Page 75 of Ignited

Then came the tricky part—getting Riker to agree to take Bro and Karisma to Maximilian, to make the deal in person.

Riker protested at first. Bro was insistent.

“I don’t trust you,” he said flatly. “You’re a backstabbing, traitorous bastard. I deal with your boss, face to face, or I take this deal elsewhere. And I’ll have protections in place, to make sure I get out alive. Tell him he can take it or leave it.”

“I’ll run it by him and see what he says.” Riker cut off the call.

They all looked at each other. Thanatos was leaning forward, his body language appearing almost eager.

Which, as far as Karisma knew, was not like him at all.

It was only fifteen minutes before the call came back. “He’ll do it,” Riker said. “You have twenty-four hours to get the tiger and the items to these coordinates.” He read them out to Bro. “Come alone—no one else. I’ll meet you and escort you to the boss.”

Bro looked at Gunn, and then Thanatos. Gunn had checked the coordinates, and they matched the location DB had found. They both said, “Take the deal.”

Bro agreed—and it was done.

They ended up having to postpone Christmas. Final mission prep went into high gear. And even though DB was worldwalking everyone to Canada—eliminating the need for travel time—no one could focus on celebrating when teams were going off into danger.

“When you’re all back safe,” Breanna said, hugging Boomer, Karisma and Bro before they left. “It’s going to be an awesome Christmas.”

Karisma sure as hell hoped so—but she couldn’t shake the feeling that the timing was a bad, bad omen.

Boomer had never been this antsy before a mission. Had never been less able to block out visions of all the thousand and one things that could go wrong.

He’d never worried like this about Bro’s missions either; much as he loved his brother, being soldiers was what they did. And his brother was fucking indestructible—at least, as far as military action was concerned.

It was Karisma. No matter how much he respected her toughness, her experience, and her courage, sending his mate into a hostage situation without him was almost more than his wolf could handle.

They were mates now. Part of each other. And he couldn’t help but feel, deep down inside him, that the universe or the gods or whatever were going to slap him down for trying to hold on to something so beautiful, so right.

Something he didn’t deserve.

They had one last briefing for the mission teams, before gating to their various locations. They went over the plan: Bro and Karisma meeting Riker, and getting taken to Maximilian’s lair. The strike teams going in—Boomer’s crew to cause loud explody diversions to draw off some of the guards, and another team to engage as many of the rest of the guards as possible, and keep the staff under wraps.

DB, Thanatos, Mikey and Gunn waiting in the spirit world just outside the warded section of Maximilian’s lair, ready to gate inside once Karisma was in place.

“And then we kill the bastard,” Boomer said.

Which was when Thanatos, chief bastard of all bastards, dropped his bombshell. He said sharply, “We are not going to kill him.”

Karisma’s head went up. “What? Since when?”

Thanatos’ gravelly voice was at its most authoritative. “I want to make this very clear. Maximilian must be taken alive.”

The air filled with outraged protests.

Thanatos said implacably, “He has vital information that will be lost on his death. Too much is at stake.” His hood surveyed the room, focusing on each of the main players individually. “Not to mention that if he dies, those connected to him through the Orb could die with him.”

Which meant almost everybody in the room. And Karisma would be the first to go.

One of these days, Boomer really was going to punch Thanatos right in the hood.

All too soon, it was time to go. Boomer fought the urge to cling to Karisma, hold her safe, never let her go. Call the whole thing off.

But he couldn’t. All he could do was hug her hard, and say, “You can do this, Kittycat. It’s the final step, full circle, and this time we’re going to take him down.”

“Damn straight.” He could see the determination in her eyes. “I’m counting on having you at my back.”