"You know I'm a rescuer." He sighed. He hadn't ever voiced the one concern nagging at him. He was certain of Pepper. He wasn't going to give her up, even if what he was doing was playing the knight in shining armor. "This feeling I have for her, it could be wrapped up in my need to rescue someone."
Nonny smiled at him. "Or you have it all wrong, boy, and she's the one rescuin' you. It's possible you need her every bit as much as she needs you. Let things be, Wyatt. Don' question them so much and just let things happen."
He smiled down at the baby's face and lifted her little fingers to his mouth. "Actually, Nonny, it's important to me that you like Pepper. I've never felt more alive, or more content and passionate in my life. I know what's comin', the battle to get the children back, but I know we're goin' to succeed. I'm lookin' forward to every morning the moment I open my eyes. I look forward to nighttime. She's the one. I know she is. If I find somethin' different when we get to the laboratory..."
Nonny held up her hand. "Don', Wyatt, don' even say it. She's loyal to those she cares about. She isn' about to betray you, no matter what your friends think."
"Trap's a good man, Nonny. He's different, but he's a good man."
"I'm a good judge of character, Wyatt. I see him. He's a driven man and his mind won' let him rest. It's good he has such good friends."
"He's goin' to help me work on an antivenom so that anyone around the children will be safe. I don' want anythin' to happen to you or anyone else. Flame isn' goin' to stay away once she knows we've got them here, and I have to know I can keep her safe."
"I have no doubts you'll both do what it takes to keep everyone safe, Wyatt. I don' worry about such things because I know you do."
Her gaze dropped to the baby in his arms. Her face softened and for a moment he thought he caught the sheen of tears. He didn't blame her. Sometimes when he looked at his little girl, he felt a little like crying himself. She was a beautiful, intelligent child and far too sober. All of them were working hard to make her relax and laugh. To be a child.
"I'm grateful we have them, Wyatt. I need them."
His heart clenched. Nonny didn't say things like that. She seemed invincible. Ageless. He was aware of her hair, white now with age, and the laugh lines around her eyes. She moved slower, but she still felt powerful. He couldn't imagine losing her.
He swallowed down emotion. Nonny wouldn't appreciate him plying her with questions on her health. "Then I'm glad we have them." He glanced down at Ginger's little face, the sweep of her lashes. He smiled at the baby. "I need them too. All of them."
Ginger reacted by pushing the bottle away. It was mostly empty anyway. She nodded her head vigorously. She was eager to see her sisters again.
"We'll bring them home, sweetheart," he whispered to his daughter. "I'll need your help once they're here. You can show them everythin' and help us teach them they're safe."
Ginger wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him close. He looked over her head to his grandmother.
"I don' know if I ever told you how grateful I am to you. My childhood was happy, Nonny, thanks to you. I loved growin' up here. I always knew I could count on you. I always felt safe and loved. I want that for my children. And for Pepper. She never had that either. My daughters don' know what havin' someone like you in their lives is like. My heart aches for them." He wouldn't have said that to anyone but his grandmother.
"Mine too, Wyatt, but you'll sort it out, and we'll make it right," Nonny assured.
Chapter 14
Standing in the doorway of the kitchen, Wyatt closed his eyes and simply savored the sound of Pepper's voice as she explained things quietly to the team. Soft. Sultry. Ultrafeminine. She had a way of speaking that got inside a man and just refused to leave him alone. He loved the sound of her voice and her perfect little ass that her jeans clung so lovingly to as she bent over the kitchen table to point to various things on the blueprints.
The team surrounded the table and they were good-sized men. Pepper looked tiny beside them. Small and feminine. The thing in him he despised, the mindless black jealousy, stretched and clawed in the pit of his belly. For the first time he realized the unworthy trait was fed by his cat DNA. His woman was always close to the heat cycle and he naturally wanted to protect what was his.
Realizing what was riding him helped, but didn't completely alleviate the problem. Still, he could see Trap and Draden were a little more accepting of his claim on her, but Wyatt wanted to make certain they knew he was serious. Ezekiel and Malichai knew, and they respected a certain distance from her that the others hadn't quite gotten yet. Trap, especially. Trap didn't pay the least attention to any kind of cues.
Wyatt stepped up behind Pepper, his body close to hers and leaned over her back, his head at her shoulder, arms on either side of her body so his hands could rest on the table. He caged her there between the table and his body. Taking up that position enabled him to box out the other men so they couldn't get close to her, which kept his crazy temper under control.
Just as she had to learn to keep her shield up - and he could see she was getting stronger every day - he had to learn to handle his own shit.
"Fill me in," he ordered, and moved the sweep of clipped hair off her neck so he could breathe against her much more intimately as he leaned down to look at the blueprints.
She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder. His heart stuttered and his cock jerked hard. There it was. The smile that was for him alone. "Did Ginger go down without a fight?"
He brushed a kiss on her mouth. "I told her we were bringin' her sisters home tomorrow night. She was very happy."
"I missed putting her to bed." There was regret in her voice.
"She knew you were plannin' out the rescue, sugar. She was okay with that." He brushed another kiss on her mouth, ignoring Trap's sigh. "I told her you'd be in later to kiss her good night."
She nodded and turned back to the blueprints. "The first level was built twelve feet from the ground, using very thick concrete," she said. "Apparently, that's where they built the crematorium and the holding cells for anyone they plan on killing. There are six cells on either side with four feet of cement in between the two sides. There is no way out once you're down in the cells, other than elevators. Each side has its own elevator."
"So basically, if the cells are flooded, no one gives a damn," Wyatt said. He felt his gut start a slow smolder. "Are you tellin' me the babies - our babies - are down in those cells alone? Is anyone else down there?"
The table trembled and for a moment the walls of the room contracted. Pepper glanced uneasily over her shoulder at him, nodding slowly. Her eyes held sorrow.
"I'm sorry, Wyatt, I tried to get them all out, but they were in separate cells and it took time to get them open."
"It's no
t your fault," he said tersely. She flinched. He felt the flinch right through skin and bones. Deliberately he stroked his hand down her back, and pressed closer to her, trying to surround her with comfort. "I'm not upset with you, babe. This isn't your fault. Whitney just makes me so damned mad. How could he do this to children and live with himself?"
"It isn't Whitney," she denied. "I'm telling you, Braden authorized our transfer to this place, brought us in by a private jet and then he issued the termination order a couple of weeks ago. Braden. Not Whitney."
"Braden works for Whitney," Wyatt said. "There's not a doubt in my mind."
Trap nodded. "Seriously, Pepper, we've known for a while that Whitney could never pull all these experiments off by himself. Even I have an assistant. He's got too many facilities. He has to have someone he trusts overlooking each laboratory, but Whitney definitely calls the shots."
"So is anyone else down in those cells right now?" Wyatt asked.
Pepper nodded. "A woman. They brought her in recently. They may have already terminated her. She was on the other side, not with the babies. Braden was definitely afraid of her. I don't think they were even feeding her. They wanted her weak before they tried to move her to the crematorium. At least, I kind of got that from bits and pieces I overheard. I never saw her. She was brought in right before the order was issued to terminate the children."
"How'd they bring her in?" Ezekiel asked.
"There's a large cargo elevator on the first floor. It's located right here." Pepper circled a spot toward the middle of the western wall. "It's huge. They drive trucks right in so the other guards don't ever see one of their throwaways."
"What other guards?" Draden interrupted.
"They have guards who protect the plastics plant. It's a working plant. They know it's a cover for a research facility with military contracts, but they never enter any part of the building other than where the plastic molds are manufactured," Pepper explained.
"So there is an actual product being produced on the second floor?" Ezekiel asked. "They'll have vents and air conduits as well as things like conveyor belts and plenty of equipment."
Pepper nodded. "On the second floor, yes, meaning if you count the actual first floor where they hold and terminate their prisoners."