Scowling fiercely enough to rival even him, Atria dug around in her suitcase for a moment before she snatched up her clothing and stomped off into the bathroom. When the door slammed and the lock clicked, he let out a long, shaky breath and scraped his claws against his scalp.
“Kaz,” Theodore began, “do you want to tell me what’s—”
“No.”
“Princess, huh?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“But how—”
“Look, I am happy to tell you everything when we get back,” he lied, knowing full-well that his brother would be able to tell, “but right now I have other shit to worry about. Like the fact that the Luz family might have a part in this.”
The Luz family was notoriously ruthless. They were up and comers who had only recently risen to wealth and power, unlike the Solbournes and the other Five Families who had traditionally held sway over elvish power. They held Las Vegas and had made a considerable fortune catering to every vice and luxury a person could ask for.
They were also led by a world-class prick named Elio, who had briefly entered negotiations with their cousin Camille to form a union between her and his son Epifanio — another world-class prick.
Unfortunately for their continued quest for power and legitimacy, Camille backed out when she decided to mate with her consort, Viktor, the coyote shifter Kaz and Theodore had grown up with. If it was a matter of the pull, most elves wouldn’t think twice about a broken negotiation. Biology was biology, and the risks of fighting the pull, once triggered, were enormous.
But Elio had taken it as a personal slight. He’d been giving them shit ever since, both by stirring up trouble with the other families and icing the Solbournes out in less public ways. They were relatively minor players, and none of the Five Families truly respected them, so it had remained a small inconvenience up until then.
Kaz understood immediately that the Luz family had more than enough money to put up a bounty like the one on Atria’s head, as well as the connections to the Underground to make it happen.
“They could have done this,” Theodore agreed. “If they somehow got wind of the technology Atria and Ruby were working on… Plus, the disappearance of a Goode in our territory is bound to cause trouble. If Elio could get his hands on a weapon and cause political problems for us, there’s not a doubt in my mind that he would.”
Kaz turned to eye the bathroom door. “I agree, but… I don’t know. It doesn’t add up that neatly. What about the think tank? And Epifanio, too. He’s way smarter than his father, and he has deep connections to the Underground. There is no way he’d okay a bounty this huge. He knows what chaos it’d bring. And even if he was, you really think Elio wants the entire EVP? He’s a petty king and he knows it. He’d never give up his comfy seat for war.”
A hard sigh came across the line. “I know, but it’s the best lead we have right now.”
“Who’s working on this?” He paused, shoulders straightening, before he added, “You know whoshouldbe working on this. Get my team on it, Teddy.”
“I’ve got Sam skimming every bit of data going in and out of Las Vegas, but I haven’t assigned Fracture yet. They’re your unit. I didn’t know if you wanted them involved, since you didn’t ask them for help.”
“I didn’t ask them because I swore never to use them for my personal benefit. If I’d known this was a real territory security issue, I would have brought them. Put them on it,” he said, though it took some work to keep the sudden tightness out of his throat. His brother had never pulled rank — notonce— but it still hit him hard when he so easily handed his respect over like that.
He didn’t have to. Fracture was under his command just as every other Patrol unit was, but Theodore knew how long it had taken Kaz to gain their respect, and that they were not dogs to be unleashed whenever it pleased him. They were people Kaz cared about immensely, and they were some of the most loyal, broken elves he’d ever met in his life.
Their father had created the unit to act as his own personal secret police. He recruited the most violent, vulnerable, and friendless elves he could find — only to have them train a hit squad of stolen elvish children, the precious offspring of prominent families. They were hostages meant to keep the families in line. Thaddeus made them his killing machine, and then, because he thought it was all a grand joke, thought it funny to name themFracture.
The broken ones.
Delilah had attempted to disband them altogether, but they had formed a pack of sorts. Many patrol units formed quasi-packs, but the loyalty that existed in Fracture was on another level. They could not be separated without severe consequence, nor returned to their grieving families, so they had been reassigned first to Valen’s command, and then to his.
“Hopefully between Sam and your unit, we can find Ruby within twenty-four hours,” Theodore said. “Any longer than that and I’ll be forced to tell Sophie.”
Kaz wanted to snarl at yet another mention of that woman. She was a good leader, but ice cold in everything else. He was pretty damn cold too, so that alone wouldn’t have been enough to make him hate her.
No, Kaz despised her for how she had treated her granddaughter, Margot, for twenty-five years. In a misguided effort to hide her from elves, his sister-in-law had been mutilated, starved, and taught to fear what she was: a halfling, just like him. He and Margot shared a special bond, forged over many quiet conversations about their wildly different but somehow mirrored upbringing, and that made him even less inclined to be charitable toward her icy grandmother.
“Have you told Margot?” he asked, stomach sinking impossibly further.
Another one of Theodore’s sighs carried over the line. “Yes. Can’t exactly keep it from her. She’s so worried she won’t even go into work.” A terrible sign, knowing his workaholic sister-in-law. “That’s why I need you to come home. She’s relieved you’re with Atria, but she won’t even begin to settle until she has eyes on her. Ruby, though… I don’t think she’s really processed that she’s missing yet.”
“Have you tightened security?”
Not that he thought security around Margot waslax.She had her own guard — a group of elite soldiers who would lay down their lives for her without hesitation — but with the very real threat of vipers in their nest, Kaz didn’t like the idea of taking chances.
His chest constricted at the thought of Margot coming to harm, but he feltsickat the idea of something happening to Atria. A cold sweat broke out across his entire body when he thought,What if the Protectorate isn’t as safe as I thought?
