Chapter 5

• Zain closed the door and put on the three locks. Leaning back against it, he fought to catch his breath. He knew he was just spooked and probably overreacting, but when the man looked at him for that long, there was no way he was taking the elevator. He needed to add running up stairs to his workout.
• Leaning over on his knees, he took a few deep breaths and tried to settle his breathing. It was a stupid idea to go and try to see the prisoner. He knew it but had still done it. Barack was right in not letting him go to speak with him. What would he have said to him? Zain had no idea. When the man looked at him through the bars and watched him talk to Barack, Zain’s wolf was right there. He hadn’t realized that his animal would react like that. He’d wanted to rip the man’s throat out.
• Standing up, Zain went over and set his backpack on the sofa. Of course, his wolf wanted to kill him. That man was involved in his only family member’s deaths. Whether he did it or not, Zain didn’t care. Closing his eyes, he nodded when he remembered Shepard Addison telling him that if he needed to blame anyone, to blame the Tomas family. Any shifters working with them were only doing it for one of three reasons. The first he’d said was fear. Zain opened his eyes and looked around the room, trying to figure out what to do. The second, he recalled, was greed. They honestly thought they were on the right side and going to profit somehow. He turned on his heel and went into his bedroom. The last reason was the one that Zain was starting to understand. Revenge. People often did the wrong things for revenge.
• Chuckling, he went over to his closet and dug around for his hiking backpack. Finding it, he tossed it on the bed. “I’m about to do something stupid.” He grinned and then spun around and went back out to get the backpack he’d been carrying everywhere since he’d seen that man on the screen being apprehended.
• He dumped it out on the bed and looked at the contents. Grabbing the waterproof envelope, he opened it and emptied it beside the other things. Passports, multiple keys, four phones, cash, and a waterproof map. Putting his hands on his hips, he stared at the items.
• Picking up the map and his laptop, he went out to the kitchen. He needed to focus and come up with an exact plan. If he were Aiden Tomas, where would he keep someone as important as the King of all shifters? He spread the map out on the table and then turned around and went to the fridge. Food helped him think.
• “Phones can’t be traced.” He mumbled while he pulled ingredients out of the fridge. Traced. He froze for a second and then turned around and went over to the table. “I’m an idiot.” He sat down and opened his laptop. “Why didn’t I think of this sooner?”
• Two days before Shepard Addison had gone away, he had a trial tracker implanted in his side, near his armpit. With it being a trial, he didn’t know if it would escape detection, but the main thing the king had it made for was it would show a history of locations. Zain smiled, like a driving tracker, only inside your body instead of your car.
• He brought up the program and read the possible options. The software for it was trial as well. He looked at the fridge door still open and got up. Why hasn’t anyone told Devin about this? The programmers or doctors that put it in? Did he call Illias and tell him about this? He got up and closed the fridge. They were all headed to that island right now. If he split their focus, something could go wrong. The king was important, of course—but shutting down the island was a game-changer in their war against the Tomas organization.
• Going over to his coffee brewer, he opened it. If something went wrong on the island op—he shook his head. If Calum’s mother was really on that island— “Nope.” He quickly set up the brewer and went back to the laptop. He wasn’t going to tell them right now. After the op was over, he would.
• Sitting down, he studied the screen and clicked on a few options to see what they did. When the screen listed coordinates, he jumped up and turned the map. He found the first few and realized they were the headquarters and the king’s home in the city. He looked at the dates and ran his finger down the screen until he found the date the king was taken. Moving back to the map, he found the location. “Bingo.” It was close to the border. He always went North when he went away with his mate.
• “Okay.” He straightened up, put his hands on his hips, and looked around. “I can do this.” Snorting, he went over and stood by the brewer. “Maybe not rush in and rescue him, but if I find him, I can call Jesse and tell him where.” It was so much better than taking off and finding somewhere to hide for however long he needed to. The only way he was going to be safe was if Shepard was back and the other wolf was found and dealt with. Permanently this time. He scowled at the cupboard as he took out a cup. There’s no way the two wolves that had taken his family and Illias would have shared with anyone else working for the Tomas’. He wouldn’t have announced how he’d screwed up that bad.
• Grabbing his cup of coffee, he glanced at the food and debated whether he should eat first or come up with a solid plan. He chose the plan. If he found Shepard, then the king could find the second wolf. You would think with them being from his clan, he would have already. They weren’t the only ones from the king’s own clan that were traitors. Allen Dunlap was caught but was too old to be the young wolf from all those years ago. Once Shepard got back, Zain hoped he cleaned house because his clan needed the trash taken out. Zain didn’t consider them his clan now. He really had none.
• He followed the last few locations on the list and then clenched his fists and glared at the last one. They had to have found it. Where it was, there was nothing. He opened his browser and searched just to be sure.
• “Nothing.” He got up and looked at the map. The last known location was the day after he disappeared, and it was close to Chicago. “Can’t be a coincidence.” Aiden Tomas had their king really close to him. “I guess I’m going to go check out the windy city.” He mumbled, picked up his cup, and went to the bedroom.
• He’d take public transit to get out of town and pick up a ride somewhere closer to the border. Opening his dresser, he riffled through the clothes and then pulled out warm ones. Might be better to stick to transit. A single vehicle is too easy to track. He’d learned a lot from what the teams went through.
• His phone rang in his pocket. Tossing the clothes on the bed, he pulled it out and looked at it. If he answered this right now, whatever it was he was needed for, he would probably end up back at the office. When the phone stopped ringing, he turned it off and then took the SIM card out. That made it official in his mind. He was doing this.
• ~
• Two hours later, he sat on a bus that was leaving the city. It was going in the opposite direction he planned to be, but if anyone was following him, he was going to make it hard for them to predict where he was going.
• Out of habit, he reached for his phone and then remembered it was in his pack and off. Had he been out of touch with the others in the last five years? He didn’t think so. In fact, he would randomly call one of his teammates with a flimsy excuse just to connect with someone.
• They were all busy right now, so he was going to do this on his own. If he wanted his life to be his own, he needed to do it.