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"Ah. That's good." Relief in his answering exhalation. "How is the little guy?"
She couldn't help smiling when she thought of her sweet baby boy, back at the cottage with Emma this morning while Danika ran daytime errands in the city. Her son was Breed; for him and the rest of his kind, sunlight was a deadly threat. "Connor's great. Getting bigger all the time. He's so much like his father already. Calm and good-natured. I'm blessed to have him."
"It's good to hear you're both okay." There was a question in the warrior's slight pause now. "But that's not why you called, is it?"
"No," she admitted. As a fresh wave of customers strolled in to place their orders, Danika got up from her table and walked outside for a little privacy. "Do you know anything about a vampire from the Edinburgh area named Reiver?"
"Let me check the IID." The clack of a keyboard sounded in the background as Gideon tapped into the Breed's international identification database. "Not much on record. Looks like he's been around since the 1700s. Currently holds several properties in the Highlands and a handful of businesses in and around Edinburgh."
"What kind of businesses?" She crossed the street and headed for the car lent to her for the day by Conlan's kin. "Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Import/export companies, couple of antiques shops. And a private gentleman's club on South Bridge. Appears the place has been registered to him for the past century and a half."
She knew that area, a historically notorious part of the Old Town now clogged with tourist shops and pubs. She was only a few blocks away. Danika got into the car and turned the key. "Do you have the name and address of that club, Gideon?"
His answer came in the form of a prolonged silence. Then: "What's this really about, Danika? You're not being straight with me."
She told him about the incident at the party last night, including the snippet of conversation she'd overheard. "I can't be sure, but I think he was talking about human cargo, Gideon."
"Jesus," the warrior hissed on the other end of the line. "And you put yourself within arm's length of this guy? I don't need to tell you what Conlan would say about that-"
"Con's gone. And I'm fine. I just wanted to make you and the rest of the Order aware of what happened."
"You did the right thing," he told her. "Now do us all a favor and steer clear of the whole situation. We'll take a closer look at Reiver. Don't mention this to anyone-not even the Enforcement Agency. Shit, especially them. The way things are going around here right now, we have to assume that no one can be trusted."
"That bad?"
"I'm not sure how it could get worse, unfortunately." The uncharacteristically grave edge to Gideon's voice had taken on an even darker tone. Although the time she'd been away from the Order had kept her removed from their day-to-day operations, she was still in touch with her old friends and was aware of the war they'd been embroiled in with a powerful enemy named Dragos. The fact that Gideon was unable to make light of that battle now, even to dismiss some of her worry, could only mean bad news. "The compound's location has been compromised. We're scrambling for temporary headquarters, but the whole plan got more complicated yesterday when Dante and Tess's baby arrived ahead of schedule."
Danika wanted to be happy for Dante and his Breedmate, whom she had yet to meet, but she'd been a part of the Order long enough to understand that a newborn was both a blessing and a burden to a group of warriors who lived-and sometimes died-to make the world a better place.
"As if that wasn't enough," Gideon went on, "one of our own is AWOL. Chase disappeared the other night. Based on the way he's been acting lately, we're all dreading that we've lost him to Bloodlust."
"I'm sorry," she said. Of all the warriors, she never would have guessed the most rigid, by-the-book enforcer of Breed law would be the one to fall victim to an irreversible blood addiction. In light of everything the Order was dealing with now, she regretted that she'd called to trouble them with her suspicions about a petty gworut a peangster like Reiver. "I wish I were there with you all, Gideon. I wish there was something more I could do."
"Don't worry about us. You take care of you, understand?" She heard him typing something more on the keyboard in his tech lab. "You want me to send someone your way? Reichen's in Europe on a mission, but you say the word and I know Lucan will pull him-"
"No," she said as she turned the corner from cobbled High Street and slowly made her way along the hodgepodge collection of Victorian-era brick buildings and modern storefronts that lined the South Bridge. "It's not necessary, Gideon. I'm perfectly fine. I shouldn't have bothered you."
"No bother, Danika. You're kin, always will be. We all feel that way."
"Thank you," she replied, warmed by the thought. "I have to go now."
"Keep out of trouble," he cautioned grimly. "And you get in touch ASAP if you need anything at all. Right?"
"Yeah. I will." She told him good-bye and ended the call just as the car's GPS announced that she had reached her destination.
Although Gideon hadn't spoken the address when she'd asked him for it, his mind had given up the answer to her ESP talent. The building that housed Reiver's club had no signage, only a bloodred door with a brass wolf's-head knocker.
Danika drove around to a side street where she could park, then walked back to have a closer look. She shouldn't have been tempted to try the front door, but a tentative squeeze of the cold metal latch was too much to resist.
The building was unlocked. Strange. Unless Reiver's business encouraged straying visitors to enter. She eased the heavy door open and walked into the dim vestibule. Interior shutters blocked the daylight from outside as she closed the door behind her, the soft glow of a fluted wall sconce the only illumination inside. She didn't bother to call into the gloom to see if anyone was there. All she wanted was a quick look, something to either confirm her suspicions about Reiver or dismiss them.
She ventured farther inside and tried one of the interior doors toward the rear of the vestibule. It was shut tight, bolted. Another door appeared to lead to a stairwell, but it too was locked. So much for a quick look around.
Danika released a pent-up breath but sucked it short when movement sounded from somewhere inside the building.
She wasn't alone here.
