Page 55 of Wolf Revealed

Gunfire erupted all around, making Lark flinch, and she reached out to tug Kal closer. Before she could steady her other hand to shoot at the supernatural closest to them, Hale appeared at her side, his hand firm on her shoulder.

“Take Kal and go. Now!” he said with a gentle but insistent nudge. “Head for the house. If you run into trouble, find a place to hide until we come for you.”

She had time to see Jasper and Everett running out of ammo, then their clothes shredding in a burst of tiny pieces as they both shifted in a heartbeat and charged at three of the supernaturals. With a growl and a partial shift that had his fangs and claws extending, Hale moved to intercept the other two.

Resisting the urge to help, Lark tightened her grip on Kal’s hand, then turned and ran as fast as she could. Her son ran with her, his legs a blur as he sought to keep up as they ran toward the house.

Chapter twenty-two

“Wayne arranged this whole thing to lure us away from the mansion,” Mike growled as Gage drove the SUV through the twists and turns of the industrial zone. “Roman wanted as many of us out of there as possible so he could go after Lark and Kal.”

The idea that his family could be in Roman’s clutches right now made him want to howl. Even now, his inner wolf paced worriedly, and he was close to jumping out of the SUV so he could shift into his wolf form and run the rest of the way to the mansion.

“I get the part about Roman luring us away. I just don’t get why,” Xander said from the backseat, where he sat with Khaki. “I mean, you’ve already told him you have no idea where the flash drive is. Why try to grab Lark and Kal? Unless he still thinks you’re lying.”

Mike held onto the grab handle above the door as Gage slid the vehicle around a turn at high speed. He was glad his boss was driving. He was so worried about Lark and Kal that his adrenaline was pumping out of control right then. He probably would have put them in a ditch by now. It took all the restraint he had not to bombard Lark’s phone with text messages, demanding to know if she was okay. But he couldn’t risk distracting her, not when she and Kal could be running for their lives.

“I don’t know,” Mike admitted, turning his attention to Xander’s question. “But back at the factory, Chapman was emphatic I had the flash drive. He said I was the last one to have it the day the cops moved in on Roman’s operation, though I have no idea how he could possibly know that. He said I simply need to remember where I put it.”

“That’s kind of a weird thing to say,” Khaki muttered. “Like he knows you know where it is or something.”

Mike couldn’t disagree with that, but didn’t say anything. Silence filled the vehicle, except for the roar of the SUV’s engine as Gage raced along the road. They were still at least five minutes out, and all Mike could do was imagine how bad things could go in those five minutes.

“I agree with Khaki that it’s weird, but let’s go with it for a minute,” Xander said. “Do you remember exactly what you were doing the day the cops busted Roman?”

“Not really,” Mike said. “I mean, it was ten years ago. Besides, most of my headspace from that time is filled with the worst memories of my life, so I don’t tend to go there.”

“Hey, I get it,” Gage said gently, taking the interstate off-ramp at full speed. Thank goodness for the flashing light bar on the top of the SUV to let people know to get out of their way. “And normally, I wouldn’t ask you to put yourself through that kind of pain again, but Roman won’t stop coming after you and your family until we take this flash drive of his out of play. Which means you need to force yourself to remember everything you can from that day.”

Mike knew his friend was right, but that didn’t make it any easier to remember. Like he’d said, it had been years ago. Plus, every time he went there, his head immediately jumped to the image of his home blowing up, with Lark and Kal inside it.

They were both alive, though. And he’d do anything to keep them that way.

“I was running late that day when I went into Roman’s office to collect the week’s instructions,” Mike said, straining to piece together the events from the tattered remnants of his memories. “Normally, there would have been a bubble mailer filled with flash drives sitting on Roman’s desk waiting for me. Inside would be a list of the usual suspects who were supposed to get each flash drive.”

“You said normally,” Khaki echoed from the back seat. “That’s not what happened that day?”

“No. That day was different,” Mike said slowly, replaying the details of that morning, knowing he had to get it right. “Roman wasn’t there and the flash drives were scattered all over his desk.”

“What did you do with them?” Xander prompted.

“I grabbed every flash drive there and stuffed them in the first envelope I could find, deciding I’d figure out who to deliver them to later. Then I left.”

“Where did you put the envelope?” Xander asked.

Mike opened his mouth to answer, but then closed it again. Because he wasn’t quite sure. At least not at first.

“I put them in a canvas messenger bag and shoved it under the seat of my SUV, then headed out,” he finally said, piecing everything together in his mind. “But before the first stop, Wayne called and told me that Roman was on the run and they were moving in before everyone else could escape. I did a U-turn and headed right into the chaos of a multi-department raid. I didn’t even think about the bag with the flash drives behind the back seat.”

“But you turned the flash drives over as evidence, right?” Khaki asked.

Mike thought a moment, cursing silently as a startling reality smacked him in the face. “Crap, I don’t think I ever turned them in. I got so wrapped up in the raid, and then the hunt for Roman that I forgot.”

Xander muttered a curse. “You left an envelope with a flash drive full of data to access a billion-dollar crypto account under the seat of a department-issued undercover vehicle? That’s it then. After ten years, there’s no telling where that vehicle ended up. Not that it matters because someone would have found that bag years ago.”

“Actually...” Mike winced, feeling pretty damn stupid at the moment. “I know exactly where the vehicle is. I liked driving it while I was undercover, so I ended up buying the thing from the department before it could go up for auction. It’s the same SUV I have now.”

Beside him, Gage cursed.