“No,” he said bluntly. “I’m paid to do my job, and do it I will. However, no one needs to know I’ve already talked to you. I will take this to Jack, and see what he says. What happens from there very much depends on his reaction.”
In more ways than one. “Be careful, that’s all I ask. And watch your damn back. Jack may hold to the middle ground when it comes to his sister, but she has plenty of support in the Directorate —”
He snorted. “I’ve been traversing Directorate politics for a while now. I know who to trust.”
“Yeah, but there’s a whole lot more on the line with this. You mustn’t tell anyone about my involvement with Hunter or mention the key hunt to Jack. Promise me you won’t.”
“You can’t deal with Hunter alone —”
“She isn’t alone,” Azriel cut in. “Hunter won’t ever touch her. I promise you that.”
She didn’t need to; all she had to do was hurt the people I loved. But both men were aware of that fact, and that wasn’t the point Azriel was making anyway.
Rhoan met Azriel’s gaze for several moments, then nodded once. An agreement reached, I suspected. Rhoan returned his gaze to me. “We’ll know soon enough where Jack stands. As for Hunter —” he hesitated. “I’ll hold my tongue for the moment. But if anything else goes wrong, if anyone else dies, then she has to be confronted. And, one way or another, stopped.”
“If you do have to confront her, don’t do so alone. Promise me that much.”
Just for a moment, the need to fight, to act, flared in his eyes. Rhoan, like Riley, had never been one to give up or back down, and it very obviously grated to do so now. And yet, he’d become second in command of the guardian division precisely because he didn’t often act without first thinking through the consequences.>That scent, however, suggested Mike himself had come in. It certainly wasn’t a scent I’d come across anywhere else but in his office. And while I would have thought doing accounts a little beneath him, he did seem to think that – because of his past relationship with Mom – he owed it to her to keep a “fatherly” eye on me. Maybe this was his way of doing so.
I switched on the lights and walked across to my desk. The accounts had been neatly stacked, the “done” pile much larger than the “to be processed,” and Mike’s bold scrawl noting receipt numbers was on several of them. I half smiled. In some ways he reminded me of Jak – he’d never entirely trusted computers, and tended to have paper backups of all legal documents.
I once again pushed down the grief that threatened to overwhelm me – grief that came from Jak’s death and the deeper, older loss of my mom – and pressed the vid-phone’s button for downstairs. Margie answered on the second ring.
“Hey, boss,” she said, a smile crinkling the corners of her dark eyes, “when did you sneak in?”
“Only a few minutes ago,” I replied. “I’ll be down later, but right now, I’m expecting a visit from my uncle —”
“If he’s the red-haired gentleman with the thunderous expression, I just sent him up.” She hesitated. “That’s not a problem, is it? He said he was expected.”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks.” I hung up.
Footsteps echoed – Rhoan, taking the stairs two at a time. I swallowed nervously, then squared my shoulders. I could do this. I had to, for everyone’s sake.
“Uncle Rhoan,” I said, the minute he appeared. There was no way in hell I was giving him the opportunity to vent all over me. Not without making him hear me out first. “Sit down, shut up, and listen.”
He blinked. Whatever welcome he’d been expecting, it hadn’t been that. “I’ll listen if it’s the damn truth, but there’s been too little of it coming out of your mouth of late.”
“Rhoan,” I said, more forcefully this time. “Not another word. Just sit. Please.”
He studied me for a moment, then spun a chair around so he could sit with his arms resting on the back. He waved a hand, motioning me to continue.
I briefly met Azriel’s gaze. Am I doing the right thing?
Yes. He has every intention of confronting Hunter if you do not answer his questions satisfactorily.
Something I had to prevent. I’d killed a Cazador to stop Hunter knowing of this meeting. I’d be damned if I’d let that death be wasted by Rhoan marching up to Hunter and demanding answers.
And that, I realized suddenly, was precisely what she wanted. What other explanation could there be for her failing to block the mind of her assassin?
“I’m waiting.” Rhoan’s voice was soft, but held an element of ice that chilled me to the core. This wasn’t the uncle I knew and loved. This was the guardian. Coiled and ready for action.
“Jak Talbott was killed to teach me a lesson,” I said bluntly. “But he’s just the first part. You’re intended to be the second.”
That last bit might be a guess, but the more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Hunter wasn’t a fool, and there was no way she’d have allowed that vampire to give us her name. And she’d have known Rhoan would have demanded to be placed on the investigation because of Jak’s links to me. This had to be part of her game plan. She wanted to bring me to heel, and if she had to kill one of the Directorate’s most valuable assets to do it, then she would. As Azriel had noted, Madeline Hunter had abandoned any pretense of humanity. At least when it came to me.
“Why would Madeline Hunter want to teach you a lesson?” Rhoan said, voice still far too cold.
“Because she wants the keys to hell, and she wants me to get them for her. Only I’m not doing it fast enough.”