But it was the idea of teaming up with him again in close quarters that made a knot of reluctance form in her breast. It had been a mistake letting her guard down around him. An even bigger mistake making love with him, no matter how incredible it had been.
She couldn’t allow herself to make that mistake again. She needed to keep her head on straight. Stay focused on the things that mattered. If she had let her priorities slip since meeting Aric Chase, what she witnessed at the Darkhaven today had been a stark wakeup call.
And that meant keeping her distance from the Breed male as much as possible between now and the time that he would be returning to his life in D.C.
“Kaya.” He said her name softly, concern etched on his handsome face. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.” She nodded. Forced all of her misgivings and regrets deep down in order to give him a casual shrug. “I’m fine. I’ll see you when I get back from my run.”
She stepped around him, feeling his gaze at her back as she jogged down the stairs and exited the mansion. Outside, the summer afternoon was bright and warm and clear. She soaked in every bit of it as she set off at a comfortable pace, through the command center’s main gate and out to the private road that descended from the peak of the broad, highly secured hill to the main street below.
Ordinarily, her route might have taken her around the base of the hill on Summit Circle. But today, instead of taking the familiar path, Kaya turned away from it and jogged in another direction. About half a mile down was a large boulevard that would eventually take her into the heart of Montreal. She followed the divided stretch of pavement for several blocks, until she spotted a taxi heading her way.
She signaled to the driver, glancing anxiously around her as the car slowed in front of her. “I need to go to Dorval, please.”
At his nod, she climbed in. Twenty minutes later, the driver had delivered her to a depressed section of the city southwest of Montreal’s downtown. The area hadn’t been a stellar place to be at any point in history, but during the wars that followed First Dawn, this patch of urban sprawl had become a magnet for gangs and rebels of all stripes. Now the ruins of old warehouses and factories long vacated stood drab and dilapidated on either side of the street. Panhandlers and addicts camped at nearly every intersection, including the one where Kaya instructed the taxi driver to drop her off.
“You sure you wanna be down here, miss?” The middle-aged man ran his palm over his grizzled jaw. “If you want me to wait for ya, in this section of town, I gotta add twenty bucks surcharge for every five minutes I risk my vehicle standing at the curb.”
Kaya shook her head as she handed him the fare for the drive. “I can find my own way back. Keep the change.”
He took her money and wasted no time pulling away after she got out of the car. Not that she could blame him. There were few people who chose to spend time in this area of the city. And usually, if they were lucky enough to get out, they made a point never to come back.
Kaya should know. She’d been one of them.
She walked up the street toward a rat hole bar with a sagging roof and a facade of weathered brown wood scarred with old gunshots and tagged with layers of painted gang graffiti. There was no signage on the door or visible from the street.
Then again, no one who belonged anywhere near this place needed to be told who owned it.
Those who didn’t belong were never given a chance to make the mistake twice.
Kaya counted herself in the latter camp, especially now that she had pledged herself to the Order. Nevertheless, she reached for the black iron latch on the door and pulled it open.
The place was empty and dank. It reeked of stale cigarette smoke and spilled liquor. In the light shining in from behind Kaya as she entered, she saw a dark-haired woman hunched over behind the bar with a mop and bucket.
“We ain’t open yet.”
The young woman’s weary voice held a rasp that made her sound as derelict and forsaken as her surroundings. Kaya disregarded the unwelcome greeting and walked inside anyway.
As the door thumped closed at her back, the woman behind the bar huffed out a curse and swung around with a scowl. “I said we ain’t--”
Her words cut short the instant her eyes met Kaya’s. Astonishment flashed in her gaze, followed by disbelief . . . then a cold, hard suspicion.
Kaya felt all of those things as she looked at her too.
She hadn’t seen this woman’s face in years, since she was sixteen.
But no, that wasn’t quite right.
She saw this face every time she looked in the mirror.
Her twin sister had aged considerably since then, her dark brown eyes narrowing on Kaya as if she were the enemy. And maybe she was.
“Hello, Leah.”
“What are you doing here?” No trace of warmth in that accusing question. Only mistrust. Animosity, even.
Kaya steeled herself to the twinge of hurt she felt at her sibling’s glower. “I need to talk to you.”
Leah glanced nervously over her shoulder, toward the swinging door that led to the back of the bar and the kitchen. She stayed right where she stood, with the bar between her and Kaya like an impenetrable wall. “We’ve had nothing to say to each other for the past four years. How the hell did you know where to find me?”
“I ran into someone who knows you--or did, anyway. His name was Jacob Portman. He was working security at the Rousseau-Mercier wedding.”
Leah’s glare morphed into a confused frown. “You spoke to Red?”
“We exchanged a few
