“Stairs,” she whispered to Bradley.
He nodded, and they made their way quietly toward the double doors, carefully opening one side and making their way onto the dark landing. Kay kept her hand over the light, only letting out the smallest amount necessary for them to navigate the stairs. The building was sweltering and dusty, obviously uncared for since it had been locked up by the feds. As they arrived at the top, she shut the light off completely.
Bradley inched open the door and peered into the hallway beyond them. It was dark, but not pitch black. There was a tiny bit of light coming from a room down the hallway, carefully positioned on the backside of the building where the light would not filter out to the front side of the facility. They inched their way quietly down the wall, careful to make as little noise as possible, though the sound of generators was now growing louder.
The thick metal doors to the room were only slightly ajar, allowing a thin stream of light to filter out, illuminating an old door plate that indicated it was the research and development lab. Very little could be made out about the inner workings of the room at first, but Bradley slipped his fingers between the doors and widened it just enough for them to get a better view.
Kay almost gasped as she caught sight of at least a dozen females of all ages inside, each performing various functions in what she assumed was the process for making meth. She had never seen it before, but the respirators on their faces and the smell now detectable told her they were in the right place. Two men in ski masks stood over them with guns, barking orders.
“I’m so tired. I want to go lie down,” one of the young women whined.
Kay blinked, trying to focus on the portion of the girl’s face she could see through the face mask, but it was no use. It covered pretty much all but her eyes and her head was covered with the white hood of the disposable coveralls that she wore. The material was thin, revealing enough for Kay to understand they were wearing nothing beneath it and she shuddered to think what else might have been happening to them here.
“I should have let you go over that cliff like your little bimbo friend,” one of the men growled at her.
Kay’s eyes widened. It was one of the girls! Plus, she recognized that voice. She couldn’t be sure who it belonged to, but she was certain she had heard it before. It was definitely someone from the pack. Bradley motioned for her to move away and she did, inching back down the hallway and into another area across the hall. She flashed the light enough for them to see where they were and found it to be someone’s old office.
“We need to call the FBI and let them handle things from here,” Bradley told her.
“I thought you wanted to handle it within the clan,” Kay replied.
“Only because I thought it might affect the ranch. With them out here on federal land, it has nothing to do with the ranch. Just because they are employees at the ranch won’t tie it back to us. They are on their own.”
“What will the rest of the clan have to say about it?” she asked.
“Nothing. Once I tell them what has been going on here, they will support me in cutting them loose to deal with this themselves. No one there is going to agree with some of our members kidnapping young girls to make meth, much less meth that is mixed with shit that can kill people.”
“Do you think those two are the only ones involved?”
“I don’t know, but if the FBI gets a hold of them, they can shake all that loose. Come on. We need to go.”
They slipped back out into the hallway and made their way back toward the stairwell. They were almost there when the door opened, and they found themselves looking at Trevor, who looked just as surprised to see them as they were him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked, his face stern.
“I should ask you the same thing,” Bradley replied.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” he growled.
“Did you think you could just get by with this? Not only have you endangered the clan by drawing unnecessary focus on us, you’ve kidnapped young girls and women to do your work for you? Lord knows what else you’ve done here.”
“You need to take your fake wife back there and just walk out of here,” Trevor told him.
“What did you say?”
“You heard me. I know all about your fake marriage. I checked into it and found the truth.”
Kay wondered when and how he had been able to do that, but there were bigger problems right now. While his attention was focused elsewhere, she quietly slipped her hand into her pocket and pressed the 911 button on her phone. The raised voices of Trevor and Bradley, now arguing with one another, covered the sound of the operator answering and she couldn’t respond to the woman, but hopefully, the GPS on her phone would flag their location and they’d send help based on the yelling they heard in the background.