Kaya shook her head. “I can’t say for sure. Maybe I just have one of those faces.”
Aric gave her a reassuring glance. “Not a face I’d ever mistake for another.”
Her gaze lingered on his for a long moment before dropping away, color suffusing her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was soft and sober.
“I failed everyone today, and I’m sorry. The last thing I ever wanted to do was let any of you down. Now, I’ve messed everything up. The reception footage has gone viral. Opus Nostrum is all but certain to know they’re in the Order’s crosshairs again. Mercier’s dead, and the only lead we might’ve taken away from all of this escaped the premises before I could get close enough to ID him.”
“Maybe not.” Niko leaned forward in his chair. He touched the panel again and this time a display full of data and photo files appeared in the center of the table. “Gideon sent over every surveillance still and video feed captured at the Rousseau estate today. We’ve got the guest list from the wedding and the reception, as well as registrations for every vehicle that passed through the gates. All you have to do is comb through all of it until you find our subject unknown.”
“There must be thousands of photos and records,” Kaya murmured.
Niko’s mouth quirked. “Consider it penance. You too, Aric.”
“Sir?” He frowned. “I’m supposed to be returning to D.C.”
“And you will. After you and Kaya get through that intel.” Niko glanced at Rafe. “You’re sticking around too. I’ve already cleared it with Lucan. Now that we know we’ve got an Opus lead here in Montreal, I could use an extra pair of boots on the ground.”
“You got it,” Rafe said. “Nothing I’d rather do than help put another Opus member in the ground.”
“I don’t know about that.” Aric smirked at his friend. “Seems like there is one thing you’d rather be doing.”
Rafe’s intensity of a moment ago diffused at the quip--and at the reference to the female he’d been spending nearly all of his time with since they’d arrived in Montreal. He sent a light punch into Aric’s shoulder, but he didn’t seem able to hold back his smile.
Across the table from them, Mira lifted her brows. “So, it is true? Don’t tell me the untamable Rafe Malebranche may have finally met his match.”
That he didn’t deny it outright or try to deflect with any one of the dozens of reasons he’d used in the past to explain why he had no interest in settling down was answer enough for Aric.
“Holy shit,” Aric uttered, shocked and amazed. “Are you falling in love with Siobhan O’Shea?”
Rafe didn’t get the chance to answer. At that same moment, Renata hissed, her face constricting in pain.
“Sweetheart.” Niko flew out of his seat and was at her side in a flash of movement. He crouched down beside her, a look of pure terror in his eyes. “Are you okay? Is it the baby? Ah, fuck. Is he coming right now?”
“Relax,” she said, her voice gusting around a sigh. “It’s a contraction, that’s all.”
Niko scowled. “You’ve been getting them on and off for the past couple of days.”
“Yes.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I’m fine. Trust me, you’ll know when it’s time for our son to make his grand entrance.”
“Either way, I’m taking you to bed,” Niko growled. He glanced over his shoulder at Mira. “Will you handle the night’s patrol plans for me?”
“Of course.” She nodded, her smile full of love and compassion for the couple who were her parents and her friends. “I’ve got this. You take care of Rennie.”
With the commander and his mate having exited the war room, Mira gathered Rafe and Kellan and her team to one of the conversation areas away from the conference table.
Aric glanced at Kaya, both of them left to their own devices as the squad began talking tactics and territory assignments.
“I guess we should get started too.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry you’re stuck here a bit longer. I know how badly you were hoping to get back to your life in D.C.”
“I can think of worse things.”
He was joking, but she didn’t smile. Instead she touched the panel embedded in the glass in front of her at the table and opened the first of countless data files.
“Shall we get started?” she asked when he merely watched for a long moment. Her face was utterly indifferent, impossible to read. “The sooner we get through all of this, the sooner we can both get on with our lives.”
“Yeah,” Aric agreed, telling himself the sting he felt was merely wounded male pride and nothing deeper. “I guess you’re right. Let’s get it over with.”
CHAPTER 10
“How many more image files left in that folder you’re working on, Kaya?”
She looked at the unopened count on her tablet display and groaned. “Twenty-four hundred and sixty-two.”
“Great,” Aric said. “That means we’re halfway finished.”
She swung a hopeful glance at him. “We are?”
“With the first batch,” he said, a flash of dimples in his unfatigued face.
Kaya slumped in her chair and exhaled a long sigh.
They had been working in the war room for more than five hours with barely a break. At some point, she had resorted to strong coffee, just to keep her lids open and her eyes uncrossed as she and Aric scoured file after file of photos and video stills taken during Stephan Mercier and Anastasia Rousseau’s wedding and reception.
“Why couldn’t Mercier’s Opus contact have done us a favor and smiled right into any one of the scores of surveillance cameras rigged all over the estate?”
Aric chuckled. “Where’s the challenge in that? Can’t blame the guy for hiding out in the crowds and keeping his face averted every time he was in a camera’s vicinity. Opus members don’t tend to live long once the Order gets wind of who they are.”
Kaya pulled a frown. “Well, I find his caution annoying.”
Beside her at the conference table, Aric
