“Enough!” Tor roars. “I don’t want to fucking hear about that shit. You guys can talk all about woman’s hubcaps when we’re done.” He turns towards me, his eyes stormy with pent up anger. “How’s your woman doing?”
“She seems to be moving easier. They did something to her back, but Bion said that he would come and see her here and figure out how we can fix it.”
“Yeah, they did a number on her. I still can’t understand what that piece of steel is doing there.”
My eyes snap to his. What the fuck does he mean by a piece of steel?
“What piece of steel?”
“You haven’t seen it?” he asks, surprised.
“If you haven’t noticed, I was unconscious for most of our stay in Qatar. How was I supposed to have seen it when I wasn’t with Siena?”
“Shit, Brother, I thought you had seen what they did to her back.” Tal leans forward, a scowl now on his face. “There is a round piece of steel, looks kind of like the mechanisms of a watch attached to her spine.”
Hearing that has my inner darkness rising with fury, how dare they do something like that?
“Bion had a look before he left. He was worried that it could be explosive because apparently the Keres were doing that to some women a few years back, but it’s not.” He raises his hand to his jaw, rubbing it as if to ease the tenseness there. “That’s how I saw it.”
“Sons of bitches,” Ulrich growls. “Coming from Keres it’s understandable as they are evil through and through, but weren’t the damn doctors human? How can humans do that to other humans?”
“In the name of science,” Tor states with a shrug. “That’s always their excuse.”
“If we have only found two of the doctors that worked there, and the five that were in the buildings at the time we attacked, do we know how many more there are?” Einar asks.
Tor sits forward as he gives us an update. “No, Haldor killed the two before they could be questioned, and from the five, they’re not talking, so, Draco is having Aria listening to the questioning.” Aria is Brandr’s mate and a mind reader. She is our secret weapon when we need information and it’s quite uncomfortable when she’s around because we never know if she is listening to what we are thinking.
“For now, we forget about Qatar until we have more information. I want us to go out there and let the gangs see us,” Tor orders. “Dane, do you know which of the gangs rigged your cage?”
The Desperados have joined forces with other gangs to try to conquer this war we have going. But what they don’t know is that this war was won even before it started. We could have killed every single one of them if we wanted to, but instead we let them breathe, hoping that they would lead us to the bigger fish. Now that we know who the big fish is, we don’t need the gangs any longer and can end this irritating squabble.
“Yeah, I saw them as they hurried away,” Dane replies.
“Lucky for you or you would be in pieces,” Tal states.
“Yeah, don’t think Freya would be pleased with me if that happened.”
“I want you all to keep your eyes peeled, and no going out alone” Tor looks pointedly at Dane as he speaks. I’m sure he has already given him a lashing as we were told as soon as the war started that no one rides alone. “Eirik, I want you to stay behind. The rest of you can go.”
Shit, what now? I’m not in a hurry to get back to my room as I still haven’t thought about what I am going to tell Siena, but I’m also not in the mood to talk strategies right now. When everyone leaves, Tor stands and leans on the table, his arms crossing as he looks down at me. “How’s your head with everything that has happened?” I know that he’s not asking about the accident I had, and even though I wish we wouldn’t talk about this, I owe him this.
Tor has always been there when I needed help. He was the one that was there when Isabela died, and I brought her here to be buried. He gave me a purpose. And even though Isabela wasn’t my mate, I felt lost when she died.
Now if I think about anything happening to Siena, I know nothing would appease me—nothing would calm my darkness except death. This metal piece she has attached to her spine came as a surprise to me, but I will do everything I can to help her. “It’s fine,” I reply.
Tor tenses. “Don’t fucking play games with me. I know you.”
I sigh, feeling the rage in Tor’s eyes. I stand because I am too wound up to sit here around doing nothing. I start to pace to try to rid myself of some of the excess energy I feel.
“I find out I have a mate, and then I’m surprised by the fact that she has a fucking metal piece attached to her spine which we still don’t know what it is.” The anger I am feeling is evident in my voice, but I know Tor will expect nothing less from me. “Then I come home to try to make her comfortable and start a life with a woman that I didn’t even know I wanted, only to forget Isabela’s painting is still hanging in my fucking room.”
“Shit,” Tor mutters.
“You don’t say,” I reply sarcastically.
“What did she say?”
“She asked me who it was.”