by Lara Adrian
He couldn’t wait for the wheels to be off the ground.
“Come in,” Niko said, his ice-blue eyes grave as he greeted Aric and Kaya at the door to the war room. “I’ve called everyone here to go over the news that just came in.”
Gathered around the large table were Kellan and Mira, her team of three Breed warriors seated across from them. Nikolai’s black-haired Breedmate Renata had taken the chair at the far end of the table, her slender hands resting atop her enormous baby bump.
Rafe had been called to the war room as well. Aric strode in and took the chair next to his friend, allowing Kaya to have the seat closest to Niko at the head of the meeting.
“As you’ve all been made aware, this morning’s op ran into a few... complications,” Niko said, his commanding tone conveying only cold acceptance, not censure. “Apparently, those complications got the attention of Opus. About an hour ago, we learned that Stephan Mercier’s vehicle was found in a parking garage downtown. His driver and bodyguards had been shot execution-style. Mercier’s death hadn’t been that merciful.”
Nikolai tapped a screen built into the glass surface beside him and a holographic image formed in the center of the long table. The photo was horrific. Mercier’s body lay sprawled across the blood-soaked leather backseat of his chauffeured car, his head tipped back at a grotesque angle. His mouth was agape, nothing but an empty black maw stretched into a permanent scream.
At the other end of the table, Renata made a gagging sound and turned her face askance. “Jesus.”
“Ah, shit.” Niko cut the visual at once. “Sorry, love.”
Mira reached over for the other woman’s hand. “Rennie, are you all right?”
Renata gave a wobbly nod, her chin-length bob swinging. “I will be, once this baby finally decides to arrive.”
“I don’t think it’ll be long now,” Mira said, smiling tenderly at the Breedmate who’d been both a friend and an adoptive mother to her since she was eight years old. “I can’t wait to hold my little brother.”
On the other side of Aric, Rafe grunted. “You may have to fight my mother to get to him.”
“Or mine,” Aric said, chuckling now. “Hell, even Carys is making plans to be here with the rest of the Order for the birth and presentation ceremony. That kid’s going to have no shortage of attention once he makes his appearance.”
Renata smiled. “It’ll be nice to have everyone together again.” She shot a wry glance up the table to her warrior mate. “And I’m looking forward to getting back out on patrols as soon as I’m able, too.”
It was no idle comment. Renata was one of the most fierce, skilled warriors in the Order. In addition to the quartet of daggers she was known to wield, or any of the other weapons she’d proven herself lethally qualified to use in combat, she was also gifted with an immense ability. Armed with just the power of her mind, Renata could immobilize and debilitate anyone who dared to cross her.
Pregnancy had muted that ability, as it did with all Breedmates, but once she had her baby that gift would resume. And it would also pass down to her child, who would be virtually unstoppable once he reached adulthood.
“I don’t know if I like that plan,” Nikolai said. His brow was knit with a frown, but the gaze he held his woman in was filled with adoration. “I like seeing you round in the middle with my child. Maybe we should have a dozen babies before I let you suit up for patrol again.”
“Before you let me, vampire?” She narrowed her jade-green eyes, even as a smile stretched her lips. “Maybe instead of giving you a dozen babies, I should string you up and use my blades to--”
“All right,” he said, laughing with her. “I can see this won’t be an easy negotiation. Not that anything ever was easy with you, love.”
She arched a dark brow. “You get bored when things are too easy. That’s why you can’t live without me.”
He gave her a private, intimate look. “Only one of many reasons.”
Although he tried to resist, Aric’s glance strayed to Kaya. She watched the exchange between her commander and his mate in silence, a small smile tilting the corners of her mouth. Aric had a feeling she would be the kind of woman to keep her mate on his toes too. And why the notion of Kaya with another Breed male should needle him with a pang of annoyance, he didn’t want to know.
“Anyway,” Renata said to Nikolai, gesturing for him to go on. “You were telling us about poor Stephan Mercier and his missing tongue.”
“Yes.” The commander cleared his throat and went back to the business at hand. “There’s no need to guess who killed him. Whether Opus suspects he was compromised by us, or whether they know it for a fact, these people don’t leave loose threads.”
“No, they don’t,” Rafe agreed. He looked around Aric to pin Kaya in a shrewd stare. “You spoke with Mercier the longest. Did you give him any reason to think you were an Order operative?”
“Jesus, Rafe. Of course, she didn’t.” Aric’s response sounded defensive, even to his own ears.
“Just trying to piece things together in my head,” Rafe said.
And while his question wasn’t out of bounds, Aric knew his friend too well and for too long to dismiss the probing intensity of the gaze that had yet to leave Kaya.
“Maybe you tipped your hand to Mercier without realizing it,” Rafe suggested.
Aric waited to hear Kaya deny it, but when he glanced at her, he found her expression less than certain. “I don’t think he knew I was with the Order. Not that he conveyed to me through his thoughts, anyway.”
“But you can’t be sure?” Rafe pressed.
She hesitated. “No. I can’t be sure. He said some things about the Breed--he thought some things--that I couldn’t let lie.”
“Such as?”
“That the Breed are monsters. A scourge that deserves to be erased from existence.”
Aric grunted. “Not the first time we’ve heard that.”
“Nor will it be the last,” Nikolai finished grimly.
Kaya shook her head, angry color rising in her cheeks. “Mercier meant it. He was gleeful about the idea that he could have something to do with making war happen between the humans and the Breed. I couldn’t stand there and let him spew his hatred in front of me. I guess I felt the asshole needed to be set straight on a few things.”
“Hey, I’ve been there before, too, Kaya.” Mira gave her friend a gentle look from across the table. “But as a warrior, you have to check your emotion at the door.”
“Or risk the entire mission,” Rafe added.
“I didn’t mean to put anything or anyone at risk,” Kaya replied, openly contrite. “Mercier was unjustly deriding the people I care about, people I would lay down my life for. He was wrong, so I reminded him that it was Opus Nostrum who’d been behind all of the recent violence and division.”
“And now we’ve lost the very lead you went there to confirm,” Rafe pointed out. “It was a rookie mistake. Covert op means always staying within your cover.”
“Yes.” Kaya held his scrutinizing gaze. “I know what it means.”
“Damn, Rafe.” Aric shot his comrade a hard look. “Go easy on her, man. This was her first field mission and she did great. So, we lost Mercier. He was a bottom-feeding scum. At least Kaya siphoned some useful intel off him. And she also provided us with an even stronger lead on Opus.”
“That’s right,” Niko agreed. “That is, if we can ID the man she saw leaving the reception.”
Kaya’s brow pinched with regret. “I wish I’d gotten a look at his face. Even a glimpse would’ve been something useful.”
“You would have, if it hadn’t been for that security guard getting in your way,” Aric pointed out.
“What do we know about him?” Renata asked from the far end of the table, her hand idly caressing the swell of her belly. “Have we been able dig anything up?”
“We have,” Kellan offered from beside Mira. “His name was Jacob Portman. Real piece of shit, if you’ll pardon my Fr
ench. He’d been on the Rousseau security detail for about a year. Got his training as a JUSTIS officer doing port patrols on the river a few years back, but he got bounced for excessive force after killing an unarmed Breed youth down on the docks. Emptied his service pistol into the kid’s back, according to the files.”
Aric met Kaya’s sickened look. “Sounds like you did the world a favor taking out that heap of garbage.”
“That’s not all,” Mira added. “Tell them what else you uncovered on him, Kellan.”
He nodded. “Portman used to run with an assortment of militant groups when he was a teen. They called him ‘Red’ back then.”
“How original,” Aric drawled, picturing the human’s crown of bright ginger hair.
“According to his juvie file, his fellow gangbangers called him that mainly because he liked to watch things bleed,” Kellan said. “Especially things with fangs.”
Nikolai cursed low under his breath. “Sounds like Portman could’ve been ripe for indoctrination by Opus too. Do you think he confronted you because he suspected you were part of the Order, Kaya?”
She had gone very quiet, very still. She glanced up now, almost as if she’d drifted off somewhere. “I’m sorry?”
“Portman,” Niko prompted. “You said he thought he knew you from somewhere.”
“That’s what he said. But he was wrong.” Her answer was resolute, without a second’s hesitation. “I’d never seen him before today. And I swear to you he’d never seen me before, either.”
“You think he was lying?” Mira asked. “Or was he just mistaken?”
Kaya shook her head. “I can’t say for sure. Maybe I just have one of those faces.”
Aric gave her a reassuring glance. “Not a face I’d ever mistake for another.”
Her gaze lingered on his for a long moment before dropping away, color suffusing her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was soft and sober.
“I failed everyone today, and I’m sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was let any of you down. Now, I’ve messed everything up. The reception footage has gone viral. Opus Nostrum is all but certain to know they’re in the Order’s crosshairs again. Mercier’s dead, and the only lead we might’ve taken away from all of this escaped the premises before I could get close enough to ID him.”
“Maybe not.” Niko leaned forward in his chair. He touched the panel again and this time a display full of data and photo files appeared in the center of the table. “Gideon sent over every surveillance still and video feed captured at the Rousseau estate today. We’ve got the guest list from the wedding and the reception, as well as registrations for every vehicle that passed through the gates. All you have to do is comb through all of it until you find our subject unknown.”
“There must be thousands of photos and records,” Kaya murmured.
Niko’s mouth quirked. “Consider it penance. You too, Aric.”
“Sir?” He frowned. “I’m supposed to be returning to D.C.”
“And you will. After you and Kaya get through that intel.” Niko glanced at Rafe. “You’re sticking around too. I’ve already cleared it with Lucan. Now that we know we’ve got an Opus lead here in Montreal, I could use an extra pair of boots on the ground.”
“You got it,” Rafe said. “Nothing I’d rather do than help put another Opus member in the ground.”
“I don’t know about that.” Aric smirked at his friend. “Seems like there is one thing you’d rather be doing.”
Rafe’s intensity of a moment ago diffused at the quip--and at the reference to the female he’d been spending nearly all of his time with since they’d arrived in Montreal. He sent a light punch into Aric’s shoulder, but he didn’t seem able to hold back his smile.
Across the table from them, Mira lifted her brows. “So, it is true? Don’t tell me the untamable Rafe Malebranche may have finally met his match.”
That he didn’t deny it outright or try to deflect with any one of the dozens of reasons he’d used in the past to explain why he had no interest in settling down was answer enough for Aric.
“Holy shit,” Aric uttered, shocked and amazed. “Are you falling in love with Siobhan O’Shea?”
Rafe didn’t get the chance to answer. At that same moment, Renata hissed, her face constricting in pain.
“Sweetheart.” Niko flew out of his seat and was at her side in a flash of movement. He crouched down beside her, a look of pure terror in his eyes. “Are you okay? Is it the baby? Ah, fuck. Is he coming right now?”
“Relax,” she said, her voice gusting around a sigh. “It’s a contraction, that’s all.”
Niko scowled. “You’ve been getting them on and off for the past couple of days.”
“Yes.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I’m fine. Trust me, you’ll know when it’s time for our son to make his grand entrance.”
“Either way, I’m taking you to bed,” Niko growled. He glanced over his shoulder at Mira. “Will you handle the night’s patrol plans for me?”
“Of course.” She nodded, her smile full of love and compassion for the couple who were her parents and her friends. “I’ve got this. You take care of Rennie.”
With the commander and his mate having exited the war room, Mira gathered Rafe and Kellan and her team to one of the conversation areas away from the conference table.
Aric glanced at Kaya, both of them left to their own devices as the squad began talking tactics and territory assignments.
“I guess we should get started too.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry you’re stuck here a bit longer. I know how badly you were hoping to get back to your life in D.C.”
“I can think of worse things.”
He was joking, but she didn’t smile. Instead she touched the panel embedded in the glass in front of her at the table and opened the first of countless data files.
“Shall we get started?” she asked when he merely watched for a long moment. Her face was utterly indifferent, impossible to read. “The sooner we get through all of this, the sooner we can both get on with our lives.”
“Yeah,” Aric agreed, telling himself the sting he felt was merely wounded male pride and nothing deeper. “I guess you’re right. Let’s get it over with.”
CHAPTER 10
“How many more image files left in that folder you’re working on, Kaya?”
She looked at the unopened count on her tablet display and groaned. “Twenty-four hundred and sixty-two.”
“Great,” Aric said. “That means we’re halfway finished.”
She swung a hopeful glance at him. “We are?”
“With the first batch,” he said, a flash of dimples in his unfatigued face.
Kaya slumped in her chair and exhaled a long sigh.
They had been working in the war room for more than five hours with barely a break. At some point, she had resorted to strong coffee, just to keep her lids open and her eyes uncrossed as she and Aric scoured file after file of photos and video stills taken during Stephan Mercier and Anastasia Rousseau’s wedding and reception.
“Why couldn’t Mercier’s Opus contact have done us a favor and smiled right into any one of the scores of surveillance cameras rigged all over the estate?”
Aric chuckled. “Where’s the challenge in that? Can’t blame the guy for hiding out in the crowds and keeping his face averted every time he was in a camera’s vicinity. Opus members don’t tend to live long once the Order gets wind of who they are.”
Kaya pulled a frown. “Well, I find his caution annoying.”
Beside her at the conference table, Aric flipped through his open file of images, barely pausing more than a moment on any one of them. She watched, fascinated by how quickly his mind worked. His flawless memory may have been inherited from his mother, but Aric’s keen intellect and razor focus was all his own.
And damn if it wasn’t sexy as hell.
He slid his tablet toward her and pointed to a squatty, dark-haired man in the photo on the display
. “That him?”
She shook her head. “I swear, if I have to spend another minute looking at pompous, entitled rich people drinking gallons of champagne and eating plates of thousand-dollar-an-ounce caviar, I’m going to scream.”
“You got something against rich people? Or just people having a good time?”
“I have nothing against people having a good time.”
“That’s a relief.” He chuckled and she made the mistake of looking up at him. He was staring at her now, studying her with an unhurried interest that made her stomach flip. “So, it’s only pompous, entitled rich people that make you want to scream?”
To mask her sudden awareness of him, she gave him an arch look. “If the shoe fits.”
“Excuse me?” He swiveled in his chair to face her full-on, his brows furrowed. “Did you just call me rich?”
Laughing, she picked up her half-empty mug of cold coffee and held it close as she looked at him. “Well, aren’t you? Rich, I mean.”
“Hell, no. Not me. I’m just a grunt trying to find my own way doing something I believe in.” He leaned back in his seat, looking casual and far too attractive for her peace of mind. “If you mean my family, though, they’ve done all right. But the Chases worked hard for everything they have. Most of the men in my family made their livings in public service. My father was the first of our line to join the Order.”
“I didn’t know that.” Kaya shrugged. “I’ve heard some of the Order commanders call him ‘Harvard’ so I guess I just assumed...”
“The nickname came from Rafe’s father, Dante. It wasn’t meant to be a compliment, but it stuck.” A grin pulled his mouth into a charming tilt. “Now only my father’s closest friends call him that.”
Kaya smiled, thinking about the easy friendship Aric seemed to have with Rafe. “I suppose it makes sense that you and Rafe are so close. You two act like brothers.”
He nodded. “In all the ways that matter, we are.”
She waited for his searching gaze to release her, but it only held firmer. That penetrating stare seemed as sharp as a razor as it studied her.
