X-Ops Exposed

by Paige Tyler

  “I have a satellite phone in my pack,” she said. “Tanner and I can call some friends of ours in DC. They’re very good at dealing with this kind of situation.”

  The man’s eyes sharpened. “DC?” he said warily. “What kind of friends? You mean feds?”

  Zarina started to answer, but Tanner got the words out first. “Yeah, they’re feds. But they’re good people I’d vouch for any day of the week.”

  If Zarina thought Chad seemed suspicious before, it was nothing compared to the expression on his face now. “No. No feds of any kind.”

  “Dad,” Lillie said softly. “They’re trying to help.”

  “We don’t need that kind of help,” her father insisted. “Chad and Bryce are my responsibility. I won’t risk their lives calling in the feds. We’ll do it our way, just like we always have.”

  Zarina cursed silently. She’d never dealt with anyone so infuriating in her life, and that included Tanner.

  “What do you expect, that Tanner and I are going to stand around here and do nothing?” she demanded.

  Chad shook his head. “I don’t expect you and Tanner to do anything. This is our problem, and we’ll handle it. You’ve done more than enough for us already.” His expression softened. “If you really want to help, then maybe you could go into town and pick up some supplies? We’ve been sticking close to camp for the past couple of weeks, and we’re out of just about everything, especially medical supplies. Since you’re a doctor, you might have an easier time replacing the antibiotics and pain meds we’re out of.”

  Zarina frowned. Yes, she was a doctor, but she wasn’t licensed to practice in Washington—or the United States for that matter. Even if she was, she couldn’t simply walk into a pharmacy and load up a cart full of prescription drugs, then walk out the door with a wave and a smile. It didn’t work that way.

  “I’ll do the best I can with the meds,” she said. “But I’m not too sure how successful I’ll be. It’s not like I have any connections out here.”

  He nodded. “That’s all I can ask. I can give you the names of the doctors who have helped us out in the past. Maybe with you doing the asking, they’ll help us again.”

  Chad stayed long enough to tell them where they could get the supplies they needed and give them a key for a vehicle.

  “I want your promise you won’t call your friends back in DC,” he said as he handed it over.

  Tanner’s jaw tightened, but he nodded. “You have my word.”

  Chad walked off after that, disappearing into a big building on the other side of camp. The hybrids followed suit. Lillie stood where she was for a moment, gazing at Tanner and Zarina like she wanted to say something but couldn’t, before she left as well.

  Zarina watched her go. She didn’t understand these people at all. Sighing, she turned to Tanner.

  “Are we really going to go along with Chad’s demands and do absolutely nothing while his trackers run around in the woods on the off chance they stumble across Josh and Bryce?” she asked.

  When Tanner didn’t say anything, Zarina was afraid he was going to go along with Chad. But then he bit back a growl, and she knew he was as frustrated as she was.

  “I promised I wouldn’t call the feds, and I won’t. I owe Chad that much,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t call someone else.”

  “Who?”

  “My brother.”

  Chapter 4

  Tanner pulled the big pickup truck they’d borrowed from Chad into a space in front of Darryl’s Diner in Wenatchee a little after two that afternoon. But instead of climbing out, he sat there with both hands on the wheel and the motor running, aware of Zarina sitting quietly beside him. He hadn’t said much to her since they’d left the camp and even less after talking to his brother on the satellite phone, and he braced himself, expecting her to demand answers now that they were about to meet with Cam. But she didn’t.

  How the hell had he gotten to this place? Everything around him was spiraling out of control, and there was nothing he could do to stop any of it.

  When the first few preppers and homeless people had disappeared, he’d convinced himself it wasn’t his problem and the best thing he could do for the world was stay as far away from other people as possible. That was the only way to make sure he didn’t lose control at the wrong time and kill someone.

  But where had that decision led? To over half a dozen innocent people going missing, including some he’d come to think of as friends. His desire to not kill anyone had almost certainly led to those disappearances regardless. The only difference was now he felt like a coward for not doing a damn thing to stop it.

  Then there was Zarina. He’d intended to get her off the mountain at first light this morning, even if he had to tie her up in her sleeping bag and carry her all the way to the departure gate at Sea-Tac. But those plans had been shot down the moment Burt had walked into their camp and told them about the attack. Now that she knew about the missing preppers, there was no way he was getting her to leave, cinched up in a sleeping bag or not.

  Everything he’d done over the past two months had been in the name of keeping the people he cared about safe, especially Zarina. Now the woman he loved was in more danger than she’d ever been, not only because of those assholes who were attacking the prepper camps, but because he was a monster who should never be allowed around anyone.

  He bit back a growl as he replayed the fight with Spencer and the other hybrids at the prepper camp. Shit. That had been bad. He hadn’t lost control like that in a really long time. He could have easily killed all three of those hybrids, not to mention Chad, Burt, and Lillie. And yes, probably Zarina, too.

  He’d convinced himself that coming out here and staying away from people and situations that might set him off would help him get a better grip on the animal inside. He’d obviously been wrong about that. The truth was he was worse off now than he’d ever been at the DCO compound. As much as he hated to admit it, being away from Zarina had caused him to lose even the small amount of control he’d fought to gain over the past year. He felt as on edge as he had when the DCO had first dragged him out of the woods a wild, feral monster.

  He guessed he’d made a lot of bad decisions lately. He’d made them for the best possible reasons, of course, but they were still terrible decisions regardless. Now he was heading into a diner to meet a brother he hadn’t seen in years in the crazy hope that somehow it’d make things better. The only problem was that he couldn’t imagine how this family reunion could possibly end well.

  To say he hadn’t been planning to see his brother or any other members of his family while he was out here was an understatement. He’d been living in the Wenatchee Forest within two hours of the home he’d grown up in and had never even considered calling them. The fact that he was meeting with Cam now only because he needed help made him feel kind of dirty.

  “How’s your shoulder?” Zarina asked softly from the passenger seat.

  Tanner glanced at her. It was obvious from the concern on her beautiful face that she was worried about the damage he’d sustained in the fight, even though she knew he’d survived far worse. In addition to bandaging the wounds at the camp before they’d left, she’d checked his injuries twice on the way down the mountain. He flexed his shoulder, feeling the fresh scar tissue tighten and pull across his deltoids and biceps. It hurt, but the gouges and bite wounds were healing. Within a day, he wouldn’t even notice them.

  “Shoulder’s fine,” he said.

  Zarina nodded, turning back to gaze out the windshield at the brick diner with its metal roof and photographs of happy people enjoying burgers, fries, and Cokes pictured in each of the windows. “You never told me your brother was a cop.”

  She hadn’t mentioned his brother once on the drive down or while they’d picked up supplies and equipment for the camp. Not even after he’d talked to him on the satelli
te phone. But now that they were about to meet Cam, he supposed her curiosity had finally gotten the best of her.

  Tanner didn’t blame her. He’d never talked about himself much, even though Zarina had tried to engage him on the subject hundreds of times. The obvious tension in his voice during the short phone call with his brother probably hadn’t done anything to lessen that curiosity.

  “Cam was only fifteen years old when I left to join the army,” Tanner told her, smiling a little as his mind filled with images of his little brother. “I tried to get home as much as I could, but my Ranger battalion deployed all the time, so I didn’t get a chance to see him or the rest of my family nearly as much as I wanted to. Time just sort of gets away from you, and you tell yourself there’ll be time to make it up to them later.” He sobered at that thought. “When I finally got out of the army, I expected to come back and see the same little brother I’d always had, only to discover he’d gone out and grown up on me when I wasn’t looking. He’d already joined the Seattle Police Department and was close to finishing the academy before I got a chance to talk to him. I didn’t even know he wanted to be a cop.”

  Sighing, Tanner glanced at the Seattle Police cruiser parked beside them. It was crazy to think the brother he’d tossed the football around with in the backyard between army basic training and reporting to Fort Lewis after Ranger School was a cop.

  “Was that the last time you saw him?” Zarina asked, turning her head to look at him. “When you got out of the army, I mean.”

  Part of Tanner wanted to tell her what happened the last time he’d seen Cam, about all the horrible things he’d done and how those few short days had changed his whole life. But it would be stupid to unload his problems on Zarina when there was nothing she could do to change any of it. More than that, though, it would be unfair. His burdens were his alone to carry, no matter how much she might wish otherwise.

  He reached out to switch off the engine. “It was a long time ago.”

  Beside him, Zarina got that same determined look in her eye she got whenever she wanted something, and it was all Tanner could do not to chuckle. He’d come to be wary of that part of her personality at the same time as he’d grown to adore it. When Zarina felt she was doing the right thing, there was little that would stop her from continuing down the path she was on.

  “I think it’s time we head inside,” he said, opening his door. “This meeting won’t get any easier by putting it off.”

  Tanner stepped out of the truck before Zarina could try to stop him—or ask him what he’d meant by that comment. He busied himself for a few moments tightening the tarp over the load of supplies they’d already picked up before going around to help Zarina out.

  Tanner resolutely led her to the door of the diner. He forced himself to ignore his racing heart, the quiver in his stomach, and the nearly overwhelming urge to run back to the truck and get the hell out of there. Instead, he focused on putting one foot in front of the other, moving closer to the entrance and a meeting he dreaded with every step. He might have slowed a bit, maybe even stopped once or twice. He wasn’t sure, since Zarina didn’t call him on it or ask him what was up.

  Cam was still his little brother, all grown up or not. He could do this.

  He picked up Cam’s scent the moment he stepped inside the diner. Which was kind of crazy, considering he hadn’t seen his brother since he’d been turned into a hybrid. But in some strange way that only made sense to the animal living just beneath the surface of his awareness, Tanner knew his brother’s scent even though the diner was packed with people.

  Tanner ignored the awards filling the walls proclaiming Darryl’s one of the best restaurants in Wenatchee and instead followed his nose, taking Zarina’s hand and winding through a maze of red laminate-topped tables until he found his brother seated near the very back, around a corner that shielded the booth somewhat and provided at least some measure of quiet in the otherwise bustling restaurant. His brother was seated facing the door, dressed in the dark blue uniform of the Seattle PD. It suited him.

  His brother glanced up from his menu at their approach, as if sensing Tanner. They locked gazes for a moment, Cam’s blue eyes widening slightly. Tanner had always been taller and more muscular than Cam, but now that he was a hybrid, the differences were even more pronounced.

  Cam recovered quickly, taking in Tanner’s long hair, old jeans, worn hiking boots, and the scruff on his jaw. When he was done with him, Cam turned his attention to Zarina, no doubt wondering who she was and what the hell she was doing with someone like Tanner.

  “You look different,” Cam said, glancing his way as he put his menu back in the rack near the wall.

  Tanner didn’t blame him for not shaking hands or giving him a man hug. Could this get any more uncomfortable?

  “You’ve changed, too,” he said.

  He wasn’t lying. Cam had changed a hell of a lot since the last time Tanner had seen him nearly three years ago.

  For one thing, his brother’s dark-blond hair was shorter than he remembered. His shoulders and chest were also quite a bit bigger. He even had biceps to fill out the sleeves of his uniform shirt. Joining the police force had clearly done him good.

  Tanner and Cam regarded each other in silence for what must have been at least a minute before Zarina sighed and moved around Tanner to slide into the booth across from his brother.

  “I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m starving,” she declared, taking a menu from the rack. “What’s good here? By the way, I’m Zarina. You must be Cam, though that’s completely a guess on my part, since Tanner has told me next to nothing about you.”

  That seemed to break the ice. Cam chuckled as Tanner took a seat beside Zarina on the wooden bench seat.

  “Nice to meet you, Zarina.” Cam gave her a warm smile and extended his hand. “I’ve never eaten here, but I was going to order the chili cheeseburger. The menu says they mix chili cheese corn chips into the burger before they cook it.”

  Zarina raised a brow. “I have no idea what that would even taste like, but it sounds delicious. Though to be truthful, I’ve been living on beef jerky and granola bars for days. Anything with grease sounds good at this point.”

  Cam chuckled again, then fixed Tanner with a glare. “So, where were you for the past three years? Mom has worried herself sick, and Dad thinks you’re dead.”

  Shit. This was why he hadn’t wanted to see Cam. Because his brother was going to ask him questions he couldn’t answer.

  “It’s complicated,” he said.

  “I’m sure it is,” Cam snapped. “But I still expect an answer. Unless you want me to just get up and walk the hell out of here.”

  Tanner glanced over at Zarina, hoping for some guidance, but all she did was shrug, as if to say there wasn’t an easy way out of this.

  “Dammit, Tanner,” Cam swore. “Talk to me! You can’t call me out of the blue after being gone for three years and expect me to act like nothing ever happened.”

  Tanner ground his jaw. His brother was right. But how the hell could he explain all the crap that had happened to him without sounding like he’d escaped from a mental institution? He couldn’t.

  Across from him, Cam started sliding out of the booth.

  Shit.

  “After what happened with Dad, I lived in a homeless shelter in Seattle for a couple of weeks,” Tanner said quietly. “But I couldn’t handle the noise and the crowds, so I moved out here to live in the forest.”

  Across from him, Cam stopped moving and gaped at him. Zarina looked equally stunned.

  “I ran into some other guys who’d gotten out of the military recently.” Now that he’d started talking, Tanner couldn’t seem to stop. “We helped each other out as much as we could, but I couldn’t stay around them for long either. I wasn’t fit to be around people back then.”

  Tanner didn’t say why, and he
prayed neither Zarina nor Cam asked. Because then he’d have to admit he’d almost killed his own father.

  “I’m not sure how long I lived out here on my own,” he continued. “Days of the week stopped having any real meaning. But I remember camping out through summer, then winter, and well into spring before some people showed up. Bad people.”

  Tears filled Zarina’s eyes. She knew where he was going with this and didn’t want to relive it any more than he did.

  “Bad people?” Cam asked. “What are you talking about? What kind of bad people?”

  How much could he divulge without telling his brother the classified stuff? “People who were looking for test subjects to use in a series of medical experiments. They decided people like me wouldn’t be missed. They grabbed me and some other guys and they…did things to us.”

  Cam leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “What kind of things?”

  “Things I’d rather not get into.” Tanner swallowed hard. “Not because I don’t think you can handle it, but because I’m not sure if you’d believe me.”

  Cam’s gaze went from him to Zarina, then back again. “Does this have anything to do with the fact that you’re half a foot taller and forty pounds heavier than you were the last time I saw you?”

  Damn. How the hell had Cam made the connection? Then again, his brother was a cop. He was paid to be observant.

  “Yeah,” Tanner admitted. “But like I said, I’d rather not get into any more details than that. Suffice it to say, people died—a lot of people. I would have died, too, but Zarina was there, and she got me out. She risked her life for me when I was ready to give up and die.”

  Cam regarded Zarina thoughtfully. “I get the feeling there’s an epic story behind all this, but I’ll take it on faith that you can’t tell me any more than Tanner can. So I’ll just say thank you. My big brother might be a pain in the ass, but he’s the only brother I have, and I love him. Thanks for risking your life to save him.”