by Terra Wolf
I had accomplished nothing since I had been here. I was no closer to finding an escape and a way to bring down Purest. In that moment, I hated myself. I felt like a failure to my unit and more importantly, to shifters everywhere. I needed to stop dicking around and formulate a plan to get out of here. I walked toward the back wall of the cell and leaned my hands on the cement. Part of me wanted to start punching the wall, but I knew it was no use. Even with my strength, I would only end up injuring myself.
The noise of someone walking toward the cell made me tense up. I dropped my hands from the wall and clenched my fists. I felt my bear stir underneath my skin, ready to fight if those bastard guards had come back to take me as well. I would not go down as easily as that wolf.
The sound of movement stopped in front of my cell and I slowly turned around and braced myself for a fight. I saw her honey colored eyes and bright smile and all my anger melted. Ava.
I walked toward the bars and I felt the whole world stop around me. I reached my hands out toward hers. She smiled and reached for my hands. The moment our skin connected, I felt a shockwave run through my body. My bear started to growl inside me. It wasn’t a growl of fear, it was a growl of protection. Protection of my mate. In that moment, everything changed. She was mine, and I would let not let anything happen to her.
“Ava, what are you doing here? It’s not safe for you to be back down here.”
“I convinced Michelle that I needed clearance to check on you. To continue to monitor your blood. I told her it was easier for me to come down to see you, rather than using the guards. She somehow agreed.”
I smiled at her and leaned closer to her. She pushed her face between the bars and I gently kissed her plump lips. Fuck, I wanted to do so much more than kiss her. She broke our kiss and reached down to a bag she was carrying.
“I brought you some food,” she said and held up the bag. “I figured they probably weren’t feeding you properly down here.
I smiled and looked down the corridor. I felt my muscles tense with the need to protect Ava. I had to make sure she did not get caught for coming down here. She reached her soft hand up and touched my face.
“It’s all right. We’re alone, and there’s no one else down here.”
“What about cameras?”
“I checked at the guard station as I was being given my access card. Security cameras only film on the upper levels and in the stairwell leading out. There are no cameras on this level.” Sadness momentarily washed over her face. “I think it’s because they don’t want any video evidence of what happens here. They won’t even film the tests. They only record notes and audio.”
Making it harder to have proof of what they had done. As much as I hated to admit it, Purest was smart. They knew how to get around the system. I looked at Ava’s face. I needed to tell her what I was really doing here and what I would have to eventually do. Would she understand?
Ava opened up the bag and started to hand me food. She then sat down outside of the bars and I sank to my knees inside of them. I stifled a laugh. Our first date was while I was in a cell. How fucked up was that? Ava started eating and I smiled at her. She was so kind. I couldn’t let her get dragged into this mess. But she needed to know what could happen.
“Ava, there’s something that I need to tell you about.”
Her eyes shot up to mine in concern. For a moment, I took in her beautiful face and tried to etch a memory of it in my mind. Once I told her the truth, she could run away screaming. I wanted one last second with her looking at me with eyes of love.
“Grady, what is it?” she asked. I dropped my face down to my hands. There was no right way to explain this. I just need to start talking. Like ripping off a bandage.
“There is no easy way to explain this, so I’m just going to get on with it. I haven’t been completely honest with you.” I saw her body tense. “Before you freak out, let me just explain everything.” She slowly nodded.
“I am here undercover. I’m a detective of an elite squad in Seattle’s police department. My unit is unique because we’re all shifters. We’ve been investigating Purest for several months now.” I paused for a moment to allow the news to sink in. She looked at me with concern in her eyes, but thankfully, she was not running away from me yet.
“I’m here because our last undercover mission failed at bringing Purest down even though it succeeded in some ways. We had a witness, but we believe Purest had tampered with the jury and the case was thrown out. Now the only way to stop them is for me to come in here and destroy them from the inside.”
Silence permeated the air between us. I held my breath waiting for Ava to react in some way, but she just sat there, staring at me with her beautiful eyes. Fuck, I hoped I was right in putting my trust in her. She might be my only hope now.
Ava put down her food container and reached her hand through the bars toward mine.
“I want to help.”
14
Ava
“Ava, I don’t want you to get hurt. I would not be able to forgive myself if something happened to you.”
I reached up and brushed my hand along Grady’s strong jaw line. I knew in this moment, I should be frightened. I should be scared about what could happen if Purest found out that I was helping him. But when I looked at Grady’s face, all of my fears washed away. I now knew the truth about Purest and the horrible things that they did here in this lab. I was not going to allow them to hurt Grady or any other shifter.
“Grady, I have to help. I’ve been so blind this past year working here. While I had no idea what was actually going on, I did hear the screams coming through the vents and I stupidly told myself that it was just the pipes. I wouldn’t let myself believe what was actually happening. Until I met you.”
Grady leaned his face into my hand and closed his eyes at my touch.
“I will not just sit by and let horrible things happen any more. I will get you out of here, and I will help you end this.”
Grady let out a long sigh. “But I need to protect you.”
“You can’t protect me when you’re inside a cell.”
I could see the torment in Grady’s eyes. He truly did care about me, and I knew how much I cared about him. After a few moments, he finally relented.
“You will not do this alone,” he said. I smiled at him and nodded.
“Contact Sarge. He is the head of my unit. He has been waiting for me to get in touch with him in some way. From there, you can help him formulate a plan on how to get me out of here.”
I left Grady’s cell with a new sense of purpose. I would help end this madness once and for all. I let out a sigh of relief. I felt as though a large weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Purest still terrified me, and I now ran the risk of losing everything for helping Grady, but deep down, I knew it was worth it. What Purest was doing was wrong, and I would do anything to help Grady and his unit stop them and end their experiments for good.
I left the lab as early as I could. I had to still play the part of dutiful employee. Luckily, the rest of my day involved inputting all of the research into our system, which I was able to quickly tap photos of on my phone. I knew Grady had mentioned that their case had been thrown out, but I wanted to gather as much evidence as I could, just in case.
I sat on my couch and tapped my knees in anticipation. He finally picked up on the first ring.
“This is Sarge.”
“I’m Ava. Grady gave me your number.” I could hear Sarge heave a large intake of breath.
“Meet me at Claire’s diner in thirty minutes.”
* * *
I walked into the diner and looked around at the tables. My eyes fell on an older gentleman with a large frame. He looked up at me from his menu, and he had deep purple eyes. That had to be him.
I slowly walked up to the table. “Sarge?”
He gave me a tight smile. “Have a seat.” I sat down across from him and clasped my hands together in my lap. He was really intimidating, bu
t Grady had warned me about that. He cleared his throat.
“So how do you know Max Grady?”
“I work for Purest.” I saw him take in a breath. “Grady helped bring to light what they’re doing, and I want to help him.”
Sarge reached over and slowly took a sip of his coffee. He was probably trying to figure out if he should trust me or not.
“Look, I know you might not believe me. Hell, I wouldn’t trust myself, knowing who I work for. But I now understand the evil that is Purest. I brought files for you to prove to you how terrible they are.”
“I already know how terrible they are. I’ve seen what they’ve done to all of the bodies.”
I reached into my bag and pulled out the photos I had printed from my phone of all of the files.
“If you don’t want to believe me, that’s fine, but believe Grady. They will kill him soon if we don’t get him out of there.”
Sarge looked at the photos. I saw his eyebrows rise as he read about the cardiac tests. I had made sure to get photos of all of the documents describing the tests in detail and how they had induced heart attacks on each subject. Sarge picked up a walkie talkie that I did not realize he had.
“Come in here, boys, it’s time to get Grady out.”
15
Grady
Waiting was the hardest thing to do. There was no question in my mind that I could trust Ava. The problem was that now, I was more concerned for her safety than my own. I didn’t know what I would do if Purest somehow caught on to what she was up to. I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to her.
I paced back and forth in my cell. My bear was just underneath my skin’s surface, furious that I let her do this. I stopped short when I heard footsteps. I ran up to the bars and looked down the corridor. When I saw her familiar frame come into view, I let out a long sigh of relief.
She rushed toward the bars of my cell. The moment she was within reach, I grabbed her and pulled her lips to mine. I inhaled her sweet scent and a sense of calm washed over my body. I broke our kiss and looked at her face expectantly.
“Did you get a hold of Sarge?”
“I did,” she said. “You weren’t kidding when you said he was intimidating.”
I let out a light laugh. “So what’s the plan?”
Ava looked down the corridor to make sure no one else was there. She reached down to her waist and pulled out another key card. She swiped the card at the door of my cell and pushed it open. I immediately grabbed her and pulled her toward my body. I wrapped my arms tightly around her waist and crashed my lips into hers. Time seemed to stop around us. I forgot that we were standing in a cell and that she had somehow broken inside. I forgot about all the pain of the testing and the screams and growls of the other shifters. All that mattered was Ava. I heard a noise down the corridor and my arms tensed around her. I broke our kiss and listened for another sound, but nothing ever came. I looked back down at her face.
“How did you get that?”
She gave me a coy smile. “I may have swiped it from a guard while he was busy ordering lunch. They tend to keep them on a chain on their belt which is surprisingly easy to swipe when you bump into them.” A slow smile spread on my mouth. She was brilliant.
“I have a gun for you, and a phone. We’re going to destroy everything from my lab.” She pulled up her blouse and showed me the Smith and Wesson Magnum in her pants. She pulled it out, along with the phone, and handed them to me.
“What’s in your lab? And is the unit here?”
“In my lab is a bomb. Sarge gave me what I needed to create it, and I added a few things from the lab to make sure it would have a large explosion. I just need to finish setting it up, and then we can set it to detonate through a remote. The unit is outside in the woods waiting to help.”
I wanted Ava nowhere near that bomb.
“Ava, I can’t let you go back up there. I want you with me so I can protect you.”
Her bright eyes faltered. “I have to finish setting up the bomb. As soon as I do, I can come back down here and we can get out together.”
Fuck. I hated this plan. My bear inside growled at the thought of Ava placing herself in danger. But I knew that there would be no way I could get up to her lab without a fight. I’d have to wait.
“I hate this idea, Ava. But I know I can’t go up there with you. I’ll wait down here until you let me know you are all right. Then I will open up all these cages and get us out of here. The guards and staff will be distracted by the chaos. Are you sure the bomb will destroy everything?”
“I’m positive. They will lose all of their research.”
“Good. If there is anyone else that you trust here, get them out. Otherwise, come right back down here to me.”
She looked up into my eyes and smiled. Ava amazed me with her bravery. From the moment I met her, she had found her way underneath my skin and I was forever grateful. She was mine.
“I love you, Ava.”
“I love you, too.”
I moved my arms around to her ass and lifted her up, wrapping her legs around me. Ava was mine.
16
Ava
Leaving Grady was the hardest thing I ever had to do. But I had to. I was the only one that could set the bomb. I rushed back up to my lab and felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I had a message from an unknown number, but I knew immediately who it was.
Be safe.
I quickly texted him back.
I will.
My heart fluttered in my chest. From the moment I met Grady, my whole world had changed. He had helped me open my eyes to the world around me, and I loved him for that. A sense of determination filled me as I pushed the door open to my lab.
I entered my lab and quickly locked the door behind me. I rushed over to my lab desk and opened up the cabinet below. There were the pieces of the bomb that I had somehow brought into the office this morning. Since we were a research facility, it was no surprise to anyone to see me carrying boxes around. This one did not contain the hundreds of files that it normally did.
At that diner, Sarge and the rest of the unit had formulated a plan. Since I had the access to the labs, I would be the one that would need to set the bomb. They hated that idea just as much as Grady did, but they understood that Grady would not have been able to make it up to the research level alive. Once they saw him out of his cell, they would kill him and then ask questions later.
Once the bomb was set, I would meet Grady back down at his cell, and we would get everyone else out before we detonated it. The unit would be outside to help us when we needed it.
I carefully pulled the box out of the cabinet and on to my desk. The bomb consisted of three containers. One contained hydrogen sulfide, the other nitric acid. When those chemicals combined in the third container, they would react and cause an explosion. Attached to the container was a small pump that would push the liquids into the third container. To be safe, Sarge gave me two sticks of C-4 to attach to the container and a small container of gasoline to douse my lab. This way, the explosion would hit the gas and cause a large fire.
I set up the pump and attached the C-4 to the containers. I placed the bomb back in the cabinet and pulled out the small container of gas from the box and poured it all over my desk and the floor. The strong fumes made me start to cough, but I continued to pour it everywhere to make sure the fire took everything.
I grabbed my phone and typed a quick message to Grady that I was finished and heading back down. Double checking that I had the remote to turn on the pump in my pocket, I unlocked the door to my laboratory and quickly walked outside. I locked the door behind me and was startled by the sound of my name.
“Ava,” Michelle said. “I’ve been looking for you.”
Panic gripped my stomach and a knot formed. She hadn’t figured everything out, had she? I slowly turned to face her.
“Hi Michelle,” I said as calmly as I could. “What can I do for you?”
“Doctor Miller and I wou
ld like to discuss your findings on Subject 25063-9 in my office.” I let out a slight sigh of relief. They just wanted to question me on the findings in his abnormal blood that I had contaminated.
“Sure, I’d be more than happy to. However, I was just about to go get lunch. Could we discuss them when I get back?” I just needed to get rid of her so I could go meet Grady downstairs.
“No, we would like to discuss this with you now. Follow me, please.”
Shit. Okay, calm down. I just needed to play my part and then I could go find Grady. My laboratory’s door was locked so there was no way anyone would find the bomb unless they broke in. I slowly followed Michelle toward her office. As we were walking, I quickly pulled out my phone and texted Grady.
I got pulled into a meeting with my boss. I couldn’t get out of it. I will be there as soon as I can.
I put my phone back in my pocket before I could see his response. I knew it would not be a happy one.
Michelle opened her door and I followed her inside. Seated at her desk was Dr. Miller. She turned to face us, and I noticed she had long, red hair. She stood up and extended her hand.
