She was on her own in her quest now, and none of her determination to avenge her family had faded since she left Boston. Let the Order have all of her father’s notes and research, along with her reconnaissance of the past few months. She could start over. Now that she had an Opus target on her back, shewouldhave to begin all over.
New name. New appearance. New targets and plan of attack.
New life.
One that probably wouldn’t include Rafe. That last part was the one she could hardly bear to imagine.
After a quick shower and change of clothes, Devony headed back downstairs to settle in and regroup. The spacious townhouse was cold and dark, dust collected on the furnishings and on the grand piano that sat in the spacious living room. In back of the house, her mother’s small garden patio was overgrown and strewn with dried autumn leaves.
It broke something in her to see the place so forlorn and forgotten. And her piano. While music had been more her parents’ dream for her than her own, she had always found a measure of solace in the feel of the cool keys beneath her fingertips. It drew her now, too.
She drifted into the living room and sat down on the cushioned bench. Her hands left prints in the fine layer of dust on the glossy black lid of the keyboard as she lifted it.
She played a few notes, her fingers moving from memory through one of the classical compositions her parents used to love hearing her play.
She frowned when one of the keys produced an odd, muffled chord. She hit the note again and heard something dislodge inside the instrument.
“What the hell?”
There had to be something blocking the strings under the old grand’s cover. She stood up and carefully lifted the heavy black lid.
An envelope was tucked inside. She knew the vellum paper. It was from her father’s personal supply.
Devony retrieved the envelope, then closed the piano cover and sat back down on the bench.
Her fingers trembled as she carefully tore open the seal. A single printed photograph was all the envelope contained.
Devony stared at the picture, her breath leaking out of her on a gasp. “Oh, my God.”
CHAPTER 26
Rafe knocked on the doorjamb of his commander’s office.
Chase looked up from the scattered papers and photographs on his desk, an expression of mild surprise on his face. “You look a hell of a lot better than you did when I saw you a few hours ago.”
“Yes, sir.” Rafe stood at attention, dressed in his black patrol uniform, his face shaved clean and hair trimmed into some semblance of control.
He was steady on his feet now, all traces of the agony from Devony’s parting shot subsided. All except the pain that had taken up residence in his heart. He didn’t expect that would be dissipating anytime soon. As in, never.
Not as long as he and Devony were apart.
“Come in,” Chase said. He had patrol team plans for tonight and other mission materials on his desk, along with some of the files and photos Rafe had taken from Devony’s brownstone.
“I just got off a call with Lucan,” Chase said. “The intel you and Devony supplied has given us multiple avenues to investigate, both from here in Boston and D.C. Gideon thinks it’ll take days to unpack it all, but we’ve got a good start on several new leads as we speak.”
Rafe inclined his head. “I’m glad it’s proving useful. I can’t take any of the credit for it, though. That belongs solely to Devony. And to her father as well.”
Chase nodded. “We owe them both a debt, especially if any of these new leads prove out. Gideon says Roland Winters’s handwritten notes seem to indicate he suspected his files may not be safe at JUSTIS.”
“That’s what Devony thought too. Her father kept his research at the Boston Darkhaven, not at home in London. I think he knew if anything happened to him, his work would be safest with her. I think he wanted her to be the one to find it, because he knew she would do something about it.”
Rafe had the past several hours to consider everything that had happened during his time with Devony. She had told him that her family pushed her away from law enforcement, tried to shelter her, but it seemed to him that her father understood what she was capable of. He knew the kind of strong, competent, determined woman she was.
Roland Winters had to know that if he left a torch burning behind him, no matter how dim, Devony would be the best person—perhaps the only one—he trusted to pick it up and run with it to the end.
Chase’s brows rose. “She’s a special woman. Takes courage to go after men like Ricardo Cruz and Judah LaSalle the way she did. And to think she meant to follow their trail all the way to Opus’s inner circle if it took her there? She had no idea what she was up against.”
“She didn’t care what she was up against,” Rafe said, unable to keep the pride out of his voice when he spoke about the woman he loved. “Devony wanted justice for what was done to her family. I don’t expect she’s changed her mind about that now. What happened here—the way I hurt her—isn’t going to slow her down for a minute.”
