His mouth tightens as he stares ahead. “Yes.”

  He doesn’t offer anything else, and I can’t think of any words that don’t sound hollow in this moment. Tripp remains silent, but his hand brushes mine in comfort before swinging away again.

  We’re friends again, I think.

  Or the closest to friends we can be with so much baggage between us.

  Inside Jadick’s offices, there’s a frenzied vibe among the security team hurrying from one room to the next. Grey gestures for Tripp and me to enter the conference room at the end of the hall.

  I round the corner and stop short when I see the table already nearly full of people. Jadick sits in his usual place at the head. Gregario and Burnett hover behind him, each of them texting on their phones with looks of concentration. It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to make fun of them. Their fat thumbs are hilarious to watch as they attempt to type something coherent.

  Frankie nods at me then looks away again, unwilling to give away how close we’ve become. The guy with the mustache is here too. And the girl, his mate.

  They don’t look surprised to see me. If anything, they look disappointed.

  “Mac,” Jadick says, looking up from an open file that’s laid out on the table in front of him. His eyes flicker with something, but then it’s gone, and he’s all business. And impatient.

  “You wanted to see us?”

  “Yes. Have a seat—both of you.”

  He waves toward the table dismissively, but I don’t move.

  “What’s this about?” I ask.

  “You’ll see,” he says. “We’re waiting on the arrival of one of our spies. Dirk—”

  A sound in the hall draws my attention, and then Grey pokes his head in. “He’s here,” Grey says.

  “Finally,” mutters the girl.

  “Send him in,” Jadick says, and then to me, “Sit.”

  He pats the table, gesturing to the empty seat beside him. I make my way past the others and lower myself into the chair, wary now that he’s mentioned Dirk. Tripp sits at the opposite end, next to Frankie. Our eyes meet, and I know he’s just as nervous as I am.

  Dirk was the asshole mark I was hired to hunt down the night Crigger died. I managed to bring him in despite his attempts to fight me off (not to mention force himself on me—gross), only for us both to find Crigger dead in a pool of his own blood. When Thiago stormed in, Dirk sold me out to save himself, thus setting all of this chaos in motion. Not to mention the fact that he was the one who gave up the location of the first compound. Under torture, but still.

  He might be a spy for the Jades, but he’s the last guy I want to see right now—and the one I trust least. Besides Jadick himself.

  I can’t help it. I lean over and hiss at Jadick, “I can’t believe he’s still working for you. After what he did?”

  “Everyone deserves the chance to redeem themselves, Mac.” Jadick gives me a pointed look. “I would think you, of all people, would agree with that sentiment.”

  Dirk walks in—smelling of rotten food and streaked with dirt and blood. The already silent room turns tense at the sight of him but he waves off the concern. “I’m fine,” he says even though no one asks.

  “What the hell happened?” Jadick demands.

  “Ran into a few scouts coming back. Obviously, the pickup was a trap.” Jadick grunts like they all expected it. I wonder briefly if that’s why Jadick sent Dirk on this particular errand. Because Dirk is so expendable. I wonder if Dirk has figured that out yet.

  “Anyway, assholes couldn’t get the drop on me. I come bearing gifts.” Dirk holds up a small cardboard box and sets it down in front of Jadick with a flourish.

  Jadick wrinkles his nose, and Dirk retreats to the front of the room. Everyone on that side of the table reacts to his stench with varying responses.

  “Where did it come from?” I ask since everyone else in the room seems to know already.

  “Kari sent a message,” Mustache tells me. “She left it in Northside. After—”

  “That’s classified,” his mate hisses, and he falls silent.

  Kari.

  I eye the box with a new wariness.

  “What’s inside?” Jadick asks. He makes no move to touch the box.

  “A message.” Dirk’s expression tightens until there’s a hardness in his eyes—a fury.

  My muscles tense at all of the possibilities that await us inside it.

  Dirk takes an empty seat at the far end of the table.

  No one speaks.

  My heart thuds erratically. I want to scramble to open it, to end the suspense. But I also never want to look. To let it be real.

  Finally, Jadick pushes to his feet, reaching for the flaps on the box. He pulls it open and peers inside. I watch his expression for some clue and note the way his mouth presses into a grim line.

  His gaze flicks to me, and my stomach drops.

  “What is it?” I ask, my voice small.

  Fear licks its way up my spine and into every open crevice of my mind. This is it. Levi’s heart or his eyes or a hand—

  “A tooth.”

  I blink and watch as Jadick holds up a small bloodied molar for closer inspection.

  He sets it on the table, and my eyes follow the movement. It’s impossible to look away. My mind is filled with images of what it would have taken to remove this from Levi’s mouth. How he would have struggled against it. How badly it must have hurt. Because I know for sure Kari wanted it to hurt.

  “There’s a note,” Jadick says, and I glance up to see him holding a slip of paper marred with streaks of blood. He scans it quickly and then, frowning, hands it to Mustache. He scans it, grunts, and hands it to his mate. I nearly scream at them out of impatience. The girl glances at me then reads it aloud:

  I’ve decided to return Levi to you after all.

  Piece by piece.

  If you want to end this, bring me my brother.

  You have three days.

  Next time, it’ll be his tongue.

  We’ll see how well he leads a rebellion then.

  I swallow against the bile that rises in my throat. Beside me, Tripp snatches the letter and reads it for himself while muttering curses. Then he hands it over to Frankie. One by one, the others scan the message. To verify? To search for hidden clues? I’m too busy holding my shit together to bother with any of that. I look at Jadick, who’s staring at the tooth like it holds the secrets to the damned universe.

  The others set the note in the center of the table.

  People shift in their seats.

  Whispers sound, and still, Jadick stands quietly.

  The longer he takes to respond, the angrier I become.

  Finally, he looks at Dirk. “And Northside?”

  Dirk glances at me then Tripp.

  “You can speak freely in front of them,” Jadick says.

  “Burned to the ground,” Dirk answers grimly.

  “Survivors?” Jadick asks.

  Dirk shakes his head.

  “Dammit!” Jadick slams his fist against the table.

  “What’s Northside?” I ask.

  Dirk doesn’t answer. Neither does Jadick. That only makes me more nervous.

  “An outpost,” Frankie says after a beat.

  I meet her eyes and see everything I need to know. Worry. Sadness. Loss.

  “Our people,” I say, and she nods.

  “They were handlers,” she adds. “For our spies in Blackstone.”

  I wait for her to say more, but she doesn’t. Then I look at Jadick. His expression is darkening by the second. My thoughts race. This doesn’t look good. It looks like Levi gave up Northside.

  “Levi didn’t do this,” I say.

  Jadick’s head snaps toward mine. He’s looking for a target, and I just gave him me. “No one else knew,” he points out.

  “No one outside this room,” Tripp says and earns a death stare from Jadick.

  “Levi didn’t do this,” I repeat, my heart pounding.

  “That’s our last outpost,” Dirk says, cutting off Jadick’s reply. “We don’t have any more connections to our spies in town. And with me spotted at Northside earlier, I’m burned.”

  “There’s only one man left,” Mustache says. He’s still glancing at me like he’s not sure if he’s allowed to talk about this in front of me.

  Frankly, I’m still wondering about it myself. Maybe Jadick has too many secrets. Maybe he’s willing to give up a few if it means winning me over to his side. Maybe all this was just a way to twist the knife and make me give in to his demands.

  I look at the tooth again then back at Jadick.

  He’s silent, thinking. I watch as his chest rises and falls with angry breaths. “Send a team for our spies,” he snaps at Dirk, and then to Mustache, “Choose our best six. Tell them to camp in the highlands. Over state lines. See if they can make contact.”

  “Will do,” he says.

  Jadick’s gaze sweeps the room and finally lands on Mustache again.

  “Lorenz, you’ll lead them,” he adds.

  “Yes, sir.”

  Mustache—Lorenz—straightens in his chair, obviously feeling himself for being chosen to lead the team.

  “Everyone is dismissed,” Jadick says.

  A few people begin to stand. Frankie remains where she is.

  “Sir,” she says. “The note says three days. Do we have any plans to meet that timeline?”

  I swallow hard, wondering the same thing.

  “We don’t negotiate with usurpers,” Jadick says.

  Frankie frowns.

  “You’re just going to let her keep doing this?” I ask before Frankie can respond.

  Jadick pins me with a look and then says in a sharper voice than before, “You’re all dismissed. Dirk, get showered. The rest of you, we’ll talk again once Lorenz and his team are ready to go. Mac stays behind.”

  Frankie looks like she wants to press it, but Jadick cuts her off, adding, “This is my final decision.”

  The others rise and begin to file out. I watch as Frankie heads for the door, her spine rigid. Tripp pushes back in his chair. He hesitates, and I know he’s waiting for me, but I can’t tear myself away from Jadick. This changes things. The orders he’s giving—they feel like a different path. If he thinks Levi is giving us up, he’ll abandon him in a heartbeat. Even the Jades won’t be loyal to a narc.

  I stare at Jadick, panic rising. “You can’t do this,” I say.

  “Calm down,” Tripp begins, but I push to my feet, stepping out of his reach.

  “You can’t abandon him there,” I repeat.

  “I have to protect these people,” Jadick says.

  “You’re protecting no one but yourself,” I snarl.

  “Tripp, give us a moment,” Jadick says.

  Tripp doesn’t move.

  “Tripp, go,” I say, and then to the remaining guards, “Get out.”

  Rage ripples through me. I reach for my wolf. She won’t rise, not fully, but I’ll take whatever strength she can offer me now.

  If Jadick means to kill Levi, I’ll kill him.

  Right here, right now.

  “Do as she asks,” Jadick says, and I realize the guards never moved on my order.

  Assholes, all of them.

  One by one, everyone else files out. Even Tripp, though he doesn’t look happy about it.

  Alone together, I stare at Jadick, my skin practically vibrating with the rage coursing through me now.

  “I’m sorry for what Vale tried to do to you.”

  “And for what he did to Lauren, right?”

  “Of course. If Grey hadn’t ended him, I would have done it myself just like I did with the first one.”

  “The first one?”

  His gaze flicks to the stab wound on my thigh. “I told you he would be dealt with, and now he has been.”

  I stare at him, not bothering to offer a response. He’s just admitted to killing a man for what? My honor? What do I say to that?

  “I’m not your enemy,” he adds.

  “True. You can’t be my enemy if you’re dead.”

  “Mac.”

  “Levi didn’t do this.”

  “She pulled his tooth.”

  “He’s stronger than that.”

  “Have you ever been tortured?”

  I’m tortured now.

  “Have you?” I shoot back.

  And then I realize what he’s really saying. He fully believes Levi talked under duress because that’s exactly what Jadick would do.

  “You think he’s weak because you are,” I realize. “If you were the one being tortured, you would have talked—and it wouldn’t have taken a pulled tooth, either.”

  His expression hardens. “You have no idea what it’s like to lead people,” he says. “To hold their lives in your hands. To have them look to you for survival. I have to do what’s best for them.”

  “You do what’s best for you, Jadick. And no one else.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “Then prove it. Challenge her. Right now. End this.”

  “It’s not that simple.”

  “It is that simple. You’re just a coward.”

  His strike is so swift and unexpected I don’t have a chance to block it. My cheek explodes in pain as the back of his palm collides with my face.

  “My mother said the same thing, and look where that got her.” His voice is cold as ice, but there’s no lie in it either. And that startles me almost as much as the slap.

  I drag my gaze back to his and force a smile, gritting my teeth against the pulsing of my own heartbeat inside my cheekbone. “Your brother hit much harder.”

  He bares his teeth at me in a predatory snarl. “My sister is determined to kill us all, and yet you worry for one pathetic life lost.”

  My pride wants me to hit him back but that would be useless. In fact, it would only serve to kill Levi faster. I know that as well as I know the heartless look he wears now.

  “Please,” I whisper instead, my eyes searching his for some small shred of decency. “You are the only one who can stop this. You’re the one she wants.”

  “You’re wrong, Mac. You’ve always been wrong about her. She won’t let him go if I take his place—she’ll kill him just to spite us both.”

  “She won’t need to kill him if she has you,” I nearly scream.

  “Need has nothing to do with it, you stupid girl.” He steps closer. “If you think Kari still possesses a shred of mercy, you are more naïve than I thought.”

  “She left me alive,” I say, refusing to give in. Or give up.

  Even though it’s getting harder not to agree with him.

  “My sister left you alive because she thinks it will make me weaker to have you in my ear, begging for his life.”

  “Caring for a person doesn’t make you weak—”

  “Doesn’t it?” He cocks his head, his warm breath washing over my face. “Where are all the people you care for, Mac? Are they here with you now? Are they safe?”

  “You’re a monster,” I whisper, nearly choking on the words. On the reality that he won’t budge an inch on this. He’ll let Kari slaughter us all if it means he lives another day. We’re not his people—we’re his shields. And he doesn’t care; I can see it written all over his pretty face.

  “I’m not nearly as bad as she is,” he says, and my hands ball into tight fists.

  I feel the skin break against my palm where my nails have dug too deep, but I don’t care. There’s no other way. He knows it. In fact, he made sure of it.

  “Fine,” I say, all the breath escaping me with that one word. My chest deflates, and my shoulders sag. My self-respect evaporates into the air like nothing but fine smoke. “I’ll do it.”

  His eyes light with victory. “You’ll do what?”

  “You know what,” I say through gritted teeth.

  “A deal such as ours deserves your honor, Mac. I need to hear you say it.”

  “I’ll marry you,” I say, shoving the words out of my mouth like garbage down a chute. “And in exchange, you’ll free Levi. You’ll face Kari before the three days are up.”

  “A happy bargain,” he says, smiling.

  Smiling.

  In the face of such horrific cruelty.

  He leans in, and I realize with disgust that he means to kiss me.

  “No.” I press my hand to his chest to stop him.

  He straightens, frowning. “A proper bargain must be sealed.”

  “What the hell happened to a handshake?”

  “You have agreed to be my wife,” he says, arching a brow. “Surely, you understand the semantics of a marriage—and what’s required.”

  “We’re not married yet,” I growl.

  “How about this? When I’ve beaten Kari and freed Levi, we will stand on the steps of the alpha house and announce our engagement. And on that day, in front of our pack, you will let me kiss you.”

  I don’t answer.

  My stomach roils with the idea.

  “You will have to do much more than that once we’re married,” he adds as if that somehow makes my decision easier.

  “When you make the announcement, you’ll also rescind the rejected mate law,” I say.

  He scowls.

  “Final offer,” I say, squaring my shoulders. If I can’t have my mate, I’ll make sure everyone else can at least have theirs. “Rescind the law. Let everyone choose their fated mate. And I’ll marry you.”

  His hesitation becomes a slow, reluctant nod. “Fine. If that’s what you want.”

  “It is.”

  He extends his hand. I take it, and we shake. His eyes glitter as he says, “We have a deal.”

  His grin is broad and empty of a single shred of decency. He’s gloating, and it doesn’t matter to him at all that he’s doing it at the expense of Levi’s survival. I want to kill him so badly I can’t see straight.

  But I love Levi more than I hate Jadick.

  And that’s the only reason I say, “Our bargain is sealed. You’ll have your kiss like you said.”

  CHAPTER 11

  By the time I leave Jadick’s offices, I don’t know the plan, exactly, but I believe him when he says we’ll leave soon for Blackstone. For some reason, he wants me. And he’ll do anything—even risk himself—to get me. It doesn’t make sense, but I don’t waste time trying to understand the mind of a psycho. What matters is that we’re ready when the time comes.