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She was probably right. “Now” would be a mistake because then he’d kill whoever interrupted them, and she’d been very, very specific about not wanting him to slaughter her team.
“I have to take care of this,” she went on. “It’s overdue, don’t you think?”
Bones couldn’t contain his snort as he glanced at his tented trousers. “Veryoverdue.”
She laughed, but her gaze lingered there before she shook her head as if trying to clear it. “You know what I mean.”
He did, and while Don and her team was the last thing he wanted to deal with at the moment, he’d been the one to insist that she come clean to them about him.
“Right, then. Let’s go over possibilities if they take the news badly,” he finally said. “I can prevent them from taking you away from the compound, but you need to be prepared if they try to trap you within it.”
That was the only eventuality he hadn’t planned for, beyond a full-scale attack with him, Rodney, and Charles blasting into the compound. Cat didn’t seem bothered by the possibility, though. In fact, she smiled.
“Don’t worry about that. In the event they ever turned on me, I’ve had backdoor security passwords plus an escape route planned for years.”
20
Bones stayed well back on his Ducati as Cat turned off at the private exit that led to Don’s compound. Then, he drove past it to the next public exit before doubling back on foot as far as he dared. Charles was already in place on the far perimeter, past the furthest range of cameras and ground sensors.
Charles’s ivory face was the only splash of color against his all-black ensemble. His long, spiky black hair blended into the darkness, too, and his six-foot-four frame was stretched on the ground in a manner that looked leisurely, if you couldn’t feel the currents crackling off his aura.
“Hallo, Crispin,” Charles drawled without looking away from the view in his binoculars. “Fancy meeting you here.”
“Thanks for doing this, mate,” Bones replied, equally low. He didn’t think they had acoustic sensors this far out, but he wasn’t going to shout to test that theory.
Charles let out muffled laugh and finally lowered his binoculars. “Please. I’d demolish this entire building to keep you from being so wretched again. Don’t know why we’re not doing that before she enters it, in fact. Seems more practical.”
Bones took a spot next to him. “She wants to keep working for them, if they allow her.”
Charles stared at him. When he saw that Bones was serious, he shook his head. “Did you piss off a vengeful deity? That’s the only reason I can think of for life dealing you this cruel hand.”
Bones grunted. “My sentiments exactly.”
They couldn’t see the compound from their location. They couldn’t even see the airstrip, but the dark expanse of trees between here and there only aided them. Don had chosen a private location for his own purposes, but it also meant that no one beyond members of the compound would see it if he and Charles took to the skies to stop an aircraft from spiriting Cat away.
“Status,” Bones said quietly into his Blu-Tooth.
“In place and standing by,” Rodney replied.
Everything was set. Now, they waited.
As the minutes slipped by, it felt like bees had taken up residence beneath Bones’s skin. Cat had reasoned that Don would first berate her in an attempt to make her break ties with Bones. When that failed, Don would try to manipulate her into doing it. When that failed, he’d either fire her or attempt to relocate her to have the “cleaners”-Cat’s term for Don’s team of human brainwashers-work on her.
Bones was prepared for all the above. What he wasn’t prepared for was if Don was successful in his efforts to convince Cat to leave him. He’d done it once before, after all.
“Steady, Crispin,” Charles whispered, sensing his unease.
“I can’t lose her again,” Bones replied, his low voice in stark contrast to the battle raging inside him.
He should have insisted on going in there with her. What if they had tunnels that Cat was unaware of? What if they shot her with a tranquilizer gun before she could enact her escape plan? What if Don found a way to change Cat’s mind about him? And what if none of that happened and Don simply executed her?
By the end of the hour, Bones was ready to storm the facility and pull her out, causalities be damned. Then, Rodney’s voice filled Bones’s earpiece.
“Black Volvo headed my way. Can’t see the driver yet.”
Bones tensed until a single touch would make all his muscles shatter. “Confirm when you do,” he rasped.
Nothing but silence for ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty…
