Smoke and Fire: Part 4 by Donna Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

Ryder’s attention. He swung his head to Tristan. “About?”
    “Her mind was laced heavily with layers of magic. Why did they need to do that if she wanted to spy on us?”
    Ryder shrugged and turned his attention back to Roman. “She might have had them do that to help her in her acting.”
    “That’s a possibility.”
    Or they could’ve used her.
    No. Ryder refused to hold onto that small bit of hope. With the evidence they’d discovered and Kinsey’s actions, the truth was staring him right in the face.
    Roman held his hands palm down over Kinsey’s stomach. Within moments he said, “I’ve found something. It’s in her left arm just above her wrist.”
    “How deep is it?” Con asked.
    Roman walked around to Kinsey’s left arm. “Just beneath the flesh.”
    “Remove it.”
    Ryder clenched his fists as Roman pierced her flesh and an elongated metal tube about half an inch slid from her skin. Con then placed his hand on her and healed the wound.
    “It’s a tracker,” Roman said.
    Dmitri muttered a string of curses. “They wanted to keep track of her.”
    “That’s for certain,” Tristan said.
    “Should I destroy it?” Roman asked as he held the bloody object.
    Con shook his head. “No’ yet.”
    Roman handed the tracker to Con who tucked it into his pocket.
    “Now what?” Ryder asked.
    Con turned to Tristan and Roman. “Repeat these same steps with Esther.”
    The two gave a nod and walked out of the cavern.
    Dmitri cleared his throat and mumbled, “I’m going to … go do something else.”
    Once he’d left, Ryder faced Con. “I’ve looked through everything Kinsey did three times.”
    “And?” Con urged.
    “Nothing. I can no’ find a single thing that would alert me that she did anything.”
    Con nodded absently as he stared at the floor for a long minute. Then he looked at Ryder. “The evidence you found that she betrayed you, is it in her own words?”
    “No. Nothing I found was ever from her or forwarded from her.”
    “We know you were followed before you met her.”
    Ryder shrugged nonchalantly. “Right.”
    “We know that after you left Glasgow, they concentrated on Kinsey. But she was already working for Kyvor before you met her.”
    “All that’s true. What are you getting at?”
    “I know you must’ve looked in on her. How much did you see?”
    Ryder glanced away, annoyed at the questions. He scrubbed both hands down his face before he threw them out to his sides. “No’ as much as I wanted, but most might think it was bordering on stalking.”
    “Did you ever see her inside Kyvor?”
    Ryder paused, frowning. “No. I was able to hack into their feed, but there was always something wrong with one camera or another. I’d see Kinsey on one floor, but not another.”
    “Do you think they might have known you were looking?”
    He gave Con a flat stare. “Absolutely no’.”
    “Even if magic was used?”
    That drew Ryder up short. He’d never thought about magic. “The Druid would need to be exceptionally powerful to cast a spell like that.”
    “And trap someone within their own minds after taking control of them.”
    Ryder looked at Kinsey and wanted to gather her in his arms. “Everything pointed to her.”
    “Which, I think, was precisely the point,” Con stated. “They wanted us to kill her.”
    He found Kinsey’s hand beneath the blanket and held it. “What now?”
    “We find out Esther’s part in all of this.” Con’s gaze was narrowed through the door. “I’m wondering why they would send a second spy, and then have them fight each other.”
    “Kinsey came to kill Esther. It wasn’t until the middle of the fight that Esther was triggered.”
    Con rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Interesting. See what you can do about leading Kinsey back. I’m going to go to Esther.”
    Ryder watched him leave then looked down at Kinsey. “I can no’ believe I doubted you. I promised to protect you, and yet I didna. You could’ve died. I could’ve