33. Vivianna
VIVIANNA
“That is quite the journey you’ve been on, Dama,” Tim said blinking at me in amazement. “You had no idea what you were until this past year? Then to have your child taken from you in the hopes to produce more viable females is just beyond cruel.”
“So, you see why I need your help,” I raised a hand to stop his protests. “I’m not asking you to join the fight or to pick a side, all I ask is that you help me get my daughter back. What if Jason came and took Bradly?”
“Dama, you don’t need to pull at my heartstrings, I feel for you, but what can you offer to me and my family? If I help you, they will know that I’m still alive and helping you, there has never been another that has made it out of that place alive,” Tim countered.
I looked at Darius, hoping he would have some idea.
“Sir, I am the best there is at security, specializing in protecting werewolves from each other. If you will allow me, I will set up the best security I have, help you with fake passports, make sure you have an exit plan if you need to use it. There isn’t much I can do if you refuse to leave this place, but if you are willing to do whatever it takes to keep your family together, I can make that happen. ”
Tim leaned back in his chair, studying us as he tapped his fingers atop his desk. “Alright, I will tell you everything I can once I have everything I need to make an exit out of this place and keep our family under the radar.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Tristan placed a hand on my arm.
“Sir, I respect and understand your need to make sure your family is provided for before you give us the information. You don’t know us, and we don’t know you, but in a show of good faith will you at least tell us what section of the Bighorn National Forest the bunker is?
It doesn’t need to be an exact location, just something we can use to verify you have what we seek. ”
“You’re right, it’s only fair that I offer up something as a down payment if you will,” Tim sighed and rose from his desk pulling an atlas off his bookshelf and laying it out before us.
“Here is a known hiking point called cloud peak, from this vantage point you can see two lakes that feed into each other. These lakes drain off into rivers and feed the valley down below, the terrain is treacherous, keeping people from venturing off trail for the most part. If you follow the rivers they meet at a point where they intersect from the Mt. Woolsey summit. The base is in between these two points, using the river to power their generators deeper in the mountain. If you look for the energy signal, you’ll know that I’m telling the truth. ”
Darius and Tristan rose to their feet and nodded to Tim as they waited for me to follow their lead. Keeping me in between them we headed out into the shop, but Darius stopped and turned to Tim before he walked out.
“If your information is correct, I will have everything you need within forty-eight hours, but we will need more information by then. To honor holding our end of the bargain we will have wolves watching your shop around the clock as we pursue this. If we find out that you have betrayed us and put our mate in harm’s way, I will give the order to slaughter your whole family— do I make myself clear? ”
I wanted to argue, but Tristan took my hand and gave it a tight squeeze pulling my attention away from Tim’s response.
“We lost you once beloved, it will not happen again no matter the extent we have to go to. There is nothing you could say or do to change our minds on this matter, you’ll just have to let us take care of you, whether you like it or not. ”
Damn it, there’s no way we could stay mad at that. Why is it so sexy when he gets all bossy?
I still don’t like the idea that they are threatening this man when we desperately need his help.
Are you kidding? That man would do the same for his family in a heartbeat. Who knows, he could have already killed to keep things quiet. Desperate people do desperate things— you know, like torturing a man to find out where her daughter is...
Fine, point taken.
“I look forward to working with you and I’ll be waiting for your call about those options I laid out,” Tim smiled and shook Darius’s hand as we entered the main area of the shop.
“Of course, we will send payment once we confirm those last few details,” Darius answered before wrapping his arm around my shoulders and leading me out.
The others followed in silence as we walked back to the car and piled in.
“So how did it go? Did he give us anything useful?” Tav asked, once we were back on the road.
Twisting in my seat up front I met Tav’s gaze. “We got a starting point and the promise of more information if we can help set up an evacuation plan for him and his family.”
Tav glared at Tristan. “How good of a lead is this to promise something so valuable?”
“If what he said is accurate, it will give us the approximate location of the base. They run their generators off water power and he gave us the area to look for an energy spike. Natural energy like that is hard to spot if you aren’t looking for it, so I’m not surprised that no one else has come across it.
That and Grayson Industries hold massive sway over the military, so they probably leave the area alone,” Tristan explained.
“Who did you have planned to run security for his family?”
“I’m going to reach out to Chaz and find out if we have any men in the area or close enough to get here.
I trust they will be discreet, and if it comes to ending the matter they will without question.
I thought about seeing if Luis had people he didn’t want to take to war but they won’t answer to my orders,” Darius stated, his voice cold in his resolve.
“Is now the right time to let anyone know that we’re alive?” Bentley interjected.
Darius looked back at him through the rearview mirror. “Chaz knew the plan all along, he has been reporting back to me about things on Kursar since we left.”
Bentley just gaped at him, stunned.
“Boy you ain’t seen nothing yet,” Koit teased, bumping him with his shoulder. “The man is a complete and utter control freak, no matter how he acts with Viv.”
“Now we just need the rebellion to pull their act together,” Orion muttered.
He had been strangely silent since the outburst at the table.
“What’s wrong?” I asked him.
“Why would you think something is wrong, dearest?”
“Don’t lie to me Orion, I can tell that something isn’t sitting right with you. Is it Christian? You said he was an old friend...”
“No that’s not it, he’s still the same man I once knew, and I trust him to help us.
It’s Luis that I’m not sure about— how could he not know what Neveah was doing?
I get she is strong willed and might not have communicated with him, but for him to have no clue whatsoever that she was acting behind his back doesn’t seem right. ”
“Alright, what do your instincts tell you?”
“You trust me just like that off a gut feeling?”
“Why wouldn’t I? You’ve never given me reason to doubt you.”
“Dearest, did I ever tell you what an amazing woman you are?”
I chuckled at this glancing at him in the rearview mirror. “Not so far today...”
“No? Not even when I had you pressed up against the wall of the shower?”
A purr rumbled in my chest as I remembered earlier that morning. “Don’t tease when we don’t have time to act on things.”
“Who says we don’t?”
“Orion stop stalling, we’re almost back to the house— tell me what you’re thinking.”
“Luis is working with Jason. He’s giving away enough information to keep the rebellion small and non-threatening. My guess is that if we tell him Tim talked to us that he’ll have him killed, but to do so without cause would have alerted the others to a mole.”
“Holy shit.” I shouted.
This caused Darius to slam on the brakes, pulling us off the road and ready to attack. “What? Did you see something? Are we being followed?”
“What? No, nothing like that. Sorry, I was talking to Orion and he pointed something out that we all missed,” I answered, grabbing Darius’s arm to keep him from jumping out of the van.
He snapped his head to me and growled. “Woman. I could have caused an accident or hurt someone with a move like that.”
There he is. Aw I missed angry Darius... he’s just so sexy when he gets all riled up.
Not now, didn’t you hear what we just talked about?
Yes... it sounds like you’ve got it all handled so why should I worry about it? I have sexy mates to drool over— plus I’m still on vacation.
“Viv.” Darius snapped, bring me back to the matter at hand.
“Don’t you yell at me, I didn’t cause you to react that way.” I defended. “Ask Orion to explain it, he’s the one who figured it out.”
All the guys turned to look at him in the very back of the van.
In true Orion fashion he flashed them all a cheeky smile and gave a little wave. “Goodness, seems I have the stage now, don’t I.”
“Spit it out already demi-god,” Darius bristled.
“I was simply pointing out to my dearest that it didn’t make sense for Luis not to have the faintest clue what Neveah, his own daughter, was doing.
Then it led me to believe that he did and wanted her to continue on as she was so Jason’s men could keep track of how big the rebellion was getting.
Doesn’t it seem odd that they were attacked two days before they were going to raid the facility that Viv was holed up in?
I think if Maria hadn’t been able to talk to Viv, this wouldn’t have gone down the way it did.
He would have managed to get Viv back to Jason... ”
“You know this means Jason knows everything right?.” Tav growled. “If Luis is really feeding him information, then he knows where Viv is and that we’re all alive.”
“That I’m not so sure about... yes, I think he knows about Viv. Us, on the other hand, might still be a secret because there is no way they would let her reconnect with all of us cutting off their chances of switching the mate bond.” Orion countered.
“If that’s the case, then we need to be ready for a fight to come to us,” Tristan said, his face drawn and determined.
“We need to get Christian alone and talk to him, we’ll need his help.
The fact that Tim is willing to help us also needs to stay between us for now.
Lie and say he refused, that won’t be hard for them to believe. ”
“So, what’s the plan for Luis?” I asked.
“I think it’s time for Tristan to test out those stronger truth telling skills, or we could introduce him to Okami?” Orion offered with a sly smirk.
Tav grinned and settled back in his seat. “Only if you let me play too.”
That response surprised me, knowing that Tav typically chose the way of reason over violence.
“Deal, now I’ll grab Christian and get him out of the house while Tav and Tristan grab Luis. Dearest, do you think you can handle Maria and Neveah?” Orion asked. “They are the wild cards in this situation. The rest of the pack will fall in line if they go along with what we do.”
I thought for a moment, as Darius pulled us back onto the road. “Maria I know will at least listen to me, but with the loss that Neveah has already gone through she might be harder to convince, but I’ll try.”
“That’s all any of us can ask, babe,” Koit added, giving me a reassuring smile.
“Man, is this what it’s like to be at war, never trusting anyone?” Bentley asked .
Tristan let out a heavy sigh. “Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast. When people want power, they will do anything to get it.
Casting all loyalties aside. This is why it’s so important that we never doubt each other, we need to know that the eight of us will always be looking out for one another. ”
“So does this mean we’ve picked a side and joined the rebellion?” Rik demanded crossing his arms.
“No,” I stated meeting his gaze. “Our objective has always been to rid the world of Vadik and find a safe place to live our lives. This changes nothing, except that we now have the army we were looking for.”