Kate Allenton (6 page)

    
“They are
all
still alive,
are they not?”

    
Cathy shook her head. “No thanks to you.”

    
Black chuckled. “My dear soon-to-be daughter, I’ll let you in on a secret.”

    
“Oh, I’d love to hear this.”

    
“I put the wheels in motion long ago, when Lydia Stevens lost her aunt.”

    
Cathy shrugged. “What does Lydia have to do with me?”

    
“When Lydia showed up at the compound with her bodyguard, Butch, I knew it was just a
matter of time. Butch and Ethan are old military buddies, and more than that, they are friends.

Ethan is loyal to a fault when it comes to his friends. So when Gracie went undercover in search of
my serum…” He leaned over and whispered, “which I planted by the way, she realized she was in
over her head and called in the cavalry.” He chuckled. “That would be you, my dear. Well, Tara,
Ethan, and you. Even though Ethan and you were destined to meet, I moved up the timetable to
suit my needs. Believe me or not, I set this in motion, and it’s taken several years for it to play out,
but here you are.”

     
“Bullshit. There is no way you could have known that Tara and I would show up. You had no
influence in my decisions. I made those decisions by myself, with no input from you or anyone
else.”

     
Black grinned. “Did you? Are you sure about
that?
Or did I know you would charge in to take
care of your friend and save the day? It’s in
your blood, just
like your overactive genes that fight off
the flu. Now, that’s something I look forward to researching. How is it that you never get sick?”

     
How in the hell did the asshole know about
that?
Had her doctors breeched the patient privacy
act? She shook the thought from her head as not important while sitting across from the maniac.
Her immune system genes that could fight off the
flu
weren’t going to help her fight off the maniac
if he attacked. Cathy crossed her arms over her
chest.
“How did you know that Ethan and I are…”
She tapped her chin. “What did you call it… that
we’re
mates?”

     
Cathy smiled triumphantly, knowing he wouldn’t have an answer for that question.

     
When Black’s grin grew, she knew she wasn’t
going
to like his answer. He reached into his
topcoat, pulled out a piece of paper, and slid it across
the
table. “He had a dream about you when he
was younger, and he drew that.”

     
Cathy picked up the paper, and it was all she
could
do to conceal her surprise. She gulped
around the knot forming
in her throat. It was a hand-drawn picture of her. It
was perfect; it captured
her features down to the small birthmark on her neck. She looked happy in the picture. Standing
slightly in front of her was a big black wolf with his teeth bared. Her hand was on the wolf’s fur.

     
Cathy glanced up. “And what is this supposed to mean?”

     
“That you are his mate.”

     
“Or….that he is my friend and protecting me.”

     
Black chuckled. “When he was ten and showed me the picture, he told me you were his mate
and that one day he would find you.”

     
Black shrugged. “I just found you before he did.”

     
“So you’re saying that you orchestrated everyone and everything…to what?” She tilted her
head. “To bring me and Ethan together?”

     
He nodded. “I did, and I would have done more to have both Ethan and you at my side.”

     
She shook her head. “I’ll never be at your side, regardless of Ethan. You’re a murderer and a
maniac, and I’ll kill you the first chance I get.”

    
Black reached into his coat pocket again, pulled out two vials, and laid them on the table. He
motioned to them. “Here’s the deal, Ms. Fleming. If you agree, I will never attack you and your
friends again, and those bottles are a show of my faith.”

    
“What’s the catch?” she asked, momentarily
ignoring
the vials on the table.

    
“Ethan and you will come and work for
me. You’ll be
solely responsible for saving all of your
friends and the Phantoms’ lives if you do. Right
now, I
have one hundred men stationed around the
Phantoms’ compound. They will only attack on
my
orders. I have another twenty on the outskirts of
your friend Tara’s house, as well as Gracie’s house.
Your
decision will save them all.”

    
Black stood, picked up the vials, and placed
them in
Cathy’s hands. “One vial contains the
serum the Phantoms have been looking for. The
same
serum I believe that gave your friend Gracie,
her unwanted gifts.” The pompous bastard grinned. “And in the other vial, you’ll find the only liquid
agent that will kill me. You have forty-eight hours
to
make your decision. Save the others or

yourself. The choice is yours.”

    
Cathy wrapped her fingers around the vials.
Her
heart raced with dread and hope at the same
time. Just one yes and she could save everyone,
but
trusting Black wasn’t high on the list of her
brightest ideas. She rolled the vials in her hand.
One was
the drug that would kill the man. She could
use that. Maybe she could
get close enough to shove the shit in his veins, just
like they’d done with
the tranquilizer on her. Maybe, but she didn’t know his gifts. For all she knew, right now he could be
reading her damn mind and listening to the debate in her head. Having the killing agent at her

fingertips was a heady show of faith. The man was either a genius or he was insane to trust her with
something so important.

    
Black tossed what looked like a business card with a phone number written across it. He patted
the top of her closed fingers. “When you decide, you can reach me at that number. Now enjoy your
dinner, dear. It’s time for me to take my leave.” He nodded to the men around the room. “It seems
the wolves are getting restless.”

    
Black left just as quietly as he’d arrived. Cathy shoved the vials into her pocket next to the
tranquilizer she’d brought down for protection. Her mouth was parted, stunned with Black’s

implications. Others moved around her, but she was trying to make sense of what had just happened
and the ramifications of what she’d just learned.

    
Edward appeared by her side and placed a hand on her arm. She balled her fist, swung, and hit
him smack-dab in the nose. Edward stumbled backward before he righted himself. Deep menacing
growls filled the air around her. “That was a stupid move, Ms. Fleming. I’m the alpha of this house.”

     
She stepped closer to him and lifted her knee between his legs. He didn’t have time to stop her.
He hunched over, cupping his balls. “You’re the asshole of this house.” She bent over to whisper in
his ear. “You endangered not only me, but every single one of the wolves you’re in charge of taking
care of, you arrogant prick. We’re done here.”

     
Cathy grabbed Jonah by the arm and hauled
him out of
the room and over to the elevator. She
jabbed at the call button until the elevator dinged
its
arrival.

     
They stepped inside. “What happened? What
was all
of that?”

     
She glanced up at the cameras and pointed
before
shaking her head. She would discuss it with
him and maybe he could help her figure it out, but
it
wouldn’t be in the elevator or anywhere that
Edward’s men were watching or listening. The elevator dinged their arrival at their floor. She

stepped off and hurried down to Jonah’s room.
She
walked into the room, slammed the door behind
her, and locked it. She pulled Jonah into the bathroom and started the shower.

     
“What are you doing?”

     
She glanced up at the ceiling and leaned in
to
whisper in his ear. “The water is for listening
devices. Are there any cameras in here?”

     
Cathy’s phone rang while she watched Jonah
step up
on the commode and jimmy the vent
open.

     
“Hello.”

     
“Cathy, it’s Ethan. You need to leave.”

     
Cathy lifted her hand to her ear to try and shut out the sound of the running water. “Where the
hell are you!”

     
“Crap there isn’t enough time…just stay put. I’m coming for you. Don’t trust—”

     
The phone went out before he could finish his sentence. “Ethan…”

     
She turned to find Jonah had opened all of the cabinets and was now fiddling with his watch. “I
took out their security cameras just in case.”

     
Cathy looked down at her phone. “It looks like you took out more than just the cameras. I can’t
believe you just did that.”

     
“You’ve only got about five minutes to explain before they reboot.”

     
Cathy let out a long, overdue sigh of relief. She started pushing the buttons on her phone to try
and get it to reboot. “What is the emergency code I need to send to get everyone to evacuate the
compound through the tunnels and for them all to meet up at the Eagles nest?”

     
Jonah’s brows dipped. “Why? What is going on?”

    
Cathy gritted her teeth. “I don’t have time to explain. Tell me the code, Jonah, or I swear to you
that, when we get back, I’m going to take a sledgehammer to every piece of electronic equipment
you have.”

                                                 
Chapter 4

Jonah shook his head. He lifted his arm and
started
pushing buttons on his watch. Seconds
ticked by. “It’s done. Now do you care to tell me
why I
just evacuated the base and initiated our alert
system to DEFCON five?”

    
Cathy sat on the edge of the tub and let out
a deep
breath. “The man at the table….that was the
infamous Mr. Black.”

    
Jonah’s eyes widened.

“He has men positioned around the compound, Tara’s house, and Gracie’s house. I have to
warn them and get everyone out before Black gives
his
men the orders to strike.”

    
Jonah tilted his head. “Why would he tell you
that?
You’re a Phantom. He would have known
that you’d warn the others.”

    
Cathy lowered her head. “He wants me to join him. He said he’d never attack my friends or the
Phantoms again if I’d work for him.”

    
Jonah sat down on the toilet seat. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

She looked up. “Ethan is his son, and I’m apparently Ethan’s mate. He planned everything.”
Cathy shook her head and glanced up at the ceiling. “From Lydia coming to the compound to

Gracie working undercover, down to me and Ethan being sent to help. He knew about all of it, and
the nut job told me that he orchestrated the entire thing.” Jonah took Cathy’s hand and squeezed it.
“Tell me you don’t believe him. You can’t trust him.”

    
Cathy’s heart broke into a million pieces. How could she not believe him? He knew everything
that had happened, and on top of that, not one of the Phantoms had been hurt through the years.
How the hell did he know? “I don’t know what to believe. If what he said was true, he gave me the
serum the Phantoms have been searching for.” She pulled out one of the vials and showed him
before shoving it back in her pocket.

    
Cathy stood and reached in her pocket for Black’s number. Her fingertips brushed against
Lydia’s note. How the hell was she supposed to trust Edward? That man had brought Mr. Black

directly to her proverbial doorstep. Lydia’s phone call played back through her mind.
Don’t trust
anyone but Edward.