Page 45 of Conquered Betrayal
“Shifters,” Jolyn interjected.
My chest warmed pleasantly at her correction.
“—then he’ll go to prison,” Marley finished. “He won’t have control over you anymore.”
A spike of instinctual fear sliced through my stomach. I held up a hand. “Wait. No. You can’t expose what he’s been doing to shifters. You can’t endanger them like that. There would be others who’d take his place, experimenting and trying to control them.” It felt strange not to include myself in their number, but my instincts told me to keep my true nature hidden, even if I was starting to trust these women the longer I spent in their presence.
They all stood there, their jaws slack as they stared at me. Then Alina nodded. “You’re right. We didn’t think of that.”
Marley’s brow furrowed. “It makes things more difficult.” She glanced over at Jolyn. “How do we make our plan work if we can’t expose what he’s been doing?”
Her lip caught between her teeth, she stared at me. “I don’t know. Part of Emerson’s power is how he works in both the shadows and the light. I wanted to expose his shadows to the world, then he’d have nothing to hide behind anymore.”
“Sunlight disinfects,” Marley murmured, almost to herself.
Alina nodded. “We’d lined up a bunch of media contacts, so when we got the proof we needed, it would hit the air all at once, all over the world.” She leaned back, her chair squeaking beneath her.
If it weren’t for the shifter element, the plan would have been a good one. Thank God I’d used my lingering scent from the walk yesterday to return here before this trio put the final part of their plan into action. They might not have been as cruel as Mahn, but the results of their efforts would have been just as damaging.
I rubbed my knuckles against my jaw, thinking. “We might not have all the answers on how to proceed, but we can focus on what we do know. I need to call Walker, tell him about the drug and what we saw on the video.” I clenched my hand tight around my phone at the memory of the doe dying in pain. “If it’s not where Clyborne planned on heading, it should be. Can I have the coordinates?” I asked Marley.
She nodded, and pulled them up on the screen.
I called Walker. He picked up on the first ring. “Hey, man. Where are you?”
“I had some things to take care of,” I replied, wincing when I realized I was keeping information from him.
All three women shared similarly nervous expressions, like they expected me to tell him about this converted warehouse after Jolyn had specifically told me not to. I wouldn’t break her trust in me when we’d just begun to mend it. “Look, I’ve come across some information your friends should have.” I quickly gave him the rundown about BDX-32, the video we’d seen, and the coordinates of the warehouse.
Walker cursed. “Yeah, this is something my old team will want to know about. And it definitely sounds like the place where they picked me up. Fuck, Landon. How did you learn about this?”
“That’s not important right now.”
“Bullshit. But I won’t press. Gotta call Lavigne.” He hung up and I slid my phone into my pocket. Lavigne had been the head of his special ops team, and I suspected he had a similar position at Clyborne’s.
Jolyn stared at me, a speculative gleam in her eyes. “You didn’t rat us out.”
I shrugged. “Maybe it’s because all three of you are right here, and would beat the crap out of me if I had.”
Her expression didn’t change. “I don’t think that’s it.”
“And what had you said about another property?” I asked, changing the subject and looking at Marley. “A bottling plant?”
“Yeah.” She tapped on the screen. “Southwest of here, beyond Belleville.” A red marker appeared on her screen surrounded by foliage and nothing else.
I leaned closer. “What do you know about it?”
“Not that much. I found some invoices and some emails mentioning the place. It seemed all very hush-hush, which of course made me dig more. It’s too far to send the drone from here.”
It could be another place where shifters were being tortured. “We should go check it out.”
“We?” Jolyn asked, turning her shoulders toward me.
I nodded. “We could see if it appears active, and call the experts if we find anything.” I wasn’t going to ask Walker to go check it out, not if it ended up being a wild goose chase. He was safe right now with his new mate and I wanted to keep it that way.
And Clyborne would be busy with the other warehouse. “We need to find out what’s happening there, the sooner the better. We do the footwork for Clyborne Inc. while they’re busy, and find out if it’s another experimentation site.”
The three of them all remained silent, staring at me with varying degrees of doubt, when Jolyn finally said, “No offense, but you should probably sit this out.”
