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The Suzuki V-Strom's engine rumbled beneath Dante, but he kept his eyes on the text he had sent a minute ago.
[Dante: Hey, where did you go?]
The little checkmark confirmed it had reached her phone, but the "read" indicator never appeared. There was naturally no reply either.
Dante: You know Gwen won't cooperate if I reveal her secret.
Still nothing.
Dante: Where are you going?
The lack of response was becoming concerning. Felicia Hardy was a thief, a seductress, and a woman with enough emotional baggage to fill a cargo plane, but she wasn't a coward. She never ran away like this.
Dante: Feliciaaaaaaa.
Dante: Say something.
His thumb hovered over the screen for a long moment.
Dante: If you don't reply in ten minutes, I'll find you.
This was her ultimatum. If she still refused to reply, he would find her and pull her cheeks until they became red. Still a tame punishment for the worries she was causing him.
He sent another message "It's not a lie" before he pocketed the phone and drove to his apartment.
***
Dante plopped down on the couch and drank another glass of cold water. Ten minutes were almost up, yet no reply came from Felicia.
He stared at the phone in his hand, mind racing through options. The spell he had placed on Felicia to block Emma's telepathy had expired by now. Without that mystical signature to track, finding her in a city of eight million people became exponentially harder.
Astral form could move at the speed of light. But at that insane speed, he wouldn't be able to process the visual information quickly enough to identify Felicia among the masses. Manhattan had too much going on. The search would take days, maybe weeks, and that was assuming she stayed in Manhattan at all. He didn't have the time to start a new Resonance Link either.
He scrolled to Silvija's contact and hit the dial. His veteran mercenary girlfriend might have a way to find Felicia.
***
Silvija's POV
Wrapped in a warm blanket, Silvija drifted in that blissful space between sleep and waking, dreaming of sunbathing on a beach. Ava and Amy Chen were playing volleyball. Raul and Piotr argued over whose barbeque technique was superior. Crippler sailed the waves on a surfboard.
And lying beside her was the newest addition to her Wild Pack, her boyfriend Hades.
Her peaceful yet happy dream shattered when her phone rang with the soft violin score, the same she had danced to in Hellmoon Club.
She sat up half-asleep and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.
Dante.
The caller's name shook off the comfy drowsiness that had been pulling her back toward sleep. She answered the phone and put it beside her on speaker mode.
"Dante…" She stifled a yawn with her hand, which came as more of a soft moan than actual words. "Are you outside? You could've asked Anna for spare keys."
Although he was her boyfriend, she still didn't particularly appreciate having her sleep interrupted.
"Wait, are you sleeping?"
"Yeah. Uhmm~." She let out a moan after stretching her body properly. "That stretch hit hard. I should get a masseur to work these knots out of my back."
After thinking all night and through the paperwork well into the morning, she had chosen not to hold his relationship with Death against him. Not permanently, at least. From her perspective, he was still in the wrong for not informing her about his commitment to Death from the start. That was a breach of trust. But from his own perspective, he hadn't done anything wrong. Gods and beings of that caliber operated on different rules, different scales, and a different common sense. They weren't bound to the concept of monogamy.
Still, she wouldn't forgive him easily until they had a real, adult conversation about their relationship.
"Silvija, I need your help." His urgent words burst through her bubble. "Are you still there?"
It had her throwing the blankets aside without a second thought. "Tell me."
"Can you trace someone's location through their phone?"
"Only for the phones I've issued to Wild Pack members. It's not technically legal for me to track a US citizen's location through their phone. We don't have a specialist for that either." She kept her voice patient despite the urgency in his. "Who are you hunting?"
"Felicia might be in danger."
Silvija frowned. "That Felicia who fearlessly stared down my gun barrel? What danger could she possibly be facing?"
"She's missing."
"Oh. How long?"
"...Fifteen minutes. Probably."
The embarrassment in his voice was obvious. Even he knew how ridiculous it sounded to request an emergency trace for someone who'd been missing for less time than it took to shower.
"I have my reasons to believe something's wrong," Dante continued. "Will you trust me?"
She groaned, falling backward onto the pillow. Pressing the phone against her ear, she whispered, "Using trust like that isn't fair."
He was leveraging their complicated, messy, yet warm relationship to get what he needed. And the worst part was that it was working. She could feel herself caving already. Her professional judgment was overridden by the simple fact that she cared about him.
"I need you, Silvija. Only you can help Felicia."
Silvija thought back to her one-on-one conversation with Felicia after the whole Death revelation had turned their world upside down. The flirtatious seductress had dropped her mask to ask Silvija to forgive Dante.
"He might be cheating on you, but still, he's a good man. You won't find many like him if you let go." Those words from Felicia had been a big reason Silvija didn't explode on him.
Right now, though, it would be quite reasonable for Silvija to stay outside of this matter and let him deal with it. On the other side, she didn't want any harm to come toward Felicia, or become the reason Dante failed to help Felicia. That would suck.
"Let me talk to my Security Consultant at the embassy. I'll see if my status can get something done."
Felicia had chosen to stand on their side as an ally. Saving her was the right thing to do from a professional standpoint, and it would spare her from being hated by Dante as well.
"Thank you, Your Royal Highness"
The formal title made her pause. She had become so accustomed to life as a mercenary leader that she sometimes forgot about her royal status.
"It'll still take time, Lover." The endearing word slipped naturally from her lips. "I'm not above the law here, and matters such as these require many approval processes."
"Thanks for trying. That matters a lot, Silvija."
There was a moment of pause which she thought would be the end of this call. Except it kept going.
"Love you. Bye!"
The call ended with a soft beep. Silvija stayed frozen, phone still pressed against her ear. Heat crept up her neck and flooded her cheeks.
"Love you"—Ava and Amy Chen used it all the time, but these two words hit differently when coming from Dante. The words burrowed in her chest and set up permanent residence somewhere near her rapidly beating heart.
"It was the first time he said that," she whispered to the empty room. "How can he be so casual with it?"
She had kissed him. Let him touch her butt and breasts. Even imagined increasingly detailed fantasies about what would happen when they finally went all the way. Matters of the heart were always—always—far more complicated than physical intimacy.
"Three-timing durachok (fool)." The Russian word came out dripping with affection. And she was an even bigger fool for sticking to him. "Stupid. How can I not do my best now?"
She stared at the ceiling, thinking of a way to help him. The official channels would take too much time and… that would disappoint Dante. So, rather than calling her Security Consultant at Symkaria's Embassy, she pulled up a different contact.
Phil Coulson.
Her finger hovered over the call button for a moment. Then she pressed it. Consequences be damned.
The line rang twice before connecting, just like always.
"Hey, Mr. Phil!"
Silence greeted her. She could almost picture him double-checking the caller ID. He was used to dealing with Silver Sable, who was professional and all about business. The enthusiasm in her voice must have thrown him completely off balance.
"Someone woke up on the right side of the bed," Phil said. "Miss Sable, how can I help you today?"
"You said finding a small-time broker was too cheap for half a favor. How about we add another request to make it worthy of that half favor you owe me?"
"Depends on what you'll be asking, Miss Sable." Phil Coulson never committed to anything without knowing the full scope and implications. He stayed professional and calm, which made him quite effective as SHIELD's diplomatic face. "If it's finding another small-time merc or information broker, I'll be able to help."
"It's about finding someone, yes." She sighed audibly, speaking in a dejected voice, "A friend of my employee has gone missing. Can you trace her location through her phone number?"
"Can you be more specific about their identity than just 'employee of your friend'?"
"Felicia Hardy is her name. She's a student at Empire State University." Silvija said. "You already know about Ava Ayala. Felicia is her friend. Before you ask, Felicia isn't involved with the Wild Pack business. Just friendship between two girls of similar age."
She had to lie. Phil Coulson would be more inclined to help an ordinary person over someone in her business.
"Hector's sister, the current possessor of the White Tiger Amulet." Phil went silent, probably pulling up files about Felicia. "It'll be a good deed to help a young woman in danger."
Silvija heaved a sigh of relief. Despite her growing affection, she was reluctant to use that half favor to find Felicia. Now, she didn't have to.
"Text me Miss Hardy's number. I'll send you a link to live-track her location in one minute."
The call ended without ceremony or goodbye. Typical Phil Coulson.
She sent Felicia's number to Phil. True to his word, a link arrived in under a minute. SHIELD's efficiency was scary. And truthfully, she never wanted to become their enemy.
"Dante better appreciate my work."
Her lips curved upward unconsciously. She'd said those exact words once before when she had decided to cook for him at his apartment. That day, she came so close to killing him but ended up recruiting him.
They'd come so far in such little time that it all felt like a dream. A beautiful dream that she never wanted to end.
Shaking her head, she forwarded the link to Dante's contact.
[Silvija: Track your kitten through it.]
[Dante: You did it!]
The instant response implied he was waiting for her message, worried about Felicia. The knowledge invoked mixed feelings.
'Do I really have to share him with one more woman?'
It felt as if he was punishing her for being one-third available to him, if being Wild Pack leader and Symkaria Queen meant two-thirds of her.
Her phone buzzed again.
[Dante: I don't know how I'd live without you]
[Dante: My Royal Highness]
She felt uplifted even though he only did the basic lip service. But coming from him, she knew that he meant it.
[Dante: I love you so much]
[Silvija: Screw off to your side piece]
The jealousy was half-real, half-playful. She sent it anyway because honesty mattered more than appearing unbothered.
[Dante: Get the bed ready. Neither of us are getting a wink tonight.]
It took her a few seconds to understand his meaning, and when she did, heat rushed to her cheeks. He wasn't talking about sleep or cuddling or innocent things like watching movies until dawn. He was talking about that.
"That thirsty bastard."
She'd seen that hunger in his eyes before when she'd climbed onto his lap and kissed him. When he'd kissed her back and his hands had moved from her waist to her butt, pulling her closer. She'd been seconds away from letting him have his way with her right where anyone could see through the tinted windows.
"No, he isn't getting it so easily."
She wasn't going to just fall into bed with him. Probably eventually, if she was being honest with herself. But not until she heard from him that she wouldn't be treated any less than Death. And if possible, she wanted to have a one-on-one conversation with Death. The cosmic goddess had so much power yet so little desire to monopolize her lover. Silvija didn't understand Death, and she wanted to change it.
A notification on her phone ended her daydreams.
[Dante: Don't try anything. I'll handle it.]
The message left her staring at it in confusion. "What does he mean—is it about Felicia's location?"
She quickly clicked the tracking link Phil had sent. A blinking red dot appeared on the screen, accompanied by a location tag.
"Oscorp Tower. Why is Felicia there—what the fuck is going on?"
***
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