“Aden has authorized it. You’ll catch a jet back home.”
“Yes, sir.”
Once in New York, he didn’t waste time killing the boy. Instead, he gave a short nod and blended into the bustling metropolis. His PsyNet trail was already secure; the squad couldn’t hunt him on that level.
He was free.
Chapter 55
THE HUMAN FEMALE Blake had kidnapped was unconscious when Vasic led a team to rescue her. “She’ll live,” the teleporter told Zaira and Aden afterward, the three of them standing near one of the new houses in the valley. “A cut across one breast, psychological torture, but no permanent physical damage, though she would’ve died from lack of water within the next day.”
“He wanted Beatrice to kill her.” Zaira’s voice vibrated with withheld fury.
Aden brushed his fingers over hers as they stood side by side. “He’ll pay for what he did.”
Glancing to his left and down before looking back up, Vasic said, “None of the teleporters in the squad can get to him. Blake was well trained in telepathic cloaking.”
It took Aden a second to realize his friend had looked automatically toward where his gauntlet had been on his left forearm before the amputation. You miss the gauntlet, he said telepathically while he considered how to track down the rogue and murderous Arrow. It wasn’t only that Blake was a threat to innocent people—he could do major damage to the squad’s reputation, which would feed back into the Arrows’ ability to live their lives.
Winter gray eyes met his. I became used to having easy, immediate access to various systems. He took out a small organizer. I’ll adapt. A pause before he said, “I have the details of Blake’s office in the valley and his quarters at Central Command. I’ll check out Command first, since he spent more time there.” He teleported out.
Able to sense Zaira’s frustration, Aden closed his hand around her own. “We’ll find him. He’s well trained, but he’s being hunted by the entire squad.” It was rare for Arrows to hunt their own, but when they did, the pursuit was relentless. “He won’t have time to catch a breath, much less do damage.”
Fingers curling around his own, Zaira gritted her teeth. “I want to be part of the team hunting him. Right now, Persephone is out of my reach but I can do something productive about Blake.”
“The operation is already under Amin’s command, and you have visitors in Venice to keep an eye on.” BlackSea had a dangerous advantage in the watery city.
“I just feel like we’re losing the battle against evil.” She leaned her body against his on those words, and at that instant, Aden realized they had any number of eyes on them. Arrows and children.
Weaving his fingers through her own, he looked down into her face. “You saved two lives today. Evil didn’t win there.” And it won’t win in our fight to be together.
The fire flickered in her gaze. Raising her hand, she laid her fingers against his jaw.
A public claim. A declaration of intent.
• • •
PAX Marshall was arrogant but he wasn’t stupid. His vehicle was an armor-plated tank. Safe in most circumstances. Except against a man who had the growing ability to control metal and machines.
Waiting until Pax was on a quiet road outside of the Marshall estate in Vermont, Dev pulled over behind him, focused on the other vehicle’s engine . . . and Pax’s car stopped moving.
He could see the Psy male attempting to reboot the onboard computer as Dev got out, walked to his car, and knocked on his window.
Pax looked at him with cool blue eyes, a weapon no doubt in his hand, but he opened the door and got out. “Is this how you usually arrange a meeting?” he asked as he buttoned his dark blue suit jacket, his hands as elegant as his features and the cut of his blond hair.
“A necessity.” Dev kept his hands in the open as Pax had done.
Pax’s upper-class English accent was clipped as he said, “The necessity being?”
Dev told him, watching his face for any indication of guilt or otherwise, but Pax Marshall had the expressionless face down to an art. “I see,” the other man said. “You realize I’m not lacking in intelligence. Why would I send in a black ops team emblazoned with our well-known emblem?”
“Precisely because you’re smart—smart enough to run a double bluff.” Dev had done his research, knew that the reason Pax was CEO of the Marshall Group despite his youth was that he had a way of doing the unexpected, leaving his competitors stunned and off balance.
“Then it appears we are at an impasse.”
“Guess so.” He couldn’t get a read on Pax, but he knew one thing. “If it wasn’t you, I suggest you track down the perpetrators, or the next time, your plane might be the vehicle that stops moving.” Dev couldn’t actually affect objects that distant or large yet, but Pax had no need to know that.
“Do you have the DNA profiles of the ones who left behind blood?”
Dev handed them over.
Two hours after he and Pax parted ways, word came that all the men on that list, plus two others, had been found shot point-blank in the back of the head. Pax sent him a short message not long afterward: They were not ours and they knew nothing beyond the strict parameters of their mission, which was to abduct the children and leave behind a witness. Contractors should really take care when choosing clients. Your children are safe.
Dev took everything the other man said with a grain of salt. The double-bluff possibility still applied; from everything Dev knew, Pax Marshall was ruthless enough to kill his own people to make a point.