11. Vivianna
VIVIANNA
Deadwood was a tourist town if I’d ever seen one, full of museums, parks, and other types of places to stop and shop for knickknacks to bring home to remember your trip.
The buildings had an interesting old-world feel, but we were headed for the outer edge of the town, where it turned a little more typical to where the locals might shop instead of the historic downtown area.
When we passed by the lab, we noticed it was in an executive park with other medical services in the adjoining buildings, which gave us the cover we needed to not be noticed by others driving by.
There was a twenty-four-hour urgent care that we parked near so that the SUV wouldn’t be noticed as we cased the area.
I don’t know how people were supposed to feel when they were about to infiltrate a lab run by one of their arch nemeses, but I had a cold calm about me.
My mind was laser focused on what needed to happen as I opened the door for Koit in his wolf form.
Being the only one of us that was pure black and a skilled tracker, we thought it was best for him to take a look first.
“Be safe,” I whispered through our personal connection.
“Babe, this is going to be a cakewalk. All I have to do is sniff around at a few things, maybe pee on something that looks important, and report back,” Koit sent back as he sneezed in my direction, shaking out his fur.
Orion wrapped an arm around me, pulling me to his chest, now having settled down on the drive over, allowing him to be a little more in control of things.
Silently, we all watched as Koit trotted off into the shadows, catching a small glimpse of him in the parking lot lights as he raced toward the building.
Darius and Tav didn’t feel the same need to be still as they waited and headed to the back of the car to hand out flashlights and other supplies packed in duffels.
“The place is quiet, but there is someone in the building from what I can tell, and a single car sitting out back. My guess is a guard, but I can’t tell if he’s the only one. There are too many scents to tell in detail,” Koit shared.
I reached out to him through our mate bond, and he welcomed me, allowing me to see what he was looking at.
I let out a sigh of relief as I saw it looked exactly like it had in the images Maria sent me.
Tim didn’t have a reason to lie to us at this point, but if any of this had taught me anything, it’s not to trust anyone outside your people.
“What do you think is the best way in? The back or the front doors? Also, any extra cameras than the ones we know about, watching both doors?” Darius asked.
“Nope, those are the only ones, unless they’ve hidden them really well. As for the other question, that depends… can you hack a keypad entry without setting the alarm off?” Koit questioned, showing me what he was talking about.
Unable to hold that deep of a connection with more than one person, I took the images from Koit and pulled back to show Darius.
“Head on back. That won’t be a problem to deal with. Thankfully, Chad is always two steps ahead in thinking of what I might need.”
“Be back in a flash. Sadly, I didn’t find anything to pee on. Maybe when we get inside, I’ll have better luck.” Koit sighed as he cut off communication with us.
You ready for this?
No way to know at this point. It’s what has to be done.
What if she’s there?
What kind of question is that? We will take her with us, where she belongs. There is no other option.
Okay, but what if she isn’t… whole?
I let out a snarl at the idea of them doing anything to my child.
What kind of questions are these? Are you trying to piss me off more than I already am?
I don’t give two shits what state she is in.
That is my flesh and blood, and it will be coming back with us.
If we have to cremate her tonight in order to make that happen, I will do it.
Wonderful, just needed to make sure your head was in the game. Couldn’t have you getting soft on me right now, walking into the room with who knows what going on.
That was one sick and twisted way to do it, you know.
So are they. You’re not at the point yet where you can look at the world for the true evil that’s in it. Which is fine, because that is what you have me for, balance and all that jazz.
Before I could come up with a snarky retort to her view of me, Koit arrived and leaped right into the SUV to shift back. Moments later, he climbed back out, tugging on his black shirt and bending over to tie his boots, shooting me a wink. “Told you it was cake.”
“I started the video loop. We have thirty minutes before it goes back to live feed,” Darius informed us.
Grabbing a duffel, I then pulled up my hood. “Let’s get this over with. It’s still early evening so who knows if there is going to be a change of guards or something else we didn’t have time to plan for.”
“You know, I love it when you get all bossy,” Koit teased, yanking on his hoodie. “Look, it even gets Darius all hot and bothered.”
Before Darius could react, Rik stepped in, grabbing Koit by the back of the neck and giving him a look only an older brother could. “Get your head in the game or I’ll leave you in the car like the pup you’re acting like.”
Koit bared his teeth at Rik, pulling out of his hold. “Just trying to lighten the tension.”
“We’re going into battle, now is not the time for that. Being alert and focused will keep us all alive,” Rik countered.
“Not all of us handle our stress and tension the same way, brother. Some of us make jokes when we feel overwhelmed. Our other daughter could be in the building and who knows what the hell they’ve done to her.”
See, this is why we had our little talk. You might want to fill them in on your feelings on this matter.
Just when it looked like the two of them were going to get into a fight, I stepped between them, holding out my hands to stop them. “Enough. It doesn’t matter what we find in there. Violet is coming home with us, end of story. Do I make myself clear?”
All my men looked at me, their wolves close to the surface, eyes glinting in the moonlight.
Some had seen war, but many of my mates had lived a life knowing only peace, and this was their first taste of war, myself included.
The only difference for me was that I had a rage, that no one but another mother could understand, fueling my drive to see this through to the bitter end.
When I felt confident we were all on the same page, I tugged my hood down as far as I could, ducking my head and I took off toward the lab.
Thanks to our wolf nature, we could move far more swiftly and silently, avoiding light wherever we could in case other buildings had security.
Arriving at the back door, Darius took out some tech he needed to scramble the door code, and moments later, the door clicked open.
Tav entered first, flashlight in hand just in case our night vision wasn’t enough for us to move through the place.
Low ambient lighting was giving the place a soft glow for us to navigate.
We split off, sending Darius, Tristan, and Rik to deal with security while the rest of us checked out the labs.
The glass walls made it easy to ensure that no one was in them as I slipped into one, heading for the desk to see what it was they did on the surface.
Judging by the equipment and the vials in the fridges, it seemed it was blood testing for clinics.
Nothing in this space gave a hint to what happened behind those locked doors, giving me hope that they weren’t involved.
I set my bundle of C4 and double-checked that the signal was active before I left the room to see how the others were doing.
Orion, Bentley, Koit, and Tav were already waiting by the double doors to the back when I got to the hallway. Seems they didn’t have the need to snoop around like I did.
“You find anything interesting?” I asked Bentley.
“No, just your standard yearly physical tests. They must have a deal with the clinics in this complex,” he answered.
As we stood there waiting, I couldn’t help but worry if things were going as planned. “How long do you think it should take them to kill the guards and open the door?”
“That depends on how big of a fight they put up, or if Darius runs into complications with the hacking part of things,” Tav replied with a shrug.
“Taking longer doesn’t mean things are going wrong.
This whole mission was planned the best that we could with the information we had.
There are bound to be a few unforeseen things that come up. ”
I narrowed my gaze at him as I saw another glimpse of a change in him.
The guys joked that they fell apart when I was gone, but they didn’t go into detail about what that looked like.
Something told me Tav and I would need to talk about it at some point, but clearly now wasn’t the time.
If he felt my scrutiny, he didn’t show it, maintaining his relaxed appearance that resembled the man I thought he was, but something darker lurked under the surface.
A buzzing noise coming from the doors almost made me leap out of my skin in shock.
Bentley grabbed the handle of one of the doors and pulled it open all the way, pushing himself up flush with the wall in the hallway.
Orion and Koit stepped up to enter first and when I went to follow, Tav grabbed my arm and shook his head, signaling for me to wait.
“All clear,” Koit called out.
Putting me behind him, Tav led the way with Bentley right on my heels, letting the door shut, trapping us in pitch black.
Part of me wanted to panic but I shook it off, knowing my men would never allow me to be here if they didn’t feel it was safe.
Flashlights clicked on, giving us plenty of light to see by with our enhanced vision, but after seeing what was in the room, I begged for the darkness to return.
Even being prepared with what this room held, to see it right in front of you was a whole other situation.
What little of my heart that was still intact broke, seeing all these children who hadn’t made it.
A hand reached out and intertwined with mine, causing me to glance over and see Bentley with a stricken look on his face.
“How could anyone condone working in this type of environment?” he whispered as light from the other flashlights wandered around the space.
“Has anyone found a light switch?” Koit asked from across the room. “I mean, I know we don’t want to see all this, but we don’t have a lot of time.”
Just then, the fluorescent light flickered on, casting the room in its cold static light, furthering the impersonal feel of the space.
Counters were full of vials, petri dishes, paperwork, and other equipment needed to do whatever the hell they were doing.
Pulling a blanket of medical indifference over me, I went to the first workstation to look over the paperwork set out in hopes it would tell us something helpful.
As we assumed, they were working on genetic testing of some sort, but this was only one part of the whole equation, blending real DNA with synthetic material to make up what was missing.
I spotted a door along the far end of the wall that reminded me of a walk-in freezer type that locked to keep the cold in.
Slowly, I made my way over to it, forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other, dread seeping into my skin as if the chill of the freeze was trying to steal part of my soul.
Reaching out to grasp the handle, my hand shaking like a leaf, I battled with myself as my fingers wrapped around the metal.
Just when I didn’t think I had the strength to do this, another hand settled over mine.
His warmth covered my back, letting me know he was right there with me.
I didn’t have to look to know it was Orion.
If my gut was right, our daughter would be in here, state unknown, but we were going to do it together.
Pulling the lever, the door opened with a hiss, the rush of cold air hitting us even though there was a thick plastic curtain covering the entrance.
Orion wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and we passed through the curtain as the fridge light flickered on, sensing our movement.
Along the room were metal shelves containing body bags with paper tags attached to the outside, so you knew what was inside them.
The only one that was different was a small metal casket dead center on a rolling cart.
Nestling myself tighter against Orion, we approached the casket that had Violet’s name written on the top of it with a warning label to handle with care.
Tears burned in my eyes, but I refused to break down while in enemy territory.
I took a shaky breath and reached for one of the latches while Orion was already working on the other side.
Once the lid was free, we both took an end lifting it up and off so we could see inside.
There, curled up on white silk, was our baby girl, wholly intact, still in her wolf form, and as perfect as the last time I’d held her.