His father grunted. “Too bad we can’t ask Mercier. Kind of hard to talk when you’re missing your tongue and half your throat.”
Niko nodded, grim. “No need to guess whose handiwork that hit was. Opus tends to get twitchy whenever we start closing in on any of their weak links in the chain.”
“Which means we need to get our hands on Lars Scrully as soon as possible,” Lucan said, his gray gaze as cool as gunmetal.
Dante leaned back in his chair, flashing a dangerous grin. “I do love a good old-fashioned interrogation session.”
Beside him, Rio chuckled. “I’m with you on that, brother. Especially the part where we each take a piece of this Opus bastard apart with our fists and fangs.” The immense warrior with the smooth Spanish accent and a vicious tangle of old shrapnel scars riddling the left side of his face could be a charmer, but tonight he was as lethally serious as the rest of his comrades. He glanced at Aric. “How far is Scrully’s place from here?”
“About an hour.”
Dante’s whiskey-colored eyes lit up beneath the black slashes of his brows. “Plenty of time to be there and back with Scrully before the sun rises.”
“Lucan,” Gabrielle interjected softly, but firmly. The auburn-haired beauty had the regality of a queen, and now was no exception. All heads turned toward her as she spoke. “I don’t think I like this. I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“How so?” The Order’s founder looked at his woman, all of his focus fixed on hearing her opinion.
“Opus isn’t playing games, Lucan. They’ve been a serious threat from the very beginning. And now we know for certain they have ultraviolet weapons. A lot of them.” She shook her head, true fear written on her pretty face. “Maybe we should take this new intel on Lars Scrully back with us to D.C. when we return, then work on a plan of attack after we’ve had more time to consider it.”
Lucan listened to his mate in sober silence. All of the warriors grew serious and quiet, everyone grimly considering the gravity of the facts she was pointing out.
It took Lucan a moment to reply. When he did, his deep voice was low and gentle. “Yes, Opus does have UV on their side now. But they’re going to have it no matter how long we wait to strike. And to wait will only risk letting Scrully or the others in Opus’s cabal have more time to get the upper hand.”
Gabrielle nodded, but Aric could see that as sound as her formidable mate’s logic was, it did little to erase her worry.
Lucan went on, his steely gaze moving to the four commanders who trusted him to lead. “Right now, we have the element of surprise working for us. We should use it to our advantage.”
“We hope we have the element of surprise,” Nikolai commented. “Lately, it’s feeling as though Opus is staying one step ahead of us.”
“What are you saying? You think we’ve got a leak somewhere?”
“I don’t see how we could. All of our contacts in JUSTIS and elsewhere have been double and triple checked. They’re solid, Lucan.”
Rio glanced at his friend, a haunted look in his topaz-colored eyes. “If that’s true, then any breach would have to come from somewhere outside of those networks. Possibly someone we trust.”
The massive warrior knew a thing or two about that. The scar on his face had come on the heels of the worst betrayal a man could suffer--that of his own mate. It wasn’t until Rio met Dylan that he was finally able to heal on the inside. The wounds that marred him on the outside would always serve as a reminder of the pain that came in trusting the wrong person with his heart . . . and his life.
As Rio spoke, Aric thought back on Angus Mackie and the certainty that the gang leader and his followers hadn’t merely gotten lucky when they made the decision to vacate not only the tavern and its store room but Big Mack’s residence as well.
Sure, they could have guessed that trouble would be heading their way after the headlines Mercier’s wedding reception debacle had made. Or maybe they’d had an attack of nerves after the heinous act they’d pulled in ashing that Darkhaven family.
But Aric’s warrior senses prickled with unease when he considered all of the what-ifs and the scenarios he was reluctant to put into words.
And then there was Kaya.
Try as he might to deny it, he kept coming back to her remoteness, her emotional distance, following the Darkhaven attack. After her run that same day, she had been even more anxious and withdrawn. Her edginess hadn’t improved as she and the rest of the Montreal team had gone with the commander on the mission to grab Mackie. When she asked Nikolai for a private meeting, she looked about as miserable as Aric had ever seen her.
What did she need to talk with Niko about that couldn’t be said in front of everyone?
Was it something about the raid?
Then again, maybe it was simply Aric himself who was making her so uncomfortable.
Whatever it was, she didn’t seem ready--or willing--to trust him with it.
Not that she should. He hadn’t made her any promises. No, all he’d done was pursue her with single-minded purpose then seduce her. They had agreed to no strings or obligations, but the more time he spent with Kaya the less eager he was for his business in Montreal to end.
“So, it sounds as if we’re all agreed that we need to act swiftly” Lucan said, then he slid an apologetic glance at Gabrielle. “Most of us, that is.”
