by Zoe Forward
He shrugged out of the black coat and held it out to her.
“No, don’t take it off. Keep it. It’s a short walk for me.” His stubborn frown pushed her to add, “I can make it home. Really.”
He put it back on but didn’t move to leave. “I know you won’t ask for my help, but promise me you’ll accept my assistance when I save your life again.”
“Only if you swear you won’t stalk me. I don’t need…just don’t.”
His intense gaze locked onto hers. This wasn’t the relaxed Alexi. This was the disciplined killer. That look incited a round of dread. And goose bumps. Holy hell, he was hot when he got serious.
His gaze didn’t waver as he stared into her eyes. “Whoever threatens you meant for you to die during one of those two missions this week. I was ordered by that Russian to do a non-sanctified hit on you yesterday. And they ordered another assassin to clean up if I failed. They expected me to fail. Their intent by capturing me was to get your location. To get you themselves. That means the price on your head must be high. Very high.” He blew out a long breath that had steam spiraling from his mouth. “Their failure to kill you thus far will escalate their determination. Whoever they may be. Are you ready to face that alone?”
Hell no, she wasn’t ready. Her heart pounded in terror, but fear those kidnappers would hurt her sister if she recruited help made her say, “I’m a big girl. Who says I’m doing it alone?”
His lips flattened. Warning flashed in his eyes.
She bit the inside of her lip to stop her smile. She tucked her wildly blowing hair behind each ear to get the distraction out of her way. She didn’t want to miss a single subtle nuance of his features. The ice around her heart thawed a bit. She forced her brain to replay the moment when he’d ditched her. But the wall around her heart wasn’t so easily reconstructed. Maybe her subconscious need for him to care about her made her read too much into his actions, but the fact he refused to stay away had to mean something. She needed to be more than a game to him. Perhaps he wanted to get her back in bed and didn’t want her to die first.
She wouldn’t force him to stay away. She adjusted her backpack to a more comfortable position. “Do what you must.”
“Serenity, I…” He swallowed hard. His gaze filled with concern. “Please, be careful. My number is in your phone.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Dangerous Guy?”
His lips quirked upward. “You will call. I only hope it won’t be too late.”
He walked away.
She watched his tall form stroll up the snowy sidewalk until he disappeared into the blistering wind and swirling snow.
“Where the bloody hell have you been?” Eli Morgan hurled at Serenity in his crisp British accent as she stepped into her house. “Gone for over a day. Alone? What were you thinking…oh, wait, you weren’t thinking.” He shook his head and cursed under his breath.
The hot indoor air blanketed and warmed her skin. But most of her attention remained out there in the cold, on the gaze searing into her back. Alexi had followed her here, even if a few shoulder glances behind her yielded nothing. She refused to analyze why she was thrilled that he’d tailed her despite her request. What would he think about Eli greeting her at the door? Would he be jealous? Ooh…she liked that.
Just to torture him, she jumped at Eli, hugging him tight, and kicked the door shut. Take that.
“What the fuck?” Eli said as she hopped away from him the second the door slammed.
She shrugged. “Always a pleasure to see you?”
His gaze narrowed. “Who’s watching you out there that you wanted to make jealous?”
She shook her head. “We’ve known each other far too long.”
“Damned right we have. Don’t forget I followed your wild ass all through your university days and into MI6. I know your games. So, I repeat, what is going on and who’s out there?”
“Why are you here? In my house? Did you get assigned as my bodyguard after the last two gave up?”
He shot her an agitated glare that made clear he knew she was deflecting. “You make all of us Sentry druids look bad. It’s our job to protect you.” He shook his head and broke into a smile. “Hell, Serenity. You Mickeyed your last guard and disappeared.”
“The asshole tried to contain me. He called me something I didn’t like. I got pissed.”
“They got desperate and called me in. It’ll be like the old days with me on your ass.”
Her phone dinged with an incoming text. Her heart jumped and stomach squeezed. She riffled through the backpack to grab her iPhone.
The text from Dangerous Guy read: Don’t.
Excitement raced through her blood. She texted back: You don’t own me.
Behind her, Eli asked, “Who’s that?”
Seconds later, her phone rang. Caller ID: Dangerous Guy.
She held up her hand at Eli and walked into the downstairs bathroom, closing the door behind her. She answered softly to avoid Eli overhearing. “What?”
In a low, deadly tone, Alexi said, “Do not complicate matters by playing with that druid.”
“Complicate what matters? Us? There is no us, as you very clearly communicated. Maybe he’s the one for me. I’ve done a lot of thinking since our chat the other night. You did make me wonder.”
A low, dark chuckle came through the phone. “If you were interested in Eli Morgan, then you would’ve fucked him in college when he was your bodyguard.”
Damn it. She wanted to smack Alexi. But he had called. He was far from apathetic about her and the potential of her sleeping with Eli. She smiled to herself. “You’ve been stalking me a long time, it seems.”
“I made a promise.”
Her mind rewound to their first meeting. He’d provided her with security and a gentleness so at odds with his external harshness. As she’d dozed off, injured and weak from blood loss, he’d whispered, “Aš apsaugosiu tave. Visada.” I will protect you. Always. And he had. This, now, could not be about protection only. But she couldn’t have the everything she desperately wanted with this annoying man. He wasn’t druid.
She snapped, “So all of this…a few months ago…all of the past ten or so years is just about some promise? Consider your promise met. We’re done. I will be with whomever I want. And that is not you.”
“I respect Eli, but I will put a bullet in the middle of his forehead before I allow him to touch you.”
Oh. My. God. That was almost a love declaration. Her pulse hammered between her ears. “We don’t work. There is nothing between us.”
A low chuckle came through the phone. “We wouldn’t be talking if you believed that. If I walked in there right now, you would beg me to make you scream.”
“Oh, please,” she said sarcastically.
“We wouldn’t make it to a bed before I would be deep inside you.”
Holy hell, she wanted that. But she resented his assumption. “You are absolutely the most arrogant ass I have ever met. It’d be you doing the begging. On your knees. You’d beg for me to have my mouth around you.” Heat surged through her body, now uncomfortably tight and hot.
Soft, almost lethal, he said, “Do not put others between us. I will not tolerate it.”
“There is no us. There will never be an us.” She hung up. Her hands shook as she slid her cell back into her coat pocket. What the hell was that? And why was she so thrilled by Alexi’s jealousy? What didn’t make sense was if he was so jealous, then why had he deserted her eight months ago?
With a frustrated snort, she slammed her hand against the counter. They didn’t work. End of story.
Think about Liz. She had to focus on rescuing her sister. Not on the annoyance of a super-hot assassin who wanted to fuck her in the hallway. Those fantasy images would torment her all day. When she caught a glimpse of her red cheeks, she rolled her eyes and blew out an aggravated sigh.
“You okay in there?” Eli asked from outside.
Crap, she’d forgotten about him.
&nbs
p; As she stepped out of the bathroom, both of his eyebrows slowly rose. Super-inquisitive mode. Not good. “Important call?”
She shrugged and clenched her fists in an effort to stop their trembling.
“Follow me.” He led her into the kitchen. A graveyard of various electronic parts littered her kitchen counter.
“Oh, shit.” She circled the counter. With a sense of dread she sorted through the collection of cameras and bugs she’d known had been planted in her house. Liz’s kidnappers warned if she touched them, they’d hurt her sister.
He waved a hand over the electronics. “What is this? Who is monitoring you? Is it whoever’s out there?” He nodded toward the front door.
She shook her head. Silently, she counted and mentally put parts together. She glanced up. “You missed a camera.”
He rotated and flipped open his laptop, which rested precariously on the kitchen counter. He punched buttons for a few seconds. “I plugged into the feed. There’s another in…looks like your bedroom.”
He stomped upstairs, reappearing shortly. He tossed the camera onto the counter.
The equipment reflected the best of medium-grade crap, which meant no way to trace it. Expensive stuff had only a few distributors, but this heap of electronic junk could be ordered off the internet. Good purchase, if one’s goal was anonymity. Liz’s kidnappers were careful. Smart.
She jumped when Eli stalked close and yanked up her long sleeves, exposing the cuts and bruising from her zip tie breakout. His cheek muscles tightened, highlighting the north-to-south scar that marred the left side of his face. His remnant of an MI6 mission gone terribly wrong added a bold stamp of danger to his magnetic good looks. He could mask the scar by using his druid power but rarely did. His eyes narrowed. That glare meant a bullheaded bottle of trouble.
“You’re freelancing? And someone had you tied up.” He plowed all ten fingers into his dark hair, holding it off his face for several seconds before letting it fall back into place. “And someone has you under heavy surveillance, which you already know about. This is entirely unacceptable, Serenity.” He waved over the electronics. “Let’s go to your safe room. Right now. I assume whoever planted these didn’t get in there.”
She signaled him to follow her to the basement. With a push, the fake shelving unit slid aside to allow access to a keypad. She punched in the ten-digit code. The wall moved to expose her safe room. When the door slid closed behind them, he ran a hand through his choppy dark hair and blew out a breath. He caught her arm as she passed him into the room.
Her wrists buzzed with heat. She yanked them out of his grasp and rotated them. The bruising was almost gone. “You can heal by touch like your brother? I thought you didn’t have that ability.”
“We’ve all got secrets.” He squinty-eyed her. “I need answers. Be straight with me. Tell me, not because I was assigned to guard you again, but because we’re friends. What the hell is going on?”
How she wished this man made her feel even a fraction of what Alexi incited. Eli was loyal, batted for the right team, and was hands-down one sexy druid. She’d been tempted to seduce him back in college, but one disastrous, icky kiss between them proved that wasn’t happening. “They’ve got Liz.”
“Who has her?”
“I don’t know.”
“How long since someone kidnapped her?”
“Four days.”
He cocked his head and leaned a shoulder into the wall. “Are they making you jump through hoops with the false promise of her return?”
“They threatened to hurt her…well, kill her, if I recruited help or refused to do what they asked. They conned me into two missions so far. Both felt like suicide ops. I didn’t get the impression they actually desired what they sent me after.”
His lips flickered with a smile. “They don’t know who they’re contending with, then. Impossible op is your hometown. But you know better than this. You give them a cookie and they’ll ask for milk.” His eyebrows shot upward with a parental glare.
“You’re right. I knew. But…I had hoped…” She glanced away from him.
“Now that I dismantled their surveillance, what do you think they’ll do?”
“They’ll probably hurt Liz as a threat. I just don’t know what exactly they want me to do or give them in order to get her free. They’re not demanding money or being clear.” She concentrated on not allowing her eyes to glass up. Nothing got her jazzed with emotion faster than someone threatening her family, even if she and Liz hadn’t ever shared a close bond. The bastards knew which buttons to push when it came to making her dance.
“Who do you think they are?” he asked.
“Don’t know. No face. No name. Difficult to follow computer trails. I’m not even sure if the lead communicator is male or female. Could you follow the trail of that video feed?”
He shook his head. “No, it was bouncing off government servers. They’re piggybacking. Best way—”
“To hide.” She nodded. “They can’t be this good. No one’s this good. Everyone leaves a trail.” She pulled the laptop out of her backpack. “Can you copy the hard drive without being detected? You’re better at computers than me.”
“Is that what they sent you after last night?” His lower jaw worked back and forth.
“Yes.”
His eyes snapped up from the computer and narrowed. “You went alone?”
She nodded, although her mind slid to Alexi. Maybe not so alone. “The kidnappers fed me poor intel for both missions. Perhaps purposefully off. It’s as if they don’t really want what they’re sending me after. I can’t connect the two items they’ve had me retrieve. That computer is off a cartel guy.”
“Maybe it’s a game.”
She slammed her palm against the wall. “I don’t play goddamned spy games anymore. I got kicked out of that life. This warehouse last night turned out to be a primed war zone, and then…damn it.” In MI6 she’d hated being used to promote another’s whacked backroom dealings. Although she missed the adrenaline of the job, she didn’t miss the bullshit.
“Did Alexi Jovec show up?”
Her gaze shot to him, shocked. “Why would you ask that?”
“Serenity…” He shook his head. He ran a hand over his face. A stressed smile curved his lips. “I’ve seen you take risks and do shit that makes me want to vomit for days afterward. Nothing rattles you other than your family and that guy. Nothing makes you crazy to inspire jealousy in a man other than that Russian. When you two crossed paths two years ago in Israel, don’t think I forgot you pretended to jump me while we were there. Twice. All to inspire that assassin to be jealous.”
Her cheeks burned. “I did not do that just because of him.”
“Come on. I’m not stupid. Afterward in Israel, when he left the area, you were a wreck for weeks. Then last year after that mission in Bulgaria when you were assigned to kill him, which I know you didn’t do…it wasn’t pretty. This outburst could be about Liz, but you just carried out two missions without any one of us the wiser. And now you’re falling to pieces? I got bets on that Russian making an appearance. You think he’s behind all this?”
“What? No.” And he isn’t Russian.
“So, what’d he say on the phone?”
“Nothing.” Shit.
He flashed a gotcha smile.
Silence was her only answer to him.
“He’s texting and calling you now?” He stomped close. He gripped her chin to force her to meet his gaze. “That bastard is on the fucking other side. Russia and OLM. Are you double agenting now or are you fucking him?”
“Not that it’s your business, but I’m not sleeping with him. And I’m not double agenting. I’m out of all that.”
“That guy is bad news. What does he want from you?”
“Forget him.” She bit back a defense of Alexi and jerked her chin out of Eli’s grasp. She crossed her arms tightly across her chest. “Don’t touch me.”
“What happened when you went after h
im in Bulgaria last year?” he asked.
“Classified.”
He glared. “I told you not to take that mission.”
“He has nothing to do with Liz. I have to contact the kidnappers to let them know I have the laptop. They’ll arrange some bullshit scenario to get it from me. Maybe this time an exchange. Doubt it, though. Now that we pulled all their electronics, they’ll be pissed.”
He released a long breath. “Don’t take this the wrong way. I know you can handle a lot on your own, but we should go to my brother. This puts you, your sister, and the whole Danssaert line in extreme danger. That is the business of my brother, who is now the druid leader. It’s also my business. It’s the business of every one of us Sentry druids. You’ve got to let us do our job and protect you.”
“Did your brother send you here to babysit me? You know what, I don’t care. The bottom line is planting those monitoring devices was an inside job. It’s got to be one of us. Well, one of you druid guys. None of my witch sisters are into covert shit.”
“We’d never do this. Never.” His face colored red. “Every one of the Sentries vowed to protect you with our lives, not that you take it seriously.”
She stepped backward. “I’m not accusing you. I trust you. I’ve never questioned that you’d protect me. I never wanted you to die for me. That never made much sense.”
“Damn it, you are a Pleiad. There are only seven of you. You are the Keepers of the Veil. You must be here to keep the balance between our world and the world of your goddess ancestors. You know if you die, and there’s no one to carry your line, that the ancestors will cross that veil in anger and…Armageddon.”
“I never asked to be this.”
“Well, you are. Get over it. This is the same damned conversation we had in undergrad before you went on that bloody crazy Colorado rafting trip.”
“Somebody put those devices here. Somebody with access to my house. No one but you guys have access.”
“Someone got in here. We’ll figure it out. When was the last time you spoke to Liz outside the kidnapping?”