Thirty Two
“ A nd you’re fucking sure it’s here?” I asked Romey who looked worse for wear than when we’d found him at the airport waiting for a flight out of the country with his little girlfriend.
The kid had two black eyes and a split lip thanks to yours truly, but the bruising on his arms and torso were all thanks to Vladimir-fucking-Volkov and his men.
In the four hours since we’d come home to find Perrie missing, I’d been running nonstop. It had taken almost thirty minutes to talk Edison down off of the ledge of bombing Volkov until all that was left was a black smudge and another two hours to put together what had actually happened.
Never before had I been so happy that I was a paranoid motherfucker because I’d put thirty-two new cameras up around and outside of the mansion after Pack Ricci managed to get in on Edison’s wedding day.
Thirty-two cameras that no one knew about but me.
The rest had been tampered with by the person who I now knew was our mole. Rory Flannagan hadn’t burnt to a crisp with his father. In fact, neither of them had burnt to a crisp because search and rescue had called us two hours ago to inform us that no human remains had been recovered from the wreckage.
The cameras didn’t have audio, but Rory’s face had been plain to see and so had that of Perrie’s little brother.
It had been easy to find the little weasel after that.
“This is where they took us when they let me have Kailey back,” Romey insisted, his expression twisting with pain as I gripped the back of his neck. “Volkov told me that nothing would happen to Perrie. That he just needed her to negotiate.”
Edison, who had been silent the entire car ride over, snorted. “Negotiate my ass. Do you even know what they did to their last hostages decades ago?”
“N-no?” Romey stuttered as he flinched back into me at the sheer rage in Edison’s face.
“They cracked her like a fucking egg. They are going to torture and experiment on your sister until everything that makes her her is gone and it will be all your fault.”
“I didn’t mean… they had Kailey,” Romey finally muttered pathetically. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Anything but sell your sister down the fucking river,” I spat. The kid didn’t even know that Volkov had his men waiting on the other side of that damn plane ride ready to make him and his little girlfriend disappear permanently.
It was a wonder he was related to Perrie or his father at all seeing as he had the intelligence of a damned ostrich.
And Ethan Chandler wanted this idiot to be the next president. Unbe-fucking-lievable.
The car pulled to a stop in front of the old, worn down house that served as a shell for Volkov’s prison. The place where he took all of his product and beat the human out of them until they were soft and compliant enough to do his business.
I’d only ever heard stories about it and most people were convinced it was a myth. But now as I stood staring up at it, a chill ran down my spine.
My girl—my omega—was in there being exposed to who knew what the fuck what and it was all our fault.
“Edison,” a familiar voice came out of the darkness and I turned to find Pack Ricci stepping out of the woods.
Our phone call to them earlier had been enlightening seeing as they were also missing someone important.
Luscinia Amante had been missing for days, though, and Alessandro Amante acted as if he had no clue where she’d gone and hid her disappearance from Pack Ricci for nearly as long.
“Are you ready for this? It’s just going to be the ten of us, you know,” Edison asked as he popped the trunk of the car and yanked his jacket off, pulling out one of the bullet-proof vests from within.
Not including Romey Chandler, we’d brought three of our men to back us up once we were inside.
“I don’t know how the fuck you think this is supposed to work, Keane. Ranieri’s heat mapping of what he could see was showing at least thirty warm bodies just walking around inside of the house. That’s not to mention whatever the fuck Volkov has going down in the tunnels underneath it.”
“We’re not going to need to worry about that overly much.” Edison’s chuckle was dark as he checked his pistol over. “Seeing as we’re going to have some very pissed off company of the federal kind joining us in about thirty minutes.”
Elio gaped at my packmate, his mouth open. “You snitched to the fucking FBI?”
When we’d been trying to figure out a game plan earlier we kept running into a wall. We didn’t want to lose any of our men if we could help it—especially if we were going to try and go head-to-head with the older generation of the Keane family soon—and both Saito and Cheng were reluctant to loan us any of their people to save one woman.
So, Edison decided on the nuclear option.
“Do the Chinese and Japanese know about this?” Elio asked as he helped Nicolo get into one of the vests. “Or are you just going to let the entire empire the five families have built burn to the fucking ground?”
I was all for that option at this point. Our lifestyle had brought nothing but death and destruction, quite a bit of it at my own hands, for as long as I could remember. It had also put Perrie in her current predicament in the first place.
But no that wasn’t Edison’s intention.
“Both Cheng and Saito are currently cutting and destroying any ties they have with the Volkov crime family and any of its affiliations. My people are doing the same,” Edison explained, slamming the trunk shut and nodding to me that it was time.
“Well what about our fucking family? You weren’t going to warn us?” Elio snapped, clearly pissed.
Edison slanted a glance in his direction, his face expressionless. “Consider this my warning, pup. Sounds like you should hurry to get your girl back so you can go back and close off those loose ends before the FBI follow the threads back to you, huh?”
With that, Edison strode away flanked by our men. His silent command was obvious: follow .
I turned and pointed a finger at Romey. “You stay in the fucking car. If you decide to make a run for it just know that I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. I’d also suggest you start trying to figure out a good apology for when we bring your sister back. You’re gonna need it.”
Then I hurried after Edison, the sounds of Pack Ricci’s footsteps following close behind.
The inside of the house was just as dilapidated as the outside. Upon stepping through the front door there were three men watching football on an old TV and they barely had a moment to register what was happening before our men took them out with silenced pistols.
Luckily for us, the element of surprise was on our side because every room we stepped into was an easy clear.
They must not have thought we’d ever even figure out where this damn place was, so they didn’t put any of their best men on it.
No. The good men were probably gearing up for the war that they’d orchestrated behind our backs for months.
Volkov’s goal was clear. The last war had seen the Serbian’s wiped completely off of the map and everyone gained power. This time I think he was hoping the rest of us would blow each other up so that he could stand on our pile of ashes like he was King of the fucking Hill.
Boy were they in for a surprise tonight when the FBI systematically raided all of their little hidey holes.
“Is that an elevator?” I heard Elio whisper as we came up to a pair of closed metal doors.
“Yep,” I growled as I dug through the pockets of one of the guys we’d just taken out, finding an ID badge with a picture of his fat face glaring up at me. Tapping it to the scanner above the elevator button I jammed a finger on the button and we waited.
“How big do you think this place is?” I heard one of my men ask.
“Scans were showing a pretty intricate tunnel system,” Elio answered with a shake of his head. “The whole thing is a damn concrete maze.”
Edison lifted one of the walkie talkies he was carrying. “We’re going to split up and try and find where they’re keeping the girls. You find them first and you call it in, understood?”
There was a chorus of nods just as a red light began to flash in the elevator.
“Is that them warning the people below about us or the FBI?” I asked, staring up at what looked to be a camera in the corner of the elevator. Reaching up, I shattered the dome with the butt of the rifle I was carrying before turning back to the group.
Edison glanced down at his watch with a frown. “Hard to say. My contact in the bureau’s last communication said they were thirty out, but who’s to say he’s not also trying to catch me up in the process of all of this shit. I wouldn’t put it past him.”
I frowned at that. I hadn’t even known Edison had a contact with the FBI in the first place until he’d made the call to someone named Vance earlier today.
He was getting sloppy in his quest to get our omega back, risking getting both of us thrown into prison if we were arrested tonight. That was something we would need to discuss later, but for now we just needed to get to Perrie and get her the fuck out of this hellhole.
“All right boys,” I said, as the elevator began to slow. “Press yourselves into the sides, I have a feeling we’re about to have a welcoming party waiting for us.”
The sound of sirens filled my ears as we jogged down the hallway, ducking behind a corner to check if another group of Volkov’s men was waiting to ambush us.
Twenty minutes had passed since we split up with our men and Pack Ricci, sending them off into the bowels of this never ending beast to try and figure out where Perie and Luscinia were being kept.
“This place is a maze,” I managed around a gasp as I tried to catch my breath, accepting a swig from the water bottle that Edison had clipped onto his vest.
“We’ve looked through most of it,” Edison said, pulling out the poorly sketched paper map we’d forced one of the men to scribble out before ending him.
“The FBI has to be here by now,” I told him. “Maybe we should start making our way back. There’s no telling if she’s even here, Edi.”
“No,” Edison snapped, glaring at me. “She’s here. I can feel her through the bond. I just can’t figure out where she is.”
I didn’t have the same reassurance as he did and I regretted not biting her last night when my teeth had ached so damned badly for me to do so. But I’d kept from doing it out of some romantic notion of bonding with her when she was finally in heat.
I’d never felt more fucking stupid.
The walkie on my vest suddenly crackled to life. “We found them. They were in a room in the center of this place in the green hallway. We’re taking Luscinia out.”
“What?” I said into the receiver. “What about Perrie? Take her out too!”
“Can’t…” the walkie crackled as they started to go out of range from us. “Can’t get… close… heat… FBI here…”
Edison was already up on his feet and pulling me to mine. “I know where that hallway is, let’s go.”
We backtracked, avoiding the flashlights of the FBI who were going room from room in full body armor.
“Hey! Don’t point your fucking guns like that, you’re scaring her,” a voice barked at the end of the hallway we were currently in and I dragged Edison around the corner before the group of FBI agents could see us.
“Sir, she attacked Robinson,” one of the men said almost sheepishly.
“Nearly took my damned eye out, Vance,” the man—presumably Robinson—grumbled.
“I don’t care. She’s obviously not one of Volkov’s people, look at her. You’re skin and bones aren’t you, sweetheart?”
A feminine growl echoed over the sound of sirens.
“Sir… I really think you should get the tranq…” Robinson sounded scared, almost as if he was backing away from whatever they were surrounding.
Then a feral scream filled my ears as the sound of men shouting provided the perfect cover for Edison and me to slip by.
I changed a glance behind us just in time to see a half-naked woman jump at the FBI agent who was holding hands out to her like he was trying to soothe a wounded animal. Dark hair flew as she scratched at his face and the other men tried to pry her off.
“What the fuck are they doing to people down here?” I whispered to Edison as the green hallway finally came into view.
A large metal door was hanging open and even as far as we were, I could smell the scent of strawberries hanging in the air. Perrie was definitely here and she was definitely in heat.
Edison was already steps ahead of me, striding through the door into what looked like an operating room.
“Edison?” I heard Perrie’s voice before I saw her and everything in me froze as we found her strapped on top of a shiny metal table like someone was about to dissect her.
In the corner was a skinny man with three bullet holes in his chest—probably courtesy of Pack Ricci—and two other empty tables, one overturned.
“Perrie,” her name left Edison in a relieved rush as he hurried over to her and began to tug at the black ties binding her wrists while I did the same for the ones on her ankles.
“Everything hurts,” Perrie’s words were a stuttering sob as she let Edison pull her up into his arms. A rush of strawberry filled my nose and I nearly lost myself in it, my inner alpha riding me hard to knot her. To mate her. But her next words threw a proverbial bucket of ice water over that. “He stuck something in me and started my heat.”
“Shh, darling,” Edison said, clearly having the same trouble I was as he gritted his teeth, the gold of his irises disappearing almost completely as he inhaled her scent. “We’re going to get you home and take good care of you.”
Perrie slumped into him with relief, her nose pressing into the side of his neck.
“We’re going to need another car,” I muttered to him as we hurried out of the room. “There’s no way we can take her in one with our guys and Romey.”
“I have no problem making their asses walk,” Edison growled as we turned the corner.
“Freeze!” a voice barked, stopping us in our tracks.
In front of us was the same FBI agent from earlier, alone now, and with fresh scratch marks on his face.
“Vance…” Edison trailed off as I took my hands off of my rifle in case the guy was trigger happy.
“Keane. I thought I told you I would handle it.” The gun stayed pointed at us.
Edison glanced from the man down to Perrie’s closed eyes. “Sorry, but I couldn’t let you do all the hard work. Let me go just this once and I swear we can play a game of Tom and Jerry later on.”
Vance’s eyes narrowed on Perrie’s flushed face and for just a brief moment I was sure he was going to try and arrest us. But instead he sighed and holstered his weapon. “Fine. But you owe me.”
“Isn’t giving you Volkov not enough of a payment?” Edison asked, his dark brows lifting with surprise.
“No.”
“Fine. Later though, for now I need to get my omega home before I have a bunch of asshole alphas breathing down my neck trying to get to her heat. How are you so calm, by the way? I’m about to lose my fucking marbles and I’m used to how she smells.”
I hadn’t even realized the other man was an alpha. In fact, I couldn’t quite smell anything on him as we slowly skirted past him.
“Military grade scent suppressants,” Vance answered gruffly. “I can’t smell anything and neither can my guys.”
“My…” Edison began to slowly back away in the direction of the elevator. “The government is, as always, full of surprises. Now, if you’ll excuse us?”
Edison turned on his heel and hurried away from the agent and I followed closely behind. “Where did you meet that guy, anyway, Edi?”
Before Perrie I was always with him, so I wasn’t sure how the hell their paths would have crossed.
“It’s a very long story and one that I’m more than willing to tell you… once we get the fuck out of this hellhole. Besides, we’ve got an omega who is about to have a heat that I’m not sure you or I will be able to handle, so we definitely have bigger fish to fry right now.”