Outlaw (Wolves of Royal Paynes #4) - Kiki Burrelli Page 0,45

and unclean. "Wyatt, if it isn't pressing, I want you to stay. The men brought back a Portal agent who wants to negotiate."

I blinked, and my gaze went red, seeing through my rage—like before, when Quinlan had been dead. "The fuck? We don't negotiate with Portal."

Knox growled, and I growled back. Neither of us would back down, so Knox didn't wait. "Which is what I fucking told him," Knox bit out. "He seems to think he knows something that will change our minds. I told him it wouldn't," he added before anyone could object. "But he's insisting, and I won't say no to information."

It was standing-room only in the interrogation and gentle persuasion room. The biker pack stood clumped in the corner behind the human Portal agent. Wyatt and Kansas remained and stood in the middle of the rest of us. Only Hallie and the doctor elected not to come down.

The Portal agent sat tied to a chair in the middle of the room. He was gagged but not blindfolded. His eyes weren't opened wide with fright, but moving, sliding from face to face like he was memorizing what we looked like. Dressed in torn silk pajamas, he had a full head of gray hair and a face that looked decades younger than his hands. I wanted to punch my fist through his skull, but Knox seemed to think he'd tell us something useful and not purposefully misleading.

Knox strode forward, yanking the gag from the man's mouth. "Again. No matter what you say, we will still very likely kill you because you literally sold your soul to a demon. And that makes you not okay in my book."

"He also supplies drugs to the majority of the school-aged children on the east coast. Targets children specifically. He doesn't even need the money. His Portal contract made him a billionaire several times over. Don't worry. We found our own list to work through at this piece of shit's house." Badger ran his fingernails through his cropped black hair.

"What do you have to tell us?" Knox asked.

Jazz leaned back, putting a few more inches between him and Knox, but getting closer to where the other nephilim, and Kansas, huddled together. It didn't look like any of them even noticed they'd migrated.

"You won't kill me." The Portal agent stretched his jaw as he spoke. He had dimples; there was no way those were fucking real. "Portal isn't trying to open a gate to hell." He sounded amused, like he was gossiping at a party.

"If you're just going to lie…" Knox reached for the knife in his belt.

"No, no, wait," he pleaded, clearly not aware we could detect his lies. Riling him up had been Knox's only goal. "They aren't trying to open the gate because they already did. Days ago."

"Bullshit," Faust sneered. "They needed blood, large quantities of nephilim blood."

"And they got it. A monastery down in Mexico. A whole congregation of them. They'll need more, but the initial sacrifice has been made. You can't save them, but I can tell you who's tasked with doing the next pickup. He's using my vehicles. I know his name."

"What do you mean they'll need more?" Jagger snarled.

The asshole waited an extra second before responding, just because he could. "The cracks between this world and hell have already begun to form. Already, the demon kings are breaking through, and when the gate fully opens, every beast of hell will be able to travel through."

His zeal grated in my wolf's ears. Blind devotion only ever meant empty-minded followers, a useless trait to have in a pack member. "Why do you sound so excited? You die same as us when that happens. Or do you think your masters will save you a spot at their feet?"

Finally, his dimples flattened. I'd struck a nerve, and his face contorted with malice. "They wouldn't ignore their faithful servant."

"Which is why you're here, needing to beg for your life by spilling all your secrets. They've already ignored you."

"Perhaps. Or maybe they're waiting for you to lead them right to what they want. If I help them kill the halfling? I'll get my own palace in new hell." I already hated that Quinlan was in here. I hated any of the nephilim were, but Quinlan especially. He'd seen enough evil. He didn't need more. But when the agent's hungry eyes landed on my boy, I saw red.

"What the fuck does that mean? Why him?" We knew Portal was after the nephilim, but he made