Dom saw her and held open his arms. She needed the hug, so she raced to him and let him squeeze her tight. He asked, “How’s Jesse?”
“He’s fine. Sleeping under Logan’s watchful eye.”
Kellen looked haunted.
Dom followed her gaze and sighed. “He’s blaming himself for Jesse’s injury. Says he was in the line of fire when Jesse knocked him to safety and took the bullet for him.”
Kate moved out of Dom’s arms and approached Kellen, not surprised when he stood back, wary and looking like he wanted to bolt.
Eric waited with Vicki, she noticed, not having seen the smaller woman in Eric’s shadow.
Vicki had an arm around Eric’s waist, which had the effect of settling hisguer. The touch of a mate always helped, she knew. And Kellen had no one.
The poor guy probably thought it really was his fault Jesse had been hurt, when by all accounts from the many Ravagers who’d been there, he’d been tearing into soldiers firing at their kind, constantly putting himself in harm’s way.
“You wanted him to go tonight, alone,” Kate said to Eric and planted herself by Kellen’s side. She slid her hand toward his, pleased when he held hers after a moment and squeezed to show he was glad of her company.
“I did. I didn’t expect any of this.” Eric blew out a breath. “Kellen knows how to be seen and not seen, how to get useful information. I wanted him to circulate, get Chen’s attention.”
Vicki rolled her eyes. “Not Chen again. Eric, let it go.”
He growled. “I will not let it go. He threatened you.”
“He wanted his ring back. I did steal—I mean,appropriate—it from him. But only to give it back to its rightful owner. Trust me, he’s no threat to us.”
Eric didn’t seem to think so, because he glared down at Vicki though he didn’t argue the point. “Tonight was about gathering information. Instead, our people and dozens of others were hurt and even killed.”
Kate swallowed. “Killed?”
Eric shook his head. “Fortunately, all of ours got out alive if a little injured. But many other Voiders weren’t so lucky. Word has it the Watchers killed at least twenty if not more. Reports are still coming in.” He frowned. “They hit Tommy Chen’s place. There will be a retaliation.”
Dom snorted. “There will be a blood bath. But I can’t blame Chen for taking them on. They want a war, they’ll get one.”
Kate had never heard Dom be so bloodthirsty before.
He looked at her, his eyes bright and full of regret. “This has been coming for some time. But we’re getting there, preparing.”
“Preparing?”
“For war,” Kellen said. “A contact filled me in about human watch groups, not the Watchers we know, but another faction. They’re stirring up resentment and hate against Voiders and the Voids themselves. They want us gone.”
“Not as if we wanted to be here,” one of the Ravagers in the room commented.
Kate couldn’t disagree. She remembered little about her home world or her family there; she only knew this was her home now. And no one was going to force her to leave.
“Right.” Kellen ran his free hand through his mussed hair. “I ran into this bullshit in a few places in Europe. But they weren’t organized. Small local patrols who bullied those Voiders who tried to live outside Voider towns. Not like here, where most of us are forced to stay.”
“Forced” being a loose term, Kate knew, because there were ways to come and go from Cross Step for the right price, staying under the federal government’s radar.
“But why would they want to leave the safety of any Voider town?” she asked. “Here in Cross Step, there are more Voiders and pro-Voider humans than humans who hate us. Or at least, enough of us to protect each other.”
“More Ravagers,” Dom said. “We take care of our own, and we have numbers. But the Vulcani, the Rocs, the Lites. There are hardly any of them in this world. In Cross Step we have laws protecting us. But it seems not everyone is obeying those laws.” He turned to Eric. “It will be interesting to see how the government handles what happened at Rock Hall.”
Eric nodded and kissed the top of Vicki’s head. “Change is coming. War is coming.” He sighed. “Malcolm, get the perimeter finished. We’re increasing security.
“Vicki, do me a favor and get a feel for our weak spots. Get word to your cousin to keep safe and get back here ASAP.”
“Right. And I’ll reach out to some of our sources in town and see what the hell’s going on.” Vicki and Malcolm left.
