Undercover Wolf Page 17

  Sawyer glanced at the bed. Rory’s sister was eighteen, but she was so damn pale and looked so fragile lying there sleeping that she seemed much younger. The STAT support team doctor assured them the girl would be okay physically, but Sawyer wasn’t so sure of her mental and emotional health after this.

  Looking at the frail girl on the bed and seeing Rory torturing himself for what happened to her, any residual anger and resentment Sawyer might still have felt disappeared in that moment.

  “I can,” Sawyer told him. “I don’t want to imagine ever being put in your position, but if I were, I probably would have done the same thing.”

  Rory gave him a grateful nod.

  “What kind of supernatural is your sister?” Harley asked from beside Sawyer, gazing sadly at the girl in the bed.

  “She can start fires with her mind. All she has to do is think about doing it and poof…flames.” Rory’s mouth curved into a small smile. “It freaked the hell out of my parents, brothers, and me when she was little. But we’ve gotten so used to it, we don’t even think about it anymore. And Tilly is much better at controlling it now than she was when she was a kid.”

  Harley looked at Rory in surprise. “Your parents and brothers are okay with her being different?”

  “Yeah, of course,” he said, his smile broadening. “We’re family.”

  Harley nodded, but Sawyer knew how much Rory’s answer hurt. Here was another family completely fine with one of its own being different when she’d been cast aside. Sawyer ached for her all over again and if they’d been alone right then, he would have taken her in his arms.

  Even though he’d known it would be bad when his teammates finally learned his secret, he’d still been gutted when they’d walked out on him. He’d never be able to forget the way they’d looked at him. He didn’t want to try to equate his pain with Harley’s, but after what happened this morning with Erin and Elliott, he knew what she was feeling. He now knew why she’d hidden herself away from the world for so long, going so far as turning her back on her inner werewolf. If the crap with Erin and Elliott had happened right after his first change, there was a good chance he would have done the exact same thing.

  Hell, for a few seconds there, right after his teammates had left the safe house, he’d almost buried his own wolf. He wasn’t sure what had stopped him from walking out until he saw Harley standing there, silently supporting him. He couldn’t leave because this was where Harley was.

  He only wondered if Erin knew how close she’d been when she said he trusted his new teammates more than his old ones. In fact, she’d been spot-on. And while the entire STAT team made him feel accepted, Harley made him feel a lot more than that.

  “I need to call my mum and dad and tell them about Tilly,” Rory said, pulling out his cell. “As far as they know, she’s at uni right now. I don’t know how I’m going to explain any of this.”

  Sawyer didn’t envy the guy. As Rory walked away to have that conversation in private, Sawyer turned to ask Harley if she wanted to find the rest of her teammates when her phone rang. Thumbing the green button, she held it to her ear.

  “That was Jake,” she said when she hung up. “They’re about to talk to Brielle and figured we’d want to join in.”

  It was a quick ride up in the elevator to the fourth floor, where they found the rest of Harley’s STAT team gathered in the hallway talking to Tessa, the agent from the support staff, who was filling them in on everything that had transpired overnight. There’d been a lot of logistics involved when it came to getting the supernaturals who’d been kidnapped home, as well as finding holding areas for Yegor’s goons and the people who’d attended the auction that they’d taken into custody. STAT was a whole lot better at the behind-the-scenes stuff than MI6, that was for sure. He counted eight armed guards as well as security cameras positioned at various places. Harley’s organization definitely knew what they were doing.

  “Getting the low-level trigger pullers into a local jail wasn’t a problem,” Tessa said. “The buyers, on the other hand, are a different matter. McKay has been working with Europol all night to figure out what to do with them, but honestly, with the money these people have, there’s a good chance most of them will walk. They’re too well-known to hide them away in a backwater prison somewhere, and it’s not like we can put the supernaturals they purchased on the witness stand for a trial.”

  Sawyer had a sudden vision of lawyers trying to wheel the mermaid’s tank into a courtroom. Yeah, he didn’t see that going over very well.

  “So, these rich assholes try to buy a bunch of supernaturals for fun and they’re going to just get away with it?” Caleb said. “Doesn’t that seem kind of fucked up?”

  “It is,” Tessa replied. “But unfortunately, there isn’t much we can do about it.”

  Caleb shrugged. “We could just kill them.”

  That got a laugh from Tessa. “Yeah right. I wish.” When Caleb didn’t so much as crack a smile, her eyes went wide. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Do you see anyone else laughing?” Caleb said.

  Sawyer almost chuckled at the nervous look Tessa threw the omega’s way. Caleb was out there, but Sawyer had to admit, the guy was growing on him.

  “Okay, then,” Tessa said, looking at the rest of them. “I assumed you’d want to talk to Adriana and Kristoff as well, so I had them brought in with Brielle. Her brother, Julian, on the other hand, is still recovering from the knife wound he sustained in the fight. Before we go in, I should probably tell you that McKay is eager to get Brielle and her brother back to DC ASAP, so don’t even think about offering her any kind of deal.”

  Caleb frowned. “She isn’t going to tell us anything if she’s looking at prison time. Trust me, once you know that, you don’t have any desire to tell anyone anything.”

  Sawyer wondered if Caleb was speaking from experience.

  Giving them a nod, Tessa opened the door and led the way into the room. Since the place had once been a hospital, Sawyer expected a small office with barely enough space for all of them. Instead, it was a conference room with a table big enough for twenty people.

  At Tessa’s nod, the two agents guarding the room walked out without a word, leaving them alone with Brielle, Adriana, and her boyfriend, Kristoff.

  Sawyer and Harley took seats opposite Adriana and Kristoff while Tessa and the rest of the STAT team spread out around the table. Adriana was clearly nervous, but she also seemed excited at the same time. He wasn’t sure which of those emotions was responsible for the little blue sparks running across her skin every few seconds as she sat there holding her boyfriend’s hand where it rested on top of the table.

  As for Kristoff, the blond man was carefully composed, his face an unreadable mask as he assessed each of them in turn. But while he might appear calm, his elevated heart rate gave him away. The guy was worried about how this was going to go, and with good cause. The only reason he was sitting here right now and not in one of the local jails along with the other people they’d arrested was because Adriana swore up and down to anyone who’d listen that he was a good man who’d gotten caught up in a bad situation.

  But while Kristoff might look relaxed, Brielle seemed like she truly was. She was still wearing the vivid blue dress she had on last night and was sitting back in her chair, legs crossed, her dark eyes taking them in one at a time. She spent a few extra moments sizing up Caleb, and Sawyer wondered what that was about. Did she recognize that he was an omega? Or had she heard his comment outside the door earlier and was trying to figure out what made him tick?

  Sawyer opened his mouth to ask Brielle how she’d gotten involved with Yegor—considering how quick he’d been to use her as a human shield when things went bad, the man couldn’t be that fond of her—but Adriana interrupted before he could get the words out.

  “I know I should have told you the truth from the beginning, but I knew
how it would sound if I admitted Kristoff was one of the guards, so I left out that detail,” she said quickly, like she’d been rehearsing exactly what she wanted to say and had to get it out before she forgot it. “But Kristoff isn’t like those other jerks. He protected me and kept me safe. It was only after you rescued me in Paris that I realized I’d fallen in love with him.” She leaned forward to cover their clasped hands with her free one, her dark eyes pleading. “Please don’t send Kristoff to prison. He doesn’t belong there.”

  Sawyer exchanged looks with Harley to see that she looked as conflicted as he felt. Adriana’s kidnapping and imprisonment had been traumatizing for sure, and Stockholm syndrome was definitely a real thing. On the other hand, maybe that wasn’t what this was at all. Maybe they truly were simply two people who’d fallen in love.

  “How did you get involved with Yegor, Kristoff?” Jake asked. “If we know how you ended up working for him, we might be able to put in a good word for you.”

  Kristoff glanced at Adriana, giving her a small, reassuring smile before turning back to Jake. “I started working for Yegor over a year ago,” he said with a slight German accent. “I took the job knowing he was a criminal, but things hadn’t been going so well lately and I needed the money. I thought he’d hired me to steal stuff or sell drugs, maybe rough up some people who owed him money. When he had that first auction a few months ago, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I had no idea I was getting involved in trafficking people. That isn’t what I’m about.”

  He gave Brielle an accusing glare as he spoke but didn’t directly address her. The Frenchwoman had the good grace to look chagrined. It was still mind-boggling to think how a supernatural like her—if she was supernatural—could work for a piece of crap like Yegor who sold people just like her to the highest bidder.

  “Wait a minute,” Jestina interrupted, leaning forward, dark eyes intent. “You said first auction, implying there have been others. How many auctions has Yegor held?”

  “Last night was the third.” His eyes filled with regret. “The first two were smaller, like only five or six people to bid on each time. But after Yegor realized how much money he could make, he expanded the operation, hiring more men and setting up the entire transport network.”

  Sawyer cursed. This was way worse than they’d thought. The idea that there were other supernaturals out there who’d been sold off to the highest bidder made him want to rip Yegor apart with his claws.

  “I was going to leave after the second auction,” Kristoff continued. “I wanted no part of the kidnapping and the abuse and the terror those poor people endured. Yegor isn’t the kind of man who lets people who work for him walk away, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t be involved anymore.”

  “What changed?” Harley asked softly.

  Kristoff looked at Adriana again, smiling at her again. “They brought Adriana in. She was unconscious and weak…vulnerable. I couldn’t leave her. I just couldn’t.”

  “He made sure I always had enough to eat and drink,” Adriana added, her expression earnest. “He kept the other guards from messing with me and the other prisoners as much as he could. He even brought us aspirin to help with the headaches some of us got from the sedatives they gave us.”

  “I wanted to do more,” Kristoff said. “But there were never less than three or four guards watching the captives. And that’s not counting that damn vampire who was always hanging around, trying to get a taste of any of the prisoners he thought might not be missed. I knew I had to get Adriana out of there, but I didn’t know how. I was getting desperate when you showed up in that club in Paris. Making sure you rescued Adriana was the best I could do.”

  Adriana squeezed Kristoff’s hand, tears glistening in her eyes. “You almost got yourself killed in the process.”

  “I didn’t care,” he said. “I’d do anything to keep you safe.”

  “Why didn’t you bail after Paris?” Misty asked, regarding Kristoff thoughtfully. “Adriana was safe. Why stay with Yegor?”

  Kristoff glanced at Adriana. “I realized that if I stayed, I might be able to help the other captives get away, too. Unfortunately, that was harder than I thought and I didn’t free any of them. I was never so glad as when I saw you show up at the auction.”

  Nothing made Sawyer think Kristoff was lying. After becoming a werewolf, he’d gotten extremely good at knowing when someone wasn’t being forthright, and he’d never been wrong. But this wasn’t his call, at least not entirely. He glanced at Jake, trying to figure out if they were on the same page, when Adriana spoke.

  “I know this is a lot to take in.” Blue sparks covered her skin, making her dark hair lift up at the ends. “But Kristoff honestly didn’t know what he was getting into. When he realized how bad it was, he did the best he could to make it right. You have to see that.”

  Kristoff took both of Adriana’s hands in his, uncaring that she was so emotional right now that she could zap him at any moment. “It’s okay, schatzi. Calm down.”

  Adriana looked around the table desperately, squeezing Kristoff’s hands so hard he winced. Or maybe that was from the electricity running back and forth across her fingers.

  “Please,” she begged, tears welling in her eyes. “Kristoff isn’t the first man to get involved with the wrong people and then regret it. There has to be some way he can walk out of here, right? I mean, he’s willing to tell you anything and everything he knows about Yegor’s operation. Please give him another chance.”

  Sawyer knew what he’d do if he were running the show, but once again, he wasn’t in charge of what STAT did with the people they’d arrested last night.

  “I can’t truthfully say I’ve ever regretted any of my life choices because that requires introspection, which really isn’t my thing,” Caleb said, casually leaning back in his chair. “But I know what it’s like when those choices end up getting you involved with some bad people, so I vote for giving Kristoff a second chance.”

  Across from Sawyer, Adriana gave Caleb a tremulous smile, then looked at Sawyer and the STAT agents hopefully. Sawyer saw Jake exchange looks with his mate, Jes, before giving Adriana a nod.

  “As long as Kristoff is willing to tell us everything he knows about Yegor and anything he remembers about the supernaturals who were sold at the previous auctions, he’ll be free to go,” Jake said.

  Adriana threw her arms around her boyfriend, insisting she knew it would be okay all along. Kristoff grinned and hugged her back.

  “What do you want to know first?” Kristoff asked Jake a few moments later.

  Jake didn’t even have to think about it. “Were the previous two auctions like the one last night?”

  Kristoff nodded. “Yeah. Except the supernaturals at those were all adults. No one was under twenty-five years old. But for the one last night, Yegor specifically wanted kids, too.” He glared at Brielle. “Anyone she could find.”

  Brielle flinched at that. Almost like she genuinely felt badly for her part in the whole thing.

  “Going after kids was never my idea,” she said. “Hell, finding people for these auctions was never part of the deal, either. I did what I had to do to protect my brother.”

  “How exactly do you find supernaturals?” Tessa asked, intense curiosity clear on her face. “Do they smell different? Look different?”

  Brielle turned her gaze on Tessa, a glint in her dark eyes that made Sawyer wonder if she’d overheard them talking out in the hallway earlier. If she had, that meant her ears were as good as a werewolf’s.

  “I think I’ll hold on to that tidbit of information for the time being,” Brielle said with a cool smile. “Until it’s in my best interest to share.”

  Tessa’s mouth tightened and she looked ready to argue, something Sawyer knew would make Brielle shut down completely. They had a lot more questions they needed answers to before that happened.

  “Don’t worry
about that,” he said, throwing a hard look in Tessa’s direction. “I’d much rather hear about how you and your brother got involved with Yegor in the first place.”

  Brielle met his gaze but didn’t answer right away. Sawyer could practically see the gears turning behind those dark eyes. No doubt, she was wondering if this was something she should offer up for free or demand some kind of compensation for as well. Yeah, she’d definitely heard the stuff Tessa had said about not making a deal. They’d be lucky to get anything useful out of Brielle thanks to her.

  “Julian’s life has been an ongoing series of poor choices,” Brielle finally said. “In this case, he thought selling heroin on the streets of Ankara, Turkey, was a good idea. He got arrested and shipped off to Diyarbakir on a twenty-year sentence before word even reached me in Lyon that he was in trouble. I tried to get someone from the French embassy in Ankara to help, but they couldn’t get in to see Julian because my brother said something stupid to the wrong person within a few days of getting to Diyarbakir and ended up in the prison hospital.”

  Brielle paused to take a deep breath, obviously upset by the memory. From the corner of his eye, Sawyer saw Caleb lean forward in his chair, gazing at her intently, caught up in her story.

  “But that’s my brother for you,” she continued with a sigh. “Letting his mouth get him into trouble he can’t possibly handle. I knew that if I didn’t get him out of there, he’d be dead in a month, if not sooner. Unfortunately, while I have many talents, getting a person out of prison isn’t one of them. That meant I needed someone to protect my idiot brother and keep him safe until I could come up with a plan.”

  “Yegor Shevchenko,” Sawyer said simply.

  She nodded. “It didn’t take long to figure out Yegor was the most powerful man in the prison. I knew if I could find a way to put Julian under his protection, he’d be okay until I got him out.”

  “Why would Yegor do something like that for you and your brother?” Jake asked. “He doesn’t strike me as the altruistic type.”

  “Beyond the fact that I agreed to break him out along with my brother, I was also able to give him something he desperately wanted.”