“Maybe you could persuade him to talk,” Bas had said after explaining that Hernandez was basically choosing to die of hunger and deprivation instead of telling Bas and his team what they wanted to know.
There was a hint of sarcasm in the man’s voice when he’d made the suggestion, and everyone knew sarcasm was Bas’s first language. But in the prickly mood X was in he’d taken it as an instant challenge.
“I think I’ll do just that.”
After a brief hesitation Bas had chuckled. “I’ll have a room ready for you.”
“Make that a suite. If that bastard Hernandez is staying in luxury, I can, too.”
“Whatever, man,” Bas said, still chuckling as if he didn’t really expect X to fly to Sedona to question the drug dealer.
Even when he’d hung up X wondered why he’d been so eager to get on a plane and go himself. That reason came to him the moment he closed his eyes. Her eyes stared back at him, dark, mysterious, enthralling. In the recesses of his mind he could hear her voice, whispering his name. Just a whisper; she didn’t scream it out loud at the moment of her climax as so many women had done before her. No, Caprise wouldn’t give in that easily. She’d said it but only so she could hear it. The fact that X picked it up was a testament to the strength of his shifter senses, or a need that he didn’t even want to explore.
He’d thought about her from that moment up until the second he stood in front of her bedroom door punching numbers into that stupid keypad. The entry doors to Havenway were all on a computerized lock and also had sensory alarms that tripped if the doors were opened without using the authorized codes. X had programmed them all himself. As for the bedrooms, he’d told Nick that keypads with separate pass codes weren’t safe enough. They needed a backup just in case—exactly as he’d done—someone decided to hack the code. All he’d had to do was put in a series of commands that would effectively delete the prior coding; any hackers worth their salt could do it in about five minutes. X did it in two.
When the door swung open and he saw she wasn’t in the bedroom, he’d been about to curse. Then he picked up her scent and the cat within calmed. She was still here.
He looked about the room, saw the completely feminine things she possessed, and wondered about this side of her. On the tall dresser that stood between the only two windows in the room there were dozens of small glass bottles, in different shapes and colors. They all contained fragrances that either irritated or incited X’s senses. There was an abundance of jewelry, earrings, bracelets, watches. It all appeared very feminine and very unlike the idea he’d had of Caprise.
She was guarded, that was for damn sure. And that didn’t really bother X because he had his own shields in place when it came to dealing with females. But there was something else about her he couldn’t quite put his finger on, something that made it impossible for him to walk away from her now.
He was still standing there when she came out of the bathroom, surprised to see him. Their exchange had been as was usual for them, except it felt like they weren’t alone. There were spectators this time, two very intense and hungry cats, interested in what was unraveling between the humans.
She fought everything he said, everything he tried to do. No matter which way he tried to approach her, it didn’t matter. It was as if she lived for moments just like this. When her phone rang, X was instantly on guard. He remembered last night’s text and had run the number through reverse lookup before leaving his apartment. Nothing showed. A more advanced search would take twenty-four hours so he wouldn’t get the name of the person the phone was registered to until sometime tomorrow. Nobody had spoken when he answered, and that pissed him off. He wanted whoever was on the other end dialing her number to say something, just one word so he could give them the cuss-out of their lifetime. But they didn’t afford him the pleasure. Instead he’d issued a threat, one he had every intention of carrying out when he found out whom he was dealing with.
Then out of nowhere the question had tumbled out of his mouth. X, of all people, knew once something was done there was no taking it back. Oddly enough, he really didn’t want to take the invite back.
“Why would I go anywhere with you?” she asked, her eyes narrowing skeptically.
He decided to try another approach with her and didn’t demand that she do what he asked. Instead, he asked in a lower voice, “What else do you have to do? Rome’s not going to allow you to go back to Athena’s.”
There was no way X was going to allow that, either, but he figured she’d swallow that comment a lot easier if it were coming from the FL.
“He can’t keep me from my job,” she protested. And in a move he didn’t anticipate she reached out, grabbing her cell phone from his hand.
X conceded and didn’t use his force to get it back. He could have, but thought it might be best to pick and choose his battles with Caprise from now on. She was hiding something, that much was evident, and until he found out exactly what, X wanted to keep her close. The only way to do that without having to hog-tie and gag her was to be as cordial as he could manage. Which wasn’t really his best act, but something told him the end would totally justify the means.
“There’s something dangerous going on at Athena’s. It’s better if you’re out of the line of fire.”
She looked worried as she turned away from him to put her cell phone on the dresser. “Look, I came back to DC to get my life back on track. If I can’t dance, I can’t do that.”
The last was spoken softly, again, as if she really hadn’t meant for him to hear it.
“It’s not safe, Caprise. You have to understand we’re only trying to protect you.”
“I don’t need any protection,” she said, spinning around to face him once more. “I’ve done a pretty damn good job of taking care of myself for the past five years. I can handle it now.”
“Can you, Caprise?” X took a step closer to her; the distance was beginning to make his cat a little edgy. “Because I’ve got to tell you, every time your phone rings or beeps you get this look in your eye.”
She tried to turn away from him. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“I’m being straight with you because I figure you can respect that since you’re all about facing the truth. I’m not trying to lie to you about what’s going on and why you need protection. So you should think long and hard about coming clean with me.”
“I don’t owe you anything,” she replied when her gaze came back to his.
“You don’t,” he agreed. “But you owe it to your brother to not jump back into his life only to get yourself killed.”
She was about to say something else but X held up a hand to stop her. His patience—what little of it he possessed—was quickly growing short. Inside, his cat was making a low growl, insisting on touching, tasting, feeling once more. X, however, did not think that was a good idea.
At that moment Caprise completely disarmed him by sighing so deeply he thought for sure tears would follow. Her right hand went to her right hip, where she rubbed absently. He’d been around a lot of females in his time and while Caprise Delgado was definitely unique even beyond her DNA, he figured he could tell when a female was about to break down.
Of course he was wrong. Caprise would never cry. Not over something like this anyway. But for just a moment she did look completely defeated, as if the right decision just could not be made clear. As if on cue to torment her further that damn cell phone chirped once more.
This time his growl was loud enough that she must have heard him, because she looked from the dresser where the phone was to X. He didn’t speak and neither did she.
Chapter 11
“So she’s a shadow,” Sabar said thoughtfully.
He was sitting at the long spit-shined oak table Bianca had purchased and moved into his dining room. They were in his brownstone in DC, the one he’d been slowly renovating since their first town house was burned to the ground by Rome and his cohorts. After Bianca’s arrival a month and a half ago, the decoration of the house had taken on a new urgency. It appeared that after living in a mansion-size dwelling in western Africa, she’d found a new hobby in decorating. Or as Darel would say, she had a knack for spending Sabar’s money. Darel needed to learn some respect where Bianca was concerned, and Sabar was just about ready to force-feed him a healthy helping of it. But right now he wanted to know what had gone down last night and why his second-in-charge was in his face telling him things he definitely did not want to hear.
