Page 106 of Elven Shadow

She couldn’t tell if that look was supposed to be a warning for her to get ready for whatever happened next, or if he was trying to pin the blame for something else on her. Again.

Everyone wasnotarmed and ready to defend. Rebecca wasn’t.

Unless, of course, this was supposed to be the shifter’s way of telling her he didn’t believe she was loyal to Shade.

She’d shown up rather late to the party and hadn’t gotten her chance to run through the underground armory and take her pick of automatic human weapons beside a broad selection of firearms augmented by magical technology.

That didn’t mean she wasn’t still magically armed and dangerous and couldn’t defend what she needed to defend, but still.

Maxwell was obviously singling her out as an exception. Even if it was only obvious to the two of them.

Almost as if this entire conversation had been staged, as soon as Maxwell mentioned the task force being armed and ready, the large metal cage-like door to their most dangerous weapons stores clanged shut with a reverberating jangle.

Then four Shade numbers appeared from the back of their garage, multiple weapons in hand, escorted by one of Maxwell’s security guys. When Maxwell turned around to view the last members to leave the armory, the blackhorn of his compound-bound security squad walking with them jingled a large set of keys in his hand.

Then Rebecca finally took in the full picture laid out before her.

Every single active field operative who’d sworn their allegiance to Shade was currently armed with their modified weapons of choice, all of which loaded and fully prepared to be used, because that was how they did things here.

The entire task force had been armed and ready from the moment she’d stumbled down those stares, while the rest of their compound got blasted to smithereens by who knew what was up there.

How did that even make sense?

Unless, of course, Maxwell Hannigan had been planning his own takeover from the beginning.

Unless Shade’s Head of Security had allowed Leonard and Diego’s secret meetings to go unchecked, without stepping in to intervene, because it onlymeant the shifter’s plans to take Shade into his own hands would go entirely unnoticed until the last second.

And, because Rebecca had refused to stay out of it, Maxwell’s plans had now gone entirely unchallenged.

Because of her, there was no one to stand up to the shifter now, and there was no telling how far he would go to get whathewanted out of this.

Even worse, if Maxwell Hannigan took charge of Shade tonight, his first order of business would be to evolve from eliminating enemies to eliminating anyone he saw as a potential threat, too.

No one was safe, least of all Rebecca.

The frigid certainty in her chest only solidified, and she’d never been more sure of one thing: the shifter viewed her as enemy number one, and this wouldn’t end until one of them was gone.

26

Rebecca’s gaze flicked toward the pile of severed homunculus remains beside the staircase, her stomach twisting. She’d nearly been taken out by a mess of limbs, but this wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

No way in hell could Maxwell Hannigan or anyone on his security team have created such a monstrosity likethatone, let alonefive.

Even if Maxwell possessed the level of sheer stupidity required to create creatures like that, he still didn’t have the right kind of magic. That was completely beyond a shifter’s abilities, and he didn’t have any Necromancers on his team.

Maybe Maxwell wasn’t responsible for the attack on the compound still currently underway above them. But he sure as hell was taking advantage of the chaos, anyway.

Was thishiscoup after all?

Part of Rebecca wanted to throw in her losses and cut out of this garage right now, before the tension in the air thickened any more. Before Maxwell decided to make his move and the shit really hit the fan.

He’d made it no secret he didn’t trust her and didn’t want her around. If he’d somehow dug up any secrets of her past in the last few days, she couldn’t stick around long enough to hear his accusations, though he would’ve needed help finding those secrets in the first place.

She’d hidden them too well.

Still, if he had something else in store for her, if Rebecca had somehow missed the most crucial parts of this little takeover all because she’d thought she was beingsmartby locking herself up in her room…

Gods, when did pretending to be someone else get so damn complicated?

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