Too Hot to Touch

by Lora Leigh

  She had to stop crying. She had to remember what Jonas Wyatt and Noble had told her. She couldn’t tell anyone what had happened at Sanctuary until the hearing. But she knew, oh God, she knew Patricia had died because of it. Somehow, some way, the Breeds’ enemies knew what she had seen and overheard. She knew it. She could feel it crawling over her skin, digging its way inside her brain.

  “Haley.” Zane stared up at her, his blue eyes sharp, concerned, but knowing. “You have to tell me what’s going on here, honey. Someone blew up your truck. That wasn’t an accident. You and I both know it wasn’t an accident. Now, you have to tell me why.”

  She shook her head. She couldn’t lie to Zane. She was a horrible liar, and she knew it. And she couldn’t look him in the eye when he was staring at her like that. Determined and worried, compassion and pain glittering in his eyes.

  She looked at her truck, and her stomach ached with the sobs and the fear she was holding in. Her chest felt constricted, tight, and filled with pain.

  There was nothing left of Patricia. She was gone, while the snow drifted through the air, and the flames billowed around them.

  Firefighters were working to put out the blazes, several twisted hunks of vehicles were nothing but charred skeletal remains of what they had been.

  “We found a Breed, Haley,” Zane told her then.

  Her head jerked around in terror. Haley could feel the rest of the blood leeching from her body, agony tearing through her.

  “No.” Sometimes Noble came in late. Returned books, helped her lock up.

  “He was shot behind the library. Someone killed him. Now tell me what the hell is going on, or I’m taking you in for your own protection.”

  “Who?” The word wheezed out of her as her stomach churned sickeningly. She was rocking, slowly, back and forth, and didn’t notice as the coffee cup slipped from her grip and crashed to the ground.

  She was going to throw up.

  “Who was the Breed?” She nearly pushed Zane back as she forced herself to her feet. The quilt dropped behind her. “Where is he?”

  She was shaking so hard she had to grip the open door as Zane grabbed her shoulder.

  “Haley, dammit, tell me what the hell is going on.”

  “Was it Noble?” she screamed back at him. “Tell me, damn you. Who was the Breed?”

  She tried to tear away from him, the sickening fear of Noble, gone, dead. No, it couldn’t be Noble.

  But it had been time for Noble. It had been. She had been waiting for him.

  She stared around and jerked away from Zane.

  “Where is he?” She sobbed again, stumbling around the door and gripping the side of the car as she tried to force her legs to move.

  He had said behind the library. Dead behind the library. She wasn’t crying now. The fear and the pain was going too deep for tears. If Noble was gone, she couldn’t bear it. Not Patricia and Noble. It couldn’t happen. Not like this. Not because of her.

  As she forced herself around the front of the vehicle, she heard a sound so wild, so animalistic, her head jerked up. It was Noble. She knew it was. She couldn’t accept anything else.

  “Noble!” She screamed his name and heard the sound again.

  It rocked the night. Like the wild lions that patrolled the borders of Sanctuary. If the night was quiet, sometimes, you could hear them. And now, it sounded as though one had stepped into the city itself.

  Her head jerked around, staring into the parking lot, watching as the flames flickered around it. And she saw him. All that wild black hair blowing back from his savage face. His lips were pulled back into a snarl as he pushed a police officer attempting to hold him back to the side.

  Black-leather pants and heavy motorcycle boots. A leather jacket that he was unzipping as his gaze caught hers. He moved like the jaguar he was bred from, a hard, graceful shift of muscle, a ripple of danger.

  “Noble.” His name tore from her lips again as he snarled. The sight of it, the sound of it, should have been frightening. The flash of his canines, the hard edge to his black eyes, should have frightened her as much as it did the officers and bystanders.

  She tried to make her legs move. Tried to run to him but they weren’t functioning as they should. She stumbled again and heard his throttled growl a second before he jerked her into his arms.

  Warmth covered her. She was only barely aware of his jacket going around her shoulders, because he was holding her, jerking her against his chest and swinging her off her feet.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against him to block out the sounds, the sight, and the smell of the fire.

  He smelled like the night. Like winter. Like the snow that was drifting around them. There was no death around him. There was nothing of the nightmare and chaos around her.

  For the first time since the night had turned into hell, Haley finally felt safe.

  • • •

  “Chavin, be advised of reinforcements landing,” the comm link crackled with the information as Noble buried his face in Haley’s hair and held on to her. His arms tightened around her as he let himself rest against the hood of the sheriff’s cruiser and let himself soak up the knowledge that she was alive.

  As he held her, he was aware of the Breed heli-jet landing on the other side of the parking lot, and of the sheriff moving closer to them.

  His head jerked up as Sheriff Taggart pulled the edge of Noble’s jacket over her shoulder. He flashed a feral snarl at him, the thought of the man touching her finally sending him past the limits of what little control he felt he possessed.

  Taggart lifted his hands, his eyebrows arching.

  “She was afraid the dead Breed behind the library was you,” the sheriff told him, his blue eyes knowing as he watched Noble.

  Noble tensed and let go of Haley just enough to activate his communicator.

  “Jonas?”

  “I have you. We’re on scene.”

  “There’s a Breed behind the library, apparently dead.”

  Silence filled the line for long seconds.

  “Fuck. We had Jason covering her.”

  Jason was young, but fully trained. He wasn’t inexperienced.

  “I want her out of the open. I’m bringing her to the heli.”

  “Negative. We have vehicles coming in and a civilian in the heli. Transfer her to one of the secured SUVs.”

  Noble grimaced. No doubt, the first Leo was in the helijet, the Breed who only a few knew was a Breed, and an interfering bastard at the moment, had decided to check things out himself.

  That meant there was no way to transfer Haley to Sanctuary. Not and preserve the secrecy of Leo’s identity from her.

  He listened through the link as Jonas sent Mordecai Savant and Mercury Warrant to check the body and prepare it for transfer.

  “You guys are going to fuck with my investigation, rather than just helping me secure the scene, aren’t you, Noble.” Zane tucked his fingers in the belt of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. “You know that’s not going to go over with me. Right?”

  “Talk to Jonas about it,” he snapped. “My concern is Haley right now, Taggart, and where she’s concerned, then your best bet is just staying the hell out of my way.”

  He turned and carried her to the vehicles pulling into the outer edges of the parking lot. The library was pretty much lost. The books had fed the flames that had whipped through the windows as they burst. It was a wonder she was still alive and relatively unharmed.

  Relatively. He could smell her blood, her pain. He could feel her fear and her disbelief, and it was enraging him.

  Clamping a firm hold on his control wasn’t easy. As he carried her to the SUVs and slid with her into the backseat of the nearest one, he could feel that rage pumping through him.

  Someone had dared to harm her. To attempt to kill her? The attempt was against her; otherwise, the young lion Breed, Jason, wouldn’t be dead, and her beautiful truck she so loved wouldn’t be a hunk of twisted
metal.

  “They killed Patricia.” Her head lifted from his shoulder as the door closed behind them. Her eyes, that dark ring of blue spreading into the gray, darkening them further.

  He saw the pain and tears in her eyes. Noble let his arms tighten around her for long seconds as he watched Jonas stride to the SUV. Beside him, was the taller, broader form of the Leo, barely disguised in a hooded jacket, and his son Dane Vanderale. Evidently, neither of them were content to wait in the heli or at Sanctuary.

  Behind them, the sheriff followed more slowly, his rugged face set in a scowl as Breeds moved between them. That damned sheriff wasn’t going to be content to let this go, he thought, as the others moved into the long seat across from Noble and Haley, and the doors closed behind them.

  The combined stares of the three powerful men didn’t bother Noble, but evidently, there was something about them that made Haley self-conscious.

  Her head lifted, her expression flickering with wariness.

  “Someone found out, didn’t they?”

  Haley stared back at Jonas Wyatt, knowing exactly what had happened. Brackenmore and Engalls had somehow learned that she would be testifying against them during the January hearing.

  “We don’t know that, Ms. McQuire,” Jonas answered carefully, his expression carefully blank.

  She moved, forcing herself from Noble’s lap and sliding onto the seat beside him.

  “She hasn’t been seen by a medical professional, Jonas.”

  The younger of the other two men leaned forward. She knew him. The vice president of Vanderale Industries and beside him was the president, CEO, major shareholder, and whatever other title anyone had ever found to attach to him. Leo Vanderale.

  And she had a feeling she knew why they were there.

  She glanced out the front window to where the flames were finally dying down within the library.

  “All the books are ruined,” she whispered, looking back to the elder Vanderale. “You were so kind, Mr. Vanderale, to help donate all those lovely books.” Her breathing hitched. “I’m very sorry.”

  His head tilted just slightly, his amber eyes staring back at her curiously. “Why would you apologize to me, Miss McQuire?” he asked her.

  She sniffed back her tears, aware of Noble brushing back the side of her hair to examine the gash she could feel against her temple.

  “Because it was my fault. Someone killed Patricia and destroyed the library because of me.”

  “Ridiculous,” Dane Vanderale snapped, a frown veeing his brows.

  “My dear, the choices others make because of your kindness is not your responsibility.” Leo sighed. “And Dane is right, you need to be attended to. You’re bleeding, my dear.” He turned to Jonas. “Have her taken to Sanctuary.”

  “That’s not possible.” Jonas shook his head sharply.

  “And why would this be?” Leo’s tone was dangerously smooth.

  “Leo, you know exactly why.” Jonas bit out. “Let’s not air our disagreements in front of Ms. McQuire and see what we can do to help her out here.”

  There was a tension brewing in the vehicle now, wrapping around her, tightening her nerves to breaking point.

  “She’s obviously in danger because of her courage in coming to you about what she saw and heard,” Leo pointed out imperiously. “She should be taken to Sanctuary.”

  “No one is asking me,” Haley pointed out, watching as the two Vanderale men glared back at Jonas.

  “I don’t think they believe you should have an opinion.” Dane leaned back in his seat with a grin.

  Haley ignored him, glancing to Noble instead as he spoke into the mic that curved around his tough, angled cheek bone.

  “We need to get her to a secured site, one way or the other,” Noble growled. “She’s bleeding, Jonas, and she’s scared out of her damned mind. Sitting here glaring at her isn’t helping the situation.”

  “And you think taking her to Sanctuary will?”

  “No,” Noble snapped. “Her home will be easier to control. I want a team under my command, men I choose. I want the area declared off-limits to any other Breeds, and I want full security protocols placed around it.”

  Jonas stared back at him blandly. “Those are a lot of wants for an enforcer,” he said softly. “A low-ranking one at that, Noble. You’ve barely been within the hierarchy a year now.”

  “And I was invited in,” Noble reminded him. “I didn’t apply.”

  Haley blinked as Jonas grunted. She felt light-headed, uncertain. She lifted her hand to her temple, where the pain seemed worse, and touched dampness. Drawing it back, she saw her own blood.

  “Choose your team,” Jonas suddenly stated. “We’ll cover you until they get there.” He pulled the mic wand to his cheek. “Lawe, Rule, pull everyone to Haley McQuire’s home. I need a medical attendant and the sheriff to follow.”

  Immediately, three of the Breeds standing outside were sliding into the front of the SUV limo. The engine started, and the vehicle was pulling out as the snow began to fall faster.

  Haley stared at her bloodstained fingers before lifting her eyes to Noble. “I’m bleeding,” she whispered.

  “Not bad.” He laid a folded gauze pad that Dane handed him from a first-aid box he had acquired from beneath one of the seats over the wound. “Everything’s okay, Haley.”

  “It’s not okay,” she whispered, staring into his dark eyes, his savage face. “Everything’s not okay anymore, Noble.”

  •CHAPTER 3•

  Haley’s little brick house was strung with multicolored Christmas lights outside. In the front yard sat two wire deer covered in white lights. The two conical evergreen trees at each side of the front of the house were well lit, and there was a large fir wreath on the door.

  Inside the large living room, across from the fireplace, was a six-foot Christmas tree that glowed with lights reflecting every color in the rainbow. An angel perched at the top, a small light in her folded hands, her wings spread, a serene expression on her face.

  The fireplace was laid with fresh logs and ready to light, and four stockings dangled, two on each corner of the mantel.

  A television screen hung on one wall, a coffee table between it and the couch, and two chairs sat to the side.

  It was a large, simple room. It led into a large kitchen and a smaller dining room. There were two bedrooms down a short hall, each with an attached bath, and a cramped attic above.

  The house seemed to reflect her. Gently welcoming, a sense of restrained excitement filling it with all the Christmas decorations. As though someone here truly believed in the Santa nonsense.

  Noble stood in the entrance to the kitchen, his eyes narrowed as a female Breed, Shiloh Gage, checked Haley’s injuries where she sat in the living room. Shiloh was the closest thing they had to a medic outside Sanctuary’s labs. But with Dr. Morrey still recovering from the attempt to destroy her with the drugs Brackenmore and Engalls had tried to develop, that left only the council scientist, Amburg, whom Jonas had kidnapped months before, to treat injuries. And Noble knew he would rip Amburg’s throat out before he allowed that bastard to touch Haley.

  “I think I’m okay.” Haley had her head turned as Shiloh treated the narrow gash at her temple.

  The once-white blouse Haley had worn was torn and stained with blood. There were scratches on her arm, one of which looked deep. Her hands were red, almost blistered. The dark pants she wore were in the same condition as the blouse. Her bright red hair was mussed around her face, singed in places and darkened with her blood.

  “You’re fine.” Shiloh patted her knee kindly, her round face filled with sympathy as she lifted a piece of gauze and taped it to Haley’s temple. “You’ll be good as new in a few days.”

  Shiloh pulled the surgical gloves from her hands and dropped them into the small waste can that sat beside her. Rising, she adjusted her black uniform pants and turned back to Noble.

  Dressed in the enforcer uniform, her dark auburn hair secured
in a French braid, Shiloh looked more like a playful teenager than a full-grown, fully trained Breed enforcer.

  “I need to clean up.” Haley came to her feet, and Noble barely caught himself before jumping for her.

  She swayed a bit, and he had to force himself to remain in place as she moved to the hallway.

  “You should rest a bit more, Haley,” Shiloh warned her, following her.

  Haley held up one hand, waving her back. “No. I have to clean up, Shiloh. Just . . . Just let me clean up.”

  Her voice was stronger than it had been earlier. The shock was wearing off. He could see the anger flickering in her gaze even before Shiloh had finished.

  When the enforcer looked back at him, he nodded toward Haley, indicating that she should follow and cover her until Jonas, Leo, and Dane were finished with the meeting in the kitchen. Noble then joined the others in the kitchen.

  The sheriff wasn’t exactly pleased with the information he was getting. He didn’t like being excluded from the investigation, and if Noble could read the man, and he liked to think he could, then he was guessing Zane Taggart wasn’t going to be as easy to control as Jonas was hoping.

  “Wyatt, you’re pissing me off,” Taggart retorted at Jonas’s suggestion that the sheriff leave the investigation in their hands. “A friend of mine was just killed, and you want me to just back off?”

  “Your friend has just lost one friend,” Jonas reminded him. “Let’s not add to the count. The further you stay away from this, the safer it will be for her.”

  There was taut silence as Noble turned back to the meeting taking place at the kitchen table.

  Jonas stared at the sheriff coolly, while Leo and Dane watched the confrontation silently. Leo hadn’t said much, nor did his expressions show his opinion either way as to how the meeting was going.

  “Forget it.” Taggart crossed his arms over his chest and stared back at Jonas with steely determination.

  “The agreement Buffalo Gap has with Sanctuary requires you to step aside in this investigation,” Jonas reminded him.

  The sheriff snorted at that. “Look, Wyatt, we both know the city council. They’re gonna talk out of both sides of their mouths and smile real pretty for both of us. They’ll tell you they’ll restrain me, they’ll tell me they’ll cover for me. So let’s just cut the shit here and come to an understanding. This is my county, like it or not, hate me or whatever. I’m sheriff, that makes it, and the people living in it, mine. And that includes Breeds. I have two of my people dead tonight. From all appearances, it was a professional hit. Your boy was shot in the back of the head at close range. An explosive device large enough to blow a hole in the parking lot and take out the library went off no more than half an hour later. Now you want to tell me what the hell is going on, or do I want to find the answers myself?”