Scorpio Sons 4: Chase: (SF/Shifter Romance) (19 page)

Perhaps that was why she’d adjusted to life in HQ so easily, despite her initial fears. In a way, the fake window was just a nice addition. Once she accepted that the underground complex was where she wanted to be, she didn’t need
the view
anymore. Maybe she was part mole as well as cat. She grinned to herself and noted Chase shaking his head at her again.

Caleb closed up his machine, dropped everything but his essentials, and waited for the Son to slide out of the crevice before he entered it. Then, at the entrance he called back. “Give me two and a half minutes. I’ll need the extra thirty seconds to set up cover.”

Chase consulted his watch. “One hundred and fifty seconds and counting, brother. Get to it.”

They heard the slight sound of the last of the rocks and debris falling as Caleb scrambled out. The rest of the Sons began removing their helmets and turning off their headlamps. She and Chase were the only ones remaining in the cave, so their headlamps provided enough light to see by.

Chase consulted his watch again as the seconds ticked by like hours. Conrad sidled into the narrow passageway and headed for the exit.

“Sixty seconds to go. Start moving into position,” Chase ordered.

The Sons filed into the gap, one by one, pulling down their balaclavas as they went. Their dark clothing and black gloves, combined with the black head covering would make them almost impossible to see in the darkness beyond the cave.

“Thirty,” Chase announced softly, and she noted how the Sons stood a little more loosely, ready to move at a moment’s notice.

“Signal,” Conrad called back to them. That meant Caleb had successfully hacked the system and created the loop. How was that even possible in such a short span of time? Anna’s admiration for her new friend grew exponentially.

“Go, go, go!” Chase gave the order and suddenly the cave and tunnel was alive with movement as the rest of the men began to funnel into the gap as the ones at the other end left it. The only sounds were the occasional pebble pinging against stone.

When the cave was empty of all but Anna and Chase, she let out the breath she’d been holding.

Chase smiled at her and shook his head. “What madness where you thinking about this time?” He was referring to her earlier grin.

“I decided I can handle living in HQ because I’m part mole, as well as cat.”

“Huh,” he grunted and took her hand. “I hadn’t made the connection. But wandering around down here for years prepped you well for life with me, didn’t it?”

“Nothing could have prepped me for you, Chase Scanlan. You were completely unexplored territory.”

“Which, my chalice, you took in stride, as you always do.” He brought her gloved hand up to kiss.

“I’m a chalice now, am I? Want to stick your straw in me and take a sip?” she said, blushing madly as she tried wriggling her eyebrows. The effect was lost because of the helmet, but she assumed Chase got the point because he laughed.

“My straw is at your disposal at any time. Except right now...” He looked towards the crevice, his features conflicted.

“What?” she asked, not sure why he suddenly seemed so worried.

He glanced at her and then back at the crevice, yet again. “I should be going outside to check on Caleb. But I don’t want to leave you in here alone.”

She grimaced and rolled her eyes. “Chase, go, do what has to be done. I’m fine.”

“You sure you’re okay here alone? It’ll only be a few minutes. I’ll make it quick.”

“These caves are mine. I’m probably more comfortable in here than anywhere else. So go!” She gave him a little push.

“Okay then, back in a few. Don’t go anywhere.”

After he removed his helmet and handed it to her, he slid sideways through the gap, just as his brothers had done only minutes before. She left his headlamp on, just for the added light. For all her bravado, it was disconcerting to suddenly finding herself alone after being comfortingly sandwiched in on every side by multiple versions of Chase; all tall, broad and solid as the rock around her.

Her fears of the danger they all faced raced up to swamp her, but she fought them down. Everything was going as planned. There was no need to start getting paranoid.

Chase edged through the short, tight tunnel to the outside. Torn between wanting to make sure everything was going to plan and staying behind to watch over Anna, he settled for making his supervision as quick as possible so he could get back to his mate.

He found Caleb with some difficulty, sheltered under a nearby
Christmas
tree. He didn’t know much about trees so he couldn’t say what sort it actually was. Some kind of pine, he guessed. But it looked like a lopsided Christmas tree with the addition of Caleb’s dark green weatherproof dangling from its lower branches.

Giving the signal to warn Caleb it was one of his own approaching, Chase bent double to get under the cover. Inside, Caleb looked uniquely himself, blue Mohawk glowing by the light of the monitor, his shoulders hunched as his fingers flew like lightning across the keyboard

“Problems?”

Caleb didn’t even look up, his attention totally focused. “None. I’m getting a feel for the network while I’m here. It’s pretty damn spectacular, I have to say. Doesn’t bode well for whatever they’re doing in there.”

“Can you create a way in that doesn’t require you to be on-site?” he asked, looking over his brother’s shoulder as the code scrolled down the screen like a million marching ants in strict formation.

“Trying. May work. But if the White Mouse created this system then I doubt I’ll be able to do more than look on in wonder. Hey, wait... okaaay, that’s positive. I’ve found a neat little hole.... Yep, that’s just what I need. Gimme a couple o’ minutes and I’ll have a path through their firewalls that no one will know about. So maybe this isn’t the work of the White Mouse. Pity. I’d like to have crossed swords with him. Yes!” His arm shot up in a sky-punch that almost hit the plastic roofing. Realising where he was, Caleb brought his excitement under control.

“I gather you’ve done it.”

“I’m good, mighty leader. I’m too good for these bumbling fools. They never counted on someone burrowing outwards, instead of inwards. Done and dusted. Now I can explore their little world from the comfort of my own home.”

“We have to get home first, smartass.” Chase checked his watch yet again and saw the timer had counted down another five minutes. This was going to be the longest half hour of his life. How did the guys stand it? A huge amount of their time on mission was spent waiting for brief, intense moments of action like this one. No wonder they all came back hyped. All that pent energy wasn’t burned off properly.

“Better get back to Anna,” he said as he began backing out of the makeshift tent.

“She’s done better than I expected with all this. That’s some gal you got there, man. Some gal.”

“She is that. A titanium frame over a fragile fibreglass body.”

He heard Caleb chuckling almost maniacally as he made his way back to the cave entrance. The soft light coming through the narrow gap between the rocks was like the light at the end of a tunnel for him. Knowing he’d see Anna in the next blink of an eye filled him with joy.

Somewhere in the last ten days, he realised, he’d gone from grudgingly accepting a mate to being head over heels in love with this one incredible girl. His cat had chosen her, but he had clearly chosen well.

Love. He'd never thought he’d succumb to that inconvenient disease of the heart. But now that he had he was grateful for it. And more scared than ever that he would somehow screw up and lose her.

But not now. Not in this moment.

The look of relief and pleasure on her face as he edged out of the crevice and reached her side told him that she hadn’t been as comfortable to be left on her own as she'd made out. Or maybe she’d been worried about him. That thought warmed his heart afresh.

“Everything okay?” she asked anxiously, handing back his helmet.

He brought her in for a deep kiss before returning his helmet to his head. Her lips were cold on the outside and hot on the inside. They drove him to want more. But he fought down the urge. Making out while his men were in danger just wasn’t on.

“More than okay. Caleb, the maestro of the IT world, or so he thinks of himself, has found a way to burrow into their system without them knowing about it. And from what he’s already found out, it looks like getting into this complex will be like hitting paydirt for us.”

“You’ve never explained what this Exodus is all about,” she said a little aggrieved.

“The Guild are aliens, or part of their ancestry is. They came here thousands of years ago with the plan to take over the planet from the primitives, use it up, and then move on. If we’re right, then this is either the hiding place of the original spacecraft they used to get here, or the building site for the one they’re recreating based on those original specs.”

“I don’t understand. Why do you care about this spaceship? If it can fly them away from here, isn’t that a good thing?”

He stroked down her face with his gloved finger. “If they left today, yes it would be a good thing. But these
locusts
won’t leave until they’ve sucked the last of the life out of this world. Why should they? It has taken them long enough to grab a stranglehold on us. They’re just savouring the rewards.”

“So you find their ship? All you’re doing is validating information you already have, aren’t you? If you’ve known this was what they planned all along?”

“Partly it’s about finding proof, but the game plan is bigger than that. Somehow, we’re going to scuttle their attempts to leave. Permanently. If they’re stuck on the sinking ship with no way off, maybe they’ll be more inclined to try saving it, instead of behaving like the rats they truly are.”

She frowned as she considered the implication of his words. “So, if they can’t leave, they have to start conserving our resources? Does that mean the Sons will stop bringing them to justice?”

He knew she wanted to see justice done for the abused children. Chase wanted that too, passionately. But in his case it was in retribution for what had been done to his woman.

“No. We’ll continue to mete out justice, especially to those who hurt you. And we’ll stop the Guild committing more crimes like that, I promise.”

One of the searches he’d instigated shortly after hearing Anna’s story was on Gregorov, the newest member of the Inner Sanctum. The man was reputedly in charge of a branch of the Russian Mafia, which operated an international human trafficking ring. He wanted that man with a fury that bordered on insanity, but as yet they didn't have enough evidence against him to legitimately bring him in. Clever, meticulous and careful to cover his tracks, all they had were unsubstantiated suspicions about the bastard. And their courts of law required unequivocal evidence before they’d sentence a Guild member to death.

Could Anna provide that evidence? He hadn’t considered it before this moment, but maybe she could identify those men she’d seen while enslaved. Bringing all that back up was cruel, but he knew she’d go there if there was any chance of ending the human trafficking ring.

Once this mission was finished, he’d help Anna get her justice. And find some peace for himself as well. Finally, the insistent voice in his head would be silenced. The one told that him he should have been able to protect his girl six years ago; even though he didn’t know her then, and was still trying to get his head around the enormity of his task.

He looked down at his watch and saw that the timer had miraculously counted down to the last five minutes. Any time now his men would start filing back in.

If everything had gone as planned.

As if being conjured from his thoughts, the first of the brothers began edging back through the crevice. He removed his wet balaclava and grinned. It was Christian, with raindrops on his dark eyelashes.

“Problems?”

“Nope. Rest of the team’s close behind. We took the east side of the complex, Corban took the middle and Carl went west. Piece of cake from what I could see. Certainly for my team. No alarms, no dogs barking, no guards running around like headless chickens trying to find us. We didn’t even sedate anyone.”

“Excellent. I’ll be happy to see the results.”

The rest of Christian’s team piled into the cave and enjoyed some back slapping and trash-talk, while remaining mindful of the young woman in their midst. Anna just grinned and looked over the moon to have them back.

Next in were Corban and his team, quickly followed by Carl’s unit. By the time Caleb joined them and one of the others repaired the wall behind them, they were all in high spirits. But the smell of wet wool, testosterone and male sweat was more than his cat senses could handle in the confined space, so Chase gave the word to move out.

Anna again took the lead, and he followed her, feeling a lightness of heart he hadn’t experienced for many, many years. Since the night he’d howled at the moon, he realised. He only prayed that this moment of exhilaration wouldn’t be cut short as agonisingly as that last one had been.

By the time they arrived at the farmhouse, the laughter and trash-talk had turned into practical jokes. When one brother kissed another full on the lips because of some gay crack, he decided to step in. They couldn’t afford to let their guard down. Right now it looked like they’d succeeded in their mission without losses. But what if, at that very moment, the Guild had a convoy of armed men headed their way?

“Check the perimeter and the guards we left on point. The rest of you get some food and take showers. We aren’t home-free yet. This is still enemy territory, and we’re still vulnerable,” he reminded them roughly.

That sobered them up fast and Conrad, who’d been spinning Anna around the large living room, avoiding furniture and brothers with dexterity, stopped and let her go like a naughty boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Immediately they were all duty again, their identical, youthful faces once more the harsh masks of warriors.

Anna looked at Chase as if
he
was the one caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Abruptly, she followed Caleb into the tech room without a backward glance. Though it took everything he had, he stopped himself from following her. He was the god-damned leader here, for chrissakes. It was his responsibility to keep his men on task, not flipping out with euphoria. There’d be time for that later. For now, they still had to be vigilant.

When the men split up and followed orders, he was left alone in the living room feeling like a kid sent to Coventry. Mad as hell, he stomped into the kitchen and found a beer in the fridge. He didn’t drink much, and on mission the rules required that everyone keep their alcohol consumption to a minimum. But right now he needed a beer more than he needed his next breath.

When Anna wandered back in, still looking pissed with him, he felt his heart sink a little deeper.

“Chris wants a word with you upstairs,” she muttered, throwing a glance in his direction.

“You know what happened to the Trojans when they celebrated too soon, don’t you?” he snapped.

“The enemy hidden in the belly of the horse came out and opened the gates to the city. I get it, Chase, I do. And your brothers do, too. But you could have let them have a few minutes of fun. That was a tense time for everyone. They did good.”

“We all did good, Anna. But there’s a time for celebrating and this isn’t it. Not yet.”

He stalked past her and went to join Chris on the second floor, wondering if Anna would ever want him again.