Bren blew out a skeptical breath. “I think someone in your clan has gone haywire, and you’re trying to cover his tracks.” He glanced at the others. “I say we make her tell us who it is.”
Several men grabbed for her. She Catalyzed and blew out a swath of darts. Two hit targets, sending them to the floor. Several Catalyzed too, knocking tables and chairs across the room.
“Enough!” A shot rang out, and they all turned to see Ernie holding the gun aimed at the ceiling. His own Dragon eyes flickered fiercely. “You know the rules. No Catalyzing except in the Conference Room.”
“Fine, we’ll take it in there,” Bren said with a nod.
She went cold as she Catalyzed back to human and grabbed up her shredded clothes. If they all got her in there…
Ernie shook the gun. “No ganging up on one person, ignats. What kinda place you think I’m running here? She’s not the one killing your folk.”
“No, but she knows who is,” Toth said.
She shot Ernie a grateful look. He wasn’t Switzerland when it counted. Then she turned to the group. “I do. Lieutenant Alec Ferro of the Guard and his Carnelian cohort, identity unknown. Ferro’s a First Gen, by the way, whose sire is Drakos.”
More disbelief moved across their expressions. Clearly most of them knew Drakos was one of the Tryah.
She continued before they could start arguing with her again. “I’ve seen Ferro’s map of our territories, and he’s got yellow pins for potential targets. There was one in the Slade territory right before Paul was murdered. And another one in your territory, Bren. With Kaitlyn’s name written next to it.” She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, but now wasn’t the time to answer it. “Damn it, call your people, you…ignat.” She gave Ernie a look of solidarity, using his particular word for the Fringe favorite idjit.
Bren obviously wanted to give her a piece of his mind, but he yanked out his phone and called. “Where’s Kaitlyn?” After a pause, he said, “Go find her. Violet Castanega has some cockeyed idea that she’s in danger.” He aimed his narrow-eyed gaze at her. “Among other cockeyed ideas.”
They all waited for Bren to find out that Kaitlyn hadn’t been seen since that morning. A minute later, Bren said, “Well, go find her. That kid runs all over the place.”
Violet recalled the Carnelian’s hungry, vicious smile when the Slade girl had come running to Paul’s side. She slid her phone from her pocket and looked at the missed call information. Not a number she recognized. “I have to go.” She took them all in again, putting every bit of emotion in her eyes. “Please don’t be rash. Give me time to figure this out.”
Violet walked out, calling the number and watching her back at the same time. “It’s Violet. Someone from this number?—”
“This is your fault!” a woman screamed, tears thickening her voice.
“Who is this?”
“Mia Kavanaugh. I don’t know what you’re up to, but you got what you wanted.”
“Whoa, what happened?” Her chest was already tight, because it wasn’t good, not if Mia was calling like this.
“You made him crazy. He doesn’t care about his career, me, or his life. He threw it all away for you! And now they have him, and I can’t even see him, and?—”
“Slow down. The Guard has him?”
“He tried to kill his boss, just…snapped. That’s what Ferro said. Snapped. But he was fine when he left here to, um…”
“Kill me,” Violet finished quietly, hardly able to push the words out. She leaned against her car, her body sagging.
“For whatever you’ve done. Then he spends time with you and throws everything away. I can see how dangerous you are, why they want you dead, you manipulative, evil?—”
“No, you don’t see at all. Kade didn’t throw you away. He just didn’t want to involve you.” She needed to get Mia on her side, and to do that she had to calm her down. “Listen to me, Mia. He realized Ferro was involved in something devious, and that the order to kill me was only because I had figured it out. Once he killed Dune?—”
“He killed Dune! Oh, my gods, oh, my gods.”
“Dune was sent here to execute him. Kade had no choice. And once that happened, he knew he couldn’t go back.” She swallowed hard, because everything she said rang true. “He told you he’d fallen for me to piss you off and thus push you away, so you wouldn’t be dragged down like he was when your father tried to break that woman out of prison.”
“You know about that? He told you?” Mia’s outrage rocked the airwaves. “He didn’t tell me, but he told you. No, he’s crazy.”
“Mia, everything he did was to protect you. He was devastated by his father’s supposed betrayal. I could see it in his face, hear it in his voice. He was only trying to spare you the fallout by turning you against him. You’d then take the Guard’s side and be spared any retribution. I was mad at him when he did that, but I understand it now. My brothers would probably do the same for me.”
A moment of silence. “He is in love with you,” she said quietly. “He’s never shared his feelings with me about anything. Not our father’s death, not about everything he’d gone through.”
Violet let those words sink in. Was he in love with her? She was so turned around as far as Kade went. “Ferro is going to kill Kade because he knows too much. Did they hurt him?”
