Page 108 of Golden Eagle

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They ate, and drank just enough to fortify their rattled nerves. It was four o’clock by then, the shadows already getting long, the chill of the air beginning to turn outright cold as night approached.

“We need to organize, first,” Nikita told Will, who nodded in understanding. They all agreed to meet at seven. Nikita and Sasha called in sick to work. Lanny turned off his phone. Trina called Jamie: pack meeting, right now.

They went to Nikita and Sasha’s place.

Lanny took a deep breath when they crossed the threshold, coughed, and waggled his brows at Nikita.

Nik promptly went over and pulled a bedroom door shut. Firmly.

Sasha blushed.

Lanny laughed. “Look at you,” he said to Nikita. “You’re like a blushing virgin.”

He wasn’t looking, so he couldn’t have seen, but Trina noticed that Sasha’s blush deepened; he ducked his head so his hair covered his face.Oh, Sasha, she thought tenderly, and the moment she thought,I hope Nik’s good to you, she knew, without question that he had been. That he was; that he would be.

“Stop,” Nikita said, with a ringing sort of authority he rarely used. His Chekist voice, she figured, and it worked.

Lanny shrugged and dropped down into a tattered old recliner. “So what are we gonna do about these Sherwood Forest motherfuckers?”

Nikita went into the kitchen and returned a moment later with a glass of chilled vodka. He sipped at it. When he lifted it in offering toward Trina, she said, “Just water.”

He went back for it, calling over his shoulder: “Use them, if we can.”

Trina sank down in the other chair, and wished she’d asked for vodka after all. “I know I don’t have all the vampire, werewolf ‘magical senses.’” She made air quotes with her fingers, and Sasha looked like he smothered a grin over on the couch. Nikita frowned as he handed her a glass of water. “So I can’t get the same kind of read on Will as the rest of you. Though I think we’ve pretty firmly established that none of you have an ounce of trust in him.”

“Don’t sell yourself short,” Nikita said dryly, settling on the couch next to Sasha. “That was pretty perceptive.”

“Shut up. I’m just saying, even with my lame human senses – detective senses, I might add.” Sasha was definitely smiling, now. “That I don’t get bad vibes off the guy.”

“You just think his hair’s pretty,” Lanny said.

“You,definitelyshut up. No, I’m serious. Their guys that I met in Virginia were vets, and they were really professional.”

“They give you good vibes, too?”

“They did.” She stretched out a leg and kicked Lanny lightly in the knee; he grinned. “But, guys. This isRobin Hoodwe’re dealing with. I mean…I’ve been trying really hard to just swallow all the crazy in our lives down. Rasputin, and Dracula, and, hell, you guys.” She gestured to Nik and Sasha. “Some days, I remind myself that my great-grandfather is alive, and looks younger than me, and it makes my head spin.”

“Babe,” Lanny said, growing serious, concerned.

“No, it’s okay. I can handle it. I just.” She took a deep breath, and then a sip of water. To Nikita: “I know you don’t trust anyone, and I get that.” His mouth twitched, and she said, “I walked through an entire year in your head, Nik. Iget it.”

He sank back into the couch cushions, notch between his brows. Sasha scooted over closer to him, so they were touching, and put a hand on his knee. A silent support.

“I don’t blame you one bit. I’ve seen my share of shit, too, in this job, in this city. Trusting the wrong people can get you killed.

“Obviously, there are some really terrifying immortals out there. Dangerous, violent ones. Whoever this Gustav is – and I’m about ready to meet the bastard after all this – I have to assume he fits that bill. But we had lunch withWill ScarletandMuch the Miller’s Son. If ever there was a good guy in all of history, it was Robin Hood. And these are his boys. These are storybook characters in the flesh. I say we let them help. Not just use them, not just keep our backs up and act like shits. No offense, Gramps.”

Nikita made a face, and Sasha turned his head and pressed a laugh into his shoulder. The easy sweetness of the gesture, the trust it showed, put a lump in her throat. Shehadwalked through a year of his life; a hard year. A war year. An awful year. She’d felt her breath hitch and her palms tingle as if she were him. Had looked at Sasha through his eyes, with terrible longing, and fondness, and love. He’d loved Katya, too. She’d felt it. But this, the two of them, was a kind of love that left her aching with vicarious tenderness.

“Nik,” she said, softer. “I think they have a point about you binding Sasha.”

Sasha stilled.

Nik tensed up terribly.

“Nik,” she said again. “I love you both.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes burned. “And I know you love each other.”

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