Mina nodded. “I fly in and circle north of the villa, waiting for your all clear.”
“Same here,” Marius said, “but a little farther east.”
I nodded briskly. “Bene and I will start at the trailhead and approach the villa on the ground. As soon as we give you the all clear, you move in.”
“You mean, you, Bene, and I will approach on the ground,” Gen corrected.
My stomach sank, because this was the hard part.
Mina shook her head. “You’re staying here.”
Gen’s jaw dropped, but Mina raised a hand in astopsign.
“We need you to stay here and watch the road for that Porsche.”
“You mean, stay here and keep out of the way,” Gen said bitterly.
Mina meantstay here and keep safe. I knew, because she’d talked to me beforehand.
“No, I don’t,” Mina insisted. “Keeping an eye out for Grepperisimportant, and we don’t know what we’re headed into.”
Gen crossed her arms. “Good for you for being a mighty dragon shifter with the ability to fly and breathe fire. But I can contribute too.”
Mina gave her a long, hard look. “How?”
Ouch. Even Marius winced and nudged Mina.
She pursed her lips, then hit a gentler note. “Look, Gen. There are a million things you’re better at than I am. But infiltrating a warlock’s mountain hideaway is not one of them.”
Gen aimed her stony expression at the floor.
“Also,” Mina continued, “any mission involving Gordon — and these guys, much as I love them — has a way of going wrong.”
Hey,I nearly protested, taking that personally.
Bene did too, but the other way.
I knew she loved me.He grinned smugly.
“I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you,” Mina swore to Gen.
Gen looked up. “How can I live with myself if something happens to you while I’m hanging around a hotel?”
Marius tapped his watch. “We need to go. Now.”
Mina hugged Gen, who kept her hands at her sides, then headed to the car with Marius. I stood, feeling helpless as Gen’s eyes pleaded with me.
“No space for baggage on this trip, huh?” she finally said.
“No one’s saying you’re baggage.”
“No one is standing up for me either.”
Her betrayed expression cut me to the bone.
“I believe in you, Gen. I really do. But Mina is right. We’re trained for this kind of thing. You’re not. Besides, do you really want to addbreaking and enteringto your résumé?”
“I want to contribute,” she persisted.
