Laurie London - Seduced by Blood

The students murmured their agreement.

“Let’s hope we hear good news soon.”

After everyone gathered their things and exited the classroom, she tucked her laptop under her arm and left, as well. She considered heading back and getting lost in a book for the rest of the day, but the thought of sitting by herself wasn’t very appealing. Normally, she enjoyed being by herself, but with everything that had happened, she found herself dreading being alone.

Seeing Mackenzie’s husband laid out on the stretcher reminded her of the night when Ian was killed. Only Ian wasn’t brought in on a gurney, but in a plastic bag. She only hoped that Mackenzie wouldn’t experience what she had all those years ago, when the man she once loved had died.

No, she definitely didn’t want to be alone in her room in a strange place. It brought up too many terrible memories she’d just as soon forget.

She planned to head back to drop off her things and change, then go find the sanctuary Brenna had told her about. She’d light some candles and say a few prayers for the injured. She was deep in thought when she realized she was in a part of the labyrinth of offices she hadn’t been before. Nothing looked familiar. And then she heard the soft sounds of a woman crying.

She peered around the corner into a small waiting area and realized she must be in the medical clinic part of the offices.

There in the corner on a sofa sat Mackenzie. Her son was wrapped in a blanket on her lap, his thumb in his mouth, sleeping. It was apparent she was trying not to cry and wake him.

Roxy hesitated at first. Maybe Mackenzie wanted to be alone in her sorrow. But then she remembered the horrible emptiness she’d felt while she waited for news from the doctors. She had hoped they’d come in and tell her that the charcoaled remains weren’t Ian’s. That he’d just been injured and it was one of the other agents who’d been killed. She’d longed for someone to sit with her quietly and be her rock, but she’d had no one.

She grabbed a box of tissues from a nearby side table and set them next to Mackenzie. “Can I get you some water?”

Mackenzie looked up at her with tear-filled eyes and nodded.

Roxy wanted to wrap her arms around her and tell her that everything was going to be okay. That her husband was not only going to live but that he’d make a full recovery so the two of them would have a long life together, filled with happiness and many more babies. Instead, she returned a moment later with a bottle of water from the small refrigerator near the door.

“Want me to hold him for you?” Roxy whispered, handing her the bottle and sitting down next to her.

Mackenzie smiled gratefully and took a small sip. “That’s okay. He’d probably just wake up anyway.”

The woman drank almost the whole bottle and Roxy wondered when was the last time she’d had anything to eat. “They’re good up here, you know. The clinic.” Lily’s mom was one of the finest doctors in all of North America and if Roxy ever got hurt, she’d want to be treated by Dr. DeGraff.

“I hope to God it’s enough.”

“WE’RE COMING back.”

Even through the secure video feed into the region’s conference room, the stress on Alfonso’s face was as obvious as if it had been etched with black sharpie. Normally an expert at hiding his emotion, he was having a hard time controlling it today. Santiago had to bite his tongue to keep from ordering him to stay put. He knew the man needed the time away, but Dom was Alfonso’s brother. The two had been estranged for years and just recently had been able to put the past behind them.

“They’re doing all they can to save him. There’s not much you can do at this point except pray.”

“Not much we can do?” Alfonso looked as though he might lunge through the monitor and strangle him. “We can be there for my sister-in-law and nephew.”

“How’s Mackenzie doing?” Lily asked, her hand on Alfonso’s arm. “I’ve been trying to call her but it keeps going straight to voice mail.”

Her pained expression was a stark contrast to the bright colored headband she wore, which she’d probably picked up in one of the Hill Country’s local markets. Santiago could hear Spanish guitar music floating in through the open window behind them.

“She’s pretty shaken up,” he replied. “But Roxanne has been staying with her. Hasn’t left her side.”

That morning, he’d walked past the clinic waiting room and had seen Mackenzie crying into her shoulder while Roxanne rubbed her back. Why did everyone else seem to find her presence so calming when she had just the opposite effect on him? She drove him crazy with her incense and candles, and for some reason, he became acutely aware of his faults, his every imperfection when she was around. It made it hard for him to think clearly.

Alfonso scrubbed a hand over his face. “From what you’ve said, I can’t help thinking there’s a traitor in the Seattle field office.”

“Impossible.” Jackson put his boots on the conference room table and leaned back in his chair. He’d been quiet up till now. “I know everybody there. We’re a tight-knit group. None of the Guardians would do something like this.”

“I agree,” Lily said.

“Was there anyone on the outside who knew about the bust?” Santiago asked. “Any support staff? Warehouse worker?”

Jackson scowled, thinking. “Not that I know of. Just the Guardians who were there. Could it have been a setup? You got the intel from a DB up here, right?”

Santiago nodded, remembering the guy with the Guardian blade. “I’ve thought about that already, but we had to torture him for the information. He wasn’t forthcoming.”

“Then it’s got to be a traitor,” Alfonso said. “Having been a double agent for years, I know how these things work. You build up trust and loyalty with your peers and when they think you’re one of them, you can get lots of information.”

“I don’t know, love,” Lily said. “I have to agree with Jackson. I can’t imagine anyone in the Seattle office who would be capable of that.”

Alfonso shook his head. “Would you think I was capable of such deception when I worked inside the Alliance?”

The silence in the conference room was heavy. No one could picture how Alfonso had lasted all those years inside without his cover being blown.

“How else do you explain it?” he continued. “Darkbloods knew that Dom and his team would show up. Sounds like an inside job to me.”

A traitor under his command? Santiago pounded his fist on the table, making the video monitor jump. “Then I’m going down there and talking to every goddamn person in that office. And when I find out who it is, I’m going to stake the bastard myself.”

“It could be a woman,” Lily said.

“Then I’ll stake the bitch.”

“Or a human,” Alfonso said. “I ran across several who worked for the Alliance who’d have done anything to be changed. Evil sycophants. That’s what my friend N—” He coughed, looking uncomfortable for a moment. Santiago knew the Agency had others working on the inside, doing just what Alfonso had done for decades. “That’s what I called them. They could be more cutthroat and brutal than Darkbloods themselves.”

Santiago gripped the edge of the table so hard that a piece of it broke off. He hurled it against the wall and heard the sound of glass breaking. “Then I’ll rip his…or her throat out.”

“An equal opportunity killing,” Jackson mumbled from across the table.

Alfonso leaned in close to the monitor. “If the person truly is a good enough liar to have fooled everyone, what makes you think you’ll be able to root him or her out? They’ll spook. They’ll see you coming a mile away and either take off or have their guard locked up so tight you’ll think they’re as trustworthy as your father.”