The Finding (42 page)

“As if you have
a choice. You’ll do as I say.” Marla glared at the computer screen,
seeing her own face again. It was contorted, ugly red blotches on
her cheeks... She schooled her features into their usual calm,
unflappable expression, smoothed her hair, and then folded her
hands neatly on the desk top to consider the situation in a
rational manner.

Aldrich has
been busy all morning on some project in the back rooms of the
penthouse. It was the one area to which he refused to give her
unsupervised access. She suspected he kept certain private records
back there and she’d tried on various occasions to get in, but like
certain computer files, she was locked out. The entrance was
fingerprint activated and she hadn’t figured out how to get past
it. Plus Swanson’s office was the first door down the hallway and
the man was always in there reviewing security tapes and checking
codes.

Marla knew
something big was going on. There were people in the back rooms
now, something that had never happened before. Aldrich had let two
new persons into his sanctuary. She could detect their scents; both
were males, one was injured. The slight coppery scent of blood
tinged the air, but it wasn’t a serious injury. A drug was being
used too, probably a sedative though she couldn’t be sure.

She’d spent
part of the morning straining to hear what was going on, trying
various rooms, standing by ventilation ducts, but to no avail. The
rooms were well secured and she had no idea what was going on. It
bothered her greatly that Aldrich hadn’t mentioned anything to her
and was probably one of the reasons she’d snapped at Sylvia like
that.

Her reaction
had been a strategic error, but what was done was done and now
she’d just have to deal with the consequences. Picking up the
phone, she called Jeffries.

“Jeffries? ...
Marla here ... Yes, I miss you too ... Remember our conversation
this morning? ... Uh-huh. ... I still want to play that trick on
Sylvia. Any idea when you could be ready?” She frowned listening to
him making excuses. “No. I haven’t changed my mind and you’d better
not either. Not if you want any more of what I gave you this
morning ... It works both ways, Jeffries. I make your ‘elevator’ go
up and you ... Uh-huh. Now you get the idea ... Good. I really need
to do this by tomorrow morning ... Thank you. I’ll give you a big
reward tomorrow night if this works.” She blew a kiss down the
phone and then hung up, a satisfied smile on her face.

*****

Cassie stared
at the picture of Kellen as it appeared on the tiny screen of her
cell phone. The kidnappers had sent it, as requested, when she said
she’d turn herself over to them tomorrow, but only if she had proof
that Kellen was alive. Well, he was alive, but his eyes were
unfocussed as if he’d been drugged. At least the swelling of his
eye and lip were less than in the picture she’d found pinned to her
front door. She bit her lip, holding back the sympathetic tears
that threatened to fall and studied the picture again. Someone was
beside Kellen though she could only see the person’s finger tips.
They were holding a newspaper that showed today’s date.

She supposed
she should be glad that at least he was still alive, but a sort of
numbness was coming over her. This couldn’t really be happening,
not to her, not to Kellen. Things like this happened to famous
people, important people... Well, she supposed being an heiress she
did fit into that category, but she’d never seen herself as anyone
special. The only thing special about her was that she was a
werewolf and this didn’t even have anything to do with that
fact!

Bryan plucked
the phone from her unresisting fingers and squinted at the picture,
then wordlessly passed it to the other men in the room.

“Well, that
confirms it.” Ryne tossed the phone on the table and ran his hands
through his hair. “The Anderson kid is there. Now how do we go
about getting him out?”

“And how do we
get in to find Marla and Aldrich?” Kane grumbled from the window
where he was observing the view. “The Chicago pack reports that he
hardly ever leaves the building and when he does it’s in a limo.
Damn thing is built like a tank apparently.”

Bryan paced the
room. “The front door is guarded and we can’t just take the doorman
out. It’s too public. There’d be too many questions.”

“There’s
probably a closed circuit TV as well. If we go in the front it will
give Marla and Aldrich too much warning. Quite likely Aldrich has a
backup escape plan, given how paranoid he is.” Ryne stood up and
went to the small bar fridge and took out a beer. After taking a
swig, he sat on the edge of the dresser, one leg languidly swinging
back and forth. “We need to sneak in some way. But how?”

Cassie remained
where she was, curled up in a chair in the corner, watching the men
warily. For all that Bryan had tried to ease some of her fears, she
was still extremely aware of the fact that she was surrounded by
three werewolves. The Alphas especially exuded a sense of
dominating strength that had the wolf inside her tucking its tail
between its legs. For once, Cassie was in total concordance with
the creature. She could sense the men were angry and frustrated and
even though she knew it wasn’t directed at her, it didn’t make her
any less uneasy.

Cautiously,
trying not to draw attention to herself, she reached for her cell
phone and stared at the picture of Kellen. At present it was zoomed
in on his face. She reversed the zoom, easing the picture back,
taking in his whole self. The poor man was tied to a hard wooden
chair. It seemed as if the kidnappers were taunting him, seeing as
how he was surrounded by soft carpeting and expensive art work.
Even the curtains seemed to be of a high quality. As she scanned
the picture of the room, an idea began to form.

It was crazy,
but... Cassie nibbled her lip and considered the idea again. It
might work, but could she really do it? Perhaps... She stared at
Kellen’s slumped figure and realized she had no choice. It was
probably the only way...

“I can do it.”
She said the words out loud while staring at the picture. The
conversation in the room stopped and she looked up to find the
three men staring at her.

“Do what,
Cassie?” Bryan looked at her puzzled.

She licked her
lips nervously, but then stood up and said it again. “I can get in
to the penthouse and then let the rest of you in.”

Kane gave her a
condescending smile and shook his head while Ryne outright laughed.
“Bryan, did you overstate the abilities of werewolves to her?” He
chuckled again. “It’s nice of you to offer sweetie, but—”

She cut off the
man’s comment. “I mean it. I can get in there by... What did you
call it, Bryan? Tele-something?”

“Teleporting.”
Bryan supplied the word, but shook his head. “Uh-uh. No way. You
aren’t just popping into a viper’s den by yourself. Besides you
can’t control it. You’ve never done it at will.” His words held a
certain finality as if he thought he had the final word as to what
she could or couldn’t do. Cassie bit back an instinctive retort at
his high-handed manner.

“What the hell
are you two talking about?” Ryne looked between the two of them,
obviously not understanding what they were referring to.

“Teleporting,
Ryne.” Kane walked closer, staring at Cassie as he addressed his
brother. “Don’t you remember the lessons we had on the ancient
ones? Or was that another of the classes you skipped?”

“Ha, ha. I
remember, but...” Ryne also walked closer to Cassie and she took an
involuntary step backwards. He turned to look at Bryan. “How does
she know about teleporting? I told you to bring her up to speed on
werewolves, but that’s not the first topic I would have
picked.”

Bryan rubbed
his neck and chuckled. “Me either. Um... I haven’t had time to tell
you all about our newest pack member Ryne, but it seems she’s no
run of the mill lone wolf.”

Ryne raised his
brows. “How so?”

“Well, Cassie
says that she’s had a few rather odd experiences during the full
moon. Experiences where she’s apparently disappeared from her
locked bedroom and reappeared in another location.”

“Damn, I don’t
believe it.” Ryne stared at her in obvious surprise, then ran his
hand through his thick black hair. He shook his head and whistled.
“If it’s true this is some stray we’ve found.”

Cassie bristled
at the term stray. “I’m not some lost dog, you know.”

“He didn’t mean
it that way,” Kane spoke softly. “My brother’s not known for his
flowery phrases, but he is right. If you can indeed teleport, you
are an exceptional werewolf.” He turned to look at Bryan. “Has she
reported any other signs?”

“Well...” Bryan
shifted a bit uncomfortably. “She says she’s had constant dreams of
a certain wolf. Always the same wolf.”

Kane nodded.
“It fits. Her wolf knows its mate and has already formed a blood
bond without even having met.” He hooked his thumbs in his belt
loops and rocked back on his heels. “Congratulations, Ryne. You’re
probably the only Alpha on the continent with a royal blooded wolf
in your pack.”

The three men
all gazed at Cassie speculatively and she gave them a hesitant
smile, not at all liking being the centre of attention.
“So...um...do any of you know how to teleport or have any pointers
for me?”

“No.” Bryan
gave his head a shake. “No I don’t know how, nor do I have any
‘pointers,’ and no I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“But why? None
of you seem to have come up with a better idea yet.” She warmed to
her idea in the face of Bryan’s outright dismissal. He was trying
to tell her what to do again and she wasn’t about to put up with
it. Jutting her chin, she frowned at him and he glared right back.
The tension grew between them and Bryan issued a low growl from his
throat. Startled, she blinked, instinctively looking away only to
encounter the gaze of the two Alphas. They were studying the
interaction with expressions of mild interest. Suddenly, Cassie
felt incredibly ill at ease. Here she was surrounded by werewolves
and what was she doing? Showing attitude. Looking at the floor, she
bit her lip hoping she hadn’t been too insubordinate.

Bryan muttered
something under his breath and turned away to look out the window,
but the other two seemed interested in her idea.

“She’s right
you know.” Ryne nodded. “There’s no obvious way for us to get in.
Aldrich has made his own little fortress.”

“It just might
work.” Kane concurred. He nodded towards the cell phone in her
hand. “She has an image of the room to focus on so she’d know where
she was going. It’s not a complete stab in the dark.”

Cassie stood a
little straighter, pleased that they seemed to like her idea.

“But she’s only
done it a few times and has no idea how to control it.” Bryan faced
the room again, a frown on his face.

“We could
practise here in the motel. I could go from room to room.” Cassie
clutched the phone in her hand and looked anxiously at the men.

Kane cocked his
head. “You realize it could be dangerous, don’t you? When you
suddenly appear in Aldrich’s penthouse, you’ll be by yourself and
there’s no guarantee that the room will be empty.”

She gave a half
shrug putting on a show of bravado. “I...I guess I’ll just have to
hope for the best. And I won’t be alone for long. Kellen will be
there.”

“Sorry
sweetheart, but your ‘friend’ doesn’t look like he’ll be much help.
My best guess is that they’ve got him pretty doped up to keep him
quiet.” Ryne gave her a small apologetic smile as if he were sorry
for bursting her bubble.

“Oh.” Cassie
did feel rather deflated for a moment, but then she squared her
shoulders. “Well then, I guess I’ll just have to find a way of
letting you guys in, won’t I?” She walked over to the laptop and
stared at the screen. “Your friend Daniel sent you the floor plans,
right? And the security system. If we look at this picture of
Kellen, it seems he’s in a corner room. See how the windows are
situated?”

The men
gathered around her and she pointed to where she was looking. “So
Kellen must be in one of these corner rooms. And if we look at the
security system, this appears to be the main hub and that’s...” She
frowned at the screen for a moment. “Just down the hall from this
room here which is one of the possible locations they’re holding
Kellen.”

Bryan rubbed
his chin. “It would make sense to hold a prisoner near the main
security room.” He gave her an approving nod.

Cassie felt a
glow of pride over Bryan’s comment and struggled to keep from
beaming. “So once I get in, I can just run down the hall, turn off
whatever alarms there are and then you guys come up and help me get
Kellen out.”

“And deal with
Marla and Aldrich.” Kane added darkly.

Bryan exhaled
loudly and shoved his hands in his pockets. “I still don’t like it,
but I don’t have another solution.” He pressed his lips tightly
together then nodded. “Okay, let’s head to our room. If Mel’s
sleeping, we don’t want to wake her. We’ll start practising just
teleporting a short distance and see how it goes.”

She nodded
trying to ignore the acrobatics her stomach was suddenly performing
as she contemplated what she’d just agreed to do. Wiping her sweaty
palms on her pant legs she reminded herself she was doing it for
Kellen. The knowledge did little to ease her worries.

Chapter
19

Bryan watched
Cassie try, yet again, to teleport from one side of the room to the
other. They’d been at it for over two hours and this attempt was as
unsuccessful as the previous ten attempts had been. The air
shimmered slightly around her, but that was a far as she got. He
could tell she was getting frustrated; the flush along her
cheekbones, the tightness around her mouth told the story.