“You mean, like Reginald Crowe? Things didn’t work out so wel for him, as I recal .”
Anger flared in her brother’s dark eyes. “Reginald Crowe was a bril iant man. Al the members of Opus’s inner circle are the best minds this world has ever seen. I didn’t realize that until Crowe took me into his confidence. I was working a covert op, assigned to help break up a corrupt network of government officials on the take. Instead, I met Crowe and a few of his associates. They showed me what could be, what we could create
together.”
Devony scoffed quietly. “And then the covert agent became the convert.”
He smiled, and this time it was genuine. “The summit was only the beginning. The Order got in the way of that. They kil ed Reginald Crowe, but
we’ve gotten stronger since then. The Order won’t be in our way for long.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Opus can’t be stopped. We wil not be stopped.”
“You’re crazy, Harrison. You’re out of your mind.”
“And you’re always so fucking self-righteous,” he hissed, the tips of his fangs glinting in the low light of the foyer. “You and our parents. Especial y them, always preaching about higher purpose and duty. Trying to tel me about honor when my Opus brethren and I are doing the noblest work
right under everyone’s noses.”
“Is that why you kil ed them that night at headquarters?” Her voice was wooden, her heart heavy with the understanding of what her brother must have done. “The reports after the bombing al speculated that it was an inside job. No one could’ve placed the explosives and executed their
precision detonation without intimate knowledge of the building . . . and of who was likely to be there that night. It was you.”
He released a beleaguered sigh. “Why couldn’t you just stick to your music, Dovey? What the hel were you thinking, going after LaSal e? Or
fucking that warrior from the Order?” He practical y spat the words, his face contorting with barely restrained rage. “You’re an embarrassment to both of us. I’m so disappointed at what you’ve become.”
She arched a brow, fury igniting in her blood. “Right back at you, brother.”
“Opus wants you dead now,” he announced blandly. “I don’t want that. I knew you’d come running back home after they blew up the Boston
Darkhaven. They’ve given me a chance to show you the way, Devony. I hope you’l be smart enough to take it.”
“Smart enough to become one of Opus’s pawns, like you? That’s not smart, Harry. It’s weak. And that’s never going to be me.”
He laughed as if she were the crazy one. “Do you understand what I’m offering you?” He held up his hands the way he would show off precious
treasures. “With our power, you and I working together, we could be unstoppable. We could run Opus together one day.”
Devony inched back on her bare feet as he began to approach once more. “You’re out of your mind, Harrison.” He was clearly, dangerously,
insane. No longer the brother she grew up with, but a tool of Opus Nostrum. And their parents’ kil er. “Our father was getting close to the truth, wasn’t he? I think sooner or later, he was going to figure out you were the enemy.”
Harrison smiled, lifted his bulky shoulder. “Probably. I wasn’t going to let that happen, you understand.”
“Of course not,” she said. “I think he knew that too. I think that’s why he left behind months of research for me to find. I think that’s also why he hid a photograph of you and Crowe and another man in the hopes that I would come across it after Dad was gone.”
“What photograph? What other man?”
“That’s what I want to know. I’m going to find out, Harry. I’m not going to rest until Opus is destroyed.”
Rage burned in her brother’s eyes. His lip curled back from his teeth and fangs. “You need to give me that photo, Devony. And al of our father’s research. You need to give al of it to me. Right. Fucking. Now.”
She shook her head, taking another cautious step away from him. “I don’t have Dad’s files anymore. Your bril iant friends at Opus blew it al up when they torched my house.”
He smirked. “Your loss is my gain, then.”
“Not quite. The Order has copies of everything.”
A roar erupted from him. “You idiot!”
He lunged. In that same instant, she used her mind to hurl the sharpest chunk of her broken mug at her brother’s head. She put al her strength behind it. The jagged shard connected with the bone over his right eye and tore the skin open. He staggered back, blood dripping down his face.
His growl was unearthly. “You bitch. Now you’re going to suffer.”
He grabbed hold of her before she could escape his reach. His hands bit into her arms like talons, his eyes throwing off rage like a furnace.
She felt his power lock on to hers, seeking the connection so he could siphon her. But the hold wouldn’t take. “What the—? You drank from
someone. You slut! You’re fucking bonded to that Order scum?”
Devony wrenched loose and shoved her brother backward with the ful force of her strength. He crashed into one of her mother’s antique tables. It exploded beneath him, splintering into pieces as he fel to the floor.
She had to get out of there. She had to escape so she could let Rafe and the Order know that Harrison was corrupt. More than that, she needed to make sure they had the photograph her father had left for her.
She flashed into the office and grabbed it, stuffing it into the back pocket of her jeans. Harrison was struggling to his feet as she zipped past him in the foyer.
But now it wasn’t only him she had to contend with.
Two other Breed males stepped inside the front door. Cold eyes held her as they blocked her exit from the house. Unlike her brother, this pair was armed with guns and knives.
Harrison swiped angrily at the blood running into his eye and down the side of his face. “I told you they gave me one chance to show you the way.”
He spat a mouthful of blood onto the heirloom rug. “You’re beyond my help now, Devony. Or my mercy.”
“So, you’re just going to let your death squad friends kil me?”
“Yes, Devony.” He walked up to her, stared her squarely in the eyes. “I don’t see anyone who’s going to stop them. Do you?”
“I wil ,” Rafe answered.
CHAPTER 28
Mathias Rowan had a car waiting for Rafe when the Order’s private jet touched down at Heathrow. If Rafe had known Devony’s terror was going
to flood into his veins like a cold river halfway from the airport to Kensington, he would have enlisted Rowan and the whole damn warrior team in London to accompany him.
He wished like hel he had some backup now, as he’d entered the Darkhaven through the back door and found her trapped inside with a trio of
menacing Breed thugs. The wel -armed pair in suits just inside the front door posed the most immediate threat to her. Both grabbed for their guns the instant Rafe appeared in the kitchen archway.
Rafe didn’t hesitate for a moment. He let one of his blades fly. It nailed the bigger of the two in the throat. His larynx impaled, the vampire sagged to his knees on a choked howl, clutching at the blade protruding out of the front of his neck.
The thug’s suited partner opened fire at the same time, hitting Rafe in the stomach.
Devony screamed. “No!”
Fuck. Her cry hurt him worse than the gunshot wound.
Rafe could handle the injury and the pain. He’d taken a lot worse before and it hadn’t slowed him down. But thanks to their blood bond, every hit he took would be echoed inside her. He was going to kil these three assholes tonight for that offense alone.
Devony launched herself at the shooter, eyes ablaze and fangs erupting behind her parted lips. The huge guy tried to shake her off his back, but he didn’t go down. And, just like his Opus death squad partner, he had
come here to kil .
“Devony!”
Rafe hardly got the chance to form the thought, let alone leap to her defense, before the third Breed male came at him with murder burning in his whisky-colored eyes.
Eyes that bore a striking resemblance to Devony’s.
Holy hel . It couldn’t be.
And yet it was.
He didn’t know how it could be possible that her brother was alive and wel after al these months, but since he’d stated his intent to harm Devony
—Christ, to kil her in cold blood—his miraculous resurrection was going to end here and now.
On a crazed bel ow, Harrison Winters plowed into Rafe’s injured midsection, taking both of them down to the floor. Devony’s not-so-dead brother pinned Rafe beneath him. Spittle gathered at the corners of his snarling mouth as he brought his hand up to Rafe’s chest.
No fucking way.
Rafe dodged the other male’s siphoning touch and threw him off. Winters came at him again, his bare hands curled like claws. He took a swipe at Rafe, trying to latch on to him.
Rafe was faster. And he had another dagger sheathed on his weapons belt. He pul ed it free and flipped it around in his grasp, then brought the razor edge down between his attacker’s third and middle fingers.
Winters roared. His left hand gushed blood, nearly split in half. “Now, you die, warrior.”
Using his right, he slammed his fist into the side of Rafe’s skul .
His vision spun as he staggered down onto one knee. Across the foyer, Devony had the death squad thug by the throat, draining away his power.
But while that kil er began to slump in her grasp, his partner had found his legs.
“Devony, behind you!”
The thug lunged for her, knocking her into the wal . Plaster and mil work cracked with the terrible impact of her ful -body crash against it.
Rafe felt it too, her pain. Her terror. Her fading hope that they would get out of this alive.
In that same moment, he cal ed upon every ounce of speed at his command and pul ed one of his guns free from its holster. He squeezed off a
shot, hitting the big bastard between the eyes. He put a bul et in the second one’s skul just to keep the son of a bitch down for good.
But that stil left the problem of Devony’s brother.
Winters clamped his huge hand on Rafe’s shoulder and squeezed. Rafe couldn’t dodge the connection fast enough this time. He felt the other
male’s power begin to siphon away his own.
No.
Ah, fuck. He had to hold on.
Winters grinned, his eyes crazed and bright as lava. He reached for Rafe’s weapon, using his mangled, bleeding hand to pul the weapon out of
Rafe’s slackening grasp.
Damn it. No.
Winters lifted the gun, his movements awkward after Rafe had nearly cleaved his hand in two.
Rafe watched the gun rise toward his face. He couldn’t fight back now. He could hardly maintain consciousness as the barrel of his own patrol
weapon was aimed point-blank at the side of his skul .
He heard the gunshot.
It exploded like cannon fire in front of him.
But as his vision wobbled in and out of focus, he realized it wasn’t his head that had been cracked open by the discharged round.
Harrison Winters dropped to the floor, lifeless.
And standing behind him with one of the death squad thug’s guns in her hand was Devony.
“Rafe,” she gasped, setting the weapon down as she scrambled next to him on the floor. Her hands were cool and trembling as she ran them over
him, emotion wel ing in her eyes. “You came after me. You saved me.”
He gave a halting shake of his head. It took al his strength to lift his hand and rest it gently against her bruised cheek. “No, Devony. You’re the one who’s saved me.”
CHAPTER 29
Somewhere over the Atlantic, Rafe woke up with Devony in his arms. They were aboard the Order’s private jet, lying naked together in the
bedroom cabin of the spacious aircraft.
Mathias Rowan and his team had reported to the Darkhaven to retrieve them and contain the situation fol owing Rafe’s cal . The Order would take care of the bodies and the cleanup of the property. They would also clamp a lid on the stunning revelations about Devony’s brother and his
involvement with Opus Nostrum.
Rafe stil couldn’t believe how heinously Harrison Winters had betrayed his duty, his JUSTIS col eagues, and his family. That he had been wil ing to add Devony’s life to that brutal tal y made Rafe wish he had been the one to kil the bastard. Slowly. Excruciatingly.
The fact that he had arrived with only moments to spare before anything worse had happened to Devony made his heart clench.
He’d gone after her to try to save what they had together, but in the end it was she who saved him.
Not only with the power of her blood after her brother’s attack had almost leveled him.
Her love was a gift he would cherish and protect for as long as he drew breath.
Now that Devony was safe in his arms again, he would spend the rest of his days, and al of his nights, striving to deserve her.
Nestled in his embrace, she stirred. Her quiet hum as she woke vibrated against his chest. “Are we almost there?”
“We stil have a few hours to go.” He dropped a kiss to her upturned forehead. “How do you feel?”
“I’l be okay,” she said softly. “In time, I’l be okay.”
Her injuries tonight had been healed with his blood too. But they weren’t talking about physical wounds now. They were talking about the horror of what her brother had done. The horrors that had yet to occur, if Opus Nostrum was al owed to continue with their plans for war.
“I want to say I’m glad it’s over,” she murmured. “But it’s not, is it? It won’t be over until every member of that twisted organization is rooted out and unmasked.”
Rafe nodded. “With any luck, that photo you have wil help us do that.”
They had already transferred a copy to the Order while they were in London. Devony’s father had made the right cal in ensuring the image ended up in his savvy, courageous daughter’s hands. Rafe only wished Roland Winters knew how instrumental she had proven already in the quest to
thwart this new evil.
“If men like that could get to Harry, they can get to anyone, Rafe. They’re worse than monsters. I don’t think I realized that until I heard my brother tonight.”
He stroked Devony’s bare arms, tracing the flourish of one of her pretty glyphs. “I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner. It kil s me to think how close I came to losing you.” He lifted her chin on the edge of his fingertips. “I don’t mean just a few hours ago with your brother and those goons. I mean before . . . because of the way I hurt you.”
Her warm bourbon gaze reached inside him like a caress. “You can’t lose me, Rafe. I love you.”
“Thank God.” Although their bond told him as much, he didn’t realize how much he needed to hear her say the words until just now. He’d needed to feel her forgiveness and know that he would have a lifetime to prove himself worthy of it.
Lowering his mouth to hers, he took his time kissing her, savoring the soft press of her lips against his. His blood ignited even though his intent had only been to comfort. Devony’s pulse answered with a thrumming heat of its own.
“I’m sorry for everything I did,” he murmured, stroking the side of her lovely face. “You were right. I should’ve trusted you. I love you. I should have chosen you, not my mission.”
She frowned, slowly shaking her head. “It was unfair of me to say that, Rafe. It wasn’t fair for me to ask—”
“I choose you.” He slid his hand around to her nape and drew her closer, his mouth brushing over hers. “That’s what I told my commander earlier tonight before I came to find you. I choose you, Devony.”
“What are you sayi
ng? That you quit the Order?”
“I tried to. Chase wouldn’t let me. But I wil , if that’s what it wil take to have you.” He kissed her again, more deeply this time, his heart belonging solely to this woman. “I love you, Devony. You’re my partner, the only one for me now. And I’l do anything to prove that to you. Including giving up the Order.”
“No.” She shrank back from him. “That’s not what I want. That’s the last thing I want for you. The Order is your life, your family.”
“So are you.”
Her fingers caressed his jaw with tender care. “I want you to have both, Rafe. I want something more than that, actual y.” Her gaze searched his, steady with the strength and resolve he loved about her. “I want to share that life with you. Al of it. I want to be part of this in whatever way I can be.”
“What are you saying?” His brow furrowed. “You want to be part of the Order?”
At her nod, he blew out a sigh and rol ed onto his back.
Devony moved up next to him, her head propped on her hand as she stared down at his bewildered face. A chal enging gleam lit her gaze.
“Before you try to argue, I’d like to remind you that you just said you’d do anything for me.”
“I did say that, yes.”
“But what?” She frowned. “You don’t want to put in a recommendation for me?”
He turned toward her, gently cupping her face in his palm. “What makes you think I haven’t already?”
“You did?” She blinked, clearly astonished. “When?”
“Before we left the London command center, I spoke to Lucan Thorne and Commander Chase. I told them we were heading back, but we were a
package deal now. If you wanted it, that is. Those were my terms. And they agreed.”
“You did that for me?”
“I did it for us.” He smiled, caressing her pretty mouth as the smile broke over her lips. “I did it because nothing would make me prouder, or
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