“I’ll always,” he vowed as they clung together, “choose you.”
Chapter 20
GODIVA
They were surrounded by the rest of the Gang of Four a short time later. Joey, Mikhail and Nikos each had their mate giving them support. Last of all came Bryony, Nikos’s second lieutenant of his hetairoi honor guard. The tough-looking young woman with short hair and colorful tattoos on her bare, muscular arms loped up to join Jen and Nikos.
For a moment, everyone was talking at once.
“Godiva, are you all right?”
“Godiva, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought I was going to have heart failure when I saw Cang swoop down on you!”
“That was amazing! What happened up there?”
“I can’t believe Cang is gone!”
“We still don’t know who was backing him,” Joey murmured.
Doris waved a hand. “With Cang gone, maybe they’ll go away.” She turned to Godiva. “I missed what happened up there. When I got here you were somehow up in the sky, then there was that huge splash, and you two were coming back right around the moment my brain was about to press the panic button.”
Rigo said proudly, “What happened was Godiva’s fast thinking. When Jen kept Cang’s reinforcements from getting into the mix, Cang somehow figured out who my mate was and went after her. She zapped him in the eye with that spray. And that was all it took.”
“Bold move,” said Bryony. “Respect.” She saluted Godiva, two fingers to her forehead.
“Of course Godiva zapped Cang in the eye,” Doris exclaimed, midway between laughter and tears of relief. “But it looked touch and go there—I was so afraid for Rigo, especially when I saw blood.”
Blood? Rigo was bleeding? Godiva let go of him to check—and she felt him catch her worry. She blinked at how . . . odd that was, as he murmured, “It’s just a couple of scrapes. Hardly feel it.”
He turned to the others as he held Godiva close against his side. “Looked to me like at least the attack didn’t happen.”
Doris nodded. “Though we got totally blindsided at the bakery, Godiva’s women all came through.”
Jen added with a grim smile, “Not one of Cang’s superspeed team was all that super.”
Joey looked up, his voice husky with effort. “They were about to come at us anyway when they saw Cang drop into the sea. Then they bolted.” He looked away unhappily, then added, “I’m going to have to figure out who among us was the traitor. There were only twelve people who knew about our gathering at the bakery.”
Doris slid her arm around Joey as she said, “I didn’t recognize either of the two who faked us out.”
“Nor did I,” Joey said, his voice not much more than a whisper. It was clear to Godiva that he’d used up all his strength coming to the palisade. “Thought they were random customers, and one of them was drunk.”
Jen said bracingly, “Well, at least Cang is no longer a problem. That’s the important thing. And our people were great. Godiva’s women, and our infiltrators. Bryony, here, especially. She thought fast on her feet there at the end, or the fight might have come off after all.”
“How?” Doris asked.
Everyone turned to the young woman, who spoke up in her heavy Greek accent. “Cang’s attack team was rallying to start something. They thought I was one of them. At first I was going to distract them by starting a fight among them. Then I got an idea. It was time for them to know that the Oracle Stone was empty, and I knew the way to do it. I started howling about scams. I said there was no treasure and no reward. They wouldn’t even get paid, and Cang was keeping them in the dark. That spread like fire.”
Bird said, “It’s true! I was just catching up with the rest of you when a bunch of them pushed past me, complaining that they’d been lied to. One of those big beefy ones smelling like eucalyptus was whining that even if there was an elevator down to the cave, there was nothing to find, which meant nobody would get a cent, and Cang lied, and rawr rawr rawr.”
“That was fast thinking,” Godiva said to Bryony, who grinned.
Bird fervently agreed, then turned to Mikhail. “Let’s get you home. I know you feel rotten. Just looking at you hurts.”
“Are you guys going to be all right?” Godiva asked, looking from Mikhail to Nikos to Joey.
“Oh, we’ll be fine,” Joey said wanly. “It was too small a dose to do anything serious. The effects will wear off in a day or so.”
Godiva eyed those gray faces, and once again pulled the age card. “Then I suggest everybody go home. We can get together as soon as you’re . . .” Human? Uh, try again. “Better.”