“He’s at the command center in Boston. He’s worried about you, Jordana. The Order is very concerned for you as well. So is Carys.” Nathan’s cool gaze slid to Zael in unspoken warning. “Everyone wants you returned home safe. I mean to ensure that happens. And make no mistake, I’m not leaving without you.”
She bristled at the idea that he expected to dictate any aspect of her life. Especially when he was doing it on behalf of a committee: her father, her friend, the Order.
Everyone except him.
She raised her chin, hoping he wouldn’t see through her to the sting she was feeling all over again. “And if I decide I don’t want to go with you? What then? Do you mean to physically force me into custody, the way you did my father?”
Beside her, Zael tensed with palpable menace. Nathan’s brows furrowed as he looked at her and gave a slow shake of his head.
“Jesus.” He uttered the low, ripe curse. “Do you think I would do that to you?”
“I don’t know what to think, Nathan. Last night, I thought I knew you. Not the warrior or the Hunter—I thought I knew you. I thought I could trust you. I thought that you and I—” She stopped herself before the confession—the dashed hope—could escape her. “It doesn’t matter what I thought last night. Today nothing is the same.”
“That’s right. Today everything is different,” Nathan agreed. “Last night, we took Martin Gates into custody because we discovered he’d secretly been in business for years with Cassian Gray.”
“In business with him? How?”
“La Notte belongs to Martin Gates, not Cass.”
The news came as a surprise, but she was beyond the capacity to be shocked. A club like that, with its illegal sporting arena and gambling operation, to say nothing of the BDSM dens, would be the last kind of business her father would be involved in. Then again, if it had been a front for Cass, what was to say her father hadn’t been secretly holding the club as some further means of protecting Cass and his secret?
“We had to assume that as Cass’s longtime business partner, Gates knew he wasn’t human. We needed to know why they were keeping those kinds of secrets, Jordana. And more urgently, we needed to determine whether Martin Gates and Cass could also have ties to Opus Nostrum.”
“No. That’s impossible.” As incredible as it was to her to imagine Martin Gates having anything to do with Cass’s notorious club, she refused to believe her father—either of them, for any reason—would ever be part of the terrorist group responsible for multiple assassinations and the recent attack on the global peace summit in D.C.
Nathan nodded. “We realized soon enough that wasn’t the case. Martin Gates and Cassian Gray were keeping a very big secret, but it wasn’t Opus Nostrum. It was you.”
He stepped closer, but she retreated a pace. “How long did you know the Order would be coming after my father? Did you know the whole time last night?” Jordana’s voice sounded broken, even to her own ears. “Were you planning for his arrest even while you and I were alone together in my office? Did you use me, Nathan?”
Now Zael growled, low under his breath.
Nathan’s scowl deepened. “Did I use you? Fuck no. Never, Jordana.” He gave a sharp shake of his head. “But understand I also had to do my job.”
She scoffed quietly, even while her heart caved to him a little more. “Are you just doing your job now too? Is that why you’re here—because of what I am? Because of who I am?”
“I came because as soon as we figured out where you might be, nothing would’ve kept me from finding you. Nothing.”
He stared at her, moved forward despite the further warning that curled up from the back of Zael’s throat. “You need to come back with me, Jordana. Yes, because of everything we know about you now. You need to come back to Boston, where it will be my job and the Order’s to keep you safe from Cass’s enemies. Or anyone else who might think he has a claim on you,” he added, slanting a challenging look on Zael.
“I have no claim,” Zael said evenly. “But someone more powerful than any of us does. It was at her command that those soldiers tracked and killed my old friend Cassianus. And unless they’re stopped—or unless they lose the trail they’re most certainly on now—those same men will continue to look for Jordana by order of their queen.”
“Their queen,” Nathan murmured, clearly suspicious. “What are you talking about?”
“Jordana is her granddaughter.”
Nathan’s answering curse was rough, disbelieving. But Zael continued, undaunted. “The soldiers were closing in on Jordana last night in Boston.”
“Closing in on her,” Nathan said, then he seemed to understand. “Because her latent powers are maturing. Her Atlantean nature is leading them to her like some kind of beacon?”
Zael gave a grim nod. “They will track her to the ends of the earth unless steps are taken. They were in Boston since the night they located Cass. They would’ve found Jordana. If I hadn’t reached her first, they would’ve already taken her back to the realm.”
“Ah, Christ.” Nathan turned a stricken look on her. “And I had left you alone. They might’ve come for you, and I wasn’t there.”
Anger flared in her. “It’s not your job to protect me, Nathan. Dammit, it’s not anyone’s job to protect me!”
As her voice rose, the prickling in her hands intensified. The buzzing in her veins grew deeper, a pulsating thrum that filled her ears.
She swung a furious look between Nathan and Zael. “I’m not made of glass. I’m not a child. I’m a grown woman, and I’m tired of being treated as if everyone else knows what’s best for me.”