Page 4 of Forgotten Promise

“Okay, Franco. We’re going to go over it again,” Lachlan said.

Rose sat as Lachlan methodically walked Franco through the attack again and again. Each time, he asked slightly different questions, refining what they knew.

It was bad.

At least five men had attacked. Two men had taken down Devon, one shooting him in the chest, the other putting pressure on the wound once he was down. Another two had taken Juliette, one grabbing her, the other wielding the syringe. There must have been a fifth person, probably a lookout, who hit Franco. The man who’d had the syringe carried a duffel bag, and possibly had some medical training, because from what Franco remembered, it seemed like they’d done some initial triage on Devon before loading him up and taking him away.

Lachlan finally rose, and Price stepped in, holding out a bag of ice to Franco.

Franco stared at it. “What’s this for?”

Colum took it and held it to Franco’s head.

“Ow.”

Lachlan tipped his head to the far corner of the suite’s living room. Rose joined him at the window, Sebastian and Price only a step behind her.

“It wasn’t an assassination,” Lachlan said. “They would have left the bodies.”

“If Devon was shot in the chest…” Price shook his head.

“Immediate field triage increases his chances dramatically.”

Rose had to turn away and look out the window.

The cornerstone of the society was arranged marriages, and occasionally, there were childhood betrothals. That’s what had happened with Rose, Devon, and Juliette. She’d grown up knowing that they would one day be her spouses.

That had unraveled when Juliette unexpectedly became the Grand Master and broke the betrothal. If things had gone the way Rose’s parents had wanted, Rose would currently be married to Devon and Juliette. She’d be their third, not Franco.

Rose’s family had been a collection of bigoted assholes who referred to themselves as purists, and because of them, she’d never let herself get too close to Devon or Juliette, even back when they were betrothed. Still, she’d cared for both of them, as much as she’d allowed herself to. The idea of them dead…

“Ransom?” Sebastian asked. “Should we be expecting a call?”

“Unclear,” Lachlan said, “but we’ll take measures. We have some good K&R people amongst the Warrior Scholars. However, I think we should assume this is an attack on the society itself.”

Sebastian and Price both looked at her.

Rose raised a brow. “It’s not me.”

Yes, in the past she might have tried to burn down and blow up the society, but nowadays, she was married and boring and in therapy.

“If you’ve been hiding information and protecting more purists—” Sebastian started.

Rose bared her teeth in a maybe-smile. “I haven’t. I’m loyal and Juliette trusts me.”

“Last time we were attacked it was you,” Sebastian doggedly went on.

“And if your brother hadn’t—”

“No.” Lachlan sank a command into that one word. He didn’t say “stop” or “shut up.” Just “no,” but it cut Rose off mid-sentence. He was right, fighting amongst themselves didn’t help, and bringing up the past only served to distract them from what they should be doing right now. Which was finding and rescuing Devon and Juliette.

“We assume this is an attack on the society. Headquarters should be considered compromised, meaning no one goes down there. Like I said, I have people checking the library now, but if possible, we should close the entire building, just to be safe.”

Price nodded. “I’ll call Lee Hager. He’s the Director of Operations and a longtime member.”

“If this is an attack on the society, did they take Juliette to weaken the Trinity Masters or to get information?” Rose asked.

“The faster we find them, the less time they have to torture information out of them,” Lachlan said too loudly.

---