“Sir?” It was their driver, the human task force male.
Brass faced him. “Yeah, Ted?”
“One guy who lives in an apartment upstairs said he saw four men and one woman show up about two hours ago. He thinks one guy is still here since he never saw him leave.” Tim’s head turned and he stared at the dead body. “I’m guessing that’s the one.”
Wrath tried to jerk away from Shadow. He had questions for the human who’d seen something but his friend pulled hard enough to make him stumble.
“No,” Shadow growled. “Calm down. You do her no good when you are in this condition. Take deep breaths.”
He fought down his rage.
“They left a number.” Brass studied Wrath. “Don’t make a sound.” He opened his cell phone, glanced around him and read the note again. “Not a sound.” He dialed and put it on speakerphone.
“I see you got my note.” The voice was female. “I don’t know this number so I assume you’re Lauren’s mate?”
Brass arched his eyebrows at Wrath but spoke before he could. “Yes. When and where do you want to make the exchange? Don’t harm Lauren or you will never see your people alive again.”
“Is my sister still alive?” The woman’s anger and distrust were easy to hear. “I want to talk to Mel right now.”
“I am not at her location as you must know but it can be arranged for you to speak to her. I would like to hear my female to make sure she is alive.”
“You’re not talking to her until I get to talk to my sister. Call me back when you’re with her. How long?”
“Give me an hour. I need to travel to where your sister is being held. She is well and so are the males who were captured with her. Her living arrangements are much more comfortable than the ones we were accustomed to while we were imprisoned.”
She snorted. “At least we let you get laid occasionally. I’m mentioning that because Lauren is going to learn all about breeding tests and being passed from cell to cell if I don’t talk to my sister in less than sixty minutes. I doubt your mate would survive since they haven’t had access to a woman in months.” She hung up.
Brass growled. “Did you catch that? She is either bluffing or she’s got more than one of our males.”
“She thinks Lauren is my mate.” Wrath wished that were true. “Why?”
“I don’t know.” Brass shook his head.
“We need to go now to reach Homeland and place that call,” Wrath said and tried to lunge for the door but Shadow jerked him back, still holding his arm. He twisted his head and flashed fangs. “Let go.”
“No.” Brass stepped closer. “We aren’t going anywhere. Tim and the secondary team are on their way to us right now. They will find out everything they can about the dead human male. We can conference call with Homeland. We don’t have to actually go there to allow this female to speak to her sister.” He paused. “They can trace the call too. We have no assurances that they’ll make the exchange in good faith. They could kill Lauren out of spite.”
“They want their people back,” Shadow reminded everyone. “They’ll keep her alive since they know that’s the deal.”
Tim Oberto strode into the apartment, a few of his team members behind him, and quickly assessed the situation. “I was informed that Lauren Henderson has been kidnapped.” He glanced at Brass. “We’ll try to get her back.”
Brass handed over the note. “We need to set up a conference call between Homeland and the kidnappers. They wish to speak to the female prisoner you captured yesterday. They want to exchange Wrath’s female for the captured humans. We will do this to get his female back.”
“But—”
“We will do this,” Brass stated firmly, cutting Tim off. “We will capture those monsters again. The sister of the female has Wrath’s future mate. Saving Species is our priority. Lauren is one of us because she belongs to him. I don’t know if your men heard us but a Species male was also here and he helped kidnap her.”
Tim gasped. “Why in the hell would one of yours betray the NSO?”
Shadow sighed. “He’s still in captivity. We smell it on him. They might have found a way to control him or perhaps he doesn’t know Mercile is his enemy. He is—”
“Dead,” Wrath snarled.
“Confused,” Shadow corrected, frowning at Wrath. “He knows no better.”
Brass nodded. “Confused.” His gaze fixed on Wrath. “He will be deemed unfit if he has harmed her with malice.”
Tim eyed Brass. “Unfit?”
“Leave it at that. He will never be a threat again if he is deemed unfit.”
Tim nodded at Brass. “We have that too for unfit humans. It’s called the death penalty and I’m all for that in some cases.”
“We need to return to your headquarters and set up this call. The faster we make the exchange, the better.” Brass stared at Wrath. “I know this must be difficult but know that everything will be done.”
“I want to be there,” Wrath demanded.
“Only if you calm.”
