Bearing It All (Grizzly Affairs Book 1) (24 page)

“Who are you?”

“Jason De'van. I work with Eric Daniels. Mark and Robert sent me to track you down and keep you safe.”

Rolling her eyes, she dropped her hand as she tucked her weapon away. It looked as if Doyle's family had dispatched another wolf to keep her in line. “Leave while you have the chance.” She growled out as she moved toward the fallen scientist she'd just shot. Rolling his dead weight over, she stripped him of his lab coat and security badge. The back of the coat had a small hole with a blood stain around it. However she was certain with the length of her braided hair she could cover it up.

“I have orders to bring you back to the compound.” He stated. Looking at her curiously his dark brow rose as she shrugged on the lab coat and struggled to quickly button it up. “What are you doing?”

“I won't be able to walk around Malca's facility looking the way I do. Scientists don't get noticed as much. With this—” She gestured to the lab coat and security badge. “–I'll be able to sneak past her guards and get Doyle.”

“And what then; walk out the front door?”

Resting his hands on his hips, Jason scoffed at her plan. As fetching as this mysterious woman was, her plan went against all of his orders. Once Mark had called Eric to inform him on the situation of the Darkwood Springs Alpha being taken by humans, Eric had decided that they may need a wolf they could trust. Upon arriving at the pack's compound Mark informed him that the Alpha's mate had gone off to play hero. He was ordered to bring her back safely and quickly.

“Look,” Spinning around Aria glared at her would-be rescuer. “Thanks for the help but I'm not going back without Doyle. You can either help me or tuck your bushy tail between your legs and run on home.”

“Actually it's more fluffy than bushy.” At her answering glare, Jason held his hands up in defense. “Alright, look. I was ordered to bring you back safe and sound. However they didn't say I couldn't help you with your foolish mission in the meanwhile.”

Nodding her head, Aria jerked her chin at the dead soldier behind him. “Strip his clothes and put them on. You'll blow our cover walking around naked.”

“I'll blow anything you tell me to boss.”

Without even looking at her, he knew another one of his comments were on the way to earning him a slap.
What can I say? I love it when I get punished.
Smirking at his inner thoughts he crossed over to the soldier's body and began to remove his clothes. Once dressed in the borrowed and bloody camouflage uniform, Jason dragged the corpse away to hide it from sight. When he returned Aria had rolled the other corpse under the truck and was putting the thin black framed glasses on her face.

Giving him a quick glance over, she nodded in acceptance. Without a word she stepped through the open door without a backward glance to him. An automatic light flickered on above them as they closed the door behind them. The room was empty with the exception of several hospital beds lined together on the opposite side of the room. To the right, across the length of the room was a silver elevator door. Moving towards it, Aria noticed to the side of the silver door was small scanner identical to the ones on the doors of Malca's labs.

Pulling her stolen badge from her pocket she waved it over the scanner. With a high pitched beep, the doors of the elevator slid open smoothly. Stepping inside with Jason right beside her, Aria drew in a deep breath as the doors closed and the elevator descended smoothly. There was no buttons on the interior of the elevator. With no other option but to wait until they reached the underground level she glanced at Jason with curiosity. He seemed obvious to her observation as he tilted his head every which way as if he was carefully listening to everything.

As the carriage came to an abrupt stop, the doors slid open without a sound. Jason stepped out first. She carefully followed after him until she came to stand beside him. He tilted his head back as he drew in slow, deep inhales through his nostrils as she'd seen Doyle do many times before.

As Jason began quickly striding down the long, white tiled hall, Aria kept stride with him while her eyes darted around every corner they passed. Abruptly, he came to a jerking halt in front of a long observation window. Her gaze hardened at the sight in the next room. Scientist's were processing the unconscious prisoners that were strapped down to beds. She watched as some scientist's were placing shock cuffs around their wrists while others were taking blood samples. Jason's fists clenched so tightly at his sides that she could hear each of his knuckles crack.

“What are they doing?” His question emerged with a low snarl.

“Processing them and preparing them to be shipped to Malca's testing labs.” Jerking her eyes away from the window she looked at his tense expression. “We don't have much time. Let's find Doyle and get these people out of here. Malca's going down.” With her blood thirsty promise Aria kept moving ahead of him and looked for any sign of where Doyle would be. She was jerked to a halt as Jason's hand closed over her shoulder with a strong grip.

“Wait.” He deeply inhaled once more as his head jerked toward a separate corridor. “This way,”

Rushing down an unlit corridor, she felt her heart hammer hard against her chest. For a moment she could have sworn that she could practically feel Doyle’s presence reaching for hers. The dark hall suddenly ended at a long staircase leading down into further darkness.

Without waiting for Jason to go first, she pulled her gun free and held it against her side as she moved quickly down the cracked concrete steps. The air felt colder the further down she went. As she stepped off the last step small light bulbs above flickered on with faltering light. With each step she took more lights turned on and lit her way. At the end of the dank passageway was a large steel door.

The sound of Jason inhaling deeply once more was the only sound in their dark surroundings. “I smell a bear.” He whispered from behind her.

Not waiting, she rushed to the large door. Tugging on the rusty handle she gritted her teeth as the door refused to budge. Letting her hands fall away from the handle, her eyes studied the door for a hidden lock when her eyes fell on the seemingly new security scanner. Rushing to it, she jerked her badge out of her pocket with her fumbling fingers. Quickly sliding the badge over the scanner she was surprised with a low hum echoed as a red light flashed across the scanner. Trying again she got the same despairing result.

Groaning in frustration she found herself shoved aside by Jason as he slowly studied the scanner. After what seemed to be a few seconds, his strong hands gripped the sides of the square electronic and simply ripped it off the wall. Bright sparks exploded from the wall with his violent action. Not a second later sound of the door unlocking echoed around them. Giving Jason a surprised look he simply shrugged his shoulders.

“I'm impatient.”

Chuckling, she shook her head at him. Moving to grip the handle, the second her fingers curled around the rusty metal a blaring alarm sounded above the stairs. The ear bursting alarm had both her and Jason reaching up to cover their ears with pain while their eyes darted around fearfully. Without warning the light bulbs above them flickered down to practically no light at all. Gripping the firearm that he'd lifted off the fallen soldier, Jason made his way back to the stairs before turning to look back at her.

“I'll take care of anyone that comes this way. You go on and save your mate.” He said with an indicating nod toward the door.

Nodding her head, she turned back to the door. Her teeth grinded together as she struggled to pull the door open. Slowly with a high pitch groan, the door opened. As soon as there was enough room for her to squeeze past the door, she darted through the thin opening and into the lit room. The heavy door slammed shut behind her with a resounding bang.

Blinking against the bright lights of the room, her eyes immediately fell on horrifying sight before her. Gasping in horror, she rushed forward, uncaring to anything other than reaching him in that moment.

“My God. Doyle, what have they done to you?”

Doyle didn't respond to her voice. In the center of the room his tortured body hung limply from the metal beams above him. Two monstrous looking meat hooks had been skewered through his biceps, ripped through heavy muscle until the unforgiving hooks caressed his exposed bones. His chest was bare with the exception of dark blood that painted him. Malca had done her work on him. Parts of his chest were covered in a black patch work of burns. Others were thin welts from a recent caning.

Reaching up to touch his bruised face, Aria felt tears fill her eyes. Both her hands cupped his cheeks as she willed him to open his eyes. As soon as her thumb reached out to caress his skin, his eyes lifted lazily. One of his eyes refused to fully open as it was swollen shut, but the other held her worried ones instantly.

“If you are...here to play nurse it may have to wait.” He breathed out with heavy breaths before groaning in pain at the slightest movement. Shaking her head at his flirting words she moved around him to figure out how to lower him to the floor.

“Go…now.” His pain filled words whispered from behind her as her eyes fell upon a crude looking pulley mounted to the metal beam above. Threaded through the rusty pulley was the length of chain leading from the hooks that held Doyle suspended in the off the ground. The remaining feet of chain was weaved amongst the rafters and out of reach.

“You need to leave. It's you that she wants. I'll be fine. I was planning on breaking out of here soon anyway.”

She rolled her eyes as she jerked the glasses off her face and tossed them aside. “You know this never would have happened if you would have listened to me. But no; you had to be the
man
and take care of the problem. Now here I am; having to ride to the rescue to save your stubborn hide.”

Along the side wall she spied a cranking mechanism. Rushing over to the wall her hands quickly began turning the protruding handle. With a dialing click, Doyle groaned in pain as the hooks jerked in his wounds. With jerking motions, his body was lowered from its risen position. Once his bare feet touched the floor, his knees folded beneath him. As he fell forward, he found enough strength to catch himself with his hands before hitting the hard floor.

Rushing back, Aria fell to her knees beside him. “Take a breath.” She warned placing one hand on his shoulder while her other hand gripped the meat hook. Her lips thinned in disgust as she jerked the smooth metal from the wound in his upper arm.

Doyle bit out a groan of pain as the unforgiving hook was ripped free. Taking a deep breath, he reached up and gripped the remaining hook before ripping it free with a savage jerk. Pulling his left arm across her shoulder, she wrapped an arm around his bare waist as she helped pull him onto his feet.

“Can you walk?” She asked as they started across the room to the door.

“Do I have a choice? You shouldn't have come. It's you she wants.” He said, repeating his earlier words.

“So you've said,” she responded dryly.

As they came within a foot of the only door, she froze as the heavy metal door screeched as it was pushed open. Her free hand jerked to grip the gun concealed against her back. Pulling the gun free she took aim at the door as a dark camouflage sleeve curled around the edge of the door as it was pushed. As the door opened wider, she found herself pointing her gun at Jason. Stepping through the door, Jason still held his firearm in his hand.

Glancing at her raised gun he narrowed his eyes at her. “Mind lowering that, sweet cheeks?”

Slowly lowering her gun, she rolled her eyes at him. “Let's get out of here. Is the way clear?”

“For the moment, but we got to move quickly. I don't think that was a test drill. They probably already know we're here.”

“Who the hell are you?” Doyle growled out as his eyes flashed dangerously.

Narrowing his eyes at Doyle's aggression, Jason smirked. “I'll be your escort for this evening. So, let's get going.”

"You’re a wolf.” Doyle responded with a sneer. Just what he needed, the one type of shifter that he wouldn't trust in a million years now held his and his mate’s lives in his mangy hands.

Slowly peering through the cracked open doorway, Jason checked to see if the way was clear. Nodding with satisfaction, he turned to look at Doyle's disgruntled face. “You'll get over it. Let’s go.”

Shoving the door open, he moved out first. Aria followed a few spaces behind while still holding onto her firearm and Doyle. Moving up the stairs, Jason slowly inhaled the air in all directions around him. His head tilted to the side as he listened. Looking back down at Aria as she waited with Doyle at the bottom of the steps, Jason nodded as he continued up to the landing.

The hall was still dark and empty which only offered little comfort for Aria. If their presence was known, there was no way Malca would let them just walk out the door. She'd be waiting for them with an army to stop them. But Aria had something to fight for now and she'd kill Malca if she had to.

Coming to the end of the hallway she was surprised to see that the stretching hall was brightly lit now but was still deserted. Jason motioned forward with a flat hand. Slowly they moved around the corner and down to the reflective elevator. As she and Doyle past in front viewing window, Aria paused as she saw the room was still lit up but everyone, including the unconscious captives was gone. Where was everyone?