Free Assassin's Honor by Monica Burns

flashing in his head. Focus. He needed to focus on his task. Emma Zale needed his protection. Failure wasn't an option.
                Down the street he heard a dog barking wildly. Immediately he straightened in his seat then turned the ignition key a notch to clear the windshield with one sweep of the wipers. With his field of vision clear, he saw a figure moving along the sidewalk toward Emma's house. Eyes narrowing, he studied the person heading in their direction.
                The sight of a large dog emerging from the shadows on a leash made him relax into his seat. It was a miserable night to walk a dog. Beside him, Phae cleared her throat softly.
                "I suppose you're going to have Sandro and Octavia's heads for not being more thorough in their investigation of the Zale woman."
                He grunted. "They got sloppy. It tells me we're overdue for some training exercises."
                "That will give Lysander something to smile about." A tight note of sarcasm filled her words.
                A quick glance at Phae's profile showed she was glowering with irritation. His Primus Pilus had always set his sister on edge. She made it her mission to provoke the man at every turn. If Lysander found her insults irritating, he never said a word, which simply made Phae all the more determined to find new ways to annoy him. He wouldn't blame his second-in-command for putting Phae through the ringer when it came time to run exercises.
                "Worried he might make things difficult for you?"
                "He can try," she said with a snort of derision.
                The red flash of the cell phone attached to the dash interrupted their conversation. Leaning forward, he pressed the talk button.
                "DeLuca."
                "We've got a problem." Lysander's voice echoed out of the car's stereo speakers.
                "What is it?" He kept his eyes trained on Emma's front door as he waited for his lieutenant to respond.
                "Julian's missing." Lysander rarely displayed emotion, but concern ran under the clipped statement. That alone put Ares on edge. He frowned as he gave the conversation his full attention.
                "When did he check in last?"
                "Right around five thirty. I sent him to the Gary Airport to pick up a shipment of surveillance equipment."
                "Did you get a signal from the truck's GPS?"
                "Yes." Lysander hesitated. "It's parked in a warehouse district near the airport."
                The terse response knotted his muscles taut with tension as he flicked a brief glare at the phone. Something in Lysander's voice told him his lieutenant hadn't shared everything with him.
                "There's more?"
                Again, Lysander hesitated. "It's parked only a block away from the Oriental Institute's warehouse."
                "Deus damno id," he snarled. "He went against my direct order. I told him to stay away from that warehouse until you or I had time to assess the activity levels."
                "Octavia hacked into the airport's cargo database. The Institute received some large items from Cairo late this afternoon."
                Merda. Knowing Julian, he'd seen something and decided to check it out without permission. He was going to skin the fighter alive when he caught up with the man.
                "Can you handle it on your own?" He tensed as he debated whether to leave Emma to an unknown fate for even a brief period of time.
                "Thaddeus returned from New York just before dinner, so I'll take him and Bastien with me."
                "Good, I'm not finished here," he replied. A long silence drifted out of the phone, and he could easily visualize the stoic look on