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Two stone-faced gargoyles hopped out, their weapons already drawn and sighted on Caro and Ryn.
She froze, castigating herself for being caught unawares, and suppressed the urge to look over her shoulder. She could run faster than a gargoyle if she chose.
A deep voice from within the vehicle said, “You shouldn’t run, Ms. Kavenaugh. I’ve got snipers ready to take out you and Mr. Natain.”
Natain? She cut a glance to Ryn. She’d heard the family was involved in all kinds of illegal activity and skirted on the fringes of the King’s court. Questions swirled, and she quickly put a stop to the whirlwind.Panic serves no purpose here. Stay calm.
From the back of the vehicle a bulky form emerged. Caro immediately recognized the enormous fae clad in an impeccably tailored pin-striped suit reminiscent of a gangster from a 1930s black and white movie. All he missed were the spats on his shoes.
“What do you want, Jenkins?” Ryn’s casual tone belied the tension fairly vibrating from him.
“Not much, West, my former friend.” His words carried a razor’s edge. “Only to congratulate you on your victory this evening, one blood smuggler to another.”
Time slowed for Caro. ‘West.’ ‘One blood smuggler to another.’ How could she have been so stupid? She just led over five hundred victims from one peril to another. Shame burned through her, followed by fury. He’d duped her. Used her. If only she’d opened Cheese’s email earlier, the one titled, “West. Important.” She berated herself for not listening to instinct when her gut told her to open the message.
“And you, Ms. Kavenaugh, for having pulled the wool over West’s unblinking, mistrustful eyes. You’ve done what I’ve been trying to do for the past six months, get close enough to learn his operation, then start picking his warehouses off one by one. Brilliant.” His laughter held a gleeful, sharped edge. “Come see me if you need a job. I’m always looking for resourceful people such as yourself.”
The rage emanating from the demon next to her was palpable in the cool early morning.
She cleared her thoughts, drained herself of all emotion, and centered on what she’d have to do now.
“With that, I’ll leave you two lovebirds to figure out who kills who. My money’s on you, Ms. Kavenaugh.” He winked at her. “Don’t disappoint me.”
Every muscle in Caro’s body prepared to fight. She may have been stupid enough to buy into the façade Ryn—West, or whatever he called himself—had been peddling. Now she’d fight for her life.
As soon as Jenkins’s SUV door slammed, Caro spun and lashed out with her foot.
Westryn danced back and avoided her leg sweep. “Caro, wait.”
No waiting. She had to destroy him now. Fury fueled her barrage, her punches and kicks landing with brutal precision until finally he lay with his back on the pavement. Funny. She thought besting him would’ve meant he landed at least one punch.
Crimson trickled from the corner of his mouth, and one eye had been beaten shut.
“Caro, don’t—”
The crunch of her knuckles against his jaw felt good, the pain a penance for her stupidity. He coughed, spitting blood from his mouth.
She pulled the fae knife from the sheath and dug the point into his chest, preparing to eviscerate his heart like he’d metaphorically done to her. “You shouldn’t have tried to deceive me.”
“I didn’t.” His velvet voice had been reduced to a croak. “I showed you one side of me, and I should’ve showed you the other.”
“Yeah. You really should’ve.” She squeezed the knife’s handle. Yet, her hand wouldn’t move as if the appendage had a will of its own. No magic stayed the stroke. She couldn’t kill this demon, and her weakness gutted her. Jumbled emotions clouded her thoughts and caused her hands to shake. She needed to escape and recover her logic. He couldn’t follow her, though.
She rose, pulled her gun, and put a bullet through his forehead. The loud report echoing off the hard planes of the industrial buildings caused her to wince. She couldn’t look at him. Dared not. Disgust welled within her, a disgust for her weakness and what she was about to do.
From her pocket, she pulled her phone and texted Miren. ‘Come back. The boss is down, and we need help.’
For a moment, she bowed her head, asking for the forgiveness of all the humans she betrayed tonight, and promising she’d free them for real. She dropped the phone next to Ryn-West’s head, next to where his life’s essence began to pool, then shouldered her pack, and raced away. She stuck to the back alleys, the dark places, as she used her speed to conceal her movement and distance herself from her failure.
Distance herself from the very male she might’ve been able to love.
Who was she kidding? She ran from herself.
CHAPTER16
Caro stared at the burner phone she kept in her pack for emergencies. The message from Cheese at Hebert Security sat at the top, bolded in black as unread, and dated sixteen hours ago.
Did Caro really want to know how stupid she’d been? Did she want to know how many signals she missed because she wanted to believe she’d found her place in the Sanguis world like she had in the CIA? She should’ve remembered that the agency hadn’t been without perils.
