Chase grunted, clearly unmoved. “If he really wanted to protect her, he never would’ve taken up with my daughter in the first place. I’d like to kill the bastard for that alone.”
Dante glanced around his mate, Tess. “Come on, Harvard,” he said, using a nickname he’d given Chase years ago. “You could say that about any one of us at this table when we met our mates—you included. So, don’t judge him too harshly on that point, man.”
A lot of warriors’ heads nodded in agreement, both around the table and on the monitors. Even Lucan had to admit that what Dante said was true.
“And don’t be too quick to execute, either,” Mathias added. “Let’s all remember that Aedan Riordan is not just his father’s son. He’s also Nova’s brother.”
The tattooed Breedmate threaded her slender fingers through Mathias’s and gave him a sad smile.
As much as Lucan sympathized with the complicated emotional situation in front of them, first and foremost, the Order had a dangerous enemy to contend with.
“We need to get our hands on Riordan, and anyone who stands in the way of that mission will leave us no choice but to take them out. Anyone,” he said, casting a sober look at Mathias and Nova, and at Chase and Tavia. “We need Fineas Riordan alive for questioning. Between Tegan and Hunter, I have no doubt we’ll be able to wring out everything the bastard knows about Opus Nostrum and his comrades in that cabal.”
The pair of lethal Gen Ones inclined their heads in agreement. Tegan’s touch could siphon out the truth from even the most unwilling subject, and nothing could hide from Hunter’s ability to read blood memories.
Wolfish-looking Kade chuckled darkly on the other side of the table and nodded in the direction of the scarred warrior seated near him. “If Riordan doesn’t respond to those lines of questioning, let Rio here put his hands on him for a few seconds. Once Riordan feels his life leaking away, I’ll bet all of his Opus secrets will start spilling out.”
On one of the monitors, the Order’s German-born commander, Andreas Reichen, cleared his throat. “If the rumors in Europe are true, it sounds like Opus has been acquiring new chemical technology recently.”
Lucan wasn’t the only one to mutter a curse at that newsflash. “They already have access to liquid UV light weaponry. What other kind of chemical technology should we be looking for?”
“You won’t like it,” Andreas said. “There’s underground talk about a new, extremely powerful narcotic. Something that turns even the most docile Breed into a mindless, bloodthirsty savage.”
“We’ve been hearing the same thing in Rome the past few days,” Lazaro Archer said from his feed on another of the conference room monitors.
“Jesus Christ,” Dante hissed. “Sounds too much like Crimson.”
Twenty-odd years ago, a red, powder-based club drug had cropped up in Boston and elsewhere. It had spread like wildfire, and had cut a deep gash in the Breed communities, turning good sons into blood-addicted Rogues.
Sterling Chase had been one of the first to go after the drug and its creator. It was that quest that had brought him to the Order in the first place.
And if Opus had a similar narcotic now, they wouldn’t be the first to use it as a weapon against those who crossed them. More than one person seated around the table here tonight could attest to that firsthand.
Chase’s expression was stark and contemplative now, even after Tavia gently took his hand in hers in a show of affection and support.
“This news is all the more reason we can’t delay any longer,” Lucan said. “Riordan’s our best lead on the Opus brotherhood right now. We may have already tipped our hand by going after that lawyer in Dublin. We can’t give Riordan any more time to prepare for a strike.”
He glanced to Gideon. “We’re going to need all of your recon data on Riordan’s stronghold. Start monitoring who’s coming and going, how many men he has. We need assessments of his security setup, possible arms, all of it.”
Gideon nodded. “I can be ready to brief everyone within the hour.”
“Good. I want us mobilized and ready to crash his fucking gates tomorrow night.”
Mathias met Lucan’s gaze. “I can have my team on the ground in Dublin and ready to meet us with vehicles and any other arms and equipment we’ll need. Just tell me what you want, and it’ll be there waiting.”
“Excellent,” Lucan said.
On the third video monitor, Nikolai, the Order’s commander of the Montreal team, started to chuckle beside his very pregnant Breedmate, Renata, a formidable warrior in her own right. “It’s been a while since we all went out on a mission together. Gotta tell ya, I’m feeling kind of left out over here.”
Renata pinned him with a widened stare. “Oh, no, you don’t. If I’m grounded from this mission because of your son’s pending arrival, so are you, vampire. You’re the one who put us in this position, after all.”
Niko grinned. “And once he’s finally here, I can’t wait to get us in a whole bunch of other positions.”
Amid the laughter circling the room, Chase turned a serious look on Lucan. “Getting our hands on Riordan is key, but we also need to consider the lead Brynne’s given us on the GNC member in London, Neville Fielding. If the human is connected to Opus, then as soon as Riordan is compromised, Fielding and the rest of the organization is going to batten down their hatches. We could drive them all to ground, and lose a prime advantage.”
Lucan agreed. “Ideally, we should go after both men at the same time. Our investigation into Fielding will need to be totally covert. He can’t know we’re on to him.”
“He’s going to be preoccupied with other things for the next couple of days,” Tavia said. “Brynne mentioned that his daughter is engaged. Fielding is hosting a reception for her at his home tomorrow night.”
Lucan grunted. “As much as I’d like to, we can’t storm the party with a team of heavily armed warriors.”
“No,” Chase said. “But Brynne will be there.”
Tavia eyed him cautiously. “She’s JUSTIS, Sterling. We can’t ask her to do the Order’s work, even if she would be willing to defy her own organization to help us. She’d be risking her entire career.”
“So, we send someone in with her instead. Someone who can slip away during the event and collect whatever intel or evidence there is to find onsite.”
Lucan shook his head. “All of the warriors are too recognizable, even in civilian clothes. So are our mates. For that matter, any uninvited Breed male will be conspicuous. They’ll be noted by Fielding and all of his security as soon as they arrive.”
Tavia exhaled a short breath. “All of this assumes my sister will be open to having an Order presence there with her at all.”
“We may not be able to give her that choice,” Lucan replied. “She’s given us her word that she’s allied with us on getting rid of Opus Nostrum. We’re going to need her full cooperation on this if we want to get to Fielding before the shit hits the fan with Riordan.”
“Speaking of allies,” Dante put in now. “Am I the only one just a bit freaked out that we have an Atlantean in the headquarters with us tonight?”
“I doubt anyone’s more taken aback by Zael than my Dylan,” Rio said, as he wrapped an arm around his mate.
Dylan frowned. A quiet wonder was written across her pretty, freckled face. “I still can’t believe it’s him—my birth father—after all this time. For the past twenty years, he was only a photo I’d been saving. He was just an intriguing mystery that my mom took to her grave. Now, he’s real.”
On the other side of Lucan, Gabrielle leaned forward, smiling warmly at the other woman. “It looked like the two of you had a nice reunion today.”
“We did,” Dylan said. “We talked for hours, about everything. I think I could’ve talked to him for a week and I’d still have a thousand questions.”
“We all have more questions for Zael,” Lucan said. “We need to know more about everything. The queen. The colony. The crystals.”
Jenna smirked. “Well, he doesn’t seem in a hurry to leave. He’s been camped out in the archive room most of the day. I think he plans to read the entire library before he goes.”
Brock grunted. “I’m sure it didn’t hurt that you were in there with him. That immortal has an eye for the ladies. He could hardly keep his tongue in his mouth around you.”
Jenna’s brows lifted. “You sound jealous, lover. I like it.”
Brock grumbled something under his breath, but his gaze was smoldering on his mate.
The meeting started to dissolve into side conversations and chatter. With the rising din of voices, the soft rap on the conference room door was barely audible. It came again, more determined this time.
“Enter.” Lucan raised his head, expecting to see Darion or one of the other Boston team members not included in the Order’s meeting of elders.
But it was Carys Chase.
She stepped into the room, her head held high with purpose. With a troubling resolve.
Her mother was the first to speak. “Is everything okay, sweetheart?”
“Nothing is okay,” she said. “I can’t take another second of waiting. I can’t take the not knowing. I’m scared for Rune, and I can’t sit here doing nothing.”
Tavia frowned. “What do you want to do?”
“I want to help.” Carys glanced past her parents, directly at Lucan. “I’m not a warrior. I don’t have any training. I know that. But I’m Breed. I can do something useful, can’t I?”
“Out of the question,” Chase interjected. “I won’t allow it, Carys.”
She turned a pained look on him and slowly shook her head. “I’m not here to ask for your permission. I’m asking to be taken seriously. To be given a chance—”
Her father’s gaze narrowed. “Like hell you don’t need my permission.”
“Would you be saying this to me if I were Aric?”
It was a direct hit, and everyone in the room felt it hit the mark. Chase said nothing, simmering in a dark silence.
For a long while, no one said anything.
Then Tavia reached over and put her hand on Chase’s. Her bright gaze traveled to Lucan and all of the other Order members and mates in the room. “Maybe there is something Carys can do to help us.”
CHAPTER 29
The assignment hadn’t been what Carys expected, but after sleeping on the idea of the Order’s proposed mission, she’d woken up in her guest room that next morning in the D.C. headquarters feeling energized and ready to prove her worth.
Knowing that whatever intel she helped to collect from the London GNC official’s house this evening could be used to bring the Order closer to defeating Opus Nostrum only made her all the more eager to get started.
“Someone’s up early.” Brynne sailed into the kitchen, already dressed for travel in a crisp button-down and dark slacks. “Usually I’m the only one awake and walking around before sunrise.”
Carys swiveled her head away from her coffee and toast to smile at the other daywalker. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“Anxious about the party tonight, or about the Order’s mission in Dublin?”
“Both,” Carys admitted, watching Brynne walk over and put a kettle on for tea. “What I’m worried about most of all is Rune.”
And worry was only part of what she felt for him. She ached without him.
She felt marrow-chilling fear and unbearable dread to think that he was back in the company of the father who’d hurt him, betrayed him. Abused him so hideously.
Brynne leaned against the counter and faced her. “You really care about this male, don’t you?” She tilted her head, frowning as if she was trying to make sense of the idea. “You can forgive him even though he lied to you?”
Carys let out a sigh. “I forgave him as soon as it happened. I understand why he lied, and it doesn’t make me care any less. Haven’t you ever loved someone, Brynne?”
“No. I haven’t.” She blinked, then lifted her shoulder in a shrug. “Like your mother, for the first twenty years of my life, I didn’t even really know who, or what, I was. My handler controlled everything I did, everyone I came in contact with. I grew up thinking I was unwell, some kind of freak. After the truth came out—after the manufactured life I’d been living was exposed as a lie—I felt I needed to start my life all over again. After wasting all of those years, I wanted to do something purposeful, something real. Most of all, I never wanted to allow anyone to control me ever again. I don’t ask for permission. And I don’t let anyone tell me no.”
Carys recalled her advice from the other day in Boston. “As you told me, if I really want something, I have to reach for it.”
“And you did.” Brynne smiled in acknowledgment. “I’ll be glad to have you with me tonight at the councilman’s party. With your shadow-bending ability and photographic memory, you couldn’t be more perfect for the task.”
Carys nodded. “At least I’ll have something to keep my mind occupied while I wait for word about the mission to Riordan’s place.”
“We’re going to be kept in constant contact once the Order arrives in Dublin. You’ll also be wired to Gideon here in D.C. while you’re in Fielding’s house. I’m sure everything’s going to be fine.”
Carys hoped she was right about that. But the simple truth was, no one had been able to promise her that she’d see Rune again. They couldn’t make that promise.
Rune’s fate was in his own hands now.
And as much as Carys wanted to be with her father and the rest of the Order when they stormed Riordan’s stronghold tonight, she knew they would never permit it.
Her thoughts were heavy as she finished her toast and drank the last of her coffee. “Our flight will be leaving soon,” she murmured. “I should say my goodbyes and get my things.”
Brynne nodded, palming her steaming cup of tea. “We can go as soon as you’re ready.”
~ ~ ~
The sunrise beckoned Brynne outside. Taking her cup of tea onto the stone courtyard and gardens behind the Order’s expansive mansion, she inhaled the crisp morning air as she drifted to the edge of the terraced patio.
Fragrant clusters of roses and peonies perfumed the gentle breeze, along with another, more exotic scent that drew her attention toward the far left of the sprawling courtyard.
A man stood there.
The Atlantean.
Shirtless, barefoot, dressed only in a pair of faded jeans that hung low on his hips. His eyes were closed and his arms were opened wide, his head tipped back in silent meditation under the peachy hues of the early morning sun.
Amid last night’s chaos at the Order’s headquarters, Brynne hadn’t seen the immortal who’d come to meet with Lucan Thorne earlier that week. But there was no mistaking the golden male now.
His smooth, sun-kissed skin glistened in the warm light. His shoulder-length waves made her fingers itch with the urge to test the copper-shot strands to see if they felt as silky as they looked. She scowled at the thought and gripped her cup of tea bit tighter.
Still, she couldn’t pull her gaze away from him. Even motionless, power radiated off his strong, lean body and muscled limbs. Every inch of him seemed lovingly sculpted by a master who appreciated each graceful curve of sinew and velvety plane of skin.
God, he was beautiful.
No other word for him. Brynne’s mouth watered as she studied him over the rim of her cup. An uninvited stirring made her sink her teeth into her bottom lip. A small moan began to uncurl in the back of her throat, but she mentally tamped it down.
At least, she thought she had.
Apparently not.
Because at that same instant the Atlantean’s squared chin dropped and his head swiveled in her direction. Tropical blue eyes collided with her appalled and embarrassed gaze.
It was already too late to pretend she hadn’t been gawking, but Brynne’s feet were in motion anyway. She pivoted to make a hasty escape—and to her horror, she fumbled her cup of tea.
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“Shit!”
The cup slipped out of her grasp, smashing onto the patio bricks. Tea geysered upward like a small fountain and shards of delicate china exploded in all directions.
“Shit, shit, shit!” Brynne dropped to a crouch and began collecting the mess.
“Here, let me help you with that.”
She did not want to look up and acknowledge the decadently deep voice or the man it belonged to. Although there was no ignoring him—not when he’d stood across the courtyard from her, and most certainly not when he was hunkered down next to her, half-naked and radiating preternatural heat and masculine power.
This close, his unearthly spicy scent licked at all of her senses. And everything female in her responded, no matter how hard she tried to pretend he didn’t affect her.
“I’ve got it,” she murmured, her voice coming out of her in breathy rasp. “It’s just a broken cup. There’s no need to help me.”
“I know there’s no need,” he said, continuing to pick up the errant pieces.
Brynne blew out a sharp sigh. “I’m not usually so clumsy. I don’t know how I did this.”
“You must’ve been distracted by something.”
Did she hear him correctly? And was that the hint of a chuckle in his voice?
As much as she wanted to get away from him without so much as a glance at his too-close, handsome face, her head snapped up. He was staring at her, a grin tugging at the corners of his sensual mouth. And the arrogant gleam in his incredible blue eyes was unmistakable.
“I wasn’t distracted,” she informed him tightly. “I don’t get distracted.”
“No? So, you came out here deliberately to watch me?” His cocky grin widened. “I’m flattered.”
Why the hell her stomach should be doing a little flip at his teasing was beyond her. And why her pulse was suddenly hammering in a tempo too eager to be outrage, she really didn’t want to know.
Brynne tilted her head at him, frowning. “What you are is mistaken. And I’m perfectly capable of picking up after myself, so if you don’t mind . . .”