creeps me out.”
He wasn’t wrong. Brooke had been turned at a young age. No one knew how young. She could’ve been anywhere from eight to eleven, based on her looks, but only if you didn’t have a chance to see into her eyes or hear her speak. She was somewhere around a thousand years old, based on the rumors. I wasn’t entirely convinced she was one of the good guys. She hadn’t fought for either side during the big battle, but she hadn’t done anything to make The Abbott replace her, either.
“I believe she enjoys creeping people out,” I told him. “Am I correct in interpreting that conversation to mean that Brooke can have every vampire in the city scan the brains in their vicinity to see if anyone knows where Scout is?”
“With a boost from Kendra, it should be possible.”
“Is Brooke going to expect something from me?”
He shrugged. “It might be a good idea to offer a few free months of service, just to be safe. Theoretically, I’m taking it on by asking Kendra to make it happen and agreeing to owe a large favor, but you can never go wrong by giving more than you get with a powerful Strigorii.”
Chapter Thirty
Bobcat
I had no idea how Aaron had found out where they were holding Scout, and I figured it was probably safest not to know.
I hadn’t wanted to believe he was being held in the basement of the federal building, but Aaron’s people scanned for body heat, and a dog shaped hot spot was on that level, along with nine people we assumed were heavily armed.
Getting Scout back meant storming a federal building and going up against federal law enforcement officials. Since we only had a few hours to act, Aaron had enlisted the RTMC for help. He’d offered an exorbitant sum of money, and we’d held a hasty vote and accepted.
I’d have gone in with them whether money was offered or not.
Before we went into the Drake situational briefing, I expected storming the federal building would look a little like the scene from The Matrix when they go in to rescue Morpheus, but we had two things working in our favor. First, we were going in at night, when the building only has security guards and no civilians, and second, Aaron had a way for us to come in through some old steam tunnels into the basement.
Since Scout knew me and trusted me, my job would be to get him out of the building once we found him.
Getting in was too easy. We literally went into some tunnels about a mile away, walked through creepy but well-ventilated passageways for what felt like several miles but couldn’t have been, and then waited while Aaron’s lockpicker guy got us in the door once we arrived. I had no idea how Aaron knew this was the right door, but he got it right.
We had three possible exit scenarios, depending upon what we ran into. Best case scenario — we snuck in and snuck out the same way, with no exchange of fire. This would mean disabling guards before they realized we were there — and before they could sound an alarm or notify anyone of intruders. Next-best-case scenario, we went out the upstairs back entrance before reinforcements could arrive. Absolute-worst-case scenario, we had to fight our way out the front door with the military and LEO trying to stop us.
Aaron took out two men the second we entered the hallway on what I assumed was the level with Scout. Five turns and sixty yards later, Ranger took one man out while Aaron took out another.
I smelled Scout, and I had to tamp down my anger. He’d been drugged, and he was dehydrated. His heart wasn’t beating right.
Bastards.
Aaron’s lock person opened the door and I went in. Scout was in a crate, unconscious. I opened the crate, pulled him out enough I could get a good handle on him, and lifted him into my arms like a baby. He roused a little and growled, and we needed to be quiet, but I told him, “It’s me, Scout. I have you. I’ll get you back to Tess.”
Ranger gave me a look to remind me to be quiet, but I merely met his gaze. Scout had needed reassuring, and I’d kept my voice low.
He nodded, and I walked into the center of the men and women. I had people with guns behind me and in front of me. I had three weapons on me, but with Scout in my arms, no way could I use them.
Instead of trying to integrate two teams into one, Aaron had kept us in two teams. This meant my brothers were behind me, and the Drake people were ahead of us. Ranger was also behind me, since he was leading the bikers. We had to keep the two teams working together, and this would do it.
Also, oddly enough, McGyver was in front of me with the Drake people.
Nathan’s voice came over our earpieces. “Bogies waiting for you to go back into the tunnels. SWAT headed your way. Looks like the Feebs are initializing. Aaron?”
Aaron touched his ear. “Front door it is, then. Make sure a vet is set up and waiting for us. Scout’s going to need an IV.”
“Roger that.”
Scout might need more than an IV if I couldn’t navigate out the door without getting him shot.
We all wore body armor designed to deflect or absorb a bullet’s impact. We wore face masks and helmets. Several of us had temporary tattoos on body parts that showed — the good kind, so no reflection would pick up on images. My brothers and I had once gotten real tattoos to pull something off, knowing we could change and lose the tattoos afterwards. The temporary kind were so much easier to manage.
We neared the front of the building, and I smelled people and weapons. I stopped and
looked to Mad Dog, who pulled a Kevlar blanket from his bag and helped me wrap Scout in it. It wouldn’t stop every caliber, but it would at least slow the bullets down.
I adjusted my grip while we wrapped him, so my right arm went over his body and gripped under him, and my left arm went under his shoulder blades and snugged him close to my chest.
We’d rehearsed this — people behind, people in front, and the quadrants each section was responsible for. My job was to stay in the middle of them and walk our way out the door.
“Aaron and Bobcat have hot mikes,” Nathan said in our ears. “Everyone take a breath while you can. All hell’s about to break loose.”
The main foyer of the federal building doesn’t quite look like the foyer of the one in The Matrix, but it’s still all granite tile and blocks, with enough architectural details, it felt a like we were in a sacred space.
And really, it should’ve been, but we weren’t the ones who’d dirtied it up. They had, by taking a dog prisoner. Okay, a wolf-dog hybrid, but still, Scout’s a pet. Pulling him into this had been all kinds of wrong, and both my inner cat and the human part of me wanted to lash out and hurt people for it.
But that wasn’t our job. My objective was to get Scout into the waiting Smart car, which was actually a hybrid ’copter. Though I wouldn’t have called it a helicopter. The thing had four rotors on it, so it looked more like a drone. Still, while parked, it looked enough like those silly Smart cars, it shouldn’t get anyone’s attention. Once Scout and I were in, the rotors would come out and we’d take off in less than a minute. Another bonus — it was bulletproof.
But first, we had to run the gauntlet.
Oh, how I wished I could shoot back. The Feebs had only put a handful of people in the front foyer, so we got through them without too much trauma. I took a bullet in my left forearm, several in my right, and my helmet was dinged twice, but I managed to keep Scout from getting hit. Getting shot fucking hurts, but I was operating on adrenaline, and my focus was more on the wolf in my arms than my own pain. My muscles still worked. The bones were intact. I could function.
But then we stepped outside and there were at least thirty people shooting at us. Drake’s people acted as a human shield to get me to the inconspicuous ’copter. I got in, locked the doors, hit the button to get it started, and then strapped Scout in beside me. A bullet had grazed his butt where the blanket had shifted, but he wasn’t bleeding badly. It looked like he was going to be bruised badly where the Kevlar blanket had stopped bullets, but I couldn’t see any other trauma. He’d bitten me when he’d been hit in the ass, but that was okay. I didn’t blame him even a tiny bit.
The contraption flew itself. Supposedly, I could guide it if I wanted, and the computer would keep us stable. However, the onboard computer got us into the air, and then someone in an airplane took over and brought us to them. It was a cargo plane, and the back opened up so we could fly in while the plane was in flight.
Imagine my surprise when I found out they had a vet on the plane. A female wolf helped me get Scout strapped onto a table, and the vet put an IV in and started giving him fluids right away. He also shaved the area where the bullet had grazed, cleaned it, and bandaged it.
“We should muzzle him.” the vet said. “Whatever they dosed him with is wearing off.”
I shook my head. “He knows me. We’ll be fine.”
“You should change. You’re injured.”
I looked up and met the female wolf’s gaze. I’d noticed she smelled of power earlier, but I’d been too focused on Scout to consider it.
“I’m Cora. They brought me in to help with Scout in case you couldn’t handle him. I’ll change to wolf, as will a few more of my people. We’ll all leave with Scout, so it’ll look like a coincidence that you escaped with a wolf and we happened to have several wolves on board. The car’s been taken apart. If you don’t have bullet wounds or the tattoos they saw on your arm, they won’t be able to prove it was you who escaped with him.”
“But they know I flew into the plane, right?”
She shook her head. “You entered at a point not covered by radar, a tiny little pie-shape section between the circles. The rain and cloud cover kept the visible satellites from tracking us, and unless the others happened to already be looking our direction, it’s doubtful they got anything definitive from them. They’ll check us out because we were in the blind spot at the same time as the ’copter, but they can’t prove anything.”
“And why is Drake Security carrying a bunch of wolves?”
She grinned. “Well now, that’s classified, and if you don’t have above top secret clearances and a specific need to know, we can’t tell you.” Her face went serious again. “We’ll land at a small airport. One this plane isn’t cleared for, but we have special brakes and a parachute system. No one will be waiting for us there, since our flight plan has us landing at a large airport. The satellites are aimed at us now, and we won’t stop the video at the airport. You need to change.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Tess
Several of the men had been wearing body cams, so I’d seen every move Bobcat had made while carrying Scout.
I’d watched him take bullets for my boy. He’d leaned forward or sideways more than once, so a bullet hit him instead of the unconscious wolf in his arms.
Those shots had come from someone else’s bodycam, so I hadn’t been able to see them once they got in the tiny helicopter, nor had there been communications from the plane. In fact, they were on a total communications blackout until they’d changed vehicles a couple of times and finally arrived at their safehouse. I’d gone crazy for the nearly three hours it took before Aaron could finally let me know everyone was fine.
And during this time, I’d done some serious soul searching. I mean, I’d basically blown Bobcat off, and then he’d put his body between bullets and my precious Scout. And sure, he can change and heal, and Scout can’t, but getting shot has to hurt, and he’d done it on purpose, over and over.
After I’d blown him off.
Unfortunately, I had two more days to torture myself for it, because Aaron said Scout and I were both safe where we were and we needed to stay put.
Bobcat needed to be seen out and about, doing his normal daily thing. Aaron was fighting two factions of the government. The side everyone sees — the agents doing the public investigation, who may or may not have known what actually happened, and then the dark underside. Andretti’s partners had ordered spies or operatives to nab Scout, and they knew who came to get him. Perhaps they didn’t know for sure who each individual person was, but they knew Drake Security had arranged it. They assumed Bobcat was one of the rescuers, but they couldn’t prove it. No one went to the hospital with gunshot wounds, which meant Drake’s personal physician had dealt with them, because they knew they’d hit multiple Drake people.
I made it clear to Aaron, Ranger, Mac, and whoever else would listen that if Bobcat wanted to come to me, I’d pay extra to make it happen.
Two days later, I was driven into the mountains of northeastern Alabama. We went through the first fence about a hundred yards after we’d pulled off the main road onto a graveled drive. It consisted of an old combination lock on an old gate. The second fence was a lot more substantial and I assumed it had heavier security, though to the naked eye there was just a number pad to punch a code into.
And then we came to the third fence and gate, and this one clearly had a ton of security. We only drove around two corners before parking on the side of the little graveled road. I hadn’t seen the parking space because it was hidden by a small hedge.
“You walk from here,” Mac told me. “There isn’t a place for a ’copter to land within the fence line. No one will come past all three fences. You don’t need a minder up close here, so you’ll have some privacy. Scout’s already here. I’m surprised he hasn’t come to check us out already.”
No sooner than he said it, I heard Scout’s happy bark, I opened my door, and my l
ap was full of wolf head and legs. My boy is an aggressive snugglebug, but I didn’t mind a bit.
“He was in the cone of shame while the vet watched him,” Mac told me, “because they couldn’t get him to stop licking his wound. Once he and Bobcat were reunited, and Bobcat fussed at him for licking it, he stopped. He has the liquid bandage stuff on it to keep it clean, but otherwise, no bandages.”
I looked at the graze mark on his hip and hugged him extra tight a few seconds. I’d come so damned close to losing him.
“If they’d killed him, I’d have made every last one of them regret the day they were born.”
“Yeah. We all figured. Aaron’s pretty intent on doing that anyway. Go. Scout will show you the way. I’ll be in another housing unit made special for the guards. There are buttons and pull cords in the safehouse, as well as an intercom system no one can intercept. Use them to call me if you need something that isn’t an emergency, but if something doesn’t feel right or sound right, push a button or pull a cord. I don’t mind false alarms. I’d rather respond to a dozen false alarms than have you not pull it when you need it.”
I nodded, stood, and walked to the trunk as Mac opened it from inside the car. They’d given me an oversized backpack instead of luggage this time, and now it made sense. I put it on and told Scout, “Okay boy. Lead the way.”
We’d walked perhaps a mile through a beautiful, healthy forest when I started to smell what I can only describe as home-cooking. I thought I smelled chili first, and then later, I’d have sworn I smelled fried rattlesnake. At some point, there were too many dishes to figure out, but someone was clearly cooking for me.
Bobcat (Rolling Thunder MC Birmingham Book 2) Page 17
