Technical Threat (Westin Force #4) - Julie Trettel Page 0,88
don’t already know? Ever since my father’s abduction occurred right under our noses, we’ve increased security greatly. A squirrel can’t pee in these woods without my entire Clan knowing about it. In fact, if you have a little time, Tarron, I’d love to run our new security camera system by you while you’re here.”
I looked to Silas who nodded. “We’ll set up base for the others and start briefing them. Nothing is happening today, so really it’s the least we can do.”
“Great,” I said. “Lead the way then.”
I spent a chunk of the day going over surveillance with Kano’s new team. He had spared nothing on the state-of-the-art equipment. The team seemed comfortable with the stuff too. The only truly valuable thing I could point out were the weak spots along their perimeter. There weren’t many of them, their system was pretty tight. My job was to find those holes though, it was just what I did.
Kano seemed happy with my findings. Silas would be grateful to hear it too. Giving a little back to communities such as theirs always went a long way in strengthening our alliances.
I didn’t meet back up with the others until dinner.
“Did Charlie and Delta make it, T?”
“Yeah, everyone’s setup and briefed. They took the pictures and videos about as well as we did,” Taylor told me.
“I’m still angry we left them in there the last time,” I admitted.
“We had no way of knowing,” T insisted.
“But didn’t we? We’d heard Emma’s recount of what was happening. Seeing it shouldn’t have been as shocking to us as it was.”
“Emma sees things through different eyes,” Painter added. “She told us what was happening, but she didn’t paint the bleak horrifying picture Jake was able to, as a third party observer.”
“I guess. I just feel like I’ve already let Susan down by not having saved her sister when we had the chance the first time. I know that’s stupid.”
Painter nodded. “And I feel like a failure for not having found Emma sooner. I get it, but we can’t go back and re-write the past, Tarron.”
“I know. Trust me, logically I know that.”
“Well, if anyone’s feeling the weight of guilt over this mission, it’s our leader,” Baine said. “Which is why, you are going to have to watch his back carefully in there tomorrow.” He had lowered his voice to almost a whisper.
“What? Why?” I asked.
Baine looked like he was waging war inside trying to decide what or how much to tell us.
“Look, it’s just a gut feeling. But when we extracted Pike there was a bit of an incident on the way out.”
“What? Why didn’t you report this?” Painter asked. “Is it going to screw up this mission?”
“If I’m right? Yeah, it could.”
“Spill it, Baine,” I said.
He sighed. “I could be totally wrong here, okay, but Silas sort of freaked out on the exit. He was sprouting fur you guys. We had to take cover in a closet as a group of people walked by. He lost it. I had to physically restrain him. It wasn’t good.”
“Silas?” I asked. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
Baine hesitated. “If he were a mating male, it would.”
That thought set in around us.
“You think they have Silas’s true mate in there?” Taylor asked.
Baine sighed. “Look I’ve gone back over that moment a million times in my head and it’s the only thing that makes sense to me. But think about it, that wasn’t the only mission he struggled with. Remember how pissed he got over that mission you got shot in, Painter? Sure, we hate it when the Raglan gets the upper hand like that, but he was so angry. If you hadn’t been shot, I have no doubt he would have gone after them.”
“You’re right, he would have. In fact, he wanted too anyway. He wanted to split the team to hunt them down. It wasn’t logical at that moment, but it took some convincing to make him see that.”
“Shit! You’re telling me his mate has been with the Raglan all this time?”
Ben and Grant joined us. Taylor filled them in on what we were talking about.
“I’ve suspected that since the night my kids were born,” Ben surprised us all by saying. “It was my first mission with you guys, so I didn’t really know Silas yet. It was just a feeling, but there were a few moments where he was acting more like a mating male than the calm, cool, and collected leader we know and love.”