He and the others raced up the four flights of stairs after Adam, weapons drawn. But by the time they got to the main level, Frasier and the other men were gone. Out on the street, people were screaming. Clayne, Danica, Dreya, Braden, Angelo, and Minka took off after Frasier and his buddies, but Trevor instinctively knew it was a waste. The assholes were almost certainly in vehicles disappearing into the crowded DC traffic.
Besides, there were injured people to worry about.
He and the others checked the four shifters lying on the floor. The three guys were dead from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, but the woman was still alive.
“Her pulse is weak, but it’s there,” Alina announced.
Ivy was already on her phone, calling for an ambulance.
A commotion from down the hall suddenly caught Trevor’s attention.
“Shit,” he muttered.
Jumping to his feet, Trevor ran down the hall to the room where Cree and Boo had been, Alina at his heels.
He slid to a halt when he saw John kneeling on the floor, his wife in his arms. Cree had been shot, but she was alive…barely. John’s face was as pale as a ghost as he leaned over so she could whisper something in his ear. Morgan stood protectively nearby, looking just as torn up as John.
A moment later, Zarina wedged her way between him and Alina, hurrying to Cree’s side. Trevor only prayed there was something the Russian doctor could do. There was a lot of blood. Boo had nearly lost her father, and now she might lose her mother. For real, this time.
Trevor frowned. Where was Boo anyway?
He and Alina looked around the room, under tables, in closets, anywhere the little girl might be hiding. Trevor tried to pick up her scent, but it was harder than it should have been. It wasn’t that her scent was cloaked like the hidden shifters, but every time Trevor thought he had a lock on her, it would disappear again.
“They took her,” John said.
Trevor turned and saw John staring around in near shock, his shirt and hands covered in his wife’s blood. He was still kneeling on the floor, Cree in his lap, her eyes closed, her body limp. For a moment, Trevor was sure she was dead. Then he heard a heartbeat. It was so faint, he almost missed it. But she was trying to hold on.
“It was Frasier and his men,” John said quietly. “Cree heard them say they used traffic cameras to track Declan, Kendra, and the others from the bed-and-breakfast. They thought they’d ambush everyone but left when they couldn’t find anyone.”
Ivy dropped to her knees beside John. “What about Boo?”
John’s eyes were wet with tears. “When Frasier shot Cree, Boo shifted and attacked Frasier. The fucking bastard knocked her unconscious, then told one of his men to take her. That Thorn’s doctors might want to experiment on her.”
Trevor stared, stunned. They’d all gone through their first change during their mid to late teens. Boo was barely ten. It shouldn’t have been possible for her to shift.
He was still trying to wrap his head around that when Declan came in with the injured girl from the front room so Zarina could monitor both of them. Then they all stood there while Adam tried to convince John that Cree was going to make it—and that they’d get Boo back.
“We’ll worry about Thorn and his hybrids later,” Adam said firmly. “Boo comes first.”
John looked like he was going to say something, but then Minka came in leading the paramedics and their gurneys.
“There are a lot of cops out there,” she whispered to Trevor. “Angelo, Landon, Clayne, and Danica are trying to control the situation, but this is going to get complicated fast.”
Telling Alina he’d be back, Trevor went outside to help. With the wall to the secret command center back in place, the loft appeared to be nothing more than an office that had been shot up by a bunch of crazies.
Outside, he took lead selling that exact story to the cops, telling them men with automatic weapons had shot up the place while he and the other Homeland operatives had been in a nearby office holding a budget session. The fact that neither Trevor nor any of the other operatives had fired a round only supported the story.
A few minutes later, the paramedics rushed out with two gurneys. Cree and the small, hidden shifter had oxygen masks on their faces. John hurried after, followed by Adam and Morgan.
“I have to go with her,” John told Adam. “Cree…might not make it. I need you to get Boo back and stop Thorn.”
Adam opened his mouth to protest, but John cut him off. “If you don’t stop him, there could be millions of deaths. We can’t let that happen.”
Without another word, John climbed into the ambulance with Cree and pulled the door shut behind him. Morgan stared after the disappearing taillights, his face ashen. But then he took a deep breath, regained his composure, and turned to face Adam.
“You stop Thorn,” he said. “I’m with whichever team is going after Boo.”
Adam nodded.
