Chapter twenty-two
“Wayne arranged this whole thing to lure us away from the mansion,” Mike growled as Gage drove the SUV through the twists and turns of the industrial zone. “Roman wanted as many of us out of there as possible so he could go after Lark and Kal.”
The idea that his family could be in Roman’s clutches right now made him want to howl. Even now, his inner wolf paced worriedly, and he was close to jumping out of the SUV so he could shift into his wolf form and run the rest of the way to the mansion.
“I get the part about Roman luring us away. I just don’t get why,” Xander said from the backseat, where he sat with Khaki. “I mean, you’ve already told him you have no idea where the flash drive is. Why try to grab Lark and Kal? Unless he still thinks you’re lying.”
Mike held onto the grab handle above the door as Gage slid the vehicle around a turn at high speed.
He was glad his boss was driving. He was so worried about Lark and Kal that his adrenaline was pumping out of control right then.
He probably would have put them in a ditch by now.
It took all the restraint he had not to bombard Lark’s phone with text messages, demanding to know if she was okay.
But he couldn’t risk distracting her, not when she and Kal could be running for their lives.
“I don’t know,” Mike admitted, turning his attention to Xander’s question.
“But back at the factory, Chapman was emphatic I had the flash drive. He said I was the last one to have it the day the cops moved in on Roman’s operation, though I have no idea how he could possibly know that.
He said I simply need to remember where I put it. ”
“That’s kind of a weird thing to say,” Khaki muttered. “Like he knows you know where it is or something.”
Mike couldn’t disagree with that, but didn’t say anything. Silence filled the vehicle, except for the roar of the SUV’s engine as Gage raced along the road. They were still at least five minutes out, and all Mike could do was imagine how bad things could go in those five minutes.
“I agree with Khaki that it’s weird, but let’s go with it for a minute,” Xander said. “Do you remember exactly what you were doing the day the cops busted Roman?”
“Not really,” Mike said. “I mean, it was ten years ago. Besides, most of my headspace from that time is filled with the worst memories of my life, so I don’t tend to go there.”
“Hey, I get it,” Gage said gently, taking the interstate off-ramp at full speed.
Thank goodness for the flashing light bar on the top of the SUV to let people know to get out of their way.
“And normally, I wouldn’t ask you to put yourself through that kind of pain again, but Roman won’t stop coming after you and your family until we take this flash drive of his out of play.
Which means you need to force yourself to remember everything you can from that day. ”
Mike knew his friend was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to remember. Like he’d said, it had been years ago. Plus, every time he went there, his head immediately jumped to the image of his home blowing up, with Lark and Kal inside it.
They were both alive, though. And he’d do anything to keep them that way.
“I was running late that day when I went into Roman’s office to collect the week’s instructions,” Mike said, straining to piece together the events from the tattered remnants of his memories.
“Normally, there would have been a bubble mailer filled with flash drives sitting on Roman’s desk waiting for me.
Inside would be a list of the usual suspects who were supposed to get each flash drive. ”
“You said normally,” Khaki echoed from the back seat. “That’s not what happened that day?”
“No. That day was different,” Mike said slowly, replaying the details of that morning, knowing he had to get it right. “Roman wasn’t there and the flash drives were scattered all over his desk.”
“What did you do with them?” Xander prompted.
“I grabbed every flash drive there and stuffed them in the first envelope I could find, deciding I’d figure out who to deliver them to later. Then I left.”
“Where did you put the envelope?” Xander asked.
Mike opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again. Because he wasn’t quite sure. At least not at first.
“I put them in a canvas messenger bag and shoved it under the seat of my SUV, then headed out,” he finally said, piecing everything together in his mind.
“But before the first stop, Wayne called and told me that Roman was on the run and they were moving in before everyone else could escape. I did a U-turn and headed right into the chaos of a multi-department raid. I didn’t even think about the bag with the flash drives behind the back seat. ”
“But you turned the flash drives over as evidence, right?” Khaki asked.
Mike thought a moment, cursing silently as a startling reality smacked him in the face. “Crap, I don’t think I ever turned them in. I got so wrapped up in the raid, and then the hunt for Roman that I forgot.”
Xander muttered a curse. “You left an envelope with a flash drive full of data to access a billion-dollar crypto account under the seat of a department-issued undercover vehicle? That’s it then.
After ten years, there’s no telling where that vehicle ended up.
Not that it matters because someone would have found that bag years ago. ”
“Actually...” Mike winced, feeling pretty damn stupid at the moment. “I know exactly where the vehicle is. I liked driving it while I was undercover, so I ended up buying the thing from the department before it could go up for auction. It’s the same SUV I have now.”
Beside him, Gage cursed.
“I’m just going to say it out loud,” his boss said, his expression somewhere between stunned and exasperated. “You’re telling us that you’ve had the flash drive the entire time? For a decade.”
“Trust me, I feel dumb enough on my own without you pointing out how stupid I am,” Mike muttered.
Gage grunted. “We’re about a minute out from the mansion. I know you want to check on Lark and Kal, but you need to get to your truck and find that flash drive. The rest of us will hook up with Hale and make sure Lark, Kal, and the rest of her family are safe.”
Mike didn’t like that plan, but he knew Gage was right. He needed that flash drive, if for no other reason than to show it to Roman and get the man to focus on that instead of his family.
They were about half a mile from the house when they started picking up chatter from the radio they were using at the mansion.
Mike strained to hear Lark’s voice buried somewhere in the chaos, but it was impossible to discern anything over the shouts and gunfire, even for his werewolf ears.
Knowing it’d be worthless to add his voice to the cacophony already filling the airwaves, he reached for his phone, praying he didn’t cause a distraction at the worst possible time.
“I’m thirty seconds out,” he texted. “Where are you?”
Mike stared at his phone, waiting for Lark to reply. Then he waited some more. He was about to howl in frustration when those three little dancing bubbles finally appeared on the screen.
“In the woods,” she replied. “Near the gazebo. Hurry!”
Mike looked up to tell his pack mates what she’d said, only to see that they’d arrived at the mansion. The gate was closed, and armed men in tactical gear were guarding it.
“I’m ramming the gate. Hold on,” Gage said as he floored it. “The moment we’re inside, you go after that flash drive and your family. We’ll cover you.”
Before Mike could say anything one way or the other, bullets slammed into the front of their vehicle, shattering the windshield before the men shooting at them dived out of the way as the SUV smashed through the wrought-iron gate.
Mike immediately jumped out, as did his pack mates, all of them firing back at the group of Roman’s supernaturals charging toward them.
“Mike, go!” Gage shouted. “We got this!”
Lifting his M4 carbine, Mike burned through half a magazine before turning with a growl to race down the driveway. Rounds tore up the ground around him, but at the speed he was running, it was impossible for anyone to get a shot at him.
The sound of gunfire reached him from several locations around the property, including from the woods beyond the gazebo where Lark and Kal were hiding.
Mike ran faster, his inner wolf snarling.
* * * * *
Leaving Jasper and Everett behind tore at Lark’s soul, and she couldn’t shake the thought that it had been a mistake. But with Kal in danger, she had an overwhelming need of a mother to protect her child.
So, she and Kal had run.
Unfortunately, they barely made it a few hundred feet before they ran into two more big supernaturals with an alarming number of jagged teeth and snarls that made her think they were hungry for blood.
Heart in her throat, Lark shoved Kal behind her, then pointed her gun at the pair.
She had ten bullets; she had to make them count.
But the two supernaturals were coming at them so fast it was hard to get a shot lined up, and she ended up letting them get way too close before finally pulling the trigger.
She might have been more surprised than they were when she put two bullets into the first guy, and he tumbled to the ground. The other guy slowed long enough for her to put two bullets in him, stopping him, too. At least temporarily.
That was good enough for Lark. Grabbing Kal’s hand, she took off running again.
“Do you think any other bad guys saw us come this way?” Kal whispered as he crouched behind a fallen tree beside her a few minutes later.
She put an arm around his trembling shoulders as they did everything possible to make themselves invisible in the tangle of dying branches and piles of rotting pine needles.
Kal was terrified.
Honestly, so was she.
“I think we’re okay,” she said softly, lifting her head to peek over the top of the tree trunk.