“Of course you are. I’ll return the favor. You’ve landed in the middle of a vicious House war. You are being used by our enemies as a distraction. Alessandro isn’t leaving with you. He refused three marriages before you, and he isn’t the type of person to allow anyone to force his hand. He isn’t going to meekly depart with you because that’s not the way adult relationships work.”
An angry flush bloomed on her cheeks.
“Get back in your car, get on a plane, and go home. You’re in over your head, and I cannot guarantee your safety if you stay. All of our resources are focused on protecting our House. I can’t spare anyone to guard you.”
“I don’t need your protection,” Christina ground out. “I’m a Prime!”
“So is everyone else involved. I don’t have time for this.” I looked at the white-haired man. “Take her home. She is not safe here, and this is not her war.”
“In that case we will settle this here and now.” Christina rose.
“There is nothing to settle. Alessandro Sagredo would know the moment I touched his mind,” I said. “I’ve been rummaging in yours since you arrived.”
Three things happened almost at once. A golden rapier materialized in Christina’s hand. The white-haired man leaped into the air, his hands shifting into huge claws. Leon fired a single round.
The man crashed onto the table, clutching his side. Blood wet his fingers.
Christina took a step back.
“He’ll live,” Leon said. “If you get him to the hospital in the next hour or so.”
Christina’s eyes went wide. She finally realized that the man had been facing us when he attacked. He should’ve been shot from the front. Instead, he was shot from the back. I had no idea what Leon bounced the bullet off of, but it was damn impressive.
“Let me make this clear,” I said, and this time, it wasn’t my Tremaine voice. It was me, Prime Baylor, the Acting Warden. “This is my territory. If you leave here alive it is because I allow it. Look behind you.”
Christina turned slowly.
Everything had stopped. The construction, the noises of human voices, all of it was silent. The two dozen construction workers and the woman inside the taco truck stared at us. They were all wearing my face.
Christina opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
“Go home,” I told her. “I won’t ask again.”
Two workers, still wearing my face, walked over, picked the white-haired man up, and carried him to the Audi. A third burly construction worker came to stand by me. We watched the two guys pack the injured man into the car. Christina looked at them, looked at me, looked back at them. One of the workers opened the driver’s side door and invited her to it with a sweep of his hand.
“Please,” the worker said in my voice.
Christina’s sword vanished. She gave me a look of pure hatred, ran to the car, and jumped behind the wheel. The Audi took off at a breakneck speed, looped around the picnic area, and shot out of the subdivision like a silver bullet.
“From the back?” I asked Leon.
“I was feeling fanciful,” he told me.
The burly construction worker’s body collapsed into a slimmer, elegant shape.
“I thought it went rather well, all things considered,” Augustine Montgomery said.
Chapter 12
Alessandro was waiting for me in front of the office with his arms crossed over his chest. He must’ve checked with Bern, and Bern told him exactly who I went to meet but not where, just like I asked him.
The best defense was a vigorous offense.
I parked the car, walked over to him, and brushed a kiss on his cheek.
“I’m not mad about your fiancée,” I told him and walked past him into the building.
It took him exactly three seconds to recover. By the time I sat down behind my desk, he was in the doorway of my office.
“You left the Compound.” He walked in and shut the door.
“I did.”
“I asked you to wait, and you left. And you didn’t take a protective detail with you.”
“I took Leon, Augustine, and about twenty MII employees. They secured the area prior to my arrival.”
I had discussed hiring MII with him while Konstantin had called home requesting permission for our deal with the Imperium. Originally, I wanted MII so we could pull all of Arkan’s hidden informants off the street at the same time. It was an operation that required manpower we didn’t have. Asking Augustine to put on a show for Christina’s benefit was last minute, but he enjoyed demonstrations of power and he was so good at them.