“Having been inside one of their facilities before, you were lucky to have gotten out undetected with one.” Bash’s shrewd gaze never left the tiger.
“I can’t say that I’d have tried for more either, if silence, and not a full-on frontal assault, was the means you were using,” Arlo declared, thoughtfully studying the trio. “It remains odd that you should wind up here, at the heart of the resistance against the rogue council.”
“I doubt it is a coincidence that this facility is being targeted the way it’s been,” the elder tiger said. “I believe there is something very specific here that someone is after. Before our arrival, there were three very particular, very targeted attempts on units in this part of the facility.”
“That’s the real reason you were so fierce and growly when you approached me, isn’t it?” Taggart asked with only the slightest bit of hesitation in his voice. “I’ve visited this storage unit many times before and never had a member of security approach me the way you did.”
“It is,” Morrison admitted. “Every unit targeted so far contains computer and electronics components much like the ones you were removing. I feared that perhaps they’d decided to try a ruse by sending someone unexpected in to retrieve what they were after. It set off warning bells, and I reacted harshly. For that, youhave my apologies. My job is to keep this place safe, not harass the customers, as my father and uncle pointed out to me.”
“No, I get it,” Taggart offered, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. “And I appreciate it.”
“After hearing what you just shared about the contents of the units that have been targeted, I share your belief that whoever is responsible is looking for something specific,” Arlo admitted as he reached into his pocket and withdrew his wallet before fishing out one of the cards he and Bash had taken to carrying since they’d become tasked with gathering information about the rogue council. “If you catch them at it, please detain them and contact us immediately. We have a few questions we’d like to ask.”
The elder tiger nodded and held out his hand, accepting the card and glancing down at the information printed on the front before tucking it into his pocket.
“You’re the group that’s been trying to put an end to them,” the elder tiger declared. “Good to know.”
“We’ll leave you to your rounds,” Bash said. “Though a word of caution, some of them have come at us from above. The things they create are also poisonous if ingested.”
“Good to know,” the elder tiger declared, tipping his head back. “But as for the skies, you’ll notice, we’ve got that first part covered.”
When Arlo looked up, it was to see the shadow shape of a fourth big cat on the roof, peering down at them, a grim reminder of how stealthy those Bengals could be.
Silently, Taggart secured his unit, keeping hold of the handful of things he’d pulled out while they’d waited to see if the tigers would engage, while in the back of Arlo’s mind, there was a nagging worry that it could be his boy’s unit the thieves where actively searching for.
What could Taggart have—or know—that they’d keep targeting a place for? And what did that mean for his boy’s safety?
Chapter Eighteen
Taggart
His mind was a mess, he’d picked up Arlo’s worries but acted like he hadn’t. Years Taggart had been working his way through the murky depths of the internet. Into the black sites, retrieving all kinds of information for people who hired him and just because he could.
It was the ‘just because he could’part that was making him worry. The hard drives he had brought home with him initially had been random picks. Yet now behind the closed office door ashe sat at his rebuilt computer away from the conversation Bash, Arlo and some of the other enforcers were having while Soren was in the kitchen baking, he considered maybe a part of him had known he needed to remove them from the storage unit.
The tigers, relaying what they thought the targeted break-ins were after, sent tiny shivers of alarm through him. Were those targeting the storage units looking for something he had? The fluttering in his gut said yes. It had been maybe a year, possibly more, since he’d looked at the hard drives he used to store additional data on. He never worried someone would find them and crack the coding that protected the data. No, he hadn’t.
Until now.
There were things going on that no one suspected could or ever would happen. To hear that they were trapping fated mates sent all kinds of alarm bells through Taggart. He couldn’t imagine someone using his mates against him. Was this connected to the mutant pairs?
His heart bounced against his ribs at the possibilities as he took a ragged breath. Taggart couldn’t recall anything he’d stored on the hard drives that connected to the council. However, he didn’t know then what he knew now. Hadn’t he read somewhere that one of the drug manufacturing companies was developing something to allow the scent of true mates to become enhanced, increasing the chance of finding them quicker? He’d felt a little excited about it when he’d mined that nugget, except he didn’t enjoy being injected, so he’d not given it any more thought.
Fresh eyes might reveal something he’d not been looking for prior. His squirrel brain fired off like an electrical storm showering him with possibilities. Only one stood out after everything that they’d learned about the abominations they’d created—in pairs. Fated pairs. Had they made fated pairs? Created mates that weren’t fated at all? Or was it they’dharnessed the mating scent of certain animals to draw their mates and make them…
His eyes widened as he stared at the black boxes he held, his pulse joining in the electrical storm as it bounded harder in his veins.
His habit was to put his secondary finds on the internet routing the information through several countries using multiple VPNs so as not to be traced. It wasn’t often, but when his mind wouldn’t settle after an awful discovery, he’d go on a mini crusade with outing the bad guys. He just told no one because it was his little secret, and part of the reason he’d said yes to Cosmo when he’d asked to help. Taggart could freely admit he enjoyed feeling as if he were a secret superhero of sorts.
Fuck.
Fuckkkkk.
His gaze roamed his office searching for hidden dangers. The space, though nearly back the way he had it before, still contained broken parts of the computer he’d salvaged. He was careful. But someone had to know it was him who could find answers in the dark places people liked to hide? Is that why they’d come to his house—because they couldn’t figure out what storage unit Taggart used? How did they know he had a storage unit?
Was he jumping to conclusions?
He didn’t think so. That gave him an icy feeling in his gut. He thought they were just getting somewhere, now there was this. He released a shuddering breath, then inhaled trying to stop the feeling of his chest being crushed.
