Bedeviled by Sable Grace Page B

Take him inside and let’s go.”
    Silas glanced at the man barely standing beside him. “How did you avoid the Dark Breeds, anyway?”
    Blood oozed from the older man’s lip as he cracked them open to speak. “The factory . . . I was hiding . . . there. Haven. Haven brought me here.”
    So that’s what she had been doing when they’d linked. Damn. Maybe she hadn’t gone back there after all. Maybe since she’d gotten what she’d wanted from the place, she had no further use for it.
    No. Haven would have to go back there. The trident had been in Kyana’s vision, and Haven hadn’t had it here. She had to have left it in the factory.
    Ignoring Ryker’s intense stare, Kyana moved around the back of the lot to study the tall brick building. She should’ve known he wouldn’t take the hint to stay put. He had something he wanted to say and he wouldn’t rest until he’d spoken his mind.
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œAre you okay?” he asked.
    â€œDandy.”
    He stiffened at the sarcastic sting of her words. “I don’t mean physically, Ky. I wouldn’t have let—”
    She spun on him and thumped her fist in the middle of his chest. “You take your orders from me . I thought I made that clear before we left Olympus. You will do nothing where Haven is concerned. Do you understand me? You’re not a tracer. Your job is to bring her in after I subdue her.”
    â€œI’m not to interfere unless your life is at risk.” Ryker held up his hands, but a flicker of cold steel flashed in his eyes. “I know you think you are, but you’re not completely in charge yet, Ky. Artemis and Ares are still my bosses.”
    â€œFuck that,” she spat, loathing that he was right and that, technically, there wasn’t a damned thing she could do to stop him from taking Haven down without her say-so.
    He reached for her, but wisely dropped his hand before she had to remove it at the wrist. “You’re more important than Haven. Protecting you, keeping you alive, is my priority.”
    Because she was a Chosen.
    Bullshit.
    â€œSo if she’d had the trident with her, you would have killed her tonight?”
    â€œI don’t know, but I’m almost certain you wouldn’t have.”
    So much for their truce. Whatever soft, gooey emotions might have been growing inside her these last weeks hardened to bitterness. This was why things would never work out between them.
    Ryker had the ability to dig so deeply into what made her tick that at times like this, she hated him for it. How was she supposed to give herself completely to someone who could piss her off so easily?
    And if he dug far enough, he’d see she wasn’t as strong as she claimed to be, see what she’d come from to get where she was. What then? Would he look at her the way he’d looked at Haven today?
    No. This was never going to work. Once this job was over, so were she and Ryker.
    â€œYou think you could have stopped her from shifting and getting away?” she asked, knowing she was taking more of her anger out of him than he deserved.
    Ryker was duty-bound. His place in the Order came before everything else. She’d known that from the moment she met him. So why was it bothering her so much now?
    She plowed on, preferring the anger to the gnaw of guilt and frustration. “I seem to remember you trying to blast her with your Jedi mind power and it didn’t work either. If you have all the answers, then what’s our next step? How do we find her? The trident?”
    The compassion in his eyes settled a bit of the ire boiling in her gut, and that pissed her off even more. She wanted to be angry right now, damn it. She wanted this to be as personal for him as it was for her.
    â€œI don’t know,” he admitted, his voice low and steady.
    They’d come to a crossroads.
    There was nothing else to say except