“Yeah.”
“Tell the watchers to make sure she wasn’t followed.”
Kaede arched a brow. “By who?”
Bas’s humorless laugh bounced off the walls. “A good question, old friend. We seem to be gathering enemies at an alarming rate.”
“No shit.”
They shared a mutual grimace.
Until two days ago their small sect had managed to fly under the radar.
They had their selective clientele, but they went to extreme measures to make sure that they avoided any unwelcome attention.
Now he had his balls in a vise and they were being squeezed so tight he had no choice but to put a target on his back.
“I was referring to our guest’s abrupt departure from Valhalla,” he clarified. He’d done everything in his power to lure Serra from Valhalla without attracting attention, but no plan was perfect. Especially one that had been slapped together in less than an hour. He’d be an idiot not to be prepared for failure. “The Mave isn’t stupid.”
His companion frowned. “If she suspected something was wrong wouldn’t she have stopped the psychic from leaving?”
“Not if she wanted to know who was tampering with her people.” He knew what he’d do. He would use the victim to track down the bastard responsible. “Make sure you scan the psychic and her car for any hidden bugs and disable the GPS.”
Kaede touched the knife hidden beneath his shirt. The enforcer could filet a grown man in under three minutes.
“You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“Do I have a choice?”
Kaede moved toward the door. “I wish to God you did.”
“So do I,” Bas muttered, reaching into his pocket to pull out a small photo of a silvery blond-haired, bronze-eyed girl with a smile that could light the world. “I’m coming, Molly.”
Beneath the fog that clouded her mind, Serra understood that something was terribly wrong.
She was supposed to be enjoying a night of mindless fun with Arel, wasn’t she?
But even as she tried to clear her thoughts, she couldn’t battle the overwhelming urge to get into her vehicle and speed through the night. She didn’t know where she was going, or why she was going there. She just knew that she couldn’t stop.
Her confusion only deepened as she hit the outskirts of St. Louis and drove straight downtown.
She’d visited the area before, but not enough to have navigated with such ease through narrow back streets until she was pulling into an underground parking lot. It was as if she was deliberately choosing a route that would throw off anyone trying to track her.
It was creepy as hell.
Pulling to a halt in the nearly empty lot, she crawled out of her SUV and stood as still as a mannequin until a slender, dark-haired man appeared from the shadows and led her toward an elevator hidden in a dark alcove.
Her teeth clenched, sweat beaded her forehead as she desperately struggled to organize her muddled thoughts. This wasn’t right. She didn’t know this man or why she was so easily allowing herself to be herded into the steel-lined elevator that whisked them toward the top floor, but her instincts were screaming in warning.
There was a faint shudder beneath her feet as the elevator came to a halt and the doors slid open. Then, while she struggled to breathe, the man beside her grasped her elbow and led her through a small reception room and into an elegant office.
If she’d been thinking clearly, she might have admired the minimalist vibe of the black and white room. And she most certainly would have been charmed by the impressive view of St. Louis revealed by the bank of windows.
Instead her restless gaze continued to scan the massive office until she was shoved onto a low, leather chair and a stranger was crouching down until they were face-to-face.
Her first thought was that he was handsome.
Dark hair slicked from a lean, clean-cut face. Light brown eyes and surprisingly full lips.