Katherine sat in the corner of her cell on the cold concrete. Her knees were drawn up against her chest, arms wrapped around them. Rocking back and forth, she tried to dispel the visions of the woman unmoving and covered in blood. Why was her subconscious remembering this woman as her mother? She’d been told her mother died in a mental hospital, but for some reason, her mind was conjuring a different scenario. It was also focused on a face –a man – she felt like she should know. When she went to sleep, her nightmares were chaotic – a jumble between what she’d endured at the hands of the female prison guard, what she’d seen under hypnosis, and a vague glimpse of the strange man singing to her.

She didn’t understand the words, as the man was singing in a language Kat thought might be Russian. When he spoke, it was to soothe her. To coo to her as one would a baby. There was no way she could actually be remembering something from her infancy. There had to be another explanation. If, by chance, she was remembering something, it was possible he was a friend of her parents, or an uncle, perhaps. None of it made sense, but then nothing about Katherine’s life made sense at the moment.

Agent Rayaz had visited with her briefly earlier in the day, but it was only to see how she was faring. She had asked Kat questions about her teenage years, but nothing they spoke about shed any light on what she’d been accused of. “Did you ever stop to think the evidence against me was planted? That I’m being framed for some reason?” she asked the agent.

“Of course, Miss Fox. We are looking at all angles at this point. It isn’t our intention to prosecute an innocent woman.”

“What about torturing an innocent woman?” Kat asked on a sob. “I’ve already lost hearing in one ear. What else are you going to do before this is over?”

When she admitted about her hearing loss, Agent Rayaz frowned. “What do you mean you’ve lost hearing in one ear?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what that bitch did to me when I was first brought in. I’m lucky I’m alive,” Katherine seethed.

“Please elaborate. What all have you endured, Miss Fox?” Rayaz implored.

Katherine stared at the agent trying to figure out if she truly was in the dark about the treatment Kat had received upon arriving at FSM. “At first they tried to starve me out. Food was withheld for five days, water for four. I was made to stand until I finally collapsed, and then I was secured with chains to keep me on my feet. Or, dangling by my arms, as it were. My eardrum was punctured, and now I have no hearing in my right ear. When that didn’t work, my head was dunked into a toilet until I thought I was going to drown. That wasn’t as bad as being water-boarded. I think my heart may have actually stopped at one point. It’s possible I only passed out, but when I came to, my chest ached as if someone had attempted to revive me. While wet, I was placed in a small room where they tried to freeze me out. I did pass out then, and when I woke, I was being treated for hypothermia by the prison physician. He begged me to tell the truth so the punishment would end. As I told him, I’ve done nothing but tell the truth from the day I was arrested.

“Then you came along and began the mental digging. None of which has produced the results you’ve sought. I will tell you this, Agent Rayaz… You’re going to drive me to the point of insanity or kill me before you find the answers you think are hidden deep within my psyche. I am nobody. If I did know someone who was capable of doing the things I’ve been accused of, it would only be because I’ve encountered them during an investigation. I love my country. Before all this shit happened to me, I never would have considered betraying my country.”

“And now?” Agent Rayaz asked, seeming to have recovered from the shock of what had physically been done to Katherine.

“And now, you all can go fuck yourselves.” Katherine turned her back on the agent, ignoring her presence. The agent didn’t respond; instead, she turned and walked away, the clack-clack of her ugly shoes loud against the concrete.

That had been hours ago, and now, Kat was sitting on the cold floor with nothing but her fractured thoughts. She placed her cheek to her knees and willed herself to cry. Kat needed the tears to soothe her, since she had nothing else to do the job. Maybe the guard had fucked something up within Kat, making it so she couldn’t produce tears any longer. Her heart ached as much as her body did, but no matter what, the tears wouldn’t come. You’ve never been a weepy woman, so suck it up, buttercup.

That was true. Katherine had never been one to allow things to get to her; instead, she let shit roll off her back. She had learned at a young age that life wasn’t fair, and it definitely wasn’t always sunshine and tulips. However, she’d never had to endure anything like she’d been subjected to since her arrest. She did her best to stay awake at night, because her sleep was riddled with the waterboarding incident. Each time she woke, she was gasping for breath.

Squeezing her eyes tightly, Katherine begged her mind to close off. To forbid the images from the past weeks to seep into her consciousness. She brought forth visions of the ocean. Of the waves rolling in, washing over the sand. She imagined herself lying on a blanket as the surf sang its siren song. A shadow blocked the sun as Julian leaned over and kissed her lips. It had been forever since he’d actually touched her, and the intensity with which he begged her to be strong waned with each passing day.

Katherine, can you hear me? Sweetheart, I’m here.

If the voice was only real. Her mind was allowing her to hear what she wanted. To be soothed by the voice in her head. To believe the man was actually reaching out to her because she needed him to be.

Oh, Julian. If only you were really in my head. I don’t know how much more I can withstand.

Kat! I’m here. Hang on, Sweetheart. I promise, I’m here.

If anything could make her cry, it would be the false hope of Julian Stone’s words. He might be wealthy, but he was no match for the US Government when they dug their claws in, and their claws were embedded into her so deep she doubted she’d ever see the outside world again. Thinking of never seeing the ocean, her heart grew heavy.

 

 

Maybe it was wishful thinking on his part, but Julian felt certain he’d heard Katherine in his head. Her words, while filled with anguish, were loud and clear. Hearing her voice elated him, but the words she spoke broke his heart and pissed him off in equal measure. He had no doubt she was being subjected to the endless games the government could play. His beast had come alive at hearing their mate, and Julian was no longer able to concentrate on Kat. Instead, he was doing his best to soothe the shifter.

Other than when he phased to patrol for Unholy, his beast stayed in the background, content to just be. Even then, Julian felt in control. For the last two hundred years, Julian had not had to worry about that aspect of himself. Now that they’d found Katherine, it was a whole new ballgame. Unlike some of the other Goyles, Julian had never had a two-sided conversation with his shifter in the five hundred years since he transitioned. He had a feeling that was also going to change soon. The rumblings in his head were merely a precursor to the fight ahead. “Do not start on me, big guy. I’m doing everything I can to get her out of there,” Julian said. A growl echoing through his chest was the only answer he received.

Julian pulled up the information he had on FSM. The design was complex in that most everything was on two levels which were spread out in five areas extending from a central hub. It wouldn’t be easy, but it also wouldn’t be impossible to get in and out without being detected once they were disguised as the agents. Knowing exactly where they were keeping Katherine was going to be the hardest part to figure out. If he could get her to realize he was in her head, she could give him a clue. Julian wasn’t going to give up on trying. He would wait until later when she should be alone for the evening and resting her mind.

If for some reason he couldn’t reach Katherine, they would have to figure another way to ascertain her whereabouts. He had already hacked into the cameras, but none of the security feed showed where Kat was. There had to be part of the facility that wasn’t being monitored. He thought this was crazy considering the types of criminals the FSM was designed to house. If he were in charge, he would want to have eyes on every inch of the building. Then again, he wasn’t the federal government. Julian had designed the security system for the prison his cousins built. There wasn’t one part of the pen Gregor or Deacon couldn’t access at any given time. The only rooms not monitored were Gregor’s and Isabella’s offices. Cameras were installed, but for privacy, they weren’t feeding into the monitor room constantly.

Tessa called to let him know she was on her way back to the ranch. Soon after, he also received a call from Gregor. Leaving the diagrams on the table, Julian went into the kitchen and started supper. He didn’t cook often, but he enjoyed finding new dishes to prepare when he wasn’t stuck behind the computer screens. He had more money than he’d ever be able to spend, but he still ate leftovers instead of tossing any food he made. Julian was looking forward to cooking for his mate. In all the years he’d lived in New Atlanta, he’d never once brought a female to his home for any reason. It had been over two years since he’d found a female to bed. It wasn’t that he didn’t like sex, because he did. He was a male, after all.

Julian found it to be less than enjoyable seeking out a woman for a few hours of pleasure only to abandon them in the middle of the night. Human men were fine with one-night stands, but Julian had learned over the years that females were more often than not hoping to find someone for a relationship, no matter if that relationship began with a single night of passion. He had no desire to get a woman’s hopes up only to douse the flame by never calling again. He was thankful he’d finally been given a mate. Julian looked forward to not only cooking for her, but sharing the intimacy and sex that came with having someone in his life full time. Now if he could get her home, Julian was ready to start the next part of his journey in his long life with Katherine.

 

 

Tessa sat for over an hour before Agent Rayaz exited FSM. She hadn’t parked in the facility parking lot. Instead, Tessa had hidden the rental SUV out of sight near the end of the long drive which led to the prison. Tessa eased onto the road only when the agent’s vehicle was almost out of sight. She kept a good distance behind to ensure she wasn’t detected. Luckily, Agent Rayaz didn’t go straight home. She pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant, and Tessa did the same, turning the opposite way so she could park on the opposite side of the building but still keep an eye on the woman. After Agent Rayaz had a five-minute head start, Tessa got out of the SUV and went inside.

Tessa paused inside the door, looking around. Spotting the agent at the bar, Tessa waved off the hostess, made her way to the U-shaped area, and had a seat at the opposite end to the agent. With Tessa’s shifter hearing, she could listen in on any conversation the woman had. The bartender approached the woman who ordered a glass of wine. Figures. Tessa ordered a beer and asked for a menu since the agent had as well. Tessa didn’t have to worry about watching what she ate or counting calories. With her shifter metabolism, her figure was never an issue.

The bartender, Seth, called the agent by name and tried to chat her up, but it was obvious something was bothering Rayaz. She barely touched her wine, and her focus was on the wood of the bar underneath her hands and not on the many televisions surrounding the room or the people sitting on either side of her. Being happy hour, the place was filling up quickly. “Everything okay, Sonja? You look a little lost in thought today,” the bartender tried again. He was cute with his brown hair curling over his collar. Probably in his mid-twenties, Seth leaned a hip against the refrigerator cabinet where the beer was kept and crossed his arms over his chest. He wasn’t too worried about the other customers, and his focus was solely on Sonja.

“You know I can’t talk about it,” she said to the younger man.

“No, but I can still worry when I don’t see that gorgeous smile.”

Sonja glanced up and rolled her eyes. “Don’t you have beer to pour?” she asked.

Pushing away from the cabinet, he leaned over in front of her, not caring about the men on either side of the agent who were both listening intently. “I do, but I can also worry about my big sister at the same time.”

Well, that was interesting. Julian hadn’t mentioned Rayaz having family in the area. If Tessa could get close to Seth, it might make her job easier. Yeah, and Stone will kill the kid if he touches you. Right. Maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. Tessa locked that bit of information away as a last resort. She needed to get close enough to the woman to record her voice, but Sonja wasn’t in a talkative mood. Tessa was going to have to get her to talk somehow. After ordering an appetizer, Tessa nursed her beer while the siblings interacted. Seth didn’t leave Sonja alone, but he didn’t push her to tell him what was wrong, either. Seeing them together made Tessa think of her own brother. It had been almost a year since she’d talked to Tamian. The longer she went without hearing from him, the more her heart hurt.

The two of them had been closer than twins, but when she mated with Gregor, Tamian disappeared. The bond between them had been as strong as what she had with Gregor. Maybe stronger. It was definitely more intense. With Tamian being her clone, it was almost as if they shared a brain. She always knew what he was thinking, because Tamian kept his mind open to her. When she almost died at the hands of Gordon Flanagan, the man who believed he was her father, Tessa had given up her fight to keep Gregor at arm’s length. When that happened, Tamian felt as though she didn’t need her brother any longer and left. If he only knew how badly it hurt her, he might have stayed.

Gregor was everything to Tessa as far as a mate went, but Tamian had been her other half for so long she felt like part of her was missing. She still felt that way. She had enough room in her life for both males, but Tamian didn’t see it that way. Tessa wanted a chance to talk to him and explain, but she couldn’t do that if she couldn’t find him.

Rayaz had a couple more glasses of wine and picked at her meal. She eventually asked her brother for a to-go box, and Tessa asked for her tab. She timed everything so she and the agent were walking out the door at the same time. When they were outside, Tessa stopped the agent. “Excuse me,” she said, getting Rayaz’s attention. When the agent turned around, Tessa continued, “I couldn’t help but overhear that cute bartender say he was your brother. Is that correct?”

If Sonja thought the conversation odd, she didn’t let on. “Yes, he is.” When she didn’t offer anything else, Tessa pressed on.

“I’m new in town, and I just… He’s so adorable. Does he have a girlfriend?”

That got a smile out of the agent. “He is adorable, and a pain in my ass. But he’s family. And no, he doesn’t have a girlfriend. But save yourself the trouble. That one doesn’t date. He hooks up with women and doesn’t do more than one-offs. Says he’s much too young to settle with one woman when he can play the field.”

“Oh, well thanks for the warning. Have a good evening.” Tessa turned and walked toward her car.  She probably shouldn’t have approached the agent, because now Sonja knew what Tessa looked and sounded like. That didn’t matter, though. Tessa had what she needed with the voice recorder in her bag catching every word the agent had spoken. It was enough that Tessa could create the voice transmitter. Now, she needed to spend time watching in the wings to get her mannerisms down. While Gregor and Julian installed cameras in Agent Everhart’s home, Tessa was going to do the same in Sonja’s. This plan to get Katherine needed to be flawless.

Tessa didn’t follow the agent to her home. She needed to put some space between them so the agent had time to forget about Tessa. She called Julian to let him know she was on her way. She didn’t call Gregor, because she didn’t know his situation, and Julian had yet to hear from him. As Tessa drove, she went over what they knew so far. She wasn’t used to having someone help with her adventures in impersonating people.

When she was a Watcher for the half-bloods, she would go in alone. Sometimes situations got a little tricky, but never once had Tessa failed to get close to her cousins. Now that they were all aware of who and what they were, her assistance wasn’t needed. Her cousin, Zeke, had visited the last of Jonas’s offspring and filled him in on the family. The last time Tessa spoke to Zeke, Cyrus had taken the news about as well as the others. He had yet to transition, so he knew what signs to watch for and to pay attention to the people he was around.

Tessa wasn’t nervous about her part in getting Katherine out of the prison. Neither was she worried about Gregor being the one to guide them through from the outside while watching the computers. Stone was a smart male, and he knew how the inside of prisons worked being the warden of the New Atlanta Penitentiary. Tessa was nervous that Julian wouldn’t be able to keep his shifter under control if he found his mate to be in less than perfect health. She was going to do her best to convince Julian to let her be the one to get Katherine out and him be her back-up. It was the best case scenario for all involved. Tessa wouldn’t be as personally vested. Another thing she wanted to speak to Julian about was going in early as someone different to take a look around. It would give them a better feel of the layout, and if she was lucky, she would find where they were keeping Katherine. Tessa had to figure out who the other females were before that could happen.

When she was driving down the road which led to the ranch, her cell phone rang. She smiled when Gregor’s name popped up on the caller ID. Just knowing he was on the other end made her insides tingle. “Talk to me, Stone.”

“Hey, Red. Just wanted to let you know I’m on my way back.”

“I’m almost to the ranch now. How’d it go?”

“Good. I’ll fill you and Julian in when I get there.”

“How far out are you?”

“About fifteen minutes. See you soon.”

“Yes, you will.” Tessa disconnected. She was still smiling when she parked the car in front of the house.