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CHAPTER 14
“So what happened when you set off the explosion?” Marius sat at a distance from Shayna. Rumy sat beside him on one of dozens of benches scattered throughout the park.
Rumy shook his head. “I’d hoped Daniel would buy it, but no such luck. I think he read the light in my eye before I shifted to altered flight and the room blew.”
“What did he want?”
“He wanted you. I don’t know what bug crawled up his ass, but he seems determined to get you and not necessarily to kill you. I didn’t see this with either Adrien or Lucian. I think he wanted to get all three of you to join forces with him, but he honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass if Lucian died out there on the lake. No, he seems to want you for something.”
“Well, he can go fuck himself.”
Rumy chuckled. “Tell me how you really feel.” He smoothed down his tight curls. He kept his hair cropped and oiled. “The thing is, Marius, there was something different about his security detail.”
“How so?”
“They wore something new that looked like real uniforms. It just seemed odd.”
“In what way?”
He shifted toward Marius. “For one thing, there was a line of weird-looking marks above a silver emblem. The emblem was a hawk. I’d never seen anything like it before. Have you? When confronting Daniel? It had, I don’t know, a professional look, a branded look.”
Marius shook his head. “No, I can’t recall ever seeing anything like that. I know he kept his men in black, but hell, that’s what we all wear to remain invisible when we fly through any city at night. Black is standard and sensible. But, no, I’ve never seen a hawk emblem before.”
“What do you think it means?”
Marius crossed his arms over his chest. “Haven’t got a clue.” His gaze was fixed on Shayna. He purposefully kept her in sight and right now he felt a new emotion from her: She’d changed from anthropologically curious to pretty anxious. Something the women had said was distressing her.
“So what the hell happened in the Dark Cave system? I heard some of the refugees say they thought Shayna was committing suicide when she threw herself off some kind of catwalk.”
Marius told him about her ploy and how well it had worked.
Rumy’s eyes went wide. “And this woman isn’t trained military?”
Marius had to laugh. “No, not even a little.”
“She sure has guts.”
Marius nodded. “That she has.”
Rumy elbowed Marius. “You’re into her.”
“Shut your trap.”
Rumy laughed. “I could hardly blame you. She’s gorgeous. Quirky, but beautiful. And those breasts, a vampire could—”
He got no farther, because Marius moved like lightning and now had hold of Rumy’s throat. “Don’t ever go there again.”
Rumy’s eyes widened and he nodded slowly. He coughed and sputtered when Marius released him. “Sorry. My mistake. Won’t happen again. But you’re not into her, right?”
“Cute.”
“Just sayin’.”
Marius resumed his seat, settling his gaze back on Shayna. He felt uneasy for reasons he couldn’t explain and rubbed the back of his neck. Something was bugging him. Maybe it was Shayna’s distress or what Rumy had told him about the new uniforms that Daniel’s men were wearing.
Or maybe that Rumy had it exactly right: He was so into Shayna.
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