“Some, I guess,” Ivy admitted. “In reality, he’s been a little out of control since he turned seventeen. It was like a switch flipped. I barely recognize him as the same person he used to be when we were kids.”
Brand nodded. “I’m not going to try and make any firm diagnosis without meeting your brother, but based on what I’ve read in his charts and Gail has already tried, it seems likely we’re dealing with a chemical imbalance brought on by the changes Miles went through as he was moving into adulthood. If that’s the case, I think I might be able to help him.”
Ivy let hope dawn on her face. “You do?”
“No promises, but I’d like a chance to spend time with Miles so I can put him through some of my therapy sessions and drug protocols.”
Landon gave Ivy’s hand a squeeze, his eyes bright with excitement. “We could have him here tomorrow.”
Ivy nodded enthusiastically.
“That would be fine.” Brand gave her an apologetic look. “I hate to discuss topics like this when it’s your brother’s health that’s really important, but I’m sure you understand that this is a private facility. Treatment here can be very expensive, and Miles would need to spend a considerable amount of time with us.”
“Money isn’t an issue. If you can help my brother, I’ll pay whatever it takes,” Ivy said. “But before I commit my brother, I want to make sure he’ll be well taken care of. I’d like to have a tour of the facility.”
Brand hesitated for a moment, then smiled. “Of course. I can take you on a tour of the facility myself.”
* * *
“Are you sure you smelled hybrids in there?” Landon asked Ivy.
They’d come from the tour of Stillwater and were sitting in their rental car outside the front entrance.
She nodded. “I’m sure. Just outside the big metal door Brand claimed led to the isolation ward. It wasn’t very strong, and the scent was completely different from any other hybrid I’ve smelled before, but it’s definitely a hybrid of some kind. Unfortunately, we have more problems than just a new variant of hybrid we’ve never gone up against.”
Landon snorted. “You mean beyond the fact that there’s no way in hell we’re ever going to be able to break into that damn isolation ward without a SWAT team?”
“Yeah, beyond that,” she said drily. “There’s a shifter in there, too. And while I couldn’t tell for sure, I think it’s a woman.”
The memory of what another set of twisted doctors looking to make hybrids had done to her—and a sweet Tajik girl named Minka Pajari-soon-to-be-Rios they’d captured—made Ivy want to go into Stillwater right now and tear apart Mahsood and whoever else was working with him. But giving in to her inner shifter and storming the place without a plan would be reckless and stupid.
Landon cursed. “Shit. Now we not only have to get into the isolation ward to see if Mahsood is behind the research but to get that shifter out of there, too.”
Ivy chewed on her lip. “It’s not the orderlies on guard duty I’m worried about. It’s the patients outside the isolation ward. Brand said some of them are allowed to wander freely around the common areas, even at night. How do we get past them?”
She’d expected Brand to show them one or two rooms on the tour, maybe let them poke their heads in on a group session, then quickly shuffle them out the door. But outside of the scary-sounding isolation ward, which he claimed was set aside for patients who needed to be protected from unnecessary external stimuli, he’d taken them anywhere they’d wanted to go. They’d spent almost an hour in there, and Ivy was sure they hadn’t seen even a quarter of the place. But what they had seen scared the hell out of her. There was something unsettling about seeing all those patients with no expression on their faces. It was like they were robots.
“We’re going to have to put someone on the inside,” Landon said. “And with Brand eagerly waiting for you to decide if this place is right for your brother, that gives us the perfect opportunity.”
Ivy’s first instinct was to say hell no. The thought of putting anyone into that environment freaked her out. Who knew what kind of drugs or medical treatments their operative might have to endure once they went undercover?
But what choice did they have? A shifter was in there, one who was almost certainly in trouble. There was nothing to say the hybrid with her wasn’t in trouble, too.
Besides, they had to figure out exactly what Mahsood was doing and whom he was working for, because it sure as hell wasn’t Thorn. Was it Rebecca Brannon or Xavier Danes, or some new player on the Committee they didn’t know about yet?
“So who do we send in?” she asked Landon. “Whoever it is has to be able to pull off the part of my brother. And have experience working undercover.”
Landon drummed the steering wheel with his fingers. “How about Clayne?”
Ivy gave her husband a look.
“What?” he said. “Clayne could definitely pull off unstable and completely lacking in impulse control.”
She couldn’t argue with that. “Did you miss the part where I said whoever we send in there needs to be good undercover? I love Clayne like crazy, but he’d start a scene five minutes after we sent him in there. Some doctor would want to take his blood pressure, and Clayne would end up wrapping the arm cuff around the guy’s throat and pumping the bulb until he passed out. That or go into full shifter mode in front of a group session of precariously balanced people, thereby ensuring they stayed in therapy for the rest of their lives.”
Landon chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right. Subtle investigation has never been his strong suit. How about Angelo? I’d rather send a shifter in there, but I know he can keep his cool under pressure.”
Ivy shook her head. “He and Minka are in London doing some kind of hostage rescue training. Besides, I don’t think Minka is ready for him to go undercover on a mission like this yet. She’d freak out when she figured out what kind of place it is.”
