CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

“ W hat the hell just happened?” Tom asked, teleporting into the shadows beside Lance.

Fury poured off him as he slammed his hand into the concrete wall.

“She just got in the fucking vehicle with him,” Lance growled. The call to her phone had been redirected to their comms, so they had caught the tail end of the conversation and knew who she had been talking to.

Kurt ran across the road to join them.

“Two of our guys are teleporting with the vehicle. We’ll find out where they go and then head over.”

Vampires could only port a certain distance at a time, so they would go in stages following them.

“I guess it’s what we wanted,” Tom said.

Lance gritted his teeth imagining Sofia sitting inside the vehicle with Stefano. He had known one day this could be a possibility. Hell, Tom was right. It was their plan to plant Sofia back into the rebellion so she could spy on them. They just never thought they’d lose as much control as they just had.

They had no eyes on her; she wasn’t wired, and they didn’t know where they were taking her.

He was going to kill that monster if he touched her.

“Anyone told the commander yet?” he asked.

“Yup.” Tom nodded and ran a hand over his face. “Shit, she’s not prepared. Not wired. No backup.”

“I fucking know,” he growled.

Apartment. Now.

They teleported up into Sofia’s apartment to find Craig pacing the floor. “What happened?”

After they shared the details with him, the four large vampires stood still, filling the space with a mix of arms crossed and fists on hips.

“Where is she, Tom?” Lance asked.

“Looks like they’re heading to a private airfield.” Lance’s eyes darted to Tom and then to Craig.

“Shit!” Craig spat out.

Lance paced the floor. “We’ve got to follow her.”

“How? You going to climb on the wing and hope to God it’s a short flight?” Craig asked, brows raised. “It’s unlikely we can even get the Moretti jet ready in time, and it would hardly be a covert operation if we did.”

Kurt sat on the edge of the sofa. “The team can track the plane once it’s in the air. We’ll just be delayed in getting to her.”

“Also fucking known as leaving her unprotected. Which we promised her we wouldn’t do.”

Craig glared at him, though his anger was not directed at him. Lance knew the guy well enough to know that. He watched the commander’s mind race as they awaited his instructions.

“Get one of the team following them to drop a tracer on the plane before it takes off,” he ordered, then pointed at Kurt. “Prepare the green team and the Moretti jet. No matter where they’re heading, we are wheels up within the hour following them.”

Lance took a breath for the first time in what felt like hours.

There wasn’t anything he could do about the fact Sofia was alone with Russo right at this minute, but they could find her and protect her from a distance. She had agreed to be a spy, and they needed intel on the rebel movement. This was what they had all planned. It just made him sick now that she was out of his sight.

He could only hope this would go fast; that Sofia would get the information so they could tag Stefano and bring him in.

Because until she had the intel, her job wouldn’t be over.

FORTY-FIVE MINUTES later, their jet took off.

Around him sat Craig, Kurt, and Tom; behind him, ten members of the green team, all of them in black Moretti uniforms, lace-up boots, and with their bodies discretely lined with weapons.

Lance’s leg bobbed up and down anxiously while Craig looked at him, irritated.

Shit, he needed to relax and show he had his emotions under control, which he fucking didn’t. The commander would tell him to stay put when they landed if he couldn’t pull himself together.

Cursing under his breath, Lance threw his head against the black leather headrest and closed his eyes. If nothing else, he needed to get his shit together for Sofia.

Knowing she was exactly where they had all planned for her to be made him feel like an asshole. She could be his damn mate, and right now, she was with vampire enemy numero uno . What kind of fucking mate was he?

“I thought you were going with the king?” Kurt asked Craig.

“Was. Catching Russo is our priority,” Craig snapped. “Marcus and the black team are going with him.”

Craig and Brayden had quickly decided he would not accompany the king to the Geneva meeting when they had discovered Sofia had been taken by Stefano. It could be their only chance of catching the leader of the rebellion. “Brayden is staying with the other Morettis in Rome.”

“Fuck, I bet he’s pissed about being benched,” someone said.

Craig nodded again, frowning. “Yeah, he is. But he knows his duty as a Moretti. The throne comes before everything.”

And catching Stefano was protecting the Morettis. Lance didn’t envy their royal status in the least. With great power came great sacrifice and responsibility, as the saying went.

As the most senior members of the Moretti Royal Army, they lived and breathed to protect the royals, but for the first time in his life, Lance wondered how these males could put a title and its importance before the love of their mate.

His growing feelings for Sofia made him wonder if the king truly could. Sure, he hadn’t been born with a crown on his head like Vincent, nor did he have the lives of the entire race resting on his shoulders, but anyone who spent time with the king and queen could see how powerful their love was.

Tom, who had been tapping away on a laptop most of the flight, tracking the plane carrying Sofia, suddenly looked up at Craig. His eyes narrowed. “They’ve landed in Tuscany. In Tirrenia, to be precise. A fucking human military facility.”

“What the hell is Russo doing in an Italian military facility?” Craig growled, his brows drawing together.

“It may be human, but it’s not Italian. Camp Darby. It’s a US facility.”

They all looked at each other.

“Fuck,” Craig cursed. “I need to speak to Brayden before we proceed. With the king heading to the UN, this could get complicated.” Lance went to rise out of this seat, but Craig pointed at him. “Sit down!” He froze, but growled. “I’m fucking serious, De Luca. This is bigger than all of us and you know it. Get your head in the game.”

Lance lowered and cursed loudly.

He knew Craig was right, but it was hell sitting there, hopeless, knowing Sofia was in an even more dangerous and complicated situation than he could have imagined. He drew in long, deep breaths and visualized all the ways he could rip Stefano Russo’s head off. Turned out there weren’t many, but just imagining it was helping.

Craig wandered off, clearly having a telepathic conversation with the prince.

Thirty minutes later, they landed in a local airfield a ten-minute drive from Camp Darby. They waited for the commander’s direction.

“Green team, stealth mode. Surround the facility. If you spot Russo or Sofia, advise Tom immediately,” Craig commanded. “Kurt and I will teleport inside. I want you two”—he pointed to Lance and Tom—“ready to back us up if anything happens or follow them if they leave the base, assuming they haven’t already.”

A point Lance hadn’t given thought to yet. They may have just landed and moved on.

Shit.

He’d known Craig wouldn’t let him go inside the base, but it still pissed him off. In any other situation, Lance knew he’d be the one right beside the commander. It was how they worked.

“Got it,” he said, mentally kicking himself for letting his emotions rule him like this.

But it’s Sofia!

They all teleported to the outskirts of the base and got into position.

Let’s go, Craig told Kurt, and the two of them vanished.

He glanced at Tom and let out a sigh.

“Dude, this shit is hard. Stop beating yourself up.” At his raised eyebrow, Tom slapped him on the shoulder. “Females. It will calm down eventually.”

Tom was mated to Lucinda, who was actually the sister of Stefano Russo, though she had long ago disinherited her family.

Lance was surprised they were all assuming Sofia was his mate when the two of them still weren’t sure. Looking back, it had been obvious to everyone else when Brayden and Craig had met theirs, so yeah, maybe he was obvious as fuck.

He felt very protective of Sofia, that was clear, but there had been no change in his eyes over the past few weeks. Sure, he’d wanted to fuck her and possess every inch of her body unlike any other female, but until he saw those physical changes, he wasn’t going to assume. Mating was a big damn deal.

“Yeah. I just promised her, you know.”

Tom nodded, looking out at the base. “What do you think they’re doing in there?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but the combination of the US military and a psychopath such as Russo can’t be good.”

Not good at all.