21. Chapter Twenty-One

Two hours after the plane took off, I tried to get to work. After waving Heath over, I grabbed my bag and took my laptop out. Heath moved next to me, bringing his laptop as well.

"Are we going to sort through the USBs?" he asked softly.

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"Are you okay?" He leaned in, his grey-blue eyes searching my face. "You can…you can talk to me—"

"Not about this." Looking away, I opened my laptop and sighed.

Before continuing, I looked back at my sister and was glad to see her sound asleep. Long hospital hours and traveling long hours were two different beasts. On top of that, she was probably still reeling from the new dangers in her life. She wasn't built like Heath and me. As apex predators, we were built for the fighting and constant go, go, go of the supernatural world. Humans weren't.

When I turned back to Heath, I dared to voice my feelings.

"How could they?"

"They had to have had their reasons," Heath said gently. "I don't think what they did was the right thing, but it does explain your sister. She was desperate and scared, and reaching out to you defied your family."

"Yeah…" I was glad Heath finally had a reason to like my sister. I knew he was still having a hard time trusting her intentions of why she reached out to me. They were valid concerns, and if she was a supernatural, they would most likely be correct.

"Jacky…" My name sounded like a plea when it rolled off his tongue in a hushed whisper. "You were adamant for years about not reaching out to them, for a lot of reasons. Maybe they were just trying to let you maintain the peace you had achieved with being a werecat."

"Would you have done it?" I asked as I logged into my computer. When he didn't reply fast enough, I turned to him again. "Heath?"

Sighing, he shrugged. "Not without telling you. I would probably have told you she was there if I knew and asked you what you wanted to do about it. If you didn't want a relationship, I would have let her know she needed to stop pursuing information about you."

"That's…" I tried to smile. "That's better than what they did. I could have known she was there. I could have…"

"I know."

Shaking my head, I reached into my bag and found the smaller bag full of data. I unzipped it and dropped it on the table, grabbing two—one for me and one for Heath.

"Let's get to work." He only nodded and took his, plugging it into the side of his laptop. Plugging mine in, I clicked through folders. Sarah wasn't the most complicated person by the looks of her file organization. I clicked the first video, and my speakers suddenly roared to life with a video of a young man talking.

"Shit. I need headphones."

Heath held out a pair, and I took them, only a little confused by their sudden and easy appearance.

"They're in the side pockets of the chairs," he explained, then put his back in his ear and went back to whatever he was watching.

I set them up and started the video again, turning my volume down.

The young man talked about a vampire nest that turned him. They had kidnapped him at the age of ten and changed him at only sixteen. Then they drank from him repeatedly to tie his life to theirs. The story made me sick as he described the abuse he went through, thanks to the obsession of the nest's master. He had been a plaything.

I forced myself to stop watching and closed the video. I quickly checked the videos in all the folders. This particular USB was all vampires. I put it aside and went in for another drive.

This one had several humans talking about how they worked for a werewolf pack in Atlanta, and that some of the werewolves were cruel. The Alpha was never told when they tried to report it.

I put that one aside as well, trying not to think about how I had a passing acquaintance with the werewolf Alpha of the Atlanta Pack, Alpha Harrison. He'd been particularly cranky when he found out I was a daughter of Hasan. For a moment, I wondered if he ever discovered his pack was a danger to the humans they employed and were related to.

I put it aside and continued. There were just over a dozen USBs. Some only had one video, some had a string of them, pointing to a problem in the organization they came from.

Heath growled at one point, then put the USB he had been watching between us. When I reached for it to see what was so upsetting, he put his hand over it.

"Let's find the Russians first," he whispered.

Nodding, I went back to searching.

It was the last one because, obviously, I was out of the cosmic luck I normally had.

There were fifteen videos. Swallowing, I started watching the first one, promising myself I was going to watch every single one.

"Did he beat you?" Sarah asked softly. "You can tell me. No one will ever know. We're sworn to secrecy. Just consider me a place to get the pain out of your soul."

"He beat me," the young woman answered. "He beat me when I would serve the other werewolves. He said I was too pretty to go to waste, so he never hit my face. He always let me heal before sending me…"

I winced as tears welled up in my eyes. She had been Changed by Alpha Vasiliev to serve his inner circle as a present for when their mates grew tiresome. She talked about Sergey and Alexei. She said other names I didn't recognize.

"I found it," I said, trying to wrangle the storm of emotions brewing. "I found the videos Sarah has of the Russians."

"Let me figure out what my last one is," Heath said in a stiff way, which made me wonder for a moment what was bothering him. The easy guess was the constant bombardment of trauma coming in front of our eyes.

I went to the second video and saw a young male, uninjured. Sarah convinced him it was okay for him to talk to her. Watching this video, I realized none of Sarah's patients knew they had been recorded. She never told him there was a camera, which was cruel, taking down this footage of the pain these people were going through.

This young male was Devora's beta brother. He had a peaceful quality to him, I had only run into once before. He talked about living conditions and how hard it was for him to see his sister. He had been Changed first when the pack came through his neighborhood, looking for possible recruits. They had pinned him as a beta werewolf before he even knew what they wanted. The pack ended up buying both him and his sister from their parents for the price of a new home and a new life in Moscow, somewhere far away and living better. They thought it was an honor for their children to go to the great pack. Surprisingly, Devora's brother had no blame for them. Apparently, the poor people living near the pack had been duped in a great PR play.

The interview was cut off when another werewolf entered the picture and ordered Devora's brother to do something in Russian. By the look on the beta's face, he was in trouble, and he knew it.

I watched because I felt like it was my duty to watch. This was the reason my sister was sacrificing everything. This was why she killed a man, breaking an oath I knew she took seriously. This was why we were on the plane.

Sarah was able to interview another female while her injuries were still apparent. She had been beaten by a mate and couldn't find help. Her father was a member of the pack and was able to escape with her.

One older female said she was the mate of an inner circle werewolf. She didn't look old, but she carried the ages on her shoulders. I recognized age in immortals that old because I saw it in Hasan and most of my siblings. Zuri had shown it to me only back in February. There was a weight they carried once they had seen centuries turn and empires built and crumble.

She was tired. She wanted to leave but knew if she did, her husband would mate their daughter.

I closed my laptop after that, unable to bear anymore.

This is the pack that wants me to hide their crimes. This pack…

I can't do that. I can't let them keep doing this. I'd never be able to sleep again.

"Should I watch it?" Heath asked gently as I took out my headphones.

"No." I shook my head then reconsidered. "Yes. Yeah…You need to watch it." I slid my laptop in front of him, warring between rage and being violently sick. I wanted blood on my hands—their blood. At the same time, I figured the sight and smell of blood would make me puke. I wanted to be furious and scream. I wanted to call my entire family and do to this pack what we had done to Lani's fucking friends. I wanted destruction, and I never wanted to commit another act of violence ever again.

The warring emotions left me paralyzed as Heath watched. I could hear it all because I had nothing else to focus on.

"We'll deal with this," he promised, pulling out the USB. "I swear it, Jacky, we'll deal with this."

"We better," I whispered. "You said you figured Callahan knew…"

"I don't think he knows all of this. If he did, we all would. This is…" By the look on his face, he was worried—sick. His scent was unknown to me, but I didn't fault him for that. I was trying to bury my feelings for him to stop Hisao from picking anything up. He was probably locked down for the same reason.

"They've been keeping their secrets through force, just like they are right now. They own the entire region, and they've crushed disobedience." I could see it—authoritarian rule, dissenters killed. Everyone walking on eggshells, kept poor and desperate, needing to please the Alpha and his inner circle. Middle-rank wolves using their power and rage to subjugate lower werewolves even more.

He only nodded, reaching for the USB he had put down.

"This is about…" Sighing, he put it back down. "This is something recent. A human girl ravaged by a werewolf in an American pack. Apparently, they were attempting to Change her, and the wolf who did it lost control."

"What?" I put a hand over my mouth, considering what he was saying. "Did she live?"

"They rushed her to the hospital where she passed away, probably from a combination of the injuries and the Change trying to take her. There's no real interview. I think Sarah felt it was necessary to secretly tape her treatment and listen to what the pack was saying. Probably a new little fucking side project she wanted to work."

"Which pack?" I asked, knowing I shouldn't. I didn't even understand why he was telling me.

"Dallas," he whispered. "An Alpha should do Changes—all of them. I've Changed over a dozen people, for good and bad, and it weighs on my soul, but I never asked someone else to do it. Some people I denied the chance, and they tried to convince others. In those instances, I had to be the judge, jury, and executioner. This? Either Tywin lost control and killed this girl, proving himself unfit, or he asked someone else to Change her, and it went wrong. Her Change was approved. The werewolves made that very clear when questioned."

"Who else would know about this?"

"The Alphas on the council if anyone reported it to them. The hospital wouldn't have, and Tywin probably didn't."

"What are you thinking, Heath?"

"I don't know yet," he admitted. "But…I left the pack to him."

"There's something going on in Atlanta too," I said, finding that USB for him. "Werewolves are treating humans in the pack unfairly, and in many cases, violently. When it's reported up, someone keeps it from getting to Alpha Harrison, or so the victims believe." I held it out to him, and he took it very slowly from me.

"How many of these do you think she made? Do you think we missed a second stash somewhere?"

"Probably. I can only imagine how many of these ‘files' she made," Heath muttered, looking at the two in his hand.

Hisao came out of the cockpit, forcing me to look away from Heath's troubled expression. I couldn't comfort my wolf here or any time soon, so I quickly shoved the idea away.

"What do you need?" I asked my brother as he sat down across from us.

"You've been talking. Even without hearing, it's hard with the plane noise and the thickness of the cockpit door and wall," he explained. "I want to know what you have."

"A lot of blackmail," Heath said softly, leaning back in his seat. "This Sarah person would secretly collect the worst stories from victims, offering therapy help, just someone to talk to, then record the talk without telling the patient."

"Hmm…Normally, when people get into this sort of business, they see a couple of patients come in and start to notice a trend. Then they start recording," my brother said, looking at the different USBs. "Who all can be hurt with this?"

"Two werewolf packs in America, though those aren't as severe as some of the international cases. A vampire nest turning humans young stuck to me in the beginning. They had heavy accents, but I couldn't tell you from where." I shrugged. "I'm not sure what to do with all of this. It's too much…evil."

"There's a lot of evil in everyone. Humans expose great crimes and conspiracies all the time among their own. It happens in our kind as well." Hisao shifted in his seat, appearing to get more comfortable, and crossed his arms. "I can only offer a suggestion."

"Sure." I waved a hand at him, wondering what he could possibly have. He had thousands of years of experience.

"Give them all to Father. He'll decide which ones I should handle. I'm only suggesting this because you found them. They belong to you, and I won't force you to…play a part in their deaths. It's one thing to fight a battle and win. It's another to murder someone who doesn't see you coming. There's a reason only one of us in the family has taken that role."

Is that why you're so cold? Because you made the decision to be that person, so the rest of us could sleep easier?

"I'll…think about it. Thank you for the suggestion." I quickly closed the bag and shoved it away, keeping only the USB the Russians wanted. Then I considered what Hisao had said. "What did you mean by business?"

"Heath called it blackmail, and I'm inclined to think this Sarah wasn't like your twin, who might genuinely care about these victims. If Sarah truly cared, she would have acted much faster or found a way to secret the information out and keep her job. There's always a way. Nothing is foolproof. You said she died to the Russians, correct?"

"Yeah…Apparently, she tried to dictate the terms…"

"I have a feeling she wasn't trying to help anyone. I bet she was looking for money, and her insurance was someone else exposing them if they didn't pay her what she wanted." Hisao smiled, and it was a mean thing. "Why would someone who cares try to bargain with people they believe are evil?"

I looked at Heath, knowing my eyes were wide.

"Want my timeline?" Hisao asked as I looked back at him. He leaned forward with a strangely cold and amused look on his face, almost mean, vicious. "Because I'm darker than you, I am more likely to see the darkness in others. You went into this thinking everyone your sister knew was honorable, not that it changes anything. I've been thinking about it since I was brought in and still thinking about it when we took off."

"Tell me," I ordered.

"Sarah collected blackmail information over her time at the hospital. Easy money for an ER nurse who saw the worst of the worst come in. She recorded secretly, giving the victims no hope they would ever get justice. She might have done a couple of small ones, extorting men who beat their wives or something, or maybe this was the first time she tried, which is how she got herself killed."

"What gave her the balls to make the jump into something this big?" Heath asked. I could hear the Alpha mind working now in the way he spoke. He was looking at this like a professional, a leader of the supernatural world, who did everything he could to protect his people and defeat his enemies.

"In February, my family visited the hospital, and yes, Jacky, we discovered your sister was working there. Yes, a decision was made that we shouldn't tell you. We can have that discussion in depth once everything else is handled."

"We better," I growled softly. "And you can send that message to Hasan."

"Noted." He took my anger without any indication it mattered to him. "And to answer your question, Heath, it was the hospital discovering Jacky and Doctor Duray were related. See, Jacky didn't go into public, and she's fairly young, so she isn't recognizable the way most of us are. Sarah and Gwen were friends, and now—"

"Sarah had a huge contingency plan. Use Gwen, who truly believed in helping people, to pull Jacky into the fray as protection. Suddenly, the ruling werecat family is dragged in, and things go public." Heath spoke fast. "I knew something was fucking wrong with this. I thought it was Gwen, but it was how Gwen got pulled in. Sarah was running an illegal blackmail operation, and it blew up in her face. That's why Sarah sold out Gwen, but apparently, no one else."

"Shit," was all I could manage. Heath had a point. Carlton died, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gwen was being targeted.

"Sarah made trouble for Gwen on purpose," he continued. "Some fucking friend."

"Hmm…" Hisao nodded slowly. "It's the only plausible explanation."

"I'm amazed we haven't woken up Gwen," I said, looking back at her. Heath was practically yelling.

"She won't. Her drink was drugged, so she could sleep on the flight," Hisao admitted. "That way, we could talk about sensitive things."

I tried not to reach across the table and attack him because I knew I would lose, and we were flying. Two powerful werecats fighting in an aluminum death trap was a good way to get everyone killed.

"You have no regard for anyone, do you?" Heath asked, giving my brother a look most people had when they were shocked, disgusted, and disbelieving.

"For her?" He pointed between us at my sister. "I have regard for her. That's why she's asleep."

"Hisao?" I didn't like the emphasis he'd put on asleep. Even a toddler could figure out he meant asleep instead of dead.

"She roped you into a dangerous situation that could have very well got you killed. She might think we're not family, but I would kill for you, and I only kill for my family. I refuse to believe a woman who worked to become a doctor didn't understand just how dangerous this situation could become. She was either willfully ignorant or didn't deserve her medical license." He bared his teeth. "And we are family, Jacky. It hasn't been easy bringing you into the family because of the circumstances around that time, but you are my sister. I won't lose another one of those." He got up and adjusted his blazer, his eyes dark, promising violence. "But I also understand that she's your family as well—your twin. Zuri and Jabari made it very clear, while you might be estranged, that bond will never truly be broken. So, she's asleep, instead of any other option I had once she came on my plane."

He walked back into the cockpit.

"He's terrifying." It was really all I could say.

"Yes." Heath didn't add anything. We were in complete agreement about that, at least.

I looked at him, a question on the tip of my tongue I couldn't ask.

A small smile broke out on his face.

"I think someone who cares about you won't let your terrifying people chase them away," he said so quietly, I almost missed it. "Now, we need to talk about how much of this to tell your sister."

"Yes, we do," I mumbled, looking away, trying to control myself. I couldn't become a blushing beauty on my family's plane with a werewolf.