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There was a pause before he answered, “I came across one today. I’m not sure who he is or if he’s involved. I’m still investigating, but if anyone can find out more information it is you. Take a look at a shifter named Eric Singleton. He was a General—ex. It could be a dead end, but it might be worth doing a little digging.”

“Thank you.”

“Listen, Juliette, I’m just scratching the surface of this shit, but this guy is scary as hell. I don’t know what you are looking for, but be careful.”

“I will. I’ll share what I can. Be careful, bro,” she murmured.

“Love you, sis,” Kev said.

Juliette hung up and looked up at him. Talon lifted an eyebrow. He had caught a little of the conversation.

“Does the name General Eric Singleton mean anything to you?” she asked.

Talon frowned and nodded. “Yes. What makes you think that he is involved?”

She tapped three pages. “The specs for the satellite are almost identical to the SBSI one. The differences are in the report code here.” She pointed to a series of numbers below the satellite image. “The middle digits identify it as a Dutchcorp satellite, and this—” She pointed to two other pages. There was a series of code on them. “Find a coder named BMC82 and we’ll know where they got their source code.”

He walked over and sat down beside her, then picked up the paper. The answer had been staring him in the face the entire time. BMC82… Byron Michael Crayman, best shifter in the national football league. His jersey number was 82. His eyes flickered to his list.

“You’re brilliant, Juliette,” he murmured.

Chapter 14

Deep in the Mountains of Olympic National Park

* * *

Two weeks and nearly a hundred miles later, Jayden pressed her body back as far as she could into the crevice where a section of soil had eroded away. The only thing holding the tree—and her—in place was where the tree had grown into the rock.

“I could’ve sworn I saw something,” a grumpy voice muttered.

“You’ve been saying that for the last two days,” the second man snapped.

“Aw, come on, Bishop. It’s not my fault the boss is mad.”

“Shut up, Carter.”

“What’re we going to do about those wolf shifters looking for her?” Carter asked.

“I said shut up. I’m trying to think.”

Carter snorted and spat a wad of slimy spit out. Jayden turned her face into her arm when the wad struck inches from her head. The smell made her want to vomit.

“I think we should kill them,” Carter muttered.

Small rocks rained down when someone twisted above her. Jayden bit her lip. Her arms and legs were trembling with fatigue. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold herself in the tight spot.

“We can’t kill them—yet,” Bishop responded after a brief pause.

“Why not?”

“Think, you idiot! If we kill them before we find the missing human, what do you think will happen?” Bishop demanded.

“Duh, they’ll be dead?”

“Jeez, why do I even try to explain things to you? If we kill them now, then there will be a huge investigation with swarms of Observatory and SBSI agents out here. If we can find her before they do, we take her and they can look all they want—they won’t find anything,” Bishop explained.

“But… what if they find her first?” Carter asked.