Garrett sat and typed furiously, bringing up an aerial feed of a smoldering, crumbled, devastated mountain.
Karma gasped. “Was that your headquarters?” The Kurjans had decimated it.
“No,” Benjamin said. “You’re in our headquarters now.”
She turned to look at him. He’d healed any injuries he’d sustained from the fight, but his torn shirt was bloody and his jeans filthy, with pine needles still sticking out from several places. “I don’t understand.”
He didn’t answer. “Any sign?”
Garrett leaned forward, scanning the burning mountain. “No. The human wildfire forces have arrived and started dumping fire retardants on the blaze. The missiles were destroyed when the self-destruct sequence concluded, so it’ll look like some sort of earthquake and a resulting forest fire. Hopefully.”
Logan rushed inside the control room with Mercy on his heels. The hybrid’s green eyes had morphed to deep black, and fury crackled along his skin. “Any sign of Sam?” he asked.
“Negative,” Garrett said quietly. “I’m downloading the satellite feed and will rewind as soon as I have it. We’ll find him.”
“Shit.” Logan snatched a coffee cup off a table and threw it across the room. The mug smashed against the wooden wall and shattered into pieces. “Sam is gone. What the hell am I supposed to do now?” He scrubbed a still-burned hand through his thick hair. “Zane will want to know. How can I tell the leader of the demon nation that our brother is missing because of the Seven? Because of me?” Red flushed high across his high cheekbones.
Karma edged closer to Benny, using the rollers on her chair to move quietly.
Garrett shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s take this one step at a time. Adare and Grace are visiting with the demon nation right now, so we have somebody in-house. Well, they’re with Zane’s right hand.”
Mercy looked up. “They’re still with Nick and Simone?”
Karma listened carefully. According to her lessons, Nick and Zane were as tight as brothers, and Nick’s mate, Simone, was a powerful witch. It was odd to know about these people whom she’d never met.
Garrett nodded. “Yes. So that’s good. Probably.” He glanced at his watch. “Ivar and Promise are headed to Realm Headquarters right now, even though Dage won’t like the company. They’ll use some sort of excuse to stay, just in case we need somebody at Realm Headquarters. This may mean the start of war with the Kurjans. I’m not sure if the Realm will back the Seven or leave us on our own. Hopefully Ivar can talk sense into Dage. I’d do it, but I’m going after Sam.”
“Ditto,” Logan said grimly.
Karma’s mind began to clear. They’d gone through the locations of every member of the Seven except one. “Did Ronan carry me to a different room from my cell, and did his mate perform surgery on my head?” The constant headache was gone. Her eye felt whole again, and her ear didn’t hurt.
“Yes,” Benjamin said, bringing up a different view on a secondary screen. “Faith took the device out of your head. She checked your vitals when we stopped for the helicopter, and then she and Ronan headed off to try to calm down the shifter nation in Montana. Unfortunately, we just blew up part of their territory in Utah, territory they didn’t know we were occupying.”
Karma awoke fully. Panic seized her around the throat. “You removed my device?”
“Yes. You’re welcome,” Benjamin said, still studying the screen. “It’s interesting that you know the names of the Seven and their mates so well. You failed to mention that earlier.”
“I studied all of you before you rescued me.” She jumped up and rushed him, grabbing his arm. “I need the device that was in my head. What do you mean, it was buried beneath the rubble? Please tell me you didn’t leave it back in that mess.” She had no connection to her girls without it. What would Terre do? Her stomach lurched and gurgled.
“Oh, it’s back there. Hopefully the Kurjans will think you’re dead,” Benjamin said, again typing. The screen zoomed in to show trees on fire. “Wow. We really did some damage there.”
Karma released him. What was she going to do? The betrayal dug deep as reality struck her still-muddled brain. “That wasn’t your headquarters. It was a falsehood? A trap?”
“Of course. The entire place was fake, because we were worried the Realm was tracking us. Once we found the device in your head, we planned accordingly since the Kurjans were obviously watching and listening.” Benjamin turned to look at her. “You’re still pale. Sit down.”
She was so accustomed to taking orders, she sat immediately. Irritation climbed through her, but she remained seated, since the room seemed to be spinning. “You discovered the device in my head.”
“Yes,” Benjamin said, turning back to his screen. “We knew you were transmitting data to them, so we used that.”
Used that? The memory of their kiss and what he’d done with his hand flushed through her, no doubt adding more than a dose of color to her face. “Apparently you used me, too,” she said quietly, her chest aching.
What had she expected?
* * * *
It was hard to miss the hurt in the female’s tone, but Benjamin didn’t have a good answer for her. Of course they’d used her to mislead the Kurjans. However, that wasn’t what she was talking about right now. He was flooded with memories of her soft moans and sweet taste as he took her apart—something he’d like to do again. “We’ll talk about that later,” he said, still scanning the ground for the spot where the Kurjans’ helicopter must’ve dropped to pick up the soldiers and Sam. God, he hoped Sam was still alive.
“Yes, we will,” she huffed, sounding like her spirit was returning. Good. That sedative had knocked her out longer than he’d liked.
Why in the world was she still sounding peeved? Well, besides the fact that he’d let the Kurjans hear her orgasm. She should still be thrilled that the device was out of her head. What was he missing? He’d have to figure it out as soon as they got a bead on Sam.
Logan paced back and forth behind Garrett. Tension rolled off him in dark waves, prickling through the room and heightening the stress and anger of everyone else. The guy could really emote. Mercy typed as fast as Garrett did, bringing up a third satellite, this one bootlegged from the Russians. It was an older model but was positioned in the right area. Sometimes Benny forgot what a great hacker Mercy could be.
Logan turned toward Karma, took a deep breath, and lowered his chin. “Where would they take my brother?”
Karma sucked in air. “I don’t know.” She held up a hand before Logan could explode, reading him with impressive accuracy. “I’m not stonewalling. Their main headquarters is still in Canada, which no doubt you already know. Their fighting forces move around a lot so that they’re not a target. I think they’d go somewhere temporary to, um, question your brother. It’d be at least a couple of hours from the battle zone.”