“When did she leave?”
The women exchanged uncertain looks. “About twenty minutes ago,” one of them said.
He didn’t know who, and didn’t offer any acknowledgment. His feet were already moving beneath him, heading at almost a run toward the corridor that would take him to her private living suite in the residence.
He rapped on her door. “Kaya?” When no answer came, he knocked again. Then tried the knob and found it locked. “Damn it.” He didn’t like the idea of intruding on her without permission, but he didn’t like the feeling he was getting about her absence even more. Exhaling a curse, he freed the lock with his mind and opened the door. “Kaya? Are you here?”
Utter silence. Her quarters were empty.
She was gone.
“Fuck. Damn you, Kaya.”
He knew by the cold understanding in his veins that he wasn’t going to find her anywhere in the command center. She had left base without telling anyone. That knowledge settled over him like a shroud.
In an instant, he was on the sunlit pavement outside the command center, flashing there with all the Breed velocity he possessed. He didn’t know where she might have gone. Or, rather, he didn’t want to think that he knew.
It took him only minutes to cross the city into Dorval.
To his relief, the ramshackle house down at the river that had been Angus Mackie’s most recent address was still vacant. All the rats had fled that ship the night of the Order’s raid and had evidently not returned.
Aric sped to the bar and found much the same situation. Empty building. No sign of the gang leader with the black scarab tattoo or any of his faithful followers. He came out of the tavern and raked a hand over his head, his heart rate finally decelerating now that all of his hunches seemed to have been wrong.
And thank fuck for that.
Some of the fury and dread that drove him down to this shitty neck of the woods began to ebb. At least it did until he glanced down the street and a glimpse of long dark hair and endless legs poured into dark denim caught his eye.
Kaya came out of a grimy auto garage with a grease-covered skinhead she appeared to know. No mistaking the piece of human garbage for anything other than one of Angus’s ilk. Kaya’s hand was locked on the man’s forearm as she spoke to him. She took some cash out of her pocket and gave it to him. Then she got into a piece of shit sedan parked at the curb and drove off.
Aric could hardly control his rage.
He wanted to wring answers out of the human with his bare hands, but Kaya was the only one who could tell him what he really needed to know.
His body vibrated with menace as he gathered the shadows around himself and followed her up the street. The instant she stopped at a traffic light, he tore open the passenger door and dropped into the seat beside her.
“I call shotgun.”
Her head swiveled toward him on a choked gasp. “Aric! What are you--”
“What am I doing here?” he finished for her, fury stripping his voice to its barest growl. “That’s exactly what I came here to ask you, Kaya. What the hell are you doing down here alone on Big Mack’s turf?”
Her brown eyes were bleak. “It’s not what you think.”
“Really?” He scoffed. “That’s good. That’s one huge goddamned fucking relief, Kaya. Because what I think is that you just crept away from base in broad daylight to meet up with one of the Order’s enemies. What I think is that the heat is getting a little too intense back and the command center and maybe our mole’s decided it’s time to run back to whatever hidey-hole she crawled out of in the first place.”
She looked away from him and shook her head, misery in the sound that escaped her lips. “I’m not a mole, Aric.”
“Unfortunately, it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than that to convince me now.”
“I’m not a mole,” she said, finally meeting his hard stare again.
“But you are on your way to see Big Mack now.”
“Yes.”
“Are you the reason he knew the Order was coming for him the other night?”
She swallowed hard, then lowered her head. “Yes. I’m sure I must be.”
