"Hey, you guys know what leaves a green aura trail behind?" I shouted loud enough to be heard by the Fae and not the press who had just arrived on scene.
Ryder looked past me to where the press was currently setting up their cameras and gear to start filming. If they hurried they would make the eleven o'clock news. "Time to go." He growled as his men fell in line with his long angry strides.
As he walked past us, I watched his jeans hugging his firm backside. The crowd erupted, raising the noise level, as more press charged the line seeing the Dark Prince as he walked in the direction of the black Cadillac SUVs'. He stopped a few feet from me and lifted a single dark brow.
"You need to come with us. I trust you finished packing before you followed secondary orders?" He said smoothly, his thick rich baritone flowing through me.
Secondary orders? "I belong to the Guild, first and foremost Ryder. I am packed and like a good little doggie I will follow on your heels—in our car." Which I highly doubted could keep up with his. Sarcasm dripped like honey from my lips, if he heard, it he chose to ignore it.
"Do so," he replied in the same casual bored tone he had when I had signed his bloody binding contract.
This is keeping my coven alive, just breathe Synthia, just breathe. I repeated the mantra inside my head. Apparently I'd develop passing out as way to deal with this entire freaking situation and that was just not okay.
"Was that professional enough for Alden?" I asked watching Larissa nod as she spoke quietly into the phone. It bugged me that she had been in the know of what was happening around us and had excluded us from it.
She'd known I was being set up for the interview, she'd known how much I hated the Fae, yet she'd kept it to herself. We were supposed to be a team and since most covens had ten to twelve and we only had three, we depended on honesty and the closeness we shared to stay alive. Larissa following Alden and keeping us in the dark wasn’t something I couldn't let slide. Our lives depended on it.
Twelve
We followed them out of Spokane, back down the highway I'd already been on twice today. The van was filled with silence, something unusual to our group since we normally had a lot to talk about even if it was mundane things.
I replayed the scene over inside my head. It had been horrific and calculated. We were dealing with someone who liked to watch the victim endure the pain, who got off on the perverse sadistic need of the kill.
The victim had known her attacker, had let them in. If her house was anything to go off of, she'd been planning on the killer visiting, just without the whole killing part. Which meant she’d known her killer and had wanted to make a good impression? I still wasn't sure if there were more killers that might have joined them after the first killer arrived.
I shoved thoughts of the crime scene away as we followed the dark SUV's in through a twelve foot high metal gate that safeguarded Ryder's personal living quarters located just a few miles from his club.
When I opened the door to get out, Adam stopped me by placing his hand gently on my shoulder. "Syn, be careful. I know you only signed to keep us safe—but we're nothing without you."
I smiled sadly, "Adam, you're stronger than you think you are. You guys—" I paused needing them to know they would be okay if I didn’t make it back to them, "If I don’t make it out of this, go back to the Guild. Damian has a great coven, he's a fair leader. I need to know you'll be okay if I don’t make it back."
They both stared at me, I could see the confusion in their eyes but it wasn’t like I was giving up on them, just the opposite. I was giving them an out. If I fucked this up they would be used against me and I was smart enough to know that it wasn’t an if, it was a when I did.
"No fucking way Syn, we were a team since before boot camp. No fucking way, we belong together—we always have. We knew before we started this that it was a touchy group. We knew he'd want to use us, let the fucker try," Adam seethed.
I exhaled slowly. "Adam, I can't do this if I'm worrying that you're okay. I need to know before I step out of this van that if I fuck up you're protected. Give me this. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
I met his green stare as he struggled to agree to what I needed him to. Larissa was struggling, but it was by no means as much as Adam was. I should have questioned it, but I could feel the hard eyes of the Fae watching my back as I tried to make Adam agree.
"This is stupid. You're coming back to us."
"You're right Adam and seriously? I'd always come back to you."
"How cute," Ryder's voice tore away the seriousness of the moment.
I turned back in the seat and glared at him, Adam's hand still sat on my shoulder with a familiar caress from being as close as siblings. Ryder's eyes went to his hand and narrowed sharply. His face took on a harshness I was not familiar with. It sent a shockwave of shivers right down to my toenails.
"Get out of the car Synthia, now."