Final Extraction by Julie Trettel

Vada

Chapter 10

 

 

 

Jake snuck into my room late one night as I continued to heal in one of the private infirmary rooms. He looked a little out of breath.

“There’s no cameras in the bathroom, I promise. I need you to power yourself up. I don’t care what kind of shifter you are, but you’re still weak and I need you at full strength.”

“What? What happened?”

“There’s a detective sniffing around. He found the bodies.”

“Already?”

“Yeah. My guess is Trevor will have us rolling out quickly. So heal yourself. I cannot afford to lose you.”

“Why?” I asked stubbornly.

“Because I actually like my life, and my job, and our mutual friend will take both away if so much as a hair on your head is touched.”

“Silas?”

“Do not say his name around here. It’s not safe for either of us.”

I was shaking with excitement and nerves as Jake left just as quickly as he had arrived.

I heeded his warning, removed my IV completely, and went to the bathroom. I knew it could be a trap, but my instincts continued to tell me he was sincere. I threw caution to the wind, stripped out of my gown and shifted. It was the middle of the night, and the nurses were no longer coming by to check my vitals. I didn’t think any of them really cared.

I stayed in my gorilla form for a long time before shifting back and scrubbing the place down. Since I had washed well not that long ago, my fur was hardly an issue, but I was still too paranoid not to clean up behind myself.

Feeling better than I had in weeks and fully restored, I walked back into the room and hunted up a cleaner change of clothes. I couldn’t tell the time with no windows in the room, but the clock on the wall showed six. I knew I hadn’t just taken an entire day to heal, so it had to be morning.

I left the infirmary, sad to leave a private room behind, and went in search of food.

I hadn’t really had time to look around my new home… temporary home if Jake’s warning was true.

I tiptoed around knowing that Trevor hated any of us having free reign, though he often gave more leniency to me. I had been around the longest of any of them.

I froze when I heard his voice as if just thinking his name had somehow conjured up the devil himself.

“We’re going to have to reroute everyone to the Canadian site. Yes, exactly. Father, there are cops here and this Detective Stone is sniffing around. No, you can’t just take care of him. Yeah, I know who was responsible. He’ll pay. In the meantime, you must reroute all shipments to Canada. Yes, I know it’s dangerous to pull all our assets together like this, but what choice do we have? Would you just trust me for once to do my job? Yes, I remember what’s at stake. I was ready to increase the testing right away, but now I don’t feel it’s safe. Canada will be better and out of reach of this nosey cop. If he comes back before we’re gone then I’ll handle it. Whatever means necessary. I understand. See you in a few days.”

“Is everything okay?” the backstabbing bunny, Keeley, asked him. I really didn’t understand how she seemed to get around so quickly and come and go at her leisure.

“It will be. We’re rolling out. Excuse me, I need to notify the others of the new plans. And find Jake. He has some questions to answer.”

My heart dropped and I thought I was going to be sick. While it was true Jake had been the one to leave behind the passport for the kid, I had kicked at the dirt leaving his foot just barely beneath the service knowing damn well it wouldn’t stay hidden long. This was all my fault and Jake was going to pay the ultimate price.

I had to find him before Trevor did. The problem was that I didn’t know the layout of the building and had no clue where to even start.

Fortunately, luck was on my side, and as I crept around on the hunt for him, Jake found me instead. He grabbed me roughly by the arm and dragged me back to my room.

“Are you insane? Did you not hear a word I said? You need to keep a low profile right now.”

“No, you need to keep a low profile. That’s what I was coming to tell you.”

“Why do you say that?”

“He blames you for the detective snooping about the bodies we buried.”

“Me? I thought he was going to blame you?”

“No, you were responsible for me, remember? I shouldn’t have left him so close to the surface. I knew what I was doing too, but I didn’t care at the time. I wanted them to be found and now he’s going to kill you for it.”

Jake groaned.

“You have to run, Jake. Get out of here while you still can. We’re about to roll out so it would be easy for you to slip away during the madness.”

“Roll out?”

“Yes!” I caught him up to speed with everything I had overheard.

“I’ve got to get word out before they attack.”

“Silas?” I whispered.

“Who else?”

I gulped. “Like in Colorado?” I shuddered at the thought.

“We’re going to get you out safely this time.”

I shook my head. “I can’t leave.”

“Are you insane? Do you have a death wish or something?”

“No, but he’s pulling everyone in together. That will be the best chance we have at truly shutting them down once and for all.”

“What do you mean?”

“He said he’s pulling all resources together in Canada, Jake. Everyone. All remaining sites will converge there for the first time ever. We can finally rescue them all.”

“Shit. Silas is coming, Vada, and he is going to go ape-shit crazy and physically remove you from here if he has to.”

“Then you need to stop him. I have to see this through and there is nothing you can say to convince me otherwise.”

“Please?”

“Nothing,” I said stubbornly.

 

*****

 

Within the hour Trevor had made his big announcement and we were packing up to leave. Jake strategically stayed out of his way. Keeley was nowhere to be seen and when she reappeared later on, she stayed glued to Trevor’s side as if she’d forgotten all about her plans to track down Jake for him.

I kept my head low as well but assisted as usual. Sticking to a routine of normalcy seemed like the smartest plan.

I was in the warehouse docking area where we had first unloaded upon arrival, when a stranger appeared.

“What the hell is going on here?” his voice boomed.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. A few of the prisoners had already been loaded up. I did a quick assessment and relaxed slightly when I saw they were all in their fur at least.

“C-can I help you?” I asked. I had no idea who the man was, but I feared what Trevor would do if he caught him here.”

He whipped out a badge. “Detective Nick Stone. Are you in charge here?”

“N-no sir,” I stuttered. My hands were shaking with nerves.

“Do you want to explain what’s going on here?”

My head was shaking before my brain even realized it.

“I see. Well perhaps you could point me in the direction of whoever is in charge.”

I continued shaking my head. “That’s not a good idea.”

He looked around with worry etched on his face.

“Are you in some kind of trouble here?” he asked softly.

“I will be if he finds you here.”

The tiger in the cage closest to us shifted back into human form. He was about to call out for help when I glared at him.

The detective followed my line of sight and caught a glimpse of the man just before the tiger reappeared. He closed his eyes and then looked harder before shaking his head.

“I really need sleep,” he grumbled under his breath low enough that a human probably wouldn’t even have picked up on it.

“I have some questions for whoever’s in charge here. We’ve had a disturbing find in the area. I saw you have some cameras up around here. I just wanted to see if there was any chance you caught anything on video.”

“We didn’t,” I said. “They aren’t even turned on yet.”

“Are you packing up or unpacking here?”

“Packing up. It’s too hot for the animals,” I lied. “We’re transporting them further north.”

He nodded. He seemed unhappy with my response, but he didn’t argue it either. I began to relax as he turned to leave. Then all hell broke loose.

There was a large ka-boom just outside. Smoke started filtering into the bay. I didn’t wait around to find out who or what was happening. My heart was pounding in my chest, and I immediately kicked into survival mode as I retreated further into the depths.

“You?” I heard the detective’s voice over the noise.

I stalled in my hasty exit confused over who the detective would recognize that was coming to shut us down. That’s when I felt it, the tickling calm that seemed to crawl up my spine all the way through my neck.

Mate!

I tripped over my own two feet at the shock. Jake had warned me he was coming, but a part of me still hadn’t believed it.

“Vada!” Silas yelled.

I was in such shock over hearing my name roll off his tongue that I just laid there as he ran to catch up. All around there was chaos. Those already caged were going crazy. About a dozen men and women entered the building and started working to free them.

As the surprise faded, I turned to action. I jumped up and pushed past Silas despite his growl of disapproval. I had only a short time to move as I grabbed the keys and threw one set to a man and woman attempting to pry a cage open. The second set, a man approached and stilled my shaking hand as I desperately tried to free another.

“I’ve got this. Let us do our job. You just need to go to your mate. He needs you, more than you realize.”

I stared up at him. He was handsome, but smelled a little funny. Wolf. I was certain of it.

A beautiful girl with long dark hair approached him. “Grant, I’ve got this. Some of these prisoners look half starved to death. You’re going to have your work cut out for you with this mission.”

Grant smiled and kissed the lady as he handed over the keys.

She rolled her eyes and got back to work.

He shrugged. “My mate. She’s my entire world.”

Then he disappeared.

“Vada?” Silas spoke from behind me. His voice was soft as if he were terrified to spook me. I cringed, hating that I was causing him pain, but I knew what I had to do, and I was certain he wasn’t going to like it.

I turned around and bumped into a solid wall of muscle.

His arms wrapped around my waist to steady me.

I shivered at his touch.

Mine!

Not yet, I reminded the little voice in my head.

Still, my breath caught at the intense way he was looking at me.

“Hi,” I squeaked.

“We don’t have much time. Before Trevor brings reinforcements, I have to get you out of here.”

I put my hand on his arm to stop him and sadly shook my head. “I can’t.”

He grunted, confirming to me more than almost anything else that he was a gorilla too. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“Trevor is moving the remaining prisoners to Canada. All of them, Silas. That’s our chance to end this once and for all. Not this. Not here. I need you to trust me on this.”

“I can’t leave you behind again. You don’t know what that did to me.”

I could see the darkness in his eyes. I had my suspicions.

My hand went to his cheek as I touched him for the first time. I wasn’t prepared for the spark of electricity that shot through my hand.

“Trust me on this. There are so many more we can save.”

“Please don’t ask this of me.”

His lips pressed firmly against mine before I could respond. I wasn’t certain if it was a kiss or just a clever way to silence me, but then they softened, and I moaned as I melted into him.

My head spun and my knees went weak, but he just held me tighter. It had to be another dream. None of this was real, and yet I had never felt this good or dreamed that kissing a man would make me swoon.

He pulled back and all I wanted to do was pull him to me once more.

“Vada,” he said in a strange voice. “We have to leave now.”

I was vaguely aware of the chaos all around us and then reality came crashing back to me. I looked around as those in cages were freed. They shifted to thank their rescuers and seek additional help as Detective Nick Stone stood in the middle of it all staring in complete shock.