Tristan spun and his fist swung out and knocked Sam back about ten feet, into the hallway. Sasha gasped.
Tristan clenched both fists at his sides, tried to take a calming breath, and closed his eyes, which he knew had changed. He took another breath. Calm wasn’t even on the radar. He was in a cloud of cold fog; it was coming out of his mouth. He pushed the rage down, deep inside.
Tristan stopped in front of Sam who was on the floor, conscious, but rubbing his jaw and stared deep, “Guard Kyla and her brother with your life. Neither of you fuck with her. All you do is keep her alive and comfortable. Sasha, Sam, stay patched. Don’t fucking touch her, unless it’s to help her.”
“You got it,” Sam vowed and Tristan knew that he not only had no choice but to mean it but he actually did mean it.
He pushed buttons on the satellite phone to summon his ride.
“Tell whoever needs to know that there’s a helicopter landing outside your door in a few minutes, not to attack.”
Sasha nodded and rushed out to the kitchen where she had a walkie talkie on the counter.
Tristan leaned over Kyla and kissed her on the lips and then on each eyelid. Her eyes opened and fluttered and then shivered. He knew he was cold; it was the emotion.
He gently cradled her in his arms and took her back down to the bed beside her twin.
“I love you, princess. I’ll be back in a little while. Be good. Wait for me. Don’t go anywhere. I am ordering you to wait here for me. Don’t leave; okay baby? Please?” He tucked her in with the big quilt on the end of the bed.
“Okay, Tristan.” She closed her eyes and smiled. He was surprised she’d said even that, she seemed so far gone.
His heart split open and as he walked out, he pretty much left it on that bed with her. When he left that house, when he got onto the helicopter ten minutes later he had one focus, Adrian Constantin.-7-4.5 Hours Later, ArizonaHe’d had Adrian hauled out of that pit by Jeff and Leonard. He was back in that cottage and he’d had the place swept for any cameras and had five of them removed. He was in the living room with Adrian. He pulled the dagger out and waited for him to wake.
He fired off a text to Rita, his PA at Kovac,
“Privately ask Rick to find me someone internal on the IT team with the same IT skills as Liam D and fly them to Phoenix, AZ ASAP. When they arrive at the Constantin Center, they should email me for directions. Send me details and I’ll have them picked up. Tell Rick to instruct whoever he sends to tell no one where they’re going. No one! You keep this to yourself, too.”
She’d replied back saying she’d get back to him on that and then she asked when he’d be back. He told her he’d keep her posted and to continue to send all his calls to his associate, Rick as well as to tell Rick to email him with a progress report on everything happening.
Rick had tried to call him several times but he’d replied with texts. The last reply to a text, sent two days prior, had said,
“Brandt wants to meet. Plus we need to discuss strategy re: filling Liam’s position as well as other topics. Call me pls.”
He didn’t give two fucks about Kovac right not but had to keep up appearances until he’d decided what to do next. He hadn’t been keeping up appearances all that well since Kyla took off from his condo, but the occasional check-in and delegating of emails had been all he could do.
Rita was in a functional trance and had worked for him for 6 years. Most of Kovac was made up of vampires, the males, anyway. The few females working there were non-vamp because unless they had a disposition like Sasha they’d be ruthless. And he’d never met a female vamp like Sasha. Ruthless worked in business sometimes but not a she-vamp’s type of ruthless. It’d be a disaster.
His rage hadn’t simmered in the least. He needed to bring it down a notch so that he could get everything he needed from Constantin before ending the fucker. But he couldn’t bring it down too far or he’d feel what was shadowing the rage: the despair, the worry that she was all but gone and that gone was ahead on the horizon.
Adrian’s eyelids started to move and he woke in a panic but didn’t have the motor function yet to move the way he was trying. The longer a vamp was down the more time it took to get back to normal. As a result of his fear, he was frantic, trying to get off the floor but like a turtle that had been flipped onto its shell.