Page 46 of Covert Affections (Shadow Agents/PSI-Ops #5)

The picture of her was from when she was five.

By the time he’d happened upon the photographic evidence, she’d have been sixteen.

From what Efren had been able to gather, she’d ended up in the hands of a nurse who had once worked for The Corporation.

Someone who had been a trusted, loyal employee—until they weren’t.

The woman had not only left her position with The Corporation, but she’d also joined an underground movement of people who were actively working to try to stop what was happening.

The same group Samuel had aligned himself with, using it to help disperse the children he’d liberated from the lab.

The children had been placed in homes, spread out and over the country, possibly in hopes of hiding their trails.

Only, it hadn’t worked out as planned for them.

Efren knew for a fact some of the children had ended up in small clusters, as if like attracted like.

Such was the case in Colorado. The nurse had come this way, as had Samuel.

Efren moved to the area then and began his hunt for Little Sweet Thing. It had taken longer than he’d thought because the nurse hadn’t stayed in Denver proper. She’d moved a little over an hour from the city, taking up residency in a smaller town, pretending to be the girl’s aunt.

Efren had happened upon Little Sweet Thing by happy accident.

He’d stopped in the small town for cigarettes and spotted her.

He recognized her scent instantly. And then he’d seen her eyes.

Blue with the smallest flecks of purple in them.

His beast had left him reacting instead of merely observing and waiting to make a move at a better time.

In hindsight he saw where he’d gone wrong. Had he merely monitored her and followed her, he could have taken her with no one knowing. Instead, like a fool, he’d cornered her behind a grocery store, fully intending to take what was his. She’d been seventeen at the time. Wide-eyed and innocent then.

He’d thought it would work. That he could take her. That she’d be his.

But fate had other plans. Little Sweet Thing had gotten help from some bitch. Then fucking Culbertson had shown up out of the blue like some kind of damn knight in shining armor. He’d charged at Efren like a bull seeing red, and their fight had spilled into the woods behind the location.

Injured from his scuffle with Culbertson, Efren had been forced to lick his wounds and retreat.

When he’d gone back to the area in search of Little Sweet Thing, he’d found the trail had gone cold.

He’d assumed Culbertson had intervened and relocated the girl.

It’s what Efren would have done had roles been reversed.

There was no way Efren would have let the girl remain in the area.

Culbertson, as much as Efren hated to admit, was smart.

And he’d risked everything to see to the girl’s safety when she was little.

Surely, he'd whisked her away to another location.

Efren had wanted to give chase, to hunt down Culbertson and find what he might have done with the girl, but Efren’s system had started to show signs of decay.

He’d been forced to go crawling back to The Corporation, hat in hand, begging to be let back into the fold.

Nearly a decade of grunt work had followed.

He and Peters, who had gone with him, had been forced to pay their dues, all in exchange for access to the serum.

Then six months ago, photos of Little Sweet Thing found their way to Efren once more.

They were current, showing her as a grown woman, her curves something famous sculptors of the past would have painstakingly tried to capture in marble.

The photos were on social media. He knew it was Little Sweet Thing the second he saw them.

Imagine his surprise when he’d tracked her location and found it was the same small town that he’d cornered her in thirteen years prior.

Culbertson hadn’t whisked her off after all.

Efren could have kicked himself for not looking harder for her years ago.

Efren had been unable to go straight to her.

He’d had commitments to The Corporation.

He’d been put in charge of overseeing the security at the very same fucking facility he’d been tortured at.

The men he’d bonded with were still there but in far worse shape than he could have imagined.

He’d been forced to make a choice. Help them or go to her.

He'd done the only thing he could.

He’d sent Peters to watch Little Sweet Thing.

To get close and keep an eye on her. And he’d done it perfectly.

She never suspected a thing. She trusted him even.

Let him close to her. It had gone far better than Efren could have ever hoped or dreamed.

But he had to admit Peters had gotten a little too comfortable in the life he’d set up for himself here, nearly losing sight of the mission.

Around the same time that Efren had dispatched Peters to Colorado, The Corporation finally captured Samuel and Benat.

The men had been brought to the same facility Efren was in charge of security at.

He’d toyed with them, making their stay less than pleasant.

He’d wisely selected other guards to be the ones who interrogated the men, having no desire to have history repeat itself.

Though, he wanted greatly to see the men break fully.

Efren had played the part of a good soldier, and The Corporation had rewarded him.

They’d pulled him aside, telling him to look the other way while the hybrids—the very ones he’d bonded with years ago—made their escape.

He was instructed to let them go—not to stop them.

He’d done more than that. He’d made contact with them in the outside world, giving them money and helping steer them toward Colorado—toward her.

Little Sweet Thing.

Ironically, word reached him that Samuel’s daughter was in the same area again.

That was all the motivation Efren required to get the men on board fully.

They’d never liked Samuel and blamed him for so much of their misery.

It was like Christmas for them when Efren had dangled the carrot of getting to torture Samuel by way of his daughter.

They’d set out for Colorado, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

At first, Efren had considered stopping them.

But then he’d decided to join them.

It helped secure his position as the leader of the group. It showed them he was like them, at least to some degree.

They didn’t do well in anything that resembled confinement or captivity—which was why they’d not been sharing the abandoned house with him.

They’d been living in the mountains, preferring to set up various campsites there.

That was fine by Efren. He didn’t like the constant smell of their rot.

It also gave him the additional freedom he needed to come and go as he pleased with very few, if any, eyes on him.

Just this morning he’d decided to oversee their plan to kill Samuel’s daughter.

The original plan had been to attack Samuel’s daughter at a job fair that was being held at the very bar Little Sweet Thing owned and ran.

Efren had been looking forward to his reunion with her.

He’d planned to be there to watch the mayhem and take his prize.

He’d even watched Little Sweet Thing as she ran her morning errands.

He’d nearly lost control and taken her when she’d ended up on an isolated side street due to what seemed to be perfectly timed road construction incidents.

When he’d stepped out from behind the service station, in full coyote form, and had locked gazes with her while she’d been in her vehicle, he’d nearly revealed himself, shifting then and there.

He'd resisted only because he’d thought for sure he’d be able to grab her at the job fair.

But one issue after another had come up, foiling the well-laid plans.

Everything had gone to hell in a handbasket, forcing Efren and the hybrids to change strategies.

The hybrids would watch the horse rescue and attack Samuel’s daughter there.

Then they’d bring her dead body here—to Efren.

Efren’s darkness had left him separated from the others earlier in the day. He’d gone off and found a suitable temporary replacement for Little Sweet Thing. The unsuspecting fill-in had been a woman a town over.

He grinned as he thought about the thrill of the kill. About how delicious fear tasted. The replacement had kept Efren busy most of the day and into the evening. Then the storms had come, making burying her in a new dumping area difficult. Efren had been forced to take other measures.

If the hybrids had done as he’d instructed, Samuel’s daughter was dead and being brought to him any minute now. He intended to deliver pieces of her to Samuel and Benat little by little until they snapped fully.

Things were finally falling into line.

Efren smelled the hybrids approaching before he caught sight of them through the yellowed windowpane of the abandoned house. He could pick up on their rot and the smell of blood—theirs. What he didn’t smell was Samuel’s daughter.

The first of the coyote hybrids came through the front door looking worse for wear. The rest followed close behind, each battered, bruised, and injured to varying degrees. A healthy dose of fear was coming from each of them as they found places to sit.

Their self-appointed leader was the first to speak. “We made our move—like we discussed. We followed Samuel’s daughter to her rescue. We attacked.”

“Since I don’t see any sign of Samuel’s daughter, am I to assume you failed…again?” asked Efren.

The man nodded, flinching slightly as Efren moved just a little. “Yes. But she had help.”

Efren held his temper in check and glanced out the window again. “Of course she did. Who aided her?”

“Shifters. A horse one and a cat one,” returned the male.

At the mention of a cat shifter, Efren tensed. Had Samuel managed to get free from The Corporation’s hold? Had he come to protect his daughter?

The man’s words echoed in Efren’s mind. Horse shifter? No. It couldn’t be, could it? Had the Outcast from years ago, the very one The Corporation had captured in the area, returned? Was he helping to protect Samuel’s daughter?

Efren’s beast stirred, wanting blood, wanting revenge.

He’d make his move tonight. He’d finally take what was his.

A massive coyote came running up toward the house. It leaped onto the porch and shifted quickly into a man. He stepped through the open doorway, his gaze colliding with Efren’s.

“We have a problem,” the naked newcomer said.

“Beyond the fact that they failed to bring me Samuel’s daughter?” questioned Efren, meeting his best friend’s gaze. They’d been through hell and back together.

Revenge and victory were so close Efren could almost taste it—so long as the hybrids stopped fucking everything up.

Peters glanced at the room full of injured hybrids and then back to Efren. “It’s Culbertson. He’s here. In the area.”

Efren stiffened. “What? Are you sure?”

Peters nodded. “He’s part of why they look the way they do right now.”

One of the hybrids narrowed his gaze. “He a cougar-shifter?”

“Yes,” said Peters and Efren.

Peters lifted his chin. “Not only that, Hargraves is here too. Culbertson is guarding Lindy. He’s with her now. Hargraves is protecting Samuel’s daughter. There is more.”

Efren’s beast clawed at him from within, making it hard to focus. “What else could possibly be wrong?”

“Lindy’s bar was full of PSI agents tonight. The ones I told you about. The ones from the wellness center incident. They’d evidently decided to make the bar their new watering hole,” said Peters. “I didn’t risk going in, but I counted at least a dozen there tonight.”

Efren expelled an annoyed breath. That many operatives would prove to be an issue. The hybrids weren’t at full strength. “Is that it?”

Peters shook his head. “Payne is here too.”

“Nick Payne is here?” asked Efren. “Is he here hunting for Samuel and Benat?”

“I don’t think so,” said Peters. “It kind of seemed like he’s been here for a bit—long enough to put down roots. I was headed back here and saw him in a delivery van. It was from some bakery.”

“You’re sure it was him?” asked Efren.

Peters nodded again. “You remember how tight he and Culbertson were. If they’re working together, getting to Lindy will be difficult. We may need to let her be and focus solely on Samuel’s daughter.”

Efren’s nostrils flared as he rounded on his friend. “I get you have developed some warped like of her, but she is mine, am I clear? Little Sweet Thing is mine!”

Peters stiffened and raised his hands. “I understand.”