Page 66 of The Hunted
She huffed. “Fine. But if they don’t make any headway, then you and I are out of here.”
“Agreed. In the meantime, I could use a couple of hours of sleep.” I reached over the table and grasped her hand. “We’ll get through this.” I didn’t know if I was reassuring myself or her.
She gave me a weak smile. “After this is all over, let’s discuss our future. I’ve had time to think while I was in the infirmary. I want to see if I can get into the military.”
I squeezed her hand. “For sure.” I wanted nothing more than to see her and Jordyn happy. But I had a feeling that discussion wouldn’t happen anytime soon.
23
SAM
Tripp, Webb, Sawyer, and I sat around the conference table in the war room, waiting on intel from Ben and Kraft. We’d sent them out to Gerald Becker’s home right about the time Layla had gone up to the women’s barracks with Harley, which was about four hours ago. Ben and Kraft had been checking in every hour but had no activity to report yet.
We’d learned that our lead on the Indian Reservation didn’t pan out. The warehouse had been empty, but we suspected Roman had been there given the human blood our team found.
Webb leaned back in the leather chair at the head of the table. “Let’s run through the items we have on our list and make sure we have everything covered.”
Tripp stopped typing on his laptop.
Sawyer looked up from his computer screen.
And I was ready to snap the pen in my hand in two. Since the club last night, we hadn’t had a chance to breathe, and it seemed every piece of crap was flying at us at breakneck speed. Truth be told, I was thinking about Layla in between everything else. I couldn’t get the auburn-haired beauty out of my head.
“We have Layla and Rianne Aberdeen here,” Webb began. “The other sister, Jordyn, is in the hands of Roman. We have a drug that kills shifters. Wyman has resurfaced. His former partner, Agent Thomas, could be lurking somewhere nearby.” Webb’s blue eyes shifted to black as his jaw hardened. “Sawyer, any word from your contact at the Puerto Rico prison?”
Since Wyman’s surprise appearance, we were checking on Nicki and Dyson, who both had worked for Edmund Rain. We needed to be sure they hadn’t had any visitors or contact with the outside world, which was against prison policy. If Wyman didn’t have any recollection of the memories I’d erased, I felt confident that Nicki and Dyson wouldn’t recall what part they’d played while working for Edmund Rain, nor would they remember Abbey, for that matter.
Sawyer pecked at the keys on his laptop. “Let me check to see if I got a response back from the warden.” After a second, he added, “Not yet, but I’ll stay on it.”
“Now, the humans Dr. Case and Agent Thomas.” Webb turned his attention to Tripp. “Has the tech team been successful in tracking them down?”
“They’re still working on it,” Tripp responded.
I grabbed the back of my neck, rubbing a knot the size of Texas. “I’m sorry about all this. It’s my fault Wyman remembered us.”
Webb roughed his fingers through his shoulder-length brown hair, looking tired and stressed. “Sam, you were a young vampire. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s mine. I gave you the order. The good news is he doesn’t have any recollection of Edmund or anything about his role in Edmund's organization. But just to be sure, I’ll have Jo read his mind.” Webb jotted something down on the legal pad in front of him.
“We haven’t discussed Jonah,” Sawyer said. “He’d worked for Edmund and is very well aware of Abbey.”
I’d been so consumed with the events so far that I didn’t think of Jonah. He had been one of Edmund’s right-hand men until Edmund had murdered the love of his life. Then he’d joined us on my father’s request right before we’d taken down Edmund. In fact, he’d helped Jo save Abbey’s life. Since then, he’d been working for my father as a guardian at vampire headquarters. Guardians were equivalent to the human police and hand-picked to work at vampire headquarters by the Council of Elders.
“He’s clean,” Webb said with certainty. “Steven read his mind. Besides, he adores Abbey. It’s been five years since he joined us, and I can say without a doubt that he would massacre anyone who would hurt her.”
“Just wanted to be sure,” Sawyer said. “Also, should we get Layla’s phone in case Roman calls again?”
Tripp checked the diver’s watch on his wrist. “He gave her twenty-four hours. Considering he called her around six p.m., that means we have until roughly six p.m. tomorrow. Let’s hope we find him before then.”
“Tripp, did you get a hold of Crysta?” Webb asked.
Crysta was Tripp’s cousin and a shifter herself, and we wanted to talk to her about what shifter packs were in the area.
“I have a message in to her. She’s on some job in Washington for the vampire government,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll respond when she gets a minute.”
Webb made a few more notes on his legal pad. “Let’s get Doc down to the holding cell to talk to Wyman about that drug he gave Layla to use. I want to be ready in the event we have a run-in with the shifters.”
Tripp opened Wyman’s notebook. “I thought he would have something in here, but there’s nothing about the drug.” He skimmed the pages.
“Anything of importance in that book?” I asked. Wyman had been quite irritated when Tripp took the journal.
