22
Mercy
“I have a mission for you,”Ezra said, leaning back in his throne-chair.
I gazed steadily back at him, trying not to show the tremor of apprehension that’d run through me at his words—only a little smaller than the one that’d hit me when Axel had summoned me to the Noble leader’s audience room a few minutes ago. The last mission Ezra had sent me on had nearly ended with me bloodied and raped.
But I’d survived it, and he’d see that I could survive whatever else he threw at me, just like I’d proven to his son. He hadn’t said a word about my sealing the deal with Jasper in the past two days. Not that I needed the credit, but it would have shown he had a little more faith in me now.
“Great,” I said. “What is it?”
“Now that we have the Demon’s Wings willing to send support”—he eyed me for a second as if checking for a reaction to that vague reference to my “date” with Jasper—“it’s time to proceed with the next part of our plan against Colt Bryant. We need to destroy the foothold the Steel Knights have gained in the Bend.”
Well, I was a hell of a lot more for that than entertaining sleazy gang bosses. I let a little more enthusiasm enter my tone. “I’m ready to do whatever it takes. What’s the plan?”
“It’s come to my attention that Colt has been storing a large quantity of weapons in one of the warehouses in the industrial district of the Bend.”
I nodded. “I’m aware. I saw them.”
Ezra gave me a narrow look and then continued, “He hasn’t been too subtle about it either. He seems to be sending a message to those who haven’t joined him yet or are on the fence that they’ll be able to defend themselves and no longer need our protection. We’re going to show how wrong he is about that and effectively disarm him.”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, hoping plain old agreement would go over better.
It did get me a mild smile. “Wylder is going to run you through the details, but the primary objective is to take out the warehouse with all its weapons. Naturally, the place will be heavily guarded, so he’ll be taking a large force, including both our men and some of Jasper’s. But I felt it was important you joined in with your inside knowledge of the Bend and the aptitude for fighting you’ve already shown.”
The words sounded way more generous than I expected Ezra to be. I considered him warily even as I kept a smile pasted on my face. “I appreciate that. I’ll help any way I can. There’s nothing I want more than to see Colt Bryant broken and bleeding and the bastards who helped him slaughter my family right there alongside him.”
“Excellent.” Ezra stood up and motioned to the door. “Then there’s nothing further we need to discuss. Check in with Wylder, and he’ll give you your marching orders.”
Chances were Wylder’s first orders would be to march in the opposite direction as far as I could go, but he couldn’t put me off for long when his father had directly instructed me to come along. I was almost looking forward to throwing that fact in his face. Although something about the conversation with Ezra still didn’t feel quite right to me.
As I left to figure out where the Noble heir was right now, I caught sight of Gideon down the hall. He stopped in his tracks, no doubt taking note of what room I’d come out of. There was something hesitant in his expression, but it didn’t interfere with the new hint of warmth in his gaze.
Things had been a little awkward between us since the other night when we’d come together so passionately, but I guessed that wasn’t surprising considering Gideon’s lack of experience with any kind of relationship. Half the time he wasn’t friendly to his own friends, other than Wylder. I actually found the tentative awkwardness combined with the undeniable signs of attraction kind of adorable in an unexpected way.
It was a heck of a lot better than how his best friend had reacted after our earlier hook-up.
“Hey,” I said, walking over to him. “Did Ezra want to fill you in on the new plan too?”
His gaze flicked over my face, settling for a longer moment on my lips before returning to my eyes. But there was an odd note in his voice when he spoke. “He had a couple of files he wanted to pass on to me. What were you doing in there?”
Hadn’t I basically just explained that? “He called me in to tell me he wanted me on the upcoming mission.”
“Just that?”
“Yeah.” I frowned. “Would you have expected something else?”
Gideon’s gaze had gone distant again. Somewhere behind those cool gray eyes, a whole lot of gears were turning.
I didn’t like how serious he looked, but then he shrugged it off. “No, I only wondered.” He offered me a quick, tight smile. “I’d better get those files so I can watch over the rest of you properly while you’re out there kicking Colt’s ass.”
I smiled back even though his demeanor had left me uneasy. Was something bothering him that he wasn’t telling me? But we weren’t exactly close enough that it seemed right to try to badger him about it. The one thing I was sure of with Gideon was that if he’d consider logically whether I was better off knowing and tell me if he determined I was.
“We’ll be counting on you,” I said, and set off in search of his asshole best friend.
* * *
Several hours later, I was crouched by a car down the street from the old warehouse building where Colt was storing his weapons. The summer humidity had already turned my shirt sticky against my skin even in the darkness of the early morning hour, well before dawn. The smell of gasoline and hot asphalt prickled in my nose. And Wylder was scowling at me.