“What?” I dropped my arm. “Bring up the list.”
A mix of shelf-stable foods, mostly protein bars and junk food, bottled water, and toilet paper topped it.
“How far is this?” Grier spoke from behind me. “Can we check it out tonight?”
“Not far.” I calculated the distance in my head. “Let’s hope we’re not too late.”
The wake accomplished one thing. Ares knew Midas was onto her. She wouldn’t have rabbited otherwise. And if she started erasing their trail, she might burn the evidence. All four witnesses included.
“Midas and Ford, you’re with me.” I patted Bishop on the shoulder. “Get me eyes on that building.”
“I’ll head back to HQ.” He stood and took the laptop with him. “I’ll put Reece on surveillance.”
“Sounds good.” I hesitated over Linus and Grier. “Usually, this is the part where I run out of orders to give and people to give them to, so I’m drawing a blank.”
“We can handle patrol,” she offered. “That way your team can focus on you, and we can make sure your raid doesn’t flush out more rats.” She grinned, and we were two teenagers again. “Or Martian Roaches.”
“That would be great.” I experienced a twinge at handing over the reins to my city, even for a night, even in part to the man who still held her. “Thanks.” Facing the others, I wiped my damp palms on my pants. “Let’s go.”
The fate of my world rested on the outcome of this trip, and that was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.
We could be this close to finding them. This close to setting things back to rights. This close to…
…the truth.
However much it might hurt.
Thirteen
Midas texted his mother an update. The operation belonged, officially, to the Office of the Potentate. He doubted his mother would protest the pack ceding that right, given his mating to Hadley, but there was little he could do in any case. The bomber had targeted her, and then her family. The case fell under her jurisdiction, even if the person responsible was gwyllgi. Or wore the skin of one.
Meting out punishment, however, might get sticky.
Traditionally, the OPA handed gwyllgi offenders over to the alpha for a trial and sentencing. That might not be an option in this instance. No confrontation with witchborn fae, or hosts, had ended in anything less than bloodshed. But the pack would be on edge if the future potentate put down one of their own.
All the more reason to do as his mother suggested and make his union official in the eyes of the pack.
“Almost there,” Hadley said under her breath, sensing his unease.
Midas had forgotten Linus used the Society’s car service when Hadley accepted his polite offer of a lift to the clinic. That might have been a willful choice. He hated riding in these branded sedans with their haughty disdain for their passengers. Or maybe that was just him feeling out of place in their world, so different from pack life or fae mores, making the ease with which Hadley had integrated into his all the more impressive.
The interior of the car was as red as a mouth opened on a scream. Old blood and crushed herbs perfumed the air, and with the AC blasting, it was as cold as the grave. He couldn’t wait to escape. Ford looked primed to bolt with or without the car stopping first, but the pomp didn’t bother Hadley.
Plus, he couldn’t argue with Linus’s reasoning. The Swyft database had been hacked in the past. They couldn’t risk it, or a cab company, giving away their location. Ford’s truck, while convenient, was hardly inconspicuous. Better to use an untraceable mode of transportation than to announce their plans.
The crimson sedan rolled to a stop, and the driver peered through his pristine windshield at the derelict surroundings with faint concern.
“Master Lawson requested I drop you here,” the driver said in a wooden tone. “Does that suit Madam?”
“This is fine.” Hadley offered him a polite smile. “We can walk from here.”
The driver exited the car, circled the trunk, and opened her door.
“Thank you,” she murmured, tucking a folded bill into his front jacket pocket.
That brightened his mood considerably, and he dipped his chin. “You’re most welcome.”
Midas ducked out onto the sidewalk behind her and filled his lungs with fresh night air.
“Move it.” Ford shoved him in the spine. “I want out too.”
Joining Hadley on the sidewalk, he gave Ford enough room to soothe his twitchy inner beast.
The driver sniffed at them, bowed to Hadley, then got in the car and left.
Ford growled at the receding taillights. “He wouldn’t even look at us.”
“Trust me, you’re in good company.” Wry amusement kicked up Hadley’s lips. “He wouldn’t have looked at me either if he had a clue I’m not High Society.”
“You’re the potentate’s apprentice,” Ford argued. “I figured that’s why he was deferential.”
“Uh, no.” She chuckled and started walking toward their final destination. “Linus told him I was a friend, which is how we got the car service in the first place. The driver made the assumption that Linus would only have High Society friends, and we didn’t bother correcting him.”
“That’s ten kinds of messed up, darlin’.”
“That’s the Society for you.” Her smile spread. “Whenever I get good and offended by the disparagement, I fantasize about the Low Society rising up against their High Society overlords.” She laughed. “But that will never happen. They have magic, and we don’t. It wouldn’t be a fair fight. More like a slaughter.”
“You might want to keep that fantasy under your hat when you’re around Linus.”
“Linus and Grier are well aware of the inequalities of the system we were born into, and they thwart it at every opportunity with their progressivism, but they only get away with being eccentric because they’re both stupid powerful and filthy rich.”
“I haven’t noticed a status gap as much in Atlanta.” Midas frowned. “Is that your doing?”
Shifters adored her for treating them like people, with thoughts, dreams, feelings. He could picture the Low Society embracing
