Chapter Eight

 

 

 

Dakota hoped like hell Kieran listened to her, because she’d heard the doctor tell Kieran to bite him, and that wasn’t right. She couldn’t let this man hurt her lover ever again. He was trying to fuck with Kieran’s mind and that was unacceptable. If she hadn’t promised to bring in as many alive as she could, she’d slash his throat. Of course, she would have to shift back into her jaguar form.

“Kieran, don’t do it.”

His eyes were still glowing, but it wasn’t the same blue she’d seen before. Red bled through. He wouldn’t even be aware.

“You have to stop.”

“I want him dead.”

“I know,” she answered. “But think.”

He blinked and his eyes went back to normal.

“Don’t listen to her,” Doc said. “She’s just jealous.”

“What?” she and Kieran said at the same time.

“See?” she pointed out. “Something’s off.”

Kieran lowered the doctor and Dakota walked closer to him. She pulled out a pair of cuffs and secured him before drawing her fist back and hitting him as hard as she could. Kieran let the doctor drop to the ground.

“That was my job,” he bitched. “And you’re naked.”

Dakota laughed. “You can have the next one.” She stepped over the doctor and cupped Kieran’s face. “It was the right thing to do. There are too many unanswered questions. And I’ll shift back to my jaguar in a minute.”

“I want in on his interrogation,” Kieran demanded.

Dakota sighed. The Organization had their own team of interrogators who were trained to be the absolute best at extracting information. Kieran would be entering a dangerous situation. Walkers excelled at interrogation, but they didn’t last long in the position. They already suffered the dangerous affliction of going insane and attacking innocents. Very few managed to hang on to their humanity like Kieran. Dakota believed in her lover, but she still worried how any questioning of his enemies would affect him.

“I’m not asking,” Kieran said.

“Fine,” Dakota replied. “We still haven’t found Alex or the shifters.”

“I’m not leaving him.” Kieran waved his hand at the doctor.

“I’ll stay with him.” Gabe stepped into the room.

Kieran glanced over at the bear shifter.

“I trust him,” Dakota told her lover. “He’s my partner.”

“I won’t let him out of my sight. I swear to you,” Gabe said.

When Kieran still hesitated, Dakota gripped his hand. “We still need to get Bradley too.”

She saw that connect with him so she pushed more. “Gabe will stay in this room with the doctor. I need you with me.”

Kieran turned to Gabe. “He’ll mess with your mind. Don’t believe anything he says.”

Gabe grinned then walked over to a cabinet. He sorted through a cabinet of some bottles before he held one up. “Got it.” He picked up a syringe next. “This will keep him out for hours. He won’t get a chance to mess with my head.”

“Perfect,” Kieran responded.

Dakota nodded at her partner before grabbing Kieran’s wrist and yanking him out of the door. “There’s more tunnels to search.”

They raced back toward the center room that gave access to the other tunnels.

“Which one?” Dakota asked.

Kieran looked frantically around. “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“You have to decide.” His instincts had been spot on so far. “Which one?”

“There’s two. I feel I need to be in two places at once. Damn it!”

Shit, that meant they were going to have to split up again. She really didn’t want to do that. “Which two?”

“This one.” Kieran pointed. “And that one.”

“Fine.” She pushed Kieran toward the closest opening. “You go that way and I’ll take this one.”

“Wait!” Kieran cried.

Dakota spun back around. “What?”

“Be careful,” he told her.

“Always.” She winked at him. She dropped to her knees and called forward her animal. It took a little longer than usual, but eventually she was her large cat again. It always took a toll on her body to shift back and forth, but she’d had to return to human form when she’d heard the doctor tell Kieran he had a plan for them.

She would be paying for it later, but she’d had to shift.

Now she was back on all four paws, she sprinted down the tunnel. Their group had split up, so she was sure one of her team was already down this way, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need to be careful.

As she ran, she listened for any sound, but it was hard to concentrate. The scents around her lowered all her other senses. She heard a scream and sped up. Dakota reached the gap in the cave faster than she realized. She tried to slow down, but her claws slipped on the smoothed-out ground and she flew out into the hall.

She smacked the opposite wall with a thud.

“Ouch, that sounded like it hurt.”

Dakota rolled onto her paws and looked up. Damon stood above her, naked and grinning. She swiped her paw at him to get him to back off.

“Okay, little cat,” Damon said. “I can smell my pack members close by.”

So could she, along with other species of shifters. They’d found the rescued shifters. She could also smell death. They weren’t going to be bringing everyone back alive.

Screaming split the air.

“Come on!” Damon roared before he started to shift.

Dakota leapt over him before she hurried toward the sound. When she reached the steel door, she rammed it, but it barely moved.

“Here, let me.”

She looked up and saw one of Jackson’s Walkers standing beside Damon. Dakota moved over and the Walker grabbed the handle and pulled. There was a groan of metal before the steel began to bend.

Finally, the door came off the hinges and the Walker tossed it aside. Cages lined an entire room. The scent of shifters and death was so strong her eyes began to water.

She stepped inside, but the Walker placed his hand on her back.

“Be careful,” he said. “We don’t know if all the shifters in here are innocent.”

Dakota paused before shaking her body. If she could get past the horrid smells inside, she could use her senses to find the injured and scared. She relaxed her body before taking another step. The first two cages were empty, but the third held a female cougar naked in human form. Dakota pressed her nose up to the cage. The female shifter started to shake and cry.

Dakota called forward her human form.

“It’s okay,” she told the young girl. “We’re here to save you.”

“G…gggooooo away,” the cougar sobbed. “Thhhhhey’lll hurt you.”

“No,” Dakota assured her. “They won’t hurt you anymore. We’re getting you out of here.”

She yanked on the door, but it didn’t move. What the hell? She tried again. “What are these things made of?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Damon said coming up behind her. “Let’s try together.”

Feet braced shoulder-width apart, she gripped one bar while Damon took another. They started to pull. It took all her strength, but finally they were able to bend the cage enough for Dakota to get through.

“We’re not going to be able to do that for all of them,” Dakota told Damon.

“You’re right,” he agreed. “I’ll see if I can find someone who knows the codes.” He cracked his knuckles. “This might be fun.”

Dakota shook her head and crouched at the gap they’d made. “Stay here, we’re going to get the others out.”

The woman just stared blankly back at her.

“Okay,” Dakota said and stood. She strolled down the line of cages, glancing at both sides. It worried her that many of them were unoccupied. Did that mean the others were already dead? Or were they somewhere in this maze of tunnels?

“Alex?” Dakota stepped up to the last cage. The Walker was sprawled on his back. “Alex!”

“They just brought him back. He’ll be out for a while.”

She looked over at the last cell and the young man who’d crawled forward and spoken.

“I don’t think they hurt him as much as they did the first time,” he told her.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Dakota.” She sniffed and the strong odor of wolf shifter assaulted her. “Are you Max?”

“You know who I am?” he asked, surprised.

“We’ve been looking for you. Your Alpha is with us.”

“Damon came?” Max curled his fingers around the bars. “He really came?”

“Of course he did. He went to find someone who knows the code to the doors.”

“Five, one, one, three,” Max said.

Dakota pressed the numbers into Max’s keypad and the door clicked open. “Oh my god, Max! That’s great. Is it the same for all the cells?”

Max nodded. “Alex told me the code. He said I would need to know it to get out.”

Dakota threw the door open the rest of the way and went over to Max to help him to his feet. “Can you stand?”

“I think so.” Max climbed to his feet but lurched forward. Dakota caught him.

“Come on. You need to help me with Alex.”

“Yeah,” Max replied. “I want to help him.”

Even with Max’s full mass, Dakota had no problem holding him up. The poor kid barely weighed anything at all. She lifted him up with her arm around his waist.

Once they stood back in front of Alex’s cage and she punched in the same code, Alex’s door opened. She glanced down the cages to where the Walker was still trying to pry the bars of one open.

“Five, one, one, three,” she called to him. “That’s the code.”

“Okay,” he yelled back. “I’ll get them all open and we’ll start taking them out.”

“Thanks.” She turned her attention back to Alex. She sat Max down on Alex’s right side before moving to the left.

She checked his pulse, thankful Walkers actually had one. He was still alive, so that was good, but he’d been beaten savagely. There was blood all over his mouth and she pried his lips apart.

“They yanked his fangs.”

She peered up at Damon.

“From what Jackson told me it was one of their favorite tricks. To yank out the Walkers’ fangs,” Damon told her.

Dakota knew that from Kieran, but she’d never really understood what had happened. There were giant holes in his gums. If this had happened to Kieran over and over…she couldn’t imagine the pain.

He’d even told her the doctor had laughed and laughed as he’d done it. Shit, she should have let Kieran kill the fucking guy. Then no one would ever feel the agony these people had.

“Alpha?”

Max’s voice drew her thoughts back to the present.

“It’s okay.” Damon dropped down beside his pack member. “I got you now.” He gathered the younger wolf into his arms as Max began to sob. “You’re safe.”

“They told me you wouldn’t come,” Max said. “That you didn’t care about us, me, any of us. That you were going to let me die here.”

“Never.” Damon rocked his wolf. “I would never leave you to suffer.”

The heartwarming moment brought tears to Dakota’s eyes. The tough Alpha comforting a member of his pack. Wasn’t that what they were all looking for? Someone to care for them. Someone to care what would happen to him.

For so long she’d given everything to the Organization, but then she’d found Kieran. Now she had other priorities. Ones that put everything she believed in at risk. Instead of wanting to take the doctor and Bradley into custody, she wished she could just end them.

Alex groaned and Dakota leaned over him.

“Can you hear me, Alex?” Dakota said gently. “It’s Dakota, we found you.”

“Jackson?”

“He’s here.”

“They want him and Kieran again,” Alex whispered.

“I know. Can you open your eyes?”

Alex blinked his eyes and when he did open them, they were glowing. “It hurts.”

“Let’s get you out of here,” Dakota said.

“Can you take Max?” Damon said. “I’ll carry him.”

The Alpha was stronger than her. Damon stood with Max and she maneuvered herself to brace him. Damon bent and lifted Alex.

“Jackson,” Alex muttered. “Where is Jackson?”

“We’ll find him for you. He went down one of the other tunnels,” Dakota said.

“Bradley,” Alex managed before going into a coughing fit. “Bradley wants them.”

She didn’t know why he kept repeating himself, but she needed to get him out and see what she could do about getting him blood. That would be the quickest way to get him feeling better and hopefully making better sense.

“Lead the way,” Damon told her.

Dakota helped steady Max and they stumbled out of the cell. They shuffled down the lines of cages with Damon carrying Alex, and Alex mumbling about Jackson, Kieran and Bradley the entire time.

The Walker was opening cells, telling the scared shifters someone would be right there to help them out. It didn’t look like he was getting much of a response from any of the injured shifters.

As they reached the one cage she and Damon had gotten open, she was surprised to see the cougar gone.

“Hey!” she called to the Walker. “Did someone help the girl out of here?”

“Not yet,” he answered. “Backup is on the way. No one’s left yet.”

“What is it?” Damon asked behind her.

“The female cougar,” Dakota said. “She’s gone.”

“Maybe she got out on her own?”

“She was so scared. She didn’t believe she was being rescued.”

“With the opening, maybe she realized she was actually free.”

Dakota shook her head. She’d find the young cougar and put her mind at ease once they got Max and Alex out.

“Where’s Jackson?” Alex asked.

That was another good question. Where were Kieran and Jackson?

Dakota started to respond when two men stepped in front of her. Shifters, and since they were dressed and carrying weapons, she could not mistake them for victims. She glanced over her shoulder at Damon.

“You really don’t want to get in our way,” Damon told the guards.

Max stiffened. Dakota was getting a really bad feeling about these two.

“You think we’re just going to let you walk out of here with them?” the biggest one asked. He was a grizzly shifter and Dakota hoped she didn’t have to fight him. The cheetah shifter next to him wouldn’t be a problem.

“Yes, we do.”

Before either man could turn around or look at the Walker that had come up behind them, he’d knocked them all out.

“Fuckers,” Max hissed. “They loved to torture us.”

She might have moved a little slower than normal so Max could kick both downed shifters in the face, but Damon didn’t comment and it appeared Alex had passed out again.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a while,” Max told her.

They stepped out of the hellhole and saw another bear shifter standing there. He was dressed like the other guards, but he was so young. He was staring at the big grizzly shifter on the ground.

The Walker crept up to the kid, who looked terrified. Dakota remembered when Kieran and Remy had been attacked at the tunnels. Kieran had told her about the young bear shifter and how he hadn’t seemed like he’d wanted to be involved. If this was the same kid, she could easily see Kieran had been right.

“Wait! Stop!” The kid held his hands up before the Walker even reached him. “I didn’t want to do any of it.”

The Walker gripped the kid by the shoulder. “You related to him?”

“Yes,” the young shifter replied quietly. “He’s my older brother.”

“Is that where you got all these?” The Walker turned the kid’s face and Dakota saw huge dark bruises.

He nodded. “I didn’t want to do it,” the kid repeated.

“Okay, why don’t you show me where the surveillance room is?” the Walker said.

“It’s this way.”

Over the young shifter’s head, the Walker nodded at Dakota. She really need to pay better attention to Jackson’s men. For the life of her, she couldn’t think of the guy’s name. She smiled, showing she appreciated the gentle hand with the kid. A lot of people had been hurt during this operation and it seemed not everyone was involved because they wanted to be.

She’d have to check on the kid once they returned to the office. If there was a story with his family, Dakota would find it out. She might have Dean dig a little for her.

 

* * * *

 

Kieran glanced over at Jackson, who nodded back at him. They’d found the offices and tracked Bradley’s scent to the last one. The floor was littered with half a dozen guards, but Kieran was pretty sure they weren’t dead. Well, almost sure, anyway.

He could hear movement behind the closed door. Kieran knocked three times.

“Give me a minute!” Bradley yelled. “I’m almost ready.”

It was obvious Bradley didn’t know who was at his door. He probably thought it was the guards waiting to get him out of there. With the lack of communication and no alarm sounding, Kieran was a little embarrassed it had taken them this long to capture Bradley. Jeez, the place should be full of guards and have a better security system. It didn’t even seem to matter whether or not the security cameras were taken care of. Although he was going to make sure the equipment and tapes got sent to him at the office. He wanted to know everyone who’d been involved.

“He doesn’t leave this cave,” Jackson told him. “It’s the perfect place for his dead body.”

Kieran nodded then backed up. He ran at the door and raised his foot, kicking the metal barrier off the hinges and making it fly into the room. Jackson moved fast and by the time Kieran was in the room, Jackson had Bradley pinned up against the wall.

“Hello, Bradley,” Jackson said, laughing. “Not expecting us?”

Bradley appeared so surprised he wasn’t even fighting back. He had blood running down his temple and Kieran licked his lips. He wouldn’t mind tasting the eagle shifter’s blood. “I want to bite him.”

“Go ahead,” Jackson said. “He’s not going anywhere.”

Kieran stepped forward but Bradley turned his head and smiled at him. “Yes, Kieran, go ahead and take a bite.”

That made him stop. Why wasn’t the doctor or Bradley afraid of him? It didn’t make sense. Unless they’d done something to him he couldn’t remember? Again, he had more questions than answers.

There was only one way to find out.

Kieran closed the distance and leaned in to sniff Bradley’s neck. He could smell the sweat and anger, but there was no fear. But there was another chemical scent.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Bradley asked.

“What is it?” Kieran snapped back.

“Oh, not all of our research went to waste after you were rescued. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”

“You won’t need sleeves when I rip off your arms,” Jackson told him as he slammed Bradley back into the wall.

Bradley grunted in pain, but never stopped smiling.

“You won’t kill me,” Bradley said. “Neither of you.”

He hated this man so much. He wanted to rip out Bradley’s throat, but he was hesitating. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that,” Kieran told Bradley.

“But I am,” Bradley said. “You want answers. Answers only I can provide.”

“That’s what the doctor said too. I didn’t kill him, by the way, not yet.”

Bradley jerked. Kieran also picked up the scent of worry.

“Yep.” Kieran leaned close. “I only need one of you.”

“Actually,” Bradley said, “You only need me. Since the good doctor doesn’t know where Caspar is.”

“I’m not falling for that,” Kieran told him. “Caspar isn’t even in town.”

“And he won’t be. I have him stashed away.”

There was no increase in breathing—his heartbeat remained steady. He didn’t appear to be lying.

“We might not be able to kill you, but we can make you hurt,” Kieran stated.

Jackson snapped his head to Kieran. “What?”

“I need to verify Caspar’s okay,” Kieran told him.

Jackson snarled. “But I still get to hurt him?”

“Just don’t bite him,” Kieran cautioned.

“Why not?” Jackson demanded. “We had a plan!”

“There’s something off in his scent,” Kieran advised.

“Fine,” Jackson muttered, then threw Bradley across the room.

Kieran raced over and picked him back up before tossing him back at Jackson. Jackson laughed as he caught Bradley before lifting him over his head and slamming him down on top of the desk. Jackson’s fists were flying so fast Kieran’s sight could barely keep up with the punches.

Blood sprayed from Bradley’s face, but Kieran didn’t stop his friend. Not yet, anyway. He stood back and let Jackson get his revenge. Bradley was a shifter and would be able to heal, although it would take a while. As long as Bradley could talk, that was all Kieran needed.

Jackson roared as he lifted his arm again.

Kieran caught Jackson’s wrist. “I think that’s enough for now.” He nodded at the unconscious man lying on the desk.

“It’s not enough. He shouldn’t be allowed to live.”

Kieran cupped Jackson’s face. “We’re not killers anymore. Neither one of us. If he doesn’t give us the information we need, I can’t say we have any use for him, but he will suffer every day he does live.”

“I’m pretty sure you broke a guard’s neck earlier,” Jackson pointed out.

“Yeah.” He hadn’t forgotten. “But I actually didn’t mean to. We can’t murder Bradley just for the sake of killing him.”

“I really want to,” Jackson said.

“I know, fuck, I know. But we’re better than him. Everything we went through and we’re not monsters.”

“When did you decide this?”

“Earlier, when Dakota stopped me from biting the doctor. I thought I would kill the man instantly the moment I saw him, but I didn’t. Shit, I can’t explain it.”

“It’s because as hard as you try to fight it, you really are a good man,” Jackson said.

Kieran snorted. “I’m not a saint, so don’t make me out to be one.”

“Yeah, but, K,” Jackson said and dropped to his knees, “We got him. Tell me it’s over. I need to hear the words come from you.”

Kieran pulled Jackson close and held him. “We got him. It’s over.” He repeated the words until Jackson was saying them with him.

“I’m okay now,” Jackson assured him.

Kieran patted Jackson’s back a few times before releasing his friend. He stood up and bent over Bradley’s prone body. “Allow me to carry him out.” He grabbed Bradley’s hair and dragged him off the desk then walked to the door.

Kieran towed the eagle shifter behind him and through the bodies of the guards that were still out. “I can hear others coming,” Kieran informed Jackson.

Jackson nodded before he kicked one of the shifter guards in the ribs.

“Really?” Kieran asked with a laugh.

“Just making sure he’s still out.”

Just as Kieran reached the gap, two Organization agents barreled through. They stopped as they spotted Kieran and Jackson. Kieran vaguely recognized them, but that didn’t matter.

“Secure all the guards and get them transported to the office. We’ll want to question them as soon as possible,” Kieran ordered them.

“Yes, sir,” one of the agents replied. “We’ll get it done personally.”

Kieran nodded and waited until they stepped to the side before dragging Bradley through the opening. He could hear a lot more activity echoing through the caves than before. There was a full-on Organization operation happening. It sounded like their backup had arrived. That meant the kidnapped shifters must have been found.

“We saved them,” Kieran whispered. It was a reminder this was about more than what had happened to him and Jackson. If Kieran hadn’t been captured and tortured all those years ago, then he wouldn’t have known where or how to find the shifters and Alex this time.

Both Bradley and the doctor had a lot to answer for. But Kieran would keep his promise to Jackson too. Bradley wouldn’t get the chance to hurt anyone ever again. Once Kieran got the answers he needed, he would end Bradley’s life and the doctor’s as well. They’d unleashed too much horror onto others to be able to live out the rest of their lives. Even lives in an Organization jail.

When he reached the center room, he saw Dakota helping a wolf shifter and Damon carrying Alex.

“Alex!” Jackson pushed past Kieran and raced to his friend.

Dakota looked over at him then down at Bradley. She smiled. “You got him.”

“Yep.” Kieran let Bradley drop from his grasp. “And he’s going to give me answers.”

She nodded. “I know.”

The young shifter leaning on her swayed and she tightened her grip. Kieran went to go for her, but Dakota shook her head. “I’ve got Max. You make sure Bradley gets transported back to the office. Gabe and Dare already have the doctor.”

“You sure?” She looked exhausted to him.

“Yeah,” she assured him. “I’ll meet you back at the office.”

He nodded. Dakota smiled at him again before murmuring to the wolf shifter she was helping. They shuffled forward. Jackson held Alex in his arms and the look of relief was apparent.

Kieran bent down and grabbed Bradley by the back of his neck. He let most of Bradley’s body scrape against the cave the entire time he dragged him out. Once he was in the fresh air again, Kieran realized just how bad the scents inside the cave were.

The sun shone down on him bright and hot. They must have been inside for hours, even though it hadn’t seemed that long. He lifted his face to the sky and soaked in the warmth. It didn’t actually offer him much in the way of heat but, mentally, it helped.

There had been a time when he’d thought he would never see the sun again. At first the doctor had tried to figure out the whole vampires-plus-sun myth, but that had quickly been abandoned. The doctor had been more impressed by the speed at which Kieran healed.

Kieran didn’t understand the experiments the doctor had been doing and he didn’t want to. The entire idea of mixing shifter and Walker genes was just crazy. A person couldn’t be turned into either, had to be born with the gift, so he didn’t know what the outcome of the so-called research would even be. Kieran found the thought very disturbing.

“Hey, you okay?”

Kieran looked over to Remy. “Fine, you?”

“Good,” Remy answered. “We found Alex and some of the shifters.”

“Just some?”

“We recovered the bodies of the rest. We were right. There were more than we originally thought. I don’t know if they weren’t reported missing or what, but we have a dozen dead.”

“Jesus.” Kieran felt ill. “They killed that many?”

“Yeah.”

He still had a hold on Bradley. Kieran lifted him up to look at the despicable face of a monster. He roared and threw Bradley. He hit the side of an SUV, denting it.

“K!” Remy grabbed his arm.

“Why would they do this?” Kieran asked.

“I don’t know but we’ll find out. They didn’t get away this time.”

“No, they didn’t.” Kieran stomped back to the SUV then grabbed Bradley. He pulled open the back door and tossed Bradley inside. After he slammed the door closed, he looked at his partner. “Are you coming with me?”

“Well, you’re not going alone. Someone needs to make sure you don’t kill him on the drive.”

Kieran only grunted. He yanked open the driver’s side door and was relieved to see the keys still in the ignition. He sat as Remy climbed into the passenger seat.

“Start trying to get hold of Caspar,” Kieran ordered his partner.

“Caspar? He should be here by now and he’s going to be pissed.”

“He’s not here.”

“Well, not here, but I bet he’s at the office getting his ass reamed by Sparro.”

“No, not in town,” Kieran said. “Bradley has him stashed somewhere.”

Remy leaned to peer into the back seat. “That guy had our boss kidnapped?”

“Yeah,” Kieran replied. “And that’s the only reason he’s still alive.”

Remy unclasped his seatbelt and leaned farther across the seat. He punched Bradley a few times.

“What are you doing?” Kieran asked.

“Making myself feel better,” Remy said and hit Bradley again. “Okay.” He settled back into his seat and buckled up again.

Kieran backed the vehicle up then slammed his foot on the gas. Remy grunted and slapped his hand onto the ceiling. “Shit, man!”

“Just start making the phone calls. We need to find Caspar.”

“I can’t believe this,” Remy said, but pulled out his cell phone. “We finally catch these bastards and Caspar goes missing?”

“Yeah,” Kieran replied. “They were preparing for us to find them.”

“I’ve been thinking about that.”

“About what?” Kieran asked.

“I’ve been reading the files from the Mount Fauna operation.”

“Where’d you get them?”

Remy looked out of the window, avoiding his gaze. Kieran hadn’t even gotten to see the Organization file himself, well, not the one they held. Jackson had hacked in and gotten copies, and Kieran had been going through them.

“Rem?”

“Caspar emailed them to me right after he left,” Remy said.

“Why?”

“He wanted me to see if I could find anything he might have missed. He suspects Bradley was getting help from someone still inside the Organization.”

Kieran took a turn too fast and the SUV fishtailed.

“Damn it, man,” Remy complained. “Slow down.”

“Caspar thinks someone here is involved, doesn’t he?” Kieran asked.

“Yeah.”

“That’s the real reason we were transferred here,” Kieran said, but he was working it out on his own instead of asking his partner. “Caspar wanted us in place in case he found Bradley and Bradley talked. All that bullshit about me being here to find Jackson was just a cover.”

“Not all of it. He wanted you to have Jackson at your back. He knew you could trust him and he didn’t know who else you would be able to.”

“Who does he suspect?”

“I don’t think now’s the time to get into this.”

“Who does he suspect?” Kieran yelled.

“Maybe you should pull over and let me drive,” Remy suggested.

“Tell me right now or I’ll throw you out of this fucking vehicle while I’m still driving,” Kieran threatened. His fangs dropped and the steering wheel cracked under his hands.

“Sparro.”

“Fuck!” Kieran hollered as he yanked the wheel to pull the SUV over. He sat there panting.

How bad could this get? The questions were really starting to pile up. Still, as long as he had Bradley in his hands then they had a chance to figure things out.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” Kieran asked as he calmed.

“He didn’t want you ripping Sparro’s throat out before we have proof,” Remy said with a laugh.

“Good point,” Kieran admitted. “Wait! What about Dare and Gabe? They have the doctor.”

“No,” Remy said. “I trust them and so does Dakota. I can feel they’re not involved.”

“Still, we can’t let the doctor or Bradley out of our sight. If we don’t know who we can trust, then we don’t trust anyone.”

“Kieran,” Remy said. “We need help.”

“We only trust those who are already working with us. Bradley wasn’t warned this time. It’s why we caught him. No one knew.”

“Okay,” Remy agreed. “Just us.”