“She didn’t tell me anything. She filled in the blank.”
“She what?” Mick demanded.
Fuck. Embry scrubbed both hands over her face in frustration. “He was under a Lethe spell. I removed it. End of story as far as you’re concerned. Gage, get in the car, we have to go.”
“Who da fuck is Gage?”
“That was my name before.”
“Enough with the explanations. We don’t have time for this,” insisted Embry. She opened the trunk and tossed the duffel in.
“Who’s after you?” asked Mick.
“No one yet, but they’re going to be if we stand around here lolly gagging. Go away Guidry and forget you ever saw us.”
The Wylk stepped forward. “If you think I’m just gonna let you take him—”
“She’s not taking me anywhere. I’m going willingly. I’ll be fine, Mick. Just let it be.”
“This ain’t over,” he said, but he backed off.
Gage collapsed back in the car. Embry climbed into the driver’s seat and jammed the key in the ignition. The engine cranked with a roar. “Okay, can you tell me how to get to your house?”
“My house?”
“You need to pack a bag.”
“For what?” he demanded.
“An extraction mission,” she said, pulling out into the empty street and leaving Mick standing in the shadow of a streetlight. “We have to go rescue my father.”
Chapter 5
He insisted on driving. It was his car, he said. And he drove the speed limit. As if they had all the time in the world or were taking a fucking road trip. When she complained, he said it was best if they remained under the radar of both the human and Mirus variety. So Embry sat in her seat and seethed until somewhere south of Dallas, when he pulled into a roadside diner for breakfast. She remained silent, picking at her eggs and toast while he plowed through a tall stack, a western omelet, hash browns, and half a pot of coffee.
“Okay, you’ve had eight hours to sulk that we’re not doing this your way right now. You done yet?” he asked.
“I’m not sulking. I’m pissed. It’s not the same thing.”
“Semantics. Eat, you’ll need your strength.”
She narrowed her eyes and nibbled at a slice of bacon.
“Ooo, sarcasm by body language. That’s a step toward getting over yourself and getting to work.”
“Stuff it, Dempsey.” Embry scowled into her coffee. Christ, I’ve regressed to being a teenager. Irritated—with herself, with him—she put the coffee down and stabbed a fork into the eggs. “The intel came from the senior member of Dad’s team. They were on a clean-up mission trying to eliminate some traces of a—” Her eyes flicked around to check the distance of the waitress. “—an illegal hunting spree. Werewolves. Idiots. Right in the military’s back yard. The mission was get in, destroy their evidence, get out. Dad was lead, as usual. There were two others. Senior officer and a rookie. They got split up. Mission accomplished. But when they reconvened, the rookie didn’t make the check in. Dad went after him and got caught. The rookie was killed.”
“Can I top that off for you, hon?”
Embry looked up at the forty-something waitress, who didn’t wait for a reply before filling the tiny cup to the brim, thus totally ruining the concentration of sugar. Embry wondered if the woman would have noticed if she’d covered the cup with the saucer.
“Thanks,” said Gage, flashing a charming smile as his own coffee was topped off.
Simpering, the waitress sauntered off.
“Okay, so the senior officer made it out, reported back.” Gage blew on the fresh coffee. “Then what happened?”
“The Council sent a small recon team of other Walkers to find out what happened to him. They tracked him to a little known military base in Montana. The entire facility is lined in iron.”