“Your shaman took just a little too much glee in the idea of outwitting the Council.”
Harm looked behind Ian to where Corin still stood, gun steady.
“Guilty,” he admitted.
“And,” Ian continued, “if Marley is potential leverage to them, it means you’re someone they don’t trust. Who else but the Underground?”
“Ah. Close but not quite. Insofar as the Council is concerned, I’m dead.”
“But Matthias knows otherwise. Why is he keeping that secret?”
“I made his career.”
Ian digested that, sorting through what he remembered of his commander’s rise to power. Matthias had shot up the ranks for taking down one of the largest human trafficking rings in the Mirus world. That had been some twenty-five or thirty years ago.
“Charon. You had something to do with his taking out Charon. Why haven’t I heard of you?”
“The kind of deep cover I was running, the Council made sure no one knew I existed. Before or after. It wouldn’t do for the public to know the Council had a sanctioned agent operating as a top lieutenant in such a widespread criminal organization. They murdered my mate. Robbed me of my family. After that, I cared nothing for credit. I only wanted retribution.”
It didn’t seem prudent to point out that he’d walked away from the last of his family when he’d had Marley’s memory wiped. “How did you even have a family working that kind of case? You wouldn’t have even had the chance to meet—” Ian cut himself off. “Marley’s mother was human. She was one of the trafficked women.” He could see from the expression on the other man’s face that he’d nailed it. Which meant Marley’s mother was executed because his Charon bosses found out that Harm had rescued her. Men like that wouldn’t have executed a child. They’d have found and sold her, knowing that would be a far greater punishment for Harm’s betrayal. That was the life he’d protected Marley from.
Christ.
Harm leaned forward again. “For the last twenty-five years, I’ve done what I thought was right for my daughter. Do you have any idea how much you have fucked things up? If not for you, Marley would have been a simple retrieval mission, grabbed straight from her apartment and brought safely back, cloaked, before anyone was the wiser.”
Ian lifted a brow. “You really think she’d have gone willingly with the warlock? Without any knowledge of our world, of you?” He shook his head. “You don’t know your daughter. She’d have fought, and she’d have run. And she wouldn’t have evaded the Hunter for long without some assistance.”
“Is that how you justify your involvement?”
“I don’t have to justify myself to you.”
Harm’s eyes went feline again. “You were the perfect soldier for centuries. Matthias said you were one of the best. And yet you broke our world’s greatest law, put yourself and your career on the line to save her. I want to know why.”
“You put your case, your cover, and your career on the line for her mother. You know why I did it.”
Abruptly, Harm stood, shifting toward the door moments before it banged open.
“What the hell are you doing to him?" Marley flew inside, temper crackling around her like a lightning storm as she ranged herself between them.
“Having a conversation,” said Harm mildly. He looked to the warlock who hung back at the door. “What is she doing here?”
“She inherited your ears and a damn good portion of your scary, even without the claws. Tara said he passed, so I didn’t see
any reason to stop her.”
Ian could only stare at her, flushed with health and fury, fists balled and ready to strike. A dream.
“For God’s sake, let him loose.” When no one moved she snarled, “Let. Him. Loose. Now.”
At a resigned nod from Harm, Corin set about unlocking the shackles. Marley bounced on her feet, eyes tracing every inch of Ian, her temper growing darker by the moment as she cataloged his wounds. As soon as he was free of restraints, Ian sprang from the chair, reaching for her. His bad leg buckled. Marley caught him, and the impact jarred his shoulder, made it scream, made her real. Pulling her tight against him, Ian buried his face in her hair.
“You’re alive. Thank Christ.”
Marley held on, her arms vising around him. “God, I was so worried.”
Ian choked on incredulity and pulled back to see her face. “You were worried?”
“You weren’t there when I woke up. I was afraid of what they might’ve done to you.”