AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Mencheres shrugged. “They’re not sexist. If Bones were a woman and you a man, the claim would be the same. Discriminating based on gender is a human failing. Not a vampire one.”
“Whatever,” Cat muttered. Then, a crafty expression replaced her frustrated one, and her smile slowly unfurled.
Bones tensed. Whatever this was, he’d bet his undead life that he wasn’t going to like it. “What?”
“You’re going to tell Ian that you found me,” Cat said, her smile widening. “And you’re going to offer to bring me to him.”
33
Serves me right, Bones thought as he entered the compound the next day. Cat had hated the plan he came up with the last time they were here, and now their positions were reversed.
Don wasn’t surprised to see them at his office door. The security checkpoints they’d passed on their way into the compound had alerted him to their presence. If anything, Don looked pleased, and right he should be. He had his best fighter back in his stable with the promise of even more on the way. Bones was surprised that Don wasn’t whistling a merry tune.
“Come in,” Don said. “I’m just going over the pathology reports from the other day. You have quite a massive component in your blood, Bones,” he added, looking his way now. “We could practically get rid of our other in-house vampires if we siphon a pint a week from you.”
Bones snorted. “Going to tap me like a tree? Bit of a greedy bloodsucker yourself, aren’t you?”
Don’s mouth turned down at the comparison. Bones didn’t care. The sod had everything he wanted, which was more than Bones could say at the moment.
“We came for a reason,” Cat said. “You may as well call in Juan, Tate, and Cooper, too. That way, we’ll only need to go over this once.”
Don’s brows rose, but he asked no questions and simply summoned the other team members. The three of them waited in silence the short five minutes it took for them to arrive.
“You all know that I’m half vampire,” Cat stated to her men. “What you didn’t know, and neither did I until recently, was that the vampire who raped my mother is Don’s brother.”
Gasps sounded from them, covering the low growl Don made. Cat ignored all of it.
“You also remember Liam Flannery from that New York mission. His real name is Ian, and he’s the vampire who made Bones. He also made Don’s brother, Max. Don’s knownthatfor years, too. It’s the real reason we were sent to bring Ian in. But, Ian got away, and after we tangled, Ian got all excited about my being a half-breed and decided he wanted me as his new showpiece. Bones says Ian won’t hesitate to use people I care about against me to ensure my compliance, either. There’s a way to get Ian off my back without a bloodbath, but it’s dangerous, and it would involve one of you.”
At this, she paused. She’d happily put herself in danger every day of the week, but she hated endangering anyone else.
“In order for her to turn the tables on Ian, he needs to be confident that he’s got something over her,” Bones said when Cat continued to pause. “A valuable hostage, to be specific. Now, Ian’s smart, so he likely won’t kill such a useful bargaining tool, but there are no guarantees. Cat intends to rescue whoever offers himself as bait, and then use Ian’s guards as bargaining chips herself to force Ian to leave her alone. If Ian makes a blood oath promising that, he’ll be bound to it in the vampire world, and he’d also be regarded very poorly if he refused to bargain for his own people. But, until Cat could rescue the volunteer, there’d be no one ensuring their safety.”
Silence for exactly three seconds. Then, Tate said, “If this keeps a vamp from hunting you, Cat, count me in.”
Bones gave him a jaded look.Knew your love for her would make you the first to volunteer.
Don coughed. “Perhaps there’s a different approach-”
“Me, too,” Juan interrupted. “That undeadpendejocan have two worms on the hook instead of one.”
Cooper shrugged. “Who wants to live forever? I’m in.”
Cat blinked away tears while Don continued to sputter out objections. “We can hardly risk our top soldiers on a guess-”
“Save it, old chap,” Bones said crisply. “Not like they’ve been gardening these past years, have they? Besides, I already knew they’d all offer, and here I’ve only just met them. How could you expect anything different?”
Don glared at him. When that proved fruitless, he rounded on Cat.
“You can’t take our most valuable team members into a hostile nest the likes of which they’ve never seen. If they all died, it would utterly ruin this operation!”
“Here and now, decide which is more important to you,” Bones snapped. “Your niece, or the risk to your operation. We all make choices we have to live with. This is yours.”
Frustration poured from Don like a fog machine turned on high. He didn’t want to admit that he cared so little for Cat, and he also didn’t want to risk his operation, though he was being a bit dramatic saying that this could ruin it.
“It’s not like the guys are docile lambs,” Cat said, breaking her silence. “They’re not just bait. They’re Trojan horses. Ian’s guards will never suspect how tough they are, and if I didn’t think they could handle it, I’d never let any of them volunteer.”
Don stared at her. She didn’t blink as she stared back.
