“Huh.” His gaze came to me again. Though some of the anger had fled, it still glimmered in the background, ready to erupt at a moment’s notice. “So perhaps our next step would be to talk to Jack —”
“You can’t,” I said, alarmed. “She will kill you if she thinks you’ve discussed this with me in any way. I don’t want —”
“Give me a little more credit than that,” he cut in. “No one at the Directorate knows I contacted you. I made the call in a secure dead zone.”
Meaning secure from both electronic and psychic intrusion. “Even so —”
“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.
“Only if you promise me the same.”
“I’m not alone. I have Azriel.”
“Yeah, but you’ve also said Hunter desires his death. So, just humor an old man, and promise you’ll contact me if you decide to confront the bitch. Otherwise, you and me will have a serious argument.”
I half smiled. “Promise.”
Whether I kept it was another matter entirely.
He studied me long enough that I began to suspect he’d caught that last thought, even though he wasn’t telepathic. Eventually, though, he rose and pushed the chair back toward the desk.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to confront Hunter alone anyway. Riley has a way of sensing things like that, and she’d insist on accompanying me.”
And if she went with Rhoan, then Quinn undoubtedly would, too. But even then I doubted it would be enough to take down the likes of Hunter.
But it was at least a concession, and I was lucky to get that much. I stepped forward and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you,” I said. “And I promise, I’ll be careful.”
“You’d better,” he all but growled, then left.
The tension that had been riding me since his phone call didn’t really ease much though. He was about to talk to Jack, and it was anyone’s guess where Jack fell in the scheme of things. Azriel might insist Jack wouldn’t condone what Hunter was doing, but she was his sister. In the end, blood might be stronger than loyalty to the Directorate.
“What now?” Azriel said.
I thrust a hand through my hair and sighed. “I’d better make an appearance downstairs, just to see how things have been going in our absence.”
He nodded. “Get yourself something to eat while you’re at it.”
I half smiled. “You’re nagging again.”
“Someone has to nag, otherwise you’d be skin and bone.” He caught my hand and tugged me into his embrace. “Besides, you carry my son. It is important you keep your strength up.”