423: Playing Chess

Playing Chess

~ ZEV ~0

The next few minutes were a blur. Patty babbled and jabbered, frantic and still trying to convince Sasha to forgive her, but Sasha simply snapped at the guards to keep her quiet, but keep her there. They had to think.

Sasha was falling apart—or trying not to. Just like Zev.

How the hell were they ever going to do this? How was he going to keep her safe through this if he couldn't even think straight?

His baby was out there, in the hands of the very men who'd made his own life a living hell.

His mate trembled in his arms, but she'd gotten herself pulled together enough to stand without his support, even if she did wring her hands together at her waist.

We have to get there. How are we going to get there, Zev? She cried in his head. And Patty said it's not safe to take him yet, how do we get to him when it's safe without risking that they'll kill him!

Zev could barely breathe. I don't know, he replied. All I know is that we're going to need the gateway.

"Where is he?" Sasha growled, turning on Patty suddenly. "Where can we find him?"

"I don't know," Patty said, then flinched when Sasha lunged towards her with her teeth bared, for all the world like a Chimera. Zev caught her quickly and Yhet stepped forward as if to catch her if Zev hadn't gotten there fast enough.

Sasha never took her eyes off of Patty.

"I'm not lying!" Patty rushed, her hands over her head to ward off Sasha's violent glare. I helped them harvest the embryo, but then I left with you. I was supposed to be monitoring your health and making sure there were no complications. They took him to the lab, but I don't know which one. And since he's so important… I don't know."

"Is he at the compound?"

"I don't know!" Patty cried. "I mean, I don't' know where else they'd take him. There's round-the-clock staff and all the medical resources… but they have several labs. They might even move him. They were very concerned about security. It's why they wanted you here instead of at the compound, just in case someone said something in front of you, or a Chimera got wind of what was going on. They knew the females would become loyal to you and they didn't want to risk anyone finding out…"

Sasha gagged and turned away from Patty then. He rushed forward to hold her, but she shook him off and paced a few feet away from Patty who was sobbing quietly.

"I just know I wish I'd never had anything to do with any of this. I'll never do any of this again, you have to believe me. You have to let me stay here. I can't go back to them. They'll kill me if they find out I told you and that I won't do it anymore. I'm their primary tech for the extractions—"

Sasha turned on her again. "You've done this to others?"

"Countless others!" Patty said. "You have to believe me, Sasha. I thought I was helping."

"Helping who?!"

"Humanity!" Patty cried. "This project is going to change humanity forever, make all of us bigger, stronger, faster, healthier—it's the end of cancer, Sasha, do you realize that? Both my grandparents died from cancer, yet no Chimera has ever had it. Something in their genes just never allows the mutation. They are literally the cure for cancer! Do you have any idea how important that is?"

Sasha shook her head and dropped her face into her hands. "Stop doing that! Stop making them sound good! They aren't good!"

"I know!" Patty sobbed. "I know they aren't. But I thought they were. I was so wrong."

Both females broke down then. Zev, helpless and shaking, went to kneel next to Sasha who'd sat down hard in the dirt and hugged her own knees.

"Our baby," she murmured when he was next to her. "Those sick fucks have our baby. I can't believe they stole our baby."

Zev could.

That's what was so sick about it all.

Rage, white-hot and liquid, poured into him as if he was a vessel being filled by it.

"Zev," Yhet's voice was quiet, but a warning. But Zev shook his head.

"We have to find out where he is," Sasha sobbed. "We have to save him."

"We will," Zev said through his teeth, making himself be gentle as he stroked a hand up and down her back to comfort her.

"But how?"

Zev shook his head. "I don't know all of it. But I do know that you've figured out how to use the Gateway. And I think that's going to be the key to this, Sasha. We just can't… we can't get it wrong. We'll have one shot. That's it."

Then Sasha's head snapped up and she found him with her eyes, wide and round.

"What is it?" he asked her. She looked surprised.

"That's it!"

"What?"

"Three months, right? We'll ask the gateway to take us through at the time that he's ready. And not before. As soon as he's strong enough to be taken, that's when we'll ask it to spit us out."

Zev was still wrestling against the dark, searing anger in his chest, but he realized she was right.

She was brilliant. But before he could tell her that, her head snapped back towards Patty and she snarled, "Does Nick know?"

Patty's face went pained, but she nodded. "He knows an embryo was taken. I don't know what else he knows. But he… he's the one who set me up for the Gateway. He gave me the wrong world to focus on. He told me the name wasn't the key, that I had to picture—look it doesn't matter. He tried to get me killed! I don't know if that was because the Board wanted him to… I don't think they did. They had a whole mission for me. I've never been disloyal. I was one hundred percent committed. I think he was working against them… or against me, anyway. I don't know!" she wailed.

It was the last straw. Zev had known… or had thought. He'd been sure Nick must know something. But he'd also known Nick would deny it, and there was still something within him that wanted to be able to believe in the man he'd thought of as his father since he was a pup.

While Sasha cursed, Zev stood, hands trembling.

Nick knew.

Nick knew they'd stolen his baby, and Nick had kept it from them.

No wonder they hadn't updated Sasha's file since she was taken to the compound.

He was going to kill the fucker. Just like they'd taught him to: Identify the bad guy and eat him alive.

Suddenly, the world became very clear, and Zev felt calm for the first time in days.

He looked down at Sasha as she pushed to her feet, still wiping her eyes.

"Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

Hearing the strange timbre in his voice, she nodded. "What—"

"Good. Then I'm going to kill him," Zev snarled, then shifted and ran, ignoring her screams, and dodging the guards who were too slow to catch him.

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