He was here to do a job, then get on with his life.
Which meant getting his ass back to D.C. as soon as possible, before he was tempted to let things get complicated with Kaya. So far, their relationship was simple. They worked well together. God knew they fit well together physically too. But that was as far as he could allow it to go with her. One and done. No strings attached and no promises of anything more.
Fortunately, Kaya seemed to feel likewise.
Aric told himself it was a good thing.
He glanced at Rafe, arching a brow. “So, what are you saying? You think she might be The One?”
“Like I said, crazy, right?” Rafe grew quiet, then expelled a long breath and stood up. “Listen, I didn’t come all the way down here just for relationship counseling.”
Aric snorted. “That’s a relief.”
“Niko wants to see us in his office in about ten minutes. Sounds like we’re going to be staying in Montreal until after the baby is born.”
“Shit. That could be days.” Just what he needed, more time under the same roof with the temptation of Kaya Laurent too close for his peace of mind.
Rafe studied him. “You got somewhere else pressing that you need to be?”
“If I were smart, anywhere but here,” he muttered under his breath as he rose from his chair.
They exited the war room and headed up the corridor that would take them to the living quarters of the attached mansion.
“I doubt it’s going to be days before the baby arrives,” Rafe told him as they walked. “The way Renata looked in the meeting yesterday, she could go anytime. Niko’s already asked to put me on standby to help out if she goes into labor before my mother and the rest of the Order arrives for the birth.”
Aric chuckled. “My sympathies to Renata and the baby, if you’re their best option for a midwife.”
“Fuck you very much,” Rafe said, grinning at the jab.
As they headed out toward the residential wing of the mansion, Rafe’s demeanor turned somber. “Speaking of infants and new mothers, Mira told me about the situation at that Darkhaven this morning. Jesus, what kind of monster ashes a baby in its crib?”
Aric’s blood seethed at the reminder. “The soon-to-be-dead kind, if I have anything to say about it. People like that won’t stop until they’ve seen our entire race scorched from existence.”
“People like Opus Nostrum,” Rafe said grimly.
Aric shrugged. “Opus may have supplied the ultraviolet rounds, but I’m not convinced they ordered this hit. Someone did this for kicks. Out of a sadistic glee. And if bastards like that have access to UV weapons, today’s slayings won’t be the last.”
“Nikolai’s already been in contact with headquarters,” Rafe informed him. “He and Gideon are trying to trace the bullet casing you retrieved from the Darkhaven attack to the samples we took from our raid on Fineas Riordan’s place in Dublin last week.”
“They’ll be a match,” Aric said. Every instinct he had told him there was little doubt on that score. “There’s no telling how much of that shit he’d been able to push out to other Opus members before we destroyed his stockpiles. Now, we have to worry that Opus could be putting this kind of firepower into the hands of rebels and hate groups who’ve been itching for the chance to start wiping us out.”
He and Rafe were in the hallway just outside the mansion’s kitchen. The aromas of fresh fruits, baked goods, and coffee wafted out, along with the sounds of female voices. Kaya’s among them.
Rafe detoured without explanation--not that Aric had to guess what drew the warrior into the room. Siobhan sat beside Renata at the counter of the kitchen island, a dainty teacup clutched in her hands. The instant she saw Aric’s friend, her pretty face lit up with an adoring smile.
“Hey, beautiful.” Rafe walked up to her and pressed an intimate kiss below her ear.
Oh, yeah. He was doomed, all right.
As for Aric, he wasn’t sure what to think when his gaze collided with Kaya’s. Still dressed for her run, she stood on the opposite side of the island from Siobhan and Renata, eating an apple. She set down the fruit, looking uncomfortable as he followed Rafe into the kitchen.
“I was just about to go down and find you.”
Her eyes flicked away from him as she spoke. Aric didn’t have her ability to read minds, but he didn’t need it in order to tell that she was avoiding him for some reason. He’d gotten the same sense earlier, but now everything about her body language and anxious gaze said he was just about the last person she wanted to talk to.
Before she had left the command center, he’d been willing to dismiss her withdrawn demeanor as merely aftershocks of the horror they’d encountered at the Darkhaven crime scene. Now, though, he wondered if there was something more he wasn’t seeing.
Maybe her run had given her time enough to regret letting him make love to her.
