He shifted on the bed, the covers ruffling as he stretched his arms overhead. I glanced back to catch sight of his ridged abs below the hem of his t-shirt.
Shit like that wasn’t going to help my resolve.
His little grin told me he knew exactly what I was thinking. “To be fair, I don’t know if there have been many plans you’ve come up with that I liked. Especially the one or two that almost got you killed.”
I spun on him. “Excuse me, but I had zero plans for us to get killed, or even injured. If anything goes wrong on this one, well, it’ll be divine intervention.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you mean. You don’t think we’ll be in danger? Then why are we hiding out?”
I laughed. “Because we are still on Esteban’s radar and I have no desire to give him an easy target. But for now, we aren’t going after him. At least not yet.”
His shifted closer, then crawled across the bed to get to me. “Then what are we doing here? Why aren’t we going after him again?”
There was an urgency to his voice now.
I grabbed his hands and looked him in the eye. “Do you trust me?”
He blinked, sank his shoulders back, and then nodded. “Yes, I do trust you. Of course, I do.”
“Then let me handle this. We made a deal, remember?”
I folded myself onto the bed to sit beside him. “There are a few things you should know. The first of which, when you watched me sleeping, something did happen. The Captain visited me to say goodbye.”
Something in his eyes dimmed. “What did he say?”
“It was just the residual bits of our connection, our magic. He told me some stuff and we said goodbye to each other. That’s all that happened. And really, it’s not important. However, it’s led me to the plan which I think you’ll hate completely considering what it might eventually reveal if I’m right.”
“What?” His tone was soft now, as if he was struggling to rein in something.
I let out a long sigh. “Well, as I said, we aren’t going after Esteban right now. With that damn knife, he could kill us both easily. I don’t want to be on the wrong end of that. We need a way to combat it. So, instead, we’ll find us a magical metalsmith.”
He studied me a moment. “Oh. You want...”
“Yep. We aren’t chasing Esteban now. We’re going after Sol. And this time I plan to find her.”
Chapter Five
MY LIFE WOULD BE SO much easier if metalsmiths put their magical affiliations on their websites. Although, being on the magical scale myself, I could see why they probably wouldn’t want to advertise those things.
With a huff, I closed the fifteen tabs I’d opened in the last five minutes. Fin eyed me over the edge of his laptop. Both of our computers were linked to a secured network and untraceable thanks to the Chief’s contact who’d brought our supplies the night before.
“No luck?” he asked.
I glared and opened up another search engine. Surprise, surprise, each new search term turned up even less than the previous ones.
The problem with following thin leads was the fact that you needed a place to start. Somewhere to mark on a map with a big old red x where you retreat to gather your bearings. Right now, my map was x-less, as well as landmark-less. It was more like a murky page with some squiggles than a map at this point.
I didn’t like it.
My phone vibrated on the couch next to my knee. I glanced at the screen and snatched it up. “Hello?”
“The Chief told me you were needing a list of magical metalsmiths. I sent you an email a minute ago with all the data the Office, and anyone on the team, has. I also did some searching on my own and added those to the list.”
“Thanks, Hawk. I appreciate the help.”
His snort was loud enough to cut through the line. “I don’t believe that for a second but I’m glad you’re finally asking for help. Or at the very least, accepting it when offered.”
“If you want me to answer the phone the next time you call, shut up.”