Skylar held up his hand. “Wait, wait, wait. Your mate is your dead Marine buddy’s widow? This is the kind of shit you see in a soap opera.”
Noah cocked an eyebrow. “You watch soap operas, Skylar?”
“What? N-no. Okay, maybe Days of Their Lives. But only when nothing else is on.”
He’s been joking, but okay. Skylar watched soaps. Who would have guessed? “Yeah, that’s the gist of it. I didn’t want to take her on the mission, but she refused to be left behind. And we needed her skills.”
Skylar looked at him with a serious expression. “I could contribute too, you know.”
“What’s your gift, Skylar?”
“It’s nothing important.”
“That’s why you can’t help. An Enforcer’s biggest contribution is their gift. Not to mention fighting skills.”
“I can fight.”
“Maybe, but without knowing what your gift is, we can’t accept you into the crew.”
Skylar exhaled, shoulders slumping for a moment before he straightened with a nod. “Fine. But one day you guys are gonna need my help, and I’m going to expect an apology from each one of you for eating chicken before I agree.”
Noah nodded back at him. “When that day comes, you’ll get one.”
“I have just one more question,” Skylar said as he stood up and opened his arms. “Does this outfit make my cock look big?”
He groaned, dropping his head to the bar. “And you’ll have to stop with the cock jokes.”
Skylar slapped a hand to his back. “Never. You know you all secretly love them.”
Noah’s phone rang and he glanced at the screen, immediately answering it when he saw Liam’s number. “What’s up?”
“The auction’s over,” Liam replied in his thick Irish accent.
Eyebrows raising, he looked at his watch. “Already? It didn’t last long.”
“It started earlier than the website advertised, but even then, it only lasted an hour. Now everyone’s leaving, Fernandez included. They came for Damara and are taking her with them.”
He frowned. “How is she?”
“She’s fine. They tied her up and injected her with shit so she couldn’t shift, but they didn’t hurt her. Yet. Her telepathic link to us is still open, so we’re hearing her thoughts, and we put a tracking device in her shoe before she left for the festival. Hopefully they’ll let her keep her shoes so we can follow.”
“Did the buyers leave with the women?”
“That’s just it,” Liam replied, and he could hear the frown in his voice. “They all left as alone as they arrived. And Damara hasn’t seen any of the women. We’re not sure what’s going on.”
Skylar stood, getting his attention as he pointed to the door. Noah nodded and waved, getting up to follow him to the door so he could lock it behind him, but his thoughts were on the dragon puzzle.
“Have you called Blake yet?”
“Just before you. Our orders are to let them leave and then follow. He’s hoping Fernandez and Damara will lead us to the girls.”
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he exhaled heavily. “Keep me updated too, okay?”
“You got it.”
They hung up and Noah stared at his phone, lost in thought. He didn’t like this—the Enforcers were too broken up, too separated. He understood it was what the mission called for, but he didn’t like it at all. It felt too dangerous, and Damara would be in serious trouble if they found out she wasn’t a dragon.
Something else was going on, too. The auction attendees leaving without any of the women was off. But he wasn’t sure they’d be able to figure it out unless Damara learned something.