Read Online shaede assassin 05 - shadows at midnight by amanda bonilla - Free Book Online Page A

guess, the Synod was involved. I hopped down from the stool and made my way across the bar. The stranger’s intense gaze met mine and a cool smile curved his full mouth. He nodded his head to me in acknowledgment as we passed one another and I fought the urge to turn around and stare. I didn’t need to see him to know that the mysterious man was headed in Ty and Levi’s direction. Damn it, the need to know what the hell was going on burned in my gut like a cinder.
    Later.
    I could unravel that mystery later. After I got Xander back. After I made sure he was safe and sound back at his house. And after I made Padma pay for what she’d done to us both.
    #
    When I got back to The Pit, there was no sign of mister Tall, Dark, and Foreboding. There was, however, a somberness in the air that hadn’t been there when I’d left. And considering our impending suicide mission, it made me more than a little nervous.
    Xander’s scent still clung to the shirt I held in my hand. The soft, almost silky fabric slid through my fingers as I twisted it nervously in my grip. Everything the Shaede King owned was high-end, apparently even his t-shirts. I tried not to think about all of the things that had happened between us as I stalked toward the bar. Shifted my focus from the what ifs and coulda beens as I took a seat next to Tyler. Refused to think about anything that might crumble my emotional resolve. I needed to be a stone-cold bitch to get him out of there. Padma’s cruelty had to be met with cold indifference. I couldn’t allow myself to feel an ounce of sympathy or guilt over what had brought us to this point. This was a job . Period.
    “Where’s the witch?” I asked without preamble.
    “Um, right here.”
    I turned to find Pamela sitting at Tyler’s right shoulder. I’d been so preoccupied looking for the mystery man when I came in that I hadn’t even noticed her sitting there. A tingle danced along my spine as our gazes met. For a human, she had an interesting energy signature. Power rippled from her in a gentle vibration. Sure she was human, but she was nowhere near mundane. I decided to forego pleasantries. Pretending that her presence didn’t spike my anxiety wasn’t going to help me get through this any better. Simply being in the same room with her threatened to send me back into that moment when I’d adopted the façade of Kade’s dead mate. And that would only lead me down a road of memories I’d tried damned hard to leave behind.
    “Cool.” Cool? Really? My conversation skills hadn’t improved much over the years. “Let’s do this, then. The faster we can pinpoint Xander’s location, the better.”
    Ty and Levi exchanged a tense look. I couldn’t help but wonder what had gone down while I was retrieving Xander’s shirt.
    “Are you ready, Pam?” Levi didn’t seem too concerned about expediency, but instead was looking out for his girl. It was sweet. I was willing to bet that with all of the broken hearts he left in his wake, there was a support group somewhere for Levi’s exes.
    “Yep. All I need is quiet place so I can focus.”
    Good luck finding that here. It would have been better to do this at my place and I still wasn’t sure why Ty had put the kibosh on that.
    “I can make the back office soundproof,” Tyler responded. “Will that work for you?”
    His preoccupied tone sent a trickle of dread into my bloodstream.
    “It’ll be fine,” Levi assured us.
    Invisible insects traveled the length of my spine as Pamela watched me from the corner of her eye. Her anxiety was almost palpable, souring the air with a pungent tang. It seemed as though she didn’t want to be here any more than we wanted her here. I didn’t like the reminder, no matter how innocent her part had been, in the debacle that had landed me in Kade’s possession and at his mercy. And he’d had none .
    Worrying over my ordeal with the long dead Cambion and the subsequent aftermath wasn’t going to get Xander back, though.