Chapter 35 Voss
VOSS
We ended up staying on the reserve for a few days. Primarily, we spent that time scouring the area for anything we might have missed that Malcolm and the tied-up guards didn’t know about. At this juncture, we didn’t find anything.
“It’s a strangely straightforward operation,” Imry notes as he taps away on the computer. “The bookings are handled automatically online. Money is handled through ‘charitable contributions’ to a specific bank account. We’re going to need you to track who has access to the money.”
I have one of the laptops in my possession that we grabbed from the offices. I’m limited in what I can see, though. I need my laptop with the programs and processes I’ve built over the years.
Bennett comes into the room and smiles. “We’re all set up.”
Yesterday, as we were going through the offices, a new set of hunters showed up.
One at first, followed by two others. It was then that we came up with a new plan.
We sent the hunters out with their loaded weapons.
After giving them an hour to get settled, Rhodes and his pack followed.
The pack hunted the hunters. They returned hours later with wet fur, running around like happy puppies.
For the time being, Bennett, Rhodes, and the pack will remain here, presumably running the human game operation uninterrupted until I track down the person or persons responsible. For the time being, we don’t want it to appear that they’ve been found out.
Which is somewhat of a challenge. There are almost three dozen men and two women who we released and have begun returning to civilization. We want them to tell their story. Partially because we need to track down the Shuttled drivers who abducted them. But also because we need this to be public.
However, if it hits the news before I’ve tracked down the people running it, they’ll get away and likely start over somewhere else. More than three dozen people who had vanished from their lives without a trace are suddenly going to show back up in society with branded numbers on their hands.
There wasn’t a lot we could do about that. They deserved to go back to their lives. That means I’m working hard to find any information I can on who is behind this. Unsurprisingly, no one who actually worked here knew who paid them.
I’m racing against time to find answers before the police get involved. The one thing we have on our side is that none of them know where they are or where this was taking place. We’re doing our best to keep that from them as we return them to their lives.
We’re hoping the police will be far off on their search, and we’ll be long gone with some disgusting people in our custody before the cops come close to sniffing around the correct location.
“Then I guess we’re going to go,” I say.
He beams at me. “Be safe,” he says and turns for the door. One of Rhodes’ pack is standing there. Watching. Waiting for Bennett. It’s been a trip seeing how those damn wolves have taken to Bennett as if he’s their puppy.
It’s only slightly less fascinating than Rhodes himself. I thought for sure he’d be perpetually single, just as his dad was always going to have a different person on his arm. They were balancing the cosmos.
I close the laptop and get to my feet with it under my arm.
I’ll be taking this one with me. Not sure if I’ll be useful in the long run, but it allows me to see the hunting schedule.
I can see when bookings pop up or disappear, which happens frequently.
As if those booking this trip suddenly have a stroke of morals.
I’m hoping to crack the case of who’s behind this before they catch on to that I’m looking for them. As soon as we get home, I’m diving full force into this. Three days is what I’ll need, by my estimation.
I crouch beside the bed where Brek is asleep. He’s been primarily sleeping since Mark and the triplets showed up. I think it’s the stress he’d been under since arriving, in combination with his injuries and the heavy antibiotics Mark has him on.
He’s so beautiful when he sleeps. Such peace on his features. The bruise on his jawbone is gone, so I can look at him now and pretend he hasn’t been through hell.
His eyes flutter as I touch his jaw. When they open, I smile. “Hey, you. How’re you feeling?”
“Tired,” he answers and brings a hand up to rub his face. My gaze catches on the numbers burned into the back of his hand. 718. My gut twists. I know it’s not my fault, but guilt fills my chest every time I see it.
I should have insisted on picking him up that day. If I had, none of this would have happened.
“We’re going home now. You ready?”
He grunts. “I’ve been ready.”
“I know. Come on. Up. You can sleep on the drive.”
Brek nods. He struggles to sit, and his hand goes to his side. I watch him closely. There’s a chance that he does so out of habit since he doesn’t appear to be in pain. Mark has been keeping him drugged, which is another reason he’s been sleeping so much.
I get to my feet and offer him my hands. Brek lets me pull him up, and I bring him to my chest, holding him for a minute. He leans his weight against me for a minute. “Thanks for coming to my rescue,” he says. “I feel like a damsel in distress.”
I snort. “This is a worse evil than found in fairy tales. This is humanity at its worst. Somehow, you got caught up in it.”
“I must have done something wrong in a previous life,” he muses.
“No,” I disagree. “Other people’s evil isn’t at all a reflection on you—not in this life or any other.”
Brek sighs.
I kiss him gently and take a step back. “How steady do you feel?”
“Actually…” He trails off as he tests his ankle. “Not bad. What did Mark say about my ankle? I don’t remember.”
“He says you might have a sprain, but he won’t know until we get somewhere that he has access to an X-ray machine. He’s been treating it like one. You have a brace, and we’ve been icing and heating it.”
“You have?” his eyebrows knit together. He pauses on his way to the door to look at me.
I grin. “I have. Imry’s been helping too, so I can try to unravel the secrets of who’s running this shit.”
Brek sighs. I follow him to the door and down the stairs, keeping close to make sure he doesn’t topple over.
The triplets and Mark are waiting by the SUV that Brek shot at. We found where his bullet hit, and it was not only a dozen feet in front of the vehicle but also a dozen feet to the right. I’m glad he wasn’t actually faced with someone he wouldn’t have been prepared to defend against.
“Good to see you on your feet,” Mark says as we approach the vehicle. “How’s your ankle?”
Brek nods. He’s fucking exhausted. I can see it in every step he takes. “Much better. Thanks.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Avory and Ellory climb into the third seat, and Brek follows, taking his seat in the middle. I join Brek, and Mark closes the door. Imry is behind the wheel, so Mark takes the front passenger side.
Almost right away, Brek lies down. He winces and rolls over so he’s not lying on the side with his gunshot wound. This makes him lie awkwardly with his knees pressed against the back of the seat, his ass hanging off, and his face pressed into my stomach.
I gently take his glasses off and set them in the cup holder so he can get comfortable. He’s out before we get off the bumpy dirt road.
Carefully, so as not to wake him, I pull his shirt up so I can look at the bandage on his side. I like to make sure he isn’t bleeding.
He has a long bandage, and the tape wraps around him to keep it in place.
In reality, he’s lucky. The shot was shit.
It isn’t deep, missed his bones and organs, and is relatively clean.
The most disturbing thing is what my brain keeps likening it to—a kid running his finger through the frosting of a cake and leaving an empty trail behind. That’s what it looks like.
Then he promptly fell down a fucking hill, and all the dirt, stabs of debris, and slamming into rocks didn’t help. That’s likely what caused the infection. Considering that he was caught outside for hours after, didn’t do him any favors either.
I’m thankful that Mark got here when he did and was able to clean him properly and give him antibiotics.
One of the two/thirds triplets leans over the back of the seat and looks at Brek. My fingers move absently through his hair. I’m never going to stop touching him. I’m never going to let him out of my sight.
My brother leans over and tugs Brek’s shirt down the rest of the way. “He’s going to be okay. You know the drugs and stress from what he’s been through are why he’s sleeping so much, right?”
“I know. I hate to think what this is going to do to him in the long-term, though.”
“He’s stronger than he looks.”
“You think so, huh?”
“It sounds like he hasn’t had the best home life, and given the little bit I’ve learned, he’s already a lot stronger than most people to have come out as well-rounded and kind as he has.”
I think about the struggles he’s gone through with Oakley and Loren. Briar and Uncle Noaz followed on the tails of that, and then Myro and Jessica announced their secret relationship. I still roll my eyes every time I think about their surprise when we already knew.
Anyway, Brek didn’t do well with any of it. If he were a kid, I’d be calling him a petulant child throwing a tantrum.
But then, he figured his shit out. He grew a lot in the past year. He took Imry and Haze getting together in stride. Brek has more confidence and understanding of his emotions now. When he struggled with the changes between us, he didn’t immediately get defensive and turn into an asshole.
Sure, he shut down as he tried to figure out this new direction in his life, but he showed incredible growth in how he handled it.
“You’re right,” I say eventually. “It feels like we’re all leaping forward and growing up a lot over this last year, but Brek is probably the one person who has truly blossomed and come into his own.”
“I didn’t think of that,” the triplet leaning over says.