Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

face. He returned to her side, concerned that she might be ill or—if it were even possible for one with her amazing courage—finally afraid.
    “Tiernan?”
    “Twelve billion dollars? Are you joking?”
    He studied her face, trying to decide what the best response would be. As always, he settled for the simplest. “I rarely joke. Without emotions, there has been no way for me to judge the comic potential of most humor.”
    She blinked. “You rarely joke. Twelve. Billion. Dollars.”
    A delightful notion struck him, and he laughed out loud. “This is no longer a problem. I can make jokes anytime I want. I can joke with Ven.”
    Tiernan, who had met Ven, raised a single eyebrow. “You might want to start smaller. Ven is more your world-class comedian.”
    “Shall we go and talk to Grace?”
    “Sure, lead away, Mr. Twelve Billion,” she said, still in that stunned tone.
    Before starting back across the floor, he related what Alexios had told him. “If this gets any more dangerous, you are out of this mission,” he said flatly. “No arguments.”
    Something sparked in her eyes, and the stunned look vanished from her face as if it had never been there. “Wrong. You’d better believe there will be arguments. There is no way I’m going anywhere. If they’re worried about us escaping, that means we’re on the right track. Now all we have to do is play along, find out what we can, and break the story so the bad guys go to jail.”
    Brennan shook his head. “Unfortunately, it is never, ever that easy when it comes to vampires.”
    She grinned. “I know. So you need me. I’m your backup.”
    With that, she grabbed his hand and headed toward the bar, leaving him no choice but to Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
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    follow.
    “My backup,” he repeated, wondering if a nonstop tsunami of emotions could shatter a man’s mind—or if Tiernan could do that all by herself.
    Alexios picked that moment to communicate with him again.
    We’ve got more trouble. Lucas has to go back to Pack headquarters, there was another attack there, and he’s afraid for Honey and the babies. I’m going with him. This is his family in danger, and he might need an extra pair of daggers.
    Do you need me?
    Brennan sent back. For Lucas and his family, he would find a way to escape Litton’s watchdogs.
    No. You need to stay there and see what in the nine hells is going on. I don’t want to leave Grace alone, either. Not to mention Tiernan is human, and she’s a target, too. Humans break easily.
    Brennan’s fury flashed into a towering rage at the thought.
    They would have to get past me first.
    Meet us at Lucas’s HQ after the party, if you can get away. Otherwise, we’ll find a way to come to you.
    Brennan agreed and shut down the line of communication. Tiernan tugged on his arm and then pulled his face down and kissed his cheek. “Did you see that? Litton’s weasel of an assistant just rushed in here looking totally freaked-out. Something is definitely going on.”
    Litton’s face turned red, then white, as they watched the intense conversation he and his assistant were having, and then the scientist rushed out of the room. Wesley began to follow him, then turned and scanned the room, arrowing in on Brennan and Tiernan. He started toward them at a rapid pace and stumbled to a stop.
    “Um, Mr. Brennan, I’m sorry to say that the meeting that was set for after this party had to be postponed. We’ll, uh, we’ll be in touch in the morning. Dr. Litton requests that you stay in the hotel, since there was a report of, er, an animal attack.” The man took a deep breath. “Yeah.
    Animal attack. Safer just to stay here.”
    “We’ll keep that in mind,” Brennan said noncommittally.
    “Great. Well, um, tomorrow.” The man rushed after his employer, almost running in his haste.
    When he’d vanished through the ballroom doorway, Brennan told Tiernan what Alexios had said.
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    “I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you Wesley was lying through his teeth,” she said. “Trouble in mad scientist land, you figure? More experiments going wrong? I sure hope none of Lucas’s family or Pack were hurt.”
    “As do I. For now, we need to tell Grace what is planned, and then we can go to our room and decide what to do next.”
    “Our room?” Tiernan sighed and then squared her shoulders and flashed a crooked smile his way. “Yes, I guess it