Chapter 152

Rachel POV

"What do you mean you don't want to meet them?" I asked, feeling ridiculous even repeating the words aloud, "Lindy, we're talking about your family. Your real, blood family."

Lindy shook her head 'no' over and over. Her wet hair slapped against her cheeks and I noticed she was crying now, too. Her gaze was slightly vacant, as if she couldn't understand what she was saying or what was being said to her or both.

"You---"

Art cut me off, saying, "Lindy, do you need something to drink? Some water? We don't have to talk about those people right now. Can I get you anything?"

"Water," Lindy mumbled.

Adam offered, "I'll go get it. Plenty of ice. I've been---well, I haven't been where she's at right now, but I understand enough."

The big Beta left the room while the rest of us simply stared at Lindy as if we expected her to do a trick of some kind.

I couldn't say I had ever seen anyone look so lost before. Lindy looked the way I imagined I had when I learned my mother was alive.

I wanted all the answers I could get from everyone. The only reason I stayed quiet was because the heat in my body was overwhelming me.

My pity for Lindy was secondary to the heat. I felt as if my brain was being baked inside my skull and my heart was pumping lava through my veins in place of blood. Was I going into labor?

"Tyler," I said, leaning close to his ear to say, "I need Magda. Can you get her?"

I knew the older housekeeper had children of her own. She'd know if I was having early labor, wouldn't she? Should we go to the hospital?

Tyler patted my hands before getting up to go find Magda. I knew he'd do anything I asked; I wanted to ask another question while he was out of the room, too.

"Art? My mother is in an asylum? Do you know if she's okay? Did they hurt her? Did they do---something awful to her?" I asked.

Art shook his head, "I don't think so. She couldn't be worth much if she was disabled. They have had her held there. I'm looking for the name of the facility. There are three possibilities in the States. I think I can find the name if I get into Richard Campbell's office. Lindy?"

Lindy didn't even blink at her name.

Adam came back with a glass filled to the brim with ice water. He tried to hand it to Lindy only she wouldn't raise her arm at all. I saw him exchange looks with first Tyler then Art before shrugging and holding the glass to her mouth for her to drink.

Drinking quickly, Lindy finished the water without saying anything. Her breath came in gasps. Pants. I thought maybe she needed a doctor more than I did.

"You are feeling too hot?" Magda said, coming around Tyler to approach me on the couch.

I nodded, "Hot. Yes. I feel hot everywhere. Am I okay? Is my baby coming early?"

Magda rested her hand on my belly for a moment. She closed her eyes before moving her hand over the entirety of my stomach, then shook her head 'no' while I gave a sigh of relief.

"You are just getting ready for birth. This is early part still. You have weeks more maybe," Magda said, "I bring you some cool drinks. Cloths. Ice. You will cool down."

She left the room to go get the things she'd mentioned; I looked at Tyler to see how he was handling everything. He seemed far more calm than me though I could see Wynd lurking around the edges of his control.

Tyler seemed to have his wolf too close to the surface all the time these days. I wasn't sure if it was my fault, the pregnancy, or only the stress of things with my parents.

Regardless, I didn't blame him for his loss of control. I wished I could let Rayne out because I knew my wolf was anxious to stretch her legs, too. She was sleeping most of the time in my mind as a result of the pregnancy and we were both better for it.

"We don't have time for games. Lindy," Art said, sitting beside her on the loveseat and chafing her hands between his, "Tell me you can get access to your father's office. Can you?"

Lindy shook her head slowly, "I'm not supposed to go in there. I can, but I'm not supposed to unless it's an emergency. Daddy doesn't like it when I go into his office. That's private."

"Daddy doesn't care anymore, Lindy. Hold onto me, okay?" Art draped Lindy's arm around his neck and vanished with her.

Adam snorted, "I am really getting tired of him doing that."

I heard a ringing which took me a full minute to recognize was Tyler's cell phone. We were all looking at each other until we realized it was the phone.

"Answer it!" I laughed.

"Windsor," Tyler said as he answered the phone and I gestured to him to switch it to speaker, "You're on speaker. Where are you? Are you at Moonglow Pack? I thought you couldn't do your thing onto their land?"

Art chuckled on his side of the line, "I'm outside their territory. Now I've walked inside and now I'm going to move as fast as possible to get to the old Alpha's office. Lindy is with me."

We all went quiet as we listened to Art narrate his journey through what might or might not be enemy territory.

"After breaching the perimeter, I took Lindy right outside the Alpha House. There's iron in the framing so we have to walk inside. Lindy just got us through the guards. We are taking the stairs now," Art said, sounding for all the world as if he were giving a play-by-play for some internet show.

Lindy whimpered, "This is Daddy's office. The door will open with my fingerprints. Do you really need to go inside?"

"We really need to go inside," Art said and a scuffle came across the line. Lindy whined before yelping and I heard a smacking sound which I took to be her hand touching a sensor panel.

"Ow!" Lindy cried out, "Don't be so rough! We're in! Okay? The door is open."

"We are in!" Art said and then the line went quiet again as they entered the office.

I couldn't tell what was happening and I wished for a camera view. This was the digital age. Couldn't we go to a video call?

"Video call? Is that possible, Art? I can't tell what's happening," I said.

I knew I sounded almost as whiny as Lindy. Magda came back with a tray filled with blissful cold. I had a pitcher of icy lemonade, a glass of ice water, towels in a bowl of ice, and an ice pack which had come from who knew where in the house.

"You can tell enough. All I'm doing is typing. It's not nearly as exciting as you might think," Art said.

Trying to picture Richard's office, I asked, "Was his computer just open? No password?"

It seemed hard to believe the man wouldn't bother with basic security. Sure, his office was locked with handprint or fingerprint or some kind of print requirements to enter, but how hard would it be to get by one lock? Even if it was a fancy lock, it was still one lock.

"Lindy," I asked, "Do you know where your father kept his private files? The ones he didn't want anyone to see?"

I refused to believe Richard Campbell didn't have a secret cache somewhere. He was too paranoid, too careful to leave everything to the safety of one precaution. It didn't make sense.

"Behind Mama," Lindy whispered.

Her voice was eerie. Childlike. I wanted to scrub my ears to get the sound out as soon as she had spoken.

"Check behind the portrait of my mother!" I said, desperately wishing I could see Art getting up from the desk, crossing the room, looking at the portrait.

Was it a safe? Was it the kind secured with a combination like in old movies or did it have some fancy biometric scanner they would have to bypass? Could we even get to the files?

"I've got the files," Art said, surprising me, "They were literally taped inside the frame under the parchment paper."

"No safe?" I asked.

I felt oddly disappointed though I was grateful for the information we now had. There would hopefully be an exact location for my mother. I could get some answers at the very least.

"We're going to be on our way back now. Wait up for us. I don't want you to miss the big reveal. I'm taking his computer, too," Art said.

Lindy yelped before going silent. I hoped Art hadn't hurt her. I doubted he had though I could tell he wasn't taking a chance on leaving her just in case someone at the pack might have a secondary agenda for her once the old Alpha was gone.

"See you soon!" Art said.

Then the call went dead.