“Okay, I’ll request that, and a cleanup crew too.” I looked around us. My men were taking care of the injured. The ground was splattered with blood and bodies lay everywhere. I went closer to see if there was anyone still alive, but nobody seemed to be moving, their empty eyes staring into the night.

“Over there,” James suddenly said, and I looked in the direction of his gaze. A man was lying on the ground, his chest weakly rising and falling. I ran over to him and realized he was one of the Desaltis.

“How did you know where to find us?” I asked.

His lips spread into a smile, revealing bloody teeth. He was clutching his hand over the wound in his stomach, his fingers coated in blood.

“Answer me,” I said, my hand closing around his throat.

His eyes widened, but he didn’t say a word. Fine. I intensified the pressure on his throat, making him splutter and choke.

“How did you know we were here?” I repeated. “Who told you?”

“You...” he started to say, and I eased my grip a little. “You will... fall.”

“Really? That’s all you have to say to me?”

“Arianna.” James placed his hand on my shoulder, and it was as if a warm current rushed through my body, chasing away the cold and darkness. I fell back, letting go of the man, whose eyes were now staring into nothingness. “He’s gone. He won’t tell you anything now,” James said softly, and pulled me up to my feet.

“I know.” I stepped away from him and took another look around me. How could I be sure there wasn’t a traitor among my men? How could I know who I could trust? Maybe the Desaltis had found a way to track us down. But we’d been careful, and if they hadn’t known we’d found the drug, they would’ve had to follow us every single time we went somewhere, and if they’d been doing that, someone would’ve spotted them by now. Somehow, they’d known they had to go after us today.

Just the fact that we’d killed the man who’d snuck into Desmond’s house didn’t mean anything, since they couldn’t know the circumstances of his death. Unless... Unless someone had told them, and it had to be someone close to me, or at least one of the men here today with me.

“Make sure everybody who came here with us today is accounted for and that there aren’t any bodies or anything missing,” I said to Brent, whose eyebrows rose.

“Why? Do you think someone alerted the Desaltis about this?”

“Yeah, I actually do.” Even though I couldn’t say for sure, I had a bad feeling about this.

“Alright. We should be careful then,” he said.

Headlights flashed in the distance, and everyone was immediately on alert. My phone vibrated.