Necessary Pursuit by Mari Carr & Lila Dubois

Author:Mari Carr & Lila Dubois [Carr, Mari]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Mari Carr

Chapter Twelve

The room, a cave perhaps—he was fairly sure they were underground—was dramatically lit. The edges were shrouded in darkness, while a cone of light illuminated a huge medallion embedded in the stone floor. It bore a Celtic triangle symbol.

Luca hadn’t bothered to try to track where he’d been taken, or how he’d gotten where he now was. There hadn’t been a need to because Selene and Oscar had been by his side. As long as they were with him, he was safe.

But ten minutes ago, he’d been separated from them. He’d been brought into what he was fairly sure was an elevator, a man’s hand on his shoulder guiding him since he still had the hood on.

He was sitting in the centermost of three chairs that abutted one half of the medallion. His guide had, after removing the hood, faded into the darkness.

If they killed him here, now, would Selene and Oscar grieve for him? The idea that there would be someone left behind to mourn him was actually comforting. The Bellator Dei would celebrate his death if he died at the hands of the Masters’ Admiralty because it would be a sign that he’d paid the ultimate price for the cause. They wouldn’t let Joli show any sadness.

Footsteps clicked on the stone, and then a robed, hooded figure appeared from the darkness.

When the person spoke, he was surprised to realize it was a woman, though he shouldn’t have been. He thought he’d heard Oscar and Selene referring to the person they called the Grand Masters as her/she.

“Luca Campisi,” she said. “We’ve been looking for you.”

He remained silent. There was, after all, nothing he could say that would change what was about to happen.

“You build bombs. You design bombs so horrific that the idea of them keeps me awake at night.”

“The bomb does not work,” he said softly.

“Yes. But that wasn’t by design, was it? Not the same way the flaw that allows it to be disarmed was.”

Luca nodded, just to show he was listening.

“When we looked at the bomb plans, we realized the person who designed it wanted it easily disarmed. We concluded it was designed under duress.” She took a half step, the hem of the long black robe brushing the edge of the medallion. “Mr. Hayden and Dr. Tanaka tell me that we were right. You hold no loyalty to the Bellator Dei, only to your sister.”

Luca didn’t respond immediately, touched by Oscar and Selene’s defense of him. Oscar had offered reassurances in the helicopter. “We got this,” he’d said. It was the word we that Luca still couldn’t quite wrap his head around.

“I have done terrible things to protect Joli. I do not deny that, or that I deserve to die for my crimes.”

Emotion choked him. He knew he was facing the end of his life, but his final thoughts weren’t worry for his sister. Instead, he felt regret. Regret that he had shared only a few days with Oscar and Selene.

“Do you prefer death to facing what you’ve done?”

That snapped his head up.

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