by Lexi Blake
She stood there for a moment, looking around. “We need an entry. I think what we’re looking for is inside this mountain.”
He wasn’t sure. He’d seen the aerial views. He was fairly certain the pictures hadn’t been of that spike. He was starting to worry they were on the wrong side of the mountain.
Of course, if they were that would mean getting around to the right side of this monster, and that would take a few days. A few days where he would have to be with River twenty-four seven. He would have a few more nights with her. It wouldn’t be so bad to be on the wrong side of the mountain.
“There it is,” she breathed.
And he saw it. Up ahead of them was a cave. He would think they might be heading into some bear’s home except he could see the bars crossing the entrance. Someone had tried to cover those iron doors with vines and foliage, but at some point they’d dropped away.
This was the entrance to The Ranch.
River rushed forward, scrambling to get to the cave.
He followed, overtaking her. “I’m going first. I don’t know what kind of security they have.”
She let him move ahead of her.
He glanced around, looking for anything that might come out of nowhere to get them. There had to be motion detectors somewhere. They wouldn’t leave it completely without defense.
He found what he was looking for about fifteen feet off the ground. Shit. There was a camera pointed right at the cave entrance. It was likely on a long-term battery and connected to a satellite. He was glad he hadn’t let her run ahead of him or she would already be on their radar.
He had to protect River at all costs.
She followed the line of his gaze and cursed under her breath. “I might be able to climb up there.”
And potentially break her legs if she fell. “No. I’ll take care of it, but you have to know the minute I take it down, we’re on a clock.”
“We’re in the middle of nowhere,” she replied. “How fast can they possibly act?”
He set his pack down and pulled out the rifle Solo had given him. It would be easier to work with than the pistol he had. He attached the scope because he didn’t want more than one attempt at this. “Well, they had an agent embedded in your company, so I think they probably work pretty fast.”
“Good point,” she replied. “Though I suspect it would be hard to have someone show up here quickly if we trip an alarm.” She put a hand on his arm, looking at him with worried eyes. “Jax, we should think about this. What if we can’t get that door open? We’ll have to break in. It looks like someone attached it to the actual mountain. We may have to chip away at the rock, and that could take a while. I don’t have anything we can use. Maybe we should go back and come in with the proper tools.”
He liked her idea because it would give them more time together. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be sure there weren’t more cameras and they hadn’t been caught. The truth was they were already on a timer and it was ticking away.
He got to one knee, brought the scope up, lined up his shot and pulled the trigger.
The camera blew apart in an instant.
“So we’re a no on getting the right tools,” River said, shaking her head.
He was already reaching back into his pack. He’d come ready for this job. He pulled out a lock picking set. “I got special honors in lock picking class and no, you do not want to know what happened to the guy who finished last.”
It had been Tucker, and he’d had the holy hell beaten out of him. Jax still felt guilty at times for winning that particular “class.”
“You think you can get that sucker open?” River followed behind him.
“I’m more worried about the inner door.” He got down on one knee, selecting a pick and torque. The lock was quite large.
“There’s another door?”
“There’s always another door, and the next one won’t look anything like this.” He’d been in enough secret labs to know how they rolled. This first door was merely a deterrent. The second would be the one to keep them out. And then there would be more inside. There would be any number of obstacles, the worst being time.
He would give them an hour. If they hadn’t found what they needed, he would get her out of here. He couldn’t risk that someone would show up.
The lock was surprisingly easy to pick. Two minutes and they were in.
They moved from the sunlight into shadows and a chill went up his spine.
River’s hand slid into his as they made their way into the cave. “This place feels wrong. I know it’s my mind playing tricks on me.”
“Or intuition,” he replied.
“This is not what a cave normally looks like. It’s far too clean.” She touched the side. Roots were starting to press through. “Someone used to clip these.”
Something moved up ahead and River jumped. He moved in front of her and then stopped when he saw the flash of eyes staring back at him. “Well, they couldn’t keep everything out.”
She sighed in relief behind him. “Possums get in everywhere. Be careful. She might have babies, and that’s when she’ll get vicious. She’s a smart girl. Not a lot of predators can get through those bars.”
The possum hissed at them as they carefully moved around her nest. He saw something else that didn’t belong here. A red light flashed at the back of the cave.
A clicking sound echoed lightly and then he could see again. A beam of light shone on the metal door that covered the back of the cave. This was the door meant to keep people out and secrets in.
“Shine that light on my pack, baby.” He got to one knee and reached for his laptop and a connector cable.
River moved the light with him, illuminating his space as he found the electrical box and popped it open. He found the input and connected to the computer that ran the facility’s major systems.
“What are you doing?” River asked, her voice hushed in the gloom of the cave.
“I’m attempting to take over the system.” He looked down at the screen. Password. “I’ve spent the last couple of weeks writing a program to break in. I worked with a woman who used to work for the Agency. She’s a brilliant hacker and she knows their systems better than anyone else.” The light went green. Chelsea Weston was fucking brilliant. “And we’re in.”
“Just like that?”
He had total control in a few keystrokes. They would be able to move through the facility freely. And there were a couple of options he hadn’t counted on. “I can do one better than merely getting in. Apparently there’s still a generator.”
He touched the key and the lights sputtered on. There was a screeching sound as their furry friend obviously took exception.
“Sorry, buddy,” River said. “We’ll be done soon.”
He hoped they would. “Now comes the hard part.”
“Because we’re not sure which lab she worked in?”
He disconnected and shoved his laptop back in his pack. The lights were all on. Now he had to hope no one was home.
Chapter Nineteen
River shivered as cool air hit her skin. It had been warm outside, but they’d moved into something completely unnatural. The air was stale, but Jax had gotten it moving. The lighting was far too bright.
Everywhere she looked was white. Pure white. So white it was an absence of color, of anything at all, really.
“Is this what your lab was like?”
Jax had gone silent, moving through the outer spaces carefully. He insisted on going first always. Every door he managed to get open, he would step into and then give her the go-ahead to follow him.
Some had been seemingly innocuous, nothing more than rows of microscopes and refrigeration units. Almost all of them had computers that had been left behind. They’d found what looked like a pharmacy complete with a sign left behind saying it would open again at eight a.m.
One had been terrible. They’d left the animals behind. Now they were nothing but bones in cages, but her heart had ached at wh
at those creatures had suffered. Darkness and hunger with no way to save themselves.
Like Jax.
“Yes, it was a lot like this,” Jax said, his voice steady as he managed to open another door. “I bet she modeled her other labs on this one. It looks like we hit the break room. It’s good to know the fuckers got their cappuccinos.”
The break room was pristinely kept and luxurious in a way most offices couldn’t be. The bistro tables were straight out of a fine dining establishment and the coffee machines would make any barista proud. There was a chalkboard that proclaimed today’s breakfast would be eggs benedict or steel cut oats with a choice of toppings.
It was good to know the evil doctors knew how to live well.
“I don’t suppose you got cappuccinos.” There wasn’t any dust. It was odd. It looked like the place was ready for use, waiting for someone to come in and sit down and enjoy some coffee.
“Caffeine wasn’t good for us. That’s what Mother said. We were on very strict diets. No dairy. No sugar. Very few carbs. You think I’m ripped now, you should have seen me then. We weren’t allowed to go over two percent body fat.”
She hated the fact that his voice had lost any animation. He was back in hell and it was up to her to remind him he didn’t have to stay here this time. She moved into his space, putting her hands on his waist. “I think you’re sexy just the way you are. In fact, I could fatten you up a little bit. I’ll make you all kinds of sweet stuff and then you won’t be so fast when you try to run away from me.”
A smile slid across his face. “I would never run from you.”
He kissed her swiftly and moved on again, but at least the terrible bleakness had been wiped from his eyes.
She followed behind him. “I think we might have come in the back entrance.”
They’d passed a bunch of storage rooms and she’d noticed a row of clipboards with lists of supplies on them, waiting to be checked in. They’d moved through the building, past what looked to be living quarters. She’d gone through some of them, but couldn’t find one that had anything to do with the woman who’d tortured Jax. He’d explained that it was possible she wasn’t in the facility when they evacuated. All they’d found was some rooms with left behind makeup or clothes. No random notes that might tip them off as to who had stayed here.
“I think so, too,” he replied, moving to the opposite side of the break room. “If she truly did base her European lab on this place, the real treasure trove should be through the doors and to the left.”
She followed him out, hating how eerie the place was. Their footsteps echoed over the concrete floors. She couldn’t help but wonder how many men like Jax had been through this place, had their lives ripped away in the name of science and security.
They found the first of the larger labs and Jax took a deep breath. “This is it. Not this one probably, but this is the first of ten separate labs. Five on the left and five on the right. She would have used one of these if she had a base here. We’ll have to search every one.”
He connected his laptop to the high-tech looking keypads and the doors suddenly swung open.
Damn but he was one sexy computer nerd.
Twenty minutes and five of ten rooms later and he was a frustrated computer nerd. He stared at the screen in front of him. Whoever had worked here had left behind a large mainframe computer Jax had been able to connect to.
It hadn’t given him what he wanted.
“It looks like they were working with something cellular here. I don’t understand all the medical stuff, but they were definitely interested in manipulating the human genome,” he muttered.
The dark aspects of the place had been made incredibly clear. Jax had taken one look at lab two and backed out, closing the door as quickly as he could. She’d gotten a glimpse of bio hazard suits and shuddered.
She didn’t like to think about what these scientists could do to DNA.
Jax unhooked his computer and glanced down at his watch. “We have to leave soon.”
He stood and strode to the hallway.
“We’re fine. We can stay the night here if we have to.” She couldn’t let him leave without trying everything they could.
“They’ll be here soon. I want to avoid whoever comes out here to fix that camera. It could be anyone. They’ve likely got someone embedded. Probably one of the rangers. The nearest station is an hour away. I gave us forty minutes when we started and our time is almost up.”
“Then we should each take a room and search it.”
He stopped, his hand on the next door. “No. You stay with me.”
He was so frustrating. “We can cover more ground apart.”
“Or we can stay together and…that’s all I’ve got. We’re staying together.”
“Look, I’ll leave the door open and everything will be fine. I’ll call out if I find something.” She wasn’t taking no for an answer. She knew damn straight why he was insisting on leaving early. It was to protect her. If he were here alone, he would likely still be searching hours from now. “There’s more at stake than just me. Let me help. I can’t be the reason Robert and Tucker never find out who they are. Dante and Sasha deserve to know why they were taken, who’s waiting for them.”
His jaw hardened, but he nodded. “Leave the door open and you yell if you find anything that vaguely looks like it could have something to do with us. You’ve got five minutes in that room and then we meet back out here. Is that understood?”
He could go all military on her when he wanted to. “Sir, yes, sir.”
“That means something else in my world,” he said with a shake of his head. “Go.”
She was in the lab in a shot, propping the door open with a stool from the tall rectangular desk she found at the front of every lab. She hooked her thumbs under the straps of her pack. She’d wanted to leave hers at the entrance, but Jax insisted they carry them.
Her shoulders were starting to ache.
This was the largest laboratory she’d been in yet. The others had been one room with several desks, a shared workspace. The test animals had been held in another part of the facility. This one was different. It seemed to have several rooms in it. She walked into the large space at the front. Two hallways branched off. This space had two desks, a large refrigeration unit, and a wall of what looked like different microscopes. There were stools in front of each.
She moved to the hall to the left and found another refrigerator, though this one looked more like something one would find in a home. A note was stuck to the front.
Don’t take my fucking yogurt.
Good to know. Across from the fridge was a set of glass doors and what looked like a surgery. A medical bed was in the center of the room, a massive surgical lamp above it. A chill went through her when she saw the bed was equipped with restraints.
Was that dark stain blood?
She turned away and forced herself to walk down that hall. She stopped when she came to the cells.
There was no other word for it. Those three glass rooms with cots and toilets were cells. The doors were closed and that could only mean they were on a different grid from the rest of the facility.
She walked up, putting her hands on the glass and looking inside. The bed was unmade, blanket thrown back and pillow dented. There was a robe draped across the end of the bed and slippers that looked like they could fit Jax’s massive feet. Had he been trapped in here? Had this been the first home he could remember?
Her heart ached at the thought that he’d potentially been “born” here.
It was very much like he’d described the lab in Europe he’d been rescued from.
“Jax.” She shouted out his name. “I think this is it.”
She turned and realized how far back she’d gone. He probably couldn’t hear her. The hallway seemed to make a loop around the back of the lab. She followed it around. There was another room. This one looked like it was equipped for training. There were weights and mats on the floor.
> She walked through the hall, calling for him again.
And then she noticed the door to her right.
It was the only room that wasn’t bright white. Set against the rest of the lab, it looked almost like a hole she could fall into. She stepped to the edge of the room. It was dark inside. She felt around and found a light switch, illuminating a cozy-looking office with an antique desk and chair. They were ornate, completely out of synch with the rest of the place. There was nothing modern about this space.
River walked in, her hands going to the bookshelves. They contained row after row of medical tomes. Books about neurology and memory seemed to be the doctor’s favorites, though she had several journals detailing the latest surgical techniques. On the ornate desk sat a framed picture. A blonde woman stood in her black cap and gown, a doctoral hood around her shoulders. She stared out at the camera, a smile on her face that didn’t quite reach her eyes. She was flanked by a pretty woman with laughing eyes and a large man River recognized from his many appearances on news shows. Senator Hank McDonald.
This was the place. This was where she’d plotted and planned to change the lives of the men she called her “boys.”
She felt sick, but there was a sense of urgency running through her body that kept the anxiety tamped down.
She pulled the small USB drive that was connected to the laptop on the desk, shoving it in her pocket. She opened the desk drawer and found a leather-bound journal with notes written in a precise feminine hand.
Harvey has proven to process the first round of drugs far too quickly. His brain reforms connections after a few days without his dosage. He remembered yesterday. I might have to terminate him. I can’t have Daddy getting upset with me.
Harvey. That had been Jax’s name. God, he’d been here. He’d been in that damn cage and she’d been mere miles away going on with her life. She’d been marrying that idiot and getting her heart broken while the love of her life had been treated like an animal in here. How many times had she hiked these woods and never known this was here?
She flipped the page again.
I might have to leave The Ranch. Something’s happening with the group funding. The CIA might have good facilities, but they can’t compete with the company I work for. Kronberg Pharma is very interested in my research. They sent me a new surgeon to work with. Dr. Reasor is young, but ambitious. He’s got a genius-level IQ and absolutely no morals whatsoever. My kind of guy. We’ll see what happens. If he proves unsuitable I wouldn’t mind making him a subject. It would be fun to see if I can break that brilliant mind of his. If I get a whiff that he’s planning on stabbing me in the back, I’ll show him how my drugs work firsthand. Until then, I’ll let him do my dirty work. He looks rather cute with bloody hands.