Authors: Paige Tyler
colder and harder in person, but she refused to flinch. Even when he trailed a finger along her cheek, down
her neck, and over the curve of her breast. She hissed, flashing her fangs and yanking at the restraints.
Stutmeir pulled his hand away, shock on his face. Then he grinned. “I heard stories, but you are even
more remarkable than I realized.”
Ivy growled. She’d enjoy ripping off his face.
Stutmeir shared a laugh with the other two men. One was the French scientist, Jean Renard. She didn’t
recognize the other man, but he must be the German they’d been talking to, Klaus.
“Well, she might be a natural-born shifter, but she acts just like all the rest of them.” Stutmeir smirked as
he turned to leave. “Feel free to conduct as much research as you want. You’ll have at least five or six hours
until we move.”
Research? Her heart froze. What the hell were they planning to do with her?
She got the answer to that a few minutes later. Or maybe it was hours. Without any clock, she wasn’t
sure. She tried to ignore what they were doing, but the humiliation of being treated like a lab experiment
made that difficult. Not to mention the incredible pain they inflicted on her as they took samples from every
conceivable part of her anatomy. The agony was almost enough to momentarily make her forget that
Landon was dead. Almost, but not quite. And the pain of losing him was worse than anything she
physically endured.
“For the love of God, what…?”
The two men paused at the sound of the woman’s voice. Tall and blond, she had her hair pulled back in
a ponytail and wore a white lab coat. If that didn’t give her away as the kidnapped doctor, Zarina Sokolov,
her startlingly blue eyes would have.
“What are you doing to her?”
Renard barely glanced at the woman. “Taking samples. What does it look like?”
“Without anesthesia?” Zarina grabbed a syringe off a tray and filled it with something from a vial. “At
least give her something for the pain.”
“No.” Klaus’s voice was hard. “We want to test her pain threshold.”
They wanted to watch her suffer.
The Russian doctor must have thought so, too. Muttering something under her breath, she shook her
head and walked out.
Renard offered Ivy a small smile. “I’m going to take a bone marrow sample. This will hurt less if you
remain as still as possible.”
Ivy’s eyes went wide at the sight of the long, needle-like probe in his hand. It looked like a gutter spike
and had a blunt tip. There was no way that thing could puncture skin, much less bone.
Renard put the tip against her thigh and savagely pushed.
Ivy screamed. Right before she blacked out, she added Renard’s and Klaus’s names to the list of people
she was going kill.
***
ramp—one with sharp rocks. But he was still alive, and that was what counted.
He tumbled down it at breakneck speed, his NVGs going one way, his M4 going another, his head
slamming into the avalanche of stone over and over before the ground disappeared out from under him
again.
Double
shit.
The fall was shorter this time, and instead of hitting rock, he hit water. Fast moving and icy cold, it
knocked the air from his lungs and made his head spin.
Man, this just keeps getting better and better
.
He gulped in air as he struggled to get himself turned sideways to the current. It was too dark to see
much of anything, but from what he remembered of his map recon, none of the rivers in the area were
more than twenty or thirty feet wide. If he was right, it shouldn’t be too hard to get out of the rapids.
That didn’t take into account the weight of his boots, uniform, and tactical vest. The rapids tried to drag
him down the whole time, but he gritted his teeth and swam harder. Ivy needed him.
When he finally dragged himself out of the water, all he could do was lie on his back, gasping for air.
Somewhere upstream, the shifters howled, like they were celebrating his demise. Bastards probably thought
he was dead. He was shocked he wasn’t.
How long had it been since he’d left the lodge? Fifteen minutes? Thirty? Long enough for Stutmeir to
do whatever he had in mind for her. He had no idea why those animals had darted and dragged her off, but
his mind went to a very dark place involving torture and experimentation—neither of which he was willing
to contemplate.
So
stop
thinking
and
go
get
her
.
A few hundred rounds of 5.56mm ammo and a handful of grenades weren’t going to be enough to save
Ivy. There were too many shifters and they were too hard to take down. As much as he hated to admit it, he
needed help.
And where was he going to get it? Not the DCO, that was for sure. They’d given him orders to kill her
if she got captured. If he told them what happened, they’d probably implement some kind of immediate
scorched-earth policy and order every single living creature in that lodge killed, Ivy included.
Asking the DCO for help wasn’t an option. But asking someone in the department he trusted was.
Using the satellite phone was not an option. He couldn’t risk going back for it, not with the shifters
prowling around. He’d have to use his cell phone. Which meant he’d have to go back to the Jeep—fifteen
miles away.
Instead of sticking to the forests like he and Ivy had when they had approached the lodge, he navigated
straight to the road, then ran from there to the Jeep. It was riskier, but time was the most important factor
now. Luckily, he didn’t run into any shifters on the way.
Back at the Jeep, he grabbed the first cell phone he came to—which happened to be Ivy’s—and scrolled
down until he found Kendra’s number. It rang four times before she answered.
“Ivy? It’s the middle of the night. What, you have so many roaming minutes you don’t know what to do
with them?”
“It’s not Ivy. It’s Landon.” He rushed on before she could say anything. “The mission went to hell and
Ivy got captured.”
There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the line. “Oh God. Did you…?”
She couldn’t seem to finish. Landon didn’t need her to. He knew what she was asking. “No! I could
never do that to Ivy.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I’m calling because I need help getting her back.
Stutmeir isn’t making a bioweapon. He’s making shifters. The lodge is crawling with them.”
“Shifters? But how…?”
“I don’t know. That’s not important right now.” He struggled to keep his voice even. “Have you gotten
hold of Tate yet?”
“No. He still hasn’t made contact, and we haven’t been able to get through to him. He’s probably still
out of range.”
“Shit. I need Tate’s team to help me get in the lodge, and I need Declan to track Ivy once we’re inside.”
“Declan’s nose isn’t much better than yours or mine. He’s better at super strength than a good sense of
smell. You need Clayne for that.”
Buchanan was the last person he wanted out here. Next to last if Landon counted Coleman.
Kendra must have interpreted his silence the proper way. “I know you two don’t get along, but he’s the
only other person you can trust. He’d never do anything to jeopardize Ivy’s life.”
Landon squeezed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. Kendra was right. “Okay.
Tell him to meet me at the storage unit the DCO set up. And I need him there ASAP. Any way you can get
him there”—he looked at his watch—“by 0800 in the morning my time?”
“0800? It’ll be tight, but yeah, I’ll get him there. If I have to tie him up, drag him on a plane, and fly it
myself, I’ll get him there. And Landon?”
“Yeah?” He already knew what she was going to say.
“Make it work with Clayne. For Ivy’s sake.”
He’d buddy up with Jeffrey Dahmer and Charlie Manson if it’d get Ivy out alive. “Just get him here.”
Okay, it wasn’t what he was hoping for, but it was a start. Problem was, Buchanan was only one part of
the equation. He had a shifter who could track Ivy, but he still needed enough firepower to get in the front
door. And he knew exactly where to get it.
He pulled out his cell phone and thumbed through his contacts until he found the number he was after.
He hit the Call button and prayed.
Please
don’t be out on a training exercise.
A sleepy voice answered. “What?”
“Angelo, it’s Landon. I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
Someone else would have cursed and reminded him it was 0430 in the morning on the East Coast. But
not Angelo. “Ivy and I ran into some trouble on a mission and I could use your help. As many of the other
guys on the team as you can get, too.”
“Where are you?”
“Washington State, three hours outside of Seattle.”
Angelo sighed. “When do you want us there?”
“As soon as you can get here. Faster than that if possible.”
Landon heard a woman’s muffled voice in the background. “No baby, go back to sleep. It’s work stuff.”
The bed creaked, like Angelo sat up. “Okay, I’m in. Where do you want to meet?”
Landon gave him the address of the storage unit.
“We going to need weapons?” Angelo asked.
“No. I’ve got that covered. Just get as many of the guys here as you can. And Angelo? I only want
volunteers—this is going to be messy.”
“When isn’t it? Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, Angelo. I owe you one.”
“Yeah, you do. And don’t you forget it.”
Landon would have laughed if he weren’t so scared. If Angelo helped him get Ivy back, he’d repay him
for the rest of his life.
Chapter 15
A needle pricked her skin, pulling her out of the blackness for the second time since her capture. Ivy
knew it was useless since she was strapped down to the bed, but she twisted away anyway. The needle
jerked out of her arm. Someone swore.
Ivy opened her eyes and found herself staring at linoleum. She wasn’t in bed anymore, but on the floor.
Was she in the lodge, or had they moved her somewhere else? She pushed herself up. Her hands were
bound together in front of her with a ton of duct tape. More of the stuff was wrapped around her ankles,
immobilizing her feet. She gritted her teeth as pain shot through her thigh. It felt like she’d been beaten with
a baseball bat.
Her long hair fell in front of her face and she reached up with her bound hands to push it back. That’s
when she saw Zarina Sokolov. The Russian doctor was kneeling on the floor a few feet away, a small
syringe in her hand.
Ivy looked around. She was in a room with no windows, no furniture, and—thanks to the two shifters
posted outside the open door—no escape.
She swung her gaze back to the blonde, eyeing her warily. The Frenchman Renard might have started
out as a prisoner, but he’d clearly switched sides. Zarina Sokolov might have done the same. “What did you
just stick me with?”
“I was trying to give you something for the pain, but you jerked away before I could.”
Ivy pushed against the floor with her feet, scooting back against the wall. “I don’t want any
medication.”
The woman moved closer. “What they did to you must still hurt very much.”
It did, but she needed a clear head if she wanted to escape long enough to get her revenge on Stutmeir
and the two doctors who’d thought she was a human pin cushion. That meant no pain meds. Besides,
nothing could take away the agony of losing Landon. Compared to that, every other pain paled in
comparison.
She glared at Zarina when the doctor reached for her arm. “I said I don’t want it.”
The woman looked as if she wanted to argue, but then she nodded. “I understand. I was only trying to
help.”
Maybe she hadn’t turned traitor like Renard. “You’re Zarina Sokolov, right?” Ivy kept her voice low so
the guards at the door wouldn’t hear.
Zarina’s eyes went wide with confusion. She threw the guards a worried look over her shoulder. “How
do you know my name?”
“My…” Ivy swallowed hard. “My partner and I were sent here to rescue you and the other doctors. But
from what I saw earlier, Renard’s already joined the dark side.”
“Yes. He’s completely on board with everything Stutmeir is doing.” Zarina frowned. “But who sent
you?”
“That’s not important. What’s important is whether you can help me get free.”
Zarina darted another worried glance in the shifters’ direction.
Ivy glanced at them, too. They were talking among themselves, ignoring her and Zarina. “Please. I just
need you to get me something I can use to cut the tape around my wrists. I’ll do the rest.”
She could have used her claws to free her ankles, but it would take forever, not to mention make a lot
of noise. And then what would she do about her wrists, chew through the tape?
Zarina swallowed hard. “I helped someone else escape a while ago, so they don’t trust me anymore.
They search me every time I leave the lab.”
Ivy wanted to know whom she’d helped, but there wasn’t time to ask. “I need you to do this, Zarina.