Chapter 33 - Bridget
I had been expecting a dungeon, but Domenic brought me to an ordinary-looking office building across the river, on a deserted street full of offices and warehouses that seemed closed. The sign above the door we parked in front of read Park Ridge Veterinary Clinic in peeling blue paint.
The ride there had been one long lecture from Domenic, about what I owed to him and my family. My mother trembled beside me, not offering even a shred of comfort.
Even though my blood boiled with every word out of his mouth, I kept my head down, my hands clasped in my lap. It wasn’t time to fight back yet, not until I knew more.
Marco was driving. His unpleasantly musty scent made me want to roll down the window and hang my head out of the car, but I recognized the stress in it now.
He was just as scared as I was. When I first slid into the backseat, he’d met my eyes in the rearview mirror with something that almost approached remorse.
“Take my lovely wife home,” Domenic told him when we parked. “I’ll deal with her later.”
His voice was tight with rage, the kind of rage that only happened when she and I had disobeyed him.
“Come along, Bridget,” he called to me.
I looked at my mother for the first time since we’d gotten in the car. She shook her head minutely, but I didn’t know what she was trying to tell me. That she hadn’t told him about meeting me? That I shouldn’t go with him?
“I’m running out of patience, little one.”
I got out of the car. What choice did I have?
The inside of the building was less ordinary than the outside, mostly because of the armed guard. He sat at the reception desk, wearing black tactical clothing, but had been looking at his phone like any bored office worker. He snapped to attention when Domenic entered.
“Any issues?” Domenic asked.
“None.” The man, a Beta with a faint coppery smell, studied me curiously. “Is she—”
“This is my daughter, Bridget,” Domenic said, then took me by the upper arm and pulled me away. I didn’t protest.
He led me down a spotlessly clean hallway, past four doors with inset windows. Exam rooms for pets that clearly weren’t coming here any longer. The whole place smelled of bleach.
Past the exam rooms, the hallway opened up into a lab area around a blind corner.
Glassware, two microscopes, and a centrifuge, along with what looked like a hematology and a urinalysis machine sat on the countertops.
A hulking old incubator sat in the corner.
The hallway continued, but another black clad man guarded the way. This one didn’t have a chair to sit on.
“What is this?” I asked, finally breaking my silence.
“I told you, I need your help. I’ve invested quite a bit of capital into this venture, and I need a solid return.” Domenic gestured for me to sit on the only stool.
Annoyance at his arrogance rushed through me. “If you want me looking at stem cells, I need a biosafety cabinet—”
“All the specialized equipment is on its way to a better location. But I thought you could get a head start. I have fresh samples for you to analyze.” He pointed to the incubator. “Don’t worry about sterility. There is plenty more where they came from.”
“How? Where are you getting the samples?” I asked.
“Don’t ask questions,” Domenic snapped. His patience was clearly wearing thin, and I knew when to pick my battles. I looked down at my lap again. “Can you test the new samples with what you have here?”
I glanced around, then nodded. It was a complete lie, but he didn’t need to know that.
“Good. I’ll be back in a couple of hours, then,” Domenic said, showing his ignorance again. What could I possibly get done in a couple of hours? Hopefully I wouldn’t be here when he returned, anyway. He tilted my chin up to look at him. “It is so lovely to see you, little one.”
I forced myself to be still, to meet his flat black eyes. That was enough for him to release me.
“Keep an eye on her,” Domenic told the man guarding the hallway before leaving the way we came.
In the absence of anything else to do, I pretended to work. The man behind me watched as I looked in the incubator and found several unlabeled samples inside. I fiddled with the old urinalysis machine. It switched on with a rattling hum.
“I need a few things,” I said after a moment. The man looked uncomfortable. He was a Beta, like the guy at the door, and I tried not to notice the gun on his hip.
“What things?”
“Fresh distilled water. A bag of ice. Ethanol for sterilization. Nitrile gloves.” I ticked them off on my fingers.
“I’m not supposed to leave you,” he replied.
“Do you really want to explain to my father that I was unable to do what he asked because you didn’t get me the supplies I need?” Anyone who worked for him would most likely be terrified of retribution. It’s how Domenic operated.
“Fine. Say them again,” he said, taking out his phone to type in the list I’d invented on the spot. “We’re watching the doors so don’t get any ideas,” he said before leaving, and I almost thought I saw a hint of pity in his eyes.
I listened carefully until I heard him grumble to the man at the reception desk about the boss’s daughter, and leave.
As soon as he was gone, I peered down the hallway. The linoleum here was dingier than in the front room, but still smelled like bleach. There were three doors off the right side, and a set of double doors with small windows at the end. I could see the back of a man’s head through those windows.
I took a deep breath. I had at least five minutes before my babysitter returned, right?
The first door opened onto a bathroom with a bare lightbulb and no hand soap. Disgusting but not damning.
The second door was locked, but it had a window that showed a darkened room.
A surgical suite. There were a few exam tables, one all the way in the corner of the room that I couldn’t see properly, a few IV stands whose dim lights were the only illumination in the room.
As I looked, I got the sense that something was wrong but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
Just as I was about to investigate the next room, it hit me. The tables were human-sized. In fact, all the equipment looked like it was for treating human patients.
My gut churned as I squinted at the far table. Was that a person-sized lump, covered by a sheet?
Don’t jump to conclusions. Domenic was evil, but I doubted he was keeping dead bodies in darkened rooms.
I tried the door again, but it was firmly locked. I would come back.
The final door was also locked, but this one was flimsier. Above that, a padlock had been installed. When I tugged it, the body pulled free from the loop. Someone hadn’t closed it properly. I slipped it from the latch and stowed it in my pocket.
I looked at the double doors. They were way too close for comfort. The man could turn around at any moment.
But I had to know.
My trusty hairpin slid into the lock easily. I crouched down, both to get better leverage and to be less visible if the guy on the door did turn around. My hands were sweating, which made everything more difficult, but after two of my precious minutes, I heard the lock click.
I stayed crouched as I tested the handle. It turned under my hand.
The room beyond was dark, and the smell of bleach was even stronger. I crept inside and shut the door behind me as softly as I could. As I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, I heard faint sounds around me. Breathing?
The darkness resolved into a nightmare.
Cages, kennels, were stacked on every side of the room.
And in each one, the cramped body of a woman.
The kennels were meant for large dogs, and I could see bare knees and feet poking from under thin blankets.
And under that bleach smell, a multitude of scents gone wrong and strange from fear.
Omega scents that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
My brain tried to tell me I was wrong, that this couldn’t be real. Things like this didn’t happen anymore. Omegas were safer now, weren’t they? Maggie was a cop; there couldn’t be a room full of women in cages.
Nausea gripped me. I forgot to be quiet and cautious in the frantic need to act.
The first kennel I reached, the woman inside stirred. She lifted her head like it was too heavy to hold up. Her eyes glittered in the darkness.
“Who are you?” she croaked.
“I’m going to help you.” My voice sounded strangled. The door of the kennel rattled under my hands. Locked, this time with a firmly closed padlock. That was beyond my skill with a hairpin.
The woman reached for my hand through the bars of the cage. Her fingers caught mine. I was going to be sick. I had to do something. Her scent reached me; orange blossoms and something fruity, but chalky with stress.
“My name is Amanda,” she whispered. I realized then that she was only a teenager. “Amanda Crane. There was another girl with me but they took her away. Have you seen her?”
“I don’t—”
“I think she’s dead,” Amanda whispered, her voice cracking. Her anguish broke my heart. “They’re going to kill all of us.”
“How long have you been here?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I lost track. You need to go before they come.”
Panic tore at my lungs. Other whispers came to me in the darkness, more women.
More Omegas. And suddenly, Domenic’s investment became very clear.
These were the Omegas providing the samples for the study.
And for some reason, their stem cells were no longer mutable.
Which meant his investment wasn’t as valuable as he thought.
“I’m going to get you out of here,” I promised with no idea of how I would accomplish that. But I would, I would escape and Gabriel could help free all of them.
The door opened and the light switched on overhead.
“What the fuck?”
It was the third man, the guard on the back door.
Another Beta, bigger than the others, and he didn’t need a bark to control me.
He just grabbed my wrist in a punishing grip and hauled me out the door.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, not even looking at me. “He’s gonna fucking kill me for this.”
“You don’t have to tell him. I promise I won’t say anything—”
“Shut the fuck up, I’m trying to think.” The look he gave me, of cold appraisal, made my stomach churn again.
I wouldn’t give him time to come up with a plan.
My feet slipped a bit as I tried to dart around him, to bolt for the unguarded door, and he caught me easily. When I slammed to the ground, I didn’t have a chance to try any of the self defense Gabriel taught me before his fist slammed into my face and the world went dark.