Twice as Hot (44 page)

Tanner
rushed to her, but she backed away, yanking her gloves out of her pockets. Only
when they were anchored in place did she allow herself to be pulled into his
waiting arms.

Rome
growled low in his throat, and I stiffened. Uh-oh. That was an angry growl.
Slowly I faced him. Our gazes locked, my hazel against his furious blue. He was
still in cat form, his fur slick and black and savagely lovely. His teeth were
bared at me.

“You
needed help,” I said, chin raising. “I’m not sorry. I’ve changed, just like you
said, and I’m a better agent for it. I need to be part of the action. I need to
prove I can do this.”

Boom!

The
parapet trembled wildly, and someone screamed. Then debris was raining down,
rocks and twigs and planks and mortar. Puffs of black smoke plumed in the air,
making me cough.

“What
happened?” I gasped out.

Tanner
blanched. “The building behind us just exploded.”

After
a collective moment
of frozen shock and horror, our group leaped into action, rushing toward the
building. My rain had begun to fall again, harder this time, the hail like
poisoned fists. Had Sherridan and Lexis been inside that building? I could
barely catch my breath, could barely force my body to remain in motion as my
blood turned to thick, frozen sludge.

An
alarm blasted, screeching into the night and making me cringe.

Along
the way, there were armed guards lying on the ground, unconscious. Thanks to
Jean-Luc? Or had I been wrong to trust him? Had he caused the explosion? Was
Sherridan—

Oh,
God.

No.
No, no, no. I wouldn’t believe it, I thought as I jumped over another
motionless body. Then I tripped over a semiautomatic and landed face-first.
Dirt coated my tongue as air abandoned my lungs. Thankfully my adrenaline was
too high, my body too numb from cold to feel any pain. I’d feel it tomorrow,
though. If I were still alive.

Rome
was at my side an instant later, still in cat form, pulling me to my feet with
his mouth. He was careful not to break my skin and only to tug on my clothing.

When
I finally regained my breath, it was so cold it misted around my face.

“Thanks,”
I uttered shakily and jumped back into motion.

He
growled. I’d take that as
you’re welcome
.

This
time, he stayed with me, keeping pace. When we reached the compound, we didn’t
have to find a door to get inside. A gaping hole in the side of the building
greeted us.

I
stopped abruptly, unsure whether to enter guns blazing as a team or split up
and start searching. “Rome, I—”

Jean-Luc
peeked from the corner as if he meant to attack, realized who we were, and came
the rest of the way around. “About time,” he said over the still-screaming
alarm, loading a magazine into his gun. “What took so long? I already disabled
all the planes and cars, so they won’t be going anywhere.”

He
looked every inch the warrior.

Guilt
filled me. I shouldn’t have doubted Jean-Luc. Not even for a second. He was a
man of his word.

Rome
snarled at him.

Though
I kept my back to Rome, I stepped in front of him, a stumbling block between
the two men. I hoped. My hand fluttered to my throat and the pulse hammering
there. “The girls—”

“Are
fine, far as I know,” Jean-Luc interjected, his gaze meeting mine in the
darkness and probing deep. “I didn’t betray you, wouldn’t have hurt them.”
There was disappointment in his voice.

My
guilt doubled. “I realize that.” Now. “I just wanted to know where they were.”

“Don’t
know.”

“Any
sign of Desert Hag?” Tanner asked, panting. He was bent down, digging into a
vinyl bag. For…a knife he sheathed at his side.

Jean-Luc
shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Hans.
Hide us from outside.”

The
sound of Rome’s voice had me turning. He was in the process of morphing back
into a human, fur falling away and leaving skin. Naked skin. But then shadows
descended on us, black overtaking everything. There was a collective intake of
breath.

I
heard a rustle of clothes. Rome’s transformation must be complete; he must be
dressing.

“Christian,”
he said. “I need light. But light no one outside our shadows can see.”

“Keeping
my light inside my brother’s shadows will weaken me.”

“That’s
a chance I have to take. I don’t want to risk hurting you guys with the weapons
I’m about to ready.”

A
ray of gold suddenly glowed from the boy, breaking through the shadows Hans had
created. Gold no one but us could see.

Rome,
once again clad in all black, dug through a bag and began strapping weapons all
over his body.

My
heart swelled with love. Despite everything that had happened and everything I
feared
would
happen, I did still love this fierce and determined man.

He
tugged on a pair of boots. “We’re going to stick together.” He was all
business. “Tanner and Elaine, watch the rear. Hans, watch the left and right.
Christian—never mind. Save your strength. Jean-Luc, you’re to guard Belle with
your motherfucking life. Understand?”

I
was both irked and touched as the two men shared an intense look.

Jean-Luc
nodded.

“I’ll
take the lead,” Rome finished, already moving forward. “Drop the shadows.”

They
fell away, the world around us once again becoming my focus. Nothing had
changed. The building was still torn apart, the guards around us unconscious or
dead. In fact, this area looked and sounded abandoned. That surprised me. Had
we already dispatched everyone or were they somewhere else, waiting for us? I
doubted we were lucky enough to have won the battle so easily.

Christian
chose that moment to collapse from the effort of lighting the darkness and
Tanner dragged him to the side of the building and propped him up. Gave him a
gun and told him to shoot if anyone approached him.

“What
should I do?” I asked, slipping two knives from the side slits in my pants and
gripping them tightly.

“Stay
alive,” was all Rome said. Before I could work up a good steam, he added, “I
texted Cody and told him to make sure Desert Gal was here. You’re the only one
who can fight her. She’ll drain us of our water, and we’ll crumple, but you
won’t have to touch her to take her down.”

Was
I hearing him correctly? He was trusting me to fight, believing in me, allowing
me to be an agent rather than a girlfriend. It was…both wonderful and
saddening, I realized. Almost surreal. Before, Rome would not have done that.
He would have stuck me in a safe place and left me there until the action
ended.

I
wasn’t sure if this meant he accepted the “different” girl I was and had faith
in her, or if he’d decided we were no longer meant to be together.

“We
can shoot her,” Tanner said. “That way Belle won’t have to engage in a
catfight.”

Rome
shook his head. “Cody gave me the lowdown on the compound and if Desert Gal is
where I think she is, gunfire would cause the entire building to explode.”

I’d
been so happy when Rome agreed I should be part of the fight, but this was more
than I’d bargained for. One false move…“Should we be using guns
now?
”

“I’ll
tell you when to put them away. Don’t be scared, and don’t get trigger-happy
and shoot
me.
One thing in our favor, there aren’t as many guards
tonight as Cody had led me to expect.” Rome moved to the lead, looked around.
“We were able to freeze some of her accounts, and it looks like some of her men
abandoned her when she couldn’t pay up.”

When
he darted forward to finally enter the building, the entire group followed as
though we’d been tugged. Everyone remained on high alert. Around us, there were
cages—empty. Lab coats hanging on hooks. Wall-to-wall computer systems and
machines I could not identify. There were even tables with ankle and wrist
restraints, and I couldn’t stop a shudder from traveling down my spine.

We
cased the length of one hallway, then another, only Rome entering the offices
we encountered, roving the barrel of his gun over the spaces.

“Nice
try,” I heard him say in one of them. Then,
Pop. Whiz.
Grunt.

I
was wide-eyed as he emerged. He was careful not to look at me.

“Guard
was hiding, and could have later ambushed us,” he explained to the group before
starting forward again.

Just
like before, we followed as though we’d been tugged. Twice, Tanner had to shoot
in the direction he was guarding—but only because he missed the first time.
Three times, Jean-Luc had to fire off a round as doctors and guards emerged
from corners and shadows to escape the little pockets of fire still blazing
from the bomb. Even Hans had to shoot. He hit his target dead-on.

Gotta
say, he and his brother impressed me. I’d expected them to slow us down, but
they’d done more for this mission than I had.

Your
turn is coming.
Was Desert Soon-to-be-Dead Gal still here or had she bolted when the alarm went
off? She was probably here, I decided a moment later. If Cody had gotten her
here, he wouldn’t have let her leave.

I
needed to keep my fear on a tight leash. Water fed her, strengthened her, so
throwing ice balls at her would probably cause her energy levels to spike.
Sadness was out, too. Making it rain on her would be like signing my own death
warrant.

That
left fire, wind and/or earth. Fire—I’d need fury. Wind—I’d need the perfect
blend of anger, happiness and sadness. Earth—I’d need jealousy.

“You
okay?” Jean-Luc whispered to me. His eyes roved left and right, watchful.
“You’re pale.”

I
sheathed my gun at the waist of my pants, angling it to my back. “Just trying
to decide what element I need for my upcoming catfight, as Tanner calls it.”

“Any
front-runners?”

Yeah,
I just didn’t want to admit it. But there was no help for it. “Fire, most
likely. It creates ash, the total opposite of what Desert Asshat needs for
strength.”

He
snorted as he performed another quick left-right scan, then a backward glance.
He moved another inch in front of me. “What emotion do you need for that? Fury,
right?”

“That’s
right.” We turned a corner, our steps slowing.

He
nodded, seemed to think things over for a moment, his gun sliding in sync with
his gaze. “Rome doesn’t like that you’re an agent.”

My
eyes narrowed. “You can’t know that. You gave him back his memories, which
means they can’t be inside you. You don’t know what he’s feeling.”

“Oh,
really? Well, guess what, sugar? I wrote everything down. I knew the time would
come that I’d have to give them back to make you happy, and I didn’t want to
forget a thing about you. So I wrote everything down and read it all. The.
Time. I’ve memorized his memories. Rome didn’t want you to be an agent. He was
thinking about swooping you up and carrying you and his daughter off to a
hideaway.”

Shocked
to the core, I sent my gaze to the man in question. All I could see was the
stiff line of his back and the side of his face as he performed the same
left-and-right scan as Jean-Luc at the end of the hallway to decide where to go.

“Also,
he had a fling with Desert Gal shortly after his divorce from Lexis. He called
her Candy. They were pretty hot, but he broke things off to try and win Lexis
back. Pissed Candace off royally. Embarrassed her.”

Every
muscle in my body was stiffening. The ice inside me was melting, swifter than
it ever had before. Little flames were branching from my fingernails. “That’s
not possible. One, she’s a scrim who was in Pretty Boy’s employ. Two, Rome
hates scrims. Three, touching her drains a person of their water, and he wasn’t
drained.”

Jean-Luc
was shaking his head before the last word left me. “Nope. She’s only worked for
Pretty Boy a year, so maybe she wasn’t a scrim when Rome dated her. And she’s
not like Elaine. Skin to skin doesn’t drain the water from a body. Candace
controls it.
She
decides when to drain, when not to.”

He
was right. I’d watched Cody touch her and nothing had happened to him. “I—I—”
Had no words. Why the hell had Rome not told me about this?

We
rounded another corner and stopped abruptly as Rome held up one hand. I rammed
into Jean-Luc. He
humphed,
stumbled forward and rammed into Hans.

“Sorry.”
I scanned the room we’d entered. Spacious but with more cages, these actually
filled with people. Around fifteen of them. I searched their dirty, bruised
faces—and found Sherridan and Lexis.

My
heart raced and tears popped into my eyes. They were alive. Thank God, thank
God, thank God. Each occupied her own cage. They were more bruised than the
other prisoners, but alive. They gripped the iron bars and watched the
happenings with a mix of fear and hope.