Wild and Free (The Three #3)(130)

“Already gave that to Stephanie. She’s been and gone, took off with it,” Moose told him.

Lucien stepped back, pulling his phone out of his pocket, and murmured, “I’ll give her a call.”

Callum turned to Abel. “We need them back in play.”

“Say what?” Moose asked, and Callum turned back to him.

“We’ll brief you later,” he said and again gave his attention to Abel. “Make up a story as to why they’re in the shape they’re in, erase all memory of Moose and their visit to the compound, and get them back in play. Once they’re set loose, they need to get the vampire away from where he’s staying so we can set up electronic surveillance.”

Abel lifted his chin to Callum and moved to the young men. They shrunk from him, but he got that under control, thought fast, and sorted out the rest.

When he was done, he stepped back and looked to Callum. “They’re good to go.”

Callum nodded and turned to Ryon. “Get them out of here, let them loose, but put a human on them. The minute Miko’s clear, get eyes and ears on him.”

“Got it,” Ryon muttered, opened the door, motioned to some wolves beyond it, and they moved in.

Callum got close to Abel and they watched the men being moved out.

Once they were gone, Lucien finished his phone call and joined their huddle.

“Stephanie knows of this vampire. She’s never met him, but she’s not surprised he’s part of The True,” Lucien shared.

“They’re everywhere,” Abel muttered.

“This isn’t surprising,” Callum noted and held Abel’s eyes. “Lucky we have you so they don’t know that we do know.”

Shit had been extreme with the golem, but they’d made it through…because of Abel.

And now there was this, but they were turning the tables…because of Abel.

He could not say that this didn’t feel f*cking great, but he didn’t share that with Lucien and Callum. All he did was again lift his chin.

“We’ll let that take its course, see what we can glean from it,” Callum continued. “You brief Moose on what’s been happening. Then we have an appointment to train.”

In other words, carry on as normal.

Abel could see going that way, not making a big deal out of what little they just gained so no one would get any hint they’d gained it, so he nodded.

“Once we know more, you’re likely up again,” Lucien warned him.

Abel didn’t have a problem with that. He’d had centuries of being able to do something that was huge, but it had no purpose except to make him feel like a freak.

Now it had purpose.

No, he had no problem with that.

“Whatever needs to get done,” he replied, before he asked, “Where’s Gregor?”

“Gregor’s distracted,” Callum told him. “Yuri moves on the coven this evening.”

Abel could see this too. Gregor and Yuri looked like brothers, but they were father and son. And since Yuri had been gone, Gregor had been like a man who was worried about his son. He had serious shit going on that he had to have a lock on, but most of his mind was in Texas with his boy.

If Abel had any doubts about Gregor, this would have satisfied them.

“Right,” Abel muttered, then stated, “I’ll talk to Moose. Then we’ll get on with shit.”

“Yes, then we’ll get on with shit,” Callum said on a smile.

“But first, gotta get Moose back to my mate. She’s worried. She’ll wanna know he’s back and safe.”

“Take the SUV we came in,” Lucien offered. “I’ll ride back with Callum.”

Abel gave Lucien a nod and looked to Moose. “Let’s go, big man.”

Moose didn’t hesitate, obviously ready for soft sheets. Abel did the best he could to get him up-to-date on the way back to the compound and left him in a living room when they got back, deciding to find Delilah himself, give her the news, and get her to her friend.

He found her three living rooms down. He also found her alone, not with Jian-Li or any of the other women. She was standing at a window, staring out, completely oblivious to anything, including him walking into the room.

“Bao bei,” he called when he was close.

He watched her jump in surprise and turn to him.

“You okay?” he asked.

She kept her face aimed at him, but her eyes slid back to the window.

When he made it to her, he looked out and saw three dark gray columns of smoke heading straight up to the sky through windless air from beyond the dense woods that surrounded the sides of the compound.

He knew what those were. Those were the ultimate end to the dead golem. An end that included certain body parts that had been hacked to shit and then far removed from their mates, especially the heads, all this being burned to ash.

“They might have had women,” Delilah said softly, and Abel looked back to her to see her head again turned to the window. “They might have had kids.”

“And if they’d succeeded, there is no ‘might’ about what they were gonna do, which was something we couldn’t let them do. At all costs.”

“At all costs,” Delilah whispered to the window.

“*cat—” he started, lifting his hand to curl it where her neck met her shoulder.