by K. N. Banet
“I didn’t know the hospital and the pharmaceutical company worked together,” Heath said softly. “Didn’t Mygi Pharma get into a lot of trouble last summer?”
“They did,” she answered.
I looked back at her, frowning. I had only heard of the pharmaceutical company in passing from Hasan and could barely remember what he had said. I didn’t move when she gave me a confused look.
“Tell me more, I’m curious,” I said with no preamble. “Hasan doesn’t tell me about the stuff he sees as a member of the Tribunal, and I don’t follow supernatural news.”
“From my meager information on the relationship, they started together, then separated about three decades ago. Only recently, the board of the hospital took the pharmaceutical company over again because of the trouble Mygi Pharma got into last year,” she explained. “Something about illegal experimentation. I don’t know much more. Sorry, sis.”
“Heath, what do you know?” I asked, looking at him for more.
“They never went public with a lot of the information. The Tribunal and some of their people handled the entire mess. A lot of people went to prison. Not that we can trust the prison in Arizona to keep them there, considering there was a major outbreak a year and a half ago.”
“What?” I sputtered. “How did I not hear about that?”
“Right after, you and I were in Washington, dealing with vampires, and we didn’t know each other very well. I think I assumed your family told you, and even when I realized you didn’t know, it’s not exactly a conversation one has over a beer,” he said, smiling at the end. “Do you want me to keep you up to date on supernatural news?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “I didn’t even know there was a supernatural prison,” I mumbled, looking out my window. “I really need to start learning about this stuff, don’t I?”
“Yes,” Gwen said, sounding half amazed. “I mean, you’ve been a werecat for twelve years, and you’re the ‘daughter’ of a Tribunal member. How do you not know there’s a prison?”
“The same way I didn’t know there was a hospital until February. I never asked and never needed to know,” I retorted.
“And no one in your new family thought to tell you?”
I didn’t respond as my mind came up with an answer.
I wouldn’t have let them tell me if they tried. And for a long time, they wouldn’t have tried.
“Jacky likes living a simple life with very little to complicate it,” Heath said pragmatically. “It’s admirable how well she stays out of the way in her corner of the world until someone drops trouble on her.”
“Seems foolish,” my sister mumbled, not directed at anyone.
Holding up a hand to keep Heath from responding, he nodded and focused on the road. It wasn’t an argument I wanted to have while we were still in the middle of this Russian werewolf mess.
“So, she stashed the USB with Devora’s recording at a safehouse,” I said, trying to take the conversation back to the task at hand.
“Yes. She installed a safe in one, and it was always our idea if we needed to hide, we would go there,” she said.
“Well, damn.” I rubbed my face. “Heath—”
“I’m thinking the same thing,” he said softly. “If they took Sarah, then they either had her followed, or they were able to nab her from the hospital. I don’t know the circumstances, but I’m certain they tortured her for information once they had her. They wouldn’t have killed her without getting every piece of information they could get out of her.”
My stomach twisted.
“How can you talk about it so casually?” Gwen sounded as ill as I felt.
“Because it’s just a part of our life,” I answered. “I’ve been beaten and starved by Hasan’s enemies, other werecats. We’ve been hunted by vampires who were addicted to getting what’s called a death high, and their master who was trying to cover up his negligence. Heath’s family has been torn apart and hurt by ambition. We’re not being casual. We’re being realistic.”
Lani’s face flashed in my mind. Those damn vampires in Washington. Emma and her mate, Dean, and Richard—they had all done whatever necessary to further their own goals. These werewolves would be no different. If they saw the opportunity to get information, they would take it.
We drove in silence for a long time until the GPS said only ten more minutes until our destination.
“The Russians will know about this place,” I said softly.
“Yeah,” Heath agreed. “We can only hope we’re here first, or they’ve already left. If I see any evidence of them, I’m not stopping, and we’ll find another way to get this done.”
“We don’t have another way,” I countered. “You said it earlier. We’re trying to avoid making Gwen testify in front of the Tribunal.”
“Why?” Gwen asked from the back, her voice soft and a little weak.
“They’ll search your memories to read the truthfulness of your testimony. They’ll discover what you did to Alpha Vasiliev,” Heath clarified. “They don’t do it often if they have enough witnesses, but you’ll be speaking out against an entire pack, and you’re Jacky’s sister. They could see you as trying to ruin a strong werewolf pack in the name of the werecats. We don’t need those sorts of conversations coming up.”
“Okay, so we have to get a copy of Devora’s information,” she said, sounding stronger. “I get it. Can’t go and make more trouble.”
“No, Gwen, we can’t go make more trouble,” I growled back at her. “Can you stop implying we’re terrible people because we’re looking at the big picture here? It’s fucking frustrating. We agree with you. Alpha Vasiliev was a monster who needed to die. We’re going to protect you. We agree the crimes of his pack need to be exposed, so more werewolves aren’t abused and hurt. We’re trying to make that happen. But all of that is worthless if they think this is a werecat plot against the Russian werewolf pack to weaken the werewolves globally. If they think you acted for me or I’m defending you for werecat interests, we’re screwed. They won’t care about the Russian pack. They’ll care about how you killed an Alpha, regardless of the reasons, and how I’m Hasan’s daughter, and I’m protecting you from punishment.”
“You used to be for justice, no matter the costs,” she whispered. “Getting in fights and taking the fall, but always fighting for what you believed in.”
I winced. She was right. When I was helping Carey, the ramifications of my decisions had been an afterthought. Now, all I could think about were the ramifications. I wanted to do this right. What was so wrong with trying to do a good thing without hurting the people around me?
Why do I feel like I’ve sold out?
I couldn’t bring myself to speak after that as Heath pulled up to the small house outside of Rochester. At this point, I felt like I had driven around the entire damn city.
“There are no other cars here,” I pointed out softly. “Heath, are you okay going first? You have the best nose.”
“Definitely.” He cut the engine and jumped out of the car, with Gwen and I following much slower. He was ten feet from the car by the time she and I were closing our doors. I grabbed her elbow and kept her at my side, trying to see everything around us. The lightest glow of the coming dawn was finally hitting the eastern sky.
He was at the door before us, where he froze.
I slowed and held Gwen to stop with me as I watched him sniff the air.
“Heath?”
“They’ve been here,” he whispered. “Werewolves.”
“How many?” I sniffed the air, but if this was an old scent, there was a chance I wasn’t going to pick it up. “I’m not smelling anything.”
“I didn’t notice it until I caught it on the door,” he replied. “The wind would have blown their scents away, but one…no, two of them touched the door. There are no signs of forced entry, though.”
“Do you think it’s safe?” I asked. I was glad my sister was waiting in silence, trusting us to do this, to ju
dge the situation.
“I don’t know, but I’m going in.” He instinctively reached for something, then growled softly. “Should have brought a gun.”
“Yeah, I’m thinking the same thing,” I mumbled, looking around, dreading the possibility I caught glowing eyes in the surrounding darkness. To Gwen, it was probably still pitch black except for the glow of light in the safehouse, and even in the lightest glow of dawn, it was pretty dark. My ability to see at night was damn good, but a good supernatural would know how to hide, using the deep shadows of the night.
He opened the door and stepped in, a growl slipping through his lips.
“I smell blood,” he explained, disappearing from view.
Gwen and I followed, my sister grabbing me, locking our arms together instead of my pulling her around.
“Shit,” Heath snarled. “There’s no one here alive,” he called softly.
“What?” Gwen’s voice jumped an octave and cracked.
I didn’t react in time. My sister broke from my grasp and ran, letting me play catch up. The scent of blood hit my nose as I passed through the threshold, which opened up into a spacious living room, with the kitchen on the other side of the room. Heath stood in the kitchen, looking down at something behind the counters. I caught up to Gwen and stopped her from getting to his side.
“Jacky—”
“Heath, how?” I demanded. I wanted to know what I was about to show my sister.
“Clean,” he whispered. “Gunshot…two to the chest.”
I released her, letting her go into the kitchen and look down at the body.
“Oh, no,” she cried out, falling to her knees. “This was…this was the anesthesiologist. Um…His name is…”
“Breathe,” I whispered gently. “Take a deep breath.”
She did, her shoulders jerking.
“His name was Carlton,” she finally said. “If he’s here…his car should be here…”
“The werewolves probably stole it,” Heath said, looking around the kitchen. “There aren’t any keys anywhere, but I can smell them in here. They probably came in while he was doing something and shot him before he had a chance to be afraid, then took his belongings.”
“Gwen, where did Sarah hide the USB?” I asked. “I can let someone at the hospital know we found Carlton here, but I want us to get out of here as quickly as possible. I’m sorry. I know it’s a rush, and you don’t have any time to grieve, but we have to keep moving.”
She nodded, and I helped her back to her feet, trying not to feel like an asshole. It wasn’t easy telling her she couldn’t do more for him or stay to say goodbye, but it was necessary.
She led the way in silence toward a back room and in the bedroom, pulled back a rug.
“The house is a cover,” she mumbled, gesturing at the hatch she uncovered. “This is the real safe house. It would be down here. It’s a typical bunker.”
“Let’s go,” I said softly. “Heath, come in here and keep watch?” I didn’t need to raise my voice. A second later, my werewolf appeared at the door and nodded.
I went down into the bunker first and stood to the side, taking it all in. The hospital took the safety of its staff seriously. Gwen went through a door into another room of the bunker, and I heard the mechanical noise of a safe pop open. A minute later, she was back, holding a bag.
“I don’t know which one it is,” she said, opening the bag to reveal several USBs. “I don’t understand why there are so many.”
I had the sneaking suspicion this Sarah, an innocent ER nurse, was doing more than helping female werewolves from Russia. I had a gut feeling whatever was on all of those USBs could hurt a lot of people.
“I’ll carry them, and we’ll figure it out. My go-bag has a laptop, and I’m certain Heath was smart enough to bring one as well.”
Gwen nodded slowly and handed me the bag. I shook my head as I looked at the dozens of USBs. This had been stupid. Sarah might have felt she was saving a lot of people, but this was plain stupid.
We headed back up where Heath waited patiently. His eyes narrowed on the bag in my hands. I quickly showed him the contents before walking past him.
We moved quickly and got outside, heading directly for our car in silence. We had what we needed, and it was time to go. A conversation could wait.
17
Chapter Seventeen
None of us were expecting a black sedan to come down the drive. We ran for the car, and I was able to shove Gwen into the car with the bag as the car got closer, pushing her head down, so her face was obscured by her hair.
“This is bad,” I murmured.
“Definitely,” Heath agreed, nodding to his left.
I glanced in that direction and saw a large werewolf walk out from the trees. It had been downwind of us, no way of us catching its scent, but it probably caught ours. I cursed under my breath.
“They had a watch on the building we missed. No way we would have known without risking one of us going into the woods, which we didn’t have time to do. Very effective.” I stood beside Heath, who locked the car, using the key fob. My sister sank into her seat, but the windows weren’t tinted enough to block someone from seeing her face.
“They knew someone would come, eventually. There’s probably a second guy out there with a fucking phone who made the call,” he agreed. “We don’t have time to drive off, and I don’t want to risk them opening fire on us. This thing isn’t bulletproof, and we have no firepower.”
“Agreed.”
The sedan stopped with the driver’s side toward us. Heath didn’t move from my side. The driver stayed in the car, but on the far side of the car, both doors opened, and two large men got out, looking over the roof at us. I used my body to shield Gwen from their view.
“Doctor Duray,” one greeted with a nod, directed at me for some reason. I nearly smiled. He thought I was Gwen. A thick Russian accent made it clear we were dealing with the very werewolves we didn’t want to be. He wore a suit, a small indicator this was a werewolf with money or power, probably both. “And a werewolf.” He sniffed the air and frowned. “Is that a werecat in the car? Did you convince some werecat to protect you? Foolish.”
“What do you want, Alexei?” Heath demanded. Now I knew a name for the werewolf in front of me. The other one bared his teeth at Heath’s words, but it was the first one who spoke again.
“You know me?” He seemed confused, looking at Heath with new interest.
“You’re the fourth of the Russian werewolf pack. What you’re doing in Minnesota, I don’t know, but I know your name and face, yes,” Heath answered.
“How do you know me?” Now there was distrust on Alexei’s face. Fourth in the Russian werewolf pack. Would he know North American werewolves by face and name? How did Heath know who he was?
“That’s not the question you should be asking,” Heath whispered in a cool voice that made me concerned.
Alexei’s eyes narrowed as he took in Heath, then flicked back to me, and his nostrils flared.
“You aren’t the doctor…” he realized.
He must have realized I’m not the human scented one. Damn, so much for playing that ruse. Good at a glance, but I should have figured it wouldn’t have held up for long.
“No, I’m not,” I confirmed. There was no point in lying, they would have caught that immediately.
“How does a werecat take the face of a human?”
“That’s for me to know.” I wasn’t going to confirm a relationship with Gwen. Not yet, anyway.
A click made me glance at the other werewolf, who took a picture of Heath and me, his phone still in position. There was nothing I could have done to stop it, so I didn’t let it bother me. He said something in Russian, a language I hadn’t attempted to learn yet, then Alexei nodded.
“Well, we’ll know who you are soon enough.”
“That’s fine,” I said, shrugging. My mind started kicking into high gear. We needed to leave, which meant we needed to convince these
guys to let us do that without bloodshed. “But since there’s only a few of you, I think we’re going to get in this car and drive away, okay?” I smiled. “Because even with that wolf in the woods, his partner, and you three, all in human form, you can’t beat me. I shift a lot faster than you.”
“We have guns,” he growled, definitely catching my overconfident threat.
“Good for you,” I purred. “But killing me won’t work in your best interests.”
The second werewolf started talking again, showing his phone screen to Alexei, whose eyes went wide. The text must have quickly confirmed who Heath and I were, which was an interesting turn of events. Whoever they were talking to must have recognized our faces.
That’s a horrifying problem to consider another time. Werewolf packs making it a priority to know who we are. Great.
“Tell whoever you’re talking to, attacking a daughter of Hasan won’t work in your favor,” I growled as Alexei looked up, his eyes showing me just how furious he was. “Doctor Duray is in my care, and you can ask some of the werewolves on this continent how well it goes when someone tries to take away what’s mine.”
“We’re not leaving here without her,” Alexei growled. He reached beneath his blazer and pulled out a small handgun. “You, werecat, don’t get to shove your nose into werewolf affairs. I don’t care who you are.”
“Put the gun away, Alexei,” Heath said, maintaining a calm approach. “Don’t ask for trouble. Your pack will suffer for it.”
“Don’t tell me what my pack needs. We need that doctor. Let her out of the car and give her to me.”
I flicked a glance at Heath, then stepped out of the way of the door.
“Gwen, I’m going to open the door and let you out,” I said, a plan coming together. I opened the door, and she came out slowly, lifting her head to see Alexei. I watched his eyes narrow.
“How is this possible?” he asked, looking between us.
“You’re right. As a werecat, I can’t get into your affairs, but as Doctor Duray’s twin sister, there’s no such limit to my actions. Gwen, get back in the—”