Her Dark Half

by Paige Tyler

  Milan’s eyes widened at the mention of the two doctors. Terrified the slender woman might take off and try to save Boo on her own, Alina put a hand on Milan’s shoulder. Then she covered her radio mic with the other.

  “We need a plan,” she said to Milan. “Those hybrids are too close to Boo for us to storm in there. And the doctors are even closer. They could kill Boo before we get ten feet into the room.”

  Milan and Morgan nodded their understanding and held their ground.

  “We’re on the way,” Trevor said in her earpiece. “Be there in two minutes.”

  “Hurry,” she whispered. “We may not have two minutes.”

  * * *

  Tanner pressed his back against the brick wall beside the side entrance to the gym. The door was an emergency exit, so it was always locked. Ivy picked the heavy-duty dead bolt in seconds, then led the way inside. Landon followed, then Tanner. Over the radio, he heard Clayne calling out that his team was standing by the front entrance. A few seconds later, Angelo announced they were through the back door.

  Ahead of Tanner, Ivy and Landon stopped, allowing him to take point. He moved quickly down the service hallway that opened up into the main part of the gym. They’d decided early on during the abbreviated planning for the raid that Tanner would go in first to do recon. If Thorn’s new hybrids were able to smell better than Trevor thought, they might not pay attention to Tanner’s scent. He was a hybrid, too, after all.

  Just then, Alina’s voice came over the radio saying they’d found Boo and were getting ready to rescue her. That meant the rest of them needed to hurry.

  Tanner dropped to a knee by the door, only to freeze when he heard a long, drawn-out hiss. A moment later, two very familiar scents reached his nose. He knew who they belonged to without looking, but he leaned in to check anyway, praying his nose was wrong.

  It wasn’t.

  Jaxson was lying on one hip in the middle of the floor, his right arm clutched awkwardly to his chest. From the bruises on his face and the slash marks on his arm, ribs, and back, it looked like he’d been punched a few times as well as sliced open with something razor-sharp. Dark blood soaked his T-shirt.

  The hybrids surrounding him would probably still be going at the guy if one enraged feline hybrid wasn’t keeping them away.

  Sage was standing over Jaxson, her fangs and claws fully extended, eyes glowing scarlet red as she snarled and slashed at anyone dumb enough to get close to her and the man she was protecting.

  Tanner was thrilled Sage had retained enough control to be concerned about Jaxson, but it looked like the hybrids were getting tired of their little game. Sage was never going to back down, even to protect herself.

  He scanned the room and was shocked to see two DCO analysts standing alongside a big hybrid over by a folding table, studying the map spread out on it. They didn’t look happy to be there, that was for sure. Thorn must have dragged them in to help, though what he intended to do with them later was anyone’s guess. The thought that a man like Thorn might simply make them disappear when they’d outlived their usefulness certainly came to mind.

  Suddenly, the big hybrid by the table turned and strode toward Sage and Jaxson with long, purposeful steps. As he moved, he reached down to the holster he wore on his hip and pulled out a handgun as large as his oversized mitts. Growling a warning that scattered the other hybrids, he pointed his weapon at Sage’s head. She snarled at him, refusing to move.

  Shit.

  “New plan, people,” Tanner said into his radio mic. “We need to move now!”

  Chapter 18

  Trevor hated leaving Alina without backup. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Milan and Morgan. He’d have simply felt better if he were there with her. Being apart from her didn’t feel right.

  He and Adam were still trying to figure out if Boo was in the admin building when Dick sauntered down the hallway, heading to his office. Grabbing him by the throat and making him talk was tempting, but since he and Adam didn’t want to tip him off to their presence yet, they ducked into the empty office near Dick’s. Thorn and Frasier showed up a few moments later without Boo, three mercenary goons in tow.

  Beside Trevor, Adam let out a low hiss.

  “Frasier doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to crack under interrogation, but you want to take a run at him anyway and see if he’ll tell us where Boo is?” Trevor asked softly.

  Adam’s eyes flashed an orangey-gold color. “He’ll talk. You keep Thorn and Dick busy.”

  Trevor could do that.

  They were about to implement that plan when Alina got on the radio to say they’d found Boo—along with three hybrids and a few of Thorn’s men. Trevor’s gut clenched.

  He and Adam turned to leave the room when Tanner announced over the radio that they needed a new plan. Then all hell broke loose as the shooting started.

  Cursing, Trevor shoved open the door of the office and stepped into the hallway, popping the first man who turned their way. Then he headed for the back exit while Adam covered their six.

  As the sound of gunfire grew louder, Trevor realized it was coming from both the gym and the lab.

  Alina.

  Trevor wanted to ask Alina what the hell was happening, but if she was in the middle of a gunfight, distracting her could get her killed. So he settled for running faster, doing everything he could to get to her, Milan, and Morgan as quickly as possible.

  He and Adam rounded the outside of the building and almost ran over four of Thorn’s goons. Adam grabbed one of the men and shoved him roughly into his buddy, knocking them both down. Then he leaped onto the brick wall and climbed sideways along it faster than should have been possible before hopping off to come at the men from the opposite direction.

  “Go!” Adam shouted at him.

  Trevor went.

  * * *

  The sounds of gunfire coming from the gym took away any chance Alina’s team had of catching Wade and the other hybrids by surprise. They needed to go on the offensive.

  Giving Milan and Morgan a nod, Alina stepped into the room, her finger on the trigger. A simple bullet wasn’t going to keep Wade and his hybrid buddies down for long, but it’d give Milan and Morgan time to take out Thorn’s men and rescue John’s daughter.

  She shot the hybrid closest to the table Boo was strapped down to first, once in the hip and once in the stomach. It wouldn’t be fatal, but it obviously hurt like hell if his snarl of pain was any indication. More importantly, it forced him away from Boo.

  With him out of the way, she turned and took aim at Wade and the other hybrid. They ducked behind a row of cabinets, and she missed.

  One of Thorn’s men pulled his gun and shot Morgan in the shoulder, but the big shifter ignored it. Charging forward, he slammed into the man so hard, Alina heard bones crack. Then Morgan picked him up and tossed him in the second man’s direction, sending them both crashing to the floor.

  Milan used the distraction to sweep in and go for Boo. The slim shifter might not have been a fighter, but she was fast. When one of the doctors slashed at her with a scalpel he grabbed from a nearby tray, Milan ripped it out of his hand and shoved it into his throat almost faster than the eye could see.

  Even though they’d taken the bad guys by surprise, Alina knew she and the two shifters were in trouble. The hybrids were already regrouping, and with Wade leading them, they’d get it back together soon enough. Then Wade would put a bullet into Boo simply because he was an asshole—and he could.

  She needed to put Wade down—or at least get him out of here. Since the first option probably wasn’t going to happen easily, that left the second.

  Taking aim, she put a bullet through his right calf where it stuck out from the corner of the table he was hiding behind. It was a lucky shot, but he didn’t need to know that.

  Wade stood, pure, unadulterated hatred in his blazing r
ed eyes. The urge to shoot at him until she ran out of ammo was almost irresistible, but there was a good chance she could hit him multiple times and still not keep him from killing Boo.

  No. She needed him out of here. And the best way to do that was to make him chase her.

  With that in mind, Alina turned and ran. She hit the door outside the lab at a full run, shoving it open. She didn’t know where she was going. She only knew she had to get Wade as far away from Boo as she could.

  She barely got a dozen yards from the building when she heard the door bang open. Behind her, Wade let out a growl. He was following her all right.

  What the hell was she going to do now?

  * * *

  Tanner felt his control on his inner lion slipping as he surged across the gym floor and slammed into the huge hybrid who was about to shoot Sage. His M4 carbine went flying, but there was nothing he could do about that. The hybrid’s weapon went skittering across the floor, too, so that made them even. Tackling the guy hadn’t been his first plan, but with so many innocent civilians, they were having to get a lot more hands-on with this raid than they’d ever intended. Simply standing back and trying to deal with the hybrids from a distance wasn’t an option anymore.

  Tanner roared as he took the hybrid to the floor, his long fangs extending so far they made his jaw hurt. The hybrid didn’t seem impressed and roared right back as he shoved Tanner away, then lunged at him with a mouth full of knife-sharp teeth. Tanner got an arm up under the creature’s jaw, barely keeping those teeth away from his neck. The thing was incredibly strong and vicious as hell.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Tanner saw his friends locked in combat with the other hybrids. Even with Clayne’s and Angelo’s teams in the fray, it was nearly impossible to take them down. There were too many of the hybrids, and they were too hard to kill.

  To his right, Sage jumped on one of Thorn’s men just as he was about to shoot Jaxson in the back. The man went down screaming in pain as Sage swiped at him with her claws. While she had to do it to save Jaxson, Tanner knew from experience she’d regret it later.

  Tanner’s momentary focus on what the hell was going on around him almost got him killed as the hybrid he was fighting clamped razor-sharp teeth down on his arm. Tanner roared in rage, but instead of jerking his arm away and causing even more damage, he shoved it deeper into the man’s mouth as savagely as he could.

  There was a crack as something in the hybrid’s neck snapped. He immediately released his hold on Tanner. Ignoring the blood and pain, Tanner spun away, scrambling for his weapon. Even though his head was tilted at a slight angle, the hybrid came at him again.

  Tanner grabbed his carbine and squeezed the trigger the moment he got it pointed at the psycho. His rifle round hit the man square in the center of the forehead, putting the hybrid down for good.

  “Go for a head shot!” he shouted into his radio mic. “It’s the only thing that will kill them.”

  Tanner heard a feline yowl behind him, and he immediately spun around, expecting to see Sage in trouble. But it was Dreya. A hybrid had her pinned to the wall, his forearm shoved against her throat, trying to crush her windpipe. Tanner expected to see Braden coming to her rescue, but the cop-turned-DCO-agent was busy trying to keep two of Thorn’s men from killing Minka and didn’t even realize his partner was in danger.

  Snarling, Tanner scrambled to his feet and charged across the gym toward Dreya and the hybrid, his control slipping a little more with every step.

  * * *

  Trevor was halfway down the hallway before his nose told him Alina wasn’t in the lab.

  “Alina!” he called over the radio. “Where are you?”

  No answer.

  Shit.

  Torn between tracking her and checking with Milan and Morgan to see if they knew where she was, he raced toward the sound of fighting coming from the room at the far end of the hall.

  Milan crouched down behind Morgan, Boo in her arms, while the big shifter tried to protect them from the lone hybrid taking shots at them from the other side of the room. Morgan had been hit multiple times and was already bleeding badly.

  Trevor lifted his weapon and shot the hybrid in the head like Tanner suggested. The hybrid looked stunned for a moment, then toppled to the floor.

  Morgan collapsed a split second later.

  Trevor leaped forward, catching the big shifter and easing him to the floor as carefully as he could. Boo left Milan’s arms, falling to her knees beside him. Long, dark curls framed her face as tears streamed down the little girl’s cheeks.

  “You’re going to be okay, Uncle Morgan,” she said. “You have to be okay. You’re too big and strong to die. Please don’t die. Please!”

  The anguish in Boo’s voice just about ripped Trevor’s guts out, and he prayed against all rational hope that somehow Morgan would be okay. Boo had been through enough already tonight.

  Morgan chuckled weakly. Even though he was bleeding like crazy, he still had the energy to take Boo’s hand and give it a squeeze. “Don’t worry, Little Peanut. I’ll be okay. I’m just catching my breath. I’ll be up and about in no time.”

  “Promise?” the little girl asked, her lips trembling.

  “I promise.” Morgan looked at Trevor. “Alina took off a few minutes ago so one of those big, nasty hybrids would chase her.”

  Trevor didn’t have to wonder which hybrid it had been. Somehow, things had worked out to put her and Wade in the same room with each other.

  Double shit.

  “Which way did they go?” he asked.

  “Out the door and to the right, toward the back of the complex,” Milan said softly as she checked Morgan’s injuries.

  “Call Zarina and tell her to be ready to come onto the complex the second the shooting stops,” Trevor said. “Morgan probably won’t be the only one who needs medical attention.”

  Trevor was out of the room and heading for the exit when he heard Boo ask Milan about her mother. The door of the med lab closed behind him before he heard the answer. He shook his head. How the hell did you answer a question like that?

  The moment he got outside, he stopped and sniffed the air, trying to pinpoint Alina’s location even as more gunfire came from the gym. Then he heard blaring techno music throbbing through his earpiece, and he stopped worrying about tracking his partner’s scent. He knew exactly where she was.

  * * *

  Alina ran toward the one place she knew would give her the best chance of surviving a lone encounter with a hybrid—the shoot house she and Trevor had trained in only a few days ago.

  She was kind of shocked she’d made it all the way to the training area. She could run fast, but Wade was faster. No doubt he was toying with her, wanting her to think she could get away from him so he could enjoy it that much more when he caught her.

  If he wanted to play that game, fine with her. It’d make it easier for her to turn this around on him.

  She raced into the shoot house, pausing only long enough to hit every single button on the operation panel, flipping on the pop-up targets, alarms, strobe lights, and even the thumping techno beat Jake had played when he and Jaxson had trained with her and Trevor.

  As she moved deeper into the building, she was relieved the place still reeked of animal urine. Wade’s sense of smell might not be as keen as a shifter’s, but it didn’t hurt to make sure her scent was masked.

  It was strange moving through the building with the lights flashing and targets popping up all over the place without reacting to them. She was only about three or four rooms into the building when she heard a door slam open. Wade’s angry snarls were so loud, she could hear them over the music. Something told her he was done toying with her.

  “You know how I told you it was just business when I took Thorn’s money and set you and your team up?” he yelled.

  Crap, he was al
ready in the next room over. She picked up her pace and put a few more turns between them, then took up a position she thought would allow her to get a shot at him.

  “It really wasn’t just business,” he continued. “I would have done it for half the money for a chance to put an end to you and your whiny, little team of punks. Getting the chance to kill little Jodi like I did was absolutely the best night of my life. That little bitch squealed like a pig after that, begging me to let her live, telling me she’d do anything I wanted. If I would’ve had the time, I might have taken her up on that. I always thought she had a sweet ass, you know?”

  Alina had to bite her tongue to keep from shouting at Wade that he was full of crap. She’d been forced to listen to the entire ordeal on the radio, and it replayed through her head almost every night before she went to sleep. Jodi had never squealed or begged. Her friend had died telling Wade to go to hell.

  Knowing all that still didn’t make it any easier to hear. Wade was trying to mess with her head and get her so mad that she would do something stupid, and it was working. She was so furious right then that her knuckles creaked under the pressure she was putting on the grip of her weapon.

  She turned and faced the direction Wade would be coming from, ready to put a bullet through his head the moment he walked into the room.

  Alina was still looking that way when she heard a footfall behind her. Heart in her throat, she spun around just in time to see Wade lift his gun and point it at her head. Somehow, he’d gotten all the way around the room she was in and had come through the other door.

  “I’m prepared to let your partner live,” Wade snarled, his red eyes boring into her. “In exchange for a suitable amount of begging, that is.”

  Alina knew she was already dead, and normally, she would never beg him for a drink of water if she was roasting in Hell, but the threat against Trevor made her reconsider. She’d do anything for Trevor, even if it was likely Wade was lying.

  She opened her mouth to tell Wade what he wanted to hear when a shot rang out over the heavy thumping music. Wade stumbled back a little and twisted around to see who’d shot him in the shoulder.