“I can’t smell them,” she said softly. “They’re upwind, so I should be able to.”
Trevor looked perplexed by that. “Did John and Adam send you?” he asked the newcomers.
The slim girl smiled. “Yes. They said you’d need our help.”
Braden listened in disbelief as Trevor explained what had happened in the psychiatric facility, horrified not only by the situations that had put these two kids in a mental institution for life, but by the experiments that had been conducted on them. The worst thing was, it was likely that no one would ever be punished for it. Mahsood had escaped, and no one would ever be able to pin this on Thorn or the other Committee members. They were too powerful.
“Ian, I want you to go with these two people,” Trevor said to the kid. “They’ll make sure you’re safe and taken care of.”
The hybrid looked at the girl in his arms questioningly. “What will happen to Brooklyn?”
“I don’t know,” Trevor admitted. “But I do know that no one will ever try to separate the two of you again.”
Giving Trevor a nod, the slim woman and huge bull of a man turned and walked away with Ian and Brooklyn.
“What do we do now?” Dreya asked.
“We head to the airport, get out of here, and hope that Ivy and Landon are able to resolve their side.”
* * *
“Frasier?” Landon asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Thorn’s head of security turned to give Ivy and Landon a glare that could have melted the paint off a car as they walked into Mahsood’s research lab. When they’d met up with Dreya thirty minutes ago, she’d given them a rundown on what had happened up here, but Ivy still couldn’t help shuddering a little at the sight of the exam tables, medical instruments, and metal cages.
The local cops and feds had arrived a little while after everything had gone down and were trying to make sense of what had gone on at Stillwater. Ivy and Landon hadn’t filled them in, and she assumed Frasier hadn’t either.
Frasier walked over to them, a pissed-off look on his face. “Where have you two been?”
“We were out hunting the hybrid that escaped, like your boss Thorn wanted us to do,” Landon said. “We would have had him, too, if you and your goons hadn’t started World War III. It spooked the creature so much, he bolted and headed north. He’ll probably be in Canada by morning because of your dumb ass.”
Frasier sneered. “You expect me to believe that you’ve been hunting a hybrid since Friday and only now got close to him?”
Landon’s eyes narrowed, making Ivy wonder if he really was pissed or just pretending. Regardless, time for her to tag in.
“How did you know exactly when the hybrid escaped? We never told Thorn that,” she said. “Unless you’ve been up here the whole time. And if you were up here, why the hell didn’t you try to help us catch the hybrid?”
“Unless you were just more interested in shooting up a mental institution full of patients?” Landon jabbed. “How’d that work out for you, Frasier? You got anything to show for all the dead people we saw downstairs?”
Frasier looked like he wanted to punch Landon right there in front of the whole room full of cops. But then he swallowed his anger and glowered at them in disgust. “We got nothing. Mahsood is gone, the guards destroyed all his research when our attack stalled, and the test subjects in here,” he said, pointing at the three body bags lined up on the floor, “were obvious failures. Without that hybrid, this whole thing was a waste.”
Landon shrugged. “Feel free to head north. Canada is a big country. But if you work hard, you might find him in thirty or forty years.”
Frasier didn’t reply, but the look of hatred he gave them said all it needed to say. If Ivy and Landon didn’t have to watch their backs around him before, they almost certainly would now.
Chapter 19
Dreya rode slowly up and down on Braden’s cock, refusing to move any faster, even though she was oh so close to coming. Pleasure this good couldn’t be rushed. The waiting just made it better. Braden lay underneath her on their bed—she definitely thought of it as their bed now—holding her hips to help guide her in a perfect rhythm. He wasn’t in a rush, either—even if his teeth were grinding together audibly in an effort to hold back his own release.
It was after three thirty in the morning, and they’d only gotten home from the airport fifteen minutes ago. By rights, they should be sleeping, but the moment they’d gotten to his apartment, he’d pulled her into his arms for a kiss, and what had started out as a sweet display of affection had turned into something more, and their clothes had hit the floor.
Maybe it was the fact that they’d just made it through something so insane, or maybe it was simply because they needed to show each other how much they cared. Either way, there was no putting their passion off until later.
Leaning forward, she moved her hands from where they’d been on her thighs and placed them on his chest, her claws gliding gently across his pec muscles. Braden let out a husky sound of approval, and she scratched harder.
Dreya picked up on the sudden increase in Braden’s heart rate, felt his shaft stiffen even more than it already had been, saw those gorgeous abs clenching tighter, and she knew he was close to coming.
She stopped teasing and sat down hard on him, gasping as he buried himself deep inside her. She’d been on the edge of climax for the past five minutes, and this one single thrust was enough to tip her over the edge. Braden’s hands on her hip tightened, and she let him take over, following his lead and riding him to orgasm. When she scratched him a little harder as she came, he thrust up into her even deeper, coming with her in a long, loud groan that made her pleasure more intense.
