Chapter 7 - The Long Road Back to Cascade

The safe house answered on the first ring.

Not Chloe.

Bram.

“She’s alive,” he said before Harper could speak. “But we’ve been compromised.”

Harper gripped the edge of the bank table.

“What happened?”

“Two vehicles approached from the west. We moved before they reached the property.”

“Where is she now?”

“Mobile.”

A muffled voice came through the background.

“Harper!”

Relief hit so hard Harper had to sit down.

“Chloe.”

“I’m okay.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m furious.”

“That sounds healthy.”

“Can I be furious at Dad?”

“Yes.”

Richard flinched.

Harper did not look at him.

Bram returned to the call.

“They knew the safe house address.”

Everyone in the room turned toward Gideon’s empty chair.

Kane said, “Who had it?”

“Me, Gideon, Tessa, you.”

“And Harper,” Richard added.

Harper’s head snapped toward him.

“I didn’t send it to anyone.”

“I’m not accusing you.”

“You do that naturally enough.”

Kane cut through them.

“Tessa?”

Bram answered. “Missing.”

Gideon had chosen Tessa himself.

Harper felt the old instinct to leap from clue to conclusion.

She stopped.

“Can you verify whether Tessa left voluntarily?” she asked.

Bram was quiet.

“No.”

“Then don’t call her a traitor yet.”

Kane looked at Harper.

A flicker of approval passed through his face.

Bram said, “Understood.”

Harper asked, “Can Chloe reach Cascade?”

Kane’s attention sharpened.

“No.”

She looked at him.

“Voss wants me there.”

“Which is why you are not going.”

“He threatened Chloe because he needs leverage. If Chloe is moving with Bram, then his leverage is weaker than he thinks.”

“He may have another plan.”

“He does.”

Harper looked at Richard.

“He needs Cascade.”

Richard frowned.

“What?”

“Why tell you to bring me there specifically? He could ask for any location.”

Kane’s expression changed.

Harper continued. “The original poisoning happened on Cascade territory. My mother’s samples came from Cascade. Voss has old infrastructure there.”

Richard shook his head.

“The clinic was rebuilt years ago.”

“What about the old medical annex?”

Richard looked away.

That was enough.

Harper stood.

“You kept it.”

“It’s storage.”

“For what?”

“Archived equipment.”

Kane’s voice dropped.

“What equipment?”

Richard swore.

“There’s a below-ground laboratory.”

Harper stared at him.

“Of course there is.”

“It was licensed.”

“By whom?”

Richard did not answer.

Kane turned to security.

“Get site plans.”

Richard said, “Croft—”

“You have spoken enough.”

The Alpha pressure in the room rose.

Harper stepped closer to Kane.

Not touching him.

Just near enough.

He glanced at her.

The pressure eased.

Richard noticed.

His face changed.

“So it worked.”

Harper turned slowly.

“What?”

“The bond.”

“It isn’t a bond.”

“Voss said—”

“Voss says whatever makes people useful.”

Richard looked between them.

“Eleanor believed the marker could stabilize him.”

“She also wanted the research destroyed.”

“Because she was afraid.”

“No. Because she understood consent.”

Richard had no answer.

For the next hour, Croft security built a map of Cascade’s old annex.

The facility had three entrances, one power line, one backup generator, and an underground service tunnel that opened near the river.

Harper knew that tunnel.

She had played near it as a child.

Her mother used to tell her never to go inside.

Now she knew why.

Kane wanted a tactical team.

Harper wanted secrecy.

“If Voss sees twenty vehicles, he disappears.”

“If he sees one, he may shoot you.”

“He needs me alive.”

“You are not using that as armor.”

“It’s better than pretending it isn’t true.”

Richard sat silently at the far end of the room.

Harper looked at him.

“You’re coming.”

Kane said, “No.”

Richard said the same thing.

Harper ignored both.

“Voss called him. Voss thinks Dad is still under control.”

Richard’s mouth tightened.

“I am not bait.”

Harper almost smiled.

“Now you know how it feels.”

He looked at her.

For the first time, she saw shame.

Not enough.

But real.

By late afternoon, they had a plan.

Richard would drive Harper to Cascade.

Kane and two security teams would approach through the forest and river tunnel. Bram would keep Chloe moving until the operation ended. Gideon, despite Kane’s order to stay away, would monitor communications remotely because he knew Voss’s systems better than anyone else.

Kane hated that last part.

He allowed it anyway.

That mattered.

Before they left, Harper found him alone outside the bank.

Rain had stopped.

The clouds over the Strait had broken into long bands of silver.

“You’re angry,” she said.

“I am frequently angry.”

“At me.”

“Yes.”

“Because I’m going.”

“Yes.”

She leaned against the SUV.

“You could stop me.”

He looked at her.

“With force?”

“With Alpha command.”

His face hardened.

“I will never do that.”

“Why?”

“Because Voss has spent five years teaching me that control and care are the same thing.”

Harper held his gaze.

“And you believe him?”

“No.”

“Then why are you angry?”

His answer took too long.

“Because I don’t know how to protect you without becoming another person who decides for you.”

The honesty hit harder than any declaration could have.

Harper stepped closer.

“You can tell me when you think I’m being reckless.”

“You are being reckless.”

“See? Easy.”

He almost smiled.

“And I can decide whether to listen.”

“That is the terrible part.”

She laughed softly.

Then the humor faded.

“Kane.”

He looked at her.

“If touching you helps, I don’t want either of us pretending that gives us ownership over what happens next.”

“It doesn’t.”

“Voss will try to make it mean that.”

“I know.”

“My father will too.”

“I know.”

She studied his face.

“What do you want it to mean?”

For once Kane Croft had no immediate answer.

Then he said, “That when you touch me, I remember I have a choice.”

Harper’s throat tightened.

“That’s all?”

“No.”

She waited.

His eyes dropped to her mouth, then returned to her face.

“But the rest can wait until no one is threatening your sister.”

“Good answer.”

“I have them occasionally.”

She touched his hand.

No surge.

No mystical command.

Just warmth.

And choice.

Then she got into Richard’s car.

The drive to Cascade took ninety minutes.

Her father barely spoke.

The familiar mountains rose around them as dusk approached.

Harper had spent her entire life believing this road meant home.

Now every bend felt like evidence.

At the gate, Richard’s council guards waved them through.

No one stopped the Alpha.

That, Harper realized, had always been part of the problem.

Power made ordinary questions feel insulting.

Richard parked outside the old medical annex.

The building looked exactly as Harper remembered: low concrete walls, narrow windows, cedar trees crowding the roof.

The front door opened.

Dr. Voss stepped outside.

He wore no coat.

No weapon visible.

Tessa stood beside him.

Alive.

Harper’s pulse jumped.

Tessa’s hands were bound.

Not a traitor.

A hostage.

Voss smiled.

“Richard. Harper.”

Richard got out first.

“You threatened my daughter.”

Voss glanced at Harper.

“I threatened the daughter you still value.”

Richard’s face went white.

Harper stepped from the car.

“Let Tessa go.”

“She has heard too much.”

“Then why keep her alive?”

“Because Kane values his people.”

Voss’s eyes moved toward the trees.

“He is here, isn’t he?”

Harper said nothing.

Voss sighed.

“You all keep confusing attachment with strategy.”

“You keep confusing people with materials.”

He smiled.

“Your mother said the same thing.”

Harper’s anger sharpened.

“You don’t get to talk about her.”

“She was brilliant. Wastefully sentimental, but brilliant.”

Richard took a step forward.

“Enough.”

Voss lifted a small remote.

Tessa cried out.

A silver collar around her neck flashed red.

Richard stopped.

Harper’s stomach dropped.

Voss gestured toward the doorway.

“Inside.”

Harper went.

Richard followed.

The underground laboratory was still operating.

Monitors glowed behind glass.

Refrigeration units hummed.

A restraint chair sat in the center of the room.

Harper stared at it.

Voss saw.

“You won’t need that if you cooperate.”

“Reassuring.”

He pointed to a steel table.

On it were two syringes.

One clear.

One faintly silver.

“What are those?”

“The future.”

“Try again.”

Voss looked almost disappointed.

“The clear compound contains your isolated regulator. The silver one recreates Kane’s original response.”

Richard swore.

“You said that formula was destroyed.”

“I lied.”

Harper’s skin went cold.

Voss continued.

“Kane’s condition has become unstable because his treatments are failing. Tonight we complete the correction.”

“You poison him again, then use me to stabilize him.”

“Yes.”

“Why not just give him the regulator?”

“Because your marker does not work reliably outside living interaction.”

Harper understood.

“That’s why the candidates.”

“Approximation.”

“And me?”

“Confirmation.”

Richard moved suddenly.

He struck Voss across the face.

The remote fell.

Harper kicked it away.

Tessa ran.

An alarm screamed.

Voss hit the wall panel.

Steel shutters dropped over the exits.

“Idiot,” he hissed.

Richard grabbed him.

The two men crashed into the table.

One syringe rolled to the floor.

The silver one.

Harper lunged for it.

Voss kicked Richard away and reached first.

He seized the syringe.

The lab door exploded inward.

Kane stood in the smoke.

Voss smiled.

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“Perfect.”

Then he drove the needle into Kane’s chest.