New Species 04 Justice (12 page)

the light to the woman’s legs. She was Species all right. Her hair was black and her

features marked her as carrying primate DNA. It was obvious from her delicate

features, the more rounded shape of her dark brown eyes and her cute, perky nose.

Jessie crawled closer. “Do you know that there are others like you? I’m going to

take you home to them, to your family. They’ve been looking for you for a long time.

Can you tell me your name?”

The woman gripped her knees tighter to her chest and her features showed her

terror. Jessie didn’t blame her for the fear. “I’m really not going to hurt you. I’m here to take you out of here to somewhere safe. I’m going to take you to your family. They are

people just like you, ones who were hurt by others and it’s going to be safe for you

there. No one is ever going to lock you inside a cage again. I’m Jessie,” she repeated.

“What’s your name?”

The woman opened her mouth and whispered soft words that were hard to catch.

“Mud.”

Jesus!
Rage tore through Jessie at hearing the shitty name her captors had tagged her with but she tried to conceal it. “That isn’t really your name. Do you remember

what that is? What you were called before you were brought here?”

The woman hesitated. “My name was Monkey.”

Jessie counted to ten to cool down her boiling blood.
Son of a bitch.
Is there no end to
the mean shit people do to these people?

“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t we call you Beauty? Do you like that name? I think it

fits you much better than those other ones. The men outside with me came to take you

away from the men who held you here. I’m going to take you somewhere safe. You can

trust me.”

Jessie crawled closer when the Species seemed to calm as some of the fear eased

from her delicate features. She switched her attention to the cage, noted the lock and the chains that ran through the squares from the woman’s ankles to a bolt in the floor feet

from the container. The bolt pierced right through the floorboards and no screws

showed. It wasn’t going to be easy to free this one with those heavy-duty shackles. They

usually took them in chains if they weren’t able to get them free on site and that floor

bolt would be hellish to break.

“May I look at your ankles, please? I’d like to see if I can get those shackles off and

looking at the lock will tell me if they are easy to pick or not.”

“Okay,” she agreed hesitantly.

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Jessie reached through the cage to gently grip one of the shackles. There were key

holes in each one and the metal was heavy, solid and wouldn’t break with what they

carried. The locks were complicated and that didn’t bode well either.

“Look for keys,” she said into her mic. “They have her chained to a bolt that’s going

to be tough to remove since it’s through the floor and picking the locks isn’t an option. I could get into the cage they have her in but those shackles are another story.”

“I don’t know where they are,” Beauty whispered.

Jessie set the flashlight down so it gave off enough light for them to see each other

as she released her ankle. She reached up and pointed, turned her head to show the

other woman. “I have a device inside my ear that lets the people who helped save you

hear what I say. I can hear them as well. I was telling them to look for the key. If they can’t find it we’ll try to cut the chain. We will get you out of here. That’s a promise.

Okay, Beauty?”

“Yes. You really are going to take me away?”

“I swear to you I’m getting you out.”

“I found a set of keys on a dead guy.” It was Tim speaking. “We also found an

extension cord and a lamp.”

“Just get me the keys and send in Trey since she’s already seen him. Have him

come in slowly.” Jessie smiled at Beauty. “That man in here a few minutes ago is going

to bring in keys we think are for the locks. Don’t be afraid of him. He’s my friend and

he’d never hurt a woman.”

Beauty looked scared but she nodded bravely. Trey crawled into the room and

eased down to sit next to Jessie. In his other hand he had four flashlights turned on to

light up the room. Jessie flashed him a grateful smile as she accepted the keys. He

backed up a few feet.

“Go or stay?” His voice was soft.

Jessie studied the woman who stared at Trey but she didn’t seem panicked or

terrified. “Stay,” Jessie decided.

Trey didn’t move as Jessie tried the keys. She unlocked the cage first, eased open

the door and hesitated before touching Beauty. The other woman pushed her feet closer

to help. Jessie gave her a warm smile and the other woman smiled tightly in return.

“Bingo. We have a winner.” Jessie smiled at Beauty as she unlocked the ankle cuff.

“See? We found the keys.” Jessie unlocked the other ankle. Beauty was free.

“Clear out and give us an open path to a vehicle,” Jessie ordered softly. “We’re

bringing her out.”

“You got it,” Tim sighed. “Good work, Jessie. We would have missed her if you

hadn’t found that hidden room. Your ass is still mine when you secure her.”

Jessie rolled her eyes but continued to smile at Beauty as she backed up to give the

woman room to leave the cage. “Okay. Can you stand?” Jessie rose to her feet slowly

and held out her hands to the woman. “You can take my hands and I’ll help you.”

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Justice

The woman hesitated before slowly leaning forward, crawled a few feet until she

cleared the open door of the cage and reached a trembling, pale hand to Jessie. Jessie

gripped her carefully while fighting back tears. This part got to her every time. The fear in their eyes to even hope, to trust and believe someone wasn’t just fucking with them

always broke her heart. Jessie helped her stand.

“We’re on the move,” Jessie informed the team. “Are we cleared?”

“Cleared,” Tim answered softly. “We have a vehicle right out the front door and we

dragged the dead out of sight. Jimmy tore down some curtains to drape over the blood.

She’ll probably smell it if she inherited the Species sense of smell but she won’t be

terrified by the sight.”

“She’s primate,” Jessie answered, letting her team know that the freed woman was

less likely to pick up the scent of death or spilled blood. The primates didn’t have such an acute sense of smell. “Contact Homeland right away and ask where they want her

taken so other primates are there when we arrive. She needs to meet her family.”

Jessie kept hold of the frightened woman. Beauty only stood about five feet tall and

her rail-thin body revealed she’d been half starved. Jessie could have carried her slight body out of the house if the woman couldn’t have walked on her own. She fought back

more tears as they walked through the house slowly. The woman had been beaten

recently and she hadn’t been bathed, in Jessie’s estimation, for a few days. Her hair was ratted, a little greasy and dirt clung to her legs and arms from the dusty, hidden room.

Trey remained a silent sentry at their back and she knew he’d remain there in case

the female Species passed out from her weakened condition. Jessie led Beauty out the

front door into the fresh night air and directly to the open back door of the SUV. She

smiled at her charge.

“We are going to get inside this thing and then we’re going to do something really

exciting. We’re going to fly in the sky in a bigger thing to get you some medical help

and you’re going to meet up with your family. They are going to be so happy to see

you.”

“You won’t leave me?” Beauty looked terrified as she clutched at Jessie.

“No, Beauty, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to hold your hand the entire time.”

Jessie squeezed her hand tenderly. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you and

I’m going to stay with you for as long as you want me to.”

Jessie urged her to climb onto the center seat and secured her in a lap belt. Jessie

smiled again, to be reassuring. “I’ll sit right next to you and Trey here is going to drive us. He’s a nice person.” She checked the belt again, leaned over to push Beauty’s hair

behind her ear and gave her a sincere look. “Everything is going to be fine, Beauty. I―”

Pain exploded in Jessie’s back. She was thrown forward and her body slumped over

Beauty and the seat. The Species woman screamed.

“Sniper!” Trey yelled.

Jessie fought to push herself up despite not being able to draw breath from the pain

in her back. Beauty shrieked in terror again and glass exploded from the front

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Laurann Dohner

passenger window. Jessie found the strength to shove her chest up, shoved Beauty

sideways across the seat and threw herself on top of the other woman.

“I’ve got you,” Jessie panted over the screaming female and gunfire.

Pain exploded again in Jessie’s back, sent a path of fire from between her shoulder

blades to the back of her head. This time the pain was too much. She tried to gasp in air but it wouldn’t come. Everything turned dark, the pain faded and Beauty’s shrieks were

the last thing she heard.

* * * * *

Justice growled as he rolled over in bed and glanced at the clock. It was four thirty

in the morning. He fumbled in the dark for his cell phone and yanked it open, pressing

it to his ear.

“This better be good,” he grunted.

“Justice? I’m sorry about the hour. I truly am. We have an emergency. I needed

your permission for a few things.”

“What happened, Brass? Permission for what?” He sat up and reached for the light

next to the bed, instantly awake.

“We need to send our helicopter from Homeland for an immediate pick up of one

of our Gift Females who was retrieved less than an hour ago. We also need permission

to bring her to Reservation. They have the better medical facility and this one is coming in rough. She is quite traumatized. They had to sedate her on scene because of the

emotional trauma. I thought they’d be able to handle it better at Reservation. Doctor

Trisha is still there.”

Justice took a deep breath. “Fine. Send the helicopter to pick up our female. Go

ahead and send her here. Call Doctor Harris instead of Doctor Trisha. He is on duty and

she’s on vacation. She isn’t to be called in.” He didn’t mention that she’d just had her

baby since the phone lines weren’t always secure. “You know that.”

“Right. Sorry. I’m frazzled. The task force wanted to put our female on a private

plane to send her to us but I told them that took too long. That’s when they requested

our helicopter from Homeland. You have the Reservation one.”

Justice frowned. “Why don’t they fly her themselves? Is their helicopter down for

repairs? I know they have one. I had to fight to get the funding for the thing.”

“It’s in use. One of the task force was shot during the extraction. They had to use

that helicopter to airlift their injured teammate to the nearest trauma center almost sixty miles away.”

“One of them was shot? How bad is the man? Will he live?”

“It wasn’t a man. It was the human female ambassador on the team. That’s why our

female is so traumatized. When the human female was shot it left our female with all

men.”

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Justice

Justice’s heart dropped. Jessie was the only female who worked with the task force

that he knew about. “What happened?”

“Tim Oberto believes our female was the target. The sniper tried to take out our

female is what I was told and the human female was shot instead. I don’t know how

serious it was but it had to have been pretty bad that they felt the need to use the

helicopter to airlift her out rather than get our female to us.”

“Jessie Dupree was shot?”

Brass hesitated. “I don’t know her name.”

“Give me the number to Tim Oberto right now,” Justice snarled.

“Uh, ready?”

Justice leapt from bed and ran out of the bedroom. “Hang on.” He found a pen and

grabbed the first folder nearest him on the desk. “Go.” He jotted down the number.

“Brass, do what you think is best. You don’t need to ask me first. Get our female

home, whatever that entails and get her taken care of.” Justice hung up and dialed Tim

Oberto’s number. It rang four times.

“Tim Oberto,” a male sighed.

“This is Justice. I just heard the news. Was Jessie Dupree injured?”

“Yes.”

Justice wanted to roar from pure rage. “Is she alive?”

“They are working on her in one of the trauma rooms.” Tim took a deep breath. “I

don’t know her condition.”

“She was shot?” Justice trembled.

“Yeah. She took one to the back of the head. It looked bad.” Tim’s voice broke. “A

sniper tried to take out the Gift Female but Jessie was in the way. She threw herself over your female and took three hits covering her. Her vest took two of the rounds but the

third hit her.”

“Where were your men?” Justice roared. “She’s an ambassador. She is supposed to

go in when it is safe.”

“Don’t yell at me,” Tim yelled. “We had secured the area before we allowed Jessie

to bring your woman out. It was a sniper. We were pinned down until he could be

located. I love that girl like she’s my daughter. I’m the one who lifted her off your

woman and held her in my arms until our helicopter could reach us. I’ve got her blood

all over my clothes and I’m the one who is going to have to notify her father when they

tell me she’s gone.”