they attack her? Would they kill her?
Then Rome touched her. His hand lightly cupping her cheek.
“Trust me, Kalina,” Rome said.
He kept saying that, kept asking that of her. Why? How could she trust a man she barely knew? But she did know him, knew him in a way that wasn’t conventional, wasn’t scripted, and wasn’t actually explainable. But did she trust him?
“The police are linking the murders by the method of the killings. They believe the brutality spells serial killer. What do you know about them?” she asked Rome, searching his eyes, his facial features, for any semblance of untruth. There was none. And she was relieved.
“I know who might be responsible.”
“Like X said, Rogues,” Nick put in, reminding Kalina they weren’t alone, although Rome was still cupping her cheek and staring into her eyes as if they were.
A muscle clenched in his jaw and he turned from her. The loss of contact had her gasping again, and before she could stop herself she was leaning into him, her front touching his back.
“We need to pull everyone together while Elder Alamar is still here,” Rome said. “Nick, you call the Faction Leaders, see what their availability is. X, you find out from that bastard Rogue you’ve got locked up who his boss is, tell him I’m not bullshitting with him on this. He can talk or he can…” Rome’s words trailed off.
She heard him speaking, felt the rise in his body temperature, but couldn’t tell if it was because she was touching him or if it was a reaction to his own words.
“Right,” X said. “I’ll take care of it.”
“What about her?” Nick asked.
Kalina knew exactly what “her” he was talking about. Reluctantly breaking her contact with Rome, she stepped from behind him. “I have to go back to work.”
“No.”
All the men echoed in unison.
“I’m not just going to sit around here twiddling my thumbs. I still have a job.” At least she hoped she did.
“You cannot go back to the station. Your investigation is over.”
“Excuse me, but that’s not your decision to make,” she argued with Rome.
“Kalina,” he said, turning to look at her. “Do you think I’m funding a drug cartel?”
“No,” she answered without qualm. “But that’s not the point. There are drug cartels out there and if the FBI thought you were funding them, then somebody’s putting your name in the mix. Wouldn’t you rather I be the one to find that information?”
“She’s got a point, Rome,” X said.
Rome’s head snapped in the other man’s direction so fast Kalina thought he was going to attack him. “She’s not going to that office.”
“She doesn’t have to. She can set up an office and work from here,” X offered.
“That’s ridiculous. I need to get out into the field,” Kalina argued.
“You cannot take what you know now into the field,” Rome told her.
“I wasn’t planning to. I mean, I’m not going to talk about you and the others. I just want to find out who’s trying to frame you.”
“You think it’s someone other than Rogues?” Nick asked.
“Everything can’t be blamed on the Rogues, Nick,” Rome replied brusquely.
Kalina thought the connection was with Raul Cortez and now the papers she’d seen on Rome’s computer, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Not yet.
He wanted her to trust him, and to an extent she did. But there was something else going on here, something she wasn’t even sure Rome and his cohorts knew about. So until then she would keep it under wraps.
“Who are the Rogues?” she asked, hoping to gain more info and steer them away from the part of the conversation that involved her staying in this house.
“Bad-ass shifters who think they’re taking over,” Nick said then cleared his throat. “They were born Shadow Shifters, but somewhere along the line thought they could do better on their own.”
X intervened. “We’re thinking they might be starting to make their move here in the States.”
“The three that approached you at that party were Rogues. They knew who you were and followed you home. When I was at your place yesterday, I picked up their scent. They’d been there.”
Putting a hand to her throat, Kalina refused to show the fear coursing through her body. “In my house? Why?” Then she remembered the pictures she’d found the night of Kensington’s banquet. The pictures that were in her house and she’d wondered how they got there.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” X stated.
They all looked at her now, but she had to admit that they weren’t looking at her like she was the enemy. More like she was the point of interest and they had to keep an eye on her if they wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
“I told Rome I didn’t know those guys.”
“Have you ever seen them before?”
She shook her head. Then paused, remembering the guy who’d delivered the pictures to her apartment. No, she would know that guy anywhere. At the memory a sliver of heat eased down her spine. “No. Never,” she said, clearing her throat.
“Get everyone together,” Rome told X. “Tell Eli I want him to stay here with Kalina.”
“Where are you going?” Nick asked Rome before Kalina could get the question out herself.
“I have something I want to check on myself.”
Something, Kalina thought, that she was thinking of checking on herself. She didn’t say anything, but her plan was simple. Wait until Rome left then follow him.
Chapter 25
Three hours later Kalina found out that plan was a lot easier thought than done.
The man named Eli—or should she say the guard from Hell—kept so close an eye on her, all she could do was go to the bathroom alone. He sat right outside Rome’s bedroom door, but every time she moved he knocked and came in, like he was expecting to see her hanging over the balcony trying to escape. Which she’d thought of doing a couple times.
Ferrell was calling her cell phone like there was no other number in his phone’s memory, but she refused to answer. Whatever he wanted with her Kalina was going to feel a lot better if he went through Agent Wilson and the DEA to get. She didn’t want to deal with Ferrell on her own ever again.
But the next call that came in was one that startled and cheered her.
“Hey Mel,” she answered.
“Hi, Kalina! It’s so great to hear your voice. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days.”
Kalina sighed, guilt relaxing on her shoulders. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to call you about the other night.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I just figured you’d had enough of Stephen. Anyway, it’s been a while since we’ve chatted. Want to have lunch?”
Kalina looked around the room. She didn’t actually want to have lunch with Mel, but she did want to get the hell out of here. She’d felt caged, trapped for the better part of the day.
“Ah, sure, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Great. I’m off today so I can pick you up in about an hour. I have one quick errand to run. Then we can get a bite to eat, do some shopping. You know, have a girls’ day.”
Mel sounded so excited, a little too excited for Kalina’s taste, but it was the excuse she was looking for to go against Rome’s wishes.
