Page 47 of Fighting for Her Heart

Mom reaches across the table and takes my hand. “I just think it’s best to be careful. Strength in numbers and all that.”

“Then we shouldallgo.” I raise my chin and look at Zuben.

He shakes his head. “This investigation will be simplified and bear fewer risks if we have the option of travelling during daylight hours. Therefore, neither you nor I can go.”

“Unless we wait.” I look between everyone. “It won’t be that many days before Zuben is lambent.

Nora shakes her head. “Even if we wait until Zuben is lambent, we’d have to leave you here alone. It’s too risky for you to leave the farm before we assess the danger.”

“No fucking way,” Axe says sharply.

I nod, my lips scraping over the edge of my lower lip. I want to suggest again that we wait a few more days, or point out that Zuben could go into the sunlighttomorrow, since he fed from me last night, but I swallow it all back down. I can’t go out in the daytime and don’t want to stay here alone.

“How many hours until sunrise?” I ask. “Maybe it will be safer to wait until tomorrow night?”

Axe shakes his head. “The sooner we take care of this, the sooner you’re safe.”

“Axe and I can both take sunlight,” Ryker adds. “And like Zubey here said, if we get to Philly around sunrise, we can talk to Octavia during daylight hours. Gives us the chance to make an unexpected escape if anything goes south.”

“But remember. You cannot risk Octavia discovering that you can walk in the light,” Zuben says.

Ryker nods. “We should leave soon. One of us will have to piggyback Nora.” He winks. “Unless you brought your broom?”

“Very funny.” Mom shakes her head, but doesn’t seem mad. “I have a car, remember?”

My heart is breaking under the weight of anxiety. “You’ll just be gone for the day, right?”

“If that.” Ryker nods. “Don’t worry, little dove. I’ll be back to fuck you soon.”

“It might take more than twenty-four hours,” Nora says.

“Why?” Axe frowns.

Mom shrugs. “We don’t know for sure what we’ll be up against. I’m just saying that we shouldn’tpromiseto be back tonight. I don’t want Ember and Zuben to worry if we take longer.”

“Don’t worry, little dove.” Ryker rubs my arm. “I know how to tame Tavi. I’ll dig out of her what she knows, and I’ll be back inside your cunt before nightfall.”

“Ryker!” Nora says. “Do you need to be so crude?”

My cheeks flame, but when I lift my gaze to meet Ryker’s teasing smile, he winks at me, and the flames transfer from my face to lick parts of me far south of that. He seems totally confident, unafraid of going to DEFTA.

I stifle a nervous laugh. “Okay,” I say softly. “Just promise me you’ll be careful.”

Chapter Sixteen

Ryker

Standing outside the DEFTA building,Axe looks up in awe, reminding me that the last time the dude was in Philadelphia, there weren’t any glass-covered skyscrapers. The sun’s only minutes from rising, and the building reflects the impending dawn.

“What’s our strategy to get in to see her?” Axe asks.

“Not going to be a problem.” I slap his back, hiding my own nerves. Other than when I was taken up to her office in that attempt to trap me in marriage, the only times I’ve been in this particular tower I came in with her, or I was in custody, being questioned in the basement. Back when Tavi and I were actually together, the DEFTA headquarters was in a sprawling stone building several blocks away, with way more of it underground than above. And she sure as fuck wasn’t the CEO for most of that time.

“Shall we get on with it then?” Nora smiles, clearly eager, and I open the front door, bowing slightly, to let her enter first. She claimed that if there were witches guarding the place she’d be able to tell. Fuck if I know whether that’s true, but it’s all we’ve got.

Axe grunts, then goes in and I follow behind, striding past the pair and toward a security guard behind a large marble counter. Best to act like I own the place.

The lobby’s windowed and sunrise is just a half hour away, and yet the dude’s a vamp. The windows down here must be treated or some shit.