* * *
Ivy headed straight for John’s office the moment she walked into the operations building at the DCO training complex, but Kendra intercepted her before she got more than ten feet.
“Dick hasn’t been around since he sent Jayson and Powell to Donetsk, but John doesn’t want him showing up out of the blue and figuring out that we’re onto something with Thorn,” Kendra said, taking Ivy’s arm and turning her back around. “Come with me.”
“Are Layla and Jayson on their way back yet?” Ivy asked as they crossed the central quad area of the complex and headed toward the building where the DCO’s tech wizards maintained all the servers and databases the covert organization depended on for intelligence gathering operations.
“Not quite.” Kendra gave her a sidelong glance. “The diplomat’s son was in Donetsk with his girlfriend. Long story short, she got kidnapped along with some other girls and is being held by one of the militia leaders. Layla and Jayson are going in to rescue them.” She glanced at her watch. “In fact, with the time difference, they should be hitting the place right now.”
Ivy halted in midstep. “What?”
Kendra stopped too, turning to face her. “Layla is going to be fine. She’s more like you than you think. Besides, Jayson loves her like crazy. He would never let anything happen to her. They’re going to be an amazing team. I think they can handle a little pervert warlord who’s kidnapping girls so he can build his own harem.”
Ivy sighed. She didn’t like the idea of Layla going up against a militia leader, but at least her sister was with a partner who would watch her back. “You’re right. And while Powell is a jackass, at least he’s there to back them up. That has to count for something.”
Kendra turned and started across the quad again, walking faster than before. Ivy followed. Her friend’s heart rate was spiking and it had nothing to do with the vigorous exercise.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Ivy asked sharply.
Kendra didn’t answer. Ivy thought she might have to circle around in front of her friend and get in her path when Kendra stopped abruptly and turned to look at her.
“Powell isn’t going to be helping them on the rescue mission because he’s dead,” Kendra said. “He and Jayson got into a gunfight with the local militia shortly after they arrived in Donetsk. Powell apparently decided that he needed to off Jayson to keep the locals from getting their hands on a hybrid, and Jayson didn’t go along with the idea.”
Ivy stood there stunned. “Jayson killed him?”
“I don’t have all the details,” Kendra said. “It’s more likely that the local militia killed Powell, but I got the feeling that Jayson played a part in it. The important thing I’m trying to tell you isn’t that Jayson had anything to do with Powell’s death—that jerk tried to kill Jayson in cold blood and got exactly what he deserved—it’s that Layla and Jayson are a real team out there, and they’re good enough to get this done.”
Kendra turned and started walking again. Ivy fell into step beside her. As they crossed the quad, Kendra brought her up to speed on everything she knew about what had happened over in Donetsk. “Jayson jumped off a three-story building and swam across a river at least half a mile wide. Does that sound like something the Jayson we know could do?”
“No,” Ivy admitted, a little shocked.
If Powell tried to kill Jayson, that meant the serum must have worked. The idea that Layla was out there on the mission with another shifter—or hybrid or whatever Jayson was—made Ivy feel a lot better about the danger her sister was in. That said, she still wouldn’t sleep until they were both back home.
When she and Kendra got to the IT building, her friend led her through the maze of cubicles that filled the front half of the building and into a big room. All four walls were lined with computer servers while worktables filled the center of the room.
John was waiting for them, along with Evan Lloyd, an analyst from the intel branch Ivy had worked with several times, as well as two techies she didn’t recognize. One was a woman in her midthirties with her black hair pulled back into a very businesslike bun, while the guy looked like he’d just graduated from college the week before. John introduced them as Lisa Marino and Karl Thomas.
“So what do you have?” John asked her.
Ivy reached into her coat pocket and pulled out both the diamond and the strange black box, setting them on the nearest table. Lisa immediately snatched up the box and examined it with Karl, leaving the rest of them alone with the diamond.
“This is absolutely spectacular.” Kendra picked it up by the chain, watching the light bounce off the facets of the gem. “Can I keep it? I promise to take good care of it, take it out on walks every night, and clean up behind it when it makes a mess.”
Ivy laughed. “I don’t think even you would be able to clean up the kind of mess that follows something like this thing around. I think we’d better just send it back home.”
Kendra looked disappointed but set the diamond down on the table again. “Yeah, I guess so. Besides, I have nothing that would go with it. I’d have to buy a whole new wardrobe.”
“I don’t know,” Ivy said. “I’m pretty sure Declan would be okay if you walked around the house wearing nothing but that.”
John let out a polite cough, gesturing to Evan, then himself. “Two men standing right here.”
Ivy opened her mouth to tease John, but Lisa cut her off.
“It’s a solid state drive, but it’s way more advanced than anything either of us have ever seen.”
“So it’s a hard drive?” John clarified, his eyes lighting up.
Ivy shared his excitement. Considering the fact that this thing had been locked up in Thorn’s private safe, it had to have some really juicy stuff on it. Ivy doubted it was just his taxes.
