The passenger door on the driver’s side opened and Ravyn leapt out, wrapping her arms and legs around Steele’s big frame. The force and unexpectedness of her action sent him back until he fell onto the ground with her on top of him. She laced her fingers around his throat while she straddled him, wishing like hell she had one of her knives, or even that dagger. Her palms tingled at that thought as if they, too, recalled how it’d felt to hold that ancient piece.
“Who the hell are you? Why’d you pick me to pull into your sordid little supernatural games? Why did you lie to me last night? And where’s Cree?” Her chest heaved for air, pain sifting through every breath like shards of glass. “Where’s Cree?”
She repeated that question because it was the most important. If she didn’t learn anything else from this, their second Q&A session, Ravyn desperately needed to know where Cree was so she could go and get him. Whatever she had to do or say she would to spare his life.
Would his answers also affect how she’d thought she was beginning to feel about him? She didn’t know, but as of now she was hating herself for letting her guard down when she’d known how men could be. If he’d drugged her, he’d taken control from her and she’d never forgive him for that.
His body was solid and he barely blinked before reaching to wrap his fingers around her wrists. He looked so calm and so unbothered by what she was saying or doing, or both, and it sent more rage flying through her body so that her fingers tightened around his neck. He didn’t try to remove her hands, not right away. No, for endless seconds he simply stared up at her with those soulful brown eyes.
Eyes that she knew were fake!
She squeezed tighter.
“You’re a lying deceitful bastard and I want you to answer my questions before I kill you! Do you hear me? Answer my questions!”
Her hair fell down the side of her face and her arms burned from the exertion, but she wouldn’t release him. She wouldn’t stop until he answered her. But he still hadn’t opened his mouth. His silence only frustrated and angered her more, if that was even possible.
With the slowest movement Steele eased her hands away from his throat as if they were nothing but pieces of lint on his skin. However, he had a solid grip on them, switching from a two-hand hold to one without any effort at all. He brought that other hand up to cup her face, his thumb wiping away a tear that had somehow snuck past her finished-with-crying stance.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally, his voice gruff, eyes searching her face for something in return.
“You’re sorry?” she asked with a huff. “Sorry? That’s all you have to say?” The one word shouldn’t have pierced through all that pain stuffed into her chest at the moment, but somehow it did.
“Yeah,” he said with a slight nod. “I’m sorry.”
“For what exactly? Lying to me, drugging me or both?”
“I never lied,” he said and then clapped his lips shut as if he were rethinking that statement. “And I didn’t drug you. It’s called mind cleaning and it was only supposed to erase your memories from the last two weeks. Magnum knew not to make it too potent.”
“What? Like a cocktail? What kind of insanity is that?”
“It’s not a drink or a drug,” he said and then sighed. “I know it was invasive and wrong, but I wanted to protect you and if I’d had any other choice...”
She shook her head, feeling the sting of more tears, but dared them to fall. “It’s not enough,” she said, but the words held no bite, dammit. “It’s not enough.” This time was to convince herself she meant it, because she wanted to mean it. He couldn’t change her mind about feeling betrayed by him with a few silly words.
“I know.” He kept moving his thumb over her cheek and the hand holding hers eased. “I messed up. Again.”
“What do you mean again?” There was a vulnerability in his voice she’d never heard before. Upon first glance there was nothing vulnerable or weak about Steele Eze. Even lying here in where the hell were they? She looked around and saw that they were in the middle of a forest, at night. How apropos after what had just happened back in town. Lying beneath her right now, he still appeared imposing as his massive chest heaved up and down with each breath, his strong arms extended upward while his hands touched her with more gentleness than she’d ever experienced in her life.
She moved next, easing back away from him so that his hand slipped from her face and the one that had been holding hers dropped to rest on his chest. Their gazes held for a few seconds in what she recognized as a quiet truce and she eased off him, rolling to the side to sit with her legs crossed. He sat up and then they were both sitting on the ground in the middle of the forest like they were on a school camping trip.
“I didn’t save my sister,” he said quietly. “I wanted to, but I didn’t. And then you were there and I wanted to save you too.”
“Save me? What? I don’t understand what you’re talking about? What happened to your sister?”
“She died.”
He said the words as simply as if he’d just told her the time of day.
“How?”
“The clan wars back in the town of Mobo. Our parents moved there soon after there was trouble in our hometown. There weren’t supposed to be many like us there so we could live free from judgment, but that never lasts long. No matter how hard a people try there’s always someone who will judge, ridicule and try to overpower. For us, this time, it was some of our own.”
His voice was melodic, like one of those narrators
