Familiar Desires: 5 (Protective Affairs) (28 page)

“Well, she didn’t hide what we found so far. So it’s likely
the ongoing search will find more. We need to find the people they’ve kidnapped
though, Alana.” Mark looked a little skeptical.

“If I go in there trying to make a deal with her, she’s
going to feel she’s in control. That’s the last thing we want. She’ll talk. She
just has to see what her future holds if she doesn’t work with me.” Alana knew
the witch’s kind. Michelle would take advantage of any weakness shown to her. “Plus
we do have the leverage that the other man is talking. She doesn’t know he isn’t
saying anything about his boss.”

Everyone looked uncertain. She knew the risks, but she also
knew how important this information was. Michelle wasn’t going to risk never
walking in the free world again. They didn’t have time to play games and wait
for her to get ready to talk.

“There are no certainties in this world. She prefers things
her way and is accustomed to getting that. It doesn’t matter to her how long
this takes and might think that if she can keep you waiting long enough, you’ll
cave and offer her a very light sentence.” Alana waited to see how that went
over with them. They all hungered for justice for the people kidnapped, but if
there was any hope of the captives being alive, they had to get Michelle to
talk quickly.

“She won’t get a light sentence.” Chief Parker glared at
her.

“If you want to actually negotiate and baby her, you can go
in there and try it. But she’ll play with you, maybe for days. I don’t know if
we have that. What will happen when the people behind this learn we have not
only one of their men, but a witch too?”

“We’ve thought of that. It’s why we picked her up at night
and without the lights and sirens. We’ve kept it as quiet as possible. No one’s
tried to call either of them, so that’s in our favor, but you’re right. It’s
only a matter of time since they know we have him.” Mark nodded.

“Do your best and get that information.” Carson nodded.

She took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She’d done
something similar to this before. She’d played the hard ass then as she planned
to do now. The end result hadn’t seemed to matter as much then. She couldn’t
let Michelle know how much the thought of failure affected her though.

Alana knew her plan was sound. From what she knew, the woman
liked control. Alana had to show Michelle that she had no control here and then
give her a way to get some back.

“I will. No matter what.” She turned to Michael and Kane. “I
need you two to stay with them. You can watch with the others. I can’t show any
weakness in front of her or any partiality to this area. And I may have to say
some things to throw her, because she’s undoubtedly heard about our
relationship.”

“You hold that lowest offer as a last resort.” Will stood. “We’ll
be watching and we’ll keep them out if necessary.”

“We know what she feels. Nothing she says is going to make
us run in there at her. She’s our mate and she’s acknowledged that.” Michael glared
at the older man. He stood and hauled her to her feet. “Don’t worry about
anything you might say. You can always make it up to us later if you think you’ve
hurt our feelings.”

She laughed at that. “Don’t bet on it. I might need a
tension reliever after this.”

“I think we can give you what you want.” Kane turned her in
his arms and hugged her tight.

“All right, show me to the witch and I’ll get on with this.”
Alana looked at Mark. “Is she ready?”

“I had her brought in when you arrived.” Mark led her out of
the room. “They’ll watch from here. If they have anything to say, I’ll be able
to hear them. I have an ear piece.”

“Okay, let’s go see if she’s ready to talk.” Alana breathed
slow and steady while Mark led her through the hallways. When he stopped
outside a door and looked back at her, she took one last deep breath, lifted
her chin and forced a small smile to her lips. She had to appear confident and
at ease in front of the witch

Mark opened the door and walked into the room. She followed
into the light-gray room and a rush of satisfaction flowed through her when she
saw Michelle’s mouth drop open. Well, the woman hadn’t been expecting to see her.

“I said I wanted a representative from the Protectorate
authorized to negotiate with me. I should have known this was a trick.”
Michelle stood.

“I am authorized to speak with you. There isn’t going to be
much negotiation at all.” Alana walked slowly over to the table and sat down
across from her.

“You need me to talk. You’ll give me something for it.”
Michelle put her hands on the table.

Mark stood to the side, apparently ready to grab her if she
tried anything. Alana didn’t think Michelle was going to jump at her, but
understood Mark was simply staying prepared. Michelle’s lawyer simply sat there
and stared.

“You’re lucky you got me and not the DA bringing a picture
of where you’re going to spend the rest of your life. The view’s not great, but
you get three meals a day. With the evidence against you and the kidnapper we
caught talking, it’s more than you deserve.” Alana relaxed against the back of
the chair and watched Michelle. She hoped Michelle was as disconnected from her
human counterparts as she hoped to be from the Familiars in this area.

Michelle sat down heavily. She was quiet for a moment and
then looked at her lawyer.

“Is there any way she can get the deal instead of the
abductor?” the gray-haired man asked.

“She tells us where to find the people she helped kidnap
before he does. If we find them alive, that will be better for her. We want to
know everything she does.” Alana tilted her head and waited a few beats.

“How much better? And if I get out, will I have my magic?”
Michelle leaned forward.

“For each person alive, we’ll take some years off. The magic
I can’t say either way. That’s up to the Council and they’ve only agreed to the
possibility. I can’t guarantee it.” Alana shrugged. As if she’d ever be stupid
enough to try to guess which way a Witch Council would go in returning or
continuing the punishment of a witch.

“Why not? I want my powers.” Michelle banged her hand on the
table.

Well, there were the temper tantrum and the demands. Alana
expected the last-minute scrambles for a few more concessions. Michelle would
try to get the best deal possible. This was usually the time for give and take.
Unfortunately, Alana couldn’t offer her anything more. Carson Samuels had been
very adamant that the decision to return Michelle’s magic to her would be made
after she’d served her sentence. They wanted to watch her behavior and see if
she learned anything from her time in prison.

“Because the possibility was as much as they would give. I
can’t say what the damn Witch Council will do about that decision years from
now, but the chance of regaining your magic is better than no or never. The Council
makeup changes over the years. You know as well as I do they’re sometimes
fickle about this kind of decision, but you have the fact that you are a woman
on your side. Councils tend to be a little more lenient to the females.” Alana
narrowed her eyes. The dumb bitch better not make this a sticking point.

“Why is it contingent on how many are alive? What’s happened
to them now isn’t my fault.” Michelle’s voice was bland and almost curious.

“Because you helped put them in that position. You will take
responsibility for their deaths if any of them died.” Alana clenched her jaw to
keep from yelling at the woman.

“There’s a warehouse on the east side of Corona City. The
doctor keeps them there as far as I know.” Michelle nodded. “Last I heard, they
were alive. All of them.”

Mark put a piece of paper onto table and slapped a pencil on
top of it. “The address.”

“I know the way to it, but not the name of the street. I’d
need to see a map to show you which road, because there are at least three rows
of those big buildings.” Michelle looked up at them from her seat.

Mark walked to the door and opened it. “Get a map of the
warehouses on the east side of Corona City.”

Alana sat and stared at Michelle. She didn’t smell a lie,
but the woman had been living one for at least a few months. Alana had no idea
if the woman had a conscience. Michelle not only went after the woman she’d
considered in her way, but innocents who had nothing to do with it. Alana
wished the human kidnapper was willing to deal, but even though he realized
what he faced in court, he wouldn’t talk. Michelle was their only choice.

“Those places have security cameras, don’t they?” Alana
tilted her head. “Her word isn’t going to be enough.”

Most of the warehouses districts she’d visited in the past
had video surveillance to help protect and monitor against theft. If they could
find evidence that the van they knew was part of the kidnappings went to the
warehouse, they could get a warrant.

Mark nodded and held up his phone. “I just put the tech guys
in both departments on it. They’ll trace the van by traffic and business
security cameras.”

Alana fastened the straps of the body armor over her
Protectorate uniform. Although it had taken hours, they’d found the van on
security footage going into the warehouse district and then going to the big
storage place. The owner of the buildings had cooperated, giving them complete
access to the footage. In older video, they saw two men near one of the large
doors, one of them the man they’d caught, taking something from the van. It was
in an odd shape and in one shot appeared to be moving. It was enough.

The name the owner had been given was Doctor Ian Garces, but
they couldn’t find any records of anyone by that name in the area. A quick
check of the information on the rental agreement revealed everything on it was
false. Alana didn’t know how the owner could have missed it. The rent had been
paid every month, but the account number had changed every time.

The police hadn’t yet traced the accounts back to their
source yet, but the multiple account numbers seemed wrong to her. Her first
thought was that he was using stolen account numbers or perhaps he was or knew
a hacker and thought to hide the true source of the money. She’d known there
was a possibility the identity was fake, but she’d wanted something to go on
before they went in to the warehouse. It would help if they knew something
about what the man was doing.

Once they had the information, a group from Devoe had
traveled down to Corona City. They’d met at the Corona City Police station. Now
that the briefing of the officers involved was finished, everyone was readying
for the mission and hopefully to takedown. Doctor Garces.

Michael and Kane also were strapping on body armor. Normally,
Alana would enter with the first wave of officers to help secure the build, but
she was going in at the back of the group with Michael and Kane. From all indications,
both from Michelle and the human, they weren’t dealing with magic. She didn’t
want to chance going in without them though. If the kidnapped shifters and
witch truly were alive, the captors had to be using something to keep them subdued
enough not to escape. Magic would be one of the more obvious and effective
methods. They’d need Michael’s and Kane’s skills if any kind of magic was
involved.

Also, if she were at the front, her attention would be
split, part on the situation in front of her and the other on Michael and Kane
and their safety. A moment of distraction could get her or someone else killed.
It was a chance she wasn’t willing to take.

She gave a last check-through of her weapons and nodded. She
was ready. As she moved to stand beside Michael and Kane, she tried to mentally
prepare. She waited while the rest of the officers from both Devoe and Corona
City finished readying for the operation at the Corona City Police Department.
Everyone had been briefed earlier. They’d viewed the original schematics for
the warehouse, but knew that things could have been changed by the people using
it.

Michael drove, following the police vehicles to the
warehouse district. She felt the familiar tightening of her stomach while
nervousness ramped up her heartbeat. It was more this time. She had something
to lose and the two people who meant the most to her would be walking straight
into danger with her.

The vehicles split when they approached the warehouses. Half
went around the back of the warehouse and the other took the front. Michael stopped
behind one of the police vehicles and they stepped out of the car. When she joined
the group of people who would follow after the first team did a preliminary
sweep of the building, she glanced at Kane and Michael who stood on either side
of her.

“You two stay close to me,” she said in a low voice.

Her hand rested on the butt of her gun and she watched as
the others announced the warrant and busted through the door. The first team
entered and began clearing the warehouse. Alana waited anxiously. She wanted to
be in there. She could hear the first team slowly clearing the rooms through
the two-way bud in her ear. They’d found captives in the warehouse. The second
unit headed into the warehouse when the first began ascending to the second
level.

Alana eased in front of Michael and Kane. She could feel
their presence right behind her. Her cat was ultimately aware of them and
agitated because of the possible danger around them. She felt her canines
descend and struggled for control and focus.

The layout they’d had had been a basic warehouse with a
large open area for storage and offices at back on the first floor. That had
all changed. From the entrance, they walked down a hallway. She glanced into
the rooms as she passed, searching for the captives.

The first few rooms nearest the outer wall were offices. The
windowless cubes were little more than sheetrock nailed to frame. Deeper in to
the warehouse, the makeshift work areas had been converted into clinic space.
Officers broke off to inspect them for evidence. If she hadn’t known where they
were and why she’d wonder if they’d stumbled into some kind of doctor’s office.
What were they doing here? Why had he kidnapped these people?

She followed the officers out of the modified section into
the warehouse area. It had been sectioned up into fairly large rooms. Walls and
doors provided a semblance of privacy, but she could hear others searching. The
only roof was that of the warehouse, high overhead. She and Kane went into one
of the clinic areas with two of the officers.

Large cages had been built of what looked like thick metal
bars. They looked smaller than the standard jail cell. The five cages in the
room were all occupied. The cells locks were of the cylinder type, not the card
or electronic access. Although they tried to find an easy way to open the
cages, they couldn’t find any keys.

From what she heard on her earpiece, the missing humans were
there as well as some people they had no record of being taken. Not all of the
shifters had been accounted for yet and the missing witch was noticeably
absent. Hopefully, they were in other rooms of the warehouse. Had someone
tipped off the doctor to the coming raid?

All of the captives sprawled on the pallets spread on the
floors in the cells barely looked at the new arrivals. A toilet sat at the back
of each cell. Sparse, but it told her that, although the captors didn’t much
care about the comforts of their captives, they didn’t want to haul buckets of
their captives’ waste.

Alana narrowed her eyes at the lack of response. They’d been
drugged. They had to be. She knew the shifters would be clamoring to get out of
those tiny cages. Time in a confined space and inability to allow the animal to
feed its needs would make a shifter crazy.

Alana glanced around when the two officers called for
equipment to work on the locks. Some larger hospital-type equipment had been
pushed closer to walls, some angled near shelves of supplies. She sniffed, but
the smell of the cells and the captives masked any other scent in the room.

“Let’s help them. After we finish, we can continue to look
around. If they want us there, they’ll tell us.” Alana looked at Michael and
Kane.

“Sounds good.” Michael squeezed her shoulder.

“Just stay aware. It was swept, but…” Her voice trailed off.
She knew she was probably being overprotective, but she wouldn’t be satisfied
until they were home and cuddled on the couch together. Safe. Right now,
letting them out of her reach set her nerves screaming.

Kane nodded. “You watch that pretty ass too.”

She moved to see what she could do with the lock on the
nearest cage. They had to use force. The old-fashioned mechanisms had probably
been a countermeasure to keep the purchase of high-tech computer security
devices from being traced to him. So they had to go to older, but reliable
methods. A few men came in carrying the Halligan bars and also a jamb spreader.
If the Halligan didn’t work, the hydraulic spreader definitely would.

Alana took one of the Halligan bars and jammed the pry end
between the frame and the door. As she used the leverage provided by the bar,
she yanked. Her muscles tensed and strained, but she could feel the door
giving. The metal whined when the bar pressed, widening the gap. The bolt gave
with a loud pop and the gate slammed against the outside of the cage.

Alana looked at the strike plate on the jamb. It hadn’t been
as strong as she’d thought it would be. The woman in the cell had to be
drugged. Even now she hadn’t moved.

“Open this door, Alana. I’ll get the woman in the cage you
opened.” Michael’s hand brushed her back and urged to the pen to the right.

Alana nodded and moved over there. She jammed the pry end in
to the small space. When she began to apply pressure, a scraping sound from her
right caught her attention. The only people on her right were Kane and the
woman in the enclosure and she knew he didn’t have a bar yet.

She looked over that way and saw a man run from between two
the huge pieces of medical equipment. She didn’t know if he’d been hiding behind
it or if someone had missed him crammed between the machines. His white lab
coat fluttered behind him when he rushed forward. Red-haired, with a patchy
beard, he looked like some kind of technician, but for all she knew this could
be Garces.

He came close with his hand raised. He had some kind of bar
or cylinder clutched in his fist. He made a grab for Kane, but Kane twisted his
arm away and shoved the man into the bars of the cage. The man’s breath escaped
on a grunt, but he lunged forward, again trying to get his hands on Kane.

The bar slammed into Kane’s shoulder. Kane winced and lunged
away from the assailant, but stepped back in to go on the offensive. Kane’s
fist swung, glancing off his attacker’s cheek.

Alana gasped. Fear slammed through her and her cat screamed
in outrage, nearly escaping her control. The Halligan bar fell from her
fingers. She rushed forward. Hell, no way was that man hitting her mate again.

The rumbling warning broke from her when she lunged at the
man. She put herself between Kane and the redhead. He ran at her, the bar
swinging at her shoulder. She jumped back. The bar whistled through the air in
front of her. She jumped forward, determined to get a grip on him. He twisted
away from her.

She grabbed his lab coat, but he slipped out of it before
she could get a good hold on him. He looked wildly around the room. His eyes
locked on the door. She gasped and her breath locked in her throat when she
realized Michael stood in the way.

Horror washed over her as he ran toward Michael. She sprang
after him, intending to grab or tackle the attacker before he reached Michael,
but she nearly shifted when the rod rose above his head. If Michael hadn’t been
there, she wouldn’t have been too worried. The redheadwasn’t getting out of the
building. There were too many people around the warehouse and in it for that to
happen. Michael was there and she couldn’t let him hurt her mate.

Alana’s hand lifted and she grabbed at the attacker’s shirt.
She tugged and swung him away from Michael. He stumbled toward the wall and
caught his balance before whirling back to face her. He was feeling cornered.
She could smell his panic and see it in his eyes. She watched him warily,
because cornered animals were dangerous, regardless of species.

As he rushed at her, his hand rose and brought the bar slashing
down toward her head. She captured it with one hand, gripping his shirt with
the other, bringing him to a sudden stop. Squeezing his wrist until he dropped
the silver cylinder, she fought the urge to take the few steps necessary to
slam him into the wall. She bared her teeth at him, showing him the extended
canines and the fury of the cat within her. A growl rumbled from her.

While the officers rushed to help, she struggled to get her
temper under control. She released the man into calmer hands. She couldn’t take
a swipe at him or rip his throat out, even if she wanted to do it. This could
be the doctor and if it was the bastard, he deserved to rot in jail for what he’d
done to the people he kidnapped. In the deepest, darkest cell they could find
if there was any justice.

Alana turned and walked away from the group. As she stared
at the wall, she drew in slow, deliberate breaths. She’d wanted to rip him
apart. The officers got the man out of the room fast and she was happy they did.
She wanted to maul him and she tried to get through her workdays without losing
control in that way. Normally, she didn’t have too much trouble keeping her
temper and cat in check. If another person jumped out at Michael or Kane, it
was going to be a very bad day for that person.

“Come on. There’s one more person still in a pen in this
room.” Michael tugged on her shoulder.

She sighed and turned back to the row of cages. She opened
the door and stood aside when Michael went inside to check on the woman
sprawled on the thin mattress. She waited, but her eyes swept the room,
constantly watching for more danger. Guilt beat at her. She should have gone
over the room better the first time. They shouldn’t have been in danger. She’d
take her part of the fault for it, but she was going to speak to Mark and Chief
Parker about this, because the other officers should have done a better job
too.

“Heavily drugged. I don’t know what they’re using on them,
but I think they’re all going to have to be taken out on gurneys.” Michael came
out of the cell and put an arm around her. “There are needle marks on her arm
and a couple of wounds, but it doesn’t look like torture simply because someone
wanted to cause pain. They look more like someone took a biopsy sample.”

“What the fuck were they doing here?” Kane scowled.

“Experiments.” Mark said when he came into the room. “There
were two upstairs who weren’t as drugged because he was testing them. He’s
trying to turn humans to shifters or something close. And the witch, he’s
trying to find out where their powers come from, because a mystical answer just
doesn’t satisfy the doctor.”