Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138217 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 691(@200wpm)___ 553(@250wpm)___ 461(@300wpm)
Yakov shoved a hand through his hair. “I didn’t want to tell you this while we’re in this damn creepy building while the shadows are getting deeper, but I spotted old blood in one of the rooms. It was cleaned up”—because the people behind this had had time, years of it—“but I have a bear’s nose. I hunted down the scent and found a large pool of dried blood inside a closet.”
Theo stared at him. “As if someone was hiding in there and died?”
“That’s what I figured. Body got removed first, and the cleaners either didn’t know about the blood or just forgot.” He folded his arms. “Either way, it doesn’t sound like a fully controlled transfer. Things get left behind in a rush, get forgotten.”
Theo stayed stubbornly put, as immovable as a bear. “What if someone enters now that we’ve disturbed it? They could have a silent alarm.”
Yakov hadn’t located anything of the like, and he was very good at spotting such security measures, but he wanted her out of here. Damn woman had started to tremble. The tremors were fine enough to almost ignore as being a figment of his imagination—except he knew they weren’t.
He also knew the tremors weren’t born out of fear. What he saw in Theo’s expressive face was fury at being thwarted . . . and the anguish of a trapped animal with no way out. Only in Theo’s case, it wasn’t a trap that held her but a hole in her mind populated only with echoes of terror and helplessness.
She wouldn’t sleep tonight if he didn’t figure out a solution.
Most people would probably say she risked another panic attack in her refusal to leave. Now that he’d been around Theo for longer, however, he’d bet on her pacing the room as she ran investigative search after investigative search while waiting for the sun to rise.
Pulling out his phone, he said, “I’ll give the clan a call and see if we have a couple of soldiers nearby who don’t mind keeping an eye on the place overnight. We’ll come back tomorrow to do a comprehensive search.”
As it was, he didn’t have high hopes of getting a yes. This place was so far out of the way. But he had to make the attempt—because otherwise, he had the feeling he and Theo would be sleeping in the car until someone could relieve them. His pchelka was in no mood to compromise.
His fears were proven correct. “No clanmates anywhere in the vicinity,” Zahaan said . . . then sighed. “You could ask the wolves.”
Yakov bit back a groan. StoneWater and BlackEdge were friends now. Mostly. They were friends who growled at each other over a distance, snarked at one another at every opportunity, and would turn up to help if the other was attacked. Once the fight was over, the growling and snarking would, of course, recommence, to everyone’s satisfaction.
“Yeah,” he said, shoulders dropping. “Let me check if that’s okay with Theo.”
“Theo, huh?” A waggle of the eyebrows that Zahaan somehow managed to put in his voice. “Have we got another Valya-Silver or Pasha-Arwen situation on our hands, hmm? Does she have a scary badass grandmother? It’s one of the requirements.”
“You need to stop watching daytime soap operas, you koala in a respectable bear’s clothing.” After hanging up on his chortling fellow second, he told Theo the option of calling in the wolves. “I’m not sure who you want aware of this location.”
Her response was an immediate shake of the head. “If we have to involve more people,” she said, “I’d rather we keep it to your clan. My brother spoke specifically to Silver Mercant to organize this, and we trust her.”
Which meant that, by extension, they trusted the bears.
Yakov got that. He was just about to bite the bullet and suggest they wait in the car while his clan sent someone to this location, when his phone rang in his hand. “Z,” he said, answering the call. “Update?”
“Yeah, turns out I was wrong,” Zahaan said. “I asked around and Moon and Elbek are on leave today and decided to head out that way to bird-watch.”
“Bird-watch?”
“I swear the assholes told everyone they’re bird-watching. I have no idea what they’re actually doing, but when I called them, they said they’d be fine with keeping an eye on your location—they’ll be there in ten, fifteen at the latest. They’re already equipped for an overnight stay. With hyper night-vision goggles and all.”
“For bird-watching.”
“Owls, they tell me.” Zahaan’s voice was deadpan. “Rare miniature owls.”
Lips twitching as he ended the call, Yakov shared the news with Theo. “We should meet them at the gate or they’ll try to climb it.”
“Right, of course.”
After closing up but not locking the facility behind themselves, they drove back into the gloom of the tree-shadowed drive.
This place would be pitch-black at night.