BirthMark (6 page)

“I’m glad you did, it’s important we know what’s happening –” Silas looked at Tyrone, who stood and headed for the door. “Life is never dull with my mate,” Silas said.

“What happened? What did mom do?” Tyrese asked, watching his brother leave the room.

“She’s throwing the detective out. Apparently, he offended her daughter. Rone was summoned to do the honors.”

Hank and Tyrese chuckled. “She won’t get in trouble will she?” Tyrese asked a moment later.

Silas deliberately flashed his eyes at him. “With who? The human authorities?” he scoffed. “No, if anyone will get in trouble, it’ll be the detective. From what I understand, he’s new from out west. One of the boys on the force will teach him some manners.”

“Hmmm…can you read him?” Tyrese asked. “Make sure he is who he appears. Seems stupid to walk into somebody’s house and deliberately bait them.”

Impressed with the line of thinking, Silas had Tyrone bring the detective near the office so he could scan him. Silas’ scan wasn’t as good on humans, but he could get a decent amount of information. A moment later Silas had Rone escort the detective out. He sent a message through their link to Alpha Jayden in Maryland to make some inquiries while he waited for Rone to return to the office.

“He’s angry, swears he will get an order and make us all come downtown to answer questions. According to him the Merriweathers have clout and will use it. Blah, blah,blah…” Tyrone said dryly as he re-took his seat. “Now, about this challenge, are you sure I can’t kill this guy? Because I don’t want him sniffing around later causing problems.”

Silas wasn’t surprised at the level of confidence in the young pup. Both of the twins were tall, brawny, and were top notch fighters; few could beat either in a fair fight. Pity his mate couldn’t hear her son, perhaps she wouldn’t worry so much. “It’s not a death match, but as Alpha, you can ban him from the state.”

That seemed to placate the young man. Silas turned to other pressing matters. “I don’t like having rebels this close to my litter. We will work out security rotations and I will scan every person who works on this property. I will take no chances with the lives of my mate or pups. Is that clear?”

“Yes, Sir.” The men all answered as one.

“I’ll scan Boggs. I cannot fathom sending anyone as inept as you described to do reconnaissance work. He may be a plant or have a bug implanted in him somewhere.”

“That makes more sense,” Tyrone said, slowly drawing out his words. “That way they can listen to everything, possibly see things without setting foot on our territory. If he’s captured…” he shrugged. “They care nothing for him. No big deal.”

“Like the game of chess, he’s just a pawn,” Tyrese said. “First in the line of fire and expendable.”

“Can you scan him while he’s under or does Brad need to bring him out?” Hank asked.

“I want him disoriented, that way he won’t shield. I don’t want to alert them that we have him and are accessing his memories.”

“What if…what if there’s something more?” Tyrese said looking at him with a frown. “What if he’s locked and loaded?”

Silas’ gut tightened at the implication. Had the rebels become that savvy? He wasn’t sure but didn’t want to chance it. “Internal explosives?”

Tyrese nodded. “Could be, I mean think about it. Suicidal bombings are not that rare. He mentioned something about proving himself to the pack. What if this is his way to do that?”

“But he’ll be dead and won’t know if he proved himself,” Tyrone said.

“Suicide doesn’t make sense to me so I can’t answer that,” Tyrese said.

“Didn’t you scan him?” Tyrone asked.

“Just a hand held scan at the condo. It didn’t go off,” Tyrese said. “It’d be just my fucking luck the bastard’s loaded and the scanners didn’t pick it up. That’s a whole ‘nother set of problems.”

“Most def,” Tyrone said morosely.

As long as it was a possibility Silas would treat it as such. He contacted Brad through their link. “
Is there a way to move Boggs to the bomb shelter in the basement?”

“
Yes, Sir. I can do that right now. You want me to keep him hooked to the IV?”

“
Yes, if possible. The most important thing is to get him to the basement, lock him in the bomb shelter.”

“
Yes, Sir.”

Silas released a breath as he looked at a worried Tyrese. “Hopefully this is just a precaution. I can scan him once he’s secured.”

“Understood. This whole thing smacks of a Trojan horse kinda thing. Him picking me out, the meeting, the information they gave him isn’t a secret per se, then the fight.”

“The fight was real,” Tyrone interjected.

“Yeah, that was real, they would’ve beaten me to a pulp if they could.”

“Or they were trying to call your wolf. Maybe they wanted to see your wolf,” Hank said. “Humans remember faces, wolves remember scents and a wolf’s scent is his signature. If I wanted to know who you really were, I’d track down your true scent.”

“That’s something to think about,” Silas said and then paused to listen to Jayden’s report. He thought about the information for a minute and then looked at the men in front of him.

“I asked Alpha Jayden to do some research into Detective Jenkins for me a few minutes ago. There were some things in the man’s mind that disturbed me. First off, he knows we are wolves. He knows I’m the Patron. He knows you are breeds, and the reason he knows this is he’s a breed himself.”

“What? I didn’t smell anything,” Tyrone said, looking at his brother, who shrugged.

“I smelled his wolf. It’s a timid thing, scared and starved. Initially, I wasn’t sure what animal he was until my wolf confirmed it. That’s the first thing I need to find out, why no one detected his wolf. He should have scented Jasmine and immediately known who she was, but he had no idea. So I have a malfunctioning half-breed with a sick wolf whom we can’t scent. That’s… that’s major.”

“No way I’d have allowed that bitch around my mate,” Tyrone said with feeling.

“He was with my mate as well,” Silas said, tamping down his anger. “But here’s another thing. He’s from Washington state, a small town in the mountains called Dalista. There’s a decent sized pack living nearby. It’s the pack we discovered when we confirmed Arianna’s story.”

“The one where the bitches abused her?” Tyrese asked.

“I don’t have all my notes, but I believe that’s the one,” Silas said, wondering what Jenkins end game was. This placed a different spin on things. Jenkins' wolf was so weak; Silas was unsure how much of the man he could control through his animal.

“You think he ever shifted?” Hank asked.

“Is he Arianna’s seed? Is he here for revenge?” Tyrone asked.

“Do we take him out? Will he suffer from an accident?” Tyrese asked.

Silas’ brow rose at the blood-thirsty suggestion although he shouldn’t be surprised. Of the two, Tyrese was by far the most volatile with everyone except family, or more succinctly, his mom.

“What?” Tyrese asked, looking at Hank, his brother and then Silas, who stared at him with raised brows. “That man was in this house, talked to my mom with my brothers and sisters in the same building. Now I find out he’s not who he claims? That’s family, and I’d take a motherfucker out in a heartbeat over them.”

“Amen,” Tyrone said, offering his twin a fist bump.

Silas closed his eyes and completed a search of the house, seeking out any devices Jenkins may have slipped past the metal detectors or his highly trained security. Finding nothing, he glanced at Tyrese, who sat calmly in his chair with his legs crossed, hot tension flowing off him in waves.

“Let’s hold off on sending Jenkins to meet Arianna in the after-life for a mother-son reunion for a while. I have some questions he may be able to answer. I may need to pull his wolf and strengthen him first.”

“Capture him, pull his wolf, and keep him for a while?” Hank said, grinning. “I like that idea. Where do you want to keep him?”

“Near the training compound. His wolf is timid, so he might be skittish. Let Froggy work with him, he has the best success dealing with injured animals,” Silas instructed.

“Yeah, Frogs has a nice touch,” Hank said. “When do you want this done, Sir?”

Silas leaned back in his chair and thought of everything he had committed to do this week. “After I check Boggs out, I’ll let you know. Maybe by the end of this week. I have to make sure they give him hell at work first, so he’ll be in a real pissy mood. Maybe his anger will trigger his wolf.”

“If you need help, let me know,” Tyrone offered Hank.

Silas received a message from Brad and released a sigh. “Okay, Boggs is incubated in the bomb shelter. Brad still has him connected to the IV, so he’s still out of it. I’ll check his body while he’s out and if he’s clean of explosives, we’ll bring him out slowly and I’ll read his mind.”

Chapter 4

Silas, Tyrese, Tyrone and Hank entered the bunker beneath the guest condominiums. Brad waited in front of a heavy steel door and bowed at Silas’ approach.

“Is he still knocked out?” Silas asked, pointing to the door.

“Yes, Sir. You can view his vitals from here.” Brad pointed to a small closet-sized room behind the much larger, steel and concrete-reinforced one. “He’s sedated, Sir.”

Silas glanced at the screen and then threw out his senses, trusting them more than the electronic devices. He couldn’t get an accurate read through all the thick walls.

“Open the door.” Silas stepped out of the way so Brad could get past him to carry out his request.

Tyrese and Hank flanked him while Tyrone bought up his rear. He withheld a sigh at their hovering, but let it go. The twins were just as bad as Brad and Hank, who had been with him for over a decade.

“A little room, please.” He glanced at them and focused on the room. He stepped closer, stuck his head inside. There was a soft swishing sound, humans probably could not hear it, but his wolf did. Silas jumped back and slammed the door shut. The clicking of the automatic lock had just engaged when a loud boom shook the area, sending sprinkles of dirt from the ceiling to the floor.

Silas lost his footing and fell on top of Tyrese, who pushed him aside and covered his back. Hank crawled over and covered the rest of him. Once again, Silas wanted to yell. Since when did he need protecting? But he’d read the remorse in Hank’s eyes when he’d returned from being buried beneath the caves, and no matter how many times he explained that it wasn’t Hank’s fault, the guilt remained. But still, this was bordering on ridiculous. His very name, Patron, signified he was the protector, the one who offered safety, yet his security detail treated him like he was an untried pup.

He pushed against the floor and stood, shaking his men from his back. He had more important things to deal with. Someone had penetrated his defense. He needed to get on top of this pronto. Even now he heard footsteps running in his direction.

“
Silas? What happened?”
Jasmine asked, trying to hide her nervousness.

“
Someone sent in a Trojan horse, but thanks to Tyrese the damage was contained.”

“
Tyrese?”

“
Your boys are fine. There was only one death and it wasn’t any of mine. Rest easy, take care of my litter. I will come to you after I clean up this mess and some other things.”

“
I need to see you are okay.”

He looked around the area, the walls seemed okay, but he wanted an engineer to come and verify that. “
Call me in an hour, I’ll try to meet you for a quick kiss, but my day just got busier.”

She sighed.
“I know. I’ll make it a quick kiss and a fast grope.”

He laughed.
“Later.”
He searched the area for Brad, but didn’t see him. “Brad?”

The man wasn’t in the small room or the open hall. He looked at the twins and Hank, who were sitting up slowly, rubbing the back of their necks. “Where’s Brad?”

“He’s not in that room?” Tyrone asked.

Silas stared at him with a raised brow. “No, that’s the first place I looked,” he snapped. “Find him,” he yelled to get them moving faster. The three men jumped up and scattered, searching the halls. Silas looked at the door and shook his head, Brad had been on the outside when he opened the door for Silas to look in, hadn’t he?