“Someone scrubbed his memory,” Atticus tacked on.
My eyes widened. “Vampires were after us? But why?”
Salem gave me a sidelong glance. “Think about it.”
My stomach dropped. “But… how did they find us? We traveled so far, and we were careful.”
Tak folded his arms, his eyes boring through Salem. “If you two had filled me in sooner, I wouldn’t have called the higher authority to get your references.”
Salem fidgeted with his hair tie. “Whoever runs the lab must have connections with the higher authority—someone they paid off for information about me.”
“Should we be talking about this?” I gave Atticus a sidelong glance.
“He knows,” Salem said quietly. “He’s involved now, so we had no choice but to tell him.” After heaving a sigh, he murmured, “I should have changed my name before we arrived.”
I clutched his arm. “I never considered the lab might have spies working for the higher authority. That’s terrifying!”
“Well, another alternative is they had one of their Vampires scrub an official for intel. Maybe a desk clerk was paid off. It doesn’t matter. They found me.”
“You mean us.”
Atticus held an impassive look as he crossed his arms and listened.
“Do they want the baby?” Tak asked.
Salem stepped away from me. “They have no idea we’re together. I didn’t just free Joy that night; I released everyone.”
“What exactly were you doing in those labs?” Atticus inquired, his disapproval thinly veiled.
Salem put his hands in his pockets. “My role was research. I analyzed blood work, X-rays, and a myriad of other tests while writing up the results. Others conducted the experiments, so the left hand never knew what the right was doing. I didn’t interact with or see the patients, but I was curious about them. Not all were Shifters. I assumed they had defects or unique abilities.”
Atticus furrowed his brow to a dangerous degree. “Why would you involve yourself with illegal and immoral practices?”
Salem gave him a cursory glance. “If you don’t mind, this is pack business.”
“I have a relationship with this pack, and I don’t think it’s too much to ask why someone I associate with would involve himself in nefarious activities that include torture. You weren’t under duress.”
Salem’s face flushed with ire. “It paid well. It satisfied my thirst for knowledge.”
Atticus tilted his head to the side. “Still thirsty?”
“Enough.Arguing solves nothing.” Tak braced his palms on the desk behind him. “Who are the Vampires?”
Salem huffed and calmed himself. “They’re the guards.”
Atticus paced, his hands clasped behind his back. “How did you manage to free all those victims without the guards capturing you?”
“Because the medical team didn’t pose a threat, so the guards ignored us. I think there were six, but only three worked inside the facility at a time. They rotated schedules. It took weeks to plan, and one evening I was scheduled to work late—after my coworkers had left.” Salem stared at the floor. “Our job was routine, so the guards were used to us walking the empty halls.”
Tak rubbed his chin. “How did you get the captives past them?”
“They frequently ordered tranquilizers to be sent down, and it was my job to place them in the metal container by the elevator and push the button. They kept the patients downstairs. Since that was one of the few times I could walk down to the elevator area, I hatched a plan.”
This was all news to me. I couldn’t believe he’d planned our release for weeks. I’d always assumed it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“One night,” he continued, “I loaded a modified gun with impalement wood. It wasn’t difficult to do. When I got close enough, I shot the guard in the hall and dragged him into the supply closet. He never saw it coming.”
“If you rarely walked the halls, how did you know where the other guards were?” Tak asked. “Seems like a risk.”
