Peyton grimaced. “Then I return to Idaho, and we keep it as quiet as possible while we regroup and start from scratch.”
She studied his face. “Promise?”
He nodded.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
He tucked her hair behind her ears the way she loved. “It’s possible Jake’s wife and Ken’s maternal grandparents were—or are—being held in the lab.”
Gillian stared at him, certain he was pulling her leg. “What?”
“That’s not for public consumption, either. We don’t know for sure, and we don’t want to start rumors.”
“But… How do you know that?”
“We don’t,” he said. “Ken made an educated guess based on building out a timeframe of missing shifters we know about, and where they disappeared from. There is enough overlap to believe Faegan and Dorland are working with whoever’s behind the lab. And Dorland’s Russian connections put him at the top of the suspect list.”
“Then why even have Ray Dorland come here?”
“Because we want him in our territory. If we have to hunt him down in Australia, we’ll never find him. And it risks the people running the lab closing it and moving, and then we are fucked. That’s why people need to believe I’m still missing.”
“Do we dare risk him coming here?”
“Well, I made Ken a promise.”
“What promise?”
“You, Dewi, Asia, and Tam will go to Florida, with the babies and Asia’s kids. We’ll have armed Enforcers on you 24/7 until this is settled. Including Jake, who is now an Enforcer.”
“But this is my home! You had no right to promise him that!”
“I would have done it even if I hadn’t promised him. I do not want you all here when Ray Dorland and his people are.”
“For how long, Peyton?”
“If Dorland isn’t involved, we’ll bring you back immediately. If he is, you’ll stay there until we take down the lab.”
“How are we safer in Florida than in the compound here?”
“Because you’ll be with Dewi. And we’re going to let Dorland think Dewi is in Idaho and will be meeting with him. If he has any ideas of trying to snatch her, she won’t be here, and neither will you or Asia or Tam.”
“Leaving the rest of the compound’s residents vulnerable?”
He grimly shook his head. “No. We’ll enact the emergency evacuation plan. Right before his plane’s due to land.”
She gasped. “That’s insane!”
“All of this is insane, G. If he’s guilty, and we find out there was a plan for them to abduct anyone from the compound, we crush it and then bring everyone back. If Dorland’s innocent, or there wasn’t a plan to abduct anyone, then we bring everybody back and call it a false alarm. If he’s guilty, he doesn’t leave the compound alive. If he’s not, we Prime him and his guys that they think had meetings, and they go home none the wiser.”
“The chances of that happening?”
“Probably close to zero. The more we learn, the guiltier he looks.”
“Wait, what the hell am I doing?” She grabbed his head and kissed him, started fumbling with his shirt buttons, trying to get him naked as quickly as possible.
It didn’t take but a few seconds before he had her on her back, shouldered her thighs apart, and buried his face there. And as she fisted handfuls of his hair he quickly made her climax but refused to stop even when she patted him on the head.
Laughing, she tried to get him to sit up, but he growled and redoubled his efforts and she found herself helpless to refuse.
