Into the Lair

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Braden stared at the array of waterlogged parts to the receiver with a tenuous grip on his fury. He wanted to hurl them against the wall and then he wanted to hit someone. Several times the beast inside had risen, snarling to be set free. The edgy, sharp sensation prickled along his skin, raising his hairs. The signal of an impending shift. He’d never fought so hard in his life to remain calm, to ward off the panther. Never before had he been successful.

Too much was riding on his ability to remain human. Katie was depending on him.

For the umpteenth time, he carefully wiped down each individual wire, each piece and then put it all back together in an effort to make it come to life.

When he finished, he hit the power button and held his breath.

Nothing.

With a snarl of fury, he hurled it across the room, and it shattered on impact. He thrust himself up from the bed, crossed to the wall and punched it for all he was worth.

The wall caved and dust from the sheetrock slid down and skittered onto the floor.

“Hey, lighten up,” Eli said as he put his hand on Braden’s shoulder.

Braden held up his hand, a clear warning for Eli to back off. He did.

“Don’t tell me to lighten up. Would you lighten up if it was Tyana out there? Cold. Alone.”

“No, man, I wouldn’t,” Eli said quietly.

“How’s Tits?” Braden asked as he turned around. He sucked in his breaths, trying to soothe the fury that singed his veins and thundered in his ears.

“A little weak, but we stopped the blood. Looks like a flesh wound. He’ll bitch and moan, but he’ll be fine.”

“I can’t stand it, Eli. I can’t stand to stay here any longer. I’ve got to get out of here.”

“It won’t be much longer,” Eli soothed. “Jonah and Mad Dog and the rest of the Falcon secondary are getting here as fast as they can. The extrication team he already had on the ground should be here anytime.”

Braden stared across the room to where Ian sat slumped in a chair, his head down, palm covering is forehead. What a fucking mess.

“I’ll go out and have a look around again,” Eli said. “It should be getting light soon.”

Braden nodded, and Eli faded from view. Only a slight shadow streaking across the room signaled his departure. Ian looked up at Braden.

“We lost her, man.”

Braden swallowed and willed himself to remain calm, not to let the anger—and the grief—tear out of his chest. He was pissed. If only they’d been upfront with Katie from the beginning or even later on, after they’d arrived in Austria. Hell, even after they’d started sleeping with her.

They’d had countless chances, but they’d been arrogant, too confident in their ability to control the situation. And neither had realized what they stood to lose until it was too damn late.

Braden turned away from his brother, no longer able to stand the pain in Ian’s eyes. They mirrored his own agony too much.

A few minutes later, Eli strode back into the bedroom, his expression tight. “There are rescue crews further down the mountain. Nothing up here yet, but then we’re pretty far out of the way. Chances are no one knew anyone was in this cabin.”

“Have they recovered any survivors?” Ian asked, hope edging into his voice.

“Just bodies,” Eli said grimly. “Esteban’s men and a few of the Falcon secondary. No sign of Katie. There’s a team of men heading in our direction. Most likely Falcon, but we can’t be too careful. Stay on your toes and have your guns at the ready.”

The men walked back into the living room where Tits was propped up against the wall, his gun leaned against his uninjured shoulder. He stared at them with slitted eyes, monitoring their progress across the floor.

“How you holding up?” Eli asked.

“I’m good. Ready to go. No wimpy ass bullet’s gonna take me down.”

“We got a team moving in,” Eli said as he squatted beside Tits.

Tits nodded and grasped the stock of his rifle, sliding the barrel down his body and then tilting it forward. “Well, let’s do it, then.”

Eli grasped his good arm, and Ian leaned in to help pull Tits to a standing position. Tits stared at Ian eye to eye, his expression serious.

“I’m sorry about Katie.”

Ian swallowed and nodded shortly.

Thirty minutes later, they heard the sounds of equipment hitting the roof. Then light shone in the broken window on the left. A hand appeared as it scooped out snow, widening the beam of light.

“Guess it’s time to greet our guests,” Eli muttered as he strode to the window.

Ian moved in behind Eli and pointed his rifle toward the opening. Eli disappeared in a thin vapor trail and filtered up through the window. Braden joined Ian with Tits close behind.

“That shit makes me nervous,” Tits muttered. “What if I inhaled the man?”

Braden shook with laughter despite the raw grief carved on his face.

A few seconds later, the hole got bigger, and a hand thrust a small receiver through the opening. Ian lunged for it, his hands shaking as he powered it up.

“We’ll get you out shortly,” one of the men hollered down.

Ian ignored him, turning away as he punched in the code for Katie’s tracking device.

“Come on, come on,” he murmured impatiently as he waited for the map to load.

The graphic flashed on the screen and the lines spread out, signaling the layout of the area. A hundred-mile radius. He frowned and keyed the code in again.

“What the fuck?” Braden demanded as he looked over Ian’s shoulder.

“That’s impossible.” Ian keyed it in for the third time. “Something’s wrong.”

“What is it?” Tits asked as he too came over to look.

“She’s not showing up,” Braden said.

“Maybe all the snow interfered,” Tits offered cautiously.

Ian shook his head. “That thing would work on the bottom of the ocean.”

“Could it have fallen off?” Braden asked.

“It would still show up on the receiver,” Ian said. “Marcus sewed it into her damn stitches. It didn’t just fall out. The only explanation…”

He turned to Braden, afraid to hope, afraid to let Braden see his hope.

“What?” Braden demanded.

“The only explanation is that she’s beyond the search radius,” he said slowly.

Light sparked in Braden’s eyes. “Widen it.”

Ian rapidly keyed in the coordinates for the world map and held his breath. And then a small dot on the display screen started to blink.

Excitement exploded in his chest. Relief so profound he felt lightheaded. He yanked his gaze to Braden to see the same excitement burgeoning in his eyes.

“Where is she?” Braden asked hoarsely.

Ian frowned as he crosschecked the latitude and longitude. Then he looked back up at Braden and Tits.

“If my coordinates are correct, she’s somewhere over the Atlantic.”