by Maya Banks
felt like it was three sizes too big. She blinked to try and bring the room into focus, but she wasn’t having much success.
She heard voices. Jonah. Mad Dog. Damiano. And then she remembered.
“How much of that shit did you give her, D? She’s been out like a fucking light for hours.”
She surged upward and immediately regretted it. The room swam around her, and she had the sudden urge to vomit.
“Whoa, not so fast,” Damiano said as he gripped her shoulder to steady her.
She put a shaky hand to her head. God, it hurt. It pounded as she tried to put together what had gone down.
“How long?” she rasped.
“How long what?” D asked.
“How long have I been out?” How long had Eli and his team been in Esteban’s clutches? Nausea rose in her stomach again.
“Exactly six hours and twenty minutes,” came Jonah’s stony reply.
She rocketed to her feet, shrugging off Damiano’s hand. She weaved, and her knees threatened to buckle, but she remained upright by sheer willpower.
“Where are we?” she demanded. She looked around, her vision clearer now, and answered her own question. “Paris.”
She locked gazes with Jonah. “Why? Why did you do it? Goddamn it, Jonah, how could you do that?”
“Now hold on a minute, baby girl,” Mad Dog began.
“Stand down, Mad Dog,” Jonah said in a controlled voice. “Let her say her piece. Then I’ll say mine.” His eyes glittered with anger, and she knew he was simmering beneath his deceptive calm.
“How could you set me up that way? How could you set up Eli and his team? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
Jonah walked forward, his features locked in stone. “One, we didn’t set you up. Two, I don’t give a damn about Eli and his team. Three, you brought this on yourself when you blatantly disregarded a direct order from me to stay your ass on the island.
“What the fuck were you going to do, Ty? What were you thinking confronting Esteban like that? What would have happened if we didn’t show up? I’ll tell you what. He would have killed you.”
She shook her head. “Esteban wouldn’t have known we were there if you hadn’t told him. How did you know?” And then it hit her. “Tits. That son of a bitch.”
“Tits doesn’t owe you any loyalty,” Jonah said coldly. “And we didn’t say jack to Esteban. I don’t even know why the fuck you’re so hot to trot for this guy. Why were you there with Eli and his team? Last I heard you were going after Eli, not changing your loyalties, Ty.”
The pounding in her head was vicious. She closed her eyes and swallowed back the rising nausea.
“Jonah, we don’t need to do this now.” Damiano’s concerned voice filtered through the fog surrounding her. “She’s not well.”
Her eyes flew open again. “No, D, now is precisely when we have to do this. We’re losing time.” She turned her attention back to Jonah. “You know why I went after Eli. What you don’t know is why Esteban wanted him too. He’s the bastard who unleashed the chemical agent on Eli and his team. On Damiano. He’s the reason Damiano is the way he is. It was a goddamn experiment. One that didn’t work out too well. I thought Eli might have answers. He’s stable. I thought his team would be stable like him. I was wrong.”
Jonah held up his hand. “I don’t give a damn about Eli and his team. What I care about is the fact that you could have been killed. You don’t get that. I won’t trade your life for some half-assed scheme to try and save D’s ass.”
“You’re not listening to me,” she said in frustration. “You stood there and handed Eli and his men over to Esteban. I went to Germany with Eli and his men because we were going after Esteban. We were going to take him down and make him talk. He created the chemical that turned them into shifters. If nothing else, we could have gained access to the chemical, had it broken down and analyzed, and maybe we could have come up with a way to help them and D. But you sold us out to Esteban. Goddamn it, Jonah, why?”
“I had nothing to do with why Esteban was there,” Jonah said icily. “Tits told me where you were going to be and when. We went there to extract you and to remove Eli as a threat to you. I wasn’t about to have a goddamn showdown with Esteban and risk the lives of my team for Eli Chance.”
She rubbed her eyes wearily. “Then how did he know? God, how could he have known?” She let out a shaky breath. “They think I betrayed them. They think I sold them out to Esteban. They trusted me.”
“Why should you care?” Jonah asked with a raised brow.
“You didn’t see them,” she said softly. “The brothers, Ian and Braden? They’re not stable like Eli and Gabe. They’re like D. They can’t control their shifts. Eli and Gabe, their stability is unexplained.” She wouldn’t betray Eli’s secret. Not even now.
She glanced back into Jonah’s eyes and saw the resolve simmering there. No way she’d ever budge him. And she knew what she had to do.
“I quit,” she said.
“What?” Mad Dog’s outburst rang out over the room.
“Care to repeat that?” Jonah said.
“I quit Falcon. You’re right. I compromised the team, and I’ve obviously lost all objectivity. I’m out effective immediately.”
“Ty, no,” Damiano said as he walked up behind her and put his hands over her shoulders.
She turned and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. “I love you, D,” she whispered. “But this is something I have to do.”
She pulled back and started to walk away but Jonah caught her arm in his strong grip. Then he reached out with his other hand to cup her chin. He forced her to meet his gaze.
“Why?”
She looked away.
“Look at me. For once be straight with me, goddamn it. You tell me why you’re quitting, and you tell me what the fuck you’re planning even now. Because if you think I’m just going to let you walk out like that, you’ve lost what little of your mind you have left. We’re family, Ty. And you don’t quit family.”
“I’m going after Eli and the others. I have to try and save them.”
Curses blistered her ears from three sides.
“I can understand why you’d go against me for D,” Jonah said. “I do not understand why you’d quit Falcon and leave this family for Eli and his team.”
Tears shimmered like glass, and she bit the inside of her cheek, drawing blood, to staunch her reaction to Jonah’s words.
“Jesus H. Christ. You’re in love with him,” Mad Dog said, an edge of horror to his voice.
She whipped around to glare at Mad Dog. “This has nothing to do with love and everything to do with keeping my word. With not betraying men who tried to help me. Love has no place in this conversation. This is about doing what’s right. I won’t let that bastard experiment on them. I won’t let him torture them before he decides he no longer has a use for them and kills them.”
Jonah turned her to face him, gently this time, his thumb brushing against the moisture at the rim of her eye.
“Look at me, Ty,” he said softly. “Eli has been different from the beginning. Everyone here knows it. It’s why we’ve worried about you so damn much. We could see how much he affected you. I didn’t want him anywhere near you. Now you look at me. Straight in the eye. And you tell me that love has nothing to do with you being willing to turn your back on your family and walk out of Falcon.”
A tear trickled down, butting into Jonah’s hand.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “I only know I can’t live with myself if he dies. He hates me now anyway. He thinks I betrayed him. I saw the look in his eyes. I can live with that as long as I can save him now.”
Damiano moved to stand beside Tyana. He slid a hand over her shoulder and squeezed. “If you love him, Ty, then that’s enough for me. I’ll help you. You don’t have to do this alone.”
“You can’t,” she protested.
“Shut up,” Jonah bit out. “You don’t get to make t
he rules. I’m still the leader of Falcon and of this family. You’re not going in to save Eli alone. We go as a team or no one goes. Understand? Are you going to listen this time or do I have to sedate your ass again and tie you to the bed?”
She threw her arms around Jonah, who stumbled back in surprise.
“Good grief,” he muttered. “Can’t you fall in love without getting so goddamn mushy?”
But his arms came around her tight and hugged her close to his much larger body. She could feel the racing of his heart, the jerky intake of his breath. He’d been afraid for her.
“I love you,” she whispered so only he could hear. “And I’m sorry.”
He squeezed her then released her, stepping away as he regained his composure.
She bumped into Mad Dog who put a hand at her back.
“Don’t ever pull a dumbass stunt like saying you quit,” he said gruffly.
She turned and looked into his eyes. There was love there. Yeah, she knew without a doubt both he and Jonah had been pissed enough to wring her neck, but they loved her. They were right. They were family.
She reached out and took his hand and pulled it up to her chest.
“Don’t even say it,” Mad Dog said with a shake of his head. “We’ve got a rescue to plan, and we don’t need a freaking eye watering contest.”
“I love you,” she said sincerely.
He rolled his eyes and yanked her into his arms. “Don’t ever scare me like that again, Ty. We’re a team. We’re a family. We work together. Always.”
She nodded against his chest. “Yeah, I get it.” And she did.
She pulled away and smiled over at D who was watching the mush fest with an amused expression. “How are you?” she asked. “Really.”
He shrugged. “I’m making it. If I keep a light dose of the sedative in my system all the time and take a larger dose when I go to bed, it seems to keep me calm, and I don’t have the urge to shift like I did before.”
She glanced over at Jonah. “I gave Ian and Braden the inhibitor. It works on them. For now. I promised if you guys didn’t toss me out of Falcon I’d have Marcus examine them and see if he could offer any help.”
“They have to be alive for that, and the longer we sit here yapping and getting in touch with our feelings, the less likely it will be that they stay that way. If they aren’t already dead.”
She shuddered. “They have to be. I won’t let them down.”
“Stop taking the goddamn world on your shoulders, Ty,” Mad Dog growled.
“Enough already,” Jonah said, holding his hand up to stop the bickering that was about to ensue. “I’ve got to gather our secondary. D, you need to get me intel on the most likely location of Esteban and then verify it. Mad Dog, you’re in charge of weapons.”
Then he turned to Tyana. “I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but you look like shit. Get some rest. We’ll figure this out. If you aren’t up to snuff by go time, then your ass will stay here, so bear that in mind as you argue with me about resting.”
She laughed. Relief made her lightheaded. This was her team. Her family. She had complete faith in their ability to find Eli. And rest sounded pretty good to her aching head.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tyana slept fitfully and woke to find Damiano sitting on the end of her bed watching her. He seemed thinner, and it reminded her too much of the boy he’d been instead of the bulky man he’d grown up to be.
“Hey,” she said in a husky voice as she sat up and drew her legs to her chest.
“Hey yourself. Feel any better?”
She craned her neck back and forth to work out the kinks, and to her satisfaction, the headache was gone.
“Yeah, I do.”
He studied her, his eyes holding a multitude of questions. And finally he asked one.
“Was Mad Dog right? Do you love him?”
Tyana sighed. “You don’t ask the easy ones, do you?” She reached over and took his hand, twining her fingers with his and squeezing. Just being able to touch him made her feel better. It seemed they’d been separated for too long.
“You were the first person in my life that I loved,” she said honestly. “Jonah and Mad Dog were the second and third. Beyond that, I’ve never loved another human being. Love is…scary. What scares me more than the thought of…loving—” she nearly choked on the word, “—of loving him, is the fact that I need him.” She looked up at Damiano. “I need him, D.”
“Then I’m glad to help you save him,” Damiano said. “You deserve to be happy, Ty. If he can make you happy, then I want that for you.”
She turned her legs over the side of the bed and scooted down against him. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her.
“Did they find him yet?” she asked anxiously. “You’re in here and not pecking away on your computer so I can only assume you’ve done your part and Jonah and Mad Dog are off drawing up the tactical plans?”
He nodded.
“Where?” She held her breath.
“My computer skills weren’t really that necessary. Yet. Tits actually came through on this one. He tagged Esteban after the deal went down in Germany. Monitored his movements. He hoofed it into Switzerland immediately. His pharmaceutical company owns a large research facility in a remote region of the Alps. We believe he took Eli and his men there.”
He stroked her hair soothingly as he spoke.
“If he’s there, Ty, we’ll get him. You know when Jonah sets his mind to something, he simply won’t accept any other alternative but success.”
She pulled away from Damiano and looked him in the eye. “Are you angry with me, D?”
His cheeks puffed as he blew out his breath. “No, Ty, I’m not angry. Well, I guess I am in a way. I’m pissed that you’d risk your life for me. You have to know that I could never accept that my recovery came because of your death.”
“And yet you’d do the same for me,” she said softly.
He gave a half laugh. “Yeah, I would. In a heartbeat.”
“Hey you, two,” Mad Dog said from the door. He leaned in, bracing one hand on the frame. “Jonah’s called a meeting. We’re almost ready to roll.”
Tyana surged up and hurried to the door. Mad Dog didn’t move right away to let her pass.
“It’s good to have you back, Ty,” he said in a serious tone.
She punched him in the gut. He grunted and doubled over.
“It’s good to be back,” she said as she walked by.
His chuckle carried after her as she headed toward the living room.
Armed with satellite imagery of the medical facility, Falcon moved in. They knew where guards were posted, where security cameras scanned the perimeter and how many men were on the outside.
Damiano stayed behind in the high-tech military vehicle Tits had provided to monitor communications between the team members and to direct Falcon’s movements once they were inside.
Jonah ordered the secondary to move in and disable the guard towers. They worked quickly and efficiently while Damiano hacked into the surveillance system so he could see inside the facility.
“All systems go,” Damiano said.
Tyana, Mad Dog and Jonah checked to make sure their earpieces were secure.
“Falcon one ready,” Jonah said.
“Falcon two ready,” Mad Dog spoke up.
“Falcon three ready,” Tyana added.
The three stood outside the wall surrounding the facility, heavily armed, awaiting Damiano’s next instructions.
“Guard towers are down. Outside surveillance is down,” Damiano reported. “You’re cleared for go.”
Jonah pointed at Mad Dog and Tyana. “As we discussed. This is an in and out operation. Mad Dog, you take the south entrance, I’ll take the north. Ty, you enter through the west wing. If D’s intel is correct, they’re being held in the innermost sanctum. This isn’t a time to get soft. Shoot first, ask questions later, and if things go bad, get your asse
s back to the rendezvous point.”
Mad Dog and Tyana both nodded.
“Then let’s do this,” Jonah said grimly.
Adrenaline surged through Tyana’s veins, rushing like a river. She had every confidence in Falcon’s abilities. Jonah hired and trained the best. With the outside guard taken out and the Falcon secondary already working through the building to secure the exits, getting in to recover Eli and the others should be just another day on the job.
They split up, Jonah and Mad Dog heading in opposite directions. Tyana detached the rope and hook from her vest and slung the hook over the wall. She yanked to make sure it would hold and then she began to pull herself up and over the wall.
She dropped down on the other side and pulled the strap on her gun until the stock slid over her shoulder and into her hand. She moved quickly to the west entrance, and to her satisfaction, saw two fallen guards at the door. Falcon secondary had done their jobs.
When she entered the building, two things struck her. The god-awful chill and the deafening silence.
“Talk to me, D,” she murmured. “Where am I going?”
The three of them wore tracking devices, and D had the schematics of the building uploaded to his computer so he could monitor their location and guide them on the most expedient path to the center. And thank God, because there was a veritable maze of hallways and corridors. Someone could wander for hours and never find their way in or out.
“Keep moving forward, Ty. Pass two more hallways and take a right. I’m not picking up shit on the infrared. Are you hearing anything down there?”
That would explain the chill. Was it to cloak body heat? Still, he should be able to pick up something.
“Now take a left three hallways down. Once you make that left, you’re going to make an immediate right then an immediate left again.”
“You’re making me dizzy,” she muttered.
D paused then spoke again, this time to Jonah and then to Mad Dog as he gave them instructions. All communications went through D. Less distracting than having them all talking over each other.
“Okay, Ty, you’re doing fine. Take your next left. You’ll land in a circular corridor. There are three of those. One in each wing. Jonah and Mad Dog are closing in on their locations. If your guys are being held here, they should be in one of those inner rooms.”
God, let them be here. Don’t let me be too late.
“Okay, I’m here.”
She entered the hallway and saw a door right in front of her. She reached into her vest and pulled out the small explosive device and stuck it on the security panel.
“I’m blowing the first door,” she said. “Tell Mad Dog and Jonah heads up because if they don’t know we’re here already, they’ll know in a few seconds.”
“Be careful, Ty.”
“Always.”
She set the timer then raced around the bend to the next door where she set her next explosive.
“How many doors am I looking for?” she murmured as she set the timer.
“Three more,” D replied.
She crouched next to the current door and waited for the first to blow. The explosion rocked the hallway, and she put her hand out to balance herself. She shot up and ran around, her rifle up.
Two men in lab coats staggered out of the room, waving their hands in big, exaggerated motions. She fired two rounds and they both dropped in their tracks.
She stepped over their bodies and went into the room. Fuck. It was empty. Just a bunch of lab and computer equipment.
“Room one clear,” she reported back. Then she hauled ass back into the hallway to see if the noise had startled any of the other rooms into action. As
