I closed my eyes. Kye had been the one who'd cleaned me up and covered my nakedness. And somehow, that just made the whole situation even worse.
Damn it, why did he have to do this? Why did he have to take this job and risk losing both our lives?
But I knew the answer even as I asked the question.
It was all about control. Controlling me, and controlling the situation.
Yet I very much suspected it was also about the risk. The high of knowing that everything was at stake, and that one wrong move could end everything.
Literally.
I knew that high, but I wasn't addicted to it. Kye, I suspected, was.
What a fucking mess this was all turning out to be. And I bet fate was having a jolly old time watching all her plans unfold.
We didn't make it into the Directorate. Jack called on my phone when we were still ten minutes away. I hit the button and put it on speaker.
"You got a location?"
"We do. His signal is coming from an old biscuit factory out near Broadmeadows. Benson's sending the address through to Kade's onboard now."
The computer beeped as he said it. I hit the switch and shifted the address over the nav-com. Kade glanced down then nodded, doing a fast u-turn and hitting the gas.
"We're on our way. Can you get hold of a floor plan of the place?"
"We're searching now. And I've called Iktar back from his vacation, but he's not going to get there before three-thirty."
I glanced at my watch. That was nearly an hour away, meaning Iktar was at the spirit lizard's reservation up in the mountains near Taradale.
One way or another, the action would probably be over by then. Which left Kade and me alone against a professional hitman.
The odds should have been in our favor. We were as well trained—or better trained—than him. And yet uncertainty gnawed at me.
Or maybe it was just the memory of his last words. Come alone.
He had to know that I wasn't that stupid. The link between us had grown a lot stronger over the past few days, and I wasn't about to trust my ability to bring him to justice.
"And Rhoan?" I asked Jack. Part of me wanted my brother there, and yet it was also a risk I didn't want to take. Kye knew that stopping Rhoan would stop me, and if it meant the difference between him escaping or not, then he'd shoot to kill and to hell with the consequences.
"Rhoan's apparently in the process of escorting Liander out of town. He'll get back here as soon as he can." Jack paused. "Be careful going in, you two."
"We always are," Kade murmured, amusement twisting his lips.
Jack made a disparaging sound. "You might be, but your partner has a definite tendency towards carelessness."
"I resent that," I said mildly, then frowned and added, "Boss, if Kye still has those deadeners on him, you may lose contact with one or both of us when we get within range."
"We know. I've ordered our clean-up teams to be on standby, and they'll be ready to go if we lose contact for more than five minutes."
"Teams? It's not going to be that big a mess."
"Maybe not, but the teams are trained to defend themselves, and can legally render armed help if the situation calls for it."
Which meant he was sending us help the only way he legally could, but he was also giving us the chance to do our jobs first while trying to avoid endangering the lives of men and women who weren't trained killers. "Oh. Thanks."
"Just be careful," he said and hung up. I rubbed a hand across my eyes and wondered if I was ever going to wake up from this nightmare.
A killer was on the loose and the lives of non-guardian personnel were being put on the line because of me.
Because I'd been able to really believe that Kye was as cold and as ruthless as he portrayed himself. Because I'd been unable to see past my own twisted feelings for the man.
"Riley," Kade said softly, "don't be too harsh on yourself. None of us seriously suspected that Kye could be involved. It's as much our fault as yours that he's on the loose."
"But I was with him a lot over the past few days. I knew he was playing some sort of game, but I—"
He placed a hand on my bare knee, squeezing it gently. "Enough. You did what you could. No one could ask for anything more."
"Jack could."
"Jack hasn't. The only person angry at you is you, and you don't deserve the beating you're giving yourself. Besides, you did take out one of our killers."
"That was more Kye than me."
It might have been the truth, but Kye hadn't really come there to save me, but rather to preserve the ideal of control. He was a man who kept a tight leash on every little aspect of his life, and he'd needed to prove to me—and to himself—that nothing and no one could get past him.
That's why we'd made love. He might have wanted me, but it was also another means of proving that I would comply with his wishes, no matter what the situation.
Which was probably why he wasn't running now. That would be messy. Kye didn't do messy, or leave unfinished business behind.
It could only mean he planned a more personal ending to this. Maybe that's why he'd warned me to come alone. The man who needed to be in command of every little aspect of his life planned to end all this his way.
And his way meant guns and death.
"Riley," Kade said softly, squeezing my knee again.
"Enough. I mean it."
"You're such a sweet man, but—"
He snorted softly. "You wouldn't be thinking that if you knew just how good your skin feels under my fingers, or what is currently going on in my thoughts."
I grinned. "Once a stallion, always a stallion."
"Too true, my dear." He sighed wistfully, and withdrew his hand.
The computer beeped again. I hit another button and a floor plan popped up on the screen. I studied it for a moment then said, "It looks like we have two main entrances and a fire exit. There's two floor levels and several out buildings."
"He'll be in the main building. There are more options there for running and hiding."
Neither of which I could really imagine Kye doing. "He's run there for a reason."
"Of course he has." Kade turned off the Ring road at Pascoe Vale Road and slowed down for the lights, checking the traffic to the right before pulling out and slapping his foot on the accelerator again. "Professionals always have their escape routes planned beforehand, and I'd be very surprised if Kye didn't have every expectation of walking away from this."
And I'd be very surprised if he did. Kye was a realist, if nothing else.
All too soon we were pulling up several buildings away from the one I suspected held Kye. Kade climbed out and opened the trunk. He had a veritable arsenal inside.
"Good grief," I said, sweeping my gaze over the rifles, lasers, guns and stakes stashed in neat little secured rows. "Does Jack know you've raided the weapon store like this?"
"Nope," he said cheerfully. "And a man can never have enough fire-power."
I snorted softly and reached for a laser. He slapped my hand away. "Take a gun. Lasers don't fire up instantly, and you can't afford to give a man like Kye even a half-second advantage."
He had a point. I reached for a Browning simply because it was more lightweight than some of the others and fit my hand better, yet still packed a hell of a punch.
"So what's the plan? We sneak in front and back and pin him down in the middle?" Kade said, stashing several different pistols and knives about his body before picking up a rifle then slamming the trunk shut.
"You take at the back. I'm walking right in through the front door."