Lara Adrian's Midnight Breed 8-Book Bundle (272 page)

The knock at the door came again, sharper now, more demanding. “Just a second.”

She clicked the mute button on the stereo remote, silencing an old Bessie Smith jazz CD that had been queued in the deck when she turned the unit on a while ago to help kill time. She crossed the room and opened the door.

Brock waited in the corridor outside, taking her completely by surprise. He must have just come in recently from his patrol of the city. Dressed head to toe in black combat gear, his fitted crewneck T-shirt clung to his broad chest and shoulders, short sleeves straining around the thick width of his biceps.

She couldn’t keep her gaze from wandering the length of him, down past his tight abs, accentuated by the crisp tuck of his shirt into the belted waistband of his black fatigues, which were loose fitting, yet not so much that they masked the trim cut of his hips or the powerful bulk of his thighs. It was far too effortless to recall how well she knew that body. Far too troubling to realize just how much she craved him, even after she’d promised herself she wouldn’t travel down that road with him again.

It wasn’t until she dragged her gaze back up to his handsome but tense face that she realized he was upset. As in pissed off something fierce.

She frowned up into his stormy gaze. “What’s going on?”

“Why don’t you tell me.” He took a step forward, his big body like a moving wall, forcing her to back into the room ahead of him. “I just heard about your inquiry into TerraGlobal with the goddamned FBI. What the hell were you thinking, Jenna?”

“I was thinking that maybe the Order could use my help,” she replied, her own anger spiking at his confrontational tone. “I thought I would tap some of my law enforcement connections to shed some light onto TerraGlobal, since the rest of you had hit a dead end.”

“Dragos
is
TerraGlobal,” he hissed, still advancing on her, towering over her. His dark brown eyes crackled with tiny flecks of amber light. “Do you have any damn idea how risky it was for you to do that?”

“I didn’t risk anything,” she said, getting defensive now. Her hackles were rising with every one of his strides that physically edged her farther into the room. She stopped retreating and dug in her heels. “I was totally discreet, and the person I asked to help me is a trusted friend. Do you honestly think I would knowingly put the Order or its missions in jeopardy?”

“The Order?” He scoffed. “I’m talking about you, Jenna. This isn’t your battle. You need to steer clear, before you get hurt.”

“Excuse me, but I think I can handle myself. I
am
a cop, remember?”

“Used to be,” he sternly reminded her, pinning her with a hard look. “And you never went up against anything like Dragos in your line of duty.”

“I’m not going up against him now, either,” she argued. “All we’re talking about is a harmless office meeting with a government field agent. I’ve been involved in these kinds of territorial pissing contests a hundred times. The
Feds are worried that a local yokel Statie might know more than they do about one of their cases. They want to know what I know, and vice versa. It’s not a big deal.”

Shouldn’t be a big deal, she thought to herself. But those jangly nerves were still clamoring and Brock didn’t exactly look convinced, either.

“It could be bigger than you expect, Jenna. We can’t be sure of anything when it comes to Dragos and his interests. I don’t think you should go.” His face was very serious. “I’m going to talk to Lucan. I think it’s too dangerous for him to let you do this.”

“I don’t remember asking what you thought,” she said, trying not to let his grim expression and sober tone of voice sway her. He was worried—deeply worried, about her—and part of her responded to that worry with an awareness she wanted to ignore. “I don’t remember putting you in charge of what I do or don’t do, either. I make my own decisions. You and the Order may think you can keep me on some kind of a leash—or under a damned microscope so long as it suits you—but don’t confuse compliance with control. I’m the only one in control of me.”

When she couldn’t hold his thunderous gaze any longer, she turned away from him and went back over to the sofa, busying herself with picking up the collection of books she’d been thumbing through in her restlessness of the past few hours.

“Christ, you are hardheaded, aren’t you, lady?” He blew out a low curse. “That’s your biggest problem.”

“What the hell does that mean?” She threw a scowl in his direction, surprised to find he had moved up right behind her. Close enough to touch her. Close enough that she felt the heat of him in every awakened nerve ending in her body. She steeled herself against the masculine
power that radiated off his big form, hating the fact that she could still be wildly attracted to him even when her blood was simmering in anger.

His stare penetrated, seeming to bore right through her. “It’s all about control with you, Jenna. You just can’t stand to give it up, can you?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“No? I’ll bet you were like this from the time you were a little girl.” She turned away from him while he was talking, determined not to let him goad her. She grabbed an armful of books and carried them over to the built-in shelves. “I’ll bet you’ve been like this your whole life, haven’t you? Everything’s got to be on your terms, isn’t that right? Never let anyone take the reins, no matter what. You don’t budge an inch unless you’ve got your sweet, stubborn ass planted firmly in the driver’s seat.”

As much as she wanted to deny it, he was hitting very close to home. She flashed back through the years of her childhood, all the playground fights and daredevil stunts she’d gotten dragged into just to prove that she wasn’t afraid. Her time in the police force had been more of the same, though on a grander scale, upgrading from fists to bullets, but still struggling to show she was as good as any man—better, even.

Marriage and motherhood had presented another set of obstacles to master, and that was the one area in which she’d failed miserably. Paused in front of the bookcase, Brock’s verbal challenge hanging behind her, she closed her eyes and remembered the argument she and Mitch had the night of the accident. He’d accused her of being stubborn, too. He’d been right, but she hadn’t realized that until she’d woken up in the hospital weeks later without her family.

But this was different. Brock wasn’t her husband. Just because they’d had a few moments of pleasure together—and despite the attraction that still crackled between them whenever they got near each other—that didn’t give him a license to impose himself on her decisions.

“You want to know what I think?” she asked, her movements clipped with irritation as she filed each book back in its rightful place on the shelves. “I think you’re the one with the problem. You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman who doesn’t need you looking after her. A real woman, who can survive just fine on her own and not let you hold yourself responsible if she gets hurt. You’d rather blame yourself for not living up to some imaginary bar you’ve set—some unattainable measure of honor and worth. If you want to talk about problems, try taking a good look at yourself.”

He had gone so quiet and still, Jenna thought he might have walked out of the room. But when she turned around to see if he had left, she found him standing near the sofa, holding the old photograph that she’d first discovered tucked into the pages of one of his books. He was staring at the image of the pretty young woman with the ebony hair and large almond eyes. His jaw was held tight, a tendon ticking hard in his smooth, dark cheek.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right about me, Jenna,” he said finally, letting the photo drift out of his grasp to the sofa cushion. When he looked over at her, his face was schooled and sober, the consummate warrior. “None of this changes the fact that I
am
responsible for you. Lucan made it my duty to keep you protected while you’re in the Order’s custody—”

“Custody?” she balked, but he spoke right over her.

“—and that means whether you like it or not, whether
you approve or not, I do have a say in what you do, or who you come in contact with.”

She scoffed, outraged. “Like hell you do.”

He stalked over to her, barely three long strides before he was standing right up against her, the nearness of him sucking all the air from the room. Glittering heat lit his eyes from deep within. His fierce stare likely should have cowered her, but she was too hot with indignation—and too very much aware of the way her senses reached out to him in longing, despite the anger that made her chin jut upward. When she glared at him, casting inside herself for the tough-as-nails attitude that might have given her the strength to shove him away with harsh words or prickly defiance, she found it had deserted her.

All she could do was hold the breath that had suddenly gone shallow in her lungs. He ran his fingertips along the side of her cheek, such a skating, tender touch. His thumb lingered on her lips, stroking in a lazy pattern as his eyes drank her in for what seemed like forever.

Then he gathered her face in his palms and drew her toward him for a sizzling, and all-too-brief, kiss.

When he released her, she saw the sparks that glimmered in his eyes had now grown to bright, smoldering embers. His chest was firm and warm against hers, his arousal pressing bold and unmistakable against her hip. She staggered backward on her heels, a blaze of desire racing in her veins.

“You can fight me all you want on this, Jenna, I don’t fucking care.” Although his words were all business, his low voice vibrated through her like the coming of a storm. “You are mine to protect and keep safe, so make no mistake: If you leave the compound, you leave with me.”

B
rock made good on his intent to accompany her to the FBI meeting in New York.

Jenna didn’t know what he’d said to Lucan to persuade him, but later that morning, instead of Renata driving the Order’s black Range Rover through four hours of unfamiliar highway from Boston to Manhattan, it had been Jenna behind the wheel, with GPS on the dashboard and Brock trying to help navigate from the far back of the vehicle. His solar-sensitive Breed skin cells and daytime UV concerns had kept him from even thinking he could sit beside her up front for such a long trip, let alone do the driving.

Although it was probably beyond immature for her to
be amused, Jenna had to admit she took a certain satisfaction in his mandatory banishment to the seat behind her. She hadn’t forgotten his accusation about her always needing to be the one in charge, but judging from the impatient driving advice and muttered commentary about the apparent lead in her foot, it was obvious that she wasn’t the only one who had a problem surrendering control.

And now, as they sat inside the dark cavern of an underground parking garage across the street from the FBI field office in New York City, Brock was still giving her orders from the backseat.

“Text me as soon as you’re past security.” At her nod, he went on. “Once you’re in your meeting with the agent, text me again. I want periodic text check-ins, no less than fifteen minutes apart or I’m coming in after you.”

Jenna huffed out an impatient sigh and shot him a look around the driver’s seat. “This isn’t a middle school dance. It’s a professional office meeting in a very public building. Unless something goes totally off the rails in there, I’ll text you when I get into the meeting and when it’s over.”

She could tell he was scowling behind his wraparound UV-blocking sunglasses. “If you won’t take this seriously, then I am going in with you.”

“I’m taking it very seriously,” she argued. “And as far as you walking into that government building? Please. You’re dripping with weapons and covered in head-to-toe black kevlar. You wouldn’t make it past the front door security—assuming the daylight didn’t fry you first.”

“Security wouldn’t be an issue. I would be nothing more than a cold breeze at the back of their necks as I passed through.”

Jenna barked out a laugh. “Okay, then what? You’re going to skulk in the hallway while I meet with Special Agent Cho?”

“I’ll do what it takes,” he answered, utterly serious. “This information-gathering exercise ultimately belongs to the Order. It’s our intel you’re going after. And I still don’t like the idea of you going in there alone.”

She pivoted away from him, stung somehow that he didn’t seem to see her as part of the Order, as well. She stared out the window at a flickering yellow light in the cavernous garage. “If you were so concerned I couldn’t handle this meeting by myself, maybe you should have let Renata come with me instead.”

He leaned forward, stripping off his shades and coming between the seats to take hold of her shoulders. His strong fingers grasped her firmly, his eyes blazing in a mix of deepest brown and fiery amber. But when he spoke, his voice was nothing but velvet. “I am concerned, Jenna. But not as much about the damned meeting as I am about you. Fuck the meeting. There’s nothing we can get out of there that’s even half as important to me as making sure you’re okay. Renata’s not here because if anyone’s gonna watch your back, it’s gonna be me.”