The Wolf Within (32 page)

I didn’t want to hear the details.

They walked toward the house and I stayed where I was, unable to move as I watched Ani and Sam.

The last time I’d been here I’d been terrified of what was going to happen to me.

Now I was terrified of what had happened. Because of the pain it caused Natalie and the pack, and because it might take away from me the one thing that looked like it could make being a wolf something I could live with.

The one thing beside Dan, that is.

As I watched, Dan and Esme disappeared into the house with Sam. Ani headed in my direction.

I slouched down in my seat.

Ani rapped on the window. I forced myself to lower it.

“Ashley? Are you okay?”

My guilt intensified. She was asking me if I was okay when she’d just lost one of her family.

“I’m fine,” I said quietly. “Don’t worry about me.”

Brown eyes looked at me curiously. “You’re pack. I worry about everyone. Come into the house.”

“I don’t think Dan wants me in there,” I muttered.

Her expression softened. “Dan’s upset right now, don’t pay any attention to him.”

“Is Natalie here?”

Ani shook her head. “She’s with her other family.”

“Did you have to. . . .” I meant had she been the one to identify the body.

“Sam did.” She looked down, swallowed. But then her head came back up, her expression fierce.

“I’m sorry,” I said, feeling lower than dirt. “This is my fault.”

“This is no one’s fault but Tate’s. Trust me, he’ll be taught to leave the pack alone.” Her eyes burned and I knew she believed it. So maybe I could believe we’d beat him too.

And to do that, I had to get out of the car.

When we got into the house, Esme was waiting in the hall. Dan was nowhere to be seen.

“Ashley, come with me please.” Esme said.

Ani patted my arm and walked away.

“What?” I said to Esme, “Where’s Dan?”

“He’s busy,” she said shortly. “He wants you to keep working on the financial stuff. We’ve managed to trace a few more things back to the Sutton place.”

I wanted to argue, wanted to go after Dan and the others but I knew I’d only be in the way. So I let Esme lead me upstairs and hid away in a room they’d set up with my computer and a stack of files, trying to think of a new angle. I’d been trying to see if the Synotech connection was real but as far as I, or the Taskforce could tell, they were completely legit with no connection to Tate anywhere. And even though we’d scoured their employee records, none of them, past or present looked like Smith. Without knowing the doctor’s real name, there was no way to track him. It was another dead end.

To make matters worse, my mind kept bouncing between memories of being held by Tate—Tate, Smith, Rio—and imagining what they might have done to Ben before they killed him.

***

After a couple of hours of torturing myself mentally I went back downstairs, looking for Dan, hoping he might have calmed down so that I could apologize. Or grovel. Do whatever it would take to ease the ice out of his eyes. But I couldn’t see him. I grabbed the arm of the nearest agent. “Where’s Agent Gibson?”

“I think he went outside.”

I looked at the crowd of agents, contemplated wading my way through them all to reach the door. Decided I could wait. “Just tell him I was looking for him.”

“Sure thing, Ms. Keenan.”

I went back upstairs to the computer, glad to throw myself back into the only escape I had. Until we found another way into the Synotech connection, I’d stick to the trails I’d already been following. I’d already tracked the Sutton property back through a trail of seven dummy corporations and had finally hit what seemed to be a real organization. Not one that had Tate’s name anywhere on any document associated with it but it was a start . . . more than we’d had before.

I buried myself in the numbers and the online paper trail until my stomach started to growl a protest, forcing me out of my lair in search of food.

I still couldn’t see Dan when I reached the kitchen. I glanced at my watch. Nearly two hours had passed since I’d first looked for him.

Esme was standing by the sink, pouring herself a cup of coffee. She looked immaculate as always, not a hair out of place although I knew she’d been up since before five like the rest of us. I didn’t know whether the good grooming was a cat thing or just her, but it didn’t make her any more likeable.

She was talking to Agent Stevens as she poured. I joined her. My arm knocked hers as I reached for a mug and coffee splashed everywhere—mostly on Agent Stevens.

“Sorry, Robert,” Esme said.

Robert? His name was Robert? I froze as her words made me flash on Smith’s face. Why? The memory refused to clear and slid away. I blinked then remembered why I’d come downstairs.

“Where’s Dan?” I held up my mug. Caffeine wouldn’t stop me feeling scruffy compared to Esme but it would help me think.

She shrugged and poured. “I haven’t seen him.”

“I thought you two were working pretty closely?” I gulped coffee, rubbing my eyes to try and convince myself I felt better than half-dead.

“We are. But he said he was going to talk to the chief.”

“How long ago?”

Another shrug. “I’m not sure. Maybe after lunch?”

It was close to four now. So Dan had been gone a long time. I pulled at my cell and dialed his number. Voicemail.

Voicemail in the middle of an investigation? A distinct uneasy feeling crept down my spine and the coffee turned to acid in my stomach. “Can you ask around, see who saw him last?”

“What’s the rush? You two got a hot date tonight?”

I tried to ignore the aggressive tone in her voice. “Esme, we’re dealing with a psycho who’s been killing vamps and weres. Dan’s the Agent in Charge. You don’t think he’s an attractive target for Tate?”

She had the grace to look a little shame-faced. Just a little. “All right, I’ll ask.”

“Thank you.” I dialed another number on my cell. “Have you seen Dan in the last few hours?” I asked when Jase answered.

“No, he hasn’t been by the office at all.” He sounded a little confused. “Was he going to come by? He left a message about Ben. I’m sorry, Ash.”

“Thanks.” I couldn’t think about Ben. I had to focus on tracking down Dan. “Have you, uh, felt anything today?” I asked.

“No. Ash, is something wrong?”

Apart from the feeling of dread in my stomach? It took me a second to answer. I didn’t trust my voice. “No. I’m just jumpy. Everything’s fine. I call you later.”

“Okay. I’ll let you know if Dan calls.”

I hung up the phone before Jase could ask any of the questions that I heard in his tone. It rang again, almost immediately.

“Dan?” I said eagerly.

“Sorry, Pretty, Dan can’t come to the phone right now.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Rio. His voice made my knees buckle. I’d know it anywhere. I’d heard it often enough in my nightmares. “Where is he?”

“Safe with us, Pretty,” Rio said mockingly. “For now.”

They had Dan
.

Fear beat through me, choking my throat and drying my mouth.

They had Dan
.

They’d do to him what they’d just done to Ben. I clenched my jaw to keep my teeth from chattering and forced myself to speak. “What do you want?”

“Boss would like to see you.”

Fear turned to blind panic and I slid down the wall white noise roaring in my ears. Put myself back in Tate’s hands? How could I?

How could I leave Dan there?

I clutched my cell so hard the plastic cover started to buckle, forcing me to ease up before I destroyed the phone entirely. “Where?”

Rio chuckled. “Ah, Pretty. I can’t make it that easy for you. You’ll have to find him yourself. Your clever Taskforce friends can help you.”

“I’m going to kill you,” I snarled. “When I find you, you’re dead.”

“Ooh, I’m scared.”

I could almost see the smirk on his face. A smirk I intended to tear off. He was forgetting I wasn’t just a helpless human any more. If I could keep him talking, maybe he’d give me a clue. I strained my ears, trying to hear anything in the background of the call beyond the usual cell phone fuzziness. There. Maybe a faint rumble? And a blast of something almost at the edge of hearing. What was that?
Keep him talking
. “Surely Tate doesn’t want to wait. Tell me where to find you.”

Rio laughed again. “Sorry, Pretty. Just come alone and don’t take too long. We had fun with that other wolf. Pity we couldn’t put all the pieces back together. Perhaps this time we’ll do better. Offer him all the comforts of home.”

“If you hurt him—”

The dial tone buzzed in my ear before I could reply. I tried to think, the urge to scream clawing at the back of my throat. I wanted to hit someone. Hurt someone. But I had to find Dan first. Then there’d be plenty of pain.

Anger bit deep in the pit of my stomach and the need to change grew with it. The wolf wanted out. But the wolf couldn’t help me now. I shoved myself to a standing position, took a second to make sure my legs would hold me, and went to find Esme.

Luckily, she wasn’t hard to find. She was right in the foyer talking to a bunch of other agents. They all looked tired and stressed, suits wrinkled, ties loosened around necks. Apart from Esme, of course.

“Tate has Dan,” I said. No point beating around the bush. I shoved my cell phone into her hands.

Esme gaped at me, blank disbelief on her face breaking through the feline cool. “What are you talking about?”

“Rio called me. He said they had Dan.”

Esme snapped back into agent mode. “What did he say, exactly?”

“That they had Dan and I had to come or they’d kill him.” Someone in the crowd muttered “Fuck,” but I kept looking at Esme.

She looked down at the cell. “This phone?”

I nodded and she handed it to another agent. “See if you can trace the last incoming call. And get the number transferred to a secure phone.”

“How long will that take?” I asked.

“Not long. Why?”

Seriously? What the hell did she think I was going to do? Wait around for Tate to kill Dan? Not a chance. Another wild surge of anger flared. “I need to get out of here.”

“Ashley, you can’t go anywhere. This is a trap.”

“I don’t care,” I said. “We need to find Dan and I can’t wait around for the Taskforce to figure out where he is.”

Jase
. I needed to get to Jase. Maybe he’d be able to work whatever mojo it was that had helped him find me—not that I was even certain that it had been him because I’d never quite gotten around to having that discussion with him.

“You can’t go.” Esme repeated. “It’s not safe.”

“Screw safe. This is
Dan
.” My voice was loud enough to carry through the hallway, causing Ani to come running.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“I got a call. Tate has Dan.”

The color drained from Ani’s face. “Where?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I need to find him and Esme here is being difficult.”

Ani frowned then her face cleared. “It’s okay,” she said to Esme. “I’ll calm her down. You do what you need to do.”

“Calm me down?” I practically shrieked as Ani took my arm and began frog marching me up the stairs. “What are you talking about?”

“Shut up,” Ani hissed low in my ear. “Play along.”

Play along? What the hell was going on?

We reached the room I’d been using and Ani hustled me inside and closed the door.

I stood where I was, glaring.

“Stop pouting and tell me what’s happening,” she snapped as she took a seat on the bed.

“They have Dan.”

“I got that bit. What’s the bee in Esme’s bonnet?”

“I have to go. It’ll take the Taskforce forever to track him down. We don’t have forever.”

Ani winced then straightened her back. “What makes you think you can find Tate any faster?”

I hesitated, not wanting to reveal Jase’s secret. “I think Jase can help. Or maybe Lord Marco.”

“Marco? Is that a good idea?”

I made a frustrated noise. If one more person tried to stop me doing whatever I needed to do, there was going to be blood. “I don’t
care
if it’s a good idea. I just want to find Dan.” The snarl in my voice surprised me.

Ani blinked then smiled. “At least you’ve finally come to your senses.”

I had no idea what she was talking about. “Excuse me?”

“About Dan. Took you long enough.”

“For what?”

She looked at me like I was being dense. “To admit how you feel about him.”

Uh-oh. Not ready for this conversation. I didn’t have time to try and analyze my feelings. Besides, if we didn’t find Dan, there’d be no point. “He’s my
friend
.”

“Yeah, well, you two don’t smell like friends.”

I blushed, knowing I’d probably smelled like sex when I first arrived. “So we slept together. That’s closure.”

“You always go into a panic over closure?”

The question earned her another glare. “I told you, he’s my friend. And I’d do the same for anyone Tate had.”

She rolled her eyes. “You know, the two of you aren’t fooling anyone.”

“Ani, I don’t have time for this. There won’t be any chance of a two of anything if we don’t get Dan back.”

She rubbed a hand across her forehead and I felt like a jerk for making her feel any worse than she must already.

“You’re right,” she said. “Sorry. Okay. You need to get back to the city. Without Esme knowing.”

“I need my phone back too,” I added. “They might call again.”

“We can get the phone back. But I’m sure the Taskforce will be listening in to all the calls, so you’d better be careful if you make any plans you don’t want them to know about.”

I nodded. “I can handle that. Jase can get me another cell. But I need to get to Jase.”

“A couple more wolves are arriving soon.” Ani pushed off the bed, scrunching her forehead like she was trying to think. “We should be able to sneak you into their car on the way back. If you don’t mind riding in the trunk until they’re clear of the roadblocks.”

I didn’t care what I had to do. “That’s fine. What about Esme?”