Chapter Seven

Emma.

Leaving Ryker is a hundred times harder tonight than it was the first night I was with him. I laid in his arms for hours to watch him sleep and replay his words through my mind.

"You deserve to be happy, and you deserve to live your life, and you deserve to be loved. I know you might reject it and push me out of your life. But I don't know that I can ever quit trying and quit pushing, because I'm falling in love with you."

I knew I should have gotten up and left right then. I should have put a stop to this before it was too late. I shouldn't have even come here. But I'm a weak and selfish woman, and everything about Ryker feels safe and comfortable. He makes me feel things I haven't felt in so long. He makes me want things I haven't wanted since before I was turned.

I can't believe I told him my story. A story I haven't told anyone since I told Everlee in nineteen forty-five.

I realize he now knows more about me than anyone else, and I still know so little about him. I know he joined the Marines to escape a shitty childhood. I know he left the Marines and joined Gabe hunting homicidal vampires.

I don't know if he has a favorite color or what he does during his time off. I don't know if he drinks coffee in the morning or if he's ever been in love.

And now I never will.

I know I'll see him again. We'll have to strategize a plan and then take down Sato. This will be the last time I allow things to go this far though. It has to be.

He said he's falling in love with me. I don't know how I feel about him, I'm afraid to contemplate it, but I do know if we let this go any farther one of us is going to end up getting hurt… or killed.

The last thing I want to do is hurt Ryker. And I know that a relationship with me would probably get Ryker killed, and I'm definitely not going to stand by and let that happen.

I finally slip out of the house and get into my BMW. I can't bring myself to go back to The Community's house yet, so I drive around town until the sun comes up. When I finally get to the house, everything is quiet, and I'm able to go to my room and crash without talking to anyone.

***

Two weeks later, Gabe texts me telling me to meet them at the office to discuss strategy. I'm disappointed it's not Ryker texting me. I haven't heard from him since that night. Not that I'm expecting him to text, but he did say he was falling in love with me, and well, to be honest, I miss him.

Maybe this means he's decided it's for the best. The thought makes my chest tight, even though I was the one who said we could never be anything.

I'm standing in my underwear trying to decide what to wear to our meeting when the door bursts open, and Everlee flies in.

"He's here," she announces, and I don't have to ask who. I've been dreading this day for a week and a half, ever since it was confirmed that Mason was coming to town.

"Here's the welcoming party I was expecting." Mason appears in the doorway, his blond hair perfectly styled and not one wrinkle on his gray suit.

His blue eyes sweep over my mostly naked body. I fight the urge to leap into my closet and cover myself.

"Not in your dreams." I give him a look of contempt and pull a pair of black jeans from the closet and yank them on.

"In my dreams, in my memories, in my future." He walks into the room and smiles sweetly at Everlee. "Evie, honey, can you give us a minute?"

That's one of the things that draws people to Mason, his natural charisma. Call him an asshole to his face and his smile won't even falter as he continues to manipulate you into doing whatever serves his agenda.

Everlee gives me an apologetic look and walks out.

"What do you want, Mason?" I pull on the first shirt I find, a black tank top. I grab my leather jacket to cover it since it's not really appropriate for a meeting, even if it is discussing strategies with a team of commandos. Plus, it'll protect my skin from the sun.

"That is no way to greet your future husband." He gives me a half-grin that used to make me go mushy, but now makes me want to punch him in the throat.

"You are not my future anything," I snap as I pull on my high heeled black boots to go with the jacket.

"Look, I've given you space because you were a young vampire." He moves to stand in front of me, and I force my feet to stand their ground. "But now, you've had your fun, you've seen the world, and it's time to take your place at my side."

He holds out his hand to me, and I look at it with disdain.

"As fun as it's been catching up, I have to go now." I sidestep him, and he grabs my arm.

"That reminds me," he remarks casually. "There's too much talk about you in The Community. They say you don't drink from humans—ever. You survive solely on the blood bank?"

"So?" I'm quickly getting tired of this exchange, and I need to get to the office.

"You need to bite someone and put an end to it." He releases my arm as my mouth drops open.

I don't even know why I'm surprised by anything from him at this point.

"Why do you care?" I narrow my eyes at him. "Why are you here?"

"To collect my bride, of course." He gives me that grin again, and I roll my eyes.

"You can have your pick of any girl in The Community." I gesture to the door. "Why don't you pick one of them? I will not be your doormat."

"That's exactly it." He raises his hand to cup my face, and I step back out of his reach. He sighs and drops his hand. "I don't want a doormat. I need a queen."

I choke on a hysterical laugh. "Then you're really barking up the wrong tree."

He shakes his head. "I know you don't like getting involved in politics, but once the hierarchy is restored, everything will be different."

"I had no idea you were so ambitious, Mason." I tilt my head. "Imagine what you could accomplish if you did something that wasn't ninety-nine percent self-serving."

"I am truly looking forward to debating that topic with you, my dear." He lifts one corner of his mouth and gestures at the door. "But didn't you say you needed to go somewhere?"

Fuck. He's right, and I'm late, again.

"Yes." I grab my keys and purse and hustle out of the room. I don't want to leave him in my personal space, but it's not like I keep anything in the room except clothes anyways. Plus, I don't have time to force him to leave.

I hop in my car and race to the office. Jenny is waiting for me and rushes me into the meeting room where I first met the guys. I'm worried by the way she's hurrying that they're going to be pissed and read me the riot act, but they barely look up when I walk in.

Actually, Ryker doesn't look up at all. Gabe looks up, gives me a little head nod and then goes back to pointing out something on a map. Drew, however, looks up at me, looks back down at the map, then looks back up sharply and lets out a little whistle.

"Damn girl, I'm digging the biker bitch look." His eyes take in my outfit. "I bet you look real good on the back of Ryker's motorcycle." Drew looks at Ryker, waiting for confirmation, but Ryker doesn't even look up.

"I didn't know he had a bike," I say lamely, looking down at the toes of my boots.

I shouldn't be engaging in this conversation. I should ask to get involved in the topic of the mission and then be done. But I like Drew, he's always good-natured and nice to me.

"He doesn't have a bike." Drew scowls at me. "He has a custom-built motorcycle."

"Do you ride?" I ask, trying to turn the topic away from Ryker.

"We all do." Drew gestures to Gabe and Ryker. "Our boy, Zeke, builds custom motorcycles, so we all have a one of a kind."

"You have a friend named Zeke?" I chuckle and shake my head.

"Why is that amusing?" Drew furrows his eyebrows and tilts his head. He reminds me of a puppy.

"Ezekiel, Andrew, Gabriel, Ryker." I list the names off of my fingers. "All your names mean strength."

"How do you know?" Drew looks to Gabe and Ryker.

Gabe is watching me now. Ryker is still looking down at the table but appears to be listening to me.

"Because I sit around reading baby name books." I put my hands on my hips and give Drew a look to match my sarcasm.

A ghost of a smile appears on Ryker’s lips at the reminder of the night we met and having a similar conversation.

I drop the attitude and smile. "And because I've studied multiple languages and have a photographic memory. Andrew means strong man. Gabriel means God is my Strength. Ezekiel means God's strength. And Ryker means superior strength." The last one I know for sure, because I couldn't resist looking it up after we met to double-check the terminology.

"What does your name mean?" Drew asks.

"The name Fox just refers to the animal." I push aside all thoughts of my given name. "But the symbolism suggests cunning, persistence and adaptability."

"You're like a hot, walking encyclopedia," Drew says, and I laugh. "We should go out sometime."

Ryker growls at the same time I'm shaking my head 'no', not that he looks up to see it.

"I don't mean like that. I wasn't asking you out." Drew puts his hands up and gives me a friendly smile. "Not that you're not hot, but I meant all of us. The whole team. Like when this shit is all over. I wanna hear the shit that you say after a couple drinks. I bet random facts just pour out, right?"

"I don't know, actually." I frown. "I don't do a lot of drinking. Or talking, usually."

"You've always talked to us." He raises an eyebrow like he's not quite buying it.

"I have." I nod and shrug. Something about them has always made me feel comfortable enough to talk openly.

I'm not going to say it's Ryker and how comfortable he makes me, because I know that's all over now, and I don't want to lose the easy comradery with Drew.

"Okay, so Drew can plan the after-party," Gabe says, drawing our attention to him and the map laid out on the table. "Now we can talk about Sato. We know he owns a few buildings through a holding company. We found his house and his base of operations. We know his M.O. is to set up camp, get comfortable, then he starts selling everything off before he lets his troops go AWOL before they move on to a new location."

We gather around the table and survey the spots on the map that are flagged with Sato's home and buildings.

"They usually don't stay in one place longer than a year, and they've been here for ten months so we don't have much time," Gabe continues. "His house is set up like a fortress and the rest of his buildings are pretty public. There are other houses for his men, but he doesn't spend time in them. He doesn't have a set schedule that we've been able to discern, and he doesn't have any regular hook-ups or meetings. This is going to be a whole different ball game than Marcus Lott."

Most of this we all already know from our interrogation a couple weeks ago, but it's good to make sure we're all up to speed and on the same page. We listen intently to Gabe's recap.

"He has approximately a dozen vampires that live in his house with him, with another six or so on guard duty at all times. There are at least another two or three dozen that stay at the other houses, we have no way of knowing if or when any of them will be visiting his house at any given time. We are definitely going to need a full team."

"How many do you have on staff now?" Ryker asks.

This is the first I've heard him speak since walking in, and it gives me goosebumps. I heard him speaking from a distance when I was walking in, but it was muted and not the same as hearing his deep, rich voice from feet away.

"The three of us, Derek, Keegan, and the twins, Axel and Asher. Then Tyson and Russel are part-time." Gabe counts out nine on his fingers.

"I can text Zeke and Jack," Drew offers.

"What about Luis?" Gabe asks with a one-sided smirk.

"Will we need Luis?" Drew's eyes widen.

"Can't hurt." Ryker nods. "I'll call him. I know his wife doesn't like him freelancing, but I'm sure he'll help us out."

"Luis is an explosives expert. Ex-Army," Gabe says to me, noticing my confused expression. "He should be able to give us a good distraction. Jack's a sniper. Derek is Air Force trained military intelligence. Russel was my C.O. once upon a time. He's old-school Macgyver type shit, man has been everywhere and seen everything. Keegan is the newest recruit, a Navy Seal, specializes in covert ops. Asher and Axel are Army Rangers. Zeke served with Ryker and Drew here. Tyson did too, but he's just a crazy son of a bitch."

"You never know when you might need one of those." I'm joking, but it's lost on this group. "I guess all we need is a vampire, and we got a well-rounded team."

"Do you know where we can find one?" Gabe is teasing, and it's so surprising that I almost don't answer.

He hasn't exactly been rude to me, but this is the closest he's come to being friendly. I wonder if it has something to do with my supposed relationship with Ryker or my actual non-relationship with Ryker. I hope it's neither. I hope it's just that Gabe is starting to warm up to me.

"You bet, I'll give her a call when we're done here." I grin.

We spend the next hour scouring over the map and the houses’ floor plans. Jack will have to scout his own location for a sniper nest. Luis will also have to look at the schematics himself to come up with a 'distraction’. Derek will have to tap into the phone lines, computers, and get some cameras up outside the house at least, but preferably inside the house.

Once everyone has been contacted and brought in, they're going to schedule a meeting to brief the entire team. They'll text me with the date and time.

We are wrapping up and getting ready to leave. Gabe is putting things away in the filing cabinet against the back wall.

I approach him and speak in a low voice. "How is the financial aspect? Do you need a little donation?"

"Are you kidding?" Gabe chuckles. "You already gave me enough money to run this operation for an entire year."

"How did you know that donation was from me?" I raise an eyebrow.

"It came the day before you requested a meeting." He shakes his head. "Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out."

"I guess I didn't really think about that. It wasn't meant to be a secret. I just forgot to talk to you about it." I give a one-shouldered shrug.

"You've had other things on your mind." He tilts his head towards Ryker, and I'm not sure if it's intentional or not, but when I follow the movement, I catch Ryker's gaze.

He's looking at me for the first time since I got here, and the pain and anger in his eyes takes my breath away. I want to go to him, I want to hold him and comfort him, I want to kiss him so much it hurts. Ryker breaks eye contact and walks out of the room.

"Don't worry about Ryker. He'll be ready come game-day." Gabe closes the filing cabinet and turns to me.

"I'm not worried about that." I look down at my shoes to hide the sadness on my face.

"I know you care about him," Gabe says softly, and I nod. "And I know you're just trying to protect him."

"How do you know that?" I raise my head, so I can see his eyes when he answers.

"Like I said, it doesn't take a rocket scientist." He winks, and I smile.

I say goodbye, Ryker and Drew are nowhere to be seen, so I show myself out of the office. I get in my BMW and lean my head back.

When I close my eyes, all I can see is the look on Ryker's face and the hurt in his eyes, and it breaks my heart. The last thing I want to do is cause Ryker pain. The emotional pain should be better than the high possibility of physical pain, but it doesn't feel that way right now.