Steal the Night (Thieves #5)(61)

“Was the explosion really cool?” Daniel asked with an easy smile.

“Yeah. It was something to see.” Dev sat down on the couch, leaving plenty of space for Daniel and me.

Daniel leaned over, kissing me senseless. “Are you all right, baby? Did Dev get the bullet out okay?”

Dev went a little green at the thought. “You will not leave us alone again, Daniel. I didn’t enjoy playing the field medic.”

Daniel grinned. “I won’t leave you alone again because you do all the fun stuff when I’m not around.”

“Well, if you had been around, I would never have gotten the chance.” Dev said, relaxed as we sat beside him. “You would have flown up and grabbed the thing with one hand and sent it into the ground.”

Daniel’s eyes lit up, and he gave Dev a big eager smile.

“I’ll tell Zack to make a note,” Dev agreed and I could already see how that experiment was going to go. Bell Helicopter might be getting a strange order in the near future.

“Daniel, that crash was huge,” Marcus argued, obviously shocked at Daniel’s attitude. “We did what we could, but I can’t guarantee that there wasn’t video or photos taken. This could be a real problem.”

“Marcus told Dev you were pissed off,” I explained to Daniel.

His blue eyes heated up with anger. “I was. I still am, but certainly not at Dev. I’m pissed off at this Order thing. They shot you.”

“They were trying to kill Dev. It was a head shot for him, but I just took it in the shoulder instead.”

Daniel shook his head. “You’re going to kill me someday, baby.” He turned to Dev. “Tell me you got some of the f*ckers.”

“Many of them,” Dev admitted. “I also kept one alive for you. I thought you’d like to have a word.”

Hugo nodded. “The soldier is being held by my employees in the basement. He’ll be quite unconscious for a while yet, Your Highness.”

“Tomorrow is soon enough to deal with him.” Daniel sighed and held me tightly. His voice was low and weary. “Hugo explained to me about the Blood Stone.”

“Danny, I’m so sorry,” I whispered.

“What?” Dev asked, his face worried. He’d been left out of this particular loop, and Marcus took the time to fill him in. He told Dev about how the Blood Stone worked and I watched my faery’s face fall. “And we gave it to him.”

“I gave it to him.” Guilt gnawed at my insides.

Daniel shook his head. “We gave it to him, Z. This isn’t your fault. We all went after that stone and we left you alone to deal with Marini when he showed up.”

“It gets worse,” Hugo said in his clipped accent. “I got a call from your butler earlier this evening, Mr. Quinn. He says Marini attempted to raid the club. He has declared Daniel an outlaw and claims rights to the queen. At this point, he’s only claiming that you belong to the Council, but that won’t last for long.”

We couldn’t go home. I felt my heart start to race at the thought. He was backing us into a corner. He was really going to go through with it. He was going to try to kill Daniel and take Dev and me as his playthings.

“Calm down, Z,” Devinshea said soothingly. “We knew this would happen eventually.”

“He called the entire Council tonight for a vote on your status,” Marcus concurred. “Niko and I were forced to agree with him. We’re outnumbered, Your Highness.”

Daniel waved off that worry. “Of course, Marcus. You do what you need to do to escape detection for now. Tell Niko I understand.” Daniel was a practical man. It did us no good for our allies on the Council to out themselves, but I could see he was upset by the turn of events.

“Was Albert all right?” I didn’t want to think about the ramifications of what Daniel’s status meant for all of us.

Hugo chuckled slightly. “Apparently there was a plan in place. I was told the club is in something called lockdown mode and that the local werewolf alpha has brought the Dallas pack in to defend the place. Marini wasn’t ready for such a vigorous defense.”

Dev nodded. “The new alpha’s wife recently had twins, thanks to my goddess and me. When I asked him to watch after things, he was more than willing to help out. Of course, I didn’t expect him to have to handle a siege, but he was Special Forces trained. Marini will have his hands full with him.”

Marcus shook his head. “Marini has already figured out you fled. He’s returning to Paris this evening until he can discern where you have gone. We all must be very careful. We’ll be closely watched. As soon as your mission here in England is done, you’ll be moved to New York where you’ll stay with Henri Jacobs while we gather our forces and decide our next move. If needs be, I’ll hide you on Poveglia. It’s an island off Venice. It’s very isolated and closed to tourists. I have a small villa on the island that you can stay in.”

It struck me that we were really on the run now. I took a deep breath because I didn’t want to cry in front of Marcus and Hugo. I needed to keep it together for Daniel’s sake. He was already looking far too serious.

“Your Highness, do not worry.” Hugo interrupted my thoughts. “This isn’t the first time a king has been forced into hiding. This is the way the game is played. It’s not even the first time Henri and I have aided a king on the run. We both hid Charles II before we managed to smuggle him out of the country and into France.”