“Not to mention a lot of his bodily fluids,” Rafe added with a smirk.
“Will all of the Order’s commanders be here tonight?” Siobhan asked in between bites of her omelet.
Rafe shook his head. “Not all. Lucan Thorne and his mate Gabrielle are coming, of course. Along with Aric’s parents, and mine.”
“Carys too,” Aric put in. “She called me as soon as she heard about the baby’s birth. She and her mate Rune are on the jet with the others. Darion Thorne’s with them as well.”
“Don’t forget Rio and his Breedmate, Dylan,” Kaya added.
Aric gave her a warm nod. “That’s right. The ceremony doesn’t start without the godparents being present.”
“As for the others,” Rafe said, “Gideon and Savannah will be holding down the fort in D.C. along with Brock and Jenna. Commander Hunter and his mate Corinne have just returned to New Orleans to deal with a Rogue outbreak in that city. Kade and Alexandra are back at the command center in Lake Tahoe for the same reason. Unfortunately, our European commanders have fires of their own to put out as well, so neither Mathias Rowan nor Lazaro Archer will be at the ceremony, either.”
“What about Tegan and Elise?” Aric asked.
Rafe shook his head, his face oddly grim. “They’re on the way to Budapest.”
“Isn’t that where Micah was sent recently? Some kind of black ops mission for the Order?”
“That’s the last we heard,” Rafe confirmed. “Apparently, there’s been a development.”
The way the warrior said that word gave Kaya the sense that it wasn’t anything good. The fact that Micah’s parents had gone after their reputably formidable warrior son only confirmed the unease she felt.
Siobhan, being civilian, seemed to miss the gravity of the conversation. “Well, even without the ones you mentioned, it sounds like quite a full guest list to me.”
“It’s too bad everyone won’t be here.” Rafe gently covered her hand with his. “Sooner or later, I’d like all of the Order to meet you.”
Kaya couldn’t keep her surprised gaze from meeting Aric’s. He lifted his thick shoulder in a shrug as his comrade tipped his lover’s face up for a tender kiss.
Aric cleared his throat, whether in payback for the interruption Rafe and Siobhan’s arrival in the kitchen has caused him or out of the same awkwardness Kaya felt as an audience to the other couple’s passion, she couldn’t be sure.
“Keep that shit up and we’ll be celebrating another howling infant nine months from now,” Aric drawled as his friend drew back from his woman.
Rafe chuckled, his eyes still rooted on Siobhan. “We’re not blood-bonded yet. Not for my lack of interest in pursuing the idea.”
She dropped her gaze and pushed some of the egg around on her plate. “Everything’s just moving a little fast for me, that’s all.”
“I know, angel. Can I help it that I’m absolutely crazy about you?”
Their affection for each other was almost too much for Kaya to take. That Rafe was mad for the female anyone could plainly see. Siobhan seemed equally taken with him, but there were shadows in the Breedmate’s hazel eyes that made Kaya wonder how tall and thick were the walls around Siobhan’s heart?
Rafe didn’t seem to notice. Or maybe he had enough hope for both of them to assume that eventually they would be able to knock those walls down together.
Hope that she and Aric would never have unless she was willing to come clean to the Order about her past. Bad enough that she had kept it from them all this time. Now, she had the failed raid on Angus Mackie weighing heavily on her conscience.
Reminded of all the obstacles standing in the way of anything she might have with Aric, Kaya went back to her work. As she reviewed the collections of photos, then shuffled and reviewed them again, Aric and Rafe went back to discussing Order business and speculating on the far-reaching tentacles of Opus Nostrum’s secret brotherhood.
Siobhan finished her meal and slid off the stool to carry her plate to the sink. On her way back, she paused at the table and glanced at the various groupings of images.
“Still haven’t found him, aye?”
“Not yet,” Kaya said. “But he’s in here somewhere. He can’t hide forever.”
“No.” Siobhan gave a sympathetic tilt of her head. “No one can.”
Although the comment wasn’t directed at her, Kaya’s nape prickled with warning as she watched the Breedmate walk away and fold herself under Rafe’s protective arm. Was it possible that Siobhan could suspect her of keeping secrets from the Order? Or was it merely Kaya’s guilty conscience that made heart suddenly begin to bang around like a trapped bird inside her rib cage?
God, she was going to lose her mind if she didn’t put an end to this self-torment soon.
Unable to concentrate now, she swept the photographs into the file pouch, then reached for another stack she had yet to pore over. In her haste, she knocked the pile of pictures off the table. They scattered in a disorganized mess on the floor around her chair.
“Shit.” Kaya dropped to her hands and knees to collect them. Aric was at her side in the next moment. “You don’t have to help. I’ve got this.”
“Yes, I know you do,” he said, gathering up a handful of the images and holding them out to her. “But you don’t have to do it alone.”
The image on top of the stack happened to be a candid snapshot taken of the pavilion during the bride and groom’s first dance. Aric and Kaya stood on the periphery of the crowd, holding hands and pretending to be a real couple. Except unlike the rest of the gathered onlookers, they weren’t watching Stephan Mercier and Anastasia Rousseau sway in the center of the open floor.
They were looking at each other.
And Kaya saw in her own face the expression of a woman already falling swiftly, hopelessly, in love. To her utter shock, she saw a similar tender regard in Aric’s handsome face--both in the photograph and in the solemn expression he held her with now.
“Partners, Mrs. Bouchard. Remember?”
She couldn’t hold his intent gaze. It was too easy to believe him. Too easy to think the fake relationship that had marked their initial meeting might actually have become something real.
Not only for her, but for Aric as well.
Kaya glanced down . . . and her gaze rooted on another face in the crowd.
“Oh, my God.” She grabbed the photo and peered more closely. “Aric. There he is.”
“Are you serious?”
She nodded vigorously, her finger trembling as she pointed to a half-obscured face standing among the wedding guests behind her and Aric. The squatty, dark-haired man had an unremarkable face but Kaya would know his build and carriage anywhere.
“It’s him. Mercier’s Opus contact.”
Across the kitchen, Rafe uttered an excited curse. “Let me see.” He and Siobhan both came over to look at the image. “Who am I looking for?”
“Right here,” Aric said, marking the place in the photo as he handed it to his comrade.
Then all of his attention returned to Kaya. “You did it. You found him.”
As excited as she was, she shook her head, loathe to take the credit when their task was far from finished. “I only found his face. We still don’t know his name.”
“We will.” Aric tapped his temple. “You leave that to me . . . partner.”
Before she could say another word, he caught her face in his palms and claimed her mouth in a slow, bone-melting kiss. Kaya didn’t fight it. Not even close. Looping her arms around his neck, she kissed him back with all of the desire and emotion--all of the love--she’d been trying so desperately to deny.
Dimly, distantly, she registered that Rafe and Siobhan no longer stood near them. And then she realized why, when someone pointedly cleared his throat just inside the room.
Someone that wasn’t Rafe and certainly wasn’t Siobhan, either.
Alarmed, Kaya squirmed, but Aric took his sweet time letting go of her.
When he f
inally did, his beautiful green eyes danced with bright flecks of amber. He swiveled his head to greet the new arrivals, his fanged smile utterly unapologetic.
She glanced toward the entrance of the kitchen too. Standing there were two couples. There was no mistaking the air of authority--and lethal danger--that radiated from the Breed males, both the handsome, golden-haired one in a crisp white shirt and dark jeans and the devilishly good looking brunet who stood beside his well-dressed comrade wearing a lot of sleek black leather and a pair of long, curved daggers sheathed on his belt.
The two Breedmates at their sides were equally stunning for different reasons, each blessed with incredible beauty and a strength that seemed to emanate from deep within.
Aric rose, taking Kaya’s hand to bring her up with him from their embarrassing clinch on the floor. He smiled at the tall female with caramel-brown hair and eyes the same spring leaf green as his own. Then he tipped his head in greeting to the golden male at the beauty’s side.
“Hey, Mom. Hello, Father. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
CHAPTER 21
“Lars Scrully,” Aric said, dropping a passport photograph and a folder of intel he’d assembled for the four Order commanders gathered with Nikolai in his private office.
The group of Order elders presented an imposing picture, even seated as they were around Niko’s large desk, engaged in sober conversation. Gabrielle Thorne and Aric’s mother Tavia were also in the room, seated together on an oversized sofa near the fireplace. The other warriors’ Breedmates and the rest of the mansion’s occupants were catching up elsewhere in the compound with Kaya and Mira and the Montreal team while Renata continued to rest with the baby.
“Scrully wasn’t on the wedding guest list, nor in any of the gate check security data Gideon’s hacking provided us. But we’ve got the son of a bitch.” Aric gestured to the file of intel he’d collected in the twenty minutes since Kaya had ID’d the squat, dark-haired man in the reception photo. “I knew I’d seen his face somewhere before,” he told the group of warrior elders. “There were some news stories from eighteen months ago when Lars Scrully inherited his father’s pharmaceutical empire.”
“Scrully Pharmaceuticals?” Tavia asked, her distaste for the name evident in her tone. “That’s the company that came under fire several years ago for acquiring expired patents on antivirals, cancer treatment drugs, and other medicines, then jacking up their prices by five-thousand percent. People literally died because they couldn’t afford to pay his exorbitant prices.”
Aric nodded, unsurprised that his mother would be the one to mention that fun fact. If his gift for recollection was flawless, it was only because it was handed down to him through her powerful DNA.
“That’s the one,” he confirmed. “Lars’s father, Simon Scrully, made a fortune off the backs of other people’s suffering.” Aric pulled out a printed obituary and laid it on top of the folder. “The old man had a severe allergy to shellfish. Apparently, someone forgot to tell the new chef at his favorite restaurant. Scrully ate a bite of lobster sauce on his pasta and dropped dead of anaphylactic shock before anyone could administer his medicine to counteract it.”
Dante let out a wry chuckle. “Ironic way to go, considering how the asshole got rich in the first place.”
“Or convenient,” Aric’s father said. “Now that I’m hearing this, I recall some rumors about the old man’s death. Some of the gossip at the time seemed to suggest Scrully’s son settled into his inheritance with a bit more glee than grief.”
Aric nodded. “That’s right. And he’s been spending money like water ever since. Expensive toys and women. Palatial homes. In fact, just three months ago, he moved into a newly built twenty-thousand square-foot lake estate here in the province.”
Nikolai frowned. “And thanks to Kaya, we also know Scrully was making arrangements to pay a cool hundred million to Stephan Mercier on behalf of Opus Nostrum.”
“Right,” Aric replied. “The question is, in exchange for what?”
His father grunted. “Too bad we can’t ask Mercier. Kind of hard to talk when you’re missing your tongue and half your throat.”
Niko nodded, grim. “No need to guess whose handiwork that hit was. Opus tends to get twitchy whenever we start closing in on any of their weak links in the chain.”
“Which means we need to get our hands on Lars Scrully as soon as possible,” Lucan said, his gray gaze as cool as gunmetal.
Dante leaned back in his chair, flashing a dangerous grin. “I do love a good old-fashioned interrogation session.”
Beside him, Rio chuckled. “I’m with you on that, brother. Especially the part where we each take a piece of this Opus bastard apart with our fists and fangs.” The immense warrior with the smooth Spanish accent and a vicious tangle of old shrapnel scars riddling the left side of his face could be a charmer, but tonight he was as lethally serious as the rest of his comrades. He glanced at Aric. “How far is Scrully’s place from here?”
“About an hour.”
Dante’s whiskey-colored eyes lit up beneath the black slashes of his brows. “Plenty of time to be there and back with Scrully before the sun rises.”
“Lucan,” Gabrielle interjected softly, but firmly. The auburn-haired beauty had the regality of a queen, and now was no exception. All heads turned toward her as she spoke. “I don’t think I like this. I’ve got a bad feeling.”
“How so?” The Order’s founder looked at his woman, all of his focus fixed on hearing her opinion.
“Opus isn’t playing games, Lucan. They’ve been a serious threat from the very beginning. And now we know for certain they have ultraviolet weapons. A lot of them.” She shook her head, true fear written on her pretty face. “Maybe we should take this new intel on Lars Scrully back with us to D.C. when we return, then work on a plan of attack after we’ve had more time to consider it.”
Lucan listened to his mate in sober silence. All of the warriors grew serious and quiet, everyone grimly considering the gravity of the facts she was pointing out.
It took Lucan a moment to reply. When he did, his deep voice was low and gentle. “Yes, Opus does have UV on their side now. But they’re going to have it no matter how long we wait to strike. And to wait will only risk letting Scrully or the others in Opus’s cabal have more time to get the upper hand.”
Gabrielle nodded, but Aric could see that as sound as her formidable mate’s logic was, it did little to erase her worry.
Lucan went on, his steely gaze moving to the four commanders who trusted him to lead. “Right now, we have the element of surprise working for us. We should use it to our advantage.”
“We hope we have the element of surprise,” Nikolai commented. “Lately, it’s feeling as though Opus is staying one step ahead of us.”
“What are you saying? You think we’ve got a leak somewhere?”
“I don’t see how we could. All of our contacts in JUSTIS and elsewhere have been double and triple checked. They’re solid, Lucan.”
Rio glanced at his friend, a haunted look in his topaz-colored eyes. “If that’s true, then any breach would have to come from somewhere outside of those networks. Possibly someone we trust.”
The massive warrior knew a thing or two about that. The scar on his face had come on the heels of the worst betrayal a man could suffer--that of his own mate. It wasn’t until Rio met Dylan that he was finally able to heal on the inside. The wounds that marred him on the outside would always serve as a reminder of the pain that came in trusting the wrong person with his heart . . . and his life.
As Rio spoke, Aric thought back on Angus Mackie and the certainty that the gang leader and his followers hadn’t merely gotten lucky when they made the decision to vacate not only the tavern and its store room but Big Mack’s residence as well.
Sure, they could have guessed that trouble would be heading their way after the headlines Mercier’s wedding reception debacle had made. Or maybe they’d had an attack of nerves after the
heinous act they’d pulled in ashing that Darkhaven family.
But Aric’s warrior senses prickled with unease when he considered all of the what-ifs and the scenarios he was reluctant to put into words.
And then there was Kaya.
Try as he might to deny it, he kept coming back to her remoteness, her emotional distance, following the Darkhaven attack. After her run that same day, she had been even more anxious and withdrawn. Her edginess hadn’t improved as she and the rest of the Montreal team had gone with the commander on the mission to grab Mackie. When she asked Nikolai for a private meeting, she looked about as miserable as Aric had ever seen her.
What did she need to talk with Niko about that couldn’t be said in front of everyone?
Was it something about the raid?
Then again, maybe it was simply Aric himself who was making her so uncomfortable.
Whatever it was, she didn’t seem ready--or willing--to trust him with it.
Not that she should. He hadn’t made her any promises. No, all he’d done was pursue her with single-minded purpose then seduce her. They had agreed to no strings or obligations, but the more time he spent with Kaya the less eager he was for his business in Montreal to end.
“So, it sounds as if we’re all agreed that we need to act swiftly” Lucan said, then he slid an apologetic glance at Gabrielle. “Most of us, that is.”
All four warriors nodded, their faces solemn yet determined. But then a further look passed between them. The exchange was unspoken, until Aric’s father took the lead.
“We’re agreed that we cannot wait to make our move on this new Opus lead, Lucan. But your mate is right to caution us that this is no ordinary mission. None of them are, now that Opus and their loyalists are in possession of UV weapons.”
Lucan Thorne’s scowl deepened to one of suspicion. “What are you trying to say, Harvard? If you’ve got something on your mind, spit it out.”
Chase nodded. “We’re going in to get Lars Scrully. Tonight. But we’re going without you.”
A growl erupted from the powerful Gen One. “The fuck you say. If you expect me to sit out on a mission with my dick in my hand--”