I stood there numb for a moment. Bronc was right. I knew he was right. Even so, I would not turn into them. “Sweetheart,” I said as I looked up into his beautiful face. “You are right. She has in no way, been the kind of mother she should have been. But I am determined to be a better person than she ever was. And my heart is breaking for her because she is my mother, and because of my actions, however they came about, she is now in danger.” My voice broke as I finished.
He pulled me into his arms. “And that, my precious mate, is one of the reasons I love you so very much. And it’s also the only reason I called my team together to discuss how we can hopefully find her and bring her home safely.”
Then I remembered the other Iron Valor business Bronc had told me about a couple of weeks ago. This is literally the kind of operations and missions they run. I had to give them the opportunity to try to find her. But I also knew that if they didn’t find her quickly, I’d have to contact Harrison myself and offer to trade myself for her. He will kill her otherwise. I had no doubt about that.
Chapter 21
Bronc
Ahazy afternoon light slanted through the compound’s meeting room as we assembled around the long, scarred table, each officer wearing their frustration like armor. Wrecker hunched over his laptop, every muscle coiled. I kept my gaze fixed on him and hoped to hell we finally had a break. “Please tell me you’ve got something new,” I said.
His jaw tightened, fingers stabbing keys with impatience. “I’m in the goddamn dark here, Bronc. Two days and we got jack shit on Harrison. But I’m workin’ other angles.” The scratch of pen against paper filled the silence as I took in the furrowed brows and clenched fists around the table. Nobody liked where this was heading.
“Wrecker,” I pressed, my voice steady even as I felt the same gnawing dread. “Don’t care how you get there, but we need something now.”
He swore under his breath, as close to rattled as I’d ever seen him. “Give me a minute,” he muttered. I watched him hunch further over the screen, fingers quick as his eyes darted with intensity. We were losing ground, and with it, any semblance of control.
I leaned back, crossing my arms as Wrecker continued his furious typing. “This stays quiet till we know more,” I warned, feeling the weight of what needed doing if he didn’t come through.
The room felt smaller by the second, our world closing in. Finally, Wrecker stopped. He ran a hand through his hair, meeting my gaze with grim satisfaction. “All right. Listen up.” His voice cut through the room, every officer’s attention snapping to him with the sharpness of men hungry for direction.
“We hit Harrison’s board members’ servers,” he announced, dark eyes gleaming with both relief and alarm. Harrison Pharmaceutical is researching some big new drug. Got emails.” He went on, his voice gaining strength with each new piece. “Talking about DNA manipulation, performance-enhancing shit. Fuck me. They are trying to synthesize DNA. Fucker’s got a research facility, making some kind of drug. Might be a serum. Who the hell knows? They’re moving fast as possible. Something tells me he’s aware of Juliet’s blood; thus he took Renda instead.”
“That son of a bitch,” I growled, my words echoed by the grim looks of agreement around me. My pulse hammered in my neck, anger mingling with the dread. I had known it was bad, but this was the kind of poison that spread.
Wrecker’s expression was pure bitterness as he closed the lid on his laptop. “Harrison was after Juliet’s bloodline sometime after they got engaged it seems, because this all didn’t start until that time.”
Menace, calm and steady like the eye of a storm, interrupted the silence that followed. “There’s more.” His words dropped like stones, gathering weight. “Fuck me sideways. This all checks. Remember those reports of missing shifters? They were Midwest packs. This guy’s targeting areas from where her ancestors came from. He must have researched her family tree same way we did. Only he started picking people up for their blood. Then maybe some of them sang about other packs to save their own?”
My hands clenched into fists, trying to squeeze the truth from the gaps between what we knew and what we didn’t. “Her family kept their shifter heritage sealed up tight,” I said, disbelief tinged with frustration. “You sure?”
He nodded once, the kind of confirmation that sealed the world into new and darker shapes. “Old lineage. Matches with some of what we pulled in her background check. Nebraska” His eyes swept the room, assessing the reactions.
The murmur of voices rose as we tried to fit the pieces together, but nothing looked right when they settled. My gaze cut through the din and landed on Wrecker. “We have to get into Harrison’s systems. Full-court press,” I ordered. “And now we got names, use ‘em. We’re finding that lab and what they’re making.”
Wrecker nodded, resolute as the rest of us. He’d been in impossible spots before. I knew he’d dig like hell.
Menace’s voice cut in again, an edge of urgency where cool control used to be. “If we’re right about the missing shifters, he might not even be in the States. Overseas connections are popping up.” He left the worst of it unsaid, but we all knew. Once they slipped beyond the borders, the chase would be ten times harder.
“Then look in Central and South America for other legit Harrison Pharma labs. Stands to reason he’d have sway with authorities in those countries. Maybe he’d build anillegitimatelab there, too. Christ, what kind of monsters would be working on something like this?”
Doc looked at me, shaking his head. “The kinds who value money over ethics. And there are plenty of them in this business, brother, I’m sad to say.”
I took the measure of each man in turn, reading fear where it lived behind determination. The boys didn’t have to say it for me to hear them clear as day: this ran deeper than we thought, with tendrils that reached into every one of their lives. I thoughtof Juliet and what she’d run from, and how close this might come again.
Every man at this table might not be a tech wizard, but they damn sure knew how to do research. Arsenal looked me in the eye. “We got your back, Liam. Juliet’s too. This is as much our fight as it is y’all’s.”
JT looked up from his laptop. “What he said.”
Doc reached over with a fist. I touched mine to it. “Brothers.” He said in a growl.
“Brothers.” I returned.
“The second we hear anything, I want to know,” I said, a command with nothing left to question.
They nodded, stiff and focused, needing what little assurance we could offer. Harrison and his operation had already taken too much. We wouldn’t give up anything else. Not if I could help it.
As we started to wrap the meeting, our somber mood only deepened. Menace shot me a hard look, reading every bit of grit and fury I felt.
