by Faith Gibson
“Suit yourself,” Ryker said. “I’ll go pack a bag.”
Rafael turned to Sutton. “I apologize if it feels like I’m stepping on toes, but if we’re going to be united in the future, I think it best we learn as much about each other as we can. I trust in your son’s abilities to handle Monk, but if we can alleviate a situation by getting Ryker there sooner, I’m willing to make a short stop off in New DC.”
Sutton stood and held out his hand to Rory. Rafael did the same, helping Kaya to her feet. “I’d feel the same way in your shoes, plus I want Lucy safely away from her current situation. Seeing how you and your mate are together makes me feel better for Lucy’s future. I know there are bad and good in every species, but I don’t doubt you’re a good King. If you vouch for St. Claire, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“Thank you. I vow on my honor, my mate, and our unborn child I’ll do everything I can to see Lucy comes to no harm.” Rafael fisted his heart and bowed his head. Ryker stopped short at Rafael’s words, and the male’s gasp was audible, if barely. Rafael excused himself to call Bryce, leaving Kaya to say their goodbyes.
Continuing the research went against what Lucy knew to be ethical, but if she didn’t at least attempt to put forth the effort, Ramey would use it against her. Going through the motions, Lucy couldn’t stop thinking about what would happen when Tamian rescued her. She didn’t doubt he’d do what he promised. It was everything that came after that worried her. Tamian would hide her somewhere safe while their families gathered the proof they needed against Ramey. That proof would likely incriminate Lucius, but she couldn’t worry about that. If he was guilty – and she had no doubt he was – he needed to be held accountable, even if it was only having his good name marred.
Maybe she’d been wrong in telling her uncles to leave everything in the secret room untouched. If she didn’t want to be incriminated, the evidence of Lucius’s part in all this needed to be removed from her home. Doing so would keep the world from knowing the truth behind the male, but did that really matter at this point? He was guilty, but he was also dead. Dragging his name through the mud now would only make her life harder as well as reflect badly on Vera. Lucy didn’t want to believe her beloved mother – aunt – had known of her husband’s sins.
Somehow, Lucy needed to make sure she wasn’t held accountable. As much as that bothered her, it was the part about Ramey being accused, tried, and convicted of crimes against nature she had worried most about. She’d met plenty of men like him in the past four years. Men who held offices or positions they knew would keep them safe from prison. He had been instrumental in having this particular research done for years without being caught. His attitude indicated he regarded himself as untouchable.
Her research would go quicker if she had access to her uncle’s latest notes. She no longer thought of him as her father. She didn’t want to think of him as family now she knew the type of male he’d been, but he’d had a hand in raising her, so that was easier said than done. At least the cylinders at home were empty of humans, but Lucy knew that hadn’t always been the case. How had he been able to sneak in all the equipment as well as the dead bodies without Vera knowing?
The more she dwelled on it, the more she wanted her family to rid the hidden room of everything except the written notes. Not that she would use them, but she wanted to study them to see how in-depth Ramey’s knowledge was. At some point in the future, Lucy might have need of his work to counter what had already been done. From what she’d found so far, and from the urgency in Ramey’s demeanor, it didn’t appear any of the previous scientists had been successful in producing the super soldier. Still...
With a cell sample under the microscope, Lucy studied the latest notes, comparing them to what she observed. What she saw didn’t make sense. The last journal entry was contradictory to what Lucy was staring at. Had that been on purpose, or had the scientist truly not known what they were doing? Maybe it had been their way of ensuring the work they were forced to do was unsuccessful. If so, Ramey really didn’t know anything about genetics. Now that she knew Tamian was getting her out of there, Lucy didn’t fear the man. Unless he walked in with a gun and shot her, she could shift and defeat him if it came down to her survival.
With that thought in mind, Lucy decided to test her theory later when Ramey arrived. She would find out how extensive his knowledge was. If he called her bluff, she’d deal with it. If he didn’t, she knew how she would handle her job going forward. All she had to do was stall long enough for Tamian to come for her. Stopping only long enough to grab a quick lunch, Lucy busied herself with her own notes and samples from the four torsos. When the locks finally clicked and the door to the lab opened, Lucy was ready.
Chapter Eighteen
“I have eyes on him,” Tessa said from where she was seated at the table. While Tamian was pacing the living area waiting on the alarm to indicate movement in Ramey’s home, Julian had been working nonstop to hack into the GIA’s security cameras, and at Tessa’s announcement, he’d succeeded. Tamian tried not to feel bad about the number of hours Julian was spending helping with Lucy, but Julian was paying him back for his assistance in rescuing Katherine. Deep down, he knew Julian would do it anyway, because that’s what family did.
Before the Stone Society came into their lives, Tamian had observed his parents together as well as how Jonas and Caroline acted. He’d seen the lengths Xavier had gone to in keeping Elizabeth out of the hands of her human husband. Tamian had skirted through life watching out for Tessa. That bond went deep because he was her clone. He was part of her in a way he thought would never be duplicated. He’d been wrong. He and Lucy had barely spent any time together, and already he knew what the two of them would have would outshine his love for his sister, and that was saying everything.
Tamian sat down next to Tessa and studied the man on the screen. Ramey strode through the hallways with purpose. The split-screen showed Lucy’s boss going from the front door to the elevators to his office. He was stopped a couple times by other agents, giving Tamian insight to the man’s demeanor. It wasn’t pleasant. Not once did he smile. The conversations lasted a few seconds with Ramey clearly annoyed at being interrupted.
A knock at the door took Tamian’s attention for only a second. “I’ll get it,” Tessa said, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep him seated. “Uncle Vitto!” Tessa called out when she opened the door.
“Buongiorno, Andrea.” Vittore grabbed Tessa up and swung her around like he had since she was a little girl, bringing a smile to Tamian’s face and laughter from his sister. Vitto was one of the few people who still addressed Tessa by her given name.
Tamian rose to greet his father’s best friend. Holding out his hand, Tamian said, “Vitto, thank you for coming.”
“You are doing me a favor, my boy. Martina remodeled the kitchen, and our home has turned into a bakery. With me as her guinea pig, my waistline is paying for it.” Vitto patted his flat stomach before pulling Tamian in for a tight hug, slapping him on the back, surprising Tamian. Vitto and his mate had never had children for whatever reason, and they doted on Tessa the more for it. Tessa called them “aunt” and “uncle,” although they weren’t related by blood. Tamian knew blood didn’t necessarily make one family.
“Tell me what you need from me,” Vitto said as he stepped back.
After relaying all that had happened up to that point, Tamian said, “I’d like for you to follow the Hounds. They have yet to give us the coordinates for where Lucy is being held. The meeting between Rafael and their leader should be over by now, and either it didn’t go well, or they’re just being obstinate. If you can find out where the lab is, we can proceed with our plan as soon as the prosthetic arrives.”
“Yes!” Vitto pumped his fist in the air. “Finally, something to make me feel useful. Other than visiting the chalet to make sure all is well when you aren’t there, your father has left me to my own devices, and we all know that never bodes well.”
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br /> Tamian and Tessa grinned, knowing Vitto had a habit of trying to find hobbies to keep him occupied and out of trouble with Martina. His last endeavor – boat building – had amounted to a basement full of wood scraps when he couldn’t get the hang of cutting curves into the pieces correctly.
“I take it you never got the longboat finished?” Tessa asked.
“Hah! One day while I was gone to visit your padre, Martina made use of my tools, and all the wood wound up in small pieces she used to fill the fireplace last winter. I should have let her show me how to properly shape the boards.” Vitto’s face was filled with nothing but love and respect when speaking of his mate. They were another example of how life as a couple was supposed to be. Martina humored him no matter how inane she felt his latest hobby was. “Now, tell me about the Hounds.”
Taking a seat at the table so Tamian could keep watching Ramey, they came up with a plan for Vitto to shadow the Hounds, hoping it would lead them to where Lucy was being kept. Tessa put in a call to Rafael to see how the meeting went, but it went to voicemail. Tamian was tired of waiting for Lucy’s family to get on board with helping. She was his mate, and he was responsible for her well-being. He’d do whatever it took to get her away from her current situation, even if it meant going up against the Hounds.
Since Maveryck and the others didn’t know Vitto, he went down to the hotel lobby and asked for a room on the same floor where they were staying. The plan was for him to give a sexy smile to the desk clerk and a romantic story about the room number he requested. It worked, and Vitto was given the suite next door to the Hounds. Using his shifter hearing, he would listen in on the Hounds’ conversations and follow when one of them left the building. With his mission in place, Tamian was able to focus on his own part in the plan.
Julian had managed to find an old interview when Ramey first started with the GIA, and Tessa got busy working on the voice modulator. After a few seconds, she paused. “Can you not use your mind control on the Hounds to get them to tell you where Lucy is?”
Tamian bit his bottom lip, thinking about being in the room with Maveryck. “I had to tell them I was capable of speaking to Lucy with my mind. When I admitted my ability, I felt his mind close up as loudly as if someone had closed a door. He locked his shit up tight after that. Let’s hope they give us her whereabouts willingly, or Vitto is able to follow them and find out the location that way. I really don’t want our families fighting before we even become a family.”
Tessa tipped her head to the side, studying him. “I get it. Merging two families who see things differently isn’t a cake walk. I know.” She returned her attention to the voice modulator, and he studied the monitors. When Lucy’s boss left the building, Tamian got busy with a little online shopping to purchase a suit, some hair dye, and colored contacts. He left nothing to chance for this mission. It was too important to overlook even the smallest detail. Ramey was slightly broader than Tamian, but it was nothing a little padding couldn’t take care of. All he needed was the prosthetic and a location, and he would be ready.
“Agent Ball, what do you have for me?” Ramey asked as soon as the door closed behind him.
Lucy squared her shoulders and pointed to the microscope. “I’m afraid it isn’t good news. Whoever you had working on this project before me must have been an idiot. Take a look for yourself.”
“What do you mean? I hired the best scientists I could find to replace your father until you became available.” Ramey didn’t bother looking under the microscope. That was Lucy’s first clue he wasn’t knowledgeable. Excellent.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Sir. The samples I took from these four candidates show no signs of having special genes. There are no indicators they are any different than you or I.”
“That’s impossible. I paid good money to make sure I got what I wanted.” Ramey paced the room, hands pulling at his hair. He paused to glare at her. “Maybe it’s you who isn’t competent.”
“I assure you, I know what I’m talking about. I graduated first in my class, but you already know that as well as knowing what my final thesis covered. Genetics is my specialty, and if I hadn’t been thrown into something as mundane as computer infiltration with the GIA, I would have continued my studies.” Lucy tapped one of the journals, taking a big chance. “Your previous colleagues’ inabilities aside, I compared samples from all four torsos to Subject 26, thinking mislabeling was a possibility.” Lucy stepped up to the microscope and swapped out the current slide for a new one. She had taken samples from all four victims, but she’d only used cells from one of them on all four slides – the one which didn’t match Subject 26. “None of your victims contain the same genetic makeup as Subject 26.”
“You can stop referring to them as victims, Agent Ball. Trying to make me feel guilty about what we’re doing here won’t work. Have you never heard the phrase ‘try to see the big picture?’ What we’re doing is going to change the world. The US will finally get back to the great nation we once were before the world tilted off its axis. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud Jonas Montague for paving the way by cloning the first human. I would love to shake his hand were he still alive. He, like Lucius, was a genius who had no trouble seeing the big picture.”
Lucy knew all about the famous scientist who’d cloned the world’s first baby. Not only had she studied about him in college, Lucius had lauded the man on more than one occasion. Lucy didn’t blame the clone or the ones who came after for the near-destruction of the world as they’d known it some thirty years prior. She hadn’t even been alive, but she had read enough about it to know the fallout which came after was at the hands of the Ministry. The baby clone hadn’t been to blame, and Lucy couldn’t find it in herself to even blame Montague, even if he had been playing god. After all this time, the world didn’t know who the clone was or who he’d been cloned from.
Lucy had taken a psychology class where they discussed cloning and its effects on the children who were only created to save an older sibling. She’d convinced herself she would never do that to a child, but then again, she had never been faced with such a decision. If she were to ever have her own offspring, would she do something so drastic to keep him or her alive?
“Whatever,” Lucy continued, taking a chance on being just belligerent enough to feel good about mouthing off, but not enough for him to get really pissed. “Take a look for yourself,” she urged again as she brought the lens just a little out of focus.
Ramey huffed, but did as she asked and looked through the lens, closing one eye. He didn’t bother trying to focus it before pulling away. “So, if these don’t match Subject 26, which one do they match?”
“I haven’t made it that far yet. I was concerned when I found out it wasn’t a match like you indicated, so I extracted samples from the other torsos. I was just looking through the previous notes, trying to make sense of what I was reading. You should demand your money back from my predecessors.”
Ramey cursed a blue streak, once again pacing the small area. “Find out which subject they do match. I don’t care if it takes you all night.” With that, her boss stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Lucy waited for the sound of the lock and held her breath. The sound never came, and Lucy had to decide whether or not to attempt leaving the lab to find her way out of the building. She didn’t glance at the cameras for fear of giving herself away if someone were watching.
Pretending to read the latest journal, Lucy contemplated reaching out to Tamian. She knew he was busy working on getting her out of there, but if she could do that herself, she could save him the trouble of all he was having to go through. But, if she made the attempt and found herself right back under lock and key, she would have halted his progress, thus making her rescue take that much longer. No, she wouldn’t bother him yet. If she was able to escape the lab, she would contact him as soon as she was on the outside and figured out her location. Then she would ask him to come get her.
Having made that decision
, she decided it would be best to wait until it was dark out. That way, if she needed to shift into her eagle, she could do so without being as easily detected. Patience wasn’t her strong suit, so she busied herself until it was time to go.
Tamian was signing for the package from Jonas which contained the prosthetic when Rafael and Kaya arrived at the hotel room door. “Rafael? What’s going on?”
“Let’s step inside so Kaya can get off her feet, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Tamian stepped back, holding the package under his arm, and allowed the couple into the suite. “Hey, you two,” Tessa said when they entered the living area. “Did you get my message?”
Rafael led Kaya to the sofa and held her hand as she lowered herself onto the cushions. “I did, but we were in mid-flight having a conversation with Ryker Lazlo. We met with his parents as requested, but before we could come to any conclusions on how to handle the situation going forward, Ryker received a call from Maveryck. It seems one of the Hounds didn’t like it when Tamian laid claim to Lucy.”
Tamian growled low in his throat, and Rafael held up his hands. “Easy, Tamian. Don’t bite the messenger.”
“Which one?” Tamian didn’t want there to be bad blood between the two species, but Lucy was his.
“Monk, the one who doesn’t speak. His affection for Lucy was news to the family, and they figured he’d kept his feelings to himself since she was the granddaughter and niece of the Lazlos. Hearing you claim her as your mate set him off, but they don’t think it will be a problem once Ryker speaks with him.”
“And that’s why you’re here?” Tessa asked.
“More or less. Our meeting was cut short when Ryker decided it was best to handle this situation in person. Instead of him catching a commercial flight, I offered him the jet. Not only did it get him here quicker, it allowed us time to get to know one another better.”
