Apollo and Val: #5.5 (Luna Lodge Book 0) (9 page)

“We move out together,” Sol said. “If we start splitting up, we’re fucked.” He looked at the men.

Zeno snorted loudly. “So it’s only okay to separate if we’re getting a little action on the side?”

The younger hybrid’s cocky smile ran right through Apollo.

“Got something you wanna say?” Apollo huffed and stepped up to the man.

“Yeah,” Zeno said. He squared his shoulders and opened his mouth to continue when Sol cut them both off.

“Shut the fuck up, both of you.” He glared at them in turn. “We’ve got a job to do and if you two can’t get it together, I’ll leave both your asses here.”

Apollo’s mouth clamped tight. The last thing he wanted to do was send Val into this shit without him.

Zeno stomped over to the other side of the group, clearly still angry. The little prick had been acting more like an ass every day. Although it wasn’t much of a surprise. Many of the men were having issues with the sausage fest Luna Lodge had become.

It was something Apollo could relate to. It’s not like he hadn’t been a jackass when he thought his chance at a woman had been lost.

He glanced over to Val, who shook her head and slipped her hand into his. His finger bumped her ring, and he couldn’t stop the smile that came to his face.

“Can we move on?” Lucius said, glaring at the group. His patience was wearing thin.

“Val,” Sol said to her. “You have everything you need to get in, right?”

She nodded and took in a breath. He could hear her heart thump wildly in her chest.

“I hack the system and pop the lock,” she said. Her voice only shook a little as she spoke. “Then you hotshots take over. Sound about right?”

Sol grinned at her.

“Something like that,” he said and then looked back at the men. “We keep the lines open and play it loose. Don’t know what we’ll find when those doors open or even the layout, but top-priority is taking out anyone with a gun or the ability to cause problems. The quieter, the better.”

The men all nodded their agreement. Getting their hands on some of the Horatius Group wasn’t looking too bad to most of them. And getting a little personal payback for Dean was at the front of all of their minds.

“Good. Now everyone get loaded. We’re out in ten,” Sol said. He nodded to the men.

Apollo turned to get his pack ready but stopped when Sol stepped toward him.

“I think we need to have a talk,” he said tightly.

Apollo looked over to Val.

“I’ll be right back.”

Her eyes widened with worry as he stepped away.

Sol and Apollo stepped away from the group into the lush jungle.

Sol crossed his arms over his chest and stared hard at Apollo.

“Have something you want to tell me?” Sol asked.

Apollo frowned. “Not particularly.”

“Oh?” Sol said and raised a brow. “Not something about the rock Val is sporting?”

Apollo just shrugged.

“We’re married,” he said.

It was supposed to come out far cooler than it did, but the grin that spread over his face as he said it couldn’t be stopped.

Sol growled at him. The following sucker punch to the stomach was a little more unexpected.

Apollo bent slightly at the force. Just as fast, he wound up and punched Sol in the side.

“What the hell is going on?” Val yelled.

Both men held their sore spots and stared at her in surprise. She had moved in as quietly as she could, but when they started throwing punches, she knew she had to do something.

“Why don’t you ask your idiot brother?” Apollo groaned.

Sol grunted and stared at her.

“You got married?” he said, his voice a little sad.

Val stepped forward and stood directly in front of him, blocking his view of Apollo.

“It seemed like a good moment,” she said quietly.

Sol glared over at Apollo, who had moved to stand behind Val.

“That asshole didn’t force you right?” Sol said.

She could feel waves of anger flare off Apollo.

Val snorted at all the posturing.

“Forced me?” Val said. “Has anyone here known me to do anything I didn’t want to?”

They mumbled their agreement.

“I love him,” she said to her brother but turned to smile at Apollo. When she turned back around, Sol turned his body partially away from her like a sullen child.

Sol grunted. “Would have been nice to be there.”

Her heart reached out to him, and she felt his pain at being left out. It touched her that he even cared enough.

Val reached out and took his hand.

“How about we recreate it when we get back?” She smiled at him.

Sol looked over to her.

She smiled when Apollo placed a hand on her shoulder.

“I agree,” he said quietly. “It wouldn’t be right without family there.”

Sol looked between the two of them and nodded. He gave them a small smile.

“I’d like that,” he said.

Val watched as the two shook hands and then started talking about the mission. As it was, they had all spent far too much time outside their comfort zone.

She shook her head. She’d always wanted a family. Now she was like everyone, crazy family drama and all.

Chapter Thirteen

Val crouched outside the building. She had to admit they concealed it well. Vines and trees blocked any sign of the structure from the sky, and being so deep in the jungle, it wasn’t likely that anyone would just stumble on it. At least not anyone who’d be able to make it out alive.

She pressed a few more buttons and watched as the green light on the outside camera switched to blinking red.

“’Kay,” she whispered. “Camera is down.”

Sol nodded to the team, and they closed in silently.

Val had two specific jobs: hit the camera and hit the doors. One down and one to go.

She snapped off the front panel on the keycard lock and went to work. All she needed to do was link her system and do a complete override.

She licked her lips as the codebreaking software started its job. She could feel the tension of the men around her.

The device chimed loudly when she’d gotten through, and in the blink of an eye, the lock on the large steel door clicked open.

Sol nodded to the first team, which included himself and Lucius. Apollo turned to Val before he was called to bring up the rear.

“Stay out of sight,” he said quickly. “Let these guys handle things if it gets rough.”

She glanced at Zeno and Varius, who both seemed more than a little irritated they had to wait outside.

Val looked back to Apollo and nodded.

“Be careful,” she whispered.

Apollo stared at her for a moment. She could feel his uncertainty about leaving her there.

She jumped when Lucius came stomping around the corner cursing and clearly angry.

“Wha…” She trailed off, not even sure what had just happened.

“Stay here,” Apollo said and quickly walked around the corner to the door.

Val frowned. “Not fucking likely,” she mumbled. She turned to look at the two hybrids behind her. “We going to wait here or see what the hell is going on?”

Zeno gave a wide grin and looked to Varius, who seemed far less happy about disobeying an order.

Val rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I’m going in.”

She moved quickly though the wide metal entrance before either of them could say anything but knew they were following. She could sense their mixture of fear, excitement and anticipation.

Her feet stopped moving of their own volition as a wave of nausea assaulted her.

The stench of death choked the area. There was nothing else that could make that sort of smell. Val put her nose in her arm. It didn’t help. She could only imagine how the hybrids’ sensitive noses were taking it.

“What the fuck?” Zeno said, quietly voicing what they were all thinking.

Step by step she willed her feet to keep doing. There were no bodies. Nothing. Just a hollow warehouse room. Clear and empty, like everything in it had been cleaned out. A few stray pieces of paper littered the ground, but there was nothing else. She lifted her foot off the paper and frowned.

“Dust?”

Whatever had happened, there had been enough time for a layer of dust to settle over. The place had been abandoned.

A weird sensation passed over her, and she frowned as she tried to process it.

Apollo stood in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” he said and looked down at her.

She could hear his words, but something kept pushing them out of her mind. Something was poking her. A feeling she couldn’t quite place. Fear? Anger? Exhaustion?

It was like all of them rolled into one with a bit more she couldn’t name.

Not even paying attention to what was going on around her, Val slipped past her husband. He called to her, but she was focused now.

Val picked up her pace and ran to the other side of the big room. She pushed through. The men shouted her name. The stench only worsened, but she had to know what it was.

She quickly made her way into a new room determined to put some distance between herself and the men. The door slid almost closed and stopped as Apollo caught it.

Worried, he grabbed her arm and turned her to look at him.

“What are you doing?” he said.

She ran out of the room and seemed so far away. Was this some trick by the Horatius Group? Some sort of new mind control weapon?

Val shook her head.

“Something,” she said and looked down the long hall. “Something is down there. I can feel it.”

Apollo dropped his hand from her arm and stared down the hall. He couldn’t hear anything, but that didn’t mean anything. The stench of the place was certainly throwing off his sense of smell.

“What’s down there?” Sol asked from behind him.

Val shook her head.

“I don’t know, but we need to hurry,” she said.

Apollo and Sol looked at one another. He nodded to the hall.

“We better check,” he said.

Sol nodded.

He turned to tell Val to stay there when her tiny hand slipped into his, and he had no choice. She needed him.

They slowly crept down the hall. When they reached the door, Apollo pulled out his gun and pushed Val behind him.

They opened the door, and he shuddered at the smell. If there was someone or something at the end of this, he couldn’t guarantee they would be alive.

He looked back to Val, who pushed him to move forward. Whatever it was had pulled her in.

They stepped into the small corridor. As they rounded the corner, Apollo held back the bile rising in his throat.

Cage after cage. Rows of them lined the walls. Each had just enough space for a single large body, as demonstrated by the dead ones filling them. He had no doubt they were hybrids.

Apollo swallowed as rage and sadness warred in him.

Val let out a little sob. He pulled her close.

“They left them,” she cried. “They just left them here to die.”

He walked along, staring at the cages that held his people. The sight shook him to the core. This could have been the hybrids of Luna Lodge. Hell, it almost was them. They’d just been found in time.

He jumped when Val pushed past him and hurried down the long line of cages. She stopped just outside of one and peered inside.

“He’s alive,” she whispered.

Sol was the first to hear and moved in closer to look at the man.

His chest moved slowly, and Sol jumped back.

Apollo turned to go get help but found several of the men had followed them to the door.

“One’s alive,” he shouted. “Make the call to Titus.”

One of the men nodded.

He watched as Val stood outside another cage.

“Him,” she said and pointed to the man. “He’s alive.”

Each time she pointed out a survivor, his heart leapt with joy.

They may have been late, but at least they weren’t too late for everyone. Every man saved was one more win against the Group. And in the center of all the darkness, that meant something.

Chapter Fourteen

In the end, they’d rescued thirteen survivors. Not quite a victory, as forty men had died in the facility from slow, torturous starvation.

Val watched from the car she leaned on as the hybrids were unloaded from an Army medical transport into the hospital at Luna Lodge. Though they were still frail and on IVs, they looked better than they did in Colombia.

They’d taken a risk extracting the men directly to the United States, but they couldn’t risk sending the men to local facilities. If the Group had a facility in the area, they might have spies there as well.

Vengeance. That’s what they’d get. The Horatius Group just kept stacking up reasons for revenge.

Titus stood to the side and watched the hybrids being transported, his face grim. His pain was a dull ache she could have felt a mile away.

She watched as Apollo helped move them. It seemed the more the new hybrids saw, the less trouble they were. There had already been a few incidents involving the initial medical team.

One of the hybrids had tried to bite a medic and escape. It was only his lack of strength that stopped him.

She jumped when she felt someone standing close to her. She turned and found Rachel.

“I can’t believe you were able to find them like that,” she said.

Val shrugged. She didn’t really think it was the big deal that everyone was saying it was. She felt emotions. It just so happened that maybe she felt death as well. There was no way in hell she wanted to test her theory.

“What will happen to them?” Val asked, somewhat worried they might be locked up like Rem and Justus had been.

Things hadn’t really gone so great with that. One was MIA, and the other was off leading a different group.

Besides, these men hadn’t done anything wrong. They were victims.

“We’ll run some tests and ensure they get healthy again,” Rachel said. She sighed and leaned against the car next to her. “After that, I don’t have much say.”

Val nodded and let out a long sigh. It was a problem for another day.

“How do you feel?” Rachel asked.