“I… think so, Mistress. They have my box, they used it as bait.”
“I am sorry, Asia. We will still find your past, you can count on that. The boys are tearing the place apart searching for you. I told them there were four people holding you.”
Asia smiled. Only a mother would call Tyrone and Tyrese boys.
“We’ve been using him for years as an extra pair of eyes and ears around here. He’s given us invaluable information, a great source. Her hiding her box in his closet is just one thing. Go get my equipment, Bruce,” Deets said.
With a heavy heart, she watched the man who had once consoled her leave the room. His betrayal cut deep. There were few people in the world who knew her abhorrence to unnecessary violence and brutal acts. He had been a caregiver of those secrets. From the first time he had found her lying next to the toilet after emptying her stomach when she returned from an assignment, he had made himself available whenever she returned. Most times he shut down the area for cleaning so she would have privacy and wait with her until she was done. Sometimes he held her head, others he simply handed her a cloth to wipe her mouth. They never talked during those times. He was just there in case she needed anything.
“What was in the box?” the woman asked.
“Newspaper clippings, an old bracelet, a picture. Just bits and pieces she collected over the years. Would you like to see them, Sir?” Deets asked.
Asia snapped to attention and almost lost her focus. Newspaper clippings? Bracelet? What picture?
“Yes. I’m interested in seeing what was important enough that she would stay down here when she was free. It must be important. Are you preparing for the tests?” the woman answered in a low cultured voice. Asia tried to place the accent, but couldn’t.
“Yes, Ma’am. Now that she has worn herself out, it won’t be as difficult to install another tracking implant. I’ve been working on upgrading the implementation and data tracking on these and feel confident you’ll be pleased,” Deets said with a touch of pride in his voice.
“The new one?” The male stranger asked.
“Yes, Sir. This one has better termination capabilities and cannot be overridden. We will be able to track La Patron and enter his compound at will with this one. Once I inject it into her system, it will travel through her blood stream and eventually burrow itself into her brain. From that point on, she is ours to control.” Deets’ eagerness sickened her.
“Good. The last one had too many complications. Either she works for us, or we want her exterminated. If you can make that happen good, otherwise, take her to Newport and have her incinerated there,” the woman said.
“Mistress?”
“Asia?”
“They plan to put another chip inside me.” She told Jasmine what she had just heard. “Kill me, please.”
“What? Kill…no I can’t do that. Let’s talk about this.”
“I am not going to live as their puppet, Mistress. Death is better. Release me from my vow or kill me. I don’t care which.”
“Stop it,” Jasmine yelled and tendrils of power shot through the link.
Asia shuddered as waves of calming energy enveloped her, cancelling her anxiety. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“What is it with you and death? You always act as if it is the only other option, it’s not. Now tell me again exactly what they said, not what you think they said or what you think they meant.”
“Yes Ma’am.” She repeated the conversation to that point. There was a brief period of silence.
“Silas agrees with me.”
Asia was surprised at how calm and confident her Mistress sounded. “Ma’am?”
“We are not going to allow them to put anything inside or on you ever again. We are in agreement. Are you ready?”
Hesitating, Asia thought about the timing. “Ma’am… is there a way to delay him from inserting the implant? I think La Patron needs to find the strange man and stop him. I think he is the one in charge of all of this. They plan to leave soon and I will be with them. But if La Patron stops them at the boat, that will buy us time.”
“You think he is the Liege?”
“Who?”
“Nothing. Silas heard everything you said and they are working on all that. I am staying with you. Anything that asshole tries to put inside you dies. I have been practicing on controlling my energy.”
Asia grimaced, remembering the last time her Mistress became angry. Mark, Victoria’s fiancée had burned from the inside out and his mind turned to mush. “Thank you, Mistress.”
“Don’t fail, Deets. We are too close to reaching our goal to have a loose experiment running around. Billions of dollars are on the line. Our clients don’t need to know the flaws in our products. No one wants a soldier they cannot control,” the male stranger said, causing the smell of Deets fear to rise higher.
“Yes, Sir.”
“I need to get the rest of the boxes and store them. Meet you below,” the woman said and left the room without a backward glance.
The male stranger turned to Deets and spoke. “How soon before we can leave here, La Patron and Angus are above, that is too close.”
“Mistress who is Angus? The odd smelling man knows La Patron and Angus are nearby. He is afraid of them.”
“He is a full blood black wolf who has been watching everything. I wonder how they know him. One sec, let me talk to Silas.”
Asia thought over Jasmine’s words. La Patron was the only Black wolf she had ever seen, other than the one in her bizarre dream. In her dream, there were wolves of all colors frolicking in what appeared to be a large meadow. At the top, seated on a large stone sat a huge black wolf. He never did much, other than watch. Her dream never varied. Whenever she woke from her rest she always felt stronger. She had always thought it was La Patron watching over them. Maybe she was wrong. One of the byproducts of her implants was the loss of restful sleep and dreams. It had been years since she thought of it.
Deets was talking again. “I sent Bruce for my equipment. I need to sedate her so that she does not emit signals that they can pick up through the links. Otherwise, they will sense her when we leave this alcove. Afterward, I will inject the tracking chip and then bring her down to the tunnel so we can leave.”
“Good. I am going below to oversee the loading of the last shipment and then I will give the order to blow the entire lab. Make sure you are done and on the boat, I would hate to lose another doctor.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Mistress the odd man will blow up the lab after he loads his boat, he will leave with or without me. Please tell La Patron to hurry. I have changed my mind, I prefer to live.”
“Of course you do. I’ll tell Silas, but they are moving like the wind already. There is a lot of ground to cover. I think you and I need to form a plan just in case.”
Asia could not imagine what kind of plan the two of them could hatch, but found comfort in the fact she was not alone. “Yes, Mistress.” Thinking fast, she tried to calculate the potential damage. How many people lived in the area? Not only would the bomb change the direction of the Susquehanna River, but the highway and surrounding towns would suffer as well. No telling how many lives would be lost with that one selfish act. Hopefully, the mountains were far away enough not to be impacted, otherwise the results would be catastrophic.
A soft swooshing sound met her ears. Asia watched as the janitor returned pushing a cart into the room. “Anyone see you? Ask any questions?” Deets asked as he moved aside.
“No, Sir, I have a lot of practice of walking unseen. They are searching for her though.”
“Won’t be long. I just have to flood the room with this to knock her out and then insert the chip,” Deets said as he reached into a jar on top of the cart and pulled out a small vial.
“Yes, Sir.” Bruce looked around the small space and stopped. If she had been standing in the room their gazes would have met. He remained in that position a moment longer and slid his gaze to the opposite side of the room.
Was it possible that he sensed her? No. Maybe. She had no idea.
“You need to go and join the group leaving for the Alpha’s compound before we blow the lab. Get as far away as you can, the river is going to flood this area once the bomb goes off. I don’t want you to get hurt. We need accurate information on how the Alpha operates and what his weaknesses are. Maybe you can offer to clean his den,” Deets said as he inserted the syringe filled with the contents from the vial into a round circle on the wall.
“Yes, Sir. I’ll do that. Good luck to you, Sir.” He left the room. Asia watched as he walked to a wall, tapped it a couple of times. It slid open and then closed after he crossed over.
Asia heard the hiss in her small prison as the air became tainted with the contents from the vial. Inhaling, she recognized the potent brew. Fear latched on with a tenacious grip as she tasted the poison that would leave her in an unconscious state.
“Mistress, they are filling the room with a gas so they can insert the implant. Do you have a plan?”
“Don’t breathe it.”
“What?” What kind of plan was that?
“You didn’t breathe before when you were underground, don’t breathe now.”
Asia thought about it for a moment, realized Mistress was right and told her body not to breathe in the poisonous air. She lay motionless, waiting. Nothing happened. Air particles loaded with chemicals floated above and around her head. Instead of inhaling, she counted them.
“Mistress, he will come in the room soon, shall I kill him?”
“No. Not yet anyway. Silas would like to see the chip.”
Asia’s heart dropped and she was tempted to inhale the poisoned air. “He wants me to carry the chip inside?”
“What? Hell no. What’s wrong with you? I told you we agreed nothing goes inside you, period. Based on what you’ve said, he would like to have Passen and Matt look over the chip. Maybe put it in one of their people and send them back to the fold, that kind of thing. But no chips in you. Got that?”
It took everything within her to hide the smile that filled her belly. Knowing she was closely observed she remained still. “Yes Mistress. I wish we could shoot the implant up Deets ass. Problem is I don’t know how to channel the transmissions so he will answer to La Patron. Plus, he probably already has an implant. They don’t trust anybody.” Which meant their options to save lives were limited. Deets had to carry out his mission or the area would be destroyed with all of them inside. There would be no one to warn the authorities of the pending disaster or to disarm the explosives. She made a decision. There really was only one way to win this battle.
“You’re probably right. Silas said the doctor with Merriweather killed himself before he could question him. So we need to focus on getting the implant and getting you out of there. Seems like Deets is our key for both.”
“Yes, Ma’am. But I am sure he is being monitored.” Now that she knew that she would not be offered as cannon fodder, she set her mind to the task of beating her captors at their own game. “I will take the shot, but I need you to catch the implant before it attaches.”
“No shots, Asia. We agreed.”
Asia knew she had to make Jasmine understand otherwise they could all die. “If Deets fails to do his job, the odd man will leave him and blow up the lab. Deets has to believe he completed his task to take me with him for us to get close enough to the odd man. Otherwise, Deets will self-destruct. The explosion will impact the river, and the mountains. No telling how many people will die.”
“What? Wait. Silas planned to blow up the lab.”
“Yes Mistress. But we were only blowing it up so that it could not be used again. They are blowing it up to obliterate heavy equipment which—”
“Which means more explosives. I get it. So we have to stop them, but you have to play possum long enough to get close to stop them from detonating the lab. Does that sum it up?”
Asia sighed as the door, creaked open. “Yes Ma’am. Whatever we’re going to do we need to decide now, Deets just entered the room with a mask.”
“A mask? The gas right…hmmm, okay we’ll try this your way. I don’t like it, but I can’t think of anything else.”
Beneath lowered lids, Asia watched as he placed the small tray with a syringe and a small vial on a nearby table and bit back a groan. Once a perv, always a perv. He pulled off one of his rubber gloves, placed it on the tray and stepped closer. His hand hovered over her thigh and moved slowly up toward her breast. After ordering her body to remain still, she counted to a hundred thinking of ways she would like to kill the bastard.
“I have missed you, Asia. None of the others fought as wild as you. Soon, I will have you again. I am now in charge of monitoring the implants and am required to handle all of the debriefings when you return from every assignment.”
The tips of her claws slid out quickly before she caught herself. For the moment she needed this windbag. Mistress and La Patron were formulating alternate plans to save as many as they could. She had lived through his mauling before and would survive again. Regulating her breathing, she did not flinch when he pulled the zipper all the way down the front of her jumpsuit. When his cold palm rested on her breast she thought of sitting on the beach with two margaritas.
“No bra… did you lose it when you regenerated? I wish I could’ve seen that.” He squeezed the tips of her nipples hard and if she had not sent her body into a semi-comatose state she would’ve screamed.
“Maybe next time, huh?” His thin hand moved downward across her belly. When he leaned forward and placed a kiss on her nipple, she wanted to slap him.
“Mistress…” she called in desperation.
“Asia, what’s wrong?”
“He’s … he’s sucking on my breast, not as a lover might. But like babes do…I am going to be sick.” She had been prepared for his fingers penetrating her between her legs or in her ass. He had been doing that for years. For the most part it was impersonal and, because he was a quick shooter, over within a few minutes. But this… she was not prepared for him to spend this much time sucking and cooing and making baby sounds.
“I am so sorry.” Jasmine entered her mind bringing light and colors and tinkling sounds that took her mind off what was happening in the room. Moments later her stomach settled.
“You are so sweet, I wish I could keep you with me,” he said softly. “You would like that, wouldn’t you? I think you always enjoyed the fun we had in debriefing.” When he moved away, she thanked the Goddess for the favor.
“He is done and preparing the shot.”
“Okay. As soon as it enters you, I will destroy it. Do you know how you’re supposed to act?”
“Supposedly I am still drugged.”
“Are you sure we need to take it this far? I promised you no shots.”
Asia bit back a sigh at Jasmine’s hesitancy. As repulsive as the idea of an implant entering her body, she knew this part of the plan was the most important. “Yes. If he does not take me down below, a lot of people are going to die. I am trusting you to grab the implant. Save it if you can. Destroy it if you cannot. Just don’t allow it to get to my brain.”
“Okay.” Warmth filled her from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. In the background the telltale sound of a syringe being filled and the dropping of the container to the tray hit the airwaves.
Asia strengthened her resolve to remain still and more importantly to trust. The first was easier than the second. When the needle point pierced her chest, her body bowed. It was a visceral response and out of her control. She counted to ten as he slowly injected the fluid and implant into her chest. When pulled he pulled it out, fire leapt in her breast.
Struggling to breathe, perspiration poured from her forehead. Her lips went numb and her fingertips tingled.
“Got it.”
“Thank you.” Asia lay still as Deets stood over her watching as tremors wracked her body.
He touched her arm for a few moments.
“Good. Let’s get out of here before this place blows.”
What she had thought was a padded wall was actually a small gurney turned sideways. Deets released the wheels and rolled her through the door. Eyes closed, she concentrated so that she could find this area again, it needed to be researched before it was destroyed. A cool breeze brushed across her face and then the sound of something heavy sliding across the concrete. They remained still until the sound stopped.
After a series of beeps, they moved again. The temperature changed and she could not make out anything other than Deets. Wherever he was taking her was at the end of a long, dark walkway.
“Mistress he is taking me somewhere. I do not know this area of the lab. Can you lock on me?”
“Lock on you?”
“Yes. Can you determine my exact location and tell La Patron?”
“I…I don’t know. Let me ask Silas.”
BirthDate (La Patron, the Alpha's Alpha) Page 12