Page 11

WATCHING MAX shoot Caius discreet glances full of confusion, awe, and longing was physically painful. The cautious ones Caius returned when Max wasn’t looking were almost as bad.

Quinn was saved by a text from Lukas. It was nothing more than a name, but he quickly escaped the resurgence of teenage hormones and awkwardness to his lair.

His multicomputer rig hummed to life as he sank into his chair and started his search. It didn’t take long to pull up some basic info on a Timothy Wright, one CEO of a mediocre construction company with his hand in several others.

He was digging into the numerous lawsuits and charges filed against him, ranging from discrimination to sexual assault to racketeering, when his phone dinged with an alert. “This is like some wannabe mob boss,” he muttered, pulling out his phone. Like they needed another one of those to deal with.

He stared at the message on his phone for a moment, sure it was a joke, because no way would the police have any reason to pull Lukas’ information.

He’d hidden a couple of passive controls in the government databases while still enlisted to ensure he received a notification any time their names or files were pulled.

“What the fuck?” he hissed, switching to another computer and pulling up the security footage from Lukas leaving the house.

He flipped through several feeds before he found the corresponding cameras on the path Lukas had taken, and then he was watching Lukas jogging through the park, the same guy tailing him since a block from their house.

He swore when Lukas disappeared into the tunnel and was out of his seat when three men followed him in. His heart nearly stopped when the man near the entrance fired his gun and took off, only breathing again when Lukas raced after him and drove him to the ground.

“Fucking hell,” he hissed, watching until the police arrived. Only when Lukas went with them without being handcuffed did he turn back to his original task, trusting Lukas could handle the police without Quinn interfering .

He grabbed a few mug shots on the three attackers to run through his facial recognition program, then put on some music to lower his blood pressure as he tore into the past thirty years of Mr. Sleazeball’s life.

His wife was dead from a car accident, though there were rumors that she’d been about to hand over hard evidence of crimes that could have put him away for good. Said evidence had obviously never been recovered.

A twenty-seven-year-old daughter, married to a surgeon, ran one of Daddy’s smaller companies, though from what he could find, she was clean, with a three-year-old daughter of her own. Some recent pictures on social media included Wright, so not estranged, despite the rumors of her mother’s death.

Quinn’s search on the three who’d attacked Lukas came back, marking two as loyal men to Wright, and one hired goon who’d been a core suspect in several hits and kidnappings, but never charged. Why they’d gone after Lukas was the real question, but he was sure it had to do with Max.

He wasn’t aware that he’d lost several hours until the smell of cooking meat made his stomach growl.

He winced as he sat back, rubbing a kink in his neck and turning to head upstairs.

Max was at the stove, and Quinn was glad to finally have someone besides him in the house who could cook.

He was getting sick of fast food and takeout.

“Hey,” he said, slinging an arm over Max’s shoulders. “Where’s Cap?”

“Right here,” Caius said, apparently following his own nose down from his office.

No sense in wasting more time. “So we might have a problem.” As if to prove his point, his phone chimed with a new alert.

When he pulled it up, he found a news article with footage of Max’s fire tornado.

With a groan, he slid it across the counter for Caius to see. “Looks like the mage is outta the bag.”

Caius frowned as he stared at the phone. “I thought you erased all the footage.”

“Well yeah. From the security feeds. That looks like a phone recording. Even I’m not that good, sorry to say.”

Caius sighed and scrubbed at his face.

“Sorry,” Max murmured .

“Hey, no. This isn’t your fault.” Quinn hooked his arm around Max’s shoulders again, giving him a squeeze. “I’d put money on the Order being behind this. If they can’t take you from us on their own, they’re gonna pit the city against us.”

Max leaned into Quinn, misery oozing out of him. “Can they really do that?”

“The Order generally gets away with whatever they want,” Caius said with a dark scowl.

“They can do what they want,” Quinn said, “but we’re not gonna let anyone take you from us.

Also, I’m pretty sure this is why Lukas was attacked this morning.

” When both Max and Caius looked at him in alarm, he realized he probably should have led with that.

“He’s fine,” he hastily added. “He’s with the police, but the assholes who went after him work for this guy. ”

He grabbed his phone and switched screens, pulling up Wright’s info.

“Luckily, they were sloppy. Doesn’t look like any of them’ve realized what they’re dealing with yet.

” He hoped it would take a while longer for the general public to notice a shifter pack had claimed the area as their territory, and bound a mage to boot.

Caius growled, his nails threatening to gouge the granite counter where they were changing to claws.

Max squeaked and started to back away, but Quinn tightened his hold and snapped the fingers of his free hand in Caius’ face. “You’re freaking out our mage.”

With a wince, Caius tore his eyes away from the phone, focusing on Max as he leashed his wolf. “My apologies,” he said, flexing his fingers as he stood. “Send me Mr. Wright’s address and the info you have on him,” he added to Quinn, before grabbing his keys and heading out.

Well, that wasn’t good. Caius rarely drove himself anywhere since his injury.

Either he was pissed over the attack on Lukas or the possibility of them being after Max.

Probably both. Quinn could only hope he didn’t do something stupid, like Lukas taking on three attackers.

They really couldn’t afford one pack member held up with the authorities, let alone two.

He waited until he heard Caius’ car start before grabbing his phone and sending over the address for the construction company where Mr. Sleazeball usually was this time of day.

“This is all my fault, isn’t it?” Max asked .

Quinn turned Max towards him and grabbed both his shoulders.

“This is not your fault. We knew this was likely to happen the moment Caius took you from your father.” Granted, they really should have had more than a few days before anyone started making moves against them.

It didn’t bode well for them if the Order was able to work this fast.

“Why? Why would you risk anything for me? I’m not even a real mage.”

“ A mhuirnín , you Sparked. You’re a real mage.

” He slid his hands up to cup Max’s face.

“The fact you haven’t been bound by the Order means anyone and everyone who wants power in this city might be stupid enough to come after you, but you are pack.

You’re bound to not one but three shifters.

None of us are going to let anything happen to you. ”

Max let out a shuddering breath, his fingers twisting in the hem of Quinn’s shirt. “My father is going to be so pissed when he finds out.”

“Your father can go deep throat a twelve-inch cactus. And take another up the ass for good measure,” Quinn muttered, grinning when Max spluttered a laugh. “Also, you’re burning something.”

Max spun away with a curse, shoving a pan of something that used to be edible aside before it caught fire.

Quinn let out a slow breath and prayed to all the old gods that they survived this war.