The question was, could he handle it? Could he handle what this would mean to him? More important, how would she react to finding out that everything she thought she’d known about herself had been a lie?
Questions formed a lingering line in his mind. His gaze stayed focused on the headstone just about a foot in front of him.
His cell phone rang and he reached to his hip to answer it.
“Reynolds,” he said in a dour tone.
“We need to talk. Now.”
X sounded serious. Rome knew not to question him. “Meet me at my house in half an hour.”
“Later,” X agreed and disconnected the line.
Rome put the phone back in its holster and inhaled deeply. The air was ripe with pollution, thick with the stench of death. It was all around him, coming on the stifling hot breeze, and soon it would knock on his door again. Rome knew this without a doubt.
But this time, he vowed to be ready.
Chapter 19
“Where’s the Rogue?” Rome asked the moment he walked into his study and headed straight for the bar. Pulling a glass from the shelf, he poured himself a drink and gulped it down. He was carrying the weight of his world and then some on his shoulders. Liquor probably wasn’t going to soothe it, but it would have to do for now.
X stood by the window. He turned when Rome entered the room and simply stared at him.
Nick was near the fireplace, standing right beneath the brass sculpture of the Topetenia insignia. The one that had Rome gripping his glass like a lifeline.
“He’s locked down tight. Still not talking. Well, that’s not true: He said that whoever he works for is going to feed us our nuts for breakfast. Then he shut up. Think his lip might have been too swollen to continue.”
Rome frowned. “His boss isn’t looking for him. Gotta wonder why.”
X shrugged. “Collateral damage. There’s always a percentage when you walk into a war.”
“Then they’d better start keeping count, because if he doesn’t talk soon his ass is a statistic,” Nick quipped.
“But there’s something bigger going on,” X said.
Rome looked at him. “What’s up?”
“It’s about Kalina.”
His already throbbing temples pulsated faster as Rome released the glass and flattened his palms on the cool surface of the bar. “What about her?”
“She’s safe. Ezra’s parked in front of her place as we speak,” Nick said, knowing the worried look on Rome’s face.
“She’s a cop,” X announced and was greeted by total silence throughout the room. He took a deep breath and continued. “She’s been employed by the Metropolitan Police Department for eight years, becoming an integral part of the narcotics division. Working directly on the streets, she’s nabbed a good number of criminals in her tenure.
“Three weeks ago she was given a new assignment, a task force being headed up by the DEA. Her target is Reynolds and Delgado LLC, specifically you,” he said, looking at Rome.
“Fuck!” Nick cursed, rubbing a hand over his chin. “She’s been at the firm spying on us? For what? What could they possibly think? That Rome’s a drug dealer?”
“The assignment is to investigate Rome and his finances, figure out where his money’s going. Specifically figure out which drug cartel in Brazil Rome’s funding.”
“What?” Nick roared. “Are you fucking serious?”
He was. Even without him answering the question Rome knew that every word X had just said was serious and most likely true. It explained so much, even as those same words traveled through his system like a burning infection. He didn’t cringe outwardly; he refused to look as if this revelation bothered him on the level it really did. He was their leader. How would it look for him to crumble under this new development? He’d slept with the woman who was out to get him, so to speak. He’d thought he was falling in love with her … dammit!
“She was trying to get into my computer,” he said aloud even though he’d thought the words were his alone.
“When?” X asked.
“Last week. The same day she came into the office with us, Nick. That evening I caught her trying to break into my computer.”
“And you didn’t have her arrested? You didn’t think there was anything weird about that?”
Rome held up a hand. “Calm down, Nick. I did think something was going on. I questioned her and I believed she was lying to me. I didn’t think it would be this, that’s for sure. But I took precautions, reset passwords and made sure the firewalls and encryption devices were in place.”
“You just neglected to tell me and to kick her sneaky ass out on the streets.”
“No,” Rome said with quiet insistence. “Kicking her out was never an option.”
Nick and X stared at him for a second.
“Because you think she’s your mate? You’ve thought that from the beginning, haven’t you?”
This was X, the investigator, the one who was always full of questions. Nick was the action guy, ready to react.
Slowly Rome lifted the glass to his lips, taking a measured sip. He had to take it slow; gulping it would surely feel good, but getting pissy drunk wasn’t going to make this day go any better.
“Whatever or whoever she is, she needs to be neutralized. Now, before it’s too late!” Nick roared.
Rome was across the room in seconds, pouncing as if he’d scented his prey and caught it. “You are not to touch her! Ever!”
His fists had clenched in Nick’s dress shirt, his friend’s tie twining around his arms. Nick looked him right in the eye.
“She’s going to find out what we are and she’s going to tell. You of all of us should know how badly that’s going to end. The only way she might keep quiet is if she’s a shifter, too, but we don’t know that for sure. Our situation is much bigger than her, Rome. Much more important.”
“No!” Rome pushed his longtime friend away from him, hating that he’d put his hands on him in rage in the first place but bubbling with so many emotions he could barely think straight. “It’s not bigger than her.” He sighed and turned from both of them.
“It’s about her,” X stated quietly. “The Rogues want her and so do you. This fight is about a woman.”
“It’s about boundaries,” Rome answered. “The Rogues don’t want to accept them and we want to create them.”
“Then where does Kalina fit in?” Nick asked.
“He wants her for himself,” Baxter said in his even tone.
Again the man had entered the room without any of them hearing, and again he was as much in tune with the conversation as if he’d been here all along.
“What are you talking about?” Rome asked what the others were definitely thinking. “And how do you know about this?”
Moving to the bar, Baxter emptied the glass Rome had left and put away the bottle of brandy. With all eyes on him, the man moved as if he were simply a butler. Rome wanted to yell the roof off this house. He wanted answers, he wanted to change, he wanted things not to have gotten so far. But it seemed all he was going to get was more bad news.
“It is simple. The two strongest of the species, the leaders of the pack, so to speak, are fighting over a girl. I think that’s quite poetic, don’t you?”
“I think I want to know what the hell you’re talking about. Who else wants Kalina?” Because it was painfully obvious that Rome did—even knowing she was a cop investigating him. A small part of him would wonder if
