Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,84
message from you.”
Manus narrowed his eyes. “If that’s true then we’d better have Pearce look at your cell phone. Because I swear, I left you three messages in the last twenty-four hours.”
He knew his friend wasn’t lying. Which could only mean one thing. “Somebody must have tampered with my phone.”
Hamish tossed him a look. “Do you think that’s how the demons would have found us in Sonoma, via your phone?”
“It was switched off the entire time. And I’d already disabled the GPS tracking device before we even went to the Thai massage parlor.”
“Somebody could have reactivated it,” Hamish guessed.
“Let’s ask Pearce,” Manus suggested.
The door opened. “Let’s ask Pearce what?” the man in question answered. He motioned his head toward Hamish. “Good to see you back in one piece.”
“Good to be back.”
“So what do you guys need to know?”
Aiden pulled out his cell phone. “Manus says he left me three messages. I never got them. Which makes me think somebody did something to my phone. Can you check it out?”
Pearce accepted the phone. “Can you be a little bit more specific what you’re looking for?”
“We were attacked by demons this morning. There was no way they could have traced us to our safe place. My cell phone was off, and my GPS was disabled. Is there any way somebody could have reactivated it?”
“Hmm, let me comb through all the software you’ve got on it and see whether anything shakes.”
“How long?”
“A few hours, at most.”
“Thanks.” Aiden let out a relieved breath. They would need a few hours anyway to formulate a plan and get everybody on board.
“Oh, and while you’re at it, can you see who might have put a tap on Leila’s parents phone line? She called her parents from the Thai parlor, and we believe that’s why they set the dogs on us.”
“Ah shit, after all we told her?” Manus cursed.
Aiden felt the inexplicable urge to defend her. It was his own fault as much as it was hers. But his anger over her lies won out. He ignored his friend and patted Pearce on the shoulder. “Can you do it?”
“Piece of cake.”
“Thanks, man.”
A moment later, the door opened and Enya and Logan entered.
Hamish cleared his throat. “Well, since we’re all here, let’s get you guys up to date.”
***
Zoltan pressed the cell phone to his ear and looked around him before answering. He already knew who was calling him—very few had this number.
“Yes?”
“Did you get it?” the Stealth Guardian’s voice came through the line.
He felt fury rise up through his stomach. His last mission had been a bust. And he knew exactly who to blame.
“You neglected to tell me he had help. Because of your useless information I lost two men.” Two men who were entirely expendable, and he would have not batted an eyelid about the loss had he come away with his prize.
“Aiden defeated you?”
“Did you the fuck not listen to what I said?” he barked into the phone, angry for having to deal with such an imbecile. “There was a second Stealth Guardian helping him. And the human was strong, she had virta in her. You didn’t mention that either.”
“I didn’t know, I swear,” the man stammered.
Zoltan could fairly sense the fear in him, and it only fed his anger more. He let out a growl, not caring that he sounded like a wild beast. It was best for the Stealth Guardian to know how displeased he was.
“I want results, not excuses,” he hissed. “Now, you go back and get me information I can work with. Do you understand?”
“Yes. I’ll make sure of it. And once you have what you want, you’ll hold up your end of the bargain?”
Zoltan kept his chuckle to himself, listening to the nervous breaths of the man on the other line.
“We had an agreement.”
“Yes, we agreed,” Zoltan confirmed. Didn’t mean he had to keep to his word. Not to a conniving Stealth Guardian who sold out his own race to gain power and world domination.
The Stealth Guardian continued, “I will reward you well for it later when I’m your leader. When we’ve overthrown the Great One together and I have taken the throne of the Demons of Fear. You’ll be my right hand then. Together we’ll wield real power. With me at the helm, this world will finally see what it means to be ruled by a powerful leader. They will bow down before me.”
“As you say, this world will have a new leader soon.”