Page 304 of Shadowblood Souls
Celine laughs and brushes her hand over her shoulder with a swish of her black and red-flecked ponytail. “No one even came. We just sat there the whole time.”
One of the boys shoots a grin at me. “You two must have done a good job. Made it easy for the rest of us.”
Celine laughs a little louder, and I find myself thinking of her missions before, hunting us down.
I don’t know whether she was ever close to the actual fighting. Maybe I’m assuming she must be bothered about it underneath when those were easy for her too.
“It’s always good to have backup,” I say, because I don’t want them to think we didn’t appreciate them being there.
If anyone else working with the slavers had shown up while we were inside, they could have thrown the whole operation off. And having the teens monitoring the road for any late arrivals after the fact allowed Jacob and me our break, with all the unexpected enjoyment it brought.
“You shouldn’t have to take all the responsibility on your shoulders,” Clancy told us before, when we were going over the plan. “One of your greatest strengths is how well you rely on each other.”
The private jet’s seats are arranged in clusters of four along one side of the plane, two pairs facing each other with a tiny table in between. Narrow sofas and a refreshments cabinet stand along the opposite wall.
The teens have claimed one cluster for themselves. Jacob drops into a seat next to the window, across from Dominic.
I have the urge to follow him. To hold on to the new closeness we’ve formed between us.
But Dominic’s expression tugs at me more.
I sink down beside him and slip my hand around his. “Everything went okay for you too, then?”
His smile doesn’t reach his hazel eyes. “Pretty boring, but I’d rather that than needing to rush in to heal any of you.”
He hooks his arm right around mine and leans in close, and I instinctively tilt toward him. His lips brush my cheek and then veer toward my ear as if he’s making an intimate gesture.
“Pretend I’m saying nice things to you,” he murmurs, so soft I’m not sure even Zian’s sharp hearing could have picked up the words if he were in the seat across from me. “I don’t know how closely they’re monitoring us on the plane.”
I squeeze his hand in agreement and push my lips into a small smile, willing down the nervous twist of my gut.
Dominic keeps talking, low and steady but quickly as if he’s afraid he might get cut off. “Clancy didn’t come up with this mission out of the goodness of his heart. Some other gang paid him to eliminate those guys. And they’re planning on taking over the business. They were just looking to off the competition.”
With every sentence, my muscles tense more. It takes all my willpower not to clench my jaw in a horrified grimace.
So I don’t have to hold the increasingly stiff smile any longer, I turn as if to nuzzle his head in response. My voice comes out in a thin whisper. “Are you sure?”
He nods without hesitation.
I close my eyes. The images from our mission waver behind the lids—bodies crumpling, blood splashing.
They still deserved it. We stopped them from doing horrible things.
But what if someone even worse steps in to fill the void?
How could Clancy be making decisions about what wrongs to set right based on gettingpaid?
When I look up again, Jacob is watching the two of us, but without a trace of jealousy. From the furrow on his brow, he’s picked up on the fact that our PDA is a cover for a more serious conversation.
I could tell him the same way that Dominic just told me—but I’m not sure Jake could hide his reaction well enough. I’m having enough trouble myself.
If the snack packets start bouncing off the ceiling, the guardians who’ve come along to escort us home will know something’s up.
We can’t keep quiet about this for long. I’m not going on another mission without understanding what the new leader of the guardians is really up to.
But I’d rather not hash it out with his underlings while we’re thousands of feet in the air.
It’ll be better if we can confront him without him knowing that we’re on to him. Observe his unguarded response before he recovers from the surprise.
