Just like that, Nikolai and Luca stood. No hesitation.
“What?” I said, stunned. “Where are you going? What’s going on?”
I told them I wouldn’t do secrets.
“I’m sorry, we’ll talk more later,” he said, skirting around the topic, which was just another way to avoid telling me a thing.
“If you walk away, this isn’t going to go as smoothly as it was,” I said, my temper flaring. We’d just gotten past the deep conversations and were forging something real. “This is also important. I have to be a priority if you want this to work. I won’t be an afterthought.”
His face was unreadable. He was definitely keeping something from me.
“Are you going to tell me where you’re going?” I demanded again as he stared me down. There was conflict in his expression but the regret never left.
“Just some quick business,” he said with finality. “We’ll be back as soon as we can. This is too important.”
“And I’m not?” Tears burned in my eyes as I looked at Nikolai. “Nik?”
“I’m sorry,” Nikolai said.
And then they walked out of the restaurant without looking back.
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Luca
“She’s pissed,” I said into the awkward silence growing in the car. My fingers drummed nervously at the steering wheel.
“Livid,” Ronan confirmed. “But Victor said there was a development and this was a priority.”
“I thought he wasn’t happy with our decision to come here,” Nikolai pointed out.
“He wasn’t. I told him that we had more leads this way. Apparently, somebody had a problem with that.”
Nikolai narrowed his eyes and Ronan was quick to reassure him. “Don’t worry, he’s not angry about that part.”
“I don’t give a fuck if he’s angry about it. I need time with my omega.”
“We have time,” Ronan promised. “But, apparently, word got out about where we were heading, and now Dad thinks someone on the inside is trying to weaken the Crows and make it look like we were involved, not fixing the situation.”
“A mole?” I asked, surprised. How was this the first we were hearing of something this big?
“He’s not positive, but after we took out Spectre and took time off, three missions were sabotaged. All three hit at once, in fact.”
“Holy shit,” I said, stunned. “Our surveillance teams are better than that.”
Hell, our intel was better than that. No one should have been able to find out three locations of our men and use it against us.
“They are,” Ronan confirmed. “It was a little too convenient when all three teams were hit the moment they went in. It was an obvious trap. Making a fool out of Victor Crow means he’s on a warpath.”
We’d witnessed more than one meltdown from the man, but this one seemed justified.
“I had to walk away from my omega on day fucking two while we were finally talking,” Nikolai said, slamming his hand against the dashboard hard enough that I was shocked he didn’t get an airbag in the face.
“We’re going to have to work our ass off to earn that trust back, and we have to make it a point that they know we’re not going to constantly walk away every time something happens,” I pointed out. “What kind of pack are we if we’re fucking flaky? We should’ve taken the five minutes to explain this to them at the restaurant, and then I bet she would’ve had no problem with us leaving.”
“I realize that now,” Ronan said, his face tight. “I just didn’t want her to have to be involved. She has enough to deal with. We’ll bring them in now that we know more. I just needed to talk to my father somewhere that wasn’t in the middle of the fucking restaurant.”
