Anna smiled. “I was Anna Latham the music student at Northwestern. I am twenty-six years old. I am married to the son of the Marrok—the Marrok who just left.”

She let the smile fall from her face, because this was important. She liked both FBI agents and didn’t want either of them to do something dangerously stupid—like underestimating Bran. “He is very good at blending in, my father-in-law. But don’t mistake him for anything but a ruthless bastard.”

Charles smiled, showing all of his teeth.

Je suis sur le point de respirer le feu. Je veux arrondir son bureau, donner un coup de pied plus large et me tenir entre ses jambes écartées. Je mettrais un genou sur le petit triangle de chaise juste en dessous de son aine, grimperais un peu et le ferais grogner dans la douleur.
je détacherais sa cravate et déboutonnerais le col de sa chemise. je mettais mes mains autour de sa grande gorge bronzée et serrais et serrais, sa peau chaude sous mes doigts, son corps luttant contre moi, du cèdre et du pin épicant l'air entre nous, brûlant mes narines comme de la fumée "qu'est-ce que tu imagines? ton l'expression est sale "
"Vous étrangler. Les mains nues" je peux à peine sortir les mots

" moutarde aujourd'hui" j'observe bruyamment. pourquoi je pique le nid du frelon? "Je ne peux pas attendre le bébé bleu ,lundi"
le regard qu'il me donne est à la fois suffisant et irrité. "Vous remarquez tellement de choses sur moi shortcake.mais puis-je vous rappeler que les commentaires sur l'apparence vont à l'encontre de la politique des ressources humaines de B&G"
ah le jeu des RH. nous n'avons pas joué à celui-ci depuis des lustres. "arrêtez de m'appeler shortcake ou je vous dénoncerais aux RH"

“Second time in one day,” Anna complained with a tremor of shock in her voice. “What is it with people? Did they forget their manners? Hello, how are you? No, I get the full tackle like I was a quarterback.”

“Anna?” said Charles.

“Sorry,” she murmured, without opening her eyes. “Food coma. It happens when I get sucked into cartoons and do battle with evil thorn-things.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Charles said.

You need to wake up, said Brother Wolf. So that no one dies.

And that jump-started her adrenal gland just fine. She sat up and rubbed her face. Asil, Wellesley, and Sage were in the kitchen, none of them looking very happy.

Charles was kneeling beside the couch. One hand on her face. The other hand was holding …

“That,” Anna said, “is a really big axe that you didn’t have this morning when you left.” And it had blood on it. Not his blood, she didn’t think. It didn’t smell like his blood.

Not ours, agreed Brother Wolf happily.

Charles grunted, then when she raised her eyebrows, he answered her implied question.

“When you contacted me the first time, I’d just stolen the axe from the Viking who attacked me and broke his leg with it.”

“I see,” she said.

“It took me awhile to take out his twin brothers, or I’d have gotten back to you sooner.”

She considered that statement and decided he wasn’t trying to be funny. He looked apologetic.

“I would rather you not get hurt by Viking twins …” she had to say it again, “because Viking twins are apparently a thing here. Anyway, please take care of pressing business before you answer me. If you are dead, you won’t be of any use at all.”

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time,” he said.

She didn’t think that he looked too scary, but then she looked over Charles’s shoulder at the others. Sage was a little pale, but her face was very calm. Wellesley looked almost dead—but he’d looked that way when she nodded off. Asil looked like a ticked-off cat cornered by a big, freaking dog.

So apparently the not-scary was a relatively new thing. Interesting that Brother Wolf had been the one to wake her up, possibly so she could prevent Charles from killing someone?

"What's your name, boy?" she asked. "I recognize your face. You look like your daddy."

"Levi Buchanan, ma'am." He held out his hand, and she took it. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"You're too charming for your own good, Levi Buchanan."

He nodded seriously. "Just charming enough to keep me out of trouble."

She barked out a laugh. All I could do was roll my eyes. He winked at me.

"Now," Levi drawled, "you haven't told me who I have the pleasure of speaking with. That's not very Southern of you."
"Only my gentleman callers get to use my first name," she said. Levi's mouth fell open, and I slapped a hand over my lips to keep the laugh in. "You can call me Miss Barton."

He snapped his mouth shut. "Well, Miss Barton, I hope to see you around."

She looked over her shoulder at me. "This your man? He's cheeky."

Before I could answer, Levi inclined his head toward the door. "Oh, I come in a close second to the dog out there. But I'm okay with that."

Dmitri pinched up the shoulder of his T-shirt, lowered his head to sniff at it. “I need a shower at least. Those dead eyes release putrid decaying blood when decapitated.”

“I’ll hold the watch here until Trace arrives,” Galen offered, his red hair a shaggy mess around his head and streaks of soot on his arms. “Go bathe. You stink.”

“You’re not exactly a fragrant rose yourself, Barbarian,” Dmitri muttered.

[..]"For now, Elena will teach me how to throw knives.”

It was Elena’s turn to be struck mute. “My lady Sharine?” she finally managed.

“I am not mad.” She shook out her skirts, her voice as haunting and beautiful as ever. “I wish to learn to throw knives so I can sink those knives into Aegaeon’s worthless chest should he dare show his face here.”

Illium’s jaw dropped. Aodhan appeared to have lost the ability to speak.

Elena grinned and bent in a deep bow. “It will be my pleasure.”

“Consort.” The archangel spoke English with a liquid accent. “You are the most unique being I have seen in all my life.”

“Guess you don’t know Naasir,” was Elena’s cool riposte.

Antonicus’s wings opened in a wave of charcoal gray, snapped shut. “Who is this Naasir? Is he like you? An angel-Made?”

Elena’s smile was slow and as sly as Naasir’s. “You’ll have to ask Naasir what he is.”

Amusement slicing through the ice of his anger, Raphael touched her mind. Attempting to break Naasir’s secrets through others?

Never! I’m going to find those answers myself. I just want Antonicus to beat his head against that particular brick wall, too.

Come in before I die of boredom!”

The face that peeked around the door was thinner than when she’d last seen it, but as ridiculously pretty. She held out her arms. Illium came inside in a rush, his eyes brilliant with emotion, but halted a foot in front of her. “Will I break you?”

“I’m going to hit you in a second.”

A wicked grin before he put his arms around her . . . with conscious care. Elena told herself to be patient; she’d be careful, too, if a friend came back looking sixty-eight percent dead.

Good thing he hadn’t seen her at ninety-three percent dead.

The jolt from the single tendril shivered through her bloodstream, seemed to make her blood glow at a higher intensity. Her skin felt electrified. “Is my hair standing up like Einstein’s?”

“It is my eternal regret that I could not talk that mortal into becoming a vampire.”

“You knew Einstein? Wait, no, stop distracting me.” She gasped again.

Afterward, the credits rolling, he went into the kitchenette and hunted around. When he returned, it was with a large bottle of whiskey. Opening it, he drank straight from the bottle, then put his feet back on the coffee table, and said, “Elena, why did I enjoy having my heart attempt to jump out of my chest?”

“It’s a thrill?” she said with a grin.

He drank more of the whiskey, though it would only give him a slight buzz at the most. Lowering the now half-empty bottle, he reached for the remaining popcorn. “When do we watch the next one?”

Elena laughed and picked up the remote. "Elena's School of Horror, class number two, is now in session."

© Copyright 2018 by Nalini Singh

[..]
– File dans ma chambre !
- Je pensais que tu ne me le demanderais jamais, susurra Tavin. Je savais bien que c’était pour la forme que tu protestais. Personne ne résiste à mon charme.
- Je parlais au chien, siffla-t-elle en refermant doucement la porte, avant de courir vers la voiture. Cela dit, la ressemblance est frappante.
- Qu’est-ce que tu en sais ? tu ne m’as jamais vu.
- Peut-être pas physiquement, mais en termes de personnalité, c’est fou. Je veux dire, vous aimez tous les deux courir après une balle, et vous boudez comme des gamins quand on vous confisque votre joujou préfère. Sans parler de ce besoin permanent d’attention et de caresses.
- Tu as raison. J’ai besoin de beaucoup de caresses.
- Je parle de ton ego, sales pervers.

“You did this.”

She shrugged. “Your mom and me and Amelia, who made the food we’re about to eat. And I was texting your mom in the car, not some guy. Though I appreciate the slice of jealousy I saw.”

He’d downed a couple of beers while he was chatting with everyone, so he was a lot more relaxed now. “Me? Jealous? Don’t know what you’re talking about.”



She gave him a knowing smile. “Sure. Anyway, isn’t it great? So many people showed up. I guess for some reason people like you, though I have no idea why.”

“I don’t know of many relationships that last through the tumultuous years of college.”

“Ours did.”

She laughed. “We’re not in a relationship, Nathan. We’re friends.”

“Is there a difference?”

She leaned back and kicked off her shoes. “Of course there is. I’m friends with several people from college.”

“Close friends?”

“Maybe not. I’d say I’m closest to you and to Monique. You’re the two people I tell all my secrets to.”

“I’m glad I know all the dirt. At least the non-sex dirt.”

She laughed. “That’s true. You don’t get to hear about my sex life.”

“Why is that?”

“Because that would be weird.”

“In what way?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess maybe because we’ve been intimate before. Or maybe because you’re a guy. I don’t know.”

“Now you’re being sexist. Just because I’m a guy doesn’t mean I can’t hear the dirty details of your sex life.”



“Oh, right. Like you share the details of your sex life with me.”

“True. I don’t. I wouldn’t want to make you weep about what you’re missing out on.”

She rolled her eyes. “Please.”

“See? Now you’ve resorted to begging. I knew this would happen.” He stood and reached for the zipper of his jeans. “Okay, give me a second to lose my pants and we’ll get down to it.”

She was laughing so hard she had to put her glass down. “Oh, my God, Nathan. Stop.”

He stilled and turned to face her. “This is not the reaction I typically get when I’m about to drop my pants, Mia.”

She wiped her eyes. “Well, I’m not your typical woman, am I?”

He took a seat and picked up his beer. “No, you’re not. I can’t figure out why you’re so immune to me.”

She leaned into him. “I wouldn’t say I’m exactly immune to you. I find you immensely hot. It’s just that I love our friendship more than I love your penis.”

He sighed and tugged her close. “Dammit. Maybe I should be meaner to you.”

“Oh, please don’t do that. Then who would give me those awesome shoulder rubs when I’m tense?”

“Was that a hint?”

“Not even a hint.” She pulled herself forward. “I’ve had a rough day.”

He sighed. “Come on and sit between my legs.”

“And yet another reason I need you with me, Monique. That positive attitude.”

“I’m just a ray of sunshine and utter beauty in your life, Mia.”

Mia laughed. “That you are.”

“Hey, do you want to have dinner tonight? I have a date and he has a really gorgeous friend. We’re going to try out this new Korean place that everyone’s talking about.”

She shook her head. “Thanks, but I already have plans.”

“Ooh, a hot date?”

“No. Dinner with Nathan Riley.”

Monique arched a perfect brow. “So it is a hot date.”

The only person she’d ever told about her onetime hookup with Nathan was Monique, because she was the only person Mia trusted with all her secrets. “Not ever going to happen again.”


Monique leaned back in her chair and shoved her pen into her gorgeous afro. “I don’t know why. The man is delicious.”

“The why is because we’re friends.”

“Oh, and you can’t fuck a friend?”

Fortunately, Monique’s office was at the other end of the hall, away from everyone else, so no one could hear them. “No, I can’t. My friendship with Nathan means too much to me.”

“Pff. Bullshit. You’re just afraid it was too hot for you and you might fall in love with him.”

“I am not afraid, and falling in love with Nathan is the last thing on my mind.” She walked in and slid into the chair across from Monique’s desk. “Though it was very hot sex. But love? I don’t have time for love. I’m building a dynasty here.”

“Uh-huh. You can build all the dynasties you want. But you can still jump on Nathan Riley.”

She shook her head. “What if I want to bring him on board MHC?”

“Do you?”

“I don’t know. The thought just popped into my head. But if I did, I can’t have sex with him and then sign him as a client, too.”

“Why not? Wouldn’t that be just an added incentive, like a fringe benefit?”

She rolled her eyes. “Monique. You have like . . . zero boundaries.”

Monique grinned. “I know. Isn’t it great? How do you think I landed a date with third-floor hottie?”

Mia arched a brow. “Your date tonight is with elevator guy?”

Monique nodded. “Yes. Hot business-suit elevator guy.”

“He is extremely sexy.”

“Yes he is, in that buttoned-up, tie-wearing, you want to take all his clothes off kind of way.”

Mia laughed. “Been thinking about that, have you?”

“I have. I intend to explore him in depth after dinner tonight. Maybe loosen up that designer necktie he wears, along with some of his other clothes.”

Mia shook her head. “I can’t wait for the details.”


She got up and went back to her office. She finished up for the day, and she and Monique locked up the office. They took the elevator downstairs and walked outside.

“You sure you don’t want me and elevator guy to come to dinner with you? I could point out Nathan’s fine ass and remind you of how great he was in the sack.”

Mia turned Monique in the opposite direction. “Oh my God no. Enjoy dinner alone with hot elevator guy. Try to call him by his real name.”

“Are you sure?” Monique asked as she started to walk away. “I can recall you damn near reciting poetry about all of Nathan’s fine attributes. Don’t forget about his enormous—”

Fortunately, whatever Monique said was drowned out by traffic sounds.
traduction google
«Et encore une autre raison pour laquelle j'ai besoin de toi avec moi, Monique. Cette attitude positive. "
"Je ne suis qu'un rayon de soleil et une beauté absolue dans ta vie, Mia."
Mia a ri. "Que tu es."
«Hé, tu veux dîner ce soir? J'ai un rendez-vous et il a un ami vraiment magnifique. Nous allons essayer ce nouvel endroit coréen dont tout le monde parle. "

Elle secoua la tête. "Merci, mais j'ai déjà des projets."

"Ooh, un rendez-vous chaud?"

"Non. Dîner avec Nathan Riley. "

Monique arqua un front parfait. "Donc, c'est un rendez-vous chaud."

Monique était la seule personne à qui elle ait jamais parlé de sa relation avec Nathan, car elle était la seule personne à qui Mia avait confiance en tous ses secrets. "Cela n'arrivera plus jamais."


Monique se pencha sur sa chaise et fourra son stylo dans son magnifique afro. «Je ne sais pas pourquoi. Cet homme est délicieux. "

"Le pourquoi est parce que nous sommes des amis."

"Oh, et tu ne peux pas baiser un ami?"

Heureusement, le bureau de Monique se trouvait à l’autre bout du couloir, loin de tout le monde, afin que personne ne puisse les entendre. «Non, je ne peux pas. Mon amitié avec Nathan signifie trop pour moi. "

“Pff. Connerie. Tu as juste peur que ce soit trop chaud pour toi et tu pourrais tomber amoureux de lui. "

"Je n’ai pas peur, et tomber amoureux de Nathan est la dernière chose à laquelle je pense." Elle entra et s’installa dans le fauteuil en face du bureau de Monique. «Même si c'était du sexe très chaud. Mais l'amour? Je n’ai pas le temps d’aimer. Je construis une dynastie ici. "

“Uh-huh. Vous pouvez construire toutes les dynasties que vous voulez. Mais vous pouvez toujours sauter sur Nathan Riley.

Elle secoua la tête. "Et si je veux l'amener à bord du MHC?"

"Le faites vous?"

"Je ne sais pas. La pensée me vient à l'esprit. Mais si je le faisais, je ne pourrais pas avoir de relations sexuelles avec lui, puis le signer en tant que client aussi. "
"Pourquoi pas? Ne serait-ce pas simplement une incitation supplémentaire, comme un avantage marginal? "

Elle roula des yeux. «Monique. Vous avez comme. . . limites zéro. "

Monique sourit. "Je sais. N'est-ce pas génial? Comment penses-tu que j'ai eu un rendez-vous avec une fille au troisième étage?

Mia arqua un sourcil. "Votre rendez-vous ce soir est avec l'ascenseur?"

Monique acquiesça. "Oui. Un gars costaud en costume d'affaires. "

"Il est extrêmement sexy."

"Oui, il est vêtu de cette cravate, tu veux lui enlever tous ses vêtements."

Mia a ri. "Vous y avez pensé, n'est-ce pas?"

"J'ai. J'ai l'intention de l'explorer en profondeur après le dîner de ce soir. Détachez peut-être sa cravate de créateur qu'il porte, ainsi que certains de ses autres vêtements.

Mia secoua la tête. "Je ne peux pas attendre pour les détails."


Elle se leva et retourna dans son bureau. Elle a fini pour la journée et elle et Monique ont fermé le bureau. Ils ont pris l'ascenseur en bas et sont sortis.

«Tu es sûr que tu ne veux pas que moi et le gars de l’ascenseur vienne dîner avec toi? Je pourrais souligner le beau cul de Nathan et vous rappeler à quel point il était génial dans le sac. "

Mia a tourné Monique dans la direction opposée. «Oh mon Dieu non. Profitez d'un dîner seul avec le gars chaud d'ascenseur. Essayez de l'appeler par son vrai nom.

«Tu es sûre?» Demanda Monique alors qu'elle commençait à s'éloigner. «Je me souviens que vous ayez failli réciter de la poésie sur tous les beaux attributs de Nathan. N'oublie pas son énorme…

Heureusement, tout ce que Monique a dit était noyé par les bruits de la route.

- Il n’en vaut pas la peine, ajoute-t-elle.
- C’était la troisième fois qu’elle intervenait pour le calmer : la première, c’avait été à la caserne, après le départ de Lisa, et la deuxième, ce matin, quand elle avait recouvert son poing de sa main apaisante dans la cuisine. Et chaque fois le geste était tendre qu’il absorbait son énergie négative. Il lança un regard haineux au docteur accompagne d’un dernier : “Va te faire foutre”, puis roula des épaules et recula.
Ce fut alors que Kinsey se retourna et que son poing atterrit sur la mâchoire de cet enfoire de David !
Quel tas fumant et délétère de mensonges et de tromperies !

“This is how we die in my family,” he seethed. “Violently. Harshly. Cord’s death was made to look like a plane accident. I made my dad’s look like it was natural causes. My mom’s was a mugging. The end is the same. We die. You want to be here? You want to be a part of this? You want to be locked in like I am? Because the end is the same. No matter what. Today. Tomorrow. Ten years from now. Twenty, if you’re lucky. The end is the same. Someone will decide they want you dead, and it’ll happen. In this life, we wish for natural causes. I would love to die in my sleep, or even from an accident, as long as it’s a true accident. I don’t want to die because of someone else’s calculations, but I have a hard time imagining I’ll get that lucky.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. For once, I wasn’t cringing, flinching, biting back sympathy.

I rose to my feet, slowly, and locked my chin in place. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” Did he really not remember? “My father used to beat my mother on a weekly basis, sometimes daily. I was sent away to Hillcrest because she feared he’d get me too. He wanted her dead. Remember? He would’ve killed me. You said it before, he’ll probably do the same to my cousin one day. I was born in darkness just as much as you. Maybe yours is darker, I don’t know, but it’s not like I ever decided to be normal. I didn’t like the ‘light’ life. I helped others disappear too. What do you think we see when we find them? Those people are at their lowest. They’re fighting for their lives. And we’ve been too late. Have I told you about those times?”

My voice sounded dull, echoing inside of me.

I kept on, though. He had to hear this. “Girls who got away from their pimps, who called for help. We get to a lot of them too late. We find their bodies. Or we show up to an empty hotel and get word a week later their body was identified in the morgue. Trafficked girls too. It’s not just rich assholes we save people from. It’s all walks of life. Girls who left home trying to get away from an abusive father or mother, get lured in by the promise of easy money, and get hooked on drugs. Prostitution. It’s those too.” I stepped toward him, my voice soft as silk. “Those girls you turn a blind eye to, who are trafficked in your territory, in your country. Those girls.”

He watched me come toward him, his gaze matching my tone. Like a loving snake waiting to pounce.

“What would you like me to do in those situations?” he asked.

“Stop them.” Easy. “Make that go away.”

“Just like that?” He gave me a hollow laugh. “You don’t know anything, do you, little girl?”

Oh, that fucker.

“I know the reason you reacted so violently to those people Brooke was staying with was because you recognized the signs.” This was the ace up my sleeve.

I stood almost toe-to-toe with him. “I know she was being groomed, and she didn’t even know it. She was living in that filth. It would’ve taken one bored night where she went upstairs and had a drink with them. One drink. One drug. A second night of drugs. More and more until she forgot why she was with them in the first place, until she was desperate and would’ve done anything. Or she would’ve started while she was high, out of it enough where they could use a camera on her. Right?”

I reached out, my heart jumping all over the place, but my arm steady.

I shouldn’t have, but I touched his chest.

His heart was racing just like mine, unsteady and erratic. Out of control.

I licked my lips and stared at his chest as it rose and fell under my palm. “You said no one was in the house, but that wasn’t true, was it?” I didn’t wait for the answer. I didn’t need it this time. “You had those people killed, and you burned down the house to destroy the evidence.” My eyes lifted to his now. “Didn’t you?”

He stared right into me, slipping past my walls, my barriers to see me naked and stripped bare for him. But I saw him, just as much as he saw me.

Slowly, he reached up until his hand curled around my neck.

He pulled me close, crushing my hand between us, and as he bent for my lips, he said, so softly, “You’re goddamn right I did. And I’d do it again.”

Then his mouth fused with mine.

“I won’t run,” I told him. Then I went to see what his guard was watching.

I’d been expecting to be at the meet with Blade.

I’d been expecting he would step out of his vehicle with Brooke. Kai would have me. We’d meet in the middle, and whatever happened after that happened. Whether I’d stay and fight for Brooke, or if Brooke would actually go with her brother, I didn’t know. I hadn’t fully thought it out, mostly because I couldn’t. I wasn’t in the driver’s seat for this one, Kai was.

But what I didn’t expect was to not be involved at all.

At the glass wall, I looked down and saw two vehicles in the lot. Neither was the van we’d ridden in. They were SUVs. Kai gave me a pair of binoculars, and as I put them up to my eyes, I saw the doors open.

Tanner got out. So did I.

Not me, obviously, but someone who looked like my twin.

I was stunned.

She was wearing the scrubs I’d been taken in. Her hair was down, swept to one side. She was hunched over, purposefully hiding her face, and goddamn, she even walked like me. The bitch had studied me somehow.

Her/my hand came up and brushed some of my hair back, like I do.

Like I did just now—I caught myself, and cursing, I tightened my hold on the binoculars again.

She tugged at the bottom of her scrub top, just like I would.

She stopped, hesitating, and her shoulders rolled back, just like I do.

There, across the lot, was Blade. He was too far away to see it wasn’t really me as he got out of the Chevy truck. I was impressed that sucker had even made it the whole way, and it told me he was doing this off the books. 411 didn’t know about it. If they had, he would’ve been in an SUV.

“What are you doing, Blade?”

He paused, holding his arm up to his forehead to shade his eyes. He saw Tanner and her/me, then went to his passenger door. Opening it, a girl got out—a girl… She looked like Brooke, but it couldn’t have been. He wouldn’t have done that. I knew Blade. No matter how much he might want me back, he wouldn’t trade in someone who was hiding for her life.

It went against his code as a 411 operative.

Kai leaned forward. I could feel the intensity rolling off of him.

It looked like Brooke.

Same dark hair, same build, same height as the girl I’d seen in Brooke’s Instagram pictures. But…no way. It couldn’t be.

“That’s not her,” Kai growled. He snapped a radio to his mouth, pressing the side button. “Abort. It’s not her.”

Tanner’s hand went to his ear, then shot out to the girl beside him. We heard a shout over the radio before both turned and ran back for their vehicle.

I jerked forward, but there was nothing I could do.

Sixteen floors separated us.

I glanced around, but Kai was already in my ear. “Don’t fucking think about it.”

He motioned, and the guard grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the window—but not before I saw all the guards who had come with us swarm into the parking lot below.

“Grab both of them!” Kai ordered. “Take them to the warehouse.”

“No!” I kicked, trying to get free.

The guard wrapped his arms around me. He held me up and dragged me at the same time.

“NO!” I squirmed. Fighting.

I needed to get free. Blade was in trouble. Whoever was with him, she was in trouble too. I had to help, despite what I’d said to Kai.

I had to.

There was no other option.

“Enough! You promised!” Kai was in my face.

I shook my head. “No, no. Not my friend. You broke it. You broke your word. You never said you’d take my friend. You—” God. I was so stupid, but I knew what I was going to do.

I was insane.

As he moved closer to me, I closed my eyes, reared my head back—and head-butted him.

“Shit!”

“Argh!”

Except I hit air.

Opening my eyes, I found Kai standing to the side, his eyes wide open and shocked.

“Jesus Christ, get her in check!”

The motion had upended the guard’s hold on me, and I broke free of his hands.

I dropped, my body going limp, but as soon as I hit the floor, I rolled to the side.

This was so bad, so bad. I couldn’t get away like this, so almost in one motion, I tried pushing up to my feet and running for it.

Except Kai was there.

He wrapped an arm around my waist and tossed his radio to the guard. Yelling over my head, he lifted me like I was a child. “Go ahead of us. Bring the SUV around to the side door. I got her.”

The guard wavered. “You sure?”

I glanced at him, then looked again. The guard had blood all over his face. Did I do that? But then I was back to fighting to get free.

Kai held me in the air and wrapped one of his arms around both of mine, securing them to my sides, and he put his other arm around my legs. I could only try to get free the way I had with the guard, but Kai was ready for it. He braced himself, and as the guard held the door open for us, he ran for it, carrying me. He went sideways so I didn’t get hit, but I was still a battling mess.

“Woman. Stop.”

“Never!”

I couldn’t even turn around and bite him, though my desperation levels were nearing that point. I wanted to rip a piece out of him, in a whole new way than I had ten minutes ago.

The elevator door slid open, and Kai carried me in while the guard remained on the floor. He dropped me to my feet, wrapping his arms around me and hooking one leg around mine so I felt like I was stuck between resting against him or falling on my face.

“Get it done!” he commanded as the doors shut.

The guard nodded, lifting the radio to his mouth.

“Goddamn you! Goddamn you, asshole!” I screamed.

He hit the button and a litany of curses left him. He moved before I could comprehend it and swung me up so my back hit the wall. He stepped in close, using his body to hold me up.

I felt even more helpless in this position.

His groin was right there, pressing into mine, and a whole different heat spread through me.

I clasped my eyes shut. No. NO!

I would not let my body go there.

He had Blade. He had the woman who’d helped him.

But, fuck—I felt him hardening against me, pushing against me.

“You fucking asshole,” I whispered, broken.

He sucked in some air, resting his forehead near the base of my neck, his mouth lingering over my artery. I felt his lips there, brushing over my skin, before he spoke.

“You and me both,” he whispered. “You and me both, Riley.”

Shit. I didn’t want this, but the fight still left me. I became dead weight in his arms.

He took my friend, my friend.

I couldn’t let him hurt Blade. I just couldn’t.

“Please don’t hurt Blade.”

He lifted his head, and his eyes softened as he took in my face.

“He’s my family. My only family left.”

His eyes darted from my tears, to my eyes, to my lips, and stayed.

He nodded. “I won’t hurt him.”

I strained against him, my arms still pinned. “You promise? You have to promise.”

His eyes jumped to mine, and he raised an eyebrow.

I cursed. “You never said a word about kidnapping my friends. Never. You just said not to run.”

“Which you did.”

“Because you ordered them to take my friends!”

“Friends? I thought it was only him you cared about.”

I didn’t know who the woman was. She didn’t look like Carol. She was taller, had a bigger bone structure than Carol’s.

“I don’t know who she is,” I admitted. “But if she helped Blade, she’s someone I’m indebted to. So yes, friends. Both of them.”

Kai’s eyebrows pulled together. When I licked my lips, his eyes moved there, his eyebrows lifting.

My neck felt warm. The heat was spreading, moving up my face until I knew my cheeks were red.

“I didn’t mean to do that.”

He grunted again. “Right. If you stop fighting me, I will not hurt your friends today.”

“Today?!” I nearly levitated my entire body off of the elevator wall, my groin grinding up on him as I did. His hand dropped down to catch underneath one of my legs.

I had a hand free, and I used it.

I balled it up and swung.

He dodged me, then let go of my leg as he caught my hand and slammed me back all at the same time.

He was rock solid. If our clothes were gone, he would’ve been inside of me, but as it was, he just held me—face to face, every inch of our bodies pressed against each other. He moved his legs out, positioning my legs wider so I couldn’t kick.

“Stop. Fucking. Fighting!” he yelled in my face.

“Stop. Hurting. My. Friends!” I spat back.

Zut. En fait, elle était suffisamment humaine pour ne pas pouvoir escalader une montagne avec une aisance sans aucun désastre. "A- tu des os en gelée?" Murmura-t-elle à Venom quand ils s'immobilisèrent pour s'assurer qu'il n'y avait aucune menace à venir.

"Non. Spaghetti."

Holly faillit éclater de rire.

“They let you drive now?” he said in a wondering tone of voice calibrated to get under her skin. “I leave for a couple of years and miss kitty’s first steps. Did anyone take photos for the baby album I sent you?”

“It’s full of pretty pictures.” Holly bared her teeth at him in a caricature of a smile. “Honor is a little concerned about how I keep drawing you with your head cut off,” she said in a deliberately thoughtful tone, “but an artist must follow her instincts.”

“Oh, Hollyberry, I’m deeply touched that you couldn’t get me out of your head.”

The damn man looked like he’d stepped out of an ad for fine whiskey or luxury watches.

She was scowling when he met her eyes through the glass. She knew he was looking at her despite the mirrored sunglasses. Arms folded and feet set apart, she stared back.

He smiled and slid off the sunglasses.

Eyes slitted like a viper’s met hers, the color a bright astonishing green. I see you missed me, kitty, he mouthed.

Holly gave him a sickly sweet smile . . . followed by the finger.

“Oui,” Janvier said in reply to her edgy question. “It is an order. See, I am acting bosslike.”

Holly’s lips twitched despite herself. “Fine, I’ll go pick up Poison.”

“Play nice—no putting a cunja on him.”

Reyes made dinner. Yes, the man had been shredded, stabbed in the heart by his wife, died, turned to stone, and brought back to life and still managed to whip up a batch of green chile burritos. He was a keeper.

“I can’t believe you did that.”

“What? Bargained for my wife’s life back?”

“For three days?”

He pulled me into his arms. “I had to. Any longer than that and you’d start to get on my nerves.”