Chapter 6 Caleb
Caleb
The place Derrick takes us to seems to be part of a set of buildings at the edge of the city. It doesn’t look like a farm, but also, it doesn’t look like a house.
“Two of the doc’s mates are vets. This is a vet clinic during normal working hours. He’s a doc at the nearby hospital who sometimes helps us out when things get a little dicey.” Derrick drives past the main buildings and parks around the back.
Timothy is already waiting for us, leaning against a car, exhaustion obvious in his whole body.
As soon as I slide the side door of the van open, Timothy comes over, his face tight but not grim. “Mathew’s inside. He’s getting stitched up right now. He should be fine.”
I wish I could run inside immediately, be with Mathew, be at his side, but I need to get the rest of my mates out of the van first.
The trip over here was long enough that our muscles have gotten stiff and Vera nearly falls off Jorge’s lap when she tries to get up.
I quickly catch her, putting her on her feet. The moment she feels steady ground, she’s off, rushing inside, Luca closely behind her.
Jorge takes a little longer to get out of the van and when he meets my gaze, the worry in his eyes makes my heart ache. Then he nods and we follow Vera and Luca.
As soon as we open the door, the scent of disinfectant greets us. The small building has a waiting area and a couple of rooms to one side.
Riley, Vera and Luca are waiting in front of one of the doors, impatient.
I look Riley over as we join them and she gives me a tight smile. “I’m fine. Nothing to worry about here.”
Right... I’m not so sure about that, but since she didn’t get caught in the web the Hearts set up, she’s probably the least bruised of all of us.
“What happened?”
“He tried to do too much. Wouldn’t sit still. Kept...” She lets out a long sigh. “Kept pushing himself well past his limits. He was out of it for a few moments. But it’s not happened since.”
Of course, Mathew would push himself too far, that’s exactly like him, especially today. But I’d hoped that him joining up with Timothy would mean he wouldn’t take as many risks. Seems that was idle hope. “What did the doctor say?”
“He needs stitching and might need some extra fluids. After that, he should be fine.”
Vera turns to us, leaning against me, her pheromones filling with worry. “And the baby?”
“The doc checked. Baby is fine. There was no risk to the baby. Mathew wasn’t in that bad of a state.”
That’s good. That’s at least some good news.
“And we’re waiting outside the room, because?!” I glance to the closed door.
Riley frowns at the door, like it’s offended her personally, her dark rose pheromones going sharp, filling with anger and frustration. “Doc wanted to keep the room as clean as possible. And he didn’t want us crowding around while he was stitching Mathew up.”
The door to the outside opens and Derrick and Timothy come in, their faces full of worry, but they seem a lot more grounded now they’re side by side again.
They’re walking shoulder-to-shoulder. They don’t have their arms wrapped around the other’s waist, but they’re so close that they might as well.
Their strides are exactly the same length and they move almost as one.
Looking at them, their mate bond and them having worked together for years and years is so clear. It’s tender and at the same time strong, flexible, beautiful.
“News from home?” I meet Derrick’s and then Timothy’s gaze. “Did everyone get out okay?”
The police getting closer and closer at the end made me way more nervous than anything else that happened tonight. Okay, maybe apart from Mathew getting shot, that was also fucking scary. But at least we knew he wasn’t in any immediate danger at the time, with the police, we didn’t know that.
Derrick nods. “Almost everyone is back. Or, at least, getting close. There are a couple of people still on their way, but they shouldn’t be running into any issues.”
Jorge turns to them, frowning, angry, but also scared. “What about retaliation? Any signs that the Hearts might try to take revenge?”
“Nothing yet.” Timothy sits down on one of the chairs and Derrick sits down next to him, still shoulder-to-shoulder. “Though, from what Erika said and from what we’ve seen before. I don’t expect much to happen.”
Luca’s voice is quiet. “Why?” He’s sitting against the wall next to the door, curled up, as small as possible.
Timothy looks grim, first meeting Derrick’s gaze and then looking back at us. “Because the Hearts know that we’ve got a lot of evidence of what they were up to. And there’s plenty of evidence still left in the building of what went on.”
“Anything that didn’t get burned.” Vera lets out a light growl, her honey pheromones flaring in anger.
Timothy nearly smiles, though it’s without joy. “There’s enough evidence left. More than enough.” He pulls up a shoulder. “And if not...” His face turns dark in a way I’ve not seen before, making my skin crawl. “I’m happy to strategically release information to ‘help them along’, if needed.”
“Or, they might be visited by someone with less-than-kind intentions.” Riley lets out a deep growl, which Vera seems to copy, though much softer. Yeah, I’m sure those two would be happy to make the lives of some influential people very unhappy, for however long —or short— those lives are.
I know it’s not over yet. But this brothel is done for. Very much done for.
And I’m sure that anyone that visited the place and is in positions of power now has a big sword of Damocles over their necks. One that Timothy would be very happy to use when needed.
I don’t have ounce of empathy for those bastards.
The door to the room with Mathew opens and a young doctor steps out, taking off his gloves. “You can go inside. Try not to jostle him too much.”
I wait as Vera, Luca, Jorge and Riley pour into the room, and then follow them.
Against one of the walls is an operating table. One that’s clearly for animals, totally flat, all metal, no padding at all. The table is angled so that the head is against the wall, making it easier for Mathew to sit up slightly.
Mathew’s face is pale and there’s a large bandage over his hip. But the way his face lights up as soon as he sees us makes my heart ease a little.
We’re all together again. Whatever else happens, we’ll deal with it. The most important thing is that we’re all together again.
I turn to the doc. “Thank you so much. When can we take him home?” I know it’s a rude question after the guy just stitched Mathew up, but I don’t want to stay here longer than we need.
I want to take the pack home, somewhere safe, somewhere familiar.
The doc nods, like he expected the question. “I’d like to keep him for a couple more hours. I don’t expect any trouble, but just to be sure. In the mean time, I’ll check all of you over too.” He turns to Derrick and Timothy. “If you could follow me?”
Derrick shakes his head. “You don’t have to worry about us, we’ll be going home soon. We’ll get checked there.”
The doc raises an eyebrow at him. “I’m pretty sure the people at your place are busy enough as it is.
If I check you over now, that means less work for them.
Especially you.” He pointedly looks at Timothy’s hand.
“We should check to make sure nothing important got damaged. If we catch it now, we might be able to fix it. If you wait too long, that could get trickier.”
Timothy looks sheepish. “I had a slight issue trying to open a bullet-riddled car door.” He keeps his hand at his side carefully. It’s wrapped in a blood-soaked cloth, and from the brightness of the colour, it’s still fresh.
Oh, for fuck’s sake... And he was just going to leave that until we got home?
The doc signals for the two to leave the room ahead of him before he turns back.
“I’ll check the rest of you after. For now, you can clean yourself up as best as possible at the sink or in the bathroom, there are towels and such available.
” With that, he leaves the room, leaving our pack all alone together for the first time in hours.
While I really want to go home, staying here for a couple more hours is probably a good idea too. Because I know that as soon as Mathew gets back, he’ll get back to work at full speed, until everything is taken care of, no matter how long it takes.
So, yes, staying here is frustrating, but it’s probably also the only way to make sure everyone actually rests.
Riley is sitting on the floor, against the wall, Vera in her lap, the two women fast asleep.
Mathew is still on the operating table, with Jorge pushed up against him as closely as possible on the narrow table and Luca asleep in a chair next to them.
They all look exhausted, but at least everyone is now mostly cleaned up —as much as possible while still wearing last night’s clothes— and we’ve all gotten the all-clear from the doc.
On the other side of the room, Timothy is tapping away on his laptop, his fingers moving at a high speed, and Derrick is alternately looking at his phone and swatting at Timothy’s hands so he can do something on the laptop.
The two seem to be in their own little world, until Derrick looks up to me and frowns.
He puts his phone down and comes over. “Why did you go against your orders? You knew that was the exact reason I didn’t team Vera and you up for the raid.” Then he lets out a deep sigh. “You put yourselves and other people in so much danger by going back for Jorge and Luca.”
I look back to my pack. “Would you have left Timothy behind?”
“You had orders. If you got split up, you were to get out of there the quickest way possible. Those were your orders.” Derrick’s voice is tight, terse.
“Would you have left him behind?” His reaction and unwillingness to answer my question annoys me for some reason.
“You had orders.” Again with that voice, commanding, terse. Like I’m one of his underlings, not someone from Mathew’s pack.
“Would. You. Have. Left. Him. Behind?!” I fully turn to him, looking at him, meeting his gaze, anger rising.
He doesn’t look away, keeping my gaze, his face still stoic. “Yes. I would have. And I have.”
Rage flares in me and I ball my hands into fists, instinctively itching to punch him for putting Timothy in danger. Not wanting to believe his answer, even though I’m sure it’s the truth.
“It’s not theoretical for me. I’ve been in that situation before. These orders are given with a reason.” He breaks my gaze and glances over to Mathew and Vera.
“It’s so that we get as many people out of a situation as quickly as possible. By going back, you put your life, and Vera’s life, back in danger. You put your pack in more danger than needed.”
“Vera wanted to go back. I wasn’t going against her.”
Not that I needed much convincing, especially not when it was clear that Xavier and his pack would be fine, just like the rest of the people with them. But the thought of leaving Jorge and Luca behind, even with Derrick, didn’t sit well with me at all.
“You should have. I’ve left Timothy behind when things went sideways during a mission.
And he’s done the same.” Derrick’s eyes are hard.
“For the health and safety of our whole pack, we had to make sure that at least one of us got back to Eli and the kids safely. You should have gotten yourself and Vera to safety first. We could have come up with plans after that. But you should have gotten to safety first. You were in no state to turn back when you did.”
I understand what he’s saying, but still… “I couldn’t do that. And Vera definitely wouldn’t be able to do that.”
“That’s why I split you two up. You take unnecessary risks. Risks that could put a lot of people in a lot more danger than they already are.”
My sense of risk management, just like Vera’s, comes from years of being on the run. But that was just the two of us. The only people we had to consider in those situations were her and me. And we would have gone back if we knew the other had gotten trapped somewhere.
But that was when there were only two of us. Neither of us wanted to be without the other, so we took any risk to stay together.
With a whole pack, and Mathew’s organisation on top of that, the risk management and assessment is different, something that I kind of lost track of out there.
Tonight, everything worked out fine, we’re all together and safe. But it could have also gone horribly wrong, leaving Mathew and Riley as the only living pack members. Even the thought of that, of how wrong it could have gone, fills my veins with ice.
No.
I’m not going to let that happen.
We are all going to stay together, no matter what.