Break the Day - Lara Adrian Page 0,65
was at Devony’s brownstone a few nights ago.
Considering the originals were now nothing but cinders among the rubble of her home, he probably should be grateful to see the information now. Instead the guilt he’d felt upon leaving Devony in the guestroom a few minutes ago only settled more coldly in his gut.
Every bit of intel she had shared with him in confidence felt like a betrayal to see it here now.
Sick with the feeling, he hardly noticed all of the conversations had halted now that he had arrived. Expectant, unreadable gazes watched him from all points of the room.
Chase indicated the empty chair. “Come in and have a seat, Rafe.”
He walked in, the silence around him feeling as heavy as a shroud.
As he sat down, Nathan gave him a sober, sidelong glance. Right before a rare smirk twisted his stern mouth. “You asshole. Do you have any idea how close I came to killing you the other night?”
Rafe exhaled and looked at his commander for confirmation.
“I’ve told them,” Chase said.
The war room erupted with a few chuckles and a lot of ball-busting. Rafe took it all, glad for every insult and good-natured jab they flung at him. The weight of the past few weeks—the months following his disgrace in Montreal—melted away in the space of a few seconds.
Jax and Eli got up from their seats at the table and walked up to him, both grinning and shaking their heads.
Eli punched him in the shoulder. “It’s a damn relief to know you’re not the fucked up maniac I thought you were.”
“Don’t be so sure about that,” Rafe quipped, smiling at his teammate.
Jax held his hand out to him. “Welcome back, bro. Even if I still want to kick your ass right now.”
Rafe cocked a grin. “I’d like to see you try.”
Carys and Rune came over now too. The stern former cage fighter who was her mate gave Rafe’s hand a hard pump. “Not a day’s gone by that she hasn’t worried about you.”
He glanced at Carys, who’d been like a sister to him his entire life. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t say anything to anyone.”
“I don’t care,” she said, throwing her arms around him. “You’re back where you belong now, and that’s all that matters to me.”
Mathias Rowan approached as well. The London commander had been a part of the Order’s inner circle for two decades, a stoic ally through numerous battles and catastrophes. Now, there was a sober, almost parental look in his gaze. No doubt, the father-to-be was thinking about his own son on the way, one who might eventually wish to follow in his footsteps as a warrior for the Order.
Mathias gripped Rafe’s shoulder. “Chase told me what happened in that warehouse earlier tonight. The liquid UV.” He shook his head on a low curse. “It’s damn good to see you standing here with us tonight, Rafe.”
He wouldn’t be, if not for Devony.
He didn’t have to tell Mathias that. Since Chase had told his good friend about Rafe’s injuries, he would have also explained to the London commander that it was Breed blood that had saved him.
Devony’s blood.
Her bond.
He wanted to tell everyone in the room what she meant to him, but the din of competing conversations was stilled by the buzzing of Chase’s comm unit. He answered the call, frowning as he received the report.
“That was Aric and his team,” he announced after setting the phone down on the table. He glanced at Rafe. “The warehouse at Conley Terminal had been cleaned out by the time our team arrived. No dead bodies. No crates of liquid UV. No trace of the spill, either.”
“Opus moved quickly. They knew we’d come looking to grab the rest of that cargo.”
Chase nodded. “I called the team back in. They’ll be here within the hour.”
“Any idea who owns the warehouse?” Mathias asked.
“Yeah,” Gideon said via the video feed. “About five layers of shell corporations. I’ve been hacking my way through them for the past hour.”
“One of the guys in Cruz’s gang told me the shit we were stealing belonged to some kind of arms dealer,” Rafe said. “And Cruz mentioned the cargo was arriving from overseas.”
“Great. That helps.” Gideon’s reply was punctuated by the clacking of his keyboard on the other end. “Shouldn’t take me long to find the bastard.”
“We need that lead,” Lucan said, his grim face filling another of the monitors that were linked in to the war room. “With Judah LaSalle dead, that dealer may be our next best