Not ready to tear my eyes away from Thatch just yet, I spoke directly to him. “Lucas is speaking to Kent and getting this called in to Durrant.”
A curt nod and the softness in his eyes edging away meant boss man Thatch was back. He flicked his gaze to Lucinda and raised a questioning brow. Koen. I knew what he asked. But I had no answers and talking to the girl in my arms right now wasn’t the best idea.
I shrugged, saying, “Lucas will speak to Kent and find out what happened.” Since we’d been in contact with Kent the majority of the time during the mission, it remained unclear how Lentwood had managed to infiltrate and get his hands on my niece. I swallowed thickly as I glanced towards the doorway where I knew there were bodies—and somewhere close by was Lennon Blackheath.
The whole time, Thatch’s attention was on me. He watched my movement closely, then shook his head, answering my unspoken question of whether my father was alive. There would be no mourning for the deadbeat I shared my genes with. While I wouldn’t be celebrating either, I welcomed the sliver of peace settling in my soul.
He wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone ever again.
“Brent?” I asked, indicating to a different doorway and another exit to leave the warehouse.
“Out of action.” Thatch’s shoulder brushed mine as we walked. “Lent—”
“The same.” A grim satisfaction weaved its way through me.
“You know”—the voice stopped me in my tracks—“it’s a bit freakin’ weird how you two have whole conversations without saying a whole lot.”
Thatch shook his head as I angled towards the man who’d had his hands on Thatch.
“Jamison?” I gave him a quick once over and grinned, immediately knowing there was no way he and Thatch had indulged in anything. Not that he wasn’t a good-looking guy. But it was more than Thatch’s frustrated eye-rolls when he spoke to him that tipped me off. The blond-haired pretty panther was not his type.
Jamison returned my smile, his eyes alight with humour and friendliness. “One and the same.” His gaze roamed over the three of us before he said, “We’ll catch up later, and I’m sure I can tell you some stories about Thatch that will have you pissing your pants.” He waggled his brows, the gesture so ridiculously out of place with the coppery scent of blood growing more oppressive by the second. I liked the guy immediately.
“Sounds good.” I gripped Thatch’s hand, the move still unfamiliar but the touch perfectly natural. Together, we headed out to the fresh air to await Durrant’s questions and make sure that now that the key players were finally out of the picture, every single lab—both for experimentation and production—was burned to the ground.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“UNBELIEVABLE.” Lucas shook his head at me.
Kent simply grinned. “This is going to go so badly.”
Thatch looked on, amused… or perhaps it was closer to perplexed. Though, I wasn’t quite sure why, since he knew all the details already.
“What?” I shrugged, not seeing the big deal. At first, I’d admittedly had the exact same reactions as all three of them when Durrant had pulled me into her office three days after the shitshow that had gone down.
In that time, I’d organized childcare and agreed to move in with Thatch permanently, though truth be told, I’d had no intentions of moving out even if Thatch hadn’t made it official and asked for Lucinda and me to move in for good. On top of that, there was a large-scale task force working on rescuing the few shifters who’d still been imprisoned, while shutting down all the research and production lines to get all traces of the drug off the streets.
There was real progress, and after my conversation with Durrant, we’d agreed to me having a couple of weeks off to settle Lucinda, then I’d be starting my new job.
SICB division manager. On top of the varying emotions that had torn through me at the offer, of course battling with the stroking of my healthy ego, I’d legit laughed. Durrant hadn’t.
“But why?” There was genuine confusion in Lucas’s question. No jealousy or spite, just genuine bewilderment.
I cocked my brow. “Because I’m badass.” I barely kept the “dur” out of my voice.
Thatch shook his head. “Just tell him.”
He was no fun. I’d already had this discussion with Thatch. He could have at least given me the chance to wind Lucas up some more.
“Do you mean, why not you?”
“No,” Lucas said immediately, while Kent said, “Exactly that,” at the same time.
I shot her an unimpressed look before admitting, “I did actually say that to Durrant.”
Lucas eased back in his chair a little now the initial shock of my promotion had sunk in. “And what did she say?”
The shit-eating grin on my face was immediate. “That she wants to see you in forty-five minutes.”
Tension had Lucas’s neck straining. “What for?”
I gave a careless shrug. I totally knew, but when Durrant threatened me with extra paperwork if I opened my mouth, I believed her. The woman was not to be crossed. To be honest, we were all somewhat flummoxed by her calm acceptance of what had gone down and how we’d kept everything over the past few days off the radar.
Lucas groaned. “Fine.”
With my
