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I held back a tart reply and waited. After a moment he let out a long sigh. “Kadir was a huge part of my life for seven years, and then out of nowhere he abandoned me. Shook up my whole world.” His lips pressed together. “Less than a week later my mom passed away.”
“I’m so sorry,” I murmured.
Old pain pulled at his face. “Just like that, two of the three most important people in my life were gone. I fucking fell apart.”
“Who was the third?” I asked.
“My fiancée, Vicky Malone.” His voice caught on her name. “She was the love of my life. Understood and supported me. Got my dumb sense of humor. Funny and smart.” He exhaled a shuddering breath.
“Did . . . she die too?”
Pellini shook his head. “No, I drove her off. She’d try to console me about losing my mom, then I’d get pissed because she didn’t understand that it wasn’t just my mom. My whole world had collapsed, and I couldn’t tell her.” His gaze turned bleak and haunted. “I took it out on her. Jesus, I was the biggest fucking asshole to ever walk the earth. She stuck it out for three months then finally gave up.” He tipped his head back to look up at the sunlight piercing the leaves. “For close to a year I told myself I hated her. By the time I figured out what a goddamn jackass I’d been and tracked her down, she was married to another guy, with a baby on the way.”
“Shit.” I didn’t know what else to say, but apparently that was enough. He dropped his gaze to me, nodded in agreement.
“Anyway, listening to those two on that recording brought all that back. McDunn screwed up.”
I winced. “Poor Boudreaux.”
“Yeah.” He paused. “Let’s hope to god he never hears us say that about him.”
A bark of laughter slipped out. “Oh, hell no!” The crunch of gravel in the driveway heralded the return of Bryce and Idris. I clambered to my feet. “Let’s play the recording for the boys. I bet ‘number six’ is a valve and, if so, hopefully Idris will know which one it is.”
• • •
Number six was, indeed, a valve.
“Nature center,” Idris said the first time he listened to the recording. Pellini played it twice more, volume turned all the way up as the entire posse clustered in the dining room. At the end of the table Bryce sat beside Jill as she took notes, both with matching grim expressions. Eilahn stood near the door, arms folded. Tension held Idris in a solid grip as he paced by the table.
“He’s going to be there,” he said after the third time through the recording. He raked a gaze around the room. “Katashi. He’s going to be at the nature center valve this afternoon. There’ll be an emission at 2:47.” Anger boiled through the excitement in his words. “We can get him. This is our chance.”
“You’re sure he’ll be there?” I asked.
His head jerked in a nod of assent. “Completely. Even if they changed the numbering system—which I doubt—there’s no other valve that has an emission this afternoon. And the ‘master’ is Katashi. He’ll be there for the burst. I know it!”
“All right,” I said. “Our strike team will be me, you, Pellini, and Eilahn. That’s it. Bryce stays here with Jill. Who else will be with Katashi?”
“He doesn’t like a lot of people ar
ound him when he works,” Idris said. “One security guy and one other summoner. Tsuneo, most likely. He knows the valves almost as well as I do.” Idris wasn’t bragging either. He was stating a fact.
“Does Tsuneo carry a weapon?” Jill asked.
Idris shook his head. “Arcane and some martial arts, but I’ve never seen him with a gun.”
A charged excitement filled the room. “This could work,” Pellini said, stroking his mustache. “We get there well in advance, stake out the valve, and take them down.”
“Bryce?” I said. “You’re our tactical advisor. Can you work up a plan for us in the next, oh, twenty minutes?”
“I can,” he said.
I rubbed my hands together. Damn, it felt good to take action. “Then let’s have us an ambush.”
• • •
I pulled Eilahn aside before she could return to the backyard. “I think you need to remain here for this,” I said, letting my worry show.
Her lips pursed as she regarded me. “Then there is great error in your thinking,” she replied, enunciating each word to ensure I comprehended.
