Salem scratched his beard. “Workers talk. I knew where they were located, but we didn’t know what went on in the basement. They placed a guard at the elevator on both levels. Since the downstairs medical team wore white lab coats, I put one on and headed down. As soon as the doors opened, the guard didn’t know what hit him. I dragged his body into the first room I found and hurried to the labs.”
Atticus crossed the room to a corner chair. “You weren’t worried about security systems or alarms?”
“No. I’d been down there once before while helping with a large container. They didn’t let the guards leave their station to help with anything. I’d been curious about the patients and wanted to see them. It was always my understanding we were doing good work—curing defects. Nothing prepared me for what I saw.”
Atticus suddenly lifted the heavy chair with one hand and carried it toward us. Then he set it down by the wall and gestured for me to sit. “You should get off your feet. It’s been a harrowing day.”
My sore feet did need a break, so I sat and quietly listened, stunned to hear the particulars. Salem never wanted to talk about the lab or rescue in detail.
Salem crouched and then sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall. “The first time I went down there, I thought the patients would have their own rooms. They kept them locked in cages and chained. You could smell the fear in the air. No one asked for help, but their eyes—I’ll never forget that vacant look.” He put his head in his hands, and I wanted to comfort him.
Yet another part of me wanted to scream and yell.
“I was on a need-to-know basis. Once I put the pieces together, I had to do something.”
“What about the third guard?” Atticus asked.
Salem rubbed his eyes. “He was in the room with the patients. I tucked the modified gun in my pants and walked in as if I’d been in that room a thousand times. The night crew didn’t know the daytime workers, so he assumed I was one of them. I had to work fast. When he turned his back to use his phone, I impaled him and locked him in one of the cages. After I freed the patients, most ran off. Joy’s wolf was too weak to fight, so I carried her out, which was no easy feat. Two patients rode withus, but they eventually returned to their families. Joy was the only one who stuck close because of the pregnancy.”
Atticus dipped his chin. “Did you kill the Vampires?”
“No.”
“Mistake.”
Tak cursed. “If they don’t know Joy’s here, they’ll find out soon enough. Did they have her name?”
Salem shook his head. “I doubt it. She was always in wolf form, so the workers and guards never saw her face. The paperwork only listed numbers for patient names. They didn’t care about anyone’s identity. She was just a lab rat to them, and knowing their identity could be a liability if a Vampire on the outside ever charmed one of the workers.”
Atticus stood by my chair on the right. “She’s not safe here.”
“Neither is Salem,” I pointed out, looking at the man who had pretended to be my mate so I could have a new life. “Why are they doing this?”
Salem’s head thumped against the wall. “Because they won’t stop until I’m dead. We learned a lot of information in there, and it would’ve been difficult to scrub that from our memories without doing a full memory wipe. It’s safe to assume that nobody ever leaves places like that alive. There’s no retirement plan. As long as I’m alive, I’m a liability to their cause.”
I stroked my neck nervously. “You need a safe place. I couldn’t bear the thought of anyone hurting you.”
“It’s too late for that.” Tak admired a stone on Hope’s desk before setting it back down. “If they know he’s in Storybook, they’ll find out soon enough that he’s with my pack. They won’t know if he leaves town unless he hangs a flag announcing it from his car, and that would sign his death warrant. Sneaking him out under the cloak of darkness leaves me with one less wolf to defend our home. They’re coming for us.” Tak rolled his shoulders and then rubbed his neck. “I’ll send Hope to stay withher father. The other women can decide with their mates if they wish to fight or flee, but I know them—they’re warriors.”
I put my hand on my forehead and worried we might not get out of this unscathed.
“If they find out about Joy, they won’t stop until they have her,” Atticus pointed out. “One can only assume that babies were the goal of their experimentation. They’ll kill him and take her. I won’t stand for that. She’s safer with me. I can protect her.”
Tak’s features hardened. “Are you implying I can’t?”
“At what cost?” Atticus shifted his stance. “I can offer absolute protection.”
Tak crossed his arms. “Convince me.”
“You can’t lie to Vampires. Those men will charm the information out of you and find out she was part of the experiments. No one here knows where I reside, so that gives her safety. If you send her with your mate, that could bring danger to Hope’s former pack. You’re Native, and you come from warriors. But this isn’t a large tribe. Your people have the option of choosing whether to defend their lives or flee, but Joy doesn’t have that choice. She can’t fight.”
Tak’s nod implied that Atticus made a fair argument.
“You can’t be serious.” I turned my attention to Salem. “He’s not serious, is he? I can’t stay with a Vampire. Absolutely not!”
Tak lowered his arms and pushed away from the desk. “Atticus is right. Salem left behind witnesses, and we don’t know if any of them were captured and questioned. They might suspect he’s still looking after one or more of the captives.”
“Then I’ll stay here.”
