by Faith Gibson
He sent a prayer to the gods that Jonathan would be able to hang on but only as long as was comfortable for him. He didn’t ask for anything beyond that, because it would be selfish. After making his way back to the front of the manor, Julian said his goodbyes and drove to the airport.
With the Gargoyles finding mates one after another, Sixx suggested to Rafael that the Stone Society invest in more than one company jet. He readily agreed considering all the miles they were racking up on commercial flights. Julian stretched out on one of the leather sofas and did his best to relax on his way to Texas, but he couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong with Katherine. If they had completed the mate bond, he would better be able to reach her through that bond, but since they hadn’t, his mind was fabricating all types of scenarios and none of them good. By the time he landed, his beast was ready to jump out of the plane and go rip the FSM apart.
After securing a rental car, Julian typed in the address for the house Tessa had found for them into the GPS and set out. Instead of arriving at a house in a neighborhood, Julian found himself pulling down a long drive leading to a ranch. The house was situated on three hundred acres, roughly twenty miles away from FSM. Being in the middle of nowhere, it allowed Julian, Gregor, and Tessa all the privacy they would need. The land surrounding the house and barns had been neglected for quite a while by the looks of things. Even though Julian had lived in New Atlanta for over thirty years, he was more suited to a quiet area such as this one, but without the extreme heat. Even in April, the air was thick and stifling.
As Julian was putting the rental car in park, Gregor and Tessa stepped out onto the front porch. He grabbed his bags out of the trunk and strode through the gravel to the sidewalk. “This is a nice surprise,” he said, indicating the land surrounding them.
“Sixx found it for us. He’s itching to get back into the mix of things now that he and Rae have settled in,” Gregor said.
“I guess there is only so much surfing one Goyle can do,” Julian replied. He followed his cousin and Tessa inside, looking around at the cavernous space. The great room, kitchen, and dining room were all open, forming one large area.
“The bedrooms are down the hallway to your left. They aren’t very big, but they’re clean,” Tessa explained.
“No problem. Let me put my things in one of them, and we will get busy.” Julian set one bag down and took the others to the first bedroom he came to. He doubted he would get much sleep until he had Katherine safely out of the hands of the Feds. When he returned, he picked up the bag and took it to the large farmhouse table. Julian could imagine several rough cowboys sitting around, eating a big meal, and shooting the shit.
“Are you hungry?” Gregor asked as Julian removed a black box and laptop from the bag.
“I could eat,” he admitted. Julian glanced up to where Gregor was moving around the kitchen putting sandwiches together. They’d been around each other enough for his cousin to know he wasn’t picky. While Julian continued setting up his equipment, Tessa brought her own laptop to the table to connect wirelessly to the portable satellite receiver. By the time they both connected, Gregor had lunch on the table.
“We drove by FSM on the way here,” Gregor said. “Are you sure you and Tessa can get in and get Katherine out by yourselves? That place is fucking huge.”
“It will be tough, but I don’t want to risk too many of their agents missing at one time. I have a rough plan put together, but I want Tessa to observe Agent Rayaz and get a feel for her schedule. I am hoping she can monitor her closer up than I was able to get to Agent Everhart. I am going to have to tap into his phone to record his voice. I know we will do the same with Rayaz, but Tessa will need to study the woman’s mannerisms.”
“Do you want me to set up a live feed from Everhart’s home? How secure is his house?” Tessa asked.
“He has a standard alarm system, nothing special. I would rather you tail Rayaz. Gregor and I can handle Everhart’s house; that is, if you are okay with breaking and entering,” Julian said to his cousin.
“I’m fine with whatever it takes to get Katherine out of that place. I know I swore to uphold the law, but this is a mate we’re doing this for. The way I see it, they went above and beyond by putting Katherine in FSM. Even if she were guilty of what she has been accused of, there’s no reason for her to be in that facility. Hell, she’s what, a hundred pounds soaking wet?”
“Something like that. As far as I know, she has no martial arts training, so she poses no threat. I agree; putting her there was overkill. Besides, if they are worth their own weight, it won’t take them long to figure out she has no knowledge about weapons and selling government secrets. Even the deepest form of mind probing will come up with absolutely nothing.” Julian couldn’t bear the thought of the types of manipulation, either mental or physical, Katherine was being subjected to. Now that he was back in Texas, Julian was going to meditate as often as possible. He needed to reach his mate and let her know he was close by.
“Tessa, if you leave as soon as you’re finished eating, you will have time to get to the facility so you can follow Rayaz home or wherever it is she goes, that is, if she keeps to a similar schedule as Everhart. Gregor, if you want to take my car and follow Tessa, you can tail Everhart. He never deterred from his routine while I was watching him, but there is a first time for everything.”
“What are you going to do?” Tessa asked.
“I am going to study the layout of the facility in depth by cross-referencing the blueprints with the schematics to see if anything was modified. I would hate to get inside and get locked in because we hadn’t looked at every angle. I am also going to meditate. I need to try to reach Kat. Call me when you’re on your way back, and I will cook supper.”
“Ten-four,” Tessa said, grabbing her backpack. Julian didn’t want to know what the half-blood kept with her, but he didn’t need to. He’d learned early on that Gregor’s mate was smart and more than capable of accomplishing whatever task was set out before her. He often wondered if Jonas somehow knew that Tessa was special when he cloned her, thus using her cells when he cloned the others over the years. He also wondered about Tamian, Tessa’s cloned brother. With both Tessa’s and Jonas’s DNA making up the male’s anatomy, surely he was something special. Julian wished Tamian had stuck around instead of hiding out after Tessa mated with Gregor.
“We’ll be back soon,” Gregor said, pulling Julian from his musings. Once the two of them were headed out the long driveway, Julian decided to take a look around. He wanted to get familiar with the house as well as the grounds surrounding them. Gregor had probably already scoped the perimeter, but it never hurt to be familiar with where things were, such as places someone could hide. Julian wasn’t worried about Gregor or himself, but Tessa wasn’t bulletproof. Neither was Kat. Not that they would be bringing her back to the ranch for long. As soon as he had his hands on his mate, Julian wanted to go straight to the airfield and put her on a plane back to Georgia.
When he opened the back door, the oppressive Texas heat smacked Julian in the face. He took a deep breath of the thick air and walked outside. Using his Gargoyle sight, he scanned the area past the empty barn all the way to the tree line. Other than an occasional bird, nothing stirred. He walked to the barn and pulled open the large door. The building was dark and dank. The lingering scent of horses met his sensitive nose. Flipping the switch, a couple of lights illuminated the middle of the barn. Julian checked out each stall as well as the tack room and loft. The overhead area was a good place for someone to hide and watch the back of the house without being noticed.
Julian jumped from the loft to the floor below and sought out a hammer and nails. Various tools and supplies were strewn in what appeared to have been used as an office at one time. Finding what he was looking for, Julian wrenched a piece of wood from one of the stall walls and took it back up to the door of the loft. Someone could easily remove the barricade, but it would at least deter them a few minutes.
After returning the hammer to the office, Julian headed back inside. His loafers as well as his skin were covered in dust. He loved the outdoors, but he preferred the quiet solitude his property offered, with its vivid green lawn and water fountain surrounded by large trees. Texas could keep its wide-open dustbowl. Wanting to wash the grit away, Julian made his way to the room he’d chosen and retrieved clean clothes from his bag. He grabbed his toiletries and entered the bathroom. It was small, even by today’s human home standards. The house must have been built at least a hundred years before.
Julian found the water pressure to be adequate, and he stood under the steady spray, allowing it to beat down over his shoulders. While he was enjoying the water, he closed his eyes and reached out to Kat. He doubted she’d be able to receive him, but he had to try.
Chapter Four
Katherine sat in the corner of her cell on the cold concrete. Her knees were drawn up against her chest, arms wrapped around them. Rocking back and forth, she tried to dispel the visions of the woman unmoving and covered in blood. Why was her subconscious remembering this woman as her mother? She’d been told her mother died in a mental hospital, but for some reason, her mind was conjuring a different scenario. It was also focused on a face –a man – she felt like she should know. When she went to sleep, her nightmares were chaotic – a jumble between what she’d endured at the hands of the female prison guard, what she’d seen under hypnosis, and a vague glimpse of the strange man singing to her.
She didn’t understand the words, as the man was singing in a language Kat thought might be Russian. When he spoke, it was to soothe her. To coo to her as one would a baby. There was no way she could actually be remembering something from her infancy. There had to be another explanation. If, by chance, she was remembering something, it was possible he was a friend of her parents, or an uncle, perhaps. None of it made sense, but then nothing about Katherine’s life made sense at the moment.
Agent Rayaz had visited with her briefly earlier in the day, but it was only to see how she was faring. She had asked Kat questions about her teenage years, but nothing they spoke about shed any light on what she’d been accused of. “Did you ever stop to think the evidence against me was planted? That I’m being framed for some reason?” she asked the agent.
“Of course, Miss Fox. We are looking at all angles at this point. It isn’t our intention to prosecute an innocent woman.”
“What about torturing an innocent woman?” Kat asked on a sob. “I’ve already lost hearing in one ear. What else are you going to do before this is over?”
When she admitted about her hearing loss, Agent Rayaz frowned. “What do you mean you’ve lost hearing in one ear?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what that bitch did to me when I was first brought in. I’m lucky I’m alive,” Katherine seethed.
“Please elaborate. What all have you endured, Miss Fox?” Rayaz implored.
Katherine stared at the agent trying to figure out if she truly was in the dark about the treatment Kat had received upon arriving at FSM. “At first they tried to starve me out. Food was withheld for five days, water for four. I was made to stand until I finally collapsed, and then I was secured with chains to keep me on my feet. Or, dangling by my arms, as it were. My eardrum was punctured, and now I have no hearing in my right ear. When that didn’t work, my head was dunked into a toilet until I thought I was going to drown. That wasn’t as bad as being water-boarded. I think my heart may have actually stopped at one point. It’s possible I only passed out, but when I came to, my chest ached as if someone had attempted to revive me. While wet, I was placed in a small room where they tried to freeze me out. I did pass out then, and when I woke, I was being treated for hypothermia by the prison physician. He begged me to tell the truth so the punishment would end. As I told him, I’ve done nothing but tell the truth from the day I was arrested.
“Then you came along and began the mental digging. None of which has produced the results you’ve sought. I will tell you this, Agent Rayaz… You’re going to drive me to the point of insanity or kill me before you find the answers you think are hidden deep within my psyche. I am nobody. If I did know someone who was capable of doing the things I’ve been accused of, it would only be because I’ve encountered them during an investigation. I love my country. Before all this shit happened to me, I never would have considered betraying my country.”
“And now?” Agent Rayaz asked, seeming to have recovered from the shock of what had physically been done to Katherine.
“And now, you all can go fuck yourselves.” Katherine turned her back on the agent, ignoring her presence. The agent didn’t respond; instead, she turned and walked away, the clack-clack of her ugly shoes loud against the concrete.
That had been hours ago, and now, Kat was sitting on the cold floor with nothing but her fractured thoughts. She placed her cheek to her knees and willed herself to cry. Kat needed the tears to soothe her, since she had nothing else to do the job. Maybe the guard had fucked something up within Kat, making it so she couldn’t produce tears any longer. Her heart ached as much as her body did, but no matter what, the tears wouldn’t come. You’ve never been a weepy woman, so suck it up, buttercup.
That was true. Katherine had never been one to allow things to get to her; instead, she let shit roll off her back. She had learned at a young age that life wasn’t fair, and it definitely wasn’t always sunshine and tulips. However, she’d never had to endure anything like she’d been subjected to since her arrest. She did her best to stay awake at night, because her sleep was riddled with the waterboarding incident. Each time she woke, she was gasping for breath.
Squeezing her eyes tightly, Katherine begged her mind to close off. To forbid the images from the past weeks to seep into her consciousness. She brought forth visions of the ocean. Of the waves rolling in, washing over the sand. She imagined herself lying on a blanket as the surf sang its siren song. A shadow blocked the sun as Julian leaned over and kissed her lips. It had been forever since he’d actually touched her, and the intensity with which he begged her to be strong waned with each passing day.
Katherine, can you hear me? Sweetheart, I’m here.
If the voice was only real. Her mind was allowing her to hear what she wanted. To be soothed by the voice in her head. To believe the man was actually reaching out to her because she needed him to be.
Oh, Julian. If only you were really in my head. I don’t know how much more I can withstand.
Kat! I’m here. Hang on, Sweetheart. I promise, I’m here.
If anything could make her cry, it would be the false hope of Julian Stone’s words. He might be wealthy, but he was no match for the US Government when they dug their claws in, and their claws were embedded into her so deep she doubted she’d ever see the outside world again. Thinking of never seeing the ocean, her heart grew heavy.
Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, but Julian felt certain he’d heard Katherine in his head. Her words, while filled with anguish, were loud and clear. Hearing her voice elated him, but the words she spoke broke his heart and pissed him off in equal measure. He had no doubt she was being subjected to the endless games the government could play. His beast had come alive at hearing their mate, and Julian was no longer able to concentrate on Kat. Instead, he was doing his best to soothe the shifter.
Other than when he phased to patrol for Unholy, his beast stayed in the background, content to just be. Even then, Julian felt in control. For the last two hundred years, Julian had not had to worry about that aspect of himself. Now that they’d found Katherine, it was a whole new ballgame. Unlike some of the other Goyles, Julian had never had a two-sided conversation with his shifter in the five hundred years since he transitioned. He had a feeling that was also going to change soon. The rumblings in his head were merely a precursor to the fight ahead. “Do not start on me, big guy. I’m doing everything I can to get her out of there,” Julian said. A growl echoing through his chest was the onl
y answer he received.
Julian pulled up the information he had on FSM. The design was complex in that most everything was on two levels which were spread out in five areas extending from a central hub. It wouldn’t be easy, but it also wouldn’t be impossible to get in and out without being detected once they were disguised as the agents. Knowing exactly where they were keeping Katherine was going to be the hardest part to figure out. If he could get her to realize he was in her head, she could give him a clue. Julian wasn’t going to give up on trying. He would wait until later when she should be alone for the evening and resting her mind.
If for some reason he couldn’t reach Katherine, they would have to figure another way to ascertain her whereabouts. He had already hacked into the cameras, but none of the security feed showed where Kat was. There had to be part of the facility that wasn’t being monitored. He thought this was crazy considering the types of criminals the FSM was designed to house. If he were in charge, he would want to have eyes on every inch of the building. Then again, he wasn’t the federal government. Julian had designed the security system for the prison his cousins built. There wasn’t one part of the pen Gregor or Deacon couldn’t access at any given time. The only rooms not monitored were Gregor’s and Isabella’s offices. Cameras were installed, but for privacy, they weren’t feeding into the monitor room constantly.
Tessa called to let him know she was on her way back to the ranch. Soon after, he also received a call from Gregor. Leaving the diagrams on the table, Julian went into the kitchen and started supper. He didn’t cook often, but he enjoyed finding new dishes to prepare when he wasn’t stuck behind the computer screens. He had more money than he’d ever be able to spend, but he still ate leftovers instead of tossing any food he made. Julian was looking forward to cooking for his mate. In all the years he’d lived in New Atlanta, he’d never once brought a female to his home for any reason. It had been over two years since he’d found a female to bed. It wasn’t that he didn’t like sex, because he did. He was a male, after all.
