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  Raul tackled Brandon, breaking his contact with the Taser. He wrapped the blanket around Brandon and forced him to the floor, covering Brandon with his own body.

  It was all over in a few seconds. The young cop stood, shaking, and babbling out apologies. Janey grabbed the Taser.

  When Raul hauled Brandon up, still holding him tightly, he sputtered, “Jesus Christ, don’t they teach you at the academy not to Taser a scintilla?”

  Brandon half-heartedly struggled to get loose, but Raul tightened his grip. As long as he had the rubberized blanket around Brandon he had the upper hand.

  “Hey, I’ve got you,” Raul said softly. “We’ve got all of you.”

  The kids were given priority. Raul remained still, holding Brandon in place until an ambulance arrived specially equipped to care for him. Not wanting Brandon tied down to a stretcher, Raul scooped him up and carried him to the waiting emergency vehicle. When the paramedics got Brandon settled in the transport one of them handed Raul a special suit.

  “You can ride with us, but you have to wear this. Sometimes if one of us passes out or has other medical conditions we’ll discharge involuntarily,” the paramedic explained.

  It took Raul a minute before he realized the paramedic was a scintilla. “Gracias.” He nodded and slipped the suit over his clothes before climbing into the ambulance. “Thank you for letting me ride along.”

  The paramedic smiled. “Not protocol, but I’d rather have a calm patient.” He pulled the doors shut and sirens kicked on. A second later the ambulance was speeding away from Brandon’s prison.

  Chapter 5

  Raul sipped his coffee and shifted in the chair. It didn’t seem to matter which hospital or what ward; the chairs were hard and his ass fell asleep. Fortunately, he wasn’t in the habit of needing to sit at someone’s bedside.

  One of the nurses cracked the door to Brandon’s room open and poked his head through. “They’re getting meals ready. Do you want anything? Our non-restricted meal today is meatloaf sandwich.”

  Raul stood and stretched then cracked his back. “Thanks, that’d be great. Where’s the phone room?”

  As it had been explained to Raul when Brandon was admitted, sick or injured scintilla had diminished—or sometimes no—control over their magic. Until they were stable and no longer posed a threat by unintended electrical discharges precautions were needed. Raul had to pack up anything he wore that was conductive and he was given static resistant shoes and thin sweatpants to wear in place of his jeans with metal buttons and a zipper.

  The phone room was the only area on the floor where personal phones and other computer devices were permitted until a patient had full control again. There were landlines available there as well. Raul was thoroughly amazed at the way medical equipment, supplies and furniture was adapted for use on electrically charged humans. If it couldn’t be constructed from plastics, polymers or non-conductive metal it was encased and protected in such materials.

  “Near the nurses’ station,” he pointed out the direction.

  Raul nodded, but didn’t move except to glance down at Brandon, sleeping peacefully in the hospital bed.

  “He probably won’t wake up for a little while yet, but if you’d like I can stay here while you make your call,” the nurse offered.

  “That would be very kind, thank you.” Raul stepped around the nurse and slipped out of the door, hurrying to the phone room. Iva had told the hospital staff Raul was part of their protective custody detail, allowing him to stay with Brandon. Though, Raul doubted a scintilla, in a scintilla hospital ward needed much added security. Of all the magical types of humans, a sick or injured scintilla was probably the most dangerous. There was the potential for bad things happening if a scintilla didn’t have control of their power. Raul felt as if just gaining access to this floor required some feat of magic, which in this case came in the form of a very mundane police order.

  He settled in a well-cushioned armchair and placed a call to Brandon’s father. The elder Lynch answered within seconds.

  “Mr. Lynch, Raul Fierro. I’m in Tucson and have located Brandon. I wanted to let you know he’s safe. He asked me to tell you he’d contact you when he could.” A small white lie, but Raul had the feeling it was what Brandon would want.

  “You do realize that under no circumstances will payment be rendered until I personally speak with Brandon.” William Lynch predictably announced. There were no questions about Brandon’s exact state of health, why he went missing or even referring to him as ‘my son’.

  You, senor Lynch are a grade A, high caliber asshole.

  “I completely understand and wouldn’t expect it to be any other way.” Raul didn’t bother telling Lynch he’d have looked for Brandon anyway before calmly ending the call. Something gnawed at Raul’s gut telling him this business with Brandon’s kidnappers wasn’t finished. Even if he simply didn’t trust Brandon’s father, a little voice was telling him it should be Brandon’s choice to let his father know more. He placed two more calls, one to Tad, the other to Janey with an update. Once Brandon was awake, Iva and Janey would need him to make a statement and confirm the men in custody were Brandon’s kidnappers. For now, Brandon was safe at the hospital.

  By the time Raul returned to Brandon’s room he was met with the aroma of a warm meal. The food wasn’t gourmet by any means, but it was good and filling and Raul’s stomach rumbled. He was slurping down some mixed berry Jell-O topped with canned whipped cream when Brandon stirred.

  Brandon tried moving his arms and legs then looked from side to side when he couldn’t. Lifting his head, he squinted at Raul.

  “Raul?” He sounded utterly confused.

  Raul put his plate down and moved his chair closer to Brandon’s bed.

  “Hiya.” He held up one finger. “The nurses said to call when you woke up, they’ll get rid of the restraints. You were drugged and not yourself when we got here. They put those on you so you’d quit zapping things and to keep your IV in.” He reached for the call button and announced, “I’m in the room with Brandon Lynch, he’s awake.”

  Brandon turned his head and stared at the intercom.

  “Where?”

  Poor guy, his voice sounded rough and Raul wondered if his throat hurt.

  “You had to be taken to a hospital in Tucson. There weren’t any well-equipped enough in Green Valley to—”

  “Handle someone like me?” Brandon’s tone was downright acidic.

  “To treat a scintilla properly,” Raul said. “You were beaten and drugged and I’m guessing starved. I wanted you in a hospital properly equipped to help you.”

  Brandon swallowed, and his expression softened. “Sorry. Thank you. How did you…?” His voice trailed off. “You looked for me.”

  “Your father hired me.” Raul didn’t mean for his words to sound so abrupt.

  Brandon’s face fell and he squeezed his eyes shut for a few seconds. When he opened them, there was pain and not from a physical condition. “Oh. Did you tell… does he know where I am?”

  Raul motioned to the bed.

  “May I sit here?”

  Brandon nodded and Raul perched on the mattress’s edge.

  “I told your father I located you and you were in Tucson. He knows you’re safe, and you’ll contact him when you were ready. For the record once I knew you were in trouble I’d have looked for you anyway. Yes, I’ll take his money, but only because he’s el culo. Sorry, I know he’s your dad, but—”

  Brandon chuckled and Raul was pleased to see his body relax.

  “Ass is one of the nicer ways to describe him.”

  “Full disclosure, your father gave me your laptop and a big file stuffed with numbers and documents. I had to have help with both, but I found the information I needed to find you,” Raul said.

  Brandon nodded and said, “I understand.” However, the perplexed expression he wore told Raul otherwise.

  “Brandon.” Raul leaned forward and put one hand on Brandon’s knee.
“I read your e-mails. All of them. Even the ones you wrote and saved but didn’t send. I also read your journal.”

  Seconds of awkward silence ticked by as Brandon sat and stared at Raul. Finally, Brandon looked down.

  Raul squeezed his knee and said softly, “I would’ve helped, no questions, no hesitation. I hope you know that.”

  “I wished and fantasized, but I wasn’t sure I could ask. I wasn’t sure I should drag you into this.”

  Raul sighed. “I get it. We haven’t known each other long and only spent a week together. And I am technically an officer of the court, but I have a lot more leeway than a cop or federal agent would. Water under the bridge, I suppose, but I do want you to know I’d have helped.”

  “Thank you.” Brandon smiled a bit.

  “Now, why don’t we start from the beginning and you tell me what the hell is going on, so we can fix this? ‘Cause, dude, I’m completely confused.” Raul grinned and made a ‘go on’ motion with one hand. “Drag me into this situation.”

  Brandon laughed and Raul was pleased he relaxed even more.

  “About a month ago I began finding weird entries in different sections of the system of the company my father owns.”

  “Seafind?”

  “Yes.” Brandon nodded. “It’s where I work.”

  “I remember,” Raul said. He also remembered William Lynch saying Seafind wouldn’t have been created without Brandon. Yet, Brandon was an employee, not an owner or partner.

  Brandon smiled and continued, “Anyway, I’m not a finance guy and don’t have a fancy business degree, so I wasn’t sure what I was finding, but I knew it was wrong, if that makes sense.”

  “It does. I had to enlist some high-power accountants. Fortunately, one of them is my cousin,” Raul said. “Don’t worry, they’re very discrete and have helped me out before. That rule you hear on TV, ‘follow the money’? It’s often true. They’re a lot better at sifting through the paper trails than I am.” He shrugged. “I think they like it.”

  “A name kept popping up, Oscar Bisset. Money was going to him, but it was never clear why. I think he was handling payments to Seafind as well, but I don’t know from whom or for what. I’m not even sure what the guy does for my father and siblings,” Brandon said. An orderly brought in a pitcher of water and some glasses. Brandon stopped talking, poured a glass and took a few big guzzles.

  “What were the two guys doing in the building where you were being held?”

  Brandon stopped drinking and set the glass down. “There were three men. A few times a fourth guy showed up, I never knew his name. The other three were Bob, Bill and Tom.” He shrugged. “Not sure that’s their real names.”

  Raul snorted. “I guarantee they’re not.” There was a sinking, tightening feeling in the pit of Raul’s stomach. Two men were in custody, not three or four.

  Fuck me.

  “Would you recognize them?” Raul tried to keep his voice neutral and calm.

  Brandon tilted his head and stared at Raul before slowly saying, “Yes.”

  Obviously, Raul failed at the calm and neutral part. Brandon was observant and didn’t need Raul’s werewolf abilities to know if someone wasn’t being as truthful as they could be. Raul had the suspicion from their first meeting Brandon saw through much of Raul’s gruff exterior.

  Note to self: don’t bother trying to hide things from Brandon.

  “They, Bob, Bill and Tom would bring in a batch of kids, five at a time, but there were always different numbers of boys and girls. Before they’d arrive, I’d have to do a search of police reports, particularly missing persons,” Brandon spoke softly. “They, the kids, would stay for a few days and those men would have me pull shipping schedules, trucks, planes, sometimes cargo ships. I had to find them the information they wanted without tripping firewalls or other alerts. Sometimes they wanted data to create documents, but I never saw the documents.”

  “Confidential information.”

  Brandon nodded. “Some was classified and not only in this country. A little time would go by, not sure how long. It got harder and harder to judge passage of time the longer I was in there. That’s when the kids would be taken away and it wouldn’t be long before the whole thing would start over and another batch was brought in.” He looked away and focused on the sheet covering his knees, picking at the material. “I tried to stop them, to do anything, but I couldn’t. Those poor kids were taken, and I couldn’t stop it, or save them or do a damn thing.”

  “You were using some pretty impressive defenses when we showed up. I’m guessing that’s what the drugs were for, to keep you off balance and subdued.” Raul desperately wanted to find a way to make Brandon feel better.

  Brandon offered him a small smile. “Thanks.”

  “How did you end up back in this area and being held hostage?” Raul asked.

  Brandon seemed to scrunch back against the pillow as he rubbed his arms. “I was grabbed in a parking lot near my building. The door to our garage was broken that day. No one could get their cars in or out.” He looked up at Raul. “Do you think someone tampered with the door on purpose?”

  Raul nodded. “It’s what I would do. It’s simple, doesn’t require a lot of high-tech tools and wouldn’t be easy to trace.” He rubbed Brandon’s knee a few times. “Then what happened?”

  “I remember being grabbed and a garden hose was wrapped around me, so my arms were pinned to my sides. Before I even had time to try and fight back I was jabbed with a needle, here.” He put one finger against the swell of his shoulder. “And something was put over my face. When I tried to breathe it smelled awful, turned my stomach. Then, bam, the lights went out.”

  “Hmm. Drugs, drugs and more drugs no doubt. Let’s start with the basics. Do you know how many people grabbed you?”

  Brandon bit his lip and shook his head. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”

  “Close your eyes and take a few deep breaths,” Raul said. When Brandon looked at the door Raul squeezed his knee again. “I’m here and I’m a werewolf. Someone tries to get to you, I rip their arms off—literally. No one is getting into this room unless I let them in and everything you say is between us. Trust me, it’ll help you remember details.”

  “Okay.” Brandon closed his eyes and pulled in a deep breath, let it out slowly and repeated the process a few times.

  Raul took his notebook from his pocket. “What color was the hose?”

  “What does that—?”

  “We’ll gather details and sort them out later. Trust me.”

  Brandon nodded. “Green, with a little white stripe along the side.”

  “So, you were looking down. How many feet did you see?”

  “I… .”

  “Take your time. Think about the ground, you saw it when you looked down at the hose. How many feet?” Raul asked softly.

  “I see mine, and two, no three more feet,” Brandon said slowly.

  “Were they wearing shoes or boots?”

  “I had on dress shoes, I’d just left work. One foot had a brown shoe, the other two had on black work boots.” Brandon opened his eyes and looked at Raul.

  “Okay, two people snatched you. Were they both men?”

  Brandon closed his eyes again. After a minute he said, “Yes. Their arms were men’s arms. And one had a watch on, I remember it scratching me.” He rubbed a fading red mark on his forearm.

  “Were they the men at the warehouse?”

  Brandon opened his mouth, shut it for a few seconds, closed his eyes again and then nodded. “Yes! Same shoe and boots. It was Tom and Bob.”

  “And you saw them plenty of times. Now we’re getting somewhere. What’s the next thing you remember?”

  “I was in something moving. Tied up so I couldn’t move my arms or legs. There was rubber all around me. The walls were covered in it and I was wrapped in a blanket with a rubber backing.” Brandon rubbed his forehead. “It got lighter then darker in there. It was dark when they took me into the war
ehouse.”

  “How many times did it get dark then light?” Raul asked.

  Brandon frowned. “Um. Once.” He focused on Raul again. “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “It would if you were inside something that could be put on a plane,” Raul pointed out.

  “I remember moving, but not a lot of noise or stopping and starting. I think I had headphones on too.”

  “Good. This is all very good.” Raul stopped writing and closed his notebook. “The police will want to talk to you. They have two men in custody. Identifying them as the men who were holding you and those kids hostage will be very helpful.”

  “I’ll have to see them?” Brandon’s voice turned raspy.

  “You’ll see them. They’ll never know you’re there,” Raul said softly. He wanted to reach out and hold Brandon for a minute, but Brandon’s body language kept Raul where he was.

  “What about court? Won’t I have to see them in court?”

  Raul nodded. “Probably.” He inched closer to Brandon, leaned forward, and brushed a gentle kiss over his forehead. “But let’s cross that bridge if we come to it. Sometimes these things take many months, there’s plea deals and all sorts of crap between now and a courtroom.”

  A soft knock on Brandon’s door ended their conversation. Raul stood up and cracked the door open far enough so he could see out. Smiling he opened the door wide and motioned the woman inside.

  “Doctor. Nice to see you again.”

  She gave one small nod to Raul before turning her full attention to Brandon. “Ready to go home?”

  Brandon’s gaze flicked to Raul for a split second. “More than ready to leave. No offense to your hospitality.”

  The doctor laughed. “None taken. All our guests seem to feel that way. I do shower before I come to work.” Raul and Brandon both chuckled and the doctor continued, “I’d like you to stick around until the morning, just so we can monitor you. After breakfast, if you’re stable and you haven’t had any delayed effects, I don’t see any reason for you to be here longer. However, I understand you’re from Boston. You might want to wait a week or so before making that trip, particularly if you’re flying.”