The Enemy Within (Daughters of the People Series Book 3) (18 page)

Much later,
Indigo raced flustered and flushed into The Omega, Tellowee’s one and only bar.
She spotted Dani at a corner table sitting with a massive brute of a man and
rushed over.

“Sorry,” she
said and pressed a hand to her racing heart. “I hope you’ve not been waiting
long.”

“Not at all.”
Dani stood to hug Indigo, a tight squeeze that let them both know everything
was ok. “We haven’t been here too long.”

“Oh, well. I
won’t worry then.” Indigo turned to take in Dani’s companion, the famed Dave
Winstead who, rumor had it, had left his job with the FBI to be with Dani. She
nodded to him, determined to be polite to the man who had saved her friend’s
life, and her heart, no matter what Bobby thought. “I’m Indigo and you must be
Dave.”

He stood in a
slow move that seemed to last forever as his long body rose and rose until he
towered over her. “Nice to meet you.”

“Wow,” Indigo
said, and knew her eyes were popping out of her head at his sheer bulk.
“You’re, ah…”

“Humongous,”
Dani said with a pleased sigh. “You can say it. I certainly think it enough.”

Dave shot a
disgusted glance at Dani as a slow flush climbed his cheeks.

“Farm boy here’s
a little shy,” Dani said with a waggle of her thumb.

“Oh, well.”
Indigo took a deep breath and let it out on a shaky laugh. Her heart was still
galloping from her race into the bar. “That’s sweet.”

Dani sat down,
then Dave. Indigo pulled a chair out and sank into it gratefully.

“Where’s Bobby?”
Dani said.

Indigo rolled
her eyes. “
Laura
called him back to work to sign some papers.”

“And he went?”
Dani arched a questioning eyebrow. “That’s playing with fire. Doesn’t he know
she’s got a crush on him?”

“He does now,”
Indigo said.

Will Corbin walked
up to stand between Indigo and Dani, and rested a hand on each of their backs.
“Who’s playing with fire?”

Indigo turned to
greet the bartender with a smile. His lean build reminded her of Bobby, though
his features and coloring were different. He had the easy grace and charming
manner of a cherished Son. Indigo recalled uncomfortably that his grandmother,
Anya, sat on the Council of Seven and was Bobby’s aunt through his mother,
making the two men cousins, close in age and lineage.

Will ran the bar
for his parents, who preferred to travel, and kept the clientele in line with a
flirtatious smile and a wooden bat tucked snug behind the bar.

“Bobby,” Dani
said. “He’s ditched us to go to work and flirt with his secretary.”

“Office
manager,” Indigo corrected, “and he’s hardly flirting with her.”

“Want me to
handle him for you?” Will flipped the fourth chair at the table around and
straddled it. “Better yet, why don’t you forget about Bobby and run away with
me.”

Indigo pretended
to consider it. “It’s tempting.”

“I saw you
first, you know, back in school.” He put his hands on the back of the chair and
leaned forward, a boyish smile dimpling his cheeks. “But that rat snatched you
out from under my nose before I could grow up and claim you myself.”

They all
laughed, though Indigo thought Will’s was a tad wistful. Poor man. The life of
a Son wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.

He chatted with
them a while longer, his casual friendliness drawing even the stoic Dave out of
his shell, before he rose and flipped the chair back around. “Gotta get back to
work before Moira destroys my bar.”

Dani peered over
her shoulder at her older adoptive sister and snorted. Indigo turned to find
Moira at the bar going toe to toe with another Daughter in a heated argument
over who knew what. She shook her head and turned back around. Moira’s temper
ran high, but she was a good person. Mostly.

Indigo caught
Will’s arm before he could leave. “We’re planning a formal wedding ceremony for
the spring. Would you be willing to stand with Bobby?”

“Of course.” He
braced one hand against the table and another against the back of her chair. “And
since he’s not here to save you...”

He pressed his
lips to hers and took his time learning her, slanting his mouth over hers in a
masterful display of sensuality. His hand crept up to tangle in her hair,
tugging gently. Indigo sat there like a lump, unsure whether to pull away or
kiss him back or bite the tongue that flicked out, testing the seam of her
lips.

Dani cleared her
throat loudly. “Cut it out, Will.”

He drew back and
tweaked Indigo’s nose. “Serves him right for not being here.”

She couldn’t
argue with that.

He moved away, earning
a protest from Dani. “Hey, where’s mine?”

Will flipped his
towel at Dave before slinging it over his shoulder. “I like being in one piece,
cousin. Catch you later.”

When he’d gone,
Dani fixed Indigo with a laser-bright stare. “I noticed you didn’t struggle to
get away from him there.”

“Oh, well. I
didn’t know whether to punch him or kiss him back.”

“Kiss him back,”
Dani said in a
well, duh
voice, and yelped when Dave punched her arm
lightly as a reprimand.

“He’s certainly
got the moves.” Indigo snuck a glance toward the bar where Will was pouring
drinks. She fanned her face as discreetly as she could.
Moves
might be
an understatement. “And I bet he’ll make some woman very happy one day.”

“Just not you,”
Dani said.

“No, I’m quite
content where I’m at.”

“Ditto,” Dani
said with a grin.

They waited for Bobby
for over an hour, chatting and sharing gossip. Dave filled them in on what he
could of the Shadow Enemy’s movements, including what appeared to be a growing
division in the Alexiou family over the organization’s direction.

Indigo checked
her watch for the umpteenth time and shifted on the wooden chair. Bobby
should’ve been there to hear that, given the work they were doing for the IECS.
Where was he? Surely it didn’t take that long to sign papers.

Dani pressed a
hand to her abdomen and grimaced. Dave placed a massive hand on her back and
rubbed in slow, soothing circles.

“What is it?”
Indigo said. “Are you pregnant?”

Dani gave her a
disgusted look. “Why does everybody keep asking me that? No, it’s this bad
feeling. Ever since…”

She shook her
head and the sadness in her expression touched Indigo’s heart. Dani didn’t have
to say anything for Indigo to know where the younger Daughter’s thoughts
rested, on the recent events leading to her mother’s death by her own hand.

“My instincts
are getting stronger,” Dani continued. “Right now, they’re screaming at me that
something’s wrong.”

“Can you
pinpoint it?” Indigo said, but she already knew, because her gut was pinging
with it, too. Something was wrong with Bobby.

No, Indigo.
You’re being
irrational.

Just because he’s
running behind after visiting work late in the evening, spending time with a
woman who has a big time crush on him. What could possibly go wrong?

Dani shook her
head. “Not really. Something about a hawk carrying a dove in its claws. Dammit,
why do these visions have to be so metaphorical?”

Indigo watched
Dani continue speaking as if from a great distance. Her friend’s mouth moved in
animated slashes across her face, words tumbled out, she was certain, but
Indigo couldn’t hear them.

A hawk and a
dove
.

Bobby’s
aenkanien
,
a symbol for the weaker sibling, and her sister, the hawk, on the opposing side
in their battle over the Prophecy of Light.

Indigo stood
abruptly, knocking back her chair.

Dani stopped
speaking in mid-word to stare at her. “What is it?”

“Bobby.”
Dizziness swept over her. She leaned against the table until it passed. “He’s
in trouble.”

Dani opened her
mouth, but was cut short by the beep of Indigo’s phone. She pulled it out with
the mantra
Not Bobby, not Bobby, please, let him be ok
running through
her head, and read a text sent by Hiro:
Bobby’s been taken. BDH now
.

The breath froze
in her lungs and she sat down as suddenly as she’d stood. Dani took the phone
from Indigo’s limp fingers, read the message, and flipped it shut. They looked
at one another for long moments as a silent understanding passed between them.
Someone had dared to take a protected son, their kin, a man who filled an
important role in each of their lives.

Indigo’s
strength flooded back, braced by the slow anger bubbling up in her gut, and
with it the steely will of a Daughter whose mate had been threatened. Bobby was
in trouble. Goddess help the ones who’d taken him.

* * *

Bobby drove
between home and work with half his mind on the road and the other half on
Indigo.

She was pissed
at him.

It was bound to
happen to any couple. He wasn’t stupid enough to believe they were the
exception, but man, her anger killed him almost as much as her tears did.

The image of
Indigo huddled on the floor, sobbing after her nightmare, hit him full force
and he shuddered. Nope. Didn’t want to see that again.

Note to self:
Keep Indigo happy. No exceptions
.

Only, he wasn’t
going to bow to his mother the way Indigo did. Hell with that. Mom would weasel
her nose in on everything if they let her. The only reason she didn’t have more
control over his life now was because he’d drawn those lines with her when he’d
left home at sixteen. Goddess, he loved her to the bottom of his heart, but he
didn’t need her telling him how to run his marriage.

And Indigo
didn’t need his mother telling her how to treat him. His soon-to-be wife did
that very well on her own.

His wife
. Sweet Lady, he
loved calling her that and it was true, or close enough now that Indigo had
claimed him and both mothers had given their blessings. The ceremony was a
formality, nothing more, a ritual that didn’t mean dick compared to the love he
held for her. He would hold on to her as long as she would let him, hold her,
cherish her, give her the babies she longed for.

Earlier, she’d
thrown Laura at him as if he could possibly care about another woman. Indigo
knew
she was the only one for him. Hadn’t he shown her in every way he could? Yet
she’d been jealous over his office manager, for cripes’ sake.

He shook his
head, bemused. So what if Laura had a little crush on him, which he didn’t
believe for a second. How could that possibly affect his heart, when it held
only Indigo?

Anyway, Laura
had never shown the slightest interest in him. Ok, so she’d given Indigo a hard
time when she’d first joined them, but that was to be expected. BDH ran like a
well-oiled machine most days. No one liked having a major player coming in to
rock the boat. Surely once Laura got to know Indigo, the tension between them
would ease into friendship.

He parked his
truck in the parking deck, gave the aging dashboard a fond pat, and made his
way to the elevators, bypassing security by using the private elevator. When he
reached BDH’s floor, it was quiet, the main lights dimmed during the off hours.
He dropped by his own office, jotted a note on his calendar to talk to
Margaret, then went to Laura’s office. The lights were off in there as well, so
he searched through the common areas until he found her in the break room.

She was sitting
at a small round table in the corner, staring out the window at the night, with
her hands folded demurely in her lap and her ankles crossed in that way elegant
women had. He chuckled to himself at Indigo’s ridiculous jealousy. Laura was
pretty enough, true, but she was too staid and, frankly, too much like his
mother for him to be attracted. Friendly, yes. She was a nice young woman, but
she would never hold a candle to Indigo.

She looked up
and gave him a faint smile, her lips tilted so slightly only someone who knew
her well could distinguish the pleased expression from her normal business-like
mask.

He dropped down
in a chair across from her. “You shouldn’t work so late.”

“It’s what you
pay me for.” She touched the fingers of one hand lightly to the pulse point at
the bottom of her throat. “I appreciate your coming all the way back.”

“Hey, business
before pleasure, right?”

She blinked and
looked away.

His heart sank.
Shit
.
Maybe Indigo was right about the whole crush thing. He chafed his palms down
his thighs and searched for a tactful way to test the idea.

“As a matter of
fact, I was on my way to dinner with my sister and her new boyfriend. Indigo
went ahead so I could come in and get those papers signed for you.”