“Be at the Carlton Gardens tonight at three,” he said. “That gives you enough time to view the damage you’ve done first. Oh, and if you contact PIT, there will be further consequences.”

The call ended, and Jackson immediately snatched the phone from my hands. He punched in some numbers, and after a few seconds the phone began to ring.

And ring.

Fuck.

I hoped with all my heart that it didn’t mean Shona was hurt or dead. She was one of Jackson’s lovers and the security specialist who, via the simple act of allowing us into an apartment to search for the missing research notes, had ended up with Rinaldo’s death sentence hanging over her head. I hoped it was simply a case of either her being unable to hear the phone or of the phone itself being out of range or dead.

Please, god, don’t let her be the dead one.

I raked a hand through my hair and met Jackson’s flat stare. Though there was very little in the way of emotion to be seen, the heat of his fury and fear washed through me like lava. “You should go—”

“You should both go,” Rory interrupted. “It could well be a trap of some kind. You need to protect each other’s backs.”

“But you’re not strong—”

“I’ll be okay,” he cut in again. “I have the fire and the burgers to fuel me, and then I’ll sleep. And you don’t have to be here to watch me do that.”

“I know, but—”

“Stop arguing and just go.”

“Fine.” I thrust up. “Jackson, I gather you know where Shona lives?”

His face was grim. “Yes. And if he’s hurt her . . .”

If he had, there wasn’t a whole lot we could do. Not immediately, anyway. I doubted he’d personally turn up for the meeting later; he’d have to know how angry we’d be, and how dangerous that could be.

I walked over to Rory and bent down to drop a kiss on his cheek. “I’ll be back by sunrise.”

He nodded. “Kick some butt for me.”

Jackson was already out the door. I picked up my coat and followed. “We should grab your phone on the way through—”

“We can’t afford to waste the time it’d take—”

“What we can’t afford,” I cut in, “is risking anyone getting Rory’s current location via the GPS on my phone. Which means I can’t ring PIT.”

I jumped into the car, started it up, then flattened the accelerator. Dust and stones sprayed out from the rear tires as the car launched forward.

“Why the fuck would we want to ring them?” he snapped. “Especially after Rinaldo’s warning?”