16. Chapter 16

Chapter sixteen

“ W hy would someone blow up a diagnostics lab?” Janet’s question seemed more directed at herself than anyone else. “We do blood work, toxicology, DNA. Nothing earth shattering. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It would be pretty earth shattering if any of that blood fell into the wrong hands.” I glanced at Janet through the rearview mirror.

“You’re not suggesting that’s the reason?” Janet gripped the seatbelt strapped across her chest.

“Shit.” I steered the Jeep onto the shoulder and stomped on the brakes, ignoring the protests from my passengers. “What if they stayed behind to collect samples?”

“If it was samples they were after, they had plenty of time to get them before we got there.” Lucas shifted in his seat until he faced Janet. “You said there was someone else in the lab before us. What do you remember?”

“Not much.” Janet touched the fading bruise on her forehead.

“Think back. Before the explosion.” Gabe guided her through the traumatizing memories of the explosion to any useful information she may gleaned before it happened. “What were you doing?”

“I was … I was evaluating a sample by agarose gel electrophoresis.” Janet spoke lab lingo as if we understood what any of it meant.

“I’m going to need you to dumb that down for me, Janet.” I craned my neck around the headrest.

“I was evaluating DNA.” She picked a chunk of drywall out of her hair.

“Wasn’t that easier to say?” I asked, silently chastising myself for not paying more attention in science.

“No.” A cloud of dirt formed around her as she shook her head. “Are you going to clue me into what is happening or not?”

“So, you’re at the PCR running a sample. What happens after that?” Gabe steers Janet back to the task at hand—remembering what she saw before the explosion.

“You know what a PCR is?” Janet asked, not bothering to hide her surprise.

“I don’t know what it stands for, but I know what it does.” Gabe’s casual shrug matched his easy smile. “I was a homicide detective, once upon a time.”

Gabe’s demeanor and conversation had the desired effect of putting Janet at ease, opening her up to more questions and we hoped, better recall.

“I don’t remember much. Or at least not anything useful.” Janet picked at the frayed hem of her shirt. “He wore a mask.”

“That’s okay, Janet. You’re doing great.” Gabe reassured her. “He wore a mask. How do you know it was a man? Did he say something to you?”

“He told everyone to lay face down on the floor and count to one hundred.” Tears washed away the grime and soot as they tracked down her cheeks.

“One hundred?” My face scrunched up when I did the math. “Not even two minutes. That’s not a lot of time.”

“Because he didn’t need it.” Lucas didn’t elaborate on why the killer didn’t need more time, but I figured out the rest on my own.

“He wanted everyone inside.” I slammed my fist against the steering wheel. “We were so close. If we had gotten there a few minutes earlier, we—"

“We’d be dead too.” Lucas rested his hand on mine, putting an end to my assault on the steering wheel.

“There’s something else.” Janet’s ruddy complexion turned ashen. “I can’t believe it didn’t register before.”

“You were inside of a building that blew up. I’m surprised anything registered.” I decided to leave the reassuring to Gabe. Based on their expressions it was clear my technique needed work.

“The man …” Janet wrung her hands in her lap. “He smelled—"

“Off?” Gabe asked before she could finish her train of thought.

“No.” She shook her head. “He smelled human.”

“Human?” If I hadn’t already stopped the vehicle, I would have slammed on the brakes. “You’re positive?”

“One hundred percent positive.” Janet gripped the front seats and leaned forward. Her face was so close to mine I felt the warmth of her breath on my skin.

I had a thing about personal space and people I didn’t know, but I decided to let it pass. The woman was distressed and probably still in shock—which put her observation in question.

A wolf’s sense of smell wasn’t infallible, especially under duress.

“I’m sure you have people in and out of the lab all the time. Drivers picking up and dropping off. Maybe you picked up on one of them?” Lucas tried to punch holes in her story, but Janet never wavered.

Once she placed the scent and the man together, she held firm.

“He was human. And as you so adequately pointed out, I’m around them all the time. I know what they smell like.” Janet sat back in her seat and wrapped her arms around her midsection. “Now, are you going to tell me why a human bombed a lab owned and operated by werewolves?”

“That’s classified.” I blurted out before Lucas or Gabe could respond.

I shrugged off their amused looks, shifted into first gear and pulled off the shoulder. We were thirty minutes from the pack lands, and she was more than welcome to address her questions to the council.

Janet’s recovery from her injuries sustained in the blast went faster than expected—even for a were. I’m not one to wish ill on someone, but somewhere around mile marker forty-two I decided that I liked her better when she suffered in silence.

She berated us for answers that we couldn’t provide for the remainder of the drive back to Cedar Grove and the people who could. When I turned the radio up to drown out her incessant questions, she talked louder.

I could have wept when I passed the state park and the sign for Last Resort came into view.

“We’re here.” I pulled up in front of the hotel, killed the engine and hopped out of the Jeep. “Oh look, trackers.”

Any other time, Gabe would have been on edge by the presence of so many council enforcers, but even he seemed relieved to see the alpha’s security detail.

The team consisted of three men and one woman. Each of whom served under my father before he died and had been assigned to my detail at some point while working for the council. I knew them all on a first name basis, but it was Lucas who received the greeting and respect reserved for the heir of an alpha.

None of them bothered to acknowledge my existence.

I had shirked formalities when I was a child. We buried my father and I felt relief with the knowledge that I wouldn’t be burdened with them any longer. A year on the run and I hadn’t given them a passing thought.

Of course, that was before someone tried to kill me.

Their brush off raised my hackles. It wasn’t as if I expected a hero’s welcome when I returned to Cedar Grove, but I hadn’t expected to be a social pariah among the elites either. Even Janet, who wasn’t even a member of the Southeastern pack received a warmer reception than I had.

“You get used to it.” Gabe sidled up to me as if he had sensed my distress.

“What, you mean they see me as a rogue?” I asked, surprised to find that I actually cared when his answer was yes. “Well, at least I’m in good company.”

“You’re in council territory.” Gabe gave the trackers a curt wave when their gazes flicked in our direction for a split second. “It’s not so bad on the other side of the property lines.”

“I thought rogues stuck to themselves.” I split my attention between Gabe and the trackers who’d formed a circled around Lucas and Janet.

“We do, for the most part. But you know as well as I do what happens to our wolves when we leave them alone for too long.” Gabe watched my reaction out of his peripheral.

“Moon craze.” I finger-combed through the tangled ends of my amber hair before sweeping it up into a loose bun at the nape of my neck. “So, you just drift in and out of packs?”

“Your parents, and a more than a few like-minded individuals within the council look down on us, call us dispersers like it’s an insult or something.” Gabe’s half smile led me to believe it wasn’t’ the derogatory term I’d always thought it was.

“It’s not?” I arched a quizzical brow and waited for his explanation.

“Nope.” Gabe’s smile widened. “Brace yourself. What I’m about to tell you goes against everything you’ve ever learned.”

“Should I be sitting down for this?” I teased.

“The packs need dispersers.” He nodded when my expression switched from all smiles to slack-jawed. “Let’s just say the gene pool would be a puddle without us.”

“So, rogues go forth and populate?” The idea of Gabe with a string of one-night stands and a paper trail of paternity tests behind him did not sit well with my wolf—or me.

Not that I had any right to feel that way.

Lucas whistled and motioned for us to join him, saving me from delving into why I would have been bothered by Gabe’s past romantic escapades.

“Janet’s on her way to debriefing. My father requested that we sit in and observe.” Lucas hid his amusement behind a cough when I groaned my displeasure.

Which had nothing to do with Janet. Well, almost nothing.

I’d had my fill of the woman and was happy to hand her over to the council for questioning. What I really wanted to do was dig into the backgrounds of our human neighbors.

And that wasn’t going to happen if we were trapped with Janet in one of the council offices.

“I think we’re all pretty familiar with the debriefing process. We can skip it.” I looked to Gabe for support, but found none.

“It’s not a training exercise.” Gabe said, siding with Lucas and by extension Benjamin. “I’m sure the alpha is hoping we’ll gain some useful information.”

“I know that look, Lina.” Lucas shook his head. “Whatever it is, no.”

“What look?” I feigned ignorance, despite knowing exactly which look he referred to. “You haven’t even heard the plan yet.”

“A human’s involvement is a huge development. But not a complete surprise. At least not for us.” I elaborated on my plan in the hopes that they would go along with it. “I was hoping to gain some information of our own in the archives.”

“We’re not trespassing on state property to check things out.” He put air quotes around the latter part of his statement.

“Who said anything about trespassing?” I zeroed in on Gabe. “Did you hear me say anything about trespassing?”

“I’m trying to avoid criminal activity.” Gabe waved off my idea to ditch Janet and the debriefing for a, unauthorized visit to the archives. “At least during my first week back in a pack.”

“Et tu, Gabe?” I placed my hand over my heart.

“Sorry, Lina.” With a meager smile and an arm wrapped around my shoulder he steered me toward the entrance to the hotel and the council conference offices above.

“Not as sorry as I am.” I ducked under his arm when we hit the lobby and took off in the direction of the stairs.

The rubber soles of my Chucks squeaked against the lobby’s tiled floor when I dodged around a hotel guest. I grabbed the door handle, jerked open the door and made it down one flight of stairs before it clicked shut behind me.

My feet hit the landing and I grabbed the railing, skipping the next two steps as I made my way down to the lower levels which housed the archives. The click of the metal latch and squeak of the hinges echoed down the stairwell when the door from the lobby opened.

“Caroline.”

“Lina.”

Lucas and Gabe called after me, shouting for me to stop, to come back upstairs and attend Janet’s deposition as instructed. I ignored them and barreled down the steps until I reached the metal door on the last level.

“Lina, wait.” Lucas yelled down to me. “There’s an alarm on the door.”

He was two seconds too late. I had already pressed on the metal bar, releasing the lock, and pushed open the door. My heart pounded against my ribcage as I waited for the bells to go off. Instead of an earsplitting alarm I was met with silence.

Nothing happened.

Until Lucas’ cell phone rang.

“My dad wants to talk to you.” He leaned over the railing and dropped the phone.

“Uh hi, Benjamin.” I said as I wedged the phone between my ear and shoulder.

“I realize it’s not your strong suit, but did it not at least occur to you to ask for permission?” The usual warmth was missing from Benjamin’s voice.

“Yes, the thought had occurred to me.” I paced around the small concrete pad at the bottom of the stairwell.

“And you decided against it, why exactly?” Benjamin inquired.

“Because I thought you’d say no.” I kept my answers as brief and honest as possible. “And I didn’t want to waste time while the council questioned Janet when I could be checking on another possible lead.”

“That’s going to have to wait. I need the three you of upstairs.” Benjamin’s tone brooked no arguments

Of course, that never stopped me before.

“Benjamin, this is important.” Plastic crunched as I gripped the phone in my hand.

“So is this, Caroline.” Benjamin shut me down again.

“What if Lucas goes while Gabe and I go through the archives?” I asked, pressing my luck.

“Upstairs. All of you. Now.” Benjamin pulled pack bonds and turned the request into an order I couldn’t refuse before disconnecting the call.

“Damn it.” I shoved Lucas’ phone in my pocket and rejoined them on the landing between the lobby and lower level.

“I can count on one hand and have fingers left over the number of times he’s used the bond.” Lucas took the stairs two at a time and held the door open for us when he reached the top.

“Really?” I didn’t bother to hide the sorrow in my voice. “My father used it against us all the time.”

“He must really want us at that debriefing.” Gabe pressed his palm against the door, relieving Lucas of the duty so he could move and allow me to pass.

“No, something else must have happened while we were gone.” Lucas shook his head. “I know my dad and I’m telling you, something else is going on.”

“Something worse than a bombing?” Gabe spoke in hushed tones once we were out of the stairwell.

“It would seem so.” Lucas led the way across to the second floor.

Whatever it was, it involved the three of us. Which meant it wasn’t anything good. The hits just kept on coming. It was time I started hitting back.