Page 90 of Guarded
“I’m well aware,” I muttered.
“He insisted he’d be back this morning.” Micah smiled sadly. “I don’t think he meant to stand you up, Jeremiah.”
No. I didn’t think that either. After what I’d just heard though, I didn’t care that he had. I just wanted to know that Noah was safe and happy.
Ideally, with a few hundred miles between him and his ex.
“I told him if he wasn’t back by seven o’clock tonight that Nox and I would be fetching him.” Micah glanced at his watch. “We’ve got a few hours yet, but I suspect you don’t want to wait that long.”
“You’re right.” I got to my feet. “I don’t want to wait.”
“I understand,” Micah said. “I’d do the same in your shoes.”
Someone in a different room called Micah’s name, and he stood up with a sigh. “You two okay wrapping this up?”
“So long as Nox can tell me how to find Noah, we’re fine.”
Nox nodded to confirm he could before watching his mate leave with a genial smile on his face. The secondMicah closed the door behind him, it dropped away. The murderously cold mask he now wore was one I was very familiar with. He’d worn it every day downstairs.
We all had. It was the only way we’d survived.
“Don’t underestimate Lyle,” he said abruptly. “I don’t give a shit how he’s been compromised. He’s in this situation because of his own mistakes. Mistakes made through his greed for power and control. If it weren’t for the pain it’d rain down on the Seraphim, I would’ve executed the cunt way before now.”
My blood ran cold. “Tell me everything you know about him.”
Fire melted the ice in my veins as Nox spoke. As he told me how Lyle had attacked him and Micah. How he’d tried to drag them up to Heaven to be punished.
How he’d almost lost control and ended them all.
I’d heard this story before, a few days after it happened, but I needed to hear it again. I wanted every damned detail.
“Tell me again, why didn’t you execute him?”
Nox exhaled roughly. “We couldn’t. Heaven’s politics are even more convoluted than Hell’s, if you can believe it. The Seraphim are in a tenuous position thanks to that bitch Gloria. Right now, they’re just trying to fly under the radar and not attract attention.”
My mind flashed back to the day I’d met Noah. To the arch who’d been threatening the human mate of Ezekiel. Bitch seemed like an apt term. “They can’t do that forever.”
“They don’t need to. Just long enough to gather the evidence they need to take her down.”
Enough. I’d heard enough. The big picture was too much to comprehend while there was a much smaller, much more important one I needed to focus on.
One that involved me being back at Noah’s side as soon as possible. “Where can I find him?”
Nox gave me the coordinates to a location in southern Italy. “I’ll get someone here to notify Juniper. I’ll have them meet you at the edge of the compound to lift the wards and take you straight to Noah.”
“Thanks, Nox.” We both got to our feet and I held my hand out to him. “I owe you one.”
He shook my hand and gave me a grim smile. “You can pay me back by getting your mate as far away from that fucker as possible.”
Chapter 23
Noah
The vampires were late.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Lyle seemed to sense that I was leaving soon. He appeared to want to inflict as much pain and humiliation before then as possible. Every word that left his mouth was a taunt. Every time he moved it was to attack. There was no doubt about it—Lyle was determined to make this as difficult as he could.
Which included smashing my phone.
