Twice as Hot (14 page)

“Great
story.” Lexis ran her palm up and down Rome’s arm, petting him. “But it isn’t
as though it can possibly be verified.”

“I
can verify it,” Tanner told her, the words more a growl than anything. “I was
in the backseat listening.”

Damn,
I loved him. “Rome,” I said. “Do. You. Remember?”

The
confusion faded from his face and anger returned. He shook his head. “No. I
don’t. I don’t know why I said what I did.”

Still,
my hope remained. My fiancé was in that head somewhere. Whether his memories
had been erased or borrowed didn’t matter. Somehow, a part of him
did
remember me.

He
placed an arm around Lexis’s waist—my hope blended with a fiery prong of
rage—and tugged her closer to him. For comfort? My hands burned. Then he
released her to close the door behind her. He’d only meant to move her out of
the way. The burning subsided.

“What’s
going on?” Miss Know-It-All repeated. She focused on me, blinked when she
spotted my outfit, then smirked. She ran a fingertip along the buttons of her
shirt. “Nice dress, Belle.”

My
cheeks heated with embarrassment. “I’d tell you those jeans look nice on you,
but they make your ass look fat.”

“Truth,”
Tanner said with a grin.

Lexis
paled but didn’t offer a retort.

Tanner
reached for me and squeezed my hand in comfort, and I noticed he was trembling.
Not by word or deed did he betray it, though. With his neutral expression, he
appeared every bit the confident man. I’d never been prouder of him.

Suddenly
Rome’s lips pulled back from his teeth in a show of aggression.

“Sweetheart?”
Lexis said.

His
gaze never left me.

“What?”
I demanded.

“Nothing,”
he snapped, though his eyes were glued to Tanner’s and my joined hands.

Wait.
Was he jealous, as he’d been with Cody? Or did his anger stem from the insult
I’d dealt his precious Lexis? I opened my mouth to say something—what, I might
never know—when Rome’s voice lashed out.

“Where’s
Cody?”

“I
sent him out on assignment.” He’d sent himself, but whatever. “So what’d you
guys learn from Tobin?”

Lexis
rested her head on Rome’s shoulder, as I’d wanted to do earlier and as I’d just
told him I’d once done in his car, and patted his chest. To his credit, he
shifted uncomfortably. Even disengaged from her to peer inside the
interrogation room at Tobin, who had not moved from his chair.

Lexis
couldn’t mask the hitch of her breath.

I
suddenly couldn’t stop smiling.

Her
eyes homed in on my smile like a missile just before impact. “He stayed at my
house last night.”

“We
slept in separate rooms,” Rome said before I could react. He turned back to
her, frowning. Upset by what she’d insinuated? “I asked you to stop that.”

Stop
trying to distress me? And they’d stayed in separate rooms? Thank God! I’d
tried not to worry about it, had managed to suppress any mental images of the
two of them together, naked, but the worry
had
been there, deep in my
heart.

“You
did?” I asked, then cursed myself for how needy I’d come across.

“We’re
working on the emotional aspects of our marriage before we get physical,” Lexis
retorted, defensive.

“You’re
working on your marriage?” I’d known that. He’d implied it before, but still.
Knife…twisting…

Rome
shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and tangled his fingers
through his hair. “Yes. No. I don’t know. I told you I was going to remarry
her.” This time, at least, he didn’t sound so sure.

“God,
I can’t believe I ever dated you.” Tanner, too, tangled a hand through his
hair, dislodging the blue locks and causing them to stand on end as he scowled
at Lexis. “Every day, hell, every hour, I get over you a little more. Were you
always this manipulative and nasty? And how the hell did I miss it?”

As
he spoke, I studied Rome’s face, watching for any sign of acceptance, any sign
that he realized the truth of Tanner’s claim, that he was being manipulated in
the worst possible way. But while he appeared hard and uncompromising, he did
not appear enlightened.

“Watch
how you talk to her,” he said.

“Why?
I’ve said worse to her,” Tanner replied. “While we were in bed.”

Rome
surprised me; he didn’t lash out over that “in bed” remark.

“I’m
just looking out for my family, Tanner,” Lexis said softly, no longer smirking
or smug. “For my daughter.”

Tanner
pushed out a disgusted breath. “No, you’re looking out for yourself.”

Rome’s
head tilted to the side. In thought? “Wait a second. You truly dated him?” He
faced Lexis. He didn’t appear upset by the knowledge that his ex-wife had dated
a much younger man. Maybe because he knew, on some level, that he didn’t love
this woman any longer.

“For
a little while,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “Now isn’t the time to
discuss it, though.”

Now
was as good a time as any, so Lexis could suck it. “Don’t you think you should
rediscover your past before you work on your future?” I asked him.

Rome
scrubbed a hand down his face. “Yes. No.” Once again, anger hardened his
features. “I don’t know what to think about anything anymore. Okay?”

“He’s
about to blow,” Tanner muttered. He probably meant the words for me alone, but
they echoed through our little circle. “So, uh, why don’t we change the subject
as The Great Puppeteer suggested. Tell us what you learned from that Tobin
guy.”

A
long while passed in silence, time Rome used to clear his expression and soften
his body language to give nothing of his emotions away. From seething statue of
granite to average citizen with not a care. Well, as average as a guy like him
could look.

“We’ll
give you our report at the lunch meeting,” he said. “We’ve got a few more
people to talk to first, and I want to confirm a few things before they’re
bandied about.”

“All
right.” I nodded. That had always been Rome’s style. “Tanner and I should go.
We’ve got a few people to interview ourselves.”

Rome
frowned again, a hint of concern pushing through that blank mask. “Who? And why
together?”

Was
that concern for me? And maybe more of the jealousy I’d sensed earlier? “Elaine
Daringer, for starters. And because we work well together.”

“Rome.”
Lexis tugged at his arm impatiently. “We really should finish speaking with
Tobin. He’s growing restless.”

Rome
ignored her. “Elaine is an energy vampire,” he told me.

“I
know. I read her file.” I flicked Lexis a glance. She pinched one of her
shirt’s buttons and rolled it back and forth, the motions agitated. Didn’t like
the attention I was getting, I supposed.

“Have
you ever dealt with an energy vampire before?” Rome asked.

Still
talking to me, I realized happily. “No, but I’ve studied the PSI manual and
know what to do. She’ll be strapped down and I won’t touch her.”

“Besides,”
Tanner said, his chest puffing up, “Belle will have me. She’ll be fine. Better
than fine.”

That
frown grew in intensity. “Let me talk—”

Boom!

Plumes
of plaster and rock suddenly bathed the air, debris flying in every direction.
Tanner was knocked flat on his ass, part of the wall and window that had
exploded pinning him down. Lexis and Rome were propelled to the ground, as
well.

Me,
well, I was knocked backward and scooped into a viselike grip before I could
kiss the tiles.

Tobin
had broken through the wall.

A
high-pitched alarm screeched to life, echoing all around. When I realized what
had happened—and what
was
happening—I kicked and punched with every
ounce of strength I possessed. When that failed to gain my freedom, I jabbed
Tobin’s trachea and poked his eyes just like Rome had taught me.

Nothing
slowed him; nothing relaxed his grip. He barreled down the halls, past shocked
agents, shoving them to the floor and going straight through walls. He didn’t
mist, though, a form of teleporting. No, he simply shattered the plaster and
wood. The agents would jump to their feet, use their powers or human
abilities—a lightning bolt whizzed past, a slew of knives and throwing stars,
even a thick, choking smoke that clouded the air—but Tobin dodged everything
effortlessly, as though he’d trained for just such a thing.

“Let
me go!” Every time he slammed through those planks, I felt as if a thousand
fists were punching me. The impact was compounded as his heavy feet slammed
into the floor one after the other, bouncing me up and down. At least I was
able to cough some of the smoke out of my lungs. “You’re killing me!”

“Be
still,” he snarled.

“I
will when you tell me where you’re taking me!”

“My
friend wants to chat with you, okay, and my friend gets what she wants.”

She.
Desert Gal? Desert Gal’s friend? I increased my struggles. “For God’s sake, if
she wanted to talk to me, she could have called me!”

Another
wall. More fists, more vibrations. “This way, she can ensure you answer her
questions properly.”

Great.
Torture was on the horizon.

By
the sixth wall, I was cut, bleeding and coughing from more than smoke
inhalation. I wouldn’t be able to stop him through regular means, I realized.
I’d have to use my powers. What should I use, then? Rain? No, he’d slip but
keep running. Fire? No, I might burn the entire building down. Ice?

Yes!
Ice. I could freeze him in place. And maybe, just maybe, since Rome, my filter,
was in the building, I wouldn’t mess this up and refrigerate the entire city of
Atlanta.
Come on, Belle. You can do it.

Fear,
I needed fear to create ice. I was scared right now, but it was a numbing fear,
which meant the emotion was there, it just wasn’t accessible, as though this
was simply a dream and I wasn’t really involved. I needed to break through that
numbness just like Tobin had broken through those walls.

Okay,
so. What scared me so much I couldn’t pretend everything would work out in my
favor? The thought of the upcoming torture, for sure. Knives under my nails,
fingers removed, ears bitten off. As I thought them, I pictured them happening.
A cold mist began to drift through my veins. It was a good start, but not
nearly enough to immobilize my captor.

“Don’t
kill me,” I shouted, hoping that would help. I’d read somewhere that hearing
oneself beg for mercy could start a domino effect inside one’s body. Supposedly
the sound sparked a terrified tremor and that tremor unleashed a torrent of
endorphins. Wait. Endorphins numbed fear. I think. Argh! Things weren’t
supposed to be this complicated. I
was
going to screw this up.

With
that last thought, my fear kicked up a notch, the mist solidifying into an icy
rain. Oh, excellent! Failure must frighten me stupid.

“I’m
such a failure,” I wailed. Another notch.

“Shut
up, woman.”

“I
can’t do anything right.” Another notch. Sadly, I couldn’t refute the words.
Not only was I facing potential death, but there was a very real possibility
that Rome was going to stay with Lexis forever, that I’d lose him, never hold
him again.

Ice
spread over the floor, and Tobin lost his footing. As he slammed into an
office, people screaming, debris raining, an animalistic roar suddenly ripped
through the air. Both Tobin and I were propelled forward at a faster velocity.
When we hit something solid—a desk—Tobin grunted and released me. I went
skidding across the floor, once again losing my hold on the ice-inducing fear.

What
the hell?

I
jumped to shaky legs, scanning the area. Rome had morphed into his jaguar form,
sleek and black and deadly, and had tackled Tobin from behind. The wild black
cat tore a chunk from the struggling man’s neck. Not enough to kill him, but
enough to slow him down.

Tobin
raised a meaty fist and batted him across the room—at me. Rome and I were
knocked together, oxygen gusting from my lungs on impact. But when we landed,
the cat was somehow underneath me. He must have twisted us midair. He rolled me
to my back.

There
was a warm lick across my face and then the weight lifted and the two men were
facing off again, Tobin bleeding, Rome snarling. I gagged, seeing the blood on
both of them.

There
was no manufacturing fear this time. As I lay there, laboring for every breath,
the emotion flooded me. Inhumanly strong as Tobin was, he could snap Rome’s
neck. Or punch him in the head and crack his skull into a thousand pieces.
Perhaps, though, that would be a good thing. Perhaps it would knock some sense
into him, as my dad always says.

Wait.
Finding a silver lining was not good in a situation like this. Tobin could—

Scream,
“Son of a bitch,” and launch at Rome. The two clashed together, twisting to the
ground, rolling and fighting. Tobin, punching. Rome, biting.