same evil glare. Then they’d begun talking, or rather arguing over who would get her first.
“If either of you dirty street cats touches me you’ll be damn sorry,” she’d snapped at them.
Mel had stepped right up, slapping Kalina across the face. Kalina had returned the assault by spitting on the cheap-looking bitch and daring her to do it again.
“Don’t hurt her,” the bigger one had said. “Sabar won’t like it if she’s hurt.”
“Shut the hell up, Darel!” Mel had yelled. “You’re always talking about what Sabar likes and what he doesn’t like. Always up his ass!”
The one called Darel had grabbed Mel by her neck, pushing back until her head slammed into the wall. “I’m the one in charge here, bitch. Don’t forget that.”
“Chill,” the other one said. He hadn’t stopped glaring at her, licking his thick lips as he did. He was aroused, she could see, and if he got even an inch closer she was going to kick him right in his burgeoning erection.
“There’s enough of her to go around,” he’d said, and Kalina’s stomach had roiled in disgust. “Besides, she needs to tell us where her little boyfriend hid Chavez. I’m gonna kill that cat when I see him again.”
She’d known they were talking about Rome. They’d been asking about him and the Shadow Shifters from the moment she’d awakened. They wanted to know where they were all located, what they planned to do, how much money they had, how much power. All questions Kalina really didn’t know the answers to but wouldn’t have told them if she had.
They’d finally slapped a piece of duct tape on her mouth after she’d cursed them all until she was hoarse.
Now she looked at the four of them, hating each and every one of them equally. She should have listened to Rome, should have done what he said. But it was too late for regrets now.
The only thing she could do now was survive.
She screeched when the one called Sabar, the one who’d come to her house, ripped the tape from her lips.
“Bastard!” she cursed and licked her dry lips.
“Pretty mouth,” he said, leaning in closer. “I want to kiss that pretty mouth.”
Kalina remained perfectly still, waiting, hating the stench that burned her nose. The minute his lips touched hers she struck out, biting his lips with teeth sharper than she’d thought: As he yelled, pulling back from her, she saw the steady stream of blood dripping from them and felt a measure of satisfaction.
“Yeah, you’re for me,” he said wiping the back of his hand over his mouth. “An evil ruthless bitch just like me. We’re gonna rule this world together.”
“Go to hell!” she spat.
Sabar threw his head back and laughed. “Only with you right beside me.”
He reached for the buckle of his pants and began undoing them, all the while keeping his gaze on her.
Kalina felt sick, then she felt hot, and then … she felt something else.
It moved inside her, slinking around as if it had been just awakened. Rising slowly it filled her; from her feet to her fingertips it was being reborn inside her. The feeling was eerie, and she thought instinctively she should have rejected it. Then she paused, recognized this other part of her, and welcomed the reunion. It had been there all along, revealing itself in the extra-sensitive senses she possessed, in the instincts she’d called on following her gut. Suddenly the memories came flooding back: the way she always felt as if she didn’t belong, no matter how hard she tried; the feeling of something itching just beneath her skin. It all made sense now, illogical and unheard-of sense.
Now whatever had loomed just beneath the surface all her life was standing tall, making its grand entrance. And it was mad as hell.
The meeting place wasn’t what Rome or the other shifters had expected, but then this entire situation was way beyond the norm. Rogues didn’t give a shit who they killed, or when, or where, so calling them to an abandoned house on the end of one of the dirtiest streets in the city—literally and figuratively—was not their MO.
Eli had driven the Tahoe, with Rome, Nick, and X riding in the back. Ezra was parked right around the corner in the Hummer with three more guards, should reinforcements be necessary. The message said for Rome to arrive alone. Yeah, like hell was that happening. Not only were Nick and X never going to allow it, Rome didn’t take orders from anybody, especially not a group of backstabbing Rogues.
There were no words to describe the rage that ripped through him the moment he found out Kalina was gone. Eli looked as if he were about ready to shoot himself when Rome walked into the house and he had to deliver the news. At that exact moment Rome wanted to kill. Not Eli, because he was a friend and Rome knew he’d done his best. Although when this was all said and done the guard was definitely going to feel Rome’s wrath.
But right now, at this second, Rome knew Kalina was in trouble. If she wasn’t here with him, she was in danger, and that was unacceptable. It had only taken about fifteen minutes for his house to fill with Shadow Shifters ready to comb the DC streets in search of her.
“He will not hurt her,” Alamar said, coming into the hallway where they’d all aligned like an army about to move out.
“How do you know that for sure?” X asked, probably because he knew words weren’t coming easily for Rome.
Alamar held up a note. “He believes she is his companheiro. He will not hurt her.”
Rome snatched the note, read it, and wanted to roar his fury. Instead Nick took the paper from Rome’s hands. “So he wants Rome to know he has her. To know he’s taken her away from him. Dumb fuck!”
“Let’s go,” Rome said through clenched teeth.
“Remember the Etica,” Alamar said as they began to move out.
Rome was already shaking his head. “No. Not this time. This time I’ve got my own code to go by.”
As they filed out of the house, Nick and X right behind Rome, the Elder looked to Baxter.
“He will do the right thing,” Baxter said.
The Elder nodded glumly. “For all our sakes I hope that you are right.”
Now, half an hour later, they were here. And Rome’s cat was ready to break free, to rip the throat from the Rogue who threatened what was his.
Again.
It was the same one, Rome thought with disgust. He’d recognized the scent at Kalina’s apartment. Remembered it from years ago when he’d been just a little boy. It had been mixed with another Rogue scent, but Rome knew that specific one and as he stepped out of the truck walking toward the corner house he smelled it again.
Rage rippled, his cat roared inside clawing at the surface to be set free, but Rome, the man, walked purposely up the steps.
“What’s the plan?” X said from behind him.
“I’m going to get Kalina. When she’s safe I’m killing every sonofabitch Rogue in there then burning this fucking house down,” Rome said, reaching for the doorknob.
Nick shrugged. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
A plain unmarked slate-gray Buick pulled onto the street about five minutes after Rome, Nick, and X walked into the row house. Pulling into an open parking space about five houses up from the end unit, which was his target, he stopped the car. Switching off the engine, Special Agent Dorian Wilson sat back against the leather seat, his eyes examining the SUV not too far in front of him. All the windows were tinted—and even if they weren’t, it was well after midnight. This street had obviously not been on the city’s cleanup list in a long while, because in addition to the majority of the windows on these houses being broken out, the lampposts had suffered the same fate. Saying it was dark as shit was an understatement.
But Dorian knew it didn’t matter who drove the Tahoe. He knew who it was registered to. Roman Reynolds. He did wonder which one of Reynolds’s bodyguards was driving it tonight. The man never traveled alone. That was part of the reason Dorian and his team had begun looking at Reynolds and his law firm in the first place. The other part was still on a disk carefully hidden in a safe in Dorian’s apartment.
