The mission went to hell when his assistant was murdered. There was a raid on our facility by Balthazar and his spades.
That was two weeks ago and the result was a split. Vlad ended up fleeing the facility with one of our teams, and we didn’t know where they went. Days ago the team he’d supposedly fled the premises with had been found dead by the river.
No sign of him.
Not a damn thing to go on to find him, until last night when there was reported sighting of him and Balthazar in this area.
Vlad was hiding out here somewhere and the fact that Balthazar had stepped in meant the big players were out for blood, ready to do what needed to be done themselves.
So, things were basically next level bad.
We couldn’t allow that research to get in Balthazar’s hands. Couldn’t allow it for the obvious fact that it would be bad on all levels. Cold fusion was a hot topic as it was. The fact that the Ra wanted the groundbreaking research was cause for concern.
We got closer to the village and Darren parked at the start of the thicket of trees this time.
“That’s better,” Claire told him.
He cut her a sharp glance and didn’t answer.
She didn’t care. The woman had never cared who she pissed off. Her concern was her mission and I knew more than most that she was hellbent on finding Vlad and Balthazar.
If we got Vlad back in our care then that would be great.
I could at least calm the fuck down.
It was a hard thing though for a man to watch the woman he loved go into potential danger. Harder when the man was me, a guy who had no patience.
She got out of the truck first. The rest of us followed. She took the lead and motioned for us to go to the left, in the direction of the back alley streets.
While the guys moved forward I caught her arm and tugged her towards me, pulling her to a stop so I could say a thing or two to her in private.
This was me acting out as her boyfriend. Not her second in command. Second in command was a term that was used loosely because of the way she always took charge. It wasn’t that I was weak. It was just that you couldn’t get much more daring than her. And my abilities didn’t lie in leadership. I was the guy who did my own thing.
“What?” she huffed, gritting her teeth. In the oncoming moonlight her hazel eyes looked brighter, almost glasslike. Against her velvet brown hair her whole look was striking. “What now agent? I know you don’t agree with me, a little support back there would have been good.”
“You need support? Since when?” I was only half joking.
“Now’s not the time for games Xander.”
She was right and we didn’t have time to stop and have a heart to heart. I just
needed her to understand she had to be careful.
“Claire, I have a bad feeling about all of this. Please calm down. Please.”
Her eyes widened.
I never usually said shit like that so she knew I was being serious.
I didn’t wait for her answer. I started walking again and she followed suit as we joined the others.
It was difficult to work with her and difficult to have any kind of relationship with her.
Harder in times like these. I wasn’t the flowers and chocolate kind of guy, not one bit. It could have been due to my upbringing. Living life on the streets as a thief could do that to a person. It was times like these however that I wished for something more. Something different. For her.
She deserved it.
I saw the way she looked when I took her on that surprise trip to Paris for Valentine’s day. That was only a few months ago.
