Zoltan would make sure of that.
THIRTY
It took almost an hour for Hamish and Aiden to convey everything they knew to their fellow Stealth Guardians and to answer their many questions.
“So what now?” Manus asked.
“Our highest priority is finding Zoltan and getting the pendant back. It’s well disguised as an ordinary necklace. I myself never suspected otherwise. And Leila said it’s not easy to open and figure out what’s inside, so he might not even know yet what he has in his hands,” Aiden announced, hoping he was right. “Pearce, you know what to do. Whoever tapped Leila’s parents’ phone must have set the dogs on us at the Thai massage parlor; and if somebody tampered with my phone, it should lead us to the traitor on the council. The traitor is our first priority. He’ll lead us to Zoltan.”
Pearce rose and walked to the door. “Let me get on that right away.”
“And you’re sure we’re looking for two different people?” Enya nudged forward on her seat.
Hamish answered in Aiden’s stead. “Yes. It makes no sense for the demons to want her dead, and clearly somebody has been making attempts on her life—”
“Which reminds me,” Aiden interrupted, turning to Manus. “Did you find anything out about the neighbor who delivered the bomb?”
“Jonathan? Well, I’m afraid he’s a dead end. I had a word with him, if you know what I mean. He almost peed in his pants.” Manus let out a bitter chuckle. “Turns out, some woman approached him and asked him to give the present to Leila.”
“Excuse me?” Enya asked. “What kind of dufus wouldn’t see through that thin veil?”
Manus shrugged. “Apparently, Jonathan is susceptible to sob stories. She told him that she was an old friend of Leila’s, and that they’d fallen out over some guy. And that she wanted to make up, but Leila would never take the present if she knew it was from her. Yada, yada, yada. The guy ate it up like Banana Cream Pie.”
“Idiot!” Aiden cursed. “Could he at least describe her?”
“Average height, average built—”
“—average looking.” Aiden knew the drill. It could have been anybody, probably just a human who’d been hired by a Stealth Guardian. There were plenty of them in their service. “So that’s not going to lead us to the guilty party. Anything else?”
“I’m still working on getting the right body to stage Leila’s death,” Manus answered.
“Hold off on that for now,” he instructed, an idea forming in his head. “Once Pearce has got some data for us, we’ll regroup. And I believe I don’t have to say this, but nobody outside these four walls can know that Hamish and I are back. Is that clear?”
“We’re not daft!” Enya rolled her eyes.
Then Aiden suddenly looked around the room. Shit, having concentrated on getting their friends up to speed had made him forget one thing. “Where the hell is Leila?”
Enya rose. “I think she threw up in the bathroom. Came out white like a sheet. So I put her in your quarters to lie down.”
Aiden shot up from his armchair. “You what?”
“I locked her in—”
Without listening to the rest, he charged toward the door and rushed into the corridor.
***
Leila dried her face with a towel that smelled like Aiden. It didn’t make her feel any better. At least her bout of nausea had passed: the terrifying attack by the demons and then the claustrophobic journey through the portal had caused that. The first time she’d used the portal, she hadn’t felt sick, but then again, Aiden had kissed her when he’d realized how frightening the prospect of hurtling through dark space was for her.
This time, however, he’d shunned her. She couldn’t even blame him. Everything he’d said was true: she’d lied to him, she’d kept the existence of the data hidden from him. But he didn’t really understand why she’d done it. He could never understand it: he wasn’t the one about to lose his parents. She would be all alone now. It would take her years to reconstruct the blueprint for the drug from memory. By then, her parents would be too far gone for her drug to be of any use.
She left the bathroom and walked back into the bedroom. There was no doubt about who this suite of rooms belonged to. Not only was Aiden’s masculine scent imprinted on the bed she’d briefly rested on, but there were pictures of him and his family. And a shrine of sorts, a special place over the fireplace, where the picture of