Page 149 of Elven Crown

Judging by Maxwell’s brooding silence and clenched jaw as they approached the armory, however, Rebecca’s lack of patience seemed to have produced the desired effect.

At least he wasn’t trying to argue with her about why Rowan Blackmoon should be ordered to stay at the compound.

That probably had more to do with the tension tonight and their impending rescue op, but she couldn’t help the feeling thatwhatever closeness she and Maxwell had developed over the last few days—whatever amount of trust they’d fostered, however reluctantly—was petering out now under that tension.

That was something she could address later. Right now, the urgency of their current situation left little room for personal feelings. Or even preferences.

Before she reached the armory where the rescue team had almost fully gathered with all their gear and weapons systems ready, Rebecca was also acutely aware that Maxwell’s footsteps in his usual bodyguard position, behind her and three feet to the right, were missing.

He’d accepted her orders, but he didn’t like them. So now he was pouting about it.

Wonderful. She’d just pissed off the one operative here who was as close to her equal as Rebecca was ever likely to get.

Somehow, it felt like calling both him and Rowan out on their unresolved differences might not stop either of them from trying to get at each other’s throats any chance they got. No matter what they’d told her.

If that were true, this wasn’t just a rescue op with three Shade members’ lives on the line but possibly ten instead—the prisonersandtheir recovery team. Assuming the Blackmoon Elf and the shifter didn’t break any standing records for collateral damage.

And it was Rebecca’s job to do the impossible and pay enough attention to both the dissension between them and the success of this emergency retrieval, no matter the cost.

The problem was, she had no idea what it was going to cost any of them.

39

Rebecca’s heart pounded in her chest, her insides squirming with a mix of apprehension and rage at the fact that anyone would dare capture her operatives and try to use them against her.

The team’s transport van came to a rolling stop in the gravel lot, which was as far as this rescue team could go in their vehicle. The entire area had been cordoned off with a ten-foot chain-link fence, which stretched into the distance on either side of the lot until disappearing into the thickly wooded area surrounding the site.

Centered on that fence, a large red sign glinted in the van’s headlights: ‘No Trespassing. Violators Will Be Prosecuted.’

This had to be it.

“Everybody out,” Maxwell ordered as he cut the engine. “We’ll go in on foot.”

The van’s rear door slid open, and the assembled rescue team filtered out, every expression set in grim determination to get the job done.

Shell cleared her throat as she studied the gravel lot, the beads threaded through her dark-purple hair surprisingly silent for how many of them she’d put in there. “Are we sure this is the right place?”

“Whit?” Maxwell asked the warlock from his specified security team.

Whit glanced at the device in his hand, a bulky, outdated thing that let out an occasional beep as it traced the signals from their kidnapped operatives’ phones. Then he nodded. “This is it, all, right. Signal’s coming from half a mile on the other side of this fence.”

“Then let’s go get them.” Maxwell approached the chain-link fence while the rest of the team finished pulling their gear and weapons from the rear of the van. His movement was hardly visible in the unlit gravel lot. Even if there had been better visibility, the shifter still moved too quickly for the naked eye to follow.

He swiped at the fence, his arm moving in a blur, and the air filled with the shriek of tearing metal a second before the entire fence wobbled with a metallic jingle. Then Maxwell stepped back and motioned for the team to enter through the hole he’d just ripped through the chain-link fence with his bare hands.

So hecouldpull out his wolf’s sharpened claws at whim without a full shift. Rebecca had only suspected as much until now.

Armed with a small but powerful magitek pistol, she fell in line with the rest of the team to head onto the private property toward their captured operatives.

Rowan climbed through the hole in the fence behind her, smirking the whole time, then whispered, “Did anyone thinkof finding the owner of this place and asking nicely for a look around?”

Rebecca shot him a quick frown and said flatly, “What a great idea. Seeing as we’ve gotplentyof time for that.”

“Someone’sin a mood…”

At first, while they moved silently across the property, with Whit and his tracking device leading the way and Maxwell bringing up the rear, Rebecca wondered if they’d come upon their captured operatives held in the middle of a forest. That would make visibility that much more difficult, not to mention getting a visual on the enemy holding Shade’s members captive.

The gravel path on this side of the fence had narrowed significantly after only a few yards, then petered out into the last remnants of what might have once been a road. Now, though, it had given way to overgrown weeds and thick underbrush with no sign of the road or even a footpath.

---