Chapter 30
THIRTY
An assassin, two detectives, and a vampire with better than average hacking skills could make quick work of excavation.
Throw in a coyote and mountain lion working every contact they had between Talahalusi and Portola, and their team had an Atlas and Mary sighting by late morning.
They were holed up at a motel on the coast just south of YB, and pressure applied in the right place—a source Abigail had nurtured inside Vincent’s organization—yielded news of a broad daylight meet happening at Portola University later that afternoon.
That meant it was impossible for Icarus to join the extraction op they spent the rest of the morning planning.
If Adam hadn’t personally witnessed Icarus lock down his instincts at least twice, he would have been more worried about approaching the man pacing the cellar bunk room, the long maxi skirt and tunic he’d changed into after a shower swishing around him.
Icarus had come a long way from the baby vamp who’d almost killed his brother, with no one by his side, no one to fight for him other than Mary.
Well, that was over, and Adam wouldn’t let him lose her too.
He stepped behind Icarus, clasped his shoulders, and held his ground when Icarus whipped his head around and hissed.
Icarus’s face fell the next second. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“I’m not afraid,” Adam replied, likewise speaking softly, the moment a quiet one, too much teetering on the precipice. He coasted his hands down Icarus’s arms, rubbing warmth into them, before he circled his arms around the taller man’s waist, embracing him from behind. “When did you realize?”
“Realize what?”
“That you could lock down your instincts.”
“Senses, technically, which in turn dampens the instincts. And I’d realized too late. She showed me how after Canton. I kept my senses off until it was safe to leave her. It’s saved me since a million times over.” He tilted his head, back against Adam’s. “Saved you a few times too.”
“I can make a call,” he said. “Offer to trade myself for her.”
“And give Vincent exactly what he wants?” Icarus scoffed. “No, and the extraction op is good. Your team is good.”
He kissed the back of Icarus’s shoulder, bared by the wide neck of his tunic. “We pulled Paris out of the fire. We’ll rescue her too.”
“Where is Paris?”
“I don’t know.” He rested his cheek in the valley between Icarus’s shoulder blades. “Mac hid him somewhere. The less people who know, the better.”
Hands folded over Adam’s, Icarus didn’t speak for several long minutes. When he finally did, his voice was hoarse, struggling around a lump in his throat Adam could feel him fighting. “I failed her.”
“She’s still alive.” He loosened his arms enough to nudge Icarus around in them. “You were going to go to her before I returned to your apartment the other night?”
Icarus closed his eyes and nodded.
Adam would have felt more guilt if this right here, Icarus in his arms, didn’t feel like a fate none of them, including she, could escape. “Why did you continue to stay away?”
He rested his forehead on Adam’s. “She’s part of a hacker collective. I didn’t want anything to happen to those around her like what happened to Canton. I couldn’t put her in that situation again.”
“The fact you didn’t shut off your senses and still totally ignored my bleeding hands earlier tells me you wouldn’t. Also the fact you haven’t killed Robin yet.”
Icarus’s chuckle was a welcome sound. Adam leaned back to see if the smile reached his eyes. Not quite, but he was more firmly on the stable side of the precipice now. Not so close to the abyss.
Taking Icarus by the hand, Adam led him to the bed still shoved in the corner, the coziest spot that Icarus, in the short amount of time he’d been there, had made his own. “She was in trouble the last time you were in Portola?”
“Yeah, several months back,” Icarus said as he lowered himself next to Adam. “Hacked the wrong person.”
“Vincent?”
“No, a different job. Unrelated.”
But was it? “Could that be what this is now?” he speculated aloud.
“A hack gone wrong? Maybe he’d been implicated back then?
” Or more likely, given the escalation of Vincent’s efforts .
. . “Or Vincent wants her to hack someone? No connection to us.” That would be the best-case scenario.
Would be more likely to result in a fast and simple meet and a fast and clean extraction.
“That makes sense, but how does Atlas figure in? We assumed he sent that picture, but what if it was her?” Icarus traced the nearly healed cuts on Adam’s hand. “I’m sure it was him who told Vincent to send me to you. What else does he know? Does he know how we’re all connected?”
“Did he know when you were in Portola last or why?”
He shook his head. “He’d have no reason to. He wasn’t a client then, and like I said, she’s good at cleaning up my messes. I’m sure she’d try to clean this up herself if she could do so without drawing undue attention to herself or me.”
Utter devotion, the two of them walking a ridiculously high tightrope for three decades with virtually no safety nets.
Safety net. Fuck!
Adam’s stomach roiled. “That’s why you had the supply of Daylight?”
“Always kept an emergency vial on hand.”
“That you wasted on me.”
Icarus’s reply was swift, the grip on Adam’s hand almost painful. “Not a waste. No matter what happens, I do not regret that decision.”
“I’ll make sure of it.” Adam lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of Icarus’s. Then brought his lips to Icarus’s, kissing those too, making a promise. “I’ll bring her back to you.”