by Lisa Kessler
Three men to one hundred jaguars. Not great odds. “I need Raven’s number.”
She gave it to me, and her voice softened. “You love this woman more than yourself.”
I hadn’t voiced the word, but hearing her say it, I realized it was probably true. “It appears that way.”
“Well, I hope we can get you both out. I’d love to meet her.”
“I’d like that, too. Thanks, Sasha.”
I ended the call and dialed Raven’s number.
“Hello?”
“Raven, it’s Sebastian.” I’d met her at Caldwell’s house before his death. She was shorter than Isabelle, with dark brown eyes. She also had plenty of fight in her. We’d need it.
“Is my sister all right? How’d you get my number?”
“Sasha gave it to me.” I stared at her mother’s letter. “I don’t have much time, but I need your help.”
“Not sure what I can do.” Her distrust was plain in her voice. I deserved her hesitation, but I didn’t have time to win her over.
“Your Pack is going to send a few members to us for backup. I need you to get as many wolves from the Sedona Pack as you can on a plane to D.C. tonight. Tell them it’s for Isabelle. I’ll text you the address.” I paused. “If we don’t have Adam out by tomorrow night, he’ll be locked outside with one hundred shifted jaguars.”
“Shit. Okay.”
“Any idea how many you could get to come?” They will be his undoing.
“If Asher agrees, I’m pretty sure Ryker, Gage, Deacon, and Dex will come, too, and maybe Jett. No guarantees, though. He has some history with Nero.”
Jett Kendrick. Yes. He’d come in contact with Nero through the military. After Operation Moonlight failed, my father snagged funding for a new project, code-named Wolf. Jett was the only werewolf to walk out of our walls alive. General Sloan procured him an honorable discharge.
His brother didn’t survive the experiment.
“Jett has been here before. He knows the facility and could be an asset.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” She paused. “Can I talk to Isabelle?”
“She’s not with me right now, but I’ll have her call when we’re out.”
“All right.” She cleared her throat. “I guess I better make some calls.”
“Thanks, Raven.”
I set my phone down. There were reinforcements coming. All of this was foreign territory for me. Not only making a backup plan, but relying on wolves for help. Wolves from two Packs, Raven’s and Isabelle’s.
They will be his undoing.
Was this the conflict she predicted?
You will be forced to choose.
I had chosen a side. One I never would have imagined for myself.
Follow your heart.
And it led to only one person.
Isabelle.
I picked up the paper and folded it along well-worn lines before sliding it back into my tool kit. If I was able to get them out, I’d probably never be back inside this room. From the center drawer of my desk I took out a tiny picture frame. My mother and I were standing in front of Brightwood. I was maybe ten years old.
Lifetimes ago.
I tucked it into my jacket pocket and stood up. This chapter of my life was finished. Now I needed to live through the next one.
When I got to Adam’s holding cell, he was groggy, but awake. He stood slowly, rubbing his forehead. “Did she shoot me with an elephant tranq or what?”
I had my back to him, disabling the camera. “We’ll only have a few minutes to talk. If I keep the camera off-line too long, someone will notice.” I turned to face him. “My father has Isabelle.”
Adam nodded slowly. “She’s upset. Her emotions are jumbled.” He met my eyes. “But I don’t think she’s physically injured.”
“I intend to keep it that way.” I slid a bottle of water through the bars. “He ordered me to bring Madeleine here to see you behind bars. He wants you to tell her this is her home now.”
Adam swallowed, shaking his head. “What if I refuse?”
“I’m supposed to shoot you while she watches.”
His face contorted into a grimace. “You dad is a sick asshole.” He shook his head. “Did you call Sasha and warn them to protect Lana and Malcolm?”
“Done.” I nodded.
“Good.” He turned toward the door. “I don’t see Madeleine here. I’m guessing we’re not playing by your father’s rules?”
“No.” I cleared my throat and pulled out my cell phone. “I’m messaging your location to Vance. Before I leave you, I’ll add him to the entrance list for the gate.” I met his eyes. “Since I’m expected to take Madeleine and bring her here, I’m going to fulfill that part of my orders. Vance will help you both get out to his car.”
Adam raised a brow. “What about Isabelle?”
“I’m hoping that when I report to my father that Madeleine has seen you, I’ll be able to get a private audience with him. Isabelle will rendezvous with you outside.” I pointed at the camera. “I’ll have to leave you in the cell for the camera, but Vance knows where the keys are stored. Any questions?”
Adam thrust his arm through the bars. I came closer, unsure what he wanted. He clasped my forearm, his gaze locked on mine. “We’ll come back for you. You’re Pack now. Don’t forget.” He tipped his head toward the door. “Whatever it takes, you live through it, all right? If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for your mate. Live for her until we can get you out.”
I nodded slowly, his words sinking into me, covering me like armor. “I will.” Somehow.
He released my arm, and I turned to reset the camera. With my back to him, I added, “In case this doesn’t work, your Pack and some from Sedona are on their way to D.C. You won’t face the Hunt alone.”
I went to the door, but Adam’s voice made me hesitate.
“Sebastian?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“Not yet.” I shook my head. “Wait until we get out alive.”
Chapter Twenty
Isabelle
There had to be an explanation for the photo of Sebastian lurking over my father’s body. I carefully turned the picture over to see the next page. A handwritten document was behind it with Sebastian’s name at the top.
Antonio stood and came to my side of the desk. “Before computers and tablets, we used mission completion forms. Each agent would return to the compound and fill it out while the details of the operation were still fresh.” He tapped the form. “Surveillance of your father was Sebastian’s first solo assignment. But this mission was to collect you and your sister.” He paused. “By any means necessary.”
I skimmed the document, written by Sebastian’s hand. It told a different story than the one he’d shared with me.
Solomon Wood arrived for our meeting without the girls. I explained the alternative. I would be forced to bring him back to Nero for intense questioning about their location. He refused and bit into a cyanide capsule. I attempted to expel the poison and employed life-saving measures, but he died before I could gain information on the girls’ location.
I put the body in the back of my car for disposal in the mountains. Once a remote spot was found, I left his remains for the scavengers to destroy the evidence.
Requesting orders to return to the area to search for the girls.
It was signed Sebastian Severino.
I wanted to vomit. He’d dumped my father’s body, leaving him to be eaten by coyotes and vultures. No honor, no burial, just tossed out like worthless trash. I struggled to suppress my emotions. No way in hell was I going to give this twisted fucker the satisfaction of seeing me upset.
On the next page, I found another document written in Sebastian’s hand.
Stacia Wood is not a threat. She lives alone, drunk and swallowing pills so fast she barely knows her own name. One of Sol’s daughters is eighteen, and the other is twelve. Still searching for their loca
tion.
At least he’d been telling the truth about not revealing where we were.
Antonio pulled a chair up beside me. “Have a look at the next page.”
I steeled myself and turned the paper. Another report by Sebastian.
I entered the Wood’s home and located items belonging to Sol’s daughters. After examining their scents, it is clear the experiment was not a success. These girls are human, not born jaguar shifters like their father.
I held my breath, not trusting myself to stay quiet.
“Is this surprising to you?” Antonio purred. “Did my son tell you something different? Maybe he tried to spin it that he hid you and your sister from me.”
I forced myself to turn the page.
And dropped the folder on the floor. My mother’s lifeless eyes stared up at me. I’d gotten a call from the police after my mother’s death. But I’d never had to identify the body or see her…like this.
Tears stung my eyes, but I fought them back as Antonio reached for the file. “Perhaps I should have warned you about the graphic content, but in your line of work you’ve witnessed death, no doubt.”
He turned the page. “While you collect yourself, I’ll just read my son’s report. ‘Stacia Wood is confirmed dead. When I asked about the location of her daughters, she recognized me. After clutching her chest, she collapsed on the floor. I started CPR in hopes of more information, but her heart never picked up a rhythm. Since she’s human, I left her to be discovered by authorities.’”
My eyes were hot, and my stomach twisted into knots. There had to be an angle I wasn’t seeing. I couldn’t reconcile the reports in the file with the man who’d pledged to lay down his life to protect me.
I stood up, aching to run away, but where would I go? “Why are you doing this?”
“Because after I recognized you at the dinner, I came back here and checked some records. It seems someone from an ISP in Sedona, Arizona, was digging into my old personnel files on our server. It didn’t raise flags at the time because of our business arrangement with Allen Caldwell. But when I studied it, I realized these hits came through after Caldwell’s death.”
He set the closed file on his desk. “It must have been you. So I thought you should have the whole, unfiltered truth you were searching for.”
I shook my head, taking a step back from the sadistic psycho. “If you had all this information, why didn’t you ever come for me and my sister?”
He shrugged with a smug smile. “You weren’t jaguar shifters, and all ties that led back to me were dead, so you became a very low priority.” He pointed to the file. “Now that you know the truth, we can get down to business.”
I crossed my arms. “I’m not in the mood to play your games.”
“Oh, this isn’t a game. Not at all.” He walked behind his desk and hit a button on his phone. “Has he arrived?”
A man’s voice came through the intercom. “We have him, sir.”
Antonio gestured to the window. “Have a look.”
I went over and looked down. My heart sank. Vance was cuffed, standing between two Nero guards. I glanced at Antonio, struggling to hide the panic. “What is Vance doing here? I thought he was in Sedona training the Pack.”
“As did I, but his name showed up on the admission list a few minutes ago. Any idea how that happened?”
I shook my head. “I’ve been here the entire time.”
He punched another button on the intercom. “I’m ready.”
The door opened, and Natasha shoved a battered Sebastian into the room. His hands were bound in front of him, and hair hung over his eyes. Blood dripped from his nose and lip, but there was fire in his dark eyes.
Natasha retreated a step. “Do you need anything else, sir?”
Antonio shook his head and Natasha left the room, closing the door behind her.
The wolf howled inside my soul, aching to protect our mate. The rest of me wasn’t sure how I felt. The photos and reports haunted me. Best-case scenario, Sebastian had lied to me. Worst case? He’d killed my parents.
And he’d tossed my father’s body out like garbage. All these years I’d wondered if my father was even alive, and he’d been food for the scavengers the whole time.
Antonio came around his desk, toward Sebastian, his hands behind his back. “Tell me something. Did you really think you could walk two wolves into my domain and then leave with my granddaughter?”
Sebastian growled. “How low you’ve sunk. I used to believe in our mission. Through our research and partnership with the Defense Department, shifters could help defend our country. I was willing to kill to see your cause come to fruition. I looked the other way when you had women bitten and brought into this facility. But now…you kidnap children.”
Sebastian spat blood on the floor, his voice ragged and raw. “I’m through doing your dirty work. You want to kill Madeleine’s father and make her watch? Then you fucking do it yourself.”
His father slapped him so hard he stumbled backward, the sound echoing through the office. “How dare you disrespect me. I have given you everything. You’re only powerful because of me.”
“You know nothing about me.”
“Bullshit. I know you care about this woman. I could kill her right now. You’d be powerless to stop me.” He snagged the file from the desk and waved it in Sebastian’s face. “Instead, I gave her the truth. Or I should say you did. You wrote all the reports.”
Antonio’s gaze cut over to me. “Something tells me she never would’ve opened her legs for you if she knew you killed both her parents.”
Sebastian rushed forward, knocking his father to the ground. He swung his cuffed wrists like a sledgehammer into his father’s temple. Antonio lay still. Sebastian pressed his fingers to his throat.
“Is he dead?”
Sebastian shook his head. “No. We need him alive until we can get Adam and his daughter out.”
“Why? He’s not going to help us.”
“I’m well aware of that, but the moment the jaguars in this facility discover he’s dead, especially by my hand, there will be a war to seize power.” He went to the window. “We’ll never be able to get back inside these walls for Adam and Madeleine if that happens.”
“Someone told him Vance showed up on the list. They’ve got him down there.”
“We can still make this work.” He opened his father’s desk drawers until he found what he was looking for. “They don’t know my father and I are no longer on the same side.”
He handed me a set of keys and held his hands out. “Get these cuffs off.”
I took the keys but didn’t unlock the cuffs. “What about Adam and Madeleine?”
“We’ll come back for them. I’ll explain in the car.” He paused, and when I still didn’t move, he added, “He marked Adam for the Hunt tomorrow night. He’ll be safe until then.” He shook his wrists. “I have a plan, Isabelle.”
I unlocked the cuffs. They fell to the floor, but I stayed in front of him, blocking the exit. “How am I supposed to trust you?”
His dark eyes flicked to the file on the desk and back to my face. “Everything is not as it seems.”
“Not good enough.” I stood my ground.
“It will have to be for now.” He took my hand and went to the door. I jerked my hand free as he opened it. Natasha got up, frowning when she noticed the cuffs were missing from his wrists, but Sebastian didn’t miss a beat. “Vance came on the grounds unexpectedly. My punishment will have to wait. My father wants me to handle this right away.”
He closed the door behind us. “He doesn’t want to be disturbed until I get back with information.”
We walked out into the hallway and down the stairs. I whispered, “How long will she wait until she checks on him?”
“No telling, but hopefully long enough for us to get off the property.”
Sebastian collected the “prisoner” for off-site questioning. We loaded Vance in Sebastian’s car and drove away. The massiv
e building got smaller in the side-view mirror.
“I thought I was fucked.” Vance leaned between the front seats. “What the hell happened?”
“After the gala my father got suspicious and figured out Isabelle is Solomon Wood’s daughter.”
Vance glanced my way. “I never met your pop, but he’s a legend around the compound.”
“After being there, I’m not sure that’s a compliment.” I couldn’t bring myself to look at Sebastian, so I watched the countryside out the window.
“My father doesn’t know what we’re planning, but he must not have believed you were really in Sedona, or he wouldn’t have been alerted when I added your name to the admission list.” Sebastian drove into a parking lot and pulled a bundled roll of leather from his jacket. He untied it and started unrolling until he got to a knife in one of the pockets.
He popped the switchblade and handed it to Vance. “I knocked him out before I came down to get you, so it’s safe to say we won’t be entering through the front gate tomorrow.”
Vance cut the zip ties off. “Once the sun goes down tomorrow, we won’t be much use. All the jaguars will be hunting Adam.”
“That’s why we’re going in right before sundown. The humans will be guarding the gate.”
I frowned without making eye contact. “Why does your father have human guards at all?”
Vance leaned back against the seat, stretching out his arms. “Because if a human sees a giant jaguar, he’ll shoot first and ask questions later.”
Sebastian started the engine. “During the new moon, the watchtowers and gates are all guarded by heavily armed humans. After we shift, we stay within the confines of the Nero compound and out of sight. If they spot a wild animal, they’ll kill it with no idea it was really a man.”
Sebastian’s father made Caldwell seem like a playground bully. I reached up to feel my empty holster. “He still has my gun.”
“You can use mine.” Sebastian turned onto the highway. “I won’t need it.”
