a clear picture of what was going on, but it clearly wasn’t good. Knowing they couldn’t reach Kat without having to cut through the heavily armed men first was making Conlan crazy.
One wrong shot, and she’d be dead.
For the moment, all they could do was wait and listen to an older human arguing with a younger one. He thought he heard Ambrose murmur the name Eddington. The voices were growing louder.
He leaned closer to the older chancellor. “Then who’s that other guy?”
Ambrose shrugged. “No idea, but it’s obvious that Kat knows him.”
“Quiet, you two. I’m trying to listen.”
Conlan’s chancellor hearing was good, but Rafferty’s vampire abilities trumped it. They all waited in silence for him to tell them what was going on.
“Well, I’ll be damned. That’s the guy Kat was supposed to have killed in the fire. He’s planning to sell her research to the highest bidder. Seems he’s in this for the money while Eddington is a true believer.”
Right when Rafferty finished talking, a single shot rang out, and the councilman dropped to the ground. Okay, the situation was spinning out of control. But when Conlan started to charge forward, Rafferty grabbed him by the front of his shirt to keep him from rushing the camp.
“Calm down, damn it,” he whispered. “If you get yourself killed, you won’t be any help to her.”
The vampire was right, but this was killing Conlan just as sure as a bullet would. He’d only just gotten Kat back. To lose her now was unthinkable.
Ambrose’s phone beeped softly. After listening for a few seconds, he nodded and ended the call. “Okay, my men are in place. How do you want to handle this?”
Conlan’s fangs ached with the need for violence. “I want to soak the ground with their blood, but that will only get Kat killed.”
“It’s your call.” Ambrose laid his hand on Conlan’s shoulder. “You have the full authority of the Coalition behind you. Order them to stand down and surrender. If they do, fine. If not, we’ll back your play.”
Before Conlan could respond, there was a shout in the camp followed by another shot. This time it was Kat who fell to the ground.
He screamed his fury to the night sky and took off running with the promise of blood in his eyes and his gun spouting death.
* * *
At first, Kat’s captors were too busy trying to knock the campfire apart to get to the flash drive before it was destroyed to notice they were no longer alone. This getting shot stuff was getting old. She moaned and tried to make sense of the chaos that surrounded her.
Men came rushing into the makeshift camp out of the darkness. Unlike the mercenaries, these were dressed in civilian clothing and heavily armed. Richard was on his knees by the fire, looking totally crazed and screaming for his men to keep searching for the drive. When he realized she was awake and watching, he lunged toward her.
Before he got his hands on her, a pair of hands had him by the throat, jerking him backward.
He fought to pry the fingers loose that were cutting off his breath. Even so, he managed to croak, “What the hell are you doing? Get you hands off me, you fool. She’s going to die if I have to use my bare hands.”
It took him only slightly longer to realize that it wasn’t one of his own men preventing him from killing her. Conlan yanked him up off the ground and spun the human around to face him.
He leaned in close to Richard’s face and growled, “You’ve breathed your last breath, you bastard. And you’re going to die knowing that not a single person is going to mourn your passing.”
Then he grabbed a fistful of Richard’s hair and jerked his head to the side, exposing his throat. All of the human’s bravado disappeared into a whimpering puddle of pathetic pleading.
Kat hated Richard for all the suffering he’d caused. If he died, she wouldn’t mourn him for a second, but she didn’t want his death on Conlan’s conscience. He might not regret killing the human tonight, but he would tomorrow. His career with the Coalition might be over, but Conlan was still that same man whose inborn sense of honor and justice ran bone-deep.
“Conlan, stop,” she called, trying to make herself heard over the continuing din that surrounded them.
At first she thought he hadn’t heard her, but then he turned to look at her, his eyes glittering with the need