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He shook his head slowly.

“No. She’d want him somewhereshecontrols… especially with you and the kids here with me, and her probably thinking she’d need leverage to get us all back.”

He grimaced at the thought, but felt even more sure he was right.

“She’d want someplace staffed entirely byherpeople, whereshehas the final call, and her people have full access to all security and communication systems. The only way that changes is if she gotorderedto give up Damon. And personally, I doubt the H.R.A. issues a lot of orders to the C.E.O. of the company that supplies 90% of their weapons, and probably 100% of their organics and defense tech…”

“Hear, hear,” Brick muttered, a touch louder.

Wynter frowned.

She glanced at Brick, but her eyes didn’t stay on him for long.

Nick could see she was still thinking.

He could tell she heard the logic behind his words, even if she didn’t like it.

Finally, her stunning, blue-green eyes shifted up to his.

“You’re still not going,” she warned.

Nick didn’t answer. He didn’t feign agreement to keep the peace, but he didn’t see the point in antagonizing her, either.

Truthfully, he doubted even she believed her words now.

He could tell from the worry and frustration visible on her face, and obvious in her eyes, that she knew she likely wouldn’t win that argument, either.

CHAPTER20

THE VAN

The cave’swalls stretched high up over his head once Nick vaulted out of the visitor center tunnel. He was now in a dark, cold, damp place, running along a metal catwalk with the lightest steps he could manage.

He knew vampires waited up ahead, more than one, more than a handful, even.

He had to move fast while making aslittlenoise as fucking possible.

Nick could already hear more than just vampires up ahead, and that concerned him a lot more. More to the point, Nick could smell them.

He could smell his mate, the pungent odor of his blood and sweat, the fact that he hadn’t showered in at least a day, probably because he’d been on the run since they’d first begun following him after he stole Black’s plane from San Francisco.

Dalejem had led them to Paris first, and then he’d fled down here, to Nice, for reasons Nick couldn’t come close to understanding.

He’d dragged the girl into the cave with him, which was even weirder.

Not only that, it was a real prehistoric cave, one that had once been inhabited by Nick’s ancestors, by the ancestors of all humans. Its rough walls were covered with stick paintings of animals and whales and humans and birds. It was wild to Nick, that the careful marks still stood out starkly on the rock, even after thousands of years.

He would love to come here with Dalejem sometime and explore it for real.

Right now, however, recreational cave exploration was pretty low on Nick’s list of priorities. He had no idea why Dalejem had brought the girl here, but the vampires had followed them, and now Nick’s mate was in danger.

He could feel that danger all around him, coiling and uncoiling, waiting to strike.

Brick was here.

Brick apparently had decided it was time to deal with Nick’s mate decisively, once and for all. Whether it was revenge for what they’d done to Dorian, or simply Brick’s petty rage at Jem having so much sway over Nick, didn’t really matter anymore.

Brick had made up his mind to kill Jem.