Page 24 of Shadow Mate

Colby nodded. “If I promise to keep my hands to myself and treat you as if you were Caye, can we take this discussion into my study?”

Brie nodded slowly. “Yes, I can do that.”

“Good,” he said, taking her elbow. Brie stopped, looked down at his hand and arched her eyebrow. Chagrined, he let go. “Sorry, force of habit.”

“A bad habit you should learn to break.”

With that said, she followed him down the hall and into his study, taking one of the chairs opposite his desk. There was no way she was going to curl up on the comfy sofa.

“You didn’t finish your lunch; nor did I. Why don’t I have Maya bring us something?”

Brie would have liked to decline, but her stomach grumbled, and she realized she was hungry. “That would be nice. Maybe something to snack on versus a full meal?”

“Sounds good. I know she made some of the curry chicken salad you like. I’ll make sure it’s on the tray.” He picked up the interior phone and spoke with someone about getting them food, which was good because now she was really hungry.

Brie shook her head. “How do you stay in such great shape? I swear if I lived here, shifter physiology or not, I’d gain a hundred pounds in the first month.”

“If you lived here, you’d be with me. I’d make sure it got worked off.” He raised his hands to ward off her argument. “Sorry. Force of habit. I’ll try not to do that.”

“See that you do,” she snapped and then shook her head. “That’s not fair. I hate that I can’t seem to find fair with you.”

“How about we agree just for the duration of this op that both of us will treat the other, as well as ourselves, with the same grace we would demand of others.”

“So, what’s your plan?”

“It has several parts and even more contingencies.”

She laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”

“I like things planned out. I like to have options and know what they are so that if something goes sideways, we can adjust.”

“I’m listening.”

“We know Strode has a mole here in Mystic River…”

“We do? I thought that Trudy had been eliminated, or rather, the threat that Trudy posed had been neutralized.”

He nodded. “It has, but I am not convinced there isn’t somebody else. I haven’t done anything about it as I’ve been cherry-picking information to leak to the three individuals I suspect and seeing what gets back to Strode.”

“Sneaky and manipulative.”

“Yes. It has also been highly helpful in letting him only get the information we want him to have. What I propose is we get someone to pose as Adriana and have her leave with an armed escort, take a series of commercial flights, and get to someplace sunny and warm where we control most, if not all, of the variables.”

“Where did you have in mind?”

“The Greek island of Crete. It’s large and populous, and I already have property there. The Phantom Fire has offered to make their presence known so we should attract Strode’s attention.”

She nodded. “Then what?”

“Simultaneously we move her from here to the Cornish Coast with an eye to getting her to Sean and Winter. Winter assures me that she’ll be safe at Castle Curaidh.”

“Won’t it take time to secure a place in Cornwall?”

“Already done; I have a place there. I wanted a location where we could strike at Strode. He’s up on Lundy Island off the coast of Devon. He thinks his fortress is impenetrable. It isn’t. In fact, according to Hayden, it’s particularly vulnerable in a couple of ways, but that’s another story. I secured an old abbey at the upper end of the Cornish Coast. St. Piran’s Abbey was built to pay homage to the patron saint of Cornwall.”

“That’s just lovely, but how does that affect Adriana?”

“It gives us an easy staging point—not just for an invasion of Lundy Island, but for the Shadow Sisters to come and go and use as a base of operation. It would be easy to defend and can be reached by land, sea, or air. I have already installed a small group of people to safeguard the place. Cullen adds his jets to mine and then we send them out, one after another. We make sure the mole can see the decoy Adriana board one, and hopefully we trick him into following her.”

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