Taken (Ava Delaney #4) by Claire Farrell

figure it out. Don’t you worry.”
    She squeezed my
hand briefly. “Thank you. I… thank you for doing this for her.”
    Gabe hurried
her out of the bar, suitcases and all. When he returned, I was
sitting alone, thinking hard.
    “Are you trying
to make my life more awkward?” he asked impatiently.
    “What the hell
is going on? Who is doing this?”
    He sat down,
looking weary all of a sudden. “I have no idea. And I have a
feeling we won’t know until we’re supposed to.”
    “You have your
suspicions though, right?”
    “Too many.
That’s the problem.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose.
    “Esther told me
she was making sure that Illeana’s family received all of her
belongings. So someone involved with the Council took them.”
    “Looks that
way,” he admitted. “Why are you here?”
    I frowned. “I’m
not sure anymore. I mean, you obviously don’t have any answers
either. Except… do you think it’s a good idea to send volunteers to
the UK right now?”
    “How else are
we going to find out what’s going on? Our people over there haven’t
made contact in a month. We need to figure out what’s really
happening.”
    “The BVA mean
business,” I said. “The twins, the ones who hosted me in Liverpool,
they were pretty sure that the vampires wanted in on this election.
They’ve been trying for over thirty years. It sounds like they
would be pretty pissed over this.”
    “It’s not our
concern.”
    “It is if
they’ve been working on making creatures like Becca. Their own
slaves reckon they have big plans. As in, ‘create an army of beasts
and drop them in the middle of their enemies’ kind of plans.”
    He looked more
tired than ever. “That’s their business, Ava.”
    I snorted.
“Yeah, until they decide we’re one of their enemies. Think about
it. What if Gideon’s been making secret alliances with them all
along? He gives the best locations, helps them out, and they make
him king of Ireland or something. It makes sense when you think
about how arrogant and devious he is.”
    “He’s not that
stupid, or rather, he isn’t that clever. Gideon’s being watched
constantly, don’t worry. Do you ever stop thinking?” But he smiled,
and I couldn’t resist smiling back. Gabe was beautiful, even if he
was the fakest creature I had come across yet.
    “Nobody can
stop thinking,” I said. “Why am I working for you in secret?”
    He seemed taken
aback. “Because it could be dangerous for everyone to make this
public.”
    I laughed. “I’m
pretty sure everyone knows what I’m doing. The questions make it
kind of obvious.”
    “There’s a
difference between making it official and making it a poorly kept
secret. The best way to keep your enemies on their toes is to let
them hear half-truths, so you can watch them try to figure out the
lie. This way, I get to see how the rumours affect those around
me.”
    He gave me a
knowing smile. “And if we get somewhere, my rewards will make it
all worth it.”
    “For you.”
    “For me,” he
agreed.
    That evening as
I walked home, I tried to sort everything I knew for sure in my
head. It wasn’t a lot. But I knew, if I kept asking questions, that
I would eventually find what I was looking for. As I entered my
cul-de-sac, I heard a shrill voice calling my name. Dita. I turned
and paused, seeing her mother following her closely.
    “Hey, kiddo,” I
said when Dita ran up to me. “Where you been?”
    “We went to the
zoo,” she said, her eyes bright with excitement. “What did you do
today?”
    “Boring grownup
stuff,” I said, giving an exaggerated eye roll.
    She laughed,
and her mother joined us, shifting her weight from one foot to the
other.
    “How are you?”
I asked, pleased to see the bruises on her arms were rapidly
fading.
    “We are good,”
Anka said, her accent making her words sound harsher than her
expression seemed to intend.
    “Can I talk to
you about some things?” I thought she would say no, but it didn’t
hurt to