“All right,” he said, laughing with her. “I can see this won’t be an easy negotiation. Not that anything ever was easy with you, love.”
She arched a dark brow. “You get bored when things are too easy. That’s why you can’t live without me.”
He gave her a private, intimate look. “Only one of many reasons.”
Although he tried to resist, Aric’s glance strayed to Kaya. She watched the exchange between her commander and his mate in silence, a small smile tilting the corners of her mouth. Aric had a feeling she would be the kind of woman to keep her mate on his toes too. And why the notion of Kaya with another Breed male should needle him with a pang of annoyance, he didn’t want to know.
“Anyway,” Renata said to Nikolai, gesturing for him to go on. “You were telling us about poor Stephan Mercier and his missing tongue.”
“Yes.” The commander cleared his throat and went back to the business at hand. “There’s no need to guess who killed him. Whether Opus suspects he was compromised by us, or whether they know it for a fact, these people don’t leave loose threads.”
“No, they don’t,” Rafe agreed. He looked around Aric to pin Kaya in a shrewd stare. “You spoke with Mercier the longest. Did you give him any reason to think you were an Order operative?”
“Jesus, Rafe. Of course, she didn’t.” Aric’s response sounded defensive, even to his own ears.
“Just trying to piece things together in my head,” Rafe said.
And while his question wasn’t out of bounds, Aric knew his friend too well and for too long to dismiss the probing intensity of the gaze that had yet to leave Kaya.
“Maybe you tipped your hand to Mercier without realizing it,” Rafe suggested.
Aric waited to hear Kaya deny it, but when he glanced at her, he found her expression less than certain. “I don’t think he knew I was with the Order. Not that he conveyed to me through his thoughts, anyway.”
“But you can’t be sure?” Rafe pressed.
She hesitated. “No. I can’t be sure. He said some things about the Breed--he thought some things--that I couldn’t let lie.”
“Such as?”
“That the Breed are monsters. A scourge that deserves to be erased from existence.”
Aric grunted. “Not the first time we’ve heard that.”
“Nor will it be the last,” Nikolai finished grimly.
Kaya shook her head, angry color rising in her cheeks. “Mercier meant it. He was gleeful about the idea that he could have something to do with making war happen between the humans and the Breed. I couldn’t stand there and let him spew his hatred in front of me. I guess I felt the asshole needed to be set straight on a few things.”
“Hey, I’ve been there before, too, Kaya.” Mira gave her friend a gentle look from across the table. “But as a warrior, you have to check your emotion at the door.”
“Or risk the entire mission,” Rafe added.
“I didn’t mean to put anything or anyone at risk,” Kaya replied, openly contrite. “Mercier was unjustly deriding the people I care about, people I would lay down my life for. He was wrong, so I reminded him that it was Opus Nostrum who’d been behind all of the recent violence and division.”
“And now we’ve lost the very lead you went there to confirm,” Rafe pointed out. “It was a rookie mistake. Covert op means always staying within your cover.”
“Yes.” Kaya held his scrutinizing gaze. “I know what it means.”
“Damn, Rafe.” Aric shot his comrade a hard look. “Go easy on her, man. This was her first field mission and she did great. So, we lost Mercier. He was a bottom-feeding scum. At least Kaya siphoned some useful intel off him. And she also provided us with an even stronger lead on Opus.”
“That’s right,” Niko agreed. “That is, if we can ID the man she saw leaving the reception.”
Kaya’s brow pinched with regret. “I wish I’d gotten a look at his face. Even a glimpse would’ve been something useful.”
“You would have, if it hadn’t been for that security guard getting in your way,” Aric pointed out.
“What do we know about him?” Renata asked from the far end of the table, her hand idly caressing the swell of her belly. “Have we been able dig anything up?”
“We have,” Kellan offered from beside Mira. “His name was Jacob Portman. Real piece of shit, if you’ll pardon my French. He’d been on the Rousseau security detail for about a year. Got his training as a JUSTIS officer doing port patrols on the river a few years back, but he got bounced for excessive force after killing an unarmed Breed youth down on the docks. Emptied his service pistol into the kid’s back, according to the files.”
Aric met Kaya’s sickened look. “Sounds like you did the world a favor taking out that heap of garbage.”
“That’s not all,” Mira added. “Tell them what else you uncovered on him, Kellan.”
He nodded. “Portman used to run with an assortment of militant groups when he was a teen. They called him ‘Red’ back then.”
“How original,” Aric drawled, picturing the human’s crown of bright ginger hair.
“According to his juvie file, his fellow gangbangers called him that mainly because he liked to watch things bleed,” Kellan said. “Especially things with fangs.”
Nikolai cursed low under his breath. “Sounds like Portman could’ve been ripe for indoctrination by Opus too. Do you think he confronted you because he suspected you were part of the Order, Kaya?”
She had gone very quiet, very still. She glanced up now, almost as if she’d drifted off somewhere. “I’m sorry?”
“Portman,” Niko prompted. “You said he thought he knew you from somewhere.”
“That’s what he said. But he was wrong.” Her answer was resolute, without a second’s hesitation. “I’d never seen him before today. And I swear to you he’d never seen me before, either.”
“You think he was lying?”
