Ryan carried on regardless of the tug of war going down behind him.He had something in his hand that he passed over to Luis, and murmured, “There is no reason for animosity between our people.”
Luis just flexed his jaw.“We’ll see.”
Ryan shrugged.“That’s my number.I’d appreciate yours… that way we can avoid having to meet up at ungodly hours like this one.”
Luis squinted at him, then called out a cell number.Apparently, unlike her mate, he didn’t come prepared with business cards.
A notion that amused her.
“Got it,” Trip, their resident number cruncher, shouted back.
Ryan nodded.“We can have a good relationship or not, Luis.That’s down to you.”He held out his hand which Luis stared at a second, grunted, then took and shook.
The posturing was pretty limited, and that surprised her, she wouldn’t deny.
In fact, she’d expected some kind of freaking ritual between them or something.
What she got was more nodding before she was hustled back into the SUV and driven away from Pantera territory.
It went so fast that she blinked in surprise when they were back on the highway.
Why was it that always seemed to take less time returning from somewhere than the trip out did?
“That wasn’t informative at all,” she complained the minute they were off Pantera land though, as regrets also filled her—Luis had known she was Pantera, had known she was related to at least one powerful member of the collective, but he hadn’t welcomed her there.
Was that because of her connection to the Pride?Of her mates?Or was it because, yet again, she was welcome nowhere?
“You might think so, sweetheart,” Ryan said smoothly as he peered down at his cellphone which had already started pinging with text messages he had to handle, “but the Pantera play their cards close to their chest.We got a lot of information out of him today.”
She shuffled her shoulders.Maybe she was asking for too much, but she’d have liked one of their mysteries to have been resolved by tonight’s meeting.
Otherwise, this whole shit had been a waste of time.On top of that, they were as clueless as they’d been before.
She hated being clueless.
Knowledge was power, after all.And, all told, they were powerless at the moment.
They had more threats coming at them than they knew what to do with, but she guessed if Enrique and Jaime had been acting alone, now they were dead and missing, she was safe.That was something, she figured.That meant the worst threat was still hanging over their heads though.
After all, Enrique and Jaime had wanted money.They hadn’t wanted her dead.And though they might have threatened her life in the act of abducting her, she didn’t think all those years of ‘friendship’ could crumblethatmuch where they’d have actively tried to hurt her.
Unlike the bastard behind the bomb blast on Ryan’s car.
That was a direct and aggressive threat—hell, was there anything more direct and more aggressive than a fucking explosive device?
“What’s our next move?”she asked quietly, resting her head against Trip’s shoulder—he’d sat in the back with her, and she cuddled into him now, her cats forgiving him for holding El back earlier and not letting her shadow Ryan.
“Our next move is Pride business,” Marc told her from the passenger seat.
“What kind of Pride business?”she asked sourly.
She wasn’t feeling too charitable with the Pride on the whole.How could she when they were behind the bombing?
Or, at least, a handful of people were.
Her cats didn’t care if it was a handful or the entire damn collective, though.Bitterness welled inside her.She was tired of being targeted, of having a bull’s eye painted on her back.Now she was a Shifter, the notion was more than just distasteful.It was abhorrent.
And she wouldn’t stand for it.
