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Kendra bared her teeth, a terrible parody of a smile. "Oh, I think you should, Gabby. After all, Jamie's life depends on it."
Cold dread pierced her heart. "What?"
Kendra nodded her head toward the waiting sedan. A tinted window eased down, and there was Jamie, sitting in the backseat beside an enormous thug.
"Gabrielle?" Jamie called out, a panicked look in his eyes.
"Oh, no. Not Jamie. Kendra, please don't let anyone hurt him."
"That'll be entirely up to you," Kendra said politely. She grabbed Gabrielle's purse out of her hands. "You won't be needing anything in here."
She motioned for Gabrielle to walk ahead of her toward the idling car. "Shall we?"
Lucan set two bars of C4 under the huge water heaters in the asylum's boiler room. Crouched down behind the utility equipment, he flipped up the transmitter antennas, then spoke into his mic to report his progress.>Lucan was anxious to get started. Even more anxious to finish the night's mission because he had his own unfinished business back at the compound. He hated leaving Gabrielle like he had, knowing she had to be confused and probably more than a little upset.
There were things to be said, certainly, things he hadn't even been prepared to think about much less discuss with her in that moment when the stunning reality of his feelings for her had hit him.
Now, his head was full of plans.
Reckless, stupid, hopeful plans, all of them centered on her.
Around him in the vehicle, the other warriors were checking their gear, loading up the bars of C4 into zippered duffel bags and making final adjustments to the earpieces and mics that would keep them in contact with one another once they breached the asylum perimeter and split up to place the explosives.
"Tonight, we do this for Con and Rio," Dante said, flipping one of his curved blades with nimble, black-gloved fingers and stabbing it into the sheath on his hip. "Vengeance time."
"Hell, yeah," Niko replied, a sentiment echoed swiftly by the others.
When they started to go for the doors, Lucan lifted his hand.
"Hold up." His grim voice stilled them all. "There's something you need to know. Since we're about to go in there and possibly get our asses handed to us, I suppose now's as good a time as any to be straight with you about a couple of things... and I need a promise from each of you."
He met the faces of his brethren, warriors who'd been fighting beside him, as tight as kin, for what seemed like forever. They had always looked to him to lead, trusting him to make the hard calls, certain he would never be at a loss for strategy or decision.
Now he wavered, hesitant, unsure of where to begin. He raked a hand over his jaw, blew out a sharp sigh.
Gideon frowned at him, concerned. "Everything good, Lucan? You took a pretty massive hit in the ambush last night. If you want to sit this out - "
"No. No, that's not it. I'm fine. My injuries are healed... thanks to Gabrielle," he said. "Earlier today, she and I..."
"No shit," Gideon replied when Lucan's explanation trailed off. Damn the vampire, but he was actually grinning about it.
"You drank from her?" Niko asked.
Tegan grunted in the backseat. "That female's a Breedmate."
"Yes," Lucan said, answering with serious calm. "And if she'll have me, I mean to ask Gabrielle to take me as her mate."
Dante smirked at him, rolling his eyes. "Congrats, man. Seriously."
Gideon and Niko offered similar responses, clapping Lucan on the shoulder.
"That's not all."
Four pairs of eyes fixed on him, everyone but Tegan looking at him with grim expectation.
"Last night, Eva had some choice things to say about me - " There was an immediate defensive vocal barrage from Gideon, Niko, and Dante. Lucan spoke over the angry rumbles. "Her betrayal of Rio and the rest of us is inexcusable, yes. But what she said about me... it was the truth."
Dante gave him a narrow look. "What are you talking about?"
