He moved closer and sat in front of her. “Tell me about New Species. Tell me everything.”

Tammy took a deep breath. She started to tell him everything she knew from the time she’d started to follow the news. 927 watched her with interest. He smiled a lot. She continued to talk.

* * * * *

“Someone comes,” a voice over the radio warned softly.

Valiant leapt from the bed and watched Justice and Tiger stand from where they had been resting on the floor. The men moved out of sight of the front door. Justice gave Valiant a hard look.

“Do not kill them or hurt their ability to speak. They know where Tammy is.”

“I know that.” Valiant growled softly. “No one wants her back more than I.”

“I know but I see your rage, my friend. I understand. I would want to destroy them if someone took my woman…if I had a woman. I am just reminding you in case you are not thinking clearly. We need them to tell us where she is.”

“She’s not even my woman and I still want to kill them,” Tiger sighed. “They work for Mercile, took one of our women, and they need to die for that.”

“Quiet,” Valiant suddenly whispered. “I hear a vehicle coming.”

An engine died outside and a door slammed. A man walked up the front walkway, his shoe tread soft, and keys jingled. In seconds the deadbolt slid and the door swung open. The human who walked inside was a man in his twenties. He wore white clothing, similar to the technicians from the testing facilities, and Valiant bit back a snarl to remain silent.

The human hooked his keys on a nail in the wall and slammed the door closed behind him. His arms rose as he stretched his torso, yawned and turned. It took him five steps before he realized he wasn’t alone. He froze.

Valiant, Tiger and Justice spread out around the man the second they walked out of hiding from the next room. Terror instantly shrouded the human’s face and the stench of it rolled off him.

“Fuck me,” he cursed.

Tiger growled. “Not even if you begged. You aren’t our type.”

The man blanched. “What do you want?”

Valiant growled. “You know what we want. Where is my woman?”

The man started to shake and sweat as he stared at Valiant. His gaze swept over the big New Species from head to foot. “Shit.”

“Where is Tammy?” Justice growled from behind the human. “Talk quickly because my friend wants to make you scream and bleed. The bed smells strongly of his woman’s fear. He is very angry.”

The human’s mouth moved but nothing came out. Valiant roared, the sound filled the room, and he advanced. The human spun quickly to flee, lost his balance and collapsed to the floor in terror. A high-pitched scream tore from his throat as Valiant crouched and grabbed him by his arms, making sure his nails dug into them painfully.

“Where is my Tammy?” Valiant snarled the words. He yanked the man’s upper body closer to his sharp teeth.

“At the warehouse,” he sobbed. “She’s at the warehouse.”

“Release him,” Justice growled. “Do not break him. He is going to tell us where that is, aren’t you, human?”

The man jerked his eyes to Justice. He nodded, terrified. “I will. Just get him off me.”

Valiant released him and backed up. He shook with rage. The urge to kill nearly overwhelmed him. This was the human who had taken Tammy to a warehouse to be thrown in with an imprisoned Species for a breeding experiment. It took everything he had not to lunge and tear out his throat.

“Is she still alive?” Tiger inched closer to intimidate.

“She was when I left a little while ago. 927 won’t f**k her and he didn’t kill her.”

Justice moved, blocking Valiant when he took a step toward the human on the floor. Justice shook his head. “Control.”

“I am.” Valiant growled.

Justice turned his furious glare on the human. “What is your name?”

“Pete.”

Justice blinked. “You are going to take us to this warehouse. What is the security there? How many guards are protecting the site? Are they heavily armed?”

Pete stared at him. “You mean how many men are guarding it? None. It’s just me, Mike and the doctor.”

Tiger growled. “Lie. They would never guard a testing facility with just three men.”

Pete turned his terrified eyes to the cat-eyed man glaring at him. “It’s not one. We just brought the one from the testing facility in Colorado. The doctor wanted to bring more of them but we have to wait until more men are available to build more cells to hold them. Right now it’s just the one we have and just the three of us can handle him.”

“You are going to take us there but first you are going to tell us where this testing facility in Colorado is located.” Justice demanded. “And you are going to do it now.”

Valiant roared again. The man on the floor nodded frantically, his terrified gaze locked on Valiant.

“I will. Anything you want. Just stay away from me.” He rattled off an address.

Justice shot Tiger a look. Tiger nodded, grabbed his back pocket and flipped out his cell phone. He gave the address to the person he spoke to. He paused.

“How many New Species are being kept there? What is the security like?”

The man closed his mouth. “They’ll kill me.”

Justice growled and clapped his hands once. The men from upstairs came down and surrounded the cowering human. Pete stared at the eight New Species closing in on him. The smell of his fear became so strong Valiant could almost taste it.