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“Jesus. Was she harmed?”
“Got knocked on the head pretty hard by the two men who killed her friend, but she obviously wasn’t their main concern. She says Lynch knew the men. She let them in and things turned ugly pretty fast. When the roommate tried to intervene, they shoved her into the bathroom and knocked her out while they finished what they came to do.”
Zael exhaled a low curse. “She’s lucky they didn’t finish her too.”
“Extremely lucky,” Gideon agreed.
“That’s not to say this woman isn’t still in danger,” Zael considered. “From all I’ve heard and seen of Opus’s tactics, they don’t have a very good track record of leaving loose ends behind.”
Gideon nodded grimly. “She’d be in Order protective custody even if she wasn’t a Breedmate, but the fact that she is makes her safety a top priority. Not to mention we need her to tell us whatever she can about Crowe and Iona Lynch, and about the men who killed her.”
Gideon’s tablet chimed and he glanced at the screen. “Damn. So much for that brilliant idea. Whoever put the locks on Opus’s network is one shrewd son of a bitch. Looks like I’ve got more homework to do.” He hooked his thumb in the direction of the corridor. “If you were on your way to see Lucan, that’s where I’m heading now.”
Zael hedged. “Ah, actually, I was looking to talk with Brynne. She went this way with Tavia a few minutes ago.”
“Yes, she did.” Although he was already tapping on his tablet, Gideon’s brows rose with blatant interest over the rims of his glasses. “But you’re too late. Brynne’s gone now.”
“Gone?” The newsflash hit Zael like a blow. “You don’t mean back to London?”
“No. Gone to feed in Georgetown. Tavia sent one of the warriors out with her as an escort.”
Zael wasn’t happy to hear she’d left the safety of the command center, let alone that she’d done so with another male. If she needed someone to protect her, then damn it, she could have asked him to take her.
Of course, she’d probably rather swallow her own tongue than ask him for help.
He realized he must have been wearing his displeasure on his face, because Gideon froze for a moment, cocking his head at him. Then he chuckled.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He reached out and cuffed Zael on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Atlantean. Happens to the best of us.”
“What does?”
The warrior smirked. “You’ll figure it out.”
With that, he resumed his tapping, leaving Zael to stare after him as Gideon headed back down the corridor, once again thoroughly engrossed in his work.
CHAPTER 18
“You really don’t have to wait for me to finish here,” Brynne told the big dark-haired Gen One warrior who’d been tasked as her personal driver and bodyguard for the evening. “I feel ridiculous that Tavia insisted I be schlepped around like a child in need of supervision.”
To make matters worse, her sister had assigned Jordana’s warrior mate, Nathan, to the job. If Brynne had harbored even the slimmest hope of slipping her collar tonight in order to feed the way she needed to, she stood little chance of getting away from this warrior’s watchful eye.
“It could take a while,” she pointed out. “I’ll have to register and sign the contract before they even admit me.”
Nathan sat behind the wheel of the SUV as he parked at the curb, his expression unreadable. “Take whatever time you need.”
He wasn’t much of a talker, Brynne had gathered, but she wasn’t feeling particularly chatty herself. She’d been too busy calculating possible excuses for why she wasn’t going in to the blood Host parlor, and trying to guess how much longer she would be able to stave off the worst of her hunger if she didn’t get some relief tonight.
By the acid burn of her veins and the increasing throb of all her pulse points, she was perilously close to the edge already.
“You know, I’m a child of the labs too, Brynne.”
She glanced at him, startled by the unsolicited confession. “Yes. Tavia had mentioned it to me at one time. You were part of the Hunter program.”
