sighed, knowing it was going to be Nasir. All that man did was worry. “Come in.” He turned around from the bar table and to his shock he saw Kevin, Nikole’s friend. “Well this can't be good. Come, have a seat.” Kevin bowed his head. Zayn could feel the man’s nervousness. “Just spit it out Kevin. What’s wrong?”
Kevin looked up at his King, “Nikole met this guy last night. I tried to warn her away from him but…”
Pure anger laced Zayn’s tone. “Who did she meet?”
Kevin backed the chair up a few inches. “Derrik.”
Zayn didn’t even feel the glass in his hand break in his grip. “YOU let her around him! I agreed to let you be in business if you protected her from the people who might try and kill us! KEVIN, this is unacceptable! FUCK! NASIR, GET IN HERE!” Pacing back and forth, Zayn reached for his knife in his desk and slipped it into his side holster. The door opened, admitting Nasir. “Take Kevin away, and then get the riding team ready; we have a mercenary to hunt.”
Sitting in the kitchen, hearing the commotion outside in the hallway, Nikole got up and walked into the hallway. She saw Zayn load his gun, knives in his holsters. “Zayn, where are you going? What’s going on?”
He turned to her, frowning. “Nikole, go back in there. This does not concern you.” He turned around and headed out of the house. She saw Kevin and Nasir walking out the back door and realized Kevin must have told him. “Zayn, no, you can't go after him!”
Zayn stopped and spun around to stare at her, his eyes bleeding to his golden yellow shade. “Do you know what kind of male that man is, Nikole? DO YOU? He is a mercenary.”
“I know that, Zayn, he told me, he said he works for a noble family. I didn't tell him who I was; he figured it out! I promise.”
Zayn let out a sharp laugh. “I suppose he does think he works for a noble family. His employer is Haydar....” Spinning back around, he left without another word.
Hearing the front door slam shut and the cars starting, Nikole got her cell phone out and called Adara. Maybe she had Dominic's phone number and he could get a hold of Derrik. Pacing back and forth, she couldn’t take it. Hanging up, she sent a text message instead, explaining what happened. Hightailing it back to her room, she dressed to hunt on her own. Zayn wasn’t the only one who knew how. Grabbing her knife and slipping it into its sheath, she slid on her leather fighting pants and shirt before she slipped out of the window and headed down the side of the house.
“I can't believe she led him right to us. I thought you had people watching her,” Zayn said, moving through the forest. They had found their hunting grounds earlier in the night.
“Nikole made it easy for him to find the house; she marked every tree along the fucking path. What was she thinking??”
“She was fooled, Sire. We both know she would never knowingly put us in danger,” Nasir said as they pushed through the trees, stopping at the outskirts of the town and stumbling onto the dumping site of Nikole's kill.
“She is showing off her Magik too. I can't take this; she is out of control! She is putting us into unnecessary danger, and she needs to realize this is unacceptable.” Zayn's anger boiled as he punched the brick wall next to him. Seeing a crack form along the structure, he cocked a smile and walked back towards the fences. “Clearly they are meeting up again, which will be a trap. Nasir, have your men tail her, and when you see him, bring him back alive.”
Flashing off to the lake a day early, Nikole scoped out a site to hide and wait. I'm going to catch this mercenary and find out why he was following me and why he picked me up in the bar. Seeing a hiding spot off to the south, she moved there and set up the overnight essentials. Feeling the breeze on her skin, she settled in for the next twenty four hours. Finding a nice piece of wood, she pulled out her knife and began whittling a