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Garrison nodded and got on his phone. The news report had switched to another story, so I turned off the TV and stood up. Anger was still churning inside me. “We can’t let the Blood Hunter get away with this.”
“We won’t,” Julius said firmly. “He isn’t going to win.”
But he didn’t know that. None of them did. That menace had orchestrated every bad thing that had ever happened to me, and I had a feeling that I didn’t even know the half of it.
I turned my attention to Blaze. “Have you found out anything about him? Even something small could make all the difference right now.”
Blaze’s knee stopped bouncing for a moment as he looked up at me and shook his head sadly. “He’s kept a low profile. Such a low profile that there’s no talk of him on any forums or dark websites. He’s so far underground that it’s hard to believe he exists.”
“Have you tried tracking the security cameras after the celebration the other night?” I proposed.
“Nothing. There’s no sign of him on any cameras across the city. Not a single one has shown his face. To make matters worse, I don’t have an image to feed into my recognition app for a quick scan. I snapped some photos with my phone in the club, but I had to be careful about it so his security didn’t notice and confiscate the phone, and the best I got was the back of his head. So I’ve spent hours trying to manually find even a partial face. But there’s nothing. If I hadn’t seen him with my own eyes, I’d swear he was a ghost.”
Garrison kicked the wall beside the TV, and I startled at the loud noise. He stretched his arms over his head as he took a deep breath to calm himself.
“I’m going out to see if I can hear anything on the street. We’re not having any luck with any other strategies, and I can’t just be a sitting duck,” he said.
My pulse stuttered. I gestured to the blank TV screen. “But the news—someone will recognize you—”
He rolled his eyes at me. “I’ll put on a disguise. I know how to change how I appear to people—that’s one of my main specialties. As is gathering information.”
“I’ll keep looking in all the ways I know how, but it’s hard to find answers when I don’t know anything about him other than an alias that doesn’t turn up results.” Blaze’s fingers drummed restlessly on the table beside him.
Julius motioned to Talon. “We’ll start packing the weapons and our other supplies just in case we have to make a hasty exit. We need to be ready.”
They headed toward the bedrooms where I knew they’d stashed a bunch of the crew’s equipment. Blaze was fully immersed in his computer, and Garrison…
Garrison was over by the front door, getting ready to leave.
My heart skittered all over again. I tried to tamp down my nerves, but we’d only just gotten him back a few days ago after the Blood Hunter had kidnapped him to use him as bait in a larger plan. The thought of him being taken again—hurt again—made me want to throw up.
But Garrison needed to feel he was contributing. I knew how much he hated acting like a weak link. How could I prevent him from doing his job—doing everything he could to protect the crew, just like I planned to do?
I went to join him by the door. “Please, just be careful.”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “So concerned for my well-being?”
I gave him a light sock to the shoulder. “You know I care about you. Don’t be a jerk about it.”
Some of his usual cockiness faded from his face. “I’m not trying to be. I’m really not.” He touched the side of my face, holding my gaze, his hazel eyes turned green in the shadows. “I’m still not used to this whole ‘showing my real emotions’ thing. But I’m trying my best, as much as I can. If I revert back to my old snarky self at a bad moment, feel free to give me a good wallop.”
That last remark got a brief laugh out of me. I set my hand over his and leaned in to give him a quick peck on the lips. “It’s okay. You have no idea how much I appreciate the effort.”
The corners of his mouth quirked upward in response. “You have no idea how lucky we are that we found you.”
He bent down and reclaimed my lips, his mouth soft but determined as it molded to mine. I hooked my hand around his neck and pressed myself further into him, pouring all my desire for his well-being and safe return to me into the kiss.
He pulled back just slightly, his forehead resting against mine. “You know,” he whispered, “it’s all going to be all right. Right now it might seem like everything’s crazy, but we’ll figure this out. We always do.”
I nodded, but I couldn’t bring myself to verbally respond. I knew he was trying to comfort me, but nobody knew how this mess would end up.
“You’re getting bad about hidingyouremotions, sweetheart,” he murmured, tapping the tip of my nose. “Itwillbe okay. Imagine all the other things we’ve survived together. It wouldn’t make sense for it all to end here. We’ve made it this far, and we’ll finish this together.”
But life wasn’t a movie, and there weren’t always happy endings.
I forced myself to hide the uncertainty in my eyes as I looked at the utter kindness in his. “I think I like this side of you,” I teased.
Garrison moved his hand down my chin and pinched it between his fingers, meeting my lips again. “Well, don’t get used to it. I can’t be chivalrous and nice forever. I have a reputation to uphold over here.”
