Kiss of Midnight_ A Midnight Breed Novel - Lara Adrian [779]
“Hey,” Kade said, his wolfish quicksilver eyes grim and narrowed as he greeted Reichen with a slight lift of his square jaw. His spiky jet hair was covered by a black knit skullcap, the same thing that stretched over Brock’s dark-skinned, close-shaved head. The two big males paused when Reichen turned to face them.
“What’s going on?” he asked the warriors, hoping they weren’t about to ask him the same thing.
“Heading out in a few minutes for Connecticut, my man,” Brock said, his deep voice a thunderous roll of bass and battle readiness. “With any luck, we’re gonna be handing Dragos his own ass on a platter before the night is through.”
“Dragos,” Reichen echoed. “We’ve got a lead on him?”
“Best one so far,” Kade put in. “Gideon’s getting the coordinates from Renata as we speak.”
“When did the women return?”
Brock gave a slow shake of his head. “They haven’t. The Rover is toast, so we’ll be picking them up tonight when we get there.”
Alarms kicked up a sudden racket in Reichen’s whole body. “What do you mean—the vehicle broke down on them?”
“Crashed into a tree,” Kade said. “Could have been a hell of a lot worse, if the Minions trying to run them off the road had actually gotten ahold of them. Everyone’s okay, and the mind slaves are dead. Renata gave them both a fatal case of lead poisoning.”
“Good Christ.” Reichen’s blood ran ice cold.
Minions.
A car crash and gunfire.
Claire…
“Gideon is on the phone with the women now?” he demanded.
Kade nodded.
“Where?”
“The tech lab.”
Reichen took off at a dead run, feet and heart pounding with the need to hear Claire’s voice, to hear from her own lips that she truly was unharmed.
Gideon was inside with most of the Order, everyone gathered and reviewing the map and coordinates that hung on the far wall of the lab. Tegan, Nikolai, Rio, and the former Gen One assassin named Hunter were all dressed like Kade and Brock, all dripping weapons and lethal purpose.
Reichen entered the room and walked straight over to Gideon, just in time to hear the warrior end his conversation with Renata and disconnect the call. “I need to talk to Claire.”
“She’s fine,” Gideon said. “The situation is totally under control.”
“Like hell it is,” he roared, practically shaking with concern. “They were attacked by Minions and now they’re stranded out there? What the fuck happened?”
“We knew the mission was not entirely without risk,” Lucan said soberly. When Reichen pivoted to face him, the Order’s leader went on. “The women knew the risks, too. They accepted it, and they handled it. Quite well, in fact.”
Reichen simmered down, but only slightly. “Tell me what happened.”
Gideon gave him a quick rundown of the facts Renata had reported: Claire’s certainty that they were within mere miles of Roth; the double sightings of the Minions who’d apparently been following them since early afternoon; the high-speed pursuit that ended in an undeveloped stretch of woodlands some three hours away; and the astonishing news that Dylan’s psychic gift had not only delivered the women to safety but also, apparently had led them right into the vicinity of what could only be Dragos’s hidden lair.
As stunned as he was to hear the day’s extraordinary events—as relieved as he was to know that neither Claire nor the other two women had been injured—another part of him was awash in confusion… and guilt.
Claire must have been terrified when she and her companions had come under attack by the Minions. At the very least, her adrenaline should have kicked into high gear, and yet Reichen’s blood bond to her had told him nothing.
“You didn’t know?” Tegan said, his gaze seeming to read right through him.
Reichen gave a curt shake of his head. He’d been laid flat while Claire was in serious danger. The knowledge of how badly he might have failed her hit him like a stab to the chest.
And now she was out there in the open, vulnerable, near enough to Roth that she could feel him, and possibly within Dragos’s reach, as well.
Reichen bristled with the thought. He felt the