Tangle of Need

“Shh.” He kissed the salt-laced sadness away, rolling onto his back and taking her with him, one hand cradling the back of her head, the other stroking down the curve of her spine. “Don’t cry, sweetheart.”


His gentleness twined another tendril around her heart, until she was so entangled in him, she knew she’d never break free. For the first time in her life, her wolf had chosen. And it had chosen this lone wolf. “You have me,” she whispered. All of me.





Chapter 55


KALEB WAS AT his home office when Silver called. “A. V. is Vasquez,” she said, “of that my family is as certain as we can be without having his DNA. He also appears to be running things as far as Pure Psy is concerned. However, the rank and file believe he speaks for Henry.”

So did Kaleb. The NetMind and DarkMind both had had too calm a reaction to Henry’s “death.” Kaleb had attempted to use the twin neosentience to track the former Councilor, but they had been acting increasingly erratic of late, and he’d been unable to focus them on the target. That bespoke a profound problem in the Net, the depth of which perhaps he alone understood—Henry’s fanaticism and the continued deterioration of Subject 8-91 were simply symptoms of a more dangerous malaise.

Concluding the conversation with his aide, he rose from his desk, playing a small platinum star through his fingers. The metal was warm from his touch, but his mind worked with ice-cold precision as he decided what was to be done with Henry. Aden.

The telepath’s reply was crystal clear. Councilor.

Kaleb will do. The Council is no longer in existence except in the minds of the populace.

Kaleb.

Henry will continue to be a problem if he lives. Do you have any issue with eliminating him? Kaleb needed to know how much of the Arrows’ loyalty was his.

No. His policies are not good for the Net.

Kaleb rubbed his thumb over the shining surface of the star. Then regard it as an authorized mission.

Noted.

Telepathic connection severed, Kaleb considered those who’d remain after Henry’s demise. Shoshanna, he didn’t waste time on. Henry’s “wife” had flaws that would make it easy to manipulate her. Nikita would leave Kaleb alone so long as he didn’t attempt to violate her territory—or harm her child and grandchild. The other Councilor hid it well, but Kaleb could glide through the Net without causing a single ripple. He saw everything. Nikita’s conditioning might be flawless, but she wasn’t Silent.

Not in the way he was.

Nikita’s protective instinct was her Achilles’ heel, but Kaleb had no reason to exploit it. Not as long as she didn’t attempt to get in his way. If she did…

His eye fell on the star. He halted his movements. And knew he had his own weakness, one Nikita would never guess at, and so he still had the advantage in his dealings with her.

As for Anthony, Kaleb didn’t think there would be any problems—he had no desire to encroach on NightStar lands or capture Anthony’s stable of F-Psy. No foreseer could stop him once he’d decided on a course of action.

That left Ming and Tatiana. Both would have to die when it was time. There was no other viable option. Kaleb would not chance them coming at him from behind.

The star sparked in the light from the lamp on his desk.

Caught, he stared at the small charm, wondering what its owner would make of his thoughts of assassination. Soon, he would discover the answer. Because he’d just breached another layer of security, unearthed the oldest part of the trail. It was fragile and fragmented, but it was there.

Soon.





Chapter 56


RIAZ CALLED ADRIA to ask her to come along to the meeting with Bo and the liaison three days later and discovered that she was already in San Francisco with Indigo, Tarah, Evie, and another woman who had a familiar scent but looked nothing like she should—from her height, to the color of her hair and eyes, even the shape of her face, the latter apparently altered using high-tech gel pads Judd had procured from who knows where.

As he pulled away after picking up Adria, the other four women waved at him from the café where they were eating large pieces of cake slathered in frosting. “How in hell did Sienna talk Hawke into letting her out of den territory?”

Adria gave him an arch look. “I have no idea. Didn’t ask.” Scooping up a bite of the apple pie she’d had packed to go, she fed it to him. “However, she may possibly have pointed out that she’s an adult female with the right to make up her own mind.”

He bit back a grin at her tone. “Yes, she may have done that, but Hawke is newly mated and there’s a high probability she’s in Ming’s crosshairs. Hawke might be intelligent, but he’s not that rational, not when it comes to Sienna.”

Eating a bite of pie herself, Adria made a “hmming” sound in her throat. “You know, you’re right. Though, until you picked me up, she was with a lieutenant, a senior soldier, and a woman who thinks of her as another daughter. No one was going to get to her.”