Page 33 of Atlas and the Traitor

“I got a name too,” Atlas said. “Cyrus.” He held a slip of paper out to Icarus. “Contact info for my excavator. Compare notes.”

Icarus opened his laptop, fingers flying, while Mac picked up the interrogation. “Did you find anything there?”

Atlas looked to be heading to the spot beside Robin until Mac’s question had him abruptly changing direction. “Nope,” he answered, strolling way from Robin. Too casual not to be suspect.

“How’d you know it was his place?” Mac asked.

“They said so.”

His answers had become clipped; there was something he didn’t want the larger group to know. Robin stepped in before Adam or Mac could press. “It was a setup. Three of Dyami’s men jumped him. Took him.”

“Took him?” Jenn said. “How’d they manage that?”

“It’s possible,” Robin said with a sly grin aimed Atlas’s direction.

It wasn’t enough to lure the warlock back to his side, Atlas posting up across the room from him, back and boot propped against the wall. “I let them. I wanted to get more information.”

Probably why he’d stayed out of reach, knowing his motive would piss Robin off. A growl rumbled up from his chest and into his words. “When I intercepted the van, they assumed I was after the bounty on his head.”

“Did you know?” Atlas asked him, and Robin nodded. It was a modest contract, not outrageous enough to attract a flood of takers, but high enough to weed out first-timers. Attractive to hunters like Robin, like Cyrus. “Why didn’t you take me in? Claim it for yourself?”

“Did you miss that whole key-to-it-all conversation yesterday?”

“That’s not?—”

Robin cut him off with another truth. “It has never been my intention to give you up.”

“Just end me yourself.”

That was one solution. But first... “After I end your brother.”

“Is there a plan in this bickering somewhere?” Mary interrupted.

“We’re going to play to Robin’s strengths,” Atlas said. “To his reputation as a bounty hunter. I can’t be the only one Evan has a bounty out on.”

“You’re not,” Robin confirmed.

“And those bounties have other interested parties?”

Robin nodded again.

“Good.” He pushed off the wall, roving again. “You’re going to steal those bounties out from under him. Get his attention. Then catch me.”

“But Evan’s seen you two working together,” Mac said.

Atlas beat him to the reply, and the vehemence in it surprised Robin, did more funny things to his insides. “Evan’s also seen him shunned by all of you, and he’s seen us fighting each other. He also knows me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Icarus said.

“He knows what’s at stake if Robin catches me.”

“To Mac’s point,” Abigail said, “doesn’t he think Robin caught you already?”

“I didn’t take him in and claim the bounty,” Robin said, then with a flit of his hand added, “He escaped.”

“Not the first time.” Atlas landed against the wall next to him with an irritating wink. “Evan will need to see me out in the open. Or at least get reports of it. He also needs to believe the ties here are severed. They’re frayed already, so that shouldn’t be a stretch.”

Seething, Jenn shot off the wall on Robin’s other side, and Robin had to throw out an arm to hold her back from murdering his mate. “We don’t cut people off like you do.”

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