Savage Redemption - By Alexis Morgan Page 0,74

on the other end of the line. Finally, Ambrose came back. “Rafferty said to tell you that Finn tracked that blocked number. I’ll be sending some of my men over to check out the house and then the restaurant. After that, though, they’ll be coming after you. I will also order them to take their time and be extra thorough when they check the place out.”

In other words, his old friend was still trying to buy Conlan and Kat some time. “Thanks, Ambrose, and the same to Rafferty. Meanwhile, Kat and I have a couple of stops to make. Depending on how things play out, we’ll be back in touch.”

“You better be. And, Conlan, just so you know, Rafferty and I are drawing straws to see which one of us gets to kick your worrisome ass around the block first. Got that?”

“Yeah, I do.” Conlan laughed, although Kat was looking at him as if he’d just sprouted a second head. “In fact, I’m looking forward to it.”

Because that would mean he was still a free man and Kat was safe. He disconnected the call and tossed the phone onto the console. “Okay, Kat. It’s time to go retrieve the flash drive. Where to?”

Chapter 16

Cyrus gently set the phone back down in its cradle. The conversation had not been a pleasant one, but that was to be expected under the circumstances. He could hardly blame the rest of the membership for being furious with how things were going right now. However, threatening to make sure the Eddington family would no longer have a representative serving on the Coalition Council was unacceptable. He had to do something to fix this.

He’d already sent for Richie, who had returned to his own office to wait for a final report on the fiasco at the restaurant. No way that news was going to be any good. Cyrus would hear him out. Once the younger man finished making all of his excuses, Cyrus would command him to join their men out in the field to oversee their efforts to deal with Kat Karr. At this point, the outcome could be kill or capture; Cyrus no longer cared which.

Richie came sauntering in, a new confidence in his attitude. So perhaps the news wasn’t all bad. However, Cyrus wasn’t going to get his hopes up unnecessarily.

“Report.”

“They picked up her trail right outside of New Eire. She’s making a run for the estate where her sister used to live. If you’ll recall, that’s the place you ordered bombed, but obviously Kat wasn’t inside when it happened, and neither were her nieces. All you succeeded in doing was killing an innocent human and driving Kat underground.”

Okay, enough was enough. Cyrus leaped to his feet, his hands clenched in fists. “That woman wasn’t innocent. Remember, she’d coupled with a chancellor to breed two more mongrels. She was guilty of harboring a known felon, but also of polluting our species by contaminating her pure human DNA with one of those freaks.”

He shuddered. The thought of humans mating with vampires or their spawn—the chancellors—always made him queasy. It was bad enough the bastards already were hoarding so much of the prime land within their estates and kept accruing wealth at an alarming rate. But even worse, they were busy spreading their contagion, seducing human men and women, living off their blood and producing more of their kind.

At the last meeting of the purists, he’d overheard one of the younger members quip that soon humans would be on the endangered-species list. Cyrus hadn’t found that amusing, not in the least. The last Coalition census had shown that while both the human and vampire populations had remained stable, those half-breed chancellors had almost doubled in number. If that continued, eventually the majority of the Coalition’s citizens would carry the vamp gene. He shuddered at the thought. His children and grandchildren deserved to live in a world where they weren’t seen as the weaklings.

All the more reason to locate the research Kat Karr had stolen and implement the plan to use it before it was too late.

“Richie, have the helicopter pick us up. I will not allow any more failures. We’ll wait until she retrieves her research, and then she and her friend both die.”

His assistant made the call but then asked, “Are you sure you want to go, sir? It could be dangerous, and I can keep you apprised of the situation by phone. As long as you maintain your distance from the actual dirty