War Bringer (22 page)

She pushed those thoughts out of her mind. The center was doing a fair job caring for her grandmother, but things were going to change for the better very soon. She brushed her grandmother’s white bangs from her forehead and kissed her, wondering how aware of her surroundings she was.
 

“How about some light, Grams?” Wynn asked as she lifted the blinds, letting sunlight pour into the room—it was the only natural thing in the entire hospital.
 

“I brought you some new flowers. The daisies were gorgeous, so I selected two bouquets of them.” She threw out last week’s flowers, replacing them with the fresh daisies.
 

Thanks to Rocco Silas, Wynn now had the income to afford a better situation for her grandmother. She’d just signed the papers to have her released. They’d be moving her Wednesday. Wynn wanted to be there for the move, but the only available time the new home could do it was during the week while she worked. They assured her they’d take great care of her. Wynn was excited for the change. Hopefully, the new environment would help her grandmother recover more of her faculties.

She pulled a chair over to her grandmother’s bedside and took her slim hand. It was so hard seeing her indomitable matriarch in this bed, just a shell of her former self. Grams closed her eyes at the contact. Wynn knew her grandmother was still in there, somewhere, wanting out.

“I found a new job, Grams. Right here in Wyoming. It’s outside of Laramie, not far at all. I’ll be able to visit you every weekend.” She told her grandmother about her new situation, the boy she was hired to teach, his special capabilities.

Near the end of the visit, after brushing her grandmother’s hair, she told her about the upcoming move to a new home.
 

“I love you, Grams. We’ll get through this, just like everything else. Good things are just around the corner for us. You’ll see.”

* * *

Kelan woke to the feel of Fiona in his arms. The whole night through, her body had touched his. He smiled. This was the most sleep he’d had in all the days since she’d been taken. To know that she was here, with him, both of them safe…it was a feeling he’d feared he’d never know again.

He watched while sleep slowly released its hold on her. It was late in the morning. Almost ten. They’d missed breakfast and their workouts. He was grateful the team had let them sleep. She opened her eyes, blinked, then squinted from the light flooding the room.
 

She reached over and touched him. “Kelan.”

“That’s me.” He smiled.

She pushed herself up and frowned as she looked around her room. “I feel as if we’ve slept for a week.”

“Maybe we did—but I think it was only one night.”

She settled back down, into the space between his arm and body. “What happens now?”

He wished that nothing was happening, that he and Fiona could stay in bed an entire day and night and day again. He wanted to love her in every way he’d ever imagined…and invent a few new ways, too.
 

“I suppose you shower, and I’ll go meet up with the guys, see what happened after we left the tunnels. I know they will want to talk to you, if you’re up to it. You’re the only one of us who has actually seen King.”

She nodded. “But you have to know that he was covered head to foot. I didn’t actually see any of him.”
 

“That’s okay. There might be something in that interaction that has more meaning than you think. Let’s talk it over with the team and see what happens.”

Her eyes widened as she looked up at him. “Kelan—the girls!”

“I haven’t forgotten. I’ll see if they were found.”

She pushed herself up to look into his eyes. “And if they weren’t, will you go back for them?”

“Yes.” Her eyes filled with tears. He frowned, then stroked her cheek with his thumb. How could her skin be so incredibly soft? “Talk to me, Fiona.”

“I love you. I love you so much, and I don’t even yet know everything that means to me. I love you on a visceral level, as if our hearts have connected in a way that isn’t rational. And yet here I am, sending you back into danger.”

Kelan grinned. “You love me viscerally?”

“Don’t go back, Kelan.”

“Don’t be afraid for me. I will find your girls and bring them back. I’ll do this errand, and a thousand more for you. I will do anything that gives your mind peace.”

A short sigh broke from her. She leaned forward, dragging her body up and across his so that she could put her face in his neck. She drew a deep breath against his skin. The air tickled his skin and lifted gooseflesh across his arms and back.

Kelan turned to her. Digging his hand in her hair, he held her face to his and looked into her eyes as his lips met hers. Her arm slipped about his shoulder, avoiding his broken ribs. He tensed; he was hungry to peel off their layers and explore her body with his. It was good he’d gone to bed fully clothed; she wasn’t ready for them to be intimate again yet—not after everything that had happened. It took a force of will to make him roll over her and climb off the bed.
 

He took Fiona’s hand and pulled. “Up.” When she stood in front of him, he said, “Take a shower. Get something to eat. Rest. I’ll come find you when the team’s ready to talk. I’ll be there with you the whole time.” He kissed her forehead. “I love you. Viscerally.” He grinned at her, but couldn’t raise a smile in her somber eyes.

* * *

Kelan grabbed a cup of coffee from the sideboard in the dining room, where Kathy always kept a pot going, then went down to the bunker via the hidden stairs in the den.

The team was slowly coming in. Everyone had started late today. No one had assigned seats, so he just sat wherever. Kit hit his shoulder as he went by. Greer fist-bumped Kelan, then sat next to him. Rocco nodded at him from across the table.
 

When everyone was assembled, Kit flipped a folder open, ready to start the meeting, until Val stopped him.

“Wait, Kit. Just hold up.” Val held up a hand. “Can we all take a moment to give Kelan a hug?”

Kelan frowned. “No.”

Max barked out a laugh.
 

Val smiled. “I’m glad you’re back. And Fee, too.”

“Thanks,” Kelan said.
 

“We all are,” Owen said from his place by the wall. “After this meeting, I expect you to take some time with Fiona.”

Kelan met Owen’s cold eyes. That was an unusually generous suggestion, especially at such a critical time. “I will. And I appreciate that, but I’m not finished with this. I need to see it through.”

“Right.” Kit stood up. “So here’s what we know. King’s Warren is a complex covering several miles of underground tunnels from two separate missile silos. Lobo and his team are still working the site. It’s been the holy grail of stolen antiquities, art, and jewelry. It’s going to take the FBI months to catalog everything they found.”

Kit nodded at Greer, who popped some images up on the huge smart screen. The long red and purple banners that lined the main hall filled the screen. Kelan read their slogans about world domination, moral cleansing, and population control—he’d been too focused on other things the times he was in the hall to notice them in detail.
 

“And in case you’re wondering, this wasn’t a casual clubhouse,” Kit commented. “Looks like they have grand plans, which they may already have begun implementing.”

An alert sounded in the ops room. Max checked his phone. He looked at Kit, then Kelan. The room became silent.
 

“Got the results back from the test we ran on Fiona’s DNA. She and Lion do share the same biological father. They’re half-siblings.” He took a breath. “And the blood from your knife, Kelan—it matches their father’s.”

“So it was King in that rotunda,” Rocco said.

Kit’s mouth became a thin line. “Or if not King, then at least their dad. We just don’t know who or what this King is.” He was silent a moment. “Let’s start at the beginning. I want to make sure everyone’s on the same page. Rocco, you and Selena got into King’s Warren first. Tell us what you saw.”

They told the team about the security system, the guard corps, the floor plan for the areas they toured. Greer played the video they’d collected. Some of Rocco’s footage included what happened in the rotunda. Greer had blurred the image of Fiona on the altar.
 

Kelan wanted to be sick.
 

The lights were dim and the video switched to low light, making the images green and grainy. It did capture a figure sitting on a throne and the others in the ten alcoves. And it showed the bastard who looked like a satyr to Fiona climbing on top of her.

Then the feed shifted. Kelan ran into the rotunda and all hell broke loose. Rocco followed a minute later, running around the outside ring toward Jafaar.

“Jafaar was at the ceremony?” Kit looked at Rocco

“Yeah. Said he was a witness,” Rocco told them. “All the witnesses brought guests, but only the witnesses were permitted in the rotunda.”

 
“Those guests, the ones left in the ballroom, were the one percenters of the one percenters,” Selena added. “We were rubbing shoulders with aristocrats, sheiks, celebrities, you name it. It was like a rave for the world’s glitterati.”
 

Kit looked at Owen. “Lobo said there were some power players coming in to town, but no one knew what their agendas were.”

“Well, Jafaar was no stranger to King’s Warren,” Rocco said. “He knew another way out, as did the other witnesses. His limo was waiting there for him. Theirs were, too. You can’t really see it on this feed. I bet there are a dozen more entrances we don’t know about.” The video showed some dark footage of them running through tunnels. They came to a staircase, which they went up for a few flights before finally reaching an exit hatch. The video ended there.

“I shut it off in case Jafaar’s driver scanned me again. When we left, we went up to Yusef’s. Jafaar kept saying how pissed King was going to be that his carefully planned initiation of his prime warrior had been ruined.”
 

Kelan frowned. “So the whole initiation event had more to do with King’s warrior than with Fiona? They destroyed a girl’s life for a fighter?”

Rocco looked at him. “Not just any fighter. When I asked Jafaar why that mattered, he said King’s War Bringer was long foretold to be a uniter of the regions in the new world order. The fact that it didn’t happen and that King’s daughter had been taken would have devastating implications for his power bid.” Rocco glanced around the table. “I should note that Jafaar did not seem heartbroken over that turn of events.”

Kit’s brows lowered. He nodded toward Kelan. “Your ink says ‘War Bringer.’”

Kelan lifted his sleeve. His ink was no secret. He’d had it since before he entered the Army.
 

“It’s an odd label,” Blade said. “Odder still to have it used by King and Kelan. I understood it’s tribal meaning when you used it. But what does it mean to King?”

“Maybe there’s something in your mom’s papers that will help us understand,” Kit said. “Your turn, Kelan. Tell the guys what happened after Val left you at the biker bar.”

“Wait. What papers?” Kelan asked Blade.

Blade pointed to a pile of boxes set in the corner. “I found a note she left in her jewelry box.” Greer put that note up on the smart screen. “She’d taken these from Bladen. He was a librarian for a secret org. We haven’t had a chance to dig into them yet.”

“Go on, Kelan,” Kit ordered.

Kelan shrugged. “I was taken to a warehouse where I had to fight two guys for Fiona. After that, we were both transported to a steel building that was being used as a fight club. The announcer there told them I was the War Bringer. That phrase has meaning to King and the people around him.”

“This event seemed highly organized, with odd roles and labels for different people,” Selena said. “It wasn’t a simple party—it had a purpose, but what that was, I don’t know. People knew their roles—they were familiar with what was happening. This isn’t the first time it happened.”

Owen moved his stance. Kelan could feel his tension. “Were the guys who took Fiona part of this org?”
 

“Like everything else,” Kit said, “it’s unclear. Lobo thinks King put a bounty out for her capture. Lobo tracked down the owner of the house she was stashed in that first night. He’s one of the big sex traffickers in Denver. The bounty King offered and the opportunity to become one of King’s sex suppliers sent a powerful ripple through that trade.”

“What happened to the girls we recovered?” Kelan asked.

“They were checked out at a hospital, then were handed over to a women’s shelter.”

“The arena fight was supposedly to select who would be Fiona’s champion.” Kelan frowned. “It was run by the same shot caller who brought Fiona and me to King’s Warren—the one who got me out the next morning. He said he couldn’t save Fiona, that only I could.”

“So was he helping you?” Blade asked.

Kelan got up and started pacing the length of the conference room. “Maybe. I’m not convinced the arena fight was part of King’s scene. That guy could have taken Fiona and me straight to the tunnels. Why divert for a bit of entertainment first?”

“Describe him,” Owen said.

Kelan glanced at the boss. “My height, light brown hair, gray-blue eyes, muscular, in his thirties.”

Kit frowned as he looked Owen. “You know him.”

Owen’s lips thinned. “Wendell Jacobs. Our rogue Red Teamer.”

“Sonofabitch,” Blade cursed. “Is he King?”

“He’s not old enough to be Fiona and Lion’s dad,” Kelan said. “And yes, I think he is helping. He could have killed me when he took me out of the warren. Instead, he tranqed me and made it easy for me to find my way back to the tunnels. He was definitely the one who ended the competition before Fiona’s attacker could join the fun.” Kelan looked at Greer. “I heard a police siren. Everyone scattered.”

Greer nodded. “I’ll see if a trouble call hit the police blotter.”

“Wendell’s more involved than you thought,” Val said, watching Owen.

“What’s he doing hanging out with King?” Max asked.