Break the Day

by Break the Day

  Rafe brought her into the largest of the three empty stal s and seated her ragdol body on the toilet.

  Only one stal had its door closed. Devony opened it from inside. She stood there, ful y clothed and fuming, her booted feet planted wide, arms crossed over her breasts and her eyes blazing amber in her outrage.

  “He thinks he can screw me over?” The tips of her fangs glinted with each word. “He cal ed me a bitch who might need to get slapped around a

  little? He has no idea what I could do to him. I want to kil that slimy bastard with my bare hands right now.”

  No wonder she practical y ran for the restroom. She was so pissed off, there was no way she could have hidden her true nature in public.

  And damn if she wasn’t even more beautiful when she was snarling like a Valkyrie.

  Outside the restroom door came the sound of tittering female voices. Someone tried the door, but it didn’t give. Rafe was stil holding it closed with his mind.

  “Out of order,” he growled, and the unwanted interruption went away.

  He went back to the more immediate problem of Devony’s righteous anger. “Cruz is an asshole. You think I don’t want to park my fist in his chest cavity right now? Unfortunately, we need him. We need both him and Judah LaSal e alive and wel until we can establish if there’s a link between them and Opus. We’re getting close. This big job could be the thing that gets us there.”

  Nothing he said seemed to cool her fury. Her fangs fil ed her mouth, razor tips as bright and sharp as diamonds. Her pupils were slender vertical slits, surrounded by molten light. Rafe couldn’t see her dermaglyphs, but he knew the skin markings would be livid with color beneath her

  turtleneck and jeans.

  Since he was a Breed male with red blood flowing in his veins, it was impossible for him not to take a moment to appreciate the otherworldly glory of Devony’s transformation. As a woman, she was stunning. As an outraged, indomitable Breed female, she was magnificent.

  Ah, Christ. She was hot as fucking hel and what he wanted to do more than anything else right now was to feel her body crushed against his. He wanted to cool her anger by stoking a different kind of fire in her.

  But then she narrowed her seething glare on him.

  “I’l bet you’re glad Cruz wants me gone, aren’t you?” She took a step forward, coming out of the stal and closing the short distance between

  them. “You’ve wanted me out of your way from the minute you showed up. Now, you’ve got it. Congratulations.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Over her searing stare, one brow lifted in chal enge.

  Rafe cursed and tried again. “Al right, it was true. Everything’s different now. We’re a team, Devony.”

  “Okay, then go back out there and tel Cruz you want me on that job tomorrow night.”

  “If I do that, it’s only going to make him suspicious. You know that. He thinks you’re human. We need him to continue believing that until this is over.

  If we give him any reason to get skittish, he’l tip off LaSal e and we’l be starting al over again.” Rafe caressed the side of her face. “The job tomorrow isn’t as important as the intel we might take away from it. And I promise to share it with you. Partners, remember?”

  Her breathing slowed from its furious gal op of a moment ago. She held his gaze, her forehead stil furrowed as she considered everything he

  said.

  Rafe couldn’t resist brushing his lips over hers. “Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are? I’ve been standing around out there with a raging hard-on ever since I walked in and saw you again. But right now?” He blew out a low breath and shook his head. “Right now, I don’t think I could keep my hands off you if Cruz and everyone else in the whole fucking place tried to knock down that door.”

  “Would it hold?”

  Her saucy question went straight to his erection. “I’l make damn sure it does.”

  Moving closer to him, Devony gestured toward the stal where the tranced blonde was snoring quietly. “What about her?”

  “The guys assume I’m somewhere tapping her vein. She’s out until I wake her.”

  Devony made a purring sound as her hands waded into his hair. “Want to hear a secret? I was hoping you’d fol ow me back here. Because ever

  since you walked into this bar tonight, al I can think about is how long I’d have to wait before I could feel you inside me again.”

  “Ah, fuck.” Rafe’s breath sawed out of him, raw and rasping. “I’m not going to let either one of us wait another goddamn second.”

  He crushed his mouth against hers. Gathering her into his arms, he pivoted around with her, pul ing her clear of the stal s and moving them both into the center of the smal space in front of the sinks. Their hands moved greedily, frantical y. Zippers rasped open. Jeans abraded skin as they were hastily pushed down off each other’s hips.

  Rafe was hard as stone in Devony’s fevered grasp. On a groan, he slid his fingers into the cleft of her sex. Hot, liquid silk drenched her delicate flesh, slickening her folds. His hips pumped in reflex to the feel of al of that velvety wetness, his erection surging and rampant in the vise of her stroking hand.

  He slipped a finger inside the tightness of her body. “You’re so soft here, baby. So ready for me.”

  “Yes.” The word boiled from between her parted lips. She dropped her head back on a hiss, the tendons in her graceful neck pul ed taut as she

  ground against his hand. Tiny muscles rippled along his fingers as he stroked into her. “Oh God, Rafe. I need you. I need this. Right now.”

  His answer was a feral-sounding snarl. He needed her too. He needed everything with her.

  “Turn around,” he uttered, his voice rough and raw.

  He swiveled her in front of him, bending her forward with his palm against her clothed back. She held on to the sink, her sweet ass thrust toward him in invitation. He caressed the round swel s, using both hands to spread her wide. Her body glistened, flushed dark pink and so pretty.

  He teased her silky seam with the head of his cock, then sank inside on a long, slow thrust that had his molars clenched so tight it was a wonder they didn’t shatter.

  She moaned and moved against him, spurring him into a wilder tempo. They crashed together, surrendered to the heat and force of their desire.

  Rafe needed his hands on her skin, needed to see the play of color in her glyphs as he drove into her. He smoothed his palms under the back of her turtleneck, baring her pretty back to his glowing gaze. Her skin undulated with living colors. He traced his fingers over the flourishes, then up to the diminutive teardrop-and-crescent-moon birthmark that rode her right shoulder blade.

  His fangs throbbed with the need to take hold of her as she rocked beneath him. He wanted to mark her, claim her, bind her to him as his.

  Fuck.

  The thought alone should have shaken him. It damn wel shouldn’t have made his blood race faster, harder through his veins. It shouldn’t have

  intensified his want of her. Shouldn’t have made him hunger for something he didn’t deserve—and wouldn’t—so long as his life belonged to his

  mission for the Order.

  Rafe met her molten gaze in the dingy mirror. God help him, but he saw some of the same forbidden hunger in her eyes. Her fangs were long and

  sharp behind her parted lips, her eyes flicking to where his own pulse hammered visibly in his throat.

  He hardly recognized the possessive snarl that vibrated through him in that moment. He didn’t want to acknowledge what he was feeling.

  Not simply lust and overwhelming pleasure, although he felt that al the way to his marrow. No, what he felt was even more powerful than that as he watched Devony’s beautiful face and felt her body shatter around him in a fierce orgasm.

  Mine.

  The word slammed through him as he exploded deep inside her.

  Mine.

  It was a dangerous word. One that stayed with him, as constant
as his own heartbeat, even after they hastily put themselves back together and he sent Devony out ahead of him.

  With the tranced woman awakened and her pliable human mind fil ed with the suggestion that he’d just shown her the time of her life, Rafe

  returned to the crowded tavern and dropped the blonde at the table with her giggling friends.

  Then he headed for the back of Asylum where the gang, and the reality of his mission, awaited.

  CHAPTER 16

  The private warehouse near Conley Terminal looked like it had been a relic about twenty years ago. Rust-streaked, dilapidated, the steel-and-

  brick structure might have seemed abandoned among its neighbors if not for the obvious security presence just inside the front door.

  Rafe and the rest of the gang sat a couple of blocks away in an unmarked delivery truck Ocho had obtained from one of his many questionable

  col eagues. Fish and Axel were dressed in stolen port authority uniforms. Al of the gang were armed with semiautomatics, Rafe included.

  Cruz held a pair of compact binoculars in front of his face as he peered out at the warehouse. “There’s the midnight shift reporting for duty. You al know what to do. As soon as the other guards are gone, we’re going in.”

  They had reviewed the plan earlier tonight at Ocho’s. According to Cruz, LaSal e had assured him the job was expected to be a simple one. Gain

  access to the warehouse. Grab the crates of newly arrived merchandise from overseas. Deliver them to the drop location. Col ect the fat payout.

  Rafe had run enough cleanup patrols with his Order teammates to know that greedy criminals like these tended to get sloppy when someone

  waved enough dol ar signs in front of them. He didn’t expect the job tonight to be as simple as Cruz claimed. And although Devony was stil angry to be excluded, he was glad he didn’t have to dread anything happening to her during this sketchy undertaking.

  They had agreed to keep their distance after their restroom rendezvous at Asylum last night. Rafe went home to his place in Southie and stayed

  there until meeting up with the gang. She had agreed to stay put at her Darkhaven and await word from him once the job was over.

  As promised, he’d sent her what details he knew, including the warehouse location and the drop site. If things went as he planned, he hoped to

  get close enough to Judah LaSal e to trance the bastard and squeeze him for everything he might know about Opus Nostrum.

  The sooner he had that intel, the sooner he could get on with the task of wiping the organization off the map.

  Then he would have time to consider what Devony Winters was coming to mean to him, and whether those feelings stood any chance of being

  reciprocated.

  “Okay,” Cruz announced. “New guards are inside . . . and there go the old ones around the corner. Time to move. Hit it, Ocho.”

  The truck lurched into gear. Ocho drove it in front of the warehouse, and Rafe hopped out behind Fish and Axel. As they had done at the MFA, the two men provided a momentary distraction while Rafe leapt to action putting the lights out on the guards.

  Cruz and Ocho moved in behind them, crowbars in hand. They located the sealed crates they were after and made quick work cracking them

  open. One by one, the men began unloading smal er crates onto a wheeled dol y.

  Rafe hadn’t been tasked with handling the merchandise, not that he cared. Tonight, he’d been relegated to lookout and problem-solver. He stood

  watch as the men alternated between loading the dol y and moving it out to the waiting truck.

  “Faster,” Cruz ordered the others, patrol ing around like a general. “Come on, let’s go! Look alive.”

  Rafe caught up with Fish on the side. “Hey, talk to me. Whose shit are we stealing tonight?”

  “I don’t know, man,” Fish answered in a low whisper. “Some kinda arms dealer, according to Ocho. LaSal e’s got friends who’re wil ing to pay

  about anything to get their hands on whatever’s in those crates.”

  Cruz eyed Rafe cautiously, a strangely smug look in his eyes as Fish and Axel came back for another load. Rafe didn’t like the look the gang

  leader had on his face. He didn’t like the feeling that he was somehow the brunt of an unspoken joke.

  “Something funny, Cruz?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not laughing, man.”

  “Neither am I,” Rafe said. “What the fuck’s going on? What are we hauling out of he—”

  The sound of a vehicle approaching outside the warehouse snagged his attention. A car door opened. A pair of boots slapped against concrete.

  The guards who’d left a few minutes ago had circled back unexpectedly. One of them double-timed it inside the warehouse. “Yo, Jansen. It’s just me. Forgot that damn birthday card for my wife.”

  He walked in farther. “Hey, you know there’s a rental truck sitting outside? Meeks and I just texted the boss to see if he might’a sent someone over for that new shipment. . . . Jansen?”

  Rafe stood in front of him now, moving through the warehouse in the blink of an eye. Palming the man’s balding forehead before he had a chance

  to voice his surprise, Rafe dropped the guard into an immediate trance.

  But he wasn’t the last of their problems.

  The guard’s partner had circled around to the back of the warehouse for a sneak attack. His command to Cruz and the other men to freeze was

  answered by a hail of gunshots from the gang. He howled sharply and returned fire. The scent of blood fil ed the air.

  Son of a bitch.

  Rafe flashed into the fray and found Axel dead on the floor of the warehouse, the back of his skul blown out. The guard was dead too. He lay in a growing pool of blood a few yards from where Cruz continued to bark orders to his men.

  “Forget about loading the dol y. No time now.” The gang leader grabbed one of the crates and started to hurry away with it. “Al of you grab what you can and let’s get the fuck out of here!”

  Rafe wheeled on him, blocking his path. His eyes burned like coals, glowing against the blanched whiteness of Cruz’s face. The spil ed blood

  would have been enough to bring Rafe’s fangs out, but it was fury and suspicion for this man that made the sharp points erupt from his gums.

  “What the hel are you and LaSal e up to here? What the fuck is in these crates? Tel me before I decide to tear out your damn throat.”

  Cruz didn’t look scared. He looked . . . triumphant.

  He let go of the crate he was holding.

  It hit the floor between them, the crash echoing like cannon fire. Rafe felt a sudden heat gathering beneath him. He glanced down, shocked to see luminescent, milky blue rivulets leaking out of the broken slats.

  Holy hel .

  Liquidized ultraviolet light.

  He’d known the advanced technology existed. It was one of Opus’s favorite new developments—and something they had been attempting to

  weaponize on a large scale for some time. In the past few months, the Order had destroyed other caches of the Breed-kil ing rounds of UV light.

  Evidently, not al of them.

  And Rafe had never seen the shit up close and personal like this before.

  It seared his eyes. He staggered back, shielding his face with his arm.

  It wasn’t enough to stop the burn that washed over him as the streams of pure light surrounded him.

  He reached for Cruz on a bel owed roar, but the gang leader danced out of his reach on a low chuckle.

  “Get your asses moving,” he shouted to Fish and Ocho. “LaSal e is waiting for us at the drop.”

  CHAPTER 17

  She couldn’t stand the waiting.

  After pacing in her brownstone Darkhaven for the past couple of hours, Devony had final y given in to her impatience and hopped on her

  motorcycle. Rafe’s promise to update her once the job was over should have been reassurance enough, but she couldn�
��t shake the feeling that

  something was wrong.

  She headed past the drop location near Atlantic Wharf, but saw no sign of the men anywhere near the marina. They were late, which only

  deepened her sense of dread.

  Gunning her bike, she sped for the industrial park near the shipping terminal. The sick feeling in her stomach eased a bit when she spotted the gang’s vehicle parked out front, Ocho jogging around from the back to hop into the driver’s seat. Cruz and Fish each carried a bulky crate out from the warehouse and loaded them into the truck.

  Thank God. It appeared they were preparing to rol out right now.

  Maybe that visual confirmation should have been enough to appease her. After al , she wasn’t even supposed to know about the gig tonight, let

  alone be there.

  But one thing she didn’t see was Rafe.

  The stench of gunfire hung in the air. And the closer she got to the warehouse, the more certain she was that she smel ed blood.

  Human blood, not Breed.

  Yet that did nothing for the gnawing alarm that was building inside her chest.

  She sped for the idling truck, practical y leaping off her motorcycle once she reached it. Cruz was stil at the rear of the vehicle with Fish. He rol ed the door down and slammed the lock tight as Devony ran up to them.

  “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  “Tel me what happened,” she said, panic climbing up her throat. “Where’s Rafe? Is he here with you?”

  Cruz didn’t answer. He jerked his goateed chin at Fish. “Get your ass in the cab. Now!”

  Fish hesitated only for a second, his face uncertain as he glanced at Devony. Then he hurried away as ordered.

  On a snarl, Devony grabbed a fistful of the gang leader’s shirt. She didn’t have the patience to pretend she wasn’t prepared to do him serious

  harm. “Damn you, Cruz. Tel me what the hel is going—”

  He shoved her hard, tearing out of her grasp. As she staggered back, he darted around to the other side of the open cab. “Ocho! Let’s go!”

  The truck lurched forward in a scream of spinning tires and smoking rubber.

  Devony’s vision flooded with fire. Every particle of her being that was otherworldly, ferociously Breed, exploded to life inside her.