16. Chapter Sixteen

"So, the Director wanting to keep the hospital out of it means the Russians only know what they can theorize or get out of the nurse," I explained further as Heath started the car. "They might not have any solid proof of Gwen's or anyone else's involvement in the death of Alpha Vasiliev. Publicly, it's still a surgery gone wrong and hopefully, will remain that way."

"Strange, because if they did have proof, thanks to Sarah, why haven't they taken it public?" Heath hummed as he started down the long dirt drive. "They could go public and get the hospital to hand over the rest of the staff, including calling your sister in to stand trial in front of the Tribunal."

"Well, if we go public with the pack's crimes before they go public with Alpha Vasiliev's murder, we can swing the Tribunal in our favor." I leaned back in my seat, trying to relax. "Let's just get this USB, then go from there. I bet the werewolves don't know the death wasn't accidental, which we can use. No one will ever have to know."

"What about avenging the death of my friend?" Gwen asked. "Are we going to forget those werewolves killed her?"

"No, we won't forget," I answered, only somewhat pissed off my sister needed to nail that morality sword into my back. Of course, I wouldn't forget about the death of an innocent human nurse. Just like I wouldn't forget the death of Devora or countless other female werewolves at the hands of this pack.

"There's not much we can do about it yet," Heath said. "We don't know where the Russians are staying in the United States; no one does. From the sound of it, the werewolves in the area didn't even know how many are here. We also don't have nearly enough of a force to go against them. Not everything can happen right now." Heath looked around at us as he stopped at the end of the drive. "Let's do this one step at a time. We're talking about exposing the Russian werewolf pack for the very criminals everyone has believed they are for years. Step one is getting our evidence. If we can send it in, Gwen never needs to have her memories read by the Tribunal, and they never need to know she killed Alpha Vasiliev. Step two is rounding up the group. We need to crush the pack completely, but at that point, neither of you should be involved. Okay? We'll leave that last part up to the Tribunal werewolves. They'll be forced into action by the public outcry of the Russian's behavior."

"Agreed," I said, nodding. I could accept that. Doing my part, then letting others more capable finish it was how these things were supposed to work.

"Fine," Gwen said tightly.

Heath punched in an address my sister must have told him and started driving.

"Tell Jacky what you told me," he ordered as we got onto the dark road. The long night felt like it would never end.

I had been at his dinner table the evening before. We had been laughing, and Landon had been opening up to me. Neither of us had expected a two-hour drive to Dallas, a five-hour flight to Rochester, or the last four hours going back and forth with my sister of all people.

Dawn should be in another couple of hours. Right?

"Sarah hid the USB at a hospital safehouse, just in case. Some of the staff volunteer to maintain them instead of doing other jobs. I have an inactive area of medicine when it comes to supernaturals, so I volunteer in the ER. Some doctors volunteer to travel to see patients who pay high prices. Some volunteer to help Mygi Pharmaceuticals. She picked safehouse duty."

"I didn't know the hospital and the pharmaceutical company worked together," Heath said softly. "Didn't Mygi Pharma get into a lot of trouble last summer?"

"They did," she answered.

I looked back at her, frowning. I had only heard of the pharmaceutical company in passing from Hasan and could barely remember what he had said. I didn't move when she gave me a confused look.

"Tell me more, I'm curious," I said with no preamble. "Hasan doesn't tell me about the stuff he sees as a member of the Tribunal, and I don't follow supernatural news."

"From my meager information on the relationship, they started together, then separated about three decades ago. Only recently, the board of the hospital took the pharmaceutical company over again because of the trouble Mygi Pharma got into last year," she explained. "Something about illegal experimentation. I don't know much more. Sorry, sis."

"Heath, what do you know?" I asked, looking at him for more.

"They never went public with a lot of the information. The Tribunal and some of their people handled the entire mess. A lot of people went to prison. Not that we can trust the prison in Arizona to keep them there, considering there was a major outbreak a year and a half ago."

"What?" I sputtered. "How did I not hear about that?"

"Right after, you and I were in Washington, dealing with vampires, and we didn't know each other very well. I think I assumed your family told you, and even when I realized you didn't know, it's not exactly a conversation one has over a beer," he said, smiling at the end. "Do you want me to keep you up to date on supernatural news?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "I didn't even know there was a supernatural prison," I mumbled, looking out my window. "I really need to start learning about this stuff, don't I?"

"Yes," Gwen said, sounding half amazed. "I mean, you've been a werecat for twelve years, and you're the ‘daughter' of a Tribunal member. How do you not know there's a prison?"

"The same way I didn't know there was a hospital until February. I never asked and never needed to know," I retorted.

"And no one in your new family thought to tell you?"

I didn't respond as my mind came up with an answer.

I wouldn't have let them tell me if they tried. And for a long time, they wouldn't have tried.

"Jacky likes living a simple life with very little to complicate it," Heath said pragmatically. "It's admirable how well she stays out of the way in her corner of the world until someone drops trouble on her."

"Seems foolish," my sister mumbled, not directed at anyone.

Holding up a hand to keep Heath from responding, he nodded and focused on the road. It wasn't an argument I wanted to have while we were still in the middle of this Russian werewolf mess.

"So, she stashed the USB with Devora's recording at a safehouse," I said, trying to take the conversation back to the task at hand.

"Yes. She installed a safe in one, and it was always our idea if we needed to hide, we would go there," she said.

"Well, damn." I rubbed my face. "Heath—"

"I'm thinking the same thing," he said softly. "If they took Sarah, then they either had her followed, or they were able to nab her from the hospital. I don't know the circumstances, but I'm certain they tortured her for information once they had her. They wouldn't have killed her without getting every piece of information they could get out of her."

My stomach twisted.

"How can you talk about it so casually?" Gwen sounded as ill as I felt.

"Because it's just a part of our life," I answered. "I've been beaten and starved by Hasan's enemies, other werecats. We've been hunted by vampires who were addicted to getting what's called a death high, and their master who was trying to cover up his negligence. Heath's family has been torn apart and hurt by ambition. We're not being casual. We're being realistic."

Lani's face flashed in my mind. Those damn vampires in Washington. Emma and her mate, Dean, and Richard—they had all done whatever necessary to further their own goals. These werewolves would be no different. If they saw the opportunity to get information, they would take it.

We drove in silence for a long time until the GPS said only ten more minutes until our destination.

"The Russians will know about this place," I said softly.

"Yeah," Heath agreed. "We can only hope we're here first, or they've already left. If I see any evidence of them, I'm not stopping, and we'll find another way to get this done."

"We don't have another way," I countered. "You said it earlier. We're trying to avoid making Gwen testify in front of the Tribunal."

"Why?" Gwen asked from the back, her voice soft and a little weak.

"They'll search your memories to read the truthfulness of your testimony. They'll discover what you did to Alpha Vasiliev," Heath clarified. "They don't do it often if they have enough witnesses, but you'll be speaking out against an entire pack, and you're Jacky's sister. They could see you as trying to ruin a strong werewolf pack in the name of the werecats. We don't need those sorts of conversations coming up."

"Okay, so we have to get a copy of Devora's information," she said, sounding stronger. "I get it. Can't go and make more trouble."

"No, Gwen, we can't go make more trouble," I growled back at her. "Can you stop implying we're terrible people because we're looking at the big picture here? It's fucking frustrating. We agree with you. Alpha Vasiliev was a monster who needed to die. We're going to protect you. We agree the crimes of his pack need to be exposed, so more werewolves aren't abused and hurt. We're trying to make that happen. But all of that is worthless if they think this is a werecat plot against the Russian werewolf pack to weaken the werewolves globally. If they think you acted for me or I'm defending you for werecat interests, we're screwed. They won't care about the Russian pack. They'll care about how you killed an Alpha, regardless of the reasons, and how I'm Hasan's daughter, and I'm protecting you from punishment."

"You used to be for justice, no matter the costs," she whispered. "Getting in fights and taking the fall, but always fighting for what you believed in."

I winced. She was right. When I was helping Carey, the ramifications of my decisions had been an afterthought. Now, all I could think about were the ramifications. I wanted to do this right. What was so wrong with trying to do a good thing without hurting the people around me?

Why do I feel like I've sold out?

I couldn't bring myself to speak after that as Heath pulled up to the small house outside of Rochester. At this point, I felt like I had driven around the entire damn city.

"There are no other cars here," I pointed out softly. "Heath, are you okay going first? You have the best nose."

"Definitely." He cut the engine and jumped out of the car, with Gwen and I following much slower. He was ten feet from the car by the time she and I were closing our doors. I grabbed her elbow and kept her at my side, trying to see everything around us. The lightest glow of the coming dawn was finally hitting the eastern sky.

He was at the door before us, where he froze.

I slowed and held Gwen to stop with me as I watched him sniff the air.

"Heath?"

"They've been here," he whispered. "Werewolves."

"How many?" I sniffed the air, but if this was an old scent, there was a chance I wasn't going to pick it up. "I'm not smelling anything."

"I didn't notice it until I caught it on the door," he replied. "The wind would have blown their scents away, but one…no, two of them touched the door. There are no signs of forced entry, though."

"Do you think it's safe?" I asked. I was glad my sister was waiting in silence, trusting us to do this, to judge the situation.

"I don't know, but I'm going in." He instinctively reached for something, then growled softly. "Should have brought a gun."

"Yeah, I'm thinking the same thing," I mumbled, looking around, dreading the possibility I caught glowing eyes in the surrounding darkness. To Gwen, it was probably still pitch black except for the glow of light in the safehouse, and even in the lightest glow of dawn, it was pretty dark. My ability to see at night was damn good, but a good supernatural would know how to hide, using the deep shadows of the night.

He opened the door and stepped in, a growl slipping through his lips.

"I smell blood," he explained, disappearing from view.

Gwen and I followed, my sister grabbing me, locking our arms together instead of my pulling her around.

"Shit," Heath snarled. "There's no one here alive," he called softly.

"What?" Gwen's voice jumped an octave and cracked.

I didn't react in time. My sister broke from my grasp and ran, letting me play catch up. The scent of blood hit my nose as I passed through the threshold, which opened up into a spacious living room, with the kitchen on the other side of the room. Heath stood in the kitchen, looking down at something behind the counters. I caught up to Gwen and stopped her from getting to his side.

"Jacky—"

"Heath, how?" I demanded. I wanted to know what I was about to show my sister.

"Clean," he whispered. "Gunshot…two to the chest."

I released her, letting her go into the kitchen and look down at the body.

"Oh, no," she cried out, falling to her knees. "This was…this was the anesthesiologist. Um…His name is…"

"Breathe," I whispered gently. "Take a deep breath."

She did, her shoulders jerking.

"His name was Carlton," she finally said. "If he's here…his car should be here…"

"The werewolves probably stole it," Heath said, looking around the kitchen. "There aren't any keys anywhere, but I can smell them in here. They probably came in while he was doing something and shot him before he had a chance to be afraid, then took his belongings."

"Gwen, where did Sarah hide the USB?" I asked. "I can let someone at the hospital know we found Carlton here, but I want us to get out of here as quickly as possible. I'm sorry. I know it's a rush, and you don't have any time to grieve, but we have to keep moving."

She nodded, and I helped her back to her feet, trying not to feel like an asshole. It wasn't easy telling her she couldn't do more for him or stay to say goodbye, but it was necessary.

She led the way in silence toward a back room and in the bedroom, pulled back a rug.

"The house is a cover," she mumbled, gesturing at the hatch she uncovered. "This is the real safe house. It would be down here. It's a typical bunker."

"Let's go," I said softly. "Heath, come in here and keep watch?" I didn't need to raise my voice. A second later, my werewolf appeared at the door and nodded.

I went down into the bunker first and stood to the side, taking it all in. The hospital took the safety of its staff seriously. Gwen went through a door into another room of the bunker, and I heard the mechanical noise of a safe pop open. A minute later, she was back, holding a bag.

"I don't know which one it is," she said, opening the bag to reveal several USBs. "I don't understand why there are so many."

I had the sneaking suspicion this Sarah, an innocent ER nurse, was doing more than helping female werewolves from Russia. I had a gut feeling whatever was on all of those USBs could hurt a lot of people.

"I'll carry them, and we'll figure it out. My go-bag has a laptop, and I'm certain Heath was smart enough to bring one as well."

Gwen nodded slowly and handed me the bag. I shook my head as I looked at the dozens of USBs. This had been stupid. Sarah might have felt she was saving a lot of people, but this was plain stupid.

We headed back up where Heath waited patiently. His eyes narrowed on the bag in my hands. I quickly showed him the contents before walking past him.

We moved quickly and got outside, heading directly for our car in silence. We had what we needed, and it was time to go. A conversation could wait.