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“She would go somewhere she thought was safe,” Brim muttered. “A place she could feel comfortable and protected in without her security force.”
“Where?” Del-Rey snarled.
“The spa.” They turned on Jax where he sat in the backseat with Cavalier.
“What?”
Jax swallowed tightly. “Her security force could only surround the spa. They couldn’t go in. Women only. Out back is a huge garden area. Secluded little places for lunches and stuff, all kinds of evergreens and sheltered grottos. They went there a lot. All-day trips.”
“Edge of town.” Brim hit the gas. “That fucking spa. We had a dozen reports from the team leaders of her security force concerning their inability to adequately protect her there.”
“She’s a fucking woman. Women like spas,” Del-Rey snarled. “I had it on the list to disapprove when Wolfe called laughing at me and asking about flowers for my funeral. They like to be girly. They can’t be girly with a man hovering over them.” He repeated Wolfe’s words.
“Get there,” Del-Rey ordered. “Get there now. Those city council members managed to slip past the two men we had on them. My fucking neck is itching, Brim.”
“Alpha, this is Communications,” a voice barked at his ear. “Sofia has the identity of our problem but lost sight of it. Subject of interest is missing. Estimated flight at an hour and a half. Sofia is trying to track but we fear he’s headed to your location. I’m sorry, Alpha, we lost him in the confusion here.”
Fuck. Fuck. Sofia had finally found the spy in Base, only to have him slip free. Enduring the pain her presence brought to Anya had been bad enough. Sofia was brash, angry that Anya had refused him eight months before, but she had been his only chance to identify that leak. She had played the disgruntled and rebuffed lover, when nothing had been further from the truth. She had played it too far. And now Anya was paying the price.
“Find them,” he growled. “Find them now.”
He looked at Brim, fear eroding his control further. “The city council’s going after her. They know where the meeting is; they won’t bother kidnapping her—they’ll kill her.”
The vehicle’s speed increased as Brim cursed.
Del-Rey clenched his fingers around the weapon he carried and clenched his teeth in rage. He’d known there was a leak in Base. The attack on Anya that night in the mountains had begun his suspicions. Only a member of the base would have known her schedule, her habits. And only one that worked Communications would have been able to give out the locator codes on the comm links.
He had been betrayed from within. Being careful, cunning, weeding the chaff from the harvest hadn’t worked in this case. He’d chosen the wrong Breed and placed him in the wrong team. Once again, he’d failed his mate.
He ran his hand over his face, wiped away the sweat and swore he could feel himself bleeding on the inside. Anya was suffering, ill and carrying the child he knew she had ached to give him once she had gone off the hormonal therapy.
As though that child meant more to him than she did. She couldn’t know that nothing meant more to him than she did, because he hadn’t shown her that. He hadn’t proven it with his love. And now she didn’t trust him enough to have him at her side.
CHAPTER 25
Anya managed to find the strength to follow her bodyguards into the secluded gardens of the spa and to the sheltered privacy of the grotto they had reserved under a false identity.
Her papa was there, her cousins and the two nervous doctors.
“Anya.” Her papa moved swiftly for her, his craggy features twisting into a distressed frown, his blue eyes filling with concern as he pulled her to him. “My baby girl. You ar
e ill.”
He kept his Russian accent out of stubbornness, she knew. Her father could sound as American as one born to it, yet he refused to.
A shock of dark red hair fell over his brow as his large hand cupped the back of her head and held her to his chest.
“Papa.” She held tight to him. It had been months since she had been able to see him.
His steady strength bolstered her, his courage and bravery. So many years he had worked with her, subtly telling her how to rescue her friends, pointing out weaknesses, strengths in his force, teaching her to see more than just people, but also resources and courage.
He had been her rock after her mother’s death. He had been her hero until Del-Rey, and even now, he was the man she knew would soothe all her hurts if possible.
“Little girl.” So Russian, his voice was a whisper of her childhood. “Look at you, so pale and ill. It is good, huh, that I bring your friends.”
She pushed away from him, unable to bear his touch for long. Ashley was there to steady her as she turned to Dr. Alexi Chernov, and his niece, Katya Sobolova. They were young, protégés of Alexi’s grandfather, and so damned intelligent they were scary.
“Katya.” Anya reached for her friend’s hands.
