Chapter 37
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Aisling
Aisling had gone to bed early and had just fallen asleep when her cellphone rang.
Her new one that the Targhee Pack had issued her, which she mostly used for work, so she knew it wasn’t likely to be her mam or other family.
Without opening her eyes, Aisling reached out and flailed her hand in the general direction of the nightstand until she found the offending device and dragged it to her ear.
“Walsh anseo.”
The caller was a man. “Uh, hello? I’m sorry, what?”
She growled in exhausted frustration. “Walsh here. What?”
“Oh, hi. It’s Ken. Ken Ethelbert? Dewi’s husband? I need to talk to you.”
Her eyes snapped open at his grim tone. Of course she knew who he was, now that her brain was processing. “Are Tamsin and Maisie all right?”
“What? Yeah, why?”
Her pulse had leapt off a cliff and now started to slow a little. “Sorry. I was asleep.” She sat up, scrubbing her face with her free hand. “What is it?”
“Can you talk privately?”
“I’m alone, yes.”
“I need to catch you up. And it’s Pack Alpha business—this is for your ears only, for now. Not even for Carl and Mateo to know yet.”
“Right,” she said. “Get on, then.”
As he quickly detailed the latest events, Aisling closed her eyes and fought the urge to punch something—anything.
Once Ken finished, Aisling needed a beat to process it. “What’re my orders then?”
“Nothing, so far. But part of my orders are to make sure you’re updated.”
“When’s the vote happenin’?”
“In a couple of hours, once the Enforcers arrive. After that’s settled, then the rest of the Enforcers will be notified. We want to keep this info close, for now. Just the Enforcers. At least for a day.”
“Because if Peyton turns up right quick that’ll throw a spanner in it all.”
“Exactly.” He hesitated. “I guess Peyton and you have had some… privileged conversations?”
She knew she needed to tread lightly. “Ye might say that. Why?”
“Because I don’t know what, exactly, your instructions are. I only know that you have instructions, and that I have to pass information to you at certain points so you have what you need to make decisions or carry out those orders.”
“Again, ye might say that. But that’s all I’m gonna say about it.”
“I get it.” Another pause. “I’m supposed to closely keep you in the loop but not tell anyone else about that, either. For now. And I’m not to question you because it’s information I’m not supposed to know at this time.”
“Yep.” She rubbed her forehead, now thankful she hadn’t revealed her secret to Tamsin yet.
Being newly mated would add another layer of complications to an already prickly situation.
Which just got even pricklier.
She might not want to follow her orders, but she would follow them. She’d given her word, let Peyton Prime her, and understood the greater ramifications.
“Also,” Ken continued, “once a new Pack Alpha is appointed, I’m to let them know about you and your…instructions. Not what they are, just that you have them. I guess then you need to have a conversation with them after that?”
“Yer on the right track.” She closed her eyes, rubbing at her forehead. “No idea if he’s alive or not, eh?”
“No. We’re hopeful that since he’s a Prime he might free himself and make it someplace safe to contact someone.”
Aisling wondered why Peyton wouldn’t have done that before now if he truly was able to free himself, but she also knew that line of thinking wasn’t helpful.
At all.
“Tamsin’s all right, then?”
“She and the baby are fine. She doesn’t know yet.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t tell her. Not until ye have to. She’ll understand the need for secrecy once ye do.”
There wasn’t much more to the call. When it ended, she sat on the edge of the bed, staring at her phone for a long moment before thumbing in a contact and waiting for that call to connect.
Trevor answered almost immediately. “Aisling?”
“Yeah. Just talked to Ken and he updated me.” She rubbed her face again with her free hand. “Orders?”
“Nothing yet that I can give you. Everything is in…flux.”
On the one hand, she wanted to tell him what she knew about her personal developments.
On the other, now…
Well, depending on how everything went, perhaps revealing to Tamsin that Aisling knew they were mates would be moot.
Because Aisling knew she might not be there anymore, depending on how things shook out.
One way, or another.
The poor girl had already suffered enough in her life. Aisling didn’t want to put her through more agony should things go tits-up.
“Do I need to catch a flight back then?” she asked.
“Not yet. You’re in Florida, yes?”
“Yes.”
“Stay there, for now. Continue on as you are. Either I or Peyton’s designated agent will update you when or if the time comes.”
“No sign of him, eh?”
She didn’t need to be in the same room as Trevor to recognize his weighty sigh.
“Not as of yet, no. I just got off the phone with one of my military contacts. This is unconfirmed, and I haven’t told Trent or the others yet, so please keep it close.
I believe Peyton might have been transported into Russia. ”
“Oh, bloody feckin’ hell,” she whispered, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Now, we don’t know for sure,” Trevor cautioned. “But there were strange intermittent signatures, like a helicopter trying to avoid radar, around the same time. The trajectory took them in that direction.”
“They’re already carvin’ him up in some lab, ain’t they?”
“We know no such thing, Aisling. You know the contingencies he laid out. It has not been two weeks yet—not even close. This bears the stench of a private operation, not an official military action. Meaning they would want to keep it a secret from Russian officials, too.”
She kept her eyes closed and pictured Tamsin’s sweet face, how she smiled over baby Maisie.
And how that happiness would likely never be her own to share.
Not now.
“So I just sit here wi’ my thumb up my arse?”
“For now, you wait for your orders. If the situation doesn’t change in two weeks, then you know what you have to do.”
“Yeah.” She ended the call and dropped her phone onto the bed, falling back on it to stare up at the ceiling.
Yer a feckin’ cruel one, Goddess. To put heaven so close to my grasp an’ then whisk it away like this. This is my penance for Maisie and Rupert gettin’ killed, and not catching that cunt yet, innit?
She never should have even entertained the possibility that she might one day have something passing for a “normal” life.
Luck like that never settled over her.
Ever.
And it damn sure looked like it never would now.