.Chapter Fourteen .

Tess waited until Quinn left before looking longingly at her computers.

Harley was still sitting on the sofa. "Go ahead and work."

"Are you planning to keep me company?"

She rubbed at her belly. "I"m feeling a little off. Think I"ll stay right here for a while."

"Grab the pillows from the end and make yourself comfortable." She didn"t really mind the company, but it did mean she"d have to keep the music down to a more "reasonable" level. "Want some coffee?"

"No thanks."

She fired up the one cup coffee maker and waited for it to provide her fuel. As soon as she heard about an upstart company trying to create one, she went on the offensive and designed and built her own version. Built right into the house with a dedicated water line, it was her most reliable fuel in between sweet sodas.

Pure black in hand she turned her focus to the computers. "What is this now..."

The search programs had flagged several notable files. But was any of it new information and if so, was it useful? The first two were charges on their soldier"s credit cards. One in Corpus Cristi and another in Los Angeles. Since they already knew that he"d left LA she disregarded that one. It had happened a few other times. Smart fellow that he was, he"d scattered a few of his cards around so they would provide some distraction.

The one in Corpus Cristi though... She was able to track it down and pull up footage of the purchase. A young woman and child... "Wait a second, that"s his wife." But why in Christi? She dug a little deeper. His wife was staying at her aunt"s beach house. After he"d been turned into a vampire, they hadn"t been able to find her in her San Antonio apartment.

"Did you find something?" Harley shifted around looking uncomfortable.

"I knew he was going to try and return home. I thought that would be Antonio but maybe with his wife in Corpus Christi. That gives us two places to try and stop him."

"You should probably tell Quinn right away."

"Yeah, I bet he will send the boys directly there from Vegas." She spun her chair around and leapt up, jogging from the room. Two doors down into the Mahogony Room as they called Quinn"s office. She barely remembered to knock before diving inside.

Quinn had his antique phone cradled against one ear while he doodled on an envelope. Before she could open her mouth, he held up one hand to motion for her to wait. "Sorry to interrupt you Director, but I"ve had urgent business cross my desk. Yes, I think it might be related to our topic. Thank you. You, too." He hung up the phone.

"Sorry to interrupt."

"You found something?"

"Yeah. I know we were figuring our soldier boy might try to head for home and he is heading that direction."

"But faster than we expected."

"Yeah." She nodded. "Since we picked up the cards he got from the forger, we've been able to track him somewhat even between kills. His direction has not wavered much. He's heading home, but there isn"t anyone there waiting for him. His family is MIA."

"You found them?"

"Yes. Her aunt has a beach house in Corpus Christi. I caught her on surveillance using one of his old cards just minutes from that address."

"Deven and Zeven should be catching their flight home soon. Perhaps we should have them divert to intercept. But which location…"

Was Quinn suggesting she make the call? "He"s been traveling during low light, but I think he should reach San Antonio soon. I'm sure he has tried to contact her by now. If she had a phone surely, he would have called her directly. But she has been out of touch since his team was killed."

Quinn stayed quiet and let her work through the decision.

"I've been thinking about this all wrong. He must have found a way to contact her by now. She would have told him where to find her." But what would that mean? Wouldn't he go straight to where his wife was waiting? Why did that feel wrong?

"Which do you think it will be? Where should we have the boys intercept?"

"Logic says it will be in Corpus Christi, but something is telling me that isn't right."

"Let's trust your instincts on this one. I'll call them and have them go to San Antonio. If they miss him, it's just a short drive to Christi."

It was nerve wracking. He trusted her instincts when she didn't even know if she had any. What if she was wrong? "Are you sure?"

"Tess!" Harley"s voice was louder and higher pitched than usual.

She dove back out the door and sprinted to her office.

Harley was perched on the edge of the sofa. "Sorry about the puddle on your floor. My water seems to have broken."

"Who cares about the floor? What should I do?"

With a wry smile, Harley said, "First, take a breath and don"t panic."

Quinn ducked into the entrance. "This will change the plan a bit."

"Sorry."

Thankfully Quinn didn't look panicked at all. "Don"t apologize. This is a good thing."

"Where are we doing this?" She held her arms out to get help standing up.

Quinn was at her side raising her up and holding her long enough for Tess to reach her other side. "I"ve got the guestroom on the first floor set up with a few supplies. Can you help her there while I call the boys?"

"Sure, sure." She offered her shoulder to Harley and helped support her as they walked to the guestroom. Once there she settled her on the low single bed. "Not sure if you should sit, lay down or what."

"This is good for now. Glad he thought to cover it with a rubber sheet."

"It"s probably not his first delivery."

"Not mine either so we should be fine."

For a moment she thought Harley meant she"d been pregnant before but of course Harley had been an emergency room doctor for years. She"d probably delivered plenty of babies. "Are you sure this wouldn't be better at a hospital?" Then she remembered that not all Valàfrn children were born in human form. "Yeah, scratch that."

Quinn knocked on the still open door. "I caught them before they boarded. Zeven insisted on returning ASAP. Deven will divert to San Antonio and try to get ahead of our Soldier Boy." Something about his tone sounded worried. "Tess, can I talk to you a moment?"

"Sure." She followed him back outside to the hall. "What"s up?"

"I don"t want Deven to face the target alone."

That surprised her. "You don"t think he can handle him?"

"Normally, he would likely have little trouble. But the weather is getting questionable with the edge of a tropical storm moving in over the gulf."

"I see."

"One of us should meet him in San Antonio to provide back up. I know you haven"t had much experience in the field facing actual targets but if you feel comfortable going, I should be able to hold down the fort here."

She took a deep breath. The logic made sense. She brought little to the table with either problem. But she could see why Quinn had suggested she go. Even if she didn"t have much combat experience, she could certainly support Deven mentally.

"It"s your call."

"I"ll back up Deven."

He nodded and stepped back into the room. "Good luck."

* * *

Tessa grabbed everything she could think of and packed it into a small duffel bag. She had a few weapons that she felt comfortable with, and a change of clothes and a few personal things tucked into a smaller cross-shoulder saddle bag. She jogged from the bedroom, down the stairs and was heading for the door.

"Master?"

The voice in her head sounded like the dagger, La-Rin. No, this was the first time she felt its emotions in the form of a voice. She changed direction and went to her office where she'd left the dagger and cloth.

"Take me."

She picked up the weapon. Was it alright to take it along? She still didn't know what to expect from the magical dagger. But should she put it in her saddlebag or the duffel?

"Keep me close."

Right. Okay then. She pulled the smaller bag around enough to check if there was room. Would have been helpful if she had a Valàfrn's ability to manipulate fabric. Even as she had the thought, she felt power tingle on the tips of her fingers where they touched the bag.

Maybe…

Some of the research she'd done had explained how the mate bond worked with Deven's people. Once their wolf spirit accepted their partner, the Valàfrn curse as well as the magic was shared between them. If that was what was happening… then she might actually be able to use his magic to adapt her bag. She stroked the fabric on the bag and imagined the underside forming a long narrow pocket to hold La-Rin.

"Oh yeah. Nice." It had done exactly how she'd wanted. The pocket even had a slight flap to hide the hilt which could still be easily grabbed. Once she had La-Rin stashed in her new pocket and the magic cloth folded up inside the bag she grabbed the duffel and hurried to the garage.

She had it all, right? Sitting in her little Volkswagen Rabbit she did a last check. Then she had to run back into the house to find her agency identification. Without it she would never even make it through the airport boarding. With that in mind she dug out a professional jacket that Quinn had sworn that she"d need someday.

Then she was off to the airport. Quinn had promised to make the reservation between contractions. Good to his word, it was all set by the time she got there. Although she didn"t sleep much at night, she was lucky enough to be able to sleep while traveling. With her eyes closed she barely noticed the two-hour flight.

When she checked the arrival times it looked like she was nearly an hour ahead of Deven. Should she wait for him at the airport or start the mission solo and let him catch up? The first step would be to find Soldier Boy"s family home. She could do a drive by on that first to be certain of the location. That much she could do without putting herself in any danger.

It was an apartment not all that far from the airport. Just straight down route 281 past Southtown to Market. 238 Riverside Heights... Was a plain looking apartment building one block over from the convention center. It sounded nice but was more than a little disappointing.

Her drive-by revealed cramped quarters with shared entrances and a small concrete front yard. She had been a city dweller long enough to know that some comforts had to be given up for the benefit of short commutes, lower rents and a variety of local entertainments.

But didn"t Soldier Boy have a child. In her opinion this wasn"t ideal for raising kids. What would make them choose here? No, that wasn"t fair. Sometimes there was little choice in the matter. Surely, they had their reasons and now, those reasons probably didn"t matter at all.

She watched the apartment entrance for a little while and saw no signs of life within. No one entered or left. No lights or sounds from within the home.