Jace (River Pack Wolves 2)(26)

She smirked. “I can work with that.”

They split up, crouching low and running fast. The thrill of being on a mission with her was getting his wolf way too excited—it kept trying to claw its way up from the depths. Jace reached his window at the same time Piper reached hers, and with a coordinated signal between them, they both peek-checked at the same time, then ducked back down below the window. What he saw was not encouraging. By the frown on Piper’s face, she’d seen the same thing.

Nothing.

There were hospital beds inside the building all right, but no people whatsoever. Jace stood and peered in the window again; Piper did the same. Then she slammed her fist against the side of the window, making it rattle. Jace jogged over to her, pulling out his phone to text his brothers and the rest of the pack. He quickly tapped out the message: hospital here, no prisoners. Then he stowed his phone in his pocket again.

“I’m going inside,” Piper ground out. She stormed off toward the door a dozen feet away. It was locked. She banged on it and yanked the handle, then finally whipped out some claws and sliced through the thin sheet metal with a screeching sound that echoed down the street.

Jace rushed over to her. “Piper—” But she’d already reached through the door, unlocked it, and yanked it open, rushing inside.

He quickly followed. She dashed along the two rows of hospital beds, stopping at each one to throw back the blankets and check for something, then moving on to the next. About halfway down the long open space, she scooped up something and froze.

Jace finally caught up to her. “What is it?”

She had an envelope in her hands, but she was just staring at it. “If Noah had been here, he would’ve left some clue for me. He knows I would come looking for him.”

Jace nodded. If one of his brothers were in trouble, Jace would do the same, looking for them tirelessly. And he would expect them to help by leaving clues along the way. As messed up as Piper’s family was, he had no doubt that the bond between Piper and Noah was just as strong.

“Why don’t you open it?” he asked.

She flipped open the flap to show him—the envelope was empty.

“An empty envelope? What does it mean?” He frowned—it wasn’t much of a clue.

She looked at him with one of those hard looks that he didn’t like, like she was churning through her mind whether she could trust Jace enough to tell him the truth.

“I’m here to help you, Piper,” he said gently.

She nodded. “It’s not what’s inside, it’s the envelope itself.” She took his hand and ran one of his fingers along the back flap. It had a slightly raised embossing. When Jace looked more closely, could see an emblem: some kind of eagle and flag, barely visible.

“It’s some kind of official US government envelope,” Jace said, still not really understanding. “How does that help?”

“It’s the official stationery of Senator Krepky’s office in the capitol.” Piper’s voice was flat.

“You think one of the Senators is involved in this?” Jace suspected it was a government operation, but he couldn’t believe the politicians would get their hands muddy with any of it.

“I’m going to find out.” Piper stuffed the envelope into her jacket pocket and turned to stride away.

“Hang on!” Jace reached out to tug on her elbow and stop her from leaving. “We’re sticking together, remember? Let me help you with this.”

At that exact moment, the rest of the pack stormed into the building, weapons out, fanning to check every nook and corner to see if someone was lurking there. Jaxson was in the lead. He quickly gave the all clear signal to his pack and hurried up to Jace and Piper.

His brother scowled at him. “Empty warehouse. Recently evacuated. Last time I was in this situation, it went south pretty badly.”

He was right, of course—the last time they found a supposedly empty warehouse, when they were trying to rescue their brother, Jared, it turned out to be Agent Smith’s trap to capture them all.

Jace tugged Piper closer, his hand still on her elbow. “Jaxson’s right. We shouldn’t stay here. Let’s head out and make our plans from there.”

Jaxson signaled to the rest of the pack to head out of the building again. Daniel stayed behind. He and Piper exchanged some kind of look Jace didn’t understand.

“This is all smoke and mirrors, Piper,” Daniel said coldly. “Father’s playing some kind of game with us.”

“This isn’t a game!” Piper shot back, her body going rigid with tension again.

“Noah isn’t here,” Daniel said. “There’s no evidence he or any other shifters were ever here. The only actual evidence we have is an email that says he’s fine.”