Page 46 of Elven Crown

“Exactly.” Maxwell nodded. “If we don’t move on this, whatever Eduardo’s trying to sell off or move himself might be gone before we get another chance.”

“Where are they headed?”

“Port of Chicago shipping docks.”

Something about the concern still churning behind her eyes made her stop before the next most important question occurred to her. Rebecca knew she shouldn’t have cared so much about what her Head of Security thought, but she couldn’t help the suspicion that all this concern on Maxwell’s part stemmed from him not knowing how she’d respond.

She didn’t intend to turn it into a joke, but she couldn’t contain the wry amusement flickering across her features when she fixed him with a playful frown. “You’re not expecting me to wanna get my hands on all Eduardo’s weapons, are you?”

Maxwell lifted his chin, looking like he couldn’t decide between laughing or snarling at her question. “Not explicitly. But I do expect you to care about keeping the wrong weapons out of the wrong hands.”

“Well, on that, we can agree.”

“Oh, she’s gotthatcovered, friend,” Rowan called from inside the secondary armory and chuckled without looking up from the pieces of disassembled magitek weapon in front of him. “Trust me.”

Maxwell turned toward the open door, scowling in Rowan’s direction until he seemed convinced the elf man was finished. “Someone needs to teach him the meaning of a private conversation.”

“We can put that on the to-do list forafterwe take care of the biggest problems first,” Rebecca said.

That made the shifter look at her again with a mixture of surprise and approval before he nodded.

At least, she hoped that was approval. Otherwise, continuing to get along with her Head of Security would be that much more difficult when she couldn’t get an accurate read on him. Something told her this was as close as she was going to get.

“All right,” she said. “Let’s move on this. We’ll intercept the convoy and be another major headache for Eduardo tonight. And this time, we’ll do it right.”

When Maxwell pursed his lips and nodded, she could have sworn that was the beginning of a real smile.

“I want you to put together a team for this,” she told him. “Whoever you think is best for an ambush at the docks. I’ll leave that up to your discretion.”

“I’m on it.”

She was about to ask how much time he thought they could spare to prepare for an operation like this last-minute, but she didn’t get the chance.

Rowan appeared at her side, seemingly out of nowhere and grinning like a maniac as he leaned toward her and wiggled his eyebrows. “Trouble in paradise?”

Maxwell’s warning snarl felt like an especially appropriate response. Rebecca would have liked to do the same.

Instead, she stepped away from Rowan so he couldn’t keep hovering over her shoulder, then gestured at Maxwell to hold off for a moment longer while she spoke to the Blackmoon Elf. “We’ve got business to handle. Nothing for you to worry about. We’ll take care of it.”

“Oh, I’m sure you will.” Rowan folded his arms and chuckled. “Does this emergency have anything to do with the prison, by any chance?”

Maxwell’s snarl dropped into an ominous growl as he stepped forward, his silver eyes flashing at the elf man. “No one invited you to this conversation.”

“Then how am I supposed to be a part of it?” Laughing, Rowan shot the shifter a mocking wink.

Another low growl rose from Maxwell’s throat, this one deeper and louder.

The growing tension between them just kept dragging Rebecca down right along with it, but she couldn’t move on from what Rowan had just said.

He’d asked about the prison as if he already knew everything about her and Maxwell’s little adventure on Harkennr’s property. Why would he do that?

No acceptable reasons came to mind—unless the worst, most devastating possibility were true and she’d been blind to it this whole time.

Unless Rowan had aligned himself, or at the very least was currently in contact with—Kordus Harkennr andthatconnection was how Rowan had found her here.

And if Rowan had found her through Harkennr, that meant the psychotic bastard already knew exactly who she was and where she was hiding.

He would already know that Rebecca Bloodshadow had taken command of Shade as Aldous’s replacement.

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