Into the Lair

Chapter Forty

Ian and Braden made fast tracks through the low-slung corridors that snaked toward the middle. Convoluted was apparently a favorite design of Esteban’s. This one mirrored the building in Switzerland almost exactly.

Using the signal from Katie’s tracking device, they navigated the twists and turns. Halfway in, everything went dark. Braden slapped on night vision goggles with infrared sensors and continued forward, his gun up.

A few seconds later, track lighting along the ceiling flickered and bathed the hallways with a dull glow.

Ian stopped outside a closed doorway and held up a finger and pointed. Braden gripped his gun tighter and nodded for Ian to go in. According to the locator, Katie was in the next room.

Ian slapped on the explosive, set the timer and then motioned for Braden to get down. Three seconds later, the door blew, and he and Ian rushed through the entry.

Braden staggered back when brilliant white light accosted his vision. He put a hand up to ward it off before making a sweep of the room with his rifle. It was empty. Save for a cylindrical platform in the middle of the room. A red beam illuminated a tiny container resting on the surface.

He and Ian exchanged glances. Where the fuck was Katie?

Dread tightened his gut as he walked slowly toward the platform. He knew what he’d find before he ever got there.

Almost invisible, sitting in what looked to be a Petri dish, was the thin, needle-like tracking device that Katie had worn.

“Mother fuck!” Ian swore as he spun around.

And then from the tiny holes that ringed the platform, smoke seeped upward, drifting higher and spreading out, faster and faster.

“Get out of here!” Braden shouted as he bolted for the door.

He was nearly there when rails slammed from the ceiling, barring his exit. He yanked around only to be enclosed by another set as they dropped like bricks, imprisoning him in a large square box.

Ian fared no better.

The two brothers stared at one another even as Braden felt every muscle go limp and unresisting. The room swam in his vision, and he felt himself fall. His head rolled to the side. His last conscious thought was of Katie and whether she’d died on the mountain after all.

Braden opened his eyes and saw only a blurred blob of vague color and slight movement. He blinked and blinked again, each time clearing some of the film from his vision.

He saw Katie, lying on the floor inside a glass enclosure, her eyes glassy and unfocused, fixed on some distant object. She was soaked, the thin gown she wore plastered to her body. She shivered uncontrollably, her body jerking as she clutched her arms to her chest.

Relief surged, sweet and soothing. She was alive.

Then rage followed, replacing the calm. It curdled in his veins, whispering and calling to the killer inside him. To the predator.

“What did you do to her?” he demanded as he saw Esteban step to the glass to stare at Katie.

Esteban turned, a smile on his face. He looked oddly calm, not at all the demented, frantic man they’d confronted in Switzerland.

“Ah, you’re awake.”

“What did you do to her?” he bit out again.

Esteban glanced back at Katie, his expression almost regretful and as strange as it seemed, tender.

“I regret the pain I caused her, but that’s over with now. She won’t feel the second egg extraction.”

“What?” Braden shouted. He tried to strain forward and only then did he realize that he was restrained standing up, his ankles secured to an iron plate with metal cuffs and his arms banded on either side of his head.

“Getting worked up won’t help you,” Esteban said calmly. “You can’t shift. I’ve injected enough paralytic that I rather doubt you’ll do much more than drool occasionally once it takes effect. It should be hitting you any time now.”

Movement beside him alerted him, and he glanced over to see Ian similarly restrained. His eyes came open slowly, and he blinked as Braden had as he tried to bring his surroundings into focus.

“Leave her alone,” Braden demanded. “You don’t need her.”

“Oh, but I do,” Esteban said. “It’s you I don’t need. Your men have done a good job of gaining access to the compound and my security system, but the inner shell operates independently. It’s steel reinforced and completely closed off from the rest. As soon as the outer perimeter is compromised, the inner hull goes into lockdown. I delayed it long enough for you to arrive.”

“I thought you didn’t need us,” Braden said. “Why the elaborate hoax? Why bother leading us here at all?”

Esteban glanced back at Katie one more time and then he pressed a button and spoke rapidly in Spanish. Two men immediately walked into the containment room where Katie lay, both wearing biohazard suits.

Oh God, Katie. What have they done to you, baby?

He stared in agony as the two men carried her out of the glass enclosure. A few moments later they walked into the room where Esteban stood and laid her on the exam table. She lay there listlessly, her body shaking, her eyes unseeing.

Esteban tended to her, his motions gentle. He touched her cheek at one point and carefully pried her wet hair from her face.

And then he turned back to Braden. “It was actually something that Katie said on the plane. That I hadn’t factored you and Ian into the equation. She was right. I gave you no thought other than thinking you a nuisance. Your instability made you unacceptable for my needs—or so I thought. My scientists are intrigued by you, though. They’ll use you for research, and when you’ve served your purpose, you’ll be disposed of. My concentration, however, will be on Katie.”

“You’ll never leave this place alive,” Ian broke in, his face tight with anger.

Already, Braden could feel his limbs grow heavy. Lead traveled sluggishly through his veins. It was all he could do to lift his head.

“You’re crazy,” Braden slurred. “Certifiable.”

“I assure you, I’m completely sane.”

He turned to one of the men in a lab coat. He rattled off an order in Spanish, and Braden was too disoriented to follow the different dialect. But the intent was clear. One of the men gripped Katie’s ankles and spread her legs.

She whimpered and put a hand out to ward him off. Esteban cupped his hand to her face and whispered soothingly to her. She only became more agitated.

When the other man took a metal speculum and started to move between her legs, Ian went crazy. Braden closed his eyes and did what he’d never done before. He called to the panther. A soft plea. Unfettered acceptance. He embraced his beast and surrendered to the shift.