Henri – 29

 

"You're the one he kept ranting about? The one who escaped?" Jimmy asked.

 

"That would be me," Henri told him.

 

"Thanks for coming back to rescue us."

 

Henri smiled wryly. "That wasn't my intention. I wanted him destroyed. You're just… What's the reverse of collateral damage?"

 

"Got me," Calvin said, "but thanks anyway."

 

Without replying, Henri returned to the lab. Each desk drawer took a separate key, he discovered, and there was a master one that had to be used first in a central lock before any of the other ones worked.

 

"Not bad security," Taegan said.

 

"As long as he didn't lose the keys," Henri agreed, while emptying the drawers into a small plastic bin. Two of them held normal office supplies. The third had files on each of the test subjects, including one for him. The fourth drawer had what he was looking for—several notebooks detailing Xavier's experiments. Those he took over to a stainless-steel sink. "Got a match?" He asked Taegan.

 

"Being a non-smoker…nope."

 

"I have a lighter," Miranda said. "But if you burn those in here, you'll have the fire department folks here in no time flat." She pointed to the smoke alarm high on one wall.

 

"Then I'll do it somewhere else. I want these destroyed ASAP, so no one else can get their hands on them." Henri dropped them on top of the other items in the bin, picked it up, along with the larger bin, and headed to the other room. Taegan and Miranda followed with the trash bags. They put everything down by the exit for the moment.

 

"You're awake," Miranda said, stating the obvious since Ransom was sitting, in his human form, with his back against one of the cages.

 

"Yep," he replied. "Give me a few and I'll be able to navigate on my own." He thumbed toward the human in the cage. "What are we going to do with him?"

 

"Feed him to the wolves," Taegan growled.

 

"Sorry, I'm not that hungry," Ransom said. "I could arrest him, but then things would come out that we'd prefer to keep to ourselves."

 

"I promise I won't say anything to anybody." The prisoner was shaking with fear.

 

"Somehow, considering who you were working for, that doesn't mean much," Taegan muttered. Putting one arm around Henri's waist, Taegan said, "It's really your decision to make. It was you Xavier was hunting."

 

After looking hard at the prisoner, Henri asked, "Do you know who else is looking for me? I was told three guys were hired for that purpose."

 

"I do. I was the one who found them at the day labor place." He gazed hopefully at Henri. "If I tell you who they are, will that…count in my favor?"

 

"Perhaps," Henri replied. "Of course, you'll have to come with us. I doubt they'd believe anyone but you telling them the job is over."

 

"I'll do it! I swear."

 

Henri nodded, looking at the bodies of the two dead men who worked for Xavier. "One more thing. I know for a fact there's at least one more of Xavier's people who isn't here."

 

"I… I don't know who you mean."

 

::The man who helped Xavier kill Mrs. Graham and her kids?:: Ransom asked.

::Yes. He's not any of these men.::

 

Ransom walked over to the cage. "My friend here—" he pointed to Taegan, "—can pull the name of the man we're looking for out of your mind, as well as where he's hiding. However, if he does, it will leave you a babbling idiot, because screwing with a person's mind like that destroys a lot of brain cells."

 

"It's why I only do it when it's imperative," Taegan said, picking up on Ransom's bluff and walking over to join him. He gazed long and hard at the prisoner. "You can make it easy on yourself and just tell me now, before I start prying."

 

"Oh, God. Don't!" The prisoner crawled to the back of the cage. "You mean Norm? Norman Upton? Blond and tan, like a surfer?"

 

Henri nodded.

 

"I haven't seen him in ages. Not since him and Xavier had a big argument and he walked. I don't know where he lives, I swear, but I heard he started hanging out at a bar called the Hazy Lagoon, over by where the amusement park used to be."

 

"I know it," Ransom told the others. "It was a decent place until Katrina. Since then, it's gone way downhill."

 

"Leave him here—" Henri jabbed a finger at the prisoner, "—and let's go see if we can find Mr. Upton." He gestured toward Calvin and Jimmy. "Do you mind keeping an eye on him?"

 

Calvin grinned wickedly. "Not at all. If he gives us any trouble, we'll throw him in the other cage with the wolf. It's been a while since he was drugged, so he could be waking up soon, and I bet he'll be starving when he does."

 

"That works as far as I'm concerned. If he becomes the shifter's supper before we get back, I guess we can check with the day labor place to find out who else he hired to look for me."

 

"Okay, let's do it," Ransom said, picking up one of the trash bags by the exit. After getting the other bag and the bins, the rest of the team followed him back to the car. They put everything in the rear of the SUV then Henri sagged against it, taking a deep, trembling breath.

 

Taegan gripped his shoulder, murmuring, "It's almost over."

 

"I know. It's not that." Henri took a deep breath. "I… How did I suddenly become such a bastard?"

 

"You're not," Miranda said. "You were acting like one because it's what needed to happen right then. That man would have lied through his teeth if you, Taegan, and Ransom, hadn't scared the shit out of him." She patted Henri's arm before getting into the car with Ransom and Allyn.

 

"I hope she's right. I don't want to be the man I was in there."

 

"You aren't," Taegan assured him, hugging him tightly. "Tough, yeah. Tougher than I honestly thought was possible. But there's nothing wrong with that."

 

"If I don't carry it too far," Henri said dismally.

 

"It's not in you to do so," Taegan replied. "Take it from someone who knows you—maybe better than you know yourself, all things considered. You're still the good, decent man I met a few days ago. The only difference is, now you know you have it in you to take care of yourself when necessary. And—" he cupped Henri's face in his hands, kissing him gently, "—there's not a damned thing wrong with that."

 

"Guys," Ransom called out, "if we don't get moving…"

 

After kissing Taegan quickly, Henri said, "Where would I be without you?"

 

"In the car already," Taegan quipped. "Seriously though, if I have my way, you're never going to find out."

 

"Guys," Ransom said again.

 

"Yeah, yeah," Taegan replied as he and Henri got in. "So—let's finish this and we can all go home."