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Or maybe Zach had no desire to remove Skeeter Arnold from his line of work.
"Oh, my God," Alex murmured. "Did you and Skeeter have some kind of arrangement, Zach?" That defensive gaze narrowed even further now. "What the hell are you talking about?" Alex stood up, feeling some of her horror from everything that had happened today begin to melt under the heat of her outrage. "You did, didn't you? All your trips to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Is that where under the heat of her outrage. "You did, didn't you? All your trips to Anchorage and Fairbanks. Is that where you picked up supplies for him? What kind of commission did you skim off the top of his drug deals, or off the backs of the Native kids who threw their lives away on the alcohol he peddled to them on the side?
Good kids, like Teddy Toms."
Zach's eyes blazed with anger, but he offered her a sympathetic look. "Is that really what you think of me? You've known me for years, Alex."
"Have I?" She shook her head. "I'm not so sure. I'm not sure of anything anymore."
"Then let me take care of you," he said, his voice gentle, but she was hardly convinced. "I'm going to get my coat, and I'm going to take you home so you can get some rest. I think you need it, Alex." He pressed his lips together and gave her a vague nod. "I'll be right back, okay?" As he walked out of the room, Alex stood there, overwhelmed with uncertainty. Everything in her life had tilted beneath her. She didn't know whom she could trust now. Not Kade.
And apparently not Zach, either.
She didn't think it would be wise to trust him at all now.
Flames and debris shot high into the darkness as the mining company exploded behind him. Kade threw a glance backward, feeling the push of the expanding heat against his face, heat that turned the snowstorm that swirled around him and the other warriors into a brief, warm spittle of rain. The warmth didn't last. Frigid cold roared back in, all of it settling in Kade's chest.
"Alex," he whispered.
He had to reach her.
Brock shot him a concerned look. "What's going on?"
Kade rubbed at the icy hurt under his breastbone. "I'm not sure. It's Alex, and whatever I'm feeling, it's not good."
Even though he could tell from his blood bond to her that she wasn't in mortal danger, every instinct within him screamed for him to go to her. But he had a duty to the Order, and a duty to the warriors he still might have failed by losing sight of the ball on this mission. Dragos's Alaskan outpost was destroyed, a few more of his assets eliminated, but the Ancient was still at large. The warriors' mission here would not be complete until that deadly otherworlder was located and contained.
"Shit," Kade hissed.
This was not good. He couldn't go another second without talking to Alex at the very least. He had to reassure himself that she was all right. And part of him just needed to hear her voice.
"Call her," Brock said. When Kade hesitated, wondering why the ice in his chest was crawling up to his throat to taste like dread, Brock gave him a stern look. "Call your female." Kade took out his cell phone and walked until he was several yards from the other warriors. He dialed Alex's number. It rang three times before she answered.
"Alex?" he said into the silence on the other end. At his back, the crackle of flames and the soft hail of falling shrapnel seemed deafening when she was so quiet. "Alex ... are you there? Can you hear me?"
"What do you want?" she sounded a bit out of breath, as if she were walking somewhere at a good clip.
"What do I want," he echoed. "I ... are you okay? I know you're upset. I felt it. I've been worried that something happened--"
Her scoff cut him off at the knees. "That's funny. When I saw you earlier, you didn't seem to care that I was upset."
"What?" He gave himself a mental shake, trying to make sense of what she was saying. "What's going on with you?"
"Did you want me to see you like that? Is that what you meant when you said you were afraid I might hate you one day? Because right now I don't know what to think." Her voice was tight with anger, and with hurt. "After what I saw, I don't know how I feel. Not about you or us or anything."
"Alex, I don't have any idea--"
More huffing breaths, her boots crunching in the snow. "What was all that talk about a mission with the Order? Was it all bullshit, Kade? Just a game you played to make me think you were something better than what you are?"
"Alex--"
She sucked in a sob. "My God, was everything between us just a bunch of bullshit, too?" Kade stalked farther away from the settling destruction behind him and the other warriors who had taken notice of his departure from the group. "Alex, please. Tell me what the hell is going on."
"I saw you!" she burst out sharply. "I saw you, Kade. In the woods, covered in blood, running with that pack of wolves. I saw what you did to that man."
"Ah, Christ," he muttered, comprehension dawning in a smothering wave. "Alex ..."
"I saw you," she whispered now, her voice breaking. "And I know you saw me, because you looked right at me."
