Cole’s Redemption (19 page)

“I don’t know.” Tarron’s jaw clenched in barely concealed anger. “But we’ll find them
and make them pay. Especially Darrow.”

“Cut off the head of the snake,” Jax put in, clearly seething as well. “I’m going
to enjoy watching Darrow writhe on the ground.”

She gave a humorless laugh. “Not if I get to him first.”

Icy-cold purpose flowed through Selene’s veins. She was going to find her mate and
her dad, and then she was going to gut Darrow like a trout.

You hear me, my mate? I’m coming.

Still no answer. But she wouldn’t fall apart yet. She’d know if either of them were
dead; she was convinced of that.

She held on to that knowledge. Because if she didn’t, she’d go insane.

•   •   •

Zan awoke to the strange sensation that his arms and legs weighed a ton. He could
barely move them, and when he did, he heard a metallic rattling sound. Opening his
eyes, he blinked and then squinted, letting his eyes adjust to the gloom. When he
did, he knew he was fucked.

He was in a large chamber, chained to a wall. He’d been left sitting, and he supposed
he should be thankful considering that across the dim space, Nick had been left hanging
by his wrists, toes just barely grazing the floor.

“Nick?” he called, voice rasping. “Nick, wake up.”

His heart lurched when a figure stepped from the shadows and crossed to him with preternatural
speed, striking him on the side of his face. His head snapped back against the wall,
making his vision swim. “I was just making sure he’s alive, asshole,” he growled.

“Shut up.”

Another blow landed on his face, and his jaw began to throb. This time he held silent,
but he glared daggers at the rogue, who was enjoying their torment.

“A feisty one, huh? The boss loves the ones who fight.” He smirked. “He’ll have a
lot of fun breaking you, for sure. But that will have to wait until he’s dealt with
Westfall. Long time comin’, that one. A little revenge served with his evening wine.”

Zan tried to think of the rogue as a caricature. A bad joke that would be gone any
second, soon forgotten. But the cackle the creature let out was hair-raising, making
goose bumps prickle on his skin. It was the sound of a mind three-quarters gone, reminding
him of a hamster trying to run on a broken wheel.

Just then Nick groaned, saving him from forming a response that likely would’ve gotten
him hit again. He didn’t want their attention shifted to Nick either, but any hope
of putting it off was dashed when Carter Darrow entered the chamber.

Zan’s first thought was that the vampire looked sophisticated. As though he had just
finished dinner at the country club with a few wealthy friends. His suit was expensive
and well tailored, his shoes no doubt an equally pricy brand. The vampire’s face was
chiseled, good-looking for anyone who went for that sort of
I’m-too-good-for-you
attitude, he supposed—and the rotten fucker had attitude in spades.

That much was apparent by how he walked and carried himself. Just like on the video
feed, he had his head back, so that he appeared to be looking down his nose at you
from under his lashes. His ash-blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing
a fresh scratch on his cheek, which ran to his neck.

Zan studied the scar and a plan began to germinate. He just hoped he was able to put
it into action.

“I see I have
two
of you availing yourselves of my hospitality,” he said, his voice oozing with cultured,
urbane charm. “A bonus.”

The male had been rogue for more than twenty years. How had he managed to forestall
the level of insanity exhibited by his underlings? Or did he simply mask it better?
Probably the latter.

“Not by choice,” Zan informed him. “Personally, I’m not happy to be missing another
episode of
Ghost Hunters
.”

Darrow laughed, revealing straight, white teeth. “I think I like you, wolf.”

“Funny. The sentiment isn’t returned at all. No hard feelings.”

“Hmm.” The vampire studied him, crossing his arms casually over his chest. “I think
what—or who—you’re really missing is your mate. Nick’s daughter, the prey that should’ve
been mine.”

Horror seized his throat and his head began to pound. In that instant, he knew why
he’d been kidnapped along with Nick. “How did you know what she is to me?”

“Same way I know everything. I have sources.”

“Who?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Nick put in, voice groggy.

“Ah, you’re awake!” Darrow looked pleased about that. “And answers you shall have.
It’s the least I can do for you before you die. What would you like to know?”

Nick shot him an incredulous look. “Seriously? Why did you go after my daughter back
then? She was just a little girl.”

Darrow shrugged. “She was so pretty, she caught my notice. And I was hungry. I made
a bit of a game out of stalking her. It was pure sport.”

Anger and disgust suffused Nick’s expression. “Sport? Hunting
children
?”

“What’s the big deal? Hunters shoot doves and deer all the time, fix them for the
dinner table, and no one blinks. Yes,
sport
.”

“That’s nowhere near the same thing. That’s monstrous,” the commander spat.

“I didn’t succeed anyhow, but your mate was a nice consolation prize.” He smiled as
though in fond memory. “Did you know even as rogues, we can choose to make our bite
pleasurable? Bet you thought we lost that ability when we crossed the line, but the
truth is, we just don’t bother to use seduction very often.”

“And you’re telling me this because?”

“I made your mate orgasm several times . . . before I killed her.”

If the chains had been any metal but silver, Zan had no doubt Nick would have ripped
out of them as though they were made of paper. As it was, he lunged against his bonds
and snarled his rage, his wolf so close to the surface it was painful to witness.

While the vamps continued to laugh and taunt Nick, Zan took stock of his own injuries.
His back was sore from the blast, and he had a few cuts and scrapes. The most worrying
thing was the pressure in his head, building steadily into an awful headache. The
stabbing kind where it felt like a knife was twisting in his brain. This was going
to be a bad one, like nothing he’d ever experienced, and he knew what it meant.

The blast and blow to his head had hurt him, inside. He was in real trouble.

Somehow, Nick managed to keep the men talking and learn their secrets.

“Why come for me now, after all this time?” he demanded.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Darrow casually stepped to a table sitting against
one wall, close to Nick, and fingered something lying on it. From his sitting position,
Zan couldn’t see what it was. “Come on, Westfall,
think
. I’m savoring my revenge for your interference in my plans to savor your precious
daughter, but do I strike you as the sort who’d go too far out of my way to get it?”

“No,” Nick said slowly, eyes narrowed. “Not unless there was something more in it
for you. My guess is money, flowing from whoever is keeping you in Armani suits.”

The vampire’s fangs flashed as he laughed. “There now, was that so hard? Care to further
guess who I’m working for, and why they have such a stiffy when it comes to seeing
you burn?”

“I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s probably the same asshole in the government who
is privy to our movements and keeps feeding them to you.”

“
Ding-ding
, right again!”

God, this fucker was crazy.

“So who is the traitor, Darrow?” Nick pressed. “Who’s behind the ambushes on my team?
Who needs the Alpha Pack dead and gone? The White House? The president himself?”

“No. The tentacles don’t extend quite as far as the president. But close.” The vampire
studied his nemesis thoughtfully for a moment. “Your Alpha Pack was set up to be attacked
in Afghanistan when they were still Navy SEALs, turned into wolf shifters, then recruited
to become the Alpha Pack before you ever knew they existed, and then betrayed time
and again. By whom? And why? You may as well have your curiosity satisfied before
I kill you.”

Zan waited, hardly breathing as Darrow circled the room, obviously deciding where
to begin. Finally, after six years of wondering, it seemed they were going to learn
the truth about the Alpha Pack and the worst of the challenges they’d been dealing
with since.

“As you may have surmised by now, the formation of the Alpha Pack was a planned operation
all along. The US government had somehow learned about the rogue werewolves in Afghanistan
and placed a team there, purposely in harm’s way, to let nature take its course.”

“Then what August Bradford told us is true,” Nick said.

“Ah, the good scientist. He’s quite dead, you know. My boys were called upon to dispatch
the man after he escaped your team.”

Zan winced at the news, feeling bad for Daria, Ryon’s mate. Bradford was her uncle,
and the news that he was one of those behind the experimenting on shifters had been
hard on her.

“I can’t say I’m disappointed by that news,” Nick said dryly.

“I imagine not. Anyway, the circle of those in the know about the Alpha Pack project
from its inception was quite small. One member of the White House cabinet, one higher-up
in the CIA, and one general.”

“Jarrod Grant?”

If Jarrod, Nick’s best friend, had been involved in the attack in Afghanistan, it
would kill Nick. Plain and simple.

“No. He was brought in afterward as the handler of the team and told only what he
needed to know.”

“You mean lied to.”

“Of course. Now, things went all right in the first couple of years,” Darrow said.
“The Alpha Pack emerged exactly as the little government group had hoped—top-secret
military fighters who were shifters with special Psy abilities, battling the paranormal
bad guys. Truth, justice, and the American way, blah, blah. Makes me want to sing
the fucking national anthem.”

Nick ignored the caustic remark. “So what went wrong?”

Darrow turned, his smile chilling. “The head of the government circle pulling the
strings from the start, our very own secretary of state, Owen Matthews, was approached
by a certain Unseelie king named Malik.”

Oh fuck. And there’s where it all went to shit.

“And the rest, as they say, is history.” Darrow picked up the object from the table
and unfurled it. A rawhide whip. “Matthews and his circle were bad enough for the
nefarious methods they used in forming the Alpha Pack. But they never stood a chance
against the persuasion of a dark creature like Malik, and soon scientists were hired,
labs built for the purpose of experimenting on shifters and humans. Malik wanted to
integrate himself into society, posing as a rich human entrepreneur while creating
a race of super-soldier shifters with Psy abilities to be his own personal army. He
wanted to rule the world.”

“But we stopped him,” Nick finished. “Destroyed the labs and came too close to the
truth. And now Matthews is trying to sweep all of his shit under the rug—including
the Alpha Pack.”

“Exactly. He approached me to accomplish just that, and in return he set up a team
of scientists in Washington to create special drugs for paranormals. They produce
several types that target different areas, most important, to make already aggressive
vampires turn rogue and to allow them to walk in the daylight.”

“Matthews wanted one last shot at creating a fighting force he could control.” Nick
laughed grimly. “What an idiot. My Pack consists of good men, heroic men, who’d do
anything for their country and fellow man. They’d battle any creature anywhere to
save even
you
, Darrow, but Matthews is so short-sighted he’d see them destroyed to save face.”

“That’s about right.”

“What’s he paying you? I have contacts that can see the figure doubled if you help
us bring him down.”

Darrow looked shocked for a moment, then shook his head. “It’s not
all
about the money. I have power now.”

“Not for long. He’ll see you all dead as well to save himself, and you’re a fool if
you don’t realize it.”

The vampire’s gaze hardened. “And this is where our conversation ends, Westfall. I’m
finally a part of something big, and I won’t allow you or anyone else to stand in
my way. You’re done.”

“Not yet.” Nick gave him a feral grin. “You think I’m going to die here, in your sorry
excuse for a home?”

“That’s precisely what’s going to happen. I’m going to kill you right under Prince
Tarron’s regal nose, another perk of my revenge. I love sticking it to that pompous
bastard whenever I can, and I’m going to enjoy dumping your body on his doorstep.”

“Really? You’re either ballsy or extremely stupid to make your home base so close
to the prince’s stronghold.”

Nick’s gaze flicked briefly to Zan and away again. Heart racing, Zan listened, hoping
the commander could wrangle a bit more information from Darrow.

“I’ve been here for almost a year, and he never suspected,” Darrow bragged. “We would’ve
attracted too much attention if we’d moved into a regular home in some neighborhood.
But nobody pays much mind to new tenants in a formerly empty office complex, especially
if it’s in an area with some traffic.”

“Clever,” Nick mused without humor. Another glance at Zan sent the message:
Tell Selene. Get us help.

“I thought so.” He gave the whip a loud snap, then nodded to his minion hovering nearby.
“Turn him to face the wall and then get out of my way unless you want the same.”

As the rogue repositioned Nick in his chains and stripped off his shirt, Zan opened
the mind link with his mate.

Baby?
To his relief, she was waiting.

Oh, God! Honey, where are you? Tarron and his men, the Pack, everyone is looking for
you and Dad!

Sweetheart, listen to me carefully. Darrow is holding us in a building he claims is
very near Tarron’s stronghold. It sounds like this place is in the nearest town, in
an area where there are other businesses, so their comings and goings don’t stand
out too much.