CHAPTER 16
Aric dropped an image file into a growing folder of possibles for Kaya to review, then moved on to the next hundred photos that waited on his tablet. It was painstaking work, visually scanning every image from the wedding for a glimpse of a dark head on a portly man who might turn out to be the one she saw leaving the reception. As tedious as the search was, without her having read Mercier’s thoughts, the Order wouldn’t even have this small advantage in their pursuit of Opus’s members.
He let out a heavy sigh, frowning when he considered the way Kaya had acted around him this morning.
They had shared an incredible night together. Hell, sunrise hadn’t been half-bad either. He might have been tempted to call it pretty damned close to perfect--if not for the dreadful news that had greeted them not long after they’d come back inside the command center.
The shocking daytime attack on a Darkhaven had put everyone in a grave mood.
In particular, Kaya.
For what wasn’t the first time, Aric checked the clock and wondered if he should have insisted on accompanying her for her run. It wasn’t that he worried for her safety necessarily. She had been trained to handle herself by some of the most capable members of the Order. She was strong-willed and physically fierce, but she was also shaken to her core by what they had witnessed today. He’d seen that in her eyes after they had returned from the crime scene, even though she had insisted she was fine.
When footsteps approached in the corridor, Aric glanced up, hoping it would be her. But the gait was all wrong, too heavy to be her graceful stride.
He exhaled a curse, leaning back in his seat as Rafe strode into the war room.
His comrade cocked his blond head in question. “Something wrong?”
“I thought you might be Kaya. I’m making some good progress on the photos and I need her help to put this task to bed.”
Rafe grunted, then pulled out the chair next to Aric and plopped into it uninvited. “You sure that’s the only thing you want to put to bed? You two seemed awfully friendly last night. I’ve seen you seduce your way around other females often enough to realize there’s something unusual going on with this one.”
“You’re one to talk,” Aric volleyed back. He wasn’t ready to think about how he really felt about Kaya, much less discuss it with Rafe. Instead, he opted for deflection. “Just how serious are you about this Siobhan O’Shea?”
“Shit,” Rafe said, going quiet for a long moment. “It’s serious. I’ve never met anyone like her, man. She’s beautiful and sweet and so damned innocent. I swear, there are times I wonder how someone as pure and lovely as her can be real. And the way she looks at me . . . like I’m her personal hero or something. It’s heady stuff.”
Aric smirked, reaching out to cuff his friend’s shoulder. “My condolences, brother. Sounds like you’ve got it bad.”
“Yeah. I guess I do.” He blew out a laugh, but his gaze was as solemn as Aric had ever seen it. “You want to hear something crazy? If I had to construct the perfect woman for myself, Siobhan is it to a T. I don’t know why fate decided to put her in my life, but now I can’t imagine letting her go.”
Aric chuckled. “Coming from you, that does sound crazy.”
In all the times they’d caroused together in Boston and more recently in D.C., Rafe had hardly given a second look to any of the countless women who’d tried to catch his eye. His blond mane and aquamarine eyes that turned heads everywhere he went had come from his beautiful mother, Tess. His magnetism with the fairer sex had been a gift passed down from his father, Dante, one of the Order’s most dangerous and revered commanders. With his fallen angel appeal and the dark charm and swagger of the devil himself, Rafe could have any woman he desired.
That the golden warrior was smitten with a timid little waif like Siobhan O’Shea made little sense to Aric, but who was he to question his friend’s heart?
“Gotta say, never thought I’d see the day you let a woman get under your skin like this,” he told him. “Be careful, brother, or you might end up falling in love.”
The fact that he didn’t deny it or at least come back with a smartass reply told Aric just how captivated he was with the Irish Breedmate.
“I just want to keep her safe,” Rafe murmured. “After the hell she’s been through, she deserves some happiness. I want her to know she can trust me to protect her.”
Aric nodded. He was getting a taste of that feeling himself when it came to Kaya. Except her trust seemed hard to win--maybe even impossible. And while she had definitely survived an awful past, she was far from in need of anyone’s rescue. It was a fact that made him respect her even more than if she had been a delicate innocent in search of a hero to save her.
In fact, if he had been pressed to describe his ideal mate she would be a lot like Kaya. Smart, driven, independent. Someone strong and resilient like his own mother, Tavia, or Renata, women who were indomitable despite their scars.
And it didn’t hurt that Kaya was a stunning brunette beauty with a killer body and legs that went on for days.
But he wasn’t looking for a mate. Unlike his friend Rafe, he wasn’t about to let himself careen head over heels just because he was having a good time with a woman any male would be damned lucky to have in his bed.
Or as his blood-bonded Breedmate.
Why the thought of Kaya with anyone else should set his teeth and fangs on edge, Aric didn’t know--and didn’t care to examine, either.
He was here to do a job, then get on with his life.
Which meant getting his ass back to D.C. as soon as possible, before he was tempted to let things get complicated with Kaya. So far, their relationship was simple. They worked well together. God knew they fit well together physically too. But that was as far as he could allow it to go with her. One and done. No strings attached and no promises of anything more.
Fortunately, Kaya seemed to feel likewise.
Aric told himself it was a good thing.
He glanced at Rafe, arching a brow. “So, what are you saying? You think she might be The One?”
“Like I said, crazy, right?” Rafe grew quiet, then expelled a long breath and stood up. “Listen, I didn’t come all the way down here just for relationship counseling.”
Aric snorted. “That’s a relief.”
“Niko wants to see us in his office in about ten minutes. Sounds like we’re going to be staying in Montreal until after the baby is born.”
“Shit. That could be days.” Just what he needed, more time under the same roof with the temptation of Kaya Laurent too close for his peace of mind.
Rafe studied him. “You got somewhere else pressing that you need to be?”
“If I were smart, anywhere but here,” he muttered under his breath as he rose from his chair.
They exited the war room and headed up the corridor that would take them to the living quarters of the attached mansion.
“I doubt it’s going to be days before the baby arrives,” Rafe told him as they walked. “The way Renata looked in the meeting yesterday, she could go anytime. Niko’s already asked to put me on standby to help out if she goes into labor before my mother and the rest of the Order arrives for the birth.”
Aric chuckled. “My sympathies to Renata and the baby, if you’re their best option for a midwife.”
“Fuck you very much,” Rafe said, grinning at the jab.
As they headed out toward the residential wing of the mansion, Rafe’s demeanor turned somber. “Speaking of infants and new mothers, Mira told me about the situation at that Darkhaven this morning. Jesus, what kind of monster ashes a baby in its crib?”
Aric’s blood seethed at the reminder. “The soon-to-be-dead kind, if I have anything to say about it. People like that won’t stop until they’ve seen our entire race scorched from existence.”
“People like Opus Nostrum,” Rafe said grimly.
Aric shrugged. “Opus may have supplied the ultraviolet rounds, but I’m not convinced they ordered this hit. Someone did this for kicks. Out of a sadistic glee. And if bastards like that have access to UV weapons, today’s slayings won’t be the last.”
“Nikolai’s already been in contact with headquarters,” Rafe informed him. “He and Gideon are trying to trace the bullet casing you retrieved from the Darkhaven attack to the samples we took from our raid on Fineas Riordan’s place in Dublin last week.”
“They’ll be a match,” Aric said. Every instinct he had told him there was little doubt on that score. “There’s no telling how much of that shit he’d been able to push out to other Opus members before we destroyed his stockpiles. Now, we have to worry that Opus could be putting this kind of firepower into the hands of rebels and hate groups who’ve been itching for the chance to start wiping us out.”
He and Rafe were in the hallway just outside the mansion’s kitchen. The aromas of fresh fruits, baked goods, and coffee wafted out, along with the sounds of female voices. Kaya’s among them.
Rafe detoured without explanation--not that Aric had to guess what drew the warrior into the room. Siobhan sat beside Renata at the counter of the kitchen island, a dainty teacup clutched in her hands. The instant she saw Aric’s friend, her pretty face lit up with an adoring smile.
“Hey, beautiful.” Rafe walked up to her and pressed an intimate kiss below her ear.
Oh, yeah. He was doomed, all right.
As for Aric, he wasn’t sure what to think when his gaze collided with Kaya’s. Still dressed for her run, she stood on the opposite side of the island from Siobhan and Renata, eating an apple. She set down the fruit, looking uncomfortable as he followed Rafe into the kitchen.
“I was just about to go down and find you.”
Her eyes flicked away from him as she spoke. Aric didn’t have her ability to read minds, but he didn’t need it in order to tell that she was avoiding him for some reason. He’d gotten the same sense earlier, but now everything about her body language and anxious gaze said he was just about the last person she wanted to talk to.
Before she had left the command center, he’d been willing to dismiss her withdrawn demeanor as merely aftershocks of the horror they’d encountered at the Darkhaven crime scene. Now, though, he wondered if there was something more he wasn’t seeing.
Maybe her run had given her time enough to regret letting him make love to her.
Hell, he probably ought to regret it, too, but that wasn’t the feeling he had when he looked at her. After reassuring himself for most of the morning that one taste of Kaya’s sweet body would be enough to sate him for the duration of his time in Montreal, he stood there now, riveted to the sight of her flushed cheeks and the pulse that ticked in a frantic rhythm at the base of her throat.
Renata glanced between them, her gaze shrewdly curious. “Are you two making much progress on the photos from the wedding?”
“As of now, we’ve got them narrowed down to a few hundred potentials,” Aric replied. “Assuming we can find Mercier’s Opus contact among the crowds of attendees in the images, all we’ll need to do is run a comparison against the guest list and we’ll have our man.”
“Unless the bastard wasn’t invited,” Rafe said, his fingers toying with a tendril of Siobhan’s strawberry-blonde hair.
“The wedding and reception were locked down as tight as a presidential visit,” Kaya interjected. “No one got through the gate without a thorough security check.”
Aric gave her an ironic look. “Not unless they had someone like Gideon to construct a reasonable cover for them, that is.”
Renata nodded. “And infiltrating an event like that wouldn’t be the boldest thing Opus has ever done. Their loyalists could be anywhere.”
“Even among the security detail at the Rousseau estate,” Rafe pointed out. He glanced at Kaya. “For all we know, that guard who confronted you and shot Aric could have been allegiant to Opus--or working as an operative. That could explain why he said he thought he knew you. The Order’s only been aware of Opus Nostrum for a few weeks, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been studying us for far longer. Maybe they have more intel on the Order and our members than we realize.”
“Maybe,” she answered quietly, giving him a faint shrug.
Renata let out a curse. “It’s one thing for the bastards to come after us. What happened at that Darkhaven today has crossed a hard red line. If it turns out that Opus is putting ultraviolet rounds and weaponry into the hands of rebels or other hate-mongers, then we need to unleash hell on all of them.”
Siobhan glanced up at Rafe. “UV weapons? Oh, my God. What happened today?”
“Something terrible,” he answered gently. “But Opus and the rest of the animals who did it are going to pay--with a lot of blood and death if the Order has anything to say about it.”
As he spoke, Mira strode into the kitchen with Kellan, both of their faces lit with excitement.
“We just got a positive ID on our shredded delivery guy over in Pointe-Claire.” She held up a tablet displaying the face of the human corpse they’d found in the Darkhaven foyer this morning. “Rahul Gales. Or, ‘Repo,’ as he’s more commonly known to both law enforcement and the scumbags he runs with on a regular basis.”
Mira set the device down on the island countertop for everyone to see. Aric scrolled through the collection of mugshots, rap sheets, and other reports documenting a life of poverty, larceny, drug abuse, and assorted hate crimes.
“Do we know anything else about him?”
Kellan nodded. “Last week, Gales got picked up by JUSTIS for selling narcotics down in Dorval. The guy who bailed him out, Angus Mackie, is a real piece of work too. Most of his underlings call him ‘Big Mack.’ He owns a seedy bar in Dorval, a known hangout for gangs and other criminals.”
“Right,” Mira said. “Mackie’s only been in Montreal for the last decade, but he’s got a long record too.”
She touched the screen and brought up another photo and arrest record. Numerous felonies filled the display, everything from assault to murder. The fact that a killer like him wasn’t rotting in a prison cell somewhere was a question for another day. Because what struck Aric more than anything else was one of the evidence photos taken of Angus Mackie following one of his arrests.
The image showed the human bared from the waist up, covered in bruises and lacerations. A collection of tattoos rode Mackie’s chest and arms, crosses and stars and Gaelic symbols. But there was one tattoo on the criminal’s right pectoral that made Aric’s blood run cold.
He glanced up at Rafe. “Jesus Christ. Do you see that?”
“Holy hell.” His friend’s face hardened with grim realization. “A black scarab.”
Aric nodded. “He’s one of Riordan’s men.”
“Fineas Riordan?” Siobhan’s eyes went wide at the mention of the infamous crime lord from Dublin. “I thought he was dead. I thought the Order killed him recently.”
“We did,” Rafe replied, stroking her arm. “And if this Angus Mackie turns out to have received UV weaponry from the bastard before we took Riordan out, then Big Mack is next on the list for extermination.”
Renata eased herself up from her seat at the island. “I’ll go tell Niko what we’ve found. He’ll want to alert D.C. right away.”
“Hang on, Rennie. I’ll go with you,” Mira said, more than likely an excuse to ensure the pregnant Breedmate made the long walk without issues.
The prospect of closing in on someone not only involved in the Darkhaven attack but also linked to a known Opus member had Aric’s warrior instincts itching with the need for combat. But he couldn’t dismiss the fact that Kaya was still pointedly avoiding his gaze.
She tossed her half-eaten apple into the trash. “I should go clean up and get back to work on those photos.”
Aric nodded in acknowledgment, but when she slipped out of the kitchen without another word, he couldn’t resist following her to the hallway. He reached out and loosely caught her arm.
“Kaya. You okay?”
“Sure.” Her attempt to seem nonchalant was just that--an attempt. She drew out of his grasp and folded her arms over her breasts. “Sorry my run took a little longer than I planned. I hope I didn’t hold you up.”
He shrugged. “Don’t worry about me. Seemed like you needed to sort a lot of things out today.”
“I guess I did.” She gave him a faint nod, then started to walk away.
“So, did you?” He knew he should let her go, not only right now but in all the other ways that mattered as well. But her walls had gone up like skyscrapers between the time they’d come back from the crime scene in Pointe-Claire to now.
Especially now.
She paused, turning a frown on him. “Did I, what?”
“Sort everything out.”
“I’m working on it.”
He advanced toward her, unable to stop his feet from closing the distance. He couldn’t resist touching her again, too, just the lightest stroke of his palm against her cheek. She drew away, slowly, yet resolutely.
He scowled. “Are you upset with me?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” A clipped reply, too abrupt to be believed. “I’m tired and I have the stink of the city on me. I just want to go and take a long, hot shower.”
He stared at her, certain she wasn’t being honest with him. He had seen Kaya operate at her determined maximum before, and he realized that’s what she was doing now. She couldn’t get away from him fast enough, but why, he wasn’t certain.
“Are you acting like this because of last night?” Damn it, he hadn’t meant for it to come out like a demand, but there it was. He uttered a low curse, then tried for a more controlled timbre. “Is this about you and me having sex, Kaya?”
She exhaled a sharp breath and shook her head. “Don’t flatter yourself, warrior. It was just sex. I thought we both understood that.”
“Yeah, it was,” he answered, cautious in the face of how cool she was reacting toward him. It didn’t help that some part of him he didn’t recognize balked at the idea that the time they spent talking and making love on top of that steep ledge hadn’t changed them both somehow.
“Good,” she said. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, will you please let me go?”
Damn. She really meant it. As passionate and responsive as she’d been with him when they made love, now she was shuttered and distant. Completely closed off to him.
Aric stepped back without another word, giving her space to leave.
And she did.
Pivoting on her heel, she left him standing there stonewalled and confused, like the idiot he apparently was.