Both Gregor and Tessa had listened to every word along with Julian. “Did you know what happened to her as a kid?” Tessa asked.

Julian shook his head, running his hands through his shorter locks. “No. There isn’t a lot of information on her past out there to read about. I knew she was in a foster home, but the reason was sealed. I…” Fuck! Julian needed to get his mate and soon before they put her through any more mind manipulation.

“We need a plan, Jules. A definitive plan before we storm the castle. If we go in there half-cocked, we’re going to screw up. Let’s eat breakfast and talk about what we’re going to do.” Tessa turned back to the stove, and Gregor placed his hand on Julian’s shoulder.

“You know she’s right, Brother. Let’s do this in a way that ensures you get in and out without you or Tessa ending up in one of their cells.” Gregor squeezed his shoulder, offering his strength and resolve.

“Yes, okay. But I am doing this tomorrow. We have today to get our plan together.” Julian didn’t know if he was strong enough to keep the beast at bay for twenty-four more hours. Not knowing about Kat’s childhood bothered him, but not nearly as much as not being able to reach her mind.

“Julian, come look at this,” Gregor said once he’d returned his attention to the feed coming in from the prison.

“What is it?”

Gregor pointed to the figure he’d frozen. “That man has been the only one to go in or out of the elevator that leads to the basement. He’s taking Katherine’s meals to her. There’s something about him that seems oddly familiar.”

Julian didn’t see anything about the man he recognized. “Kat thought she was being poisoned,” Julian said as he studied the man carefully, but he did a good job of hiding his full face from the camera. “Are you sure Rayaz hasn’t been back down there?”

“I’m sure. I can go back through the feed if you’d like.”

“No, that isn’t necessary, but we do need to make note of what time he brings her trays. We need to time it so we are the only ones down there when we go in after her.”

“Do you think ‘Everhart’ should go down there? Rayaz has been the only agent to visit Kat. Won’t it look suspicious if he all of a sudden takes an interest?”

“Yes, but I have a plan.” Julian had gone over most scenarios with regards to getting caught and how that could happen. “Tessa, I think we need to cover our tracks ahead of time. We need to have Rayaz call Everhart with her suspicions. When all is said and done, the Feds are going to investigate these two if everything goes according to plan. If you call Terry as Sonja and tell him what ‘you’ suspect about Katherine being innocent, there will be a link between the two. That will be sufficient evidence for Terry to have a reason to visit Katherine.”

“Can you patch my phone through to his so it shows up as her number?” Tessa asked.

“No, but I can triangulate it so they cannot trace it. She should have that technology at her disposal and would make a call from a secure line to another agent if she was trying to be discreet.”

“I’m game. Let me go get the transmitter.” When she returned, Tessa asked, “Have you seen the two of them interact at all? I don’t know how much they work together.”

“As long as I have been watching, I have never seen the two of them together. Gregor, have you noticed them talking?”

“No. How are you going to play this?” he asked his mate.

“I’m going to wing it, honestly. I’ll bring ‘my’ suspicions to his attention and see what he says. I think this is a good idea anyway, to see how well the agents know each other.”

Gregor crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t picking on Tessa, but he was asking questions that caused legitimate concerns. “What if he asks personal questions? You don’t know her well enough to chat about things outside Katherine such as cases they would have worked on together.”

“Again, I’ll wing it. I’ll be evasive and bring him back around to the point I’m making. If things get too dicey, I’ll hang up.”

“I think we need to wait and do this tonight. If you call him now, what happens when they do run into each other at the prison and he brings up their conversation? If you wait until they are both getting ready for bed, it will be you and Julian at the prison tomorrow so the two agents won’t have a chance to compare notes. Once you have Katherine out safely, it won’t matter if they speak to each other after that.”

“Damn, Stone. You’re right. See, this is why I keep you around.”

“And here I thought it was because of my big–”

“I really don’t need to hear about your big anything, Brother. Let’s stay on point, shall we?” Julian interrupted, and Gregor and Tessa laughed. He loved the banter between the two, but he hadn’t had sex in so long, hearing about it was torture. “But, you are right. We’ll save the call for tonight. In the morning, we’ll go to their homes, incapacitate them both, and head to the pen to retrieve my mate. Once she’s safe, we’ll go back and cut them loose, literally. We’ll be out of their homes before they have time to wake up, and we’ll be out of town before they figure out what happened. When they look into Katherine’s escape, it will be their faces on the security feed, and it will be up to them to prove their innocence, which they won’t be able to do, at least not for a while.”

“They’ll know they were drugged when they wake up having lost hours, but with the antidote I have, it will take a while for a chemist to figure out what exactly was used. By that time, we’ll be long gone. I’m going to leave extra vials of the antidote with Gregor just in case. I’d hate for something to happen and the agents not recover.” Tessa grabbed her laptop from the counter and set down next to Gregor. “I want to spend today watching the feed from the prison to see every move Rayaz makes. I don’t want there to be any surprises.”

“I will do the same with Everhart. While they are home tonight, we will go over our plan for exiting the building.” Julian settled into the chair on the other side of his cousin, and all three kept their eyes on the monitors, watching, searching, and learning.

 

 

Katherine’s head felt somewhat better, and she was starving, but she didn’t want to chance eating. She was able to move from the floor to the platform that served as a bed. She used the pillow to cushion her head instead of covering it to shield the light. She wasn’t sure what day it was as she’d lost count of the times someone had brought food to her. The tray on the floor was breakfast, but it was cold and congealed. Hopefully, she’d only lost one day and not more. The mess on the floor where she’d vomited had been cleaned up. It bothered her that someone had been in the cell with her and she’d been unaware.

Closing her eyes, Kat opened her mind to Julian. It had been a while since she’d felt him in her head. It had also been a while since anyone other than whoever was bringing her food had visited. She could only pray that meant Agent Rayaz believed Kat when she swore she knew nothing about the weapons or the farm where they’d been found. It was apparent she’d been framed, but why? And by whom? Katherine’s foster parents were good people. When she was growing up, they stayed away from politics. They voted in the national elections, but that was as far as it went. They rarely watched the news. They went to church on occasion, but weren’t strictly religious. John flew the American flag on special holidays, and Lucinda babysat for several mothers while they worked. The Praters weren’t the kind of people to sell secrets to the enemy. Kat knew in her heart they weren’t the cause of whatever was going on.

She had been seven when they took her into their home. It wasn’t so young that she shouldn’t remember her life before them, but most of her early years were a blank. She often tried to remember her real parents, but until Agent Rayaz started poking around in her brain, little was there. Now, the bits and pieces she was remembering didn’t make sense. There were more questions than answers, and if she ever got out of her hell hole, she was going to dig until she found out who she really was. Where she came from. Who her parents had been. Growing up, she’d been curious. Now, she had a feeling someone from her past was involved in something she wasn’t aware of.

What about Julian? Thinking about Julian didn’t raise any red flags, but at the same time, her troubles hadn’t started until after she ran into him at the coffee shop. She had never had much interaction with the well-known man before that day. After? She still didn’t understand why he’d taken such an interest in her as soon as she was arrested. If none of this had happened, would they still be the practical strangers they’d been before? Their conversation before the Feds came ran on a constant loop in her brain, even though she did her best to push it to the background. She wanted to believe someone like Julian would be interested in her. Maybe that want had transformed into a dire need brought on by her current situation, and she was projecting his voice into a conversation that was keeping her sane. Maybe she wasn’t really hearing his voice at all.

The sound of her cell door opening had Katherine sitting up. The same man as before swapped her old tray for a new one. “How are you feeling?” he asked. When Katherine didn’t answer, he cocked his head to the side as he’d done the first time he saw her. “You really should eat. You need to keep your strength up.” He narrowed his eyes, gave her a smile, and left her alone. Even though she’d gotten sick after eating the food he’d brought, she didn’t feel threatened by him. His smile was nice, not the kind that made her skin crawl. It was possible her sickness had been brought about by something other than the food. Scooting off the bed, Katherine picked up the tray and decided to try eating one more time. If she got sick again, she’d know not to trust him.

The first thing she did was open the water bottle and drink half of it down. Kat wiped her mouth on the back of her hand and picked up the dinner role, taking a small bite. As ravenous as she was, she knew eating too quickly could make her as sick as the poison had, so she ate slowly. She cleaned her tray of every scrap of food and took another sip of water. Getting something on her stomach returned some of her strength. Now if she only had something to occupy her time besides her mind, she might make it through another day unharmed.

Katherine had no idea how long she sat before her stomach began rumbling and her head began aching. It was nothing like what she endured the last time, so she chalked it up to her stomach having been empty. She lay down on her bed and closed her eyes, begging the pain to subside. Drifting in and out of consciousness, Kat’s thoughts bounced all around from Julian’s kiss to her mother’s death. She’d much rather think about the kiss, but something about seeing the woman murdered when she’d been a child bothered her deeply. Was that what truly happened even though she’d been told her mother had been sent away so the traumatic experience could be buried?

When she woke, her supper tray was on the floor by the door. The ache in her head was a small throb, so she decided to chance eating one more time. It surprised her that the food was decent. She’d always imagined prison food to be nothing more than slop. Kat devoured the mashed potatoes. They weren’t as good as what Lucinda made, but they weren’t lumpy. The meat tasted like roast, so that’s what Kat pretended it was. She loved apples, but they were so full of sugar that she rarely indulged unless she could brush her teeth straight away. Considering where she was and how long it would be before she might get to brush again, she started to leave the fruit on the tray. When it continued to taunt her, she decided she might not ever get out of prison and it wouldn’t matter whether or not her teeth were cavity-free.

Without a clock, Katherine had no way to measure the time, but she guessed it was about an hour after eating that her stomach began to act up. The nausea built slowly, and the ache returned to her head. She lay down on the metal frame hoping the pain would lessen in a reclining position. Instead, it gradually got worse. So much worse that she thought her head was going to implode. Tears leaked from the corners of her eyes as she prayed for the pain to stop. Kat felt sick and leaned over in case she did throw up. Her vision blurred, and the next thing she knew, Kat was falling. Before she hit the floor, everything went black.

 

Julian’s beast was going crazy. He’d been sitting at the table drinking a soda while keeping his eyes on the monitors, and all of a sudden, his head filled with a rage like he’d never felt before. Julian grabbed the sides of his head and yelled, “What the fuck?” He slid the chair back so fast it toppled over behind him as  he rushed out the back door. He’d no sooner cleared the threshold when his wings burst forth, ripping his shirt. His fangs and claws were front and center, and he was breathing like he’d run a marathon as a human. Gregor ran outside but kept plenty of room between them.

“Jules, what is it?”

Shaking his head back and forth, he roared, fighting with his beast to calm down. “We are going to get her!” he yelled. Julian shook his head again, and finally the shifter eased up enough that Julian could phase back. “Godsdamn, that was uncalled for,” he chastised aloud.

“What the hell was that?” Tessa asked from the porch.

“That was my shifter pitching a fit. I have never…” Julian pulled his ruined shirt off. “I hate to say it, but the beast might have a better connection with Katherine than I do. There is no other reason for it to have gone off like that. In all my years, that has never happened. I have never lost control.”

“Mates will do that to you,” Gregor said narrowing his eyes at his own mate.

Tessa shrugged. “Yeah, well, it’s mutual. Y’all drive us crazy too; we just control ourselves better.”

“I hope I can keep it together tomorrow when we get inside. If not, the humans are going to be in for one hell of a show,” Julian admitted. “At least they will think Everhart is the beast, and they won’t know who I really am.”

“Seriously, Jules. Are you going to be able to maintain control? I know the human guards can’t hurt you, but outing the Gargoyles is not on our list of things to accomplish tomorrow.”

“I think we will be fine once we get inside and it knows we are getting Katherine. I am going to have a long internal chat tonight. You would think with it being part of me, it would already know how fucking important this is.”

“Like I said, mates can have that effect. I’ve only ever phased without warning when Tessa was involved. I can’t speak for yours, because I don’t know what’s going on with Katherine, but as long as mine knows Tessa is safe, it remains calm.”

“We won’t know whether or not she is safe until tomorrow. One thing that bothers me is she is away from her family. If she were in New Atlanta, I would have expected her foster family to come visit her at the Pen at some point. She is down here, three states away from everyone she knows, and even then, the Feds have her locked in the basement. A basement not on any plans the public is aware of, which means they don’t want her having visitors. Is that not against some human code of ethics or some shit?”

“You would think so, Brother. But rest easy in the fact that this time tomorrow, she will be home with you. If you want her foster parents to be aware of her safety, I’m sure we can make that happen.”

“I will have to wait and talk to Kat. I don’t want to put the Praters in danger with the government. If they will torture Kat, I have no doubt they will torture her family as well. I don’t want them to worry, but at the same time, which is worse? Worrying or being in imminent danger?”

“You have a point. Now, let’s go back inside and try to relax. I’ll continue watching the monitors if you want to prepare supper. Or vice versa. I don’t mind cooking.”

“I would prefer you cook. I would hate to burn the house down if my evil half decides to throw another tantrum.”

Asshole.

Julian barked out a laugh, and Gregor and Tessa looked at him to see what was going on. “The bastard has decided to talk to me.” Truth hurts.

You’re gonna hurt if you do not get our mate.

I liked you better when you were quiet.

Get used to it.

Julian tossed his shirt in the trashcan before grabbing a soda out of the refrigerator. He and Tessa sat down in front of the computers and alternated their focus between watching for the agents and keeping an eye on the area leading to the basement. Gregor sang softly while cooking supper, something Julian hadn’t heard in hundreds of years. The sound was soothing to Julian, and the smile on Tessa’s face said it was to her as well.

A few hours later, Tessa put on the voice transmitter, and Julian hooked the phone up so the call couldn’t be traced. Tessa tested the transmitter several times before making the call. If Julian hadn’t known it was Tessa in the room, he would have sworn it was Agent Rayaz speaking.

Tessa dialed Everhart’s number, and they watched him on the monitor with the sound turned off. He was sitting on his sofa with a beer when his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and frowned. Still, he answered, “Everhart.”

“Terry, this is Rayaz. Did I catch you at a bad time?”

“Rayaz? Uh, no. No, I’m good. What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Katherine Fox.”

“What about her?” Everhart sat up straighter on his sofa, placed the beer on the end table, and leaned his forearms on his thighs.

“I think she’s innocent.”

“Rayaz, there’s a stack of evidence that reaches my ass against the woman.”

“I know that; I’ve seen it all. But the woman has been through some of the worst torture imaginable as well as going through intense cognitive probing. She knows nothing about weapons, the farm where the weapons were found, or the intel supposedly shared with our enemies.”

“Maybe she’s been trained against questioning.”

“My god, Terry, she’s just a reporter. She’s not a Marine or a soldier. I’m telling you, she’s innocent.”

“So why are you telling me?”

“I want to let her go.”

“You can’t fucking do that, Rayaz.” Terry stood from his sofa and began pacing the room.

Tessa sighed loudly. “I know, I just… I needed to run this by someone else. I know our bosses have something to prove, but I think putting this woman through any more torture is wrong.”

“Then find the evidence to prove her innocence. Until then, she needs to stay put.”

“I’ll do that. Sorry to have bothered you.”

“Rayaz, you’re a good agent. Don’t go soft on us now.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll talk to you later,” Tessa said and disconnected. “Turn that up,” she said, pointing at the monitor feeding from the agent’s home. As soon as Everhart disconnected from talking with Rayaz, he dialed someone else’s number.

“We have a problem. It’s Rayaz. She’s getting soft where the Fox woman is concerned. You are? Excellent. Then we won’t have to worry about her much longer. I’ll keep an eye on things and call you as soon as it’s done.” The agent disconnected his phone, tossed it on the coffee table, and resumed watching the baseball game as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Tessa slammed her hand on the table. “Whoever he was talking to must have something planned for Katherine. We need to get in there. Tonight.”