While Akshay Patel had maintained his family’s wealth and business success by creating alternative sources of income, he’d also given up sure bets when they involved Psy. Each time a Psy contract came up for renewal, Akshay said no. That didn’t speak of business tactics but a strong ideological viewpoint: Akshay Patel was anti-Psy.
Since the business news media had reported on a recent situation in which Patel had refused to do a deal with a changeling group, he was also turning anti-changeling. Most likely, he saw himself as neither.
No, to Akshay, he was pro-human.
Ena stood in the elegant gray of her living area, looking down into the crashing waves beneath the cliffs on which the architecturally designed house was perched. Her abode was all angular lines and glass, clean and functional, and yet it made a statement. That described Ena as well.
The only things that broke up the internal lines were the dark red roses that grew wild behind the house and that she cut and put in vases. At one point in the past, she’d considered why she did that and realized the answer was both simple and complex. Part of it was Arwen. She hadn’t been this Ena until his birth. She’d been harder. These days, she wasn’t soft . . . but she understood certain subtleties in life.
So she understood that Akshay Patel hadn’t come out of the womb this way. Neither could it be a simple case of nurturing designed to skew his viewpoint—his predecessors had all been happy to work with anyone who brought a good offer to the table. Even Akshay had followed the same path in his youth. Something had drastically changed his viewpoint. Knowing what that was would give Ena the upper hand.
It took her another three hours to find the answer.
That was when she got in touch with Kaleb. As expected, he didn’t blindly obey her request. His implacable will was part of why she’d once thought Kaleb and Silver would make an extraordinary power couple. She should’ve known neither would follow the well-trodden path, both masters of their own destiny.
After explaining the situation to Kaleb, she said, “I’d like to speak to him in a place he can’t control but that is civil.” Violence wasn’t always the best tactic with someone of Akshay’s power and likely arrogance. “I have a location.” She sent him a telepathic image.
Kaleb asked several further questions before saying, “When?”
“Twenty-five minutes.” That would give Ena enough time to prepare a pot of tea and make her way to the windowless cellar bathed by a lighting system that made the room glow as if in sunlight. Set up like a conversational nook, it was welcoming but private. If necessary, it could also become a cage.
“Do you need backup?” Kaleb’s cardinal eyes spoke of power most Psy could never comprehend.
Ena was nearly certain he was a dual cardinal, a creature of Psy myth, but she’d never been able to confirm. “No, I’ll handle this. But I need you to find another piece of information for me.”
Giving a curt nod when she stated her request, Kaleb signed off. Ena made her way to the cellar, was seated in one of the six antique chairs in the room when Kaleb teleported in her guest. He left without a single word. “Please,” Ena said to the man behind the attempt to poison her granddaughter. “Take a seat.”
Tawny brown eyes scanned the room before settling on her. “Ena Mercant, I presume.”
Ena inclined her head. “Would you like a drink?” She held up a bone-china teapot that sat on the graceful white table between them. “Tea?”
Taking a seat across from her with no sign of concern, one of his feet propped on the knee of the other leg, Akshay Patel shook his head. “Nothing personal. I don’t trust Psy.”
Ena wasn’t startled by the elegantly spoken rudeness. She’d expected that after having researched his bargaining tactics. “How can you know the motives or personal beliefs of all Psy?” Lifting a cup of the herbal tea she’d already poured for herself, she took a sip out of the delicate china.
Akshay Patel tugged down the sleeves of his pinstriped navy jacket, aligning them with the pristine white cuffs of his shirt. “Maybe I’m psychic.”
Ena lowered the fragile cup to a saucer as delicate. “You have no fear.”
“Of an old woman with delusions of power?” A mask of faux civility, the smile on his handsome face silent mockery to accompany his insult. “Why should I?”
“How do you expect to get out of this room?”
A gun was suddenly in his hand, the weapon sleek and metallic. “Psy, human, or changeling, a bullet punches through flesh, spills blood hot and red.”
“As occurred with Bowen Knight?” Ena lifted her teacup again.
Akshay Patel’s mask slipped, revealing turbulent emotions. “He wasn’t the target—Bo has done a lot for the human race, but he was being sucked into this takeover of our race described as cooperation. I just wanted to give him a wake-up call.”
“I fail to see how a human-on-human attack would’ve woken him up.”
“They’ll find data on his phone linking the hit to a meeting with Krychek.” A tight smile. “Bo would’ve already been acting on it if he wasn’t so badly wounded. That’s my fault and I take full responsibility for the fallout and the damage to the Alliance—I should’ve sent the shooter after Lily when Bo wasn’t around to protect her.”
“You didn’t do it yourself? I wouldn’t have thought you’d trust anyone with such a critical task.”
A shrug. “I’m no marksman, and there are people I trust with all I love. Not something you’d understand.”
Ena’s research gave her the answer. “Your brother-in-law, a former special operative and close friend. He is, I assume, driven by the same motive as you—the psychic rape of your wife.”
Akshay Patel’s eyes grew hard. “Connecting into that Hivenet of yours, I see. How are the plans for the subjugation of the human race going?”
The fact he didn’t deny her supposition, added to his body language, gave her the answer she needed. That answer cleared the Mercants’ debt to the Alliance and to Lily Knight in particular. Ena telepathed the data to Silver, shutting down the link before her granddaughter could ask any questions. “Is that why you’re so against Trinity? You believe it’ll leave humans in a worse position?”
“It’ll leave humans in a position of no power.” Akshay’s hand remained on the gun he’d placed against his thigh. “That’s what the Psy have always wanted, always done.”
“From your recent business moves, it appears you believe the changelings will come to feel the same way.”
The mask back on, he lifted a shoulder. “They’re sure getting chummy with Psy these days. Lucas Hunter pretends to be evenhanded, but he’s the father of a half-breed child. Psy and changeling. Not changeling and human.” His expression was granite. “Now I hear the precious Mercant scion has mated one of the two most powerful changeling alphas in Russia. What a stroke of luck for you. I guess the poor schmuck will never know you fucked with his mind.”
Ignoring the latter part of his rant because she wasn’t ready to talk about Silver, Ena sipped more of her tea. “Lucas Hunter has multiple packmates who identify as both changeling and human. One of his senior people is mated to a human.”
“It doesn’t matter.” A blood vessel stood out prominently on his temple. “Now that the changelings have access to Psy corporations, I can see them cutting off human contracts.”
“Has that happened?”
“Not yet, but it will.” Lifting his weapon, he deactivated the safety using his thumbprint. “Now, I think our conversation is over.”
“Talking of conversations, my granddaughter had an interesting one with your cousin Jai recently.” Ena’s cup made a quiet clinking sound against the bone china of the saucer when she put it down.