A Warrior Wedding (The Protectors #7)(11)

“They cannot refuse this request.” Slade’s control slipped a little. He placed the envelopes on Sloan’s desk in fear of breaking the vials inside. Without Sloan telling him, Slade knew they had been refused.

“They can and they have.” Sloan watched Slade closely, waiting for the blow up. “I’ve called everyone in here, but you need to keep calm, Slade. We need you focused because you may be their only hope.”

Eyes blackening in rage, Slade’s chest heaved as a sneer curved his lips. His eyes looked around for something to smash, but Sloan’s words reached part of his brain that was still reasonable. He did have to get a grip. Jill’s life depended on it, not to mention every manmade half-breed out there. “I don’t want Jill here. I want to tell her alone.”

Sloan nodded, picking up his phone. After he finished, he looked up at Slade. “Adam hasn’t shown any symptoms, has he?”

Slade shook his head. “Not that I know of.”

“I told Adam the meeting was cancelled, as well as Steve, because Steve has a big mouth.” Sloan leaned back in his chair, staring at Slade. “We’ll figure this out. She’ll be fine.”

But at what cost? The silent question hovered between the Warriors while they waited for everyone.

******

Jill lay on the bed with her eyes closed, but her mind racing. Sitting up, she grabbed the bridal magazine laying next to her. Nicole, Tessa and Pam were driving her crazy with all the wedding hoopla. She’d be happy to grab a minister, head in the woods behind her old house, and marry Slade beneath the trees she was so fond of. But ever since Slade set a date, which was in three weeks, the women had been driving her nuts. So in order to get them off her back, she had given them the go ahead to set up everything. They were calling themselves the Warrior Wedding Planners and even talked about going into business. Thumbing through the magazine, Jill grinned at the thought.

Her stomach grumbled and her throat tightened with thirst, thirst for Slade’s blood. Swallowing hard, she continued to look through the magazine trying to ignore the uncomfortable feeling until her door flew open.

“Hey.” Steve and Adam walked into her and Slade’s room.

“Hey,” she replied, tossing the magazine. “And you better watch bursting into the room like that. You’ve already caught Slade naked once and he wasn’t too happy about it.”

“Seeing Slade and his, well you know, wasn’t very pleasant.” Steve frowned. “It made me downright depressed.”

Adam glared over at Steve. “Dude, are you gay?”

“No, I’m not,” Steve replied, then looked at Jill. “But if I were, I sure would be giving you a run for your money, ‘cause I mean... whoa.”

“You are messed up, man.” Adam shook his head.

“Yeah, well, you didn’t see what I saw.” Steve snuck a grin at Jill. “So what do you think is going on?”

“Where?” Jill asked, scooting back to lean against the headboard.

Adam and Steve glanced at each other. “You didn’t get the text from Sloan?” Adam asked.

Grabbing her phone to double check, she shook her head. “No.”

Steve frowned. “We both received a text saying the meeting was cancelled.”

“I didn’t even get one about a meeting. Oh, well, maybe something came up and he didn’t get around to texting everyone,” Jill leaned her head back, tired.

“Sloan doesn’t individually text everyone...duh.” Steve hopped on the bed, making himself comfortable. “Group messages is the thing now, Jill. Get with the program.”

Okay, that woke her up. Steve was right for once. “Then why was I left off?” She sat up and looked at Adam.

“Not sure.” Adam stood against the wall, arms crossed. “But I think we should go find out because obviously this has to do with us since we saw Jared, Damon and Jax heading into an already full office for a meeting you weren’t even invited to and we were uninvited.”

Steve jumped up from the bed, a huge smile on his excited face. “So how we going to do this?”

“Ah, walk into Sloan’s office.” Jill slowly clambered off the bed.

“Ah, no.” Steve headed toward the door. “Obviously they don’t want us there so we need to do this the Warrior way.”

Jill didn’t know if she was up for the Warrior way at that moment, but no way in hell would she admit that, and Steve was right. The Warriors wouldn’t say a word if they showed up.

Steve snapped his fingers. “I’ve got a plan.”

“No,” both Jill and Adam said at the same time.

“What do you mean, no? I haven’t even told you yet.” Steve threw his hands out, but then looked up at the ceiling and pointed. “Sloan has one of those above his desk.”

Jill and Adam looked to where he was pointing. It was an air vent. “You’re crazy.” Jill’s eyes widened. “That will never work. They’d hear us before we got close enough.”

Steve thought for a minute. “True. We are dealing with Warriors who can hear a mouse fart, but we all know how these meetings go. Everyone talking at once, Sid throwing in jokes after anyone talks. It’s never quiet and they will be distracted because this meeting seems to be pretty serious business.”