“Which makes me wonder how Brielle’s brother ended up here,” Genevieve said. “We didn’t even have a clue he was in New York, and now he’s lost in the subway tunnels below the city, forcing us to split up the team to find him.”
Caleb couldn’t miss the accusation in Genevieve’s voice. She’d been openly against the plan to rescue Brielle’s brother. In fact, she’d been pretty adamant that Julian was nothing more than bait for a trap. The worst part? Caleb couldn’t say he disagreed. Using Brielle’s weakness for her brother to lure them down into these abandoned tunnels seemed exactly like something Harrington would do.
Behind him, Brielle sighed. “I know you think the only reason my brother called is to lead us into an ambush, but he’d never do anything to put me at risk. For all his faults, Julian loves me and would never let me get hurt.”
That announcement seemed to ease the tension a little bit, making the darkness around them seem at least a little less suffocating.
“It’s not that hard to believe Julian has been trapped inside Harrington’s organization since arriving in New York on the ship carrying those nukes, unable to get a message out,” Forrest said. “Maybe slipping into the subway tunnels was the only option he had to get away from Harrington, and without knowing where he was going, he got lost. Misty showed me the drawings of the NYC underground system. It’s a rat’s maze down here.”
Genevieve snorted, but Caleb appreciated Forrest sticking up for Brielle. It almost sounded like his teammate believed all of that stuff he’d just spouted. Almost.
“Where’s this service entrance supposed to be anyway?” Genevieve asked when they finally reached the lowest level of the building’s basement. “I can’t see anything down here.”
Caleb didn’t need the flashlight in his hand to see, but he swung the beam around mostly for everyone else’s benefit. The basement was jammed with what looked to be fifty years’ worth of dust, trash, furniture, and old packing crates. There was nothing that even suggested a door or passageway out of the place, and for a moment, he feared the entire trip had been a waste of time.
“Over here,” Hudson called out, shoving aside a huge armoire to reveal a chained and padlocked section of grating. The age of the lock and the amount of dust collected along the chain suggested that the gate hadn’t been opened in years. Decades, maybe.
Caleb moved over to give the padlock a sharp yank. It snapped easily under his grasp, as did the chain. A moment later, he was leading the way through a dark corridor that led to a rusted metal door that nearly collapsed when he pushed it open. The area it led to must have been huge because the beams from their flashlights didn’t even reveal any of the walls. Instead, all Caleb could make out were a low ceiling, cracked tile flooring, and a random support column.
It was sort of creepy.
“Tunnels,” Misty murmured. “It had to be tunnels. I never really had a position on the subject, but after this mission, it’s official. I absolutely hate tunnels.”
Caleb figured out soon enough that they’d come out right in the middle of the subway station. The unfinished rail beds to either side of the platform were a dead giveaway. In both directions, he could see the gaping holes in the walls where the rails would have been installed if the whole place hadn’t been abandoned. Flicking his flashlight toward the far side of the station, he could see more tunnel openings in that direction. It seemed like the openings had originally been blockaded with wooden planks and steel bars, but most of that had given way over time. Now, there was nothing keeping someone from crawling into any of those passages.
“I don’t suppose you can smell whether Julian is down here, can you?” Brielle asked, moving closer to Caleb. He could hear her heart thumping a mile a minute, and he wasn’t sure if it was the thought of finally finding her brother or simply being down here in the dark.
“Nothing but dirt and dust at this point,” he said after taking another long sniff. “Maybe a bit of grease and electrical discharge, too, but that’s fainter. You know my nose isn’t the greatest, so if Julian’s down here, we’ll have to track him by some other method than scent.”
Brielle nodded, leaning her head to the side and resting it against him. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, hugging her close. When she was distraught or in pain, he couldn’t stop himself from trying to help her.
After making love last night, Caleb had planned it all out. First thing this morning, as soon as Brielle woke up in his arms, he was going to have that talk with her that Forrest suggested. He was going to honestly tell her how he felt about her and hope she felt the same. If that conversation went well, he would then try and tiptoe his way into the soul-mate thing.
Maybe.
Then stupid Julian had called, and that whole plan had gone to shit. Just another reason to hate the man, as far as Caleb was concerned.
“I’ve got some fresh scuff marks in the dust,” Hudson suddenly called out.
Caleb looked across the platform to see the CIA agent standing all the way over by the far end, pointing his flashlight toward the floor. Glancing at Brielle, he took her hand and led her over there, everyone else at their heels.
There were two sets of marks on the floor near where Hudson stood. From the looks of them, it was like whoever had made them had been running at the time. One set of prints was definitely smaller than the others, too.
“Take a look at this,” Hudson said, using his light to illuminate a rusted platform sign above their heads. The only word that could be seen clearly was Fourth. “It looks like Julian and whoever is with him were coming from the direction of the tunnel behind us when they called Brielle, then came up on the platform and saw the sign. But then they jumped back down to the rail bed for some reason and kept running that way.”
Caleb followed the direction of Hudson’s flashlight, seeing the tunnel entrance at that end of the platform.
“Julian said there was something down here with them,” Brielle murmured, falling into step beside Caleb as they all headed in that direction. “Do you think there was someone chasing them?”
Before Caleb could answer, a loud clanking sound erupted from the tunnel ahead of them. The noise was immediately followed by grunting and gunshots.
Caleb took off running in that direction, knowing he needed to move before Brielle did, because he had no doubt she would assume her brother was in the middle of whatever was going on up ahead. He tore through the few boards blocking the entrance to the tunnel, then tossed his flashlight aside. Drawing his weapon, he raced through the passage at full speed, trusting his werewolf instincts to warn him before he ran into trouble.
The sounds of fighting grew louder as he ran down the tunnel, the metallic clanking of a steel pipe smashing into something solid interspersed with random gunfire. He could hear the occasional grunt as someone got hit. Though whether they were getting hit with a bullet or the pipe, he didn’t know.