“Me, either,” Athan said, jumping out of the vehicle andtucking his gun into his waistband. “Let’s assume the worst.”
His grandpa jumped out and strapped a gun to his thigh. Atthree thousand years old, Cathal Maxwell looked every inch the warrior he’dalways been. Experience had been stamped hard on his features, and as heprepared for battle, his eyes morphed to a startling copper.
Athan turned and sprinted through the rain, heading towardwhat appeared to be a one-story building. An explosion ripped through thenight, and they both paused. “Shit,” he muttered, ducking his head andlaunching into a full-out run.
Cathal followed suit, and they passed several sad and drearyapartment buildings before coming close to what appeared to be a motel thatlooked like it should be shut down. Several new SUVs idled in the parking lot,and smoke poured from one of the rooms.
“I’ll go left,” Athan said.
His grandfather nodded and moved to the right, both usingthe rain and the SUVs as cover. Athan reached the nearest one and found it empty.So, the Kurjans hadn’t had much time to prepare for this. He watched as a tallKurjan soldier, skin luminous in the storm, pulled Leah and Ivy out of theroom. They were both bent over and coughing as smoke surrounded them. AnotherKurjan brought his grandmother, and a third brought a sniveling human wholooked like he’d had his nose broken.
Athan crept closer. The nearest Kurjan lifted his head as ifcatching a scent. The storm had masked Athan just long enough. He leaped forward,shoved Ivy and Leah out of the way, and punched the Kurjan in the throat whilehis grandfather went for the second one.
The Kurjan in front of Athan leaned back, reached for hisweapon, and Athan yanked his knife from his boot and stabbed him, taking himdown to the ground and embedding the knife through his throat into the chippedconcrete.
The third Kurjan leaped for him and caught him in a tackle,and they rolled end over end across the sharp and jagged concrete littered withglass. Pain flared in Athan’s neck, and he flipped them over, quickly knockingthe younger soldier out with three sharp blows to the temple. The Kurjanstruggled, and a pin dropped to the ground before a grenade rolled out of hispocket.
“Shit,” Athan muttered, falling to the side and grasping thesoldier’s shirt to yank him up. The grenade exploded, throwing the guy intoAthan and knocking them both back several yards to hit and dent the SUV. TheKurjan fell unconscious.
Athan’s ears rang, and he shoved the body off him,staggering to his feet. He glanced over to see his grandfather straighteningand looking almost bored with a prone Kurjan at his feet.
“It was a new squad, and they were young,” Athan said,looking around.
His grandfather nodded. “Yeah. They must have been called inat the last second. Reinforcements should be coming soon.”
Athan stumbled toward his mate, who was staring wide-eyed atthe three Kurjans on the ground. “We have to go.” He looked around. “Where isLeah?” The woman was nowhere to be seen.
“Damn it,” his grandfather muttered.
ChapterThirteen
Everything hurt. Ivy lay still in the luxurious leatherrecliner and experienced the oddest sensation of healing cells popping over herbody. It was intriguing, even though her head felt like it had taken the fullbrunt of the explosion. Who would’ve expected they had grenades? Perhaps sheand Leah had been in over their heads a little bit, but how could they haveknown the Kurjans would show up?
The private jet was smooth through the sky and oddly quiet.She opened her eyelids to see Athan sitting across from her in a chair with thewounds down the side of his face slowly mending. While his body looked relaxed,lounged in the matching chair, and his expression was calm, his eyes wereanything but. The blues in his irises almost morphed to a pure golden colorthis time, and it wasn’t a pretty mellow gold. This was fierce and sharp andaimed at her.
She winced. “Sorry I got you blown up.”
A cut along his collarbone slowly mended. “You went in therewithout two thoughts, Ivy,” he murmured. “That’s not acceptable.”
She’d had a job to do, and she’d thought she had a goodplan. Apparently, not. “You know what we were doing?” She wondered how to fixher wrist, which was still sending out echoes of pain. It was a pretty goodbruise and a possible sprain, and she needed to fix it before the nextcampaign.
“I think I have the gist,” he said. “But you didn’t plan asyou should have, and taking my grams wasn’t wise.”
She threw up her hands. “We’ve been planning this formonths, and I tried to stop her.”
“How did that turn out?” he asked quietly.
That was a good point and one she didn’t want to admit.“Even so.” Irritation started to filter through the pain in her neck. “Itwould’ve turned out a lot better if the war between your family and the Kurjanshadn’t interfered,” she retorted. “You do realize that part of the reason thisop went bad was because of you.”
“This op?” he murmured. “You went from running a successfulfarm-friendly business to running ops?” His eyes flashed a heated blue. “Idon’t think so.”
She wasn’t going to sit in a posh plane and fight with himabout it. She’d gotten away from him once, and she could do it again. “Weclosed down that entire internet ring, and we’d do it again.” They had alreadyconfirmed that BlueEyes was in police headquarters, babbling a mile a minuteabout all his pervert friends. It was a success as far as she was concerned.“We’ll do better next time.”
“No next time.” A cut along his ear slowly mended. His phonedinged, and he lifted it from the table to read the screen. Then he eased itback down.
“What?” she asked.
He drew air in through his nose and exhaled slowly. “Mygrandfather questioned the Kurjan we took with us, and they have a line onyou.”
