“He’s a Breed warrior, Cruz. Are you forgetting that until recently he was part of the Order?”
“I haven’t forgotten that for a minute.”
She pushed the brochure back at him. “I don’t like any of this. Have any of you even stopped to ask yourself why he’s hanging around? He just shows up in the right place at the right time, and now you open the door and invite him in?”
“Ain’t that what we did with you, Brinks?” Ocho asked, a note of challenge in his voice.
She sank her teeth into her tongue to keep from letting him goad her. That’s all she needed right now, to lose a grip on her emotions and show them her fangs or the heat of her Breed irises.
Cruz got up from his chair to face her. “You don’t make the rules around here. I do. And before you go thinking I’m stupid, think again. I’m not about to trust a goddamn vampire without testing him first.”
There was a threat in his airless voice, in the way he practically spat the word ‘vampire.’ Devony knew Cruz was dangerous. Right now, the menace rolling off him was lethal.
“What do you mean, you’re going to test him?”
He merely smiled. “Go get your toolbox, Brinks. You’re gonna need it. I’m putting you to work tonight too.”
It was a dismissal without so many words. A reminder that she was not yet part of them, only an asset they intended to use just as long as it suited them. When she was no longer needed, she would be out. She knew that before, but tonight the message was loud and clear. Which meant she needed to ramp up her efforts to find out what, if any, their connection was to Opus.
She wouldn’t be able to do that once Rafe was in the picture.
A selfish part of her hoped that he would fail whatever test Cruz had in mind for him. It was the only way she could continue her work on the inside without discovery.
Devony left Cruz and the others behind in Ocho’s office and went out to the parking lot to get her safecracking tools from the lockbox on her bike.
Being Breed, she didn’t need drills or magnets or other implements in order to break into a safe. All she needed was the power of her mind. But they could never know that, so she’d faked her way through her first job with the gang several weeks ago and never looked back.
Overhead in the moonlit parking lot, storm clouds bunched sooty against the black night sky. In the distance, she heard the low rumble of thunder. Except it wasn’t the weather vibrating all the way into her boots now.
It was him.
Rafe, roaring up on his BMW like a shadow in the darkness.
He was the last thing she needed to deal with right now.
She tried to hurry collecting her kit from her bike but there was no avoiding him. As he entered the gravel lot, she felt his intense eyes on her like warm hands moving over her body. A shiver that had nothing to do with the autumn nip in the air shuddered through her as she glanced his way and their gazes collided.
Heat arrowed through her, uninvited.
Ocho and the guys thought she had no use for men. She only wished that were true as she watched Rafe roll toward her now.
It didn’t help that he was as handsome as Adonis. His dark blond hair was a wild tangle from the ride, the lack of helmet only making his thick mane look even more untamed and luxurious as it danced around his impossibly broad shoulders. Irrationally, her fingers itched with the urge to find out if the tousled waves were as soft as they looked.
His hair wasn’t even his best feature. Every inch of him was powerful and immense, pure male perfection that was barely contained beneath his black shirt and leather jacket. Dark denim clung to his muscular legs, which were spread wide to accommodate the bulky body of his motorcycle. Desire coiled inside her and a sudden vision of him, naked and magnificent, invaded her senses before she could stop it.
Bloody hell. What had gotten into her?
Devony pivoted away from him as he slowed to a stop next to her. Her fingers were usually nimble and unerring. With awareness of him sending a dangerous arousal through her senses, she was all thumbs, fumbling to retrieve the compact pack that held her tools.
Behind her, the BMW’s motor quieted, then stopped. The leather seat creaked softly as Rafe got off it and his heavy boots hit the gravel as light as a cat.
“Looks like a storm’s on the way.”
She nearly groaned in agreement. Doing her best to tamp down her body’s reaction to this male, she determinedly left him at her back as she continued struggling to unfasten the snaps and bungee on her toolkit.
“Need some help with that?”
He reached around her and the heat of the near-contact felt like an open flame to her heightened senses. “Leave it,” she bit off without looking at him. “I didn’t ask for your help.”
Amber sparks tinged her vision. Not good. The spike of her irritation was too sharp. She had to contain herself around him.
She’d already given him enough cause to suspect she was hiding her true nature. She couldn’t afford to confirm it to him now. Not when Cruz was practically rolling out the red carpet for him to be part of the gang.
“I see you’re still upset with me from last night,” he murmured. “I want you to know, I didn’t tell them your secret.”
Even though she already knew that, hearing him say the words was jolting. She continued working furiously on her gear. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Really?” He scoffed under his breath. “That’s how you want to play this?”
He was standing too close, crowding her against her bike. Finally, her impatience hit its limit. With a pulse of mental power, she freed the last cord holding her pack of tools and yanked the kit free. She held it against her like a shield as she pivoted around to face Rafe.
“We done here?”
“No,” he said grimly. “I think you and I are just getting started.”
“Like hell we are.” She stepped past him but didn’t get far. His hand wrapped firmly around her arm, the same way he’d taken hold of her at the party last night. “Let go of me. Now.”
He shook his head. “Not until we talk. We can either do it here right now, or inside, in front of everyone else.”
She glared. “Are you trying to threaten me?”
“Just trying to get to the truth. You’re not what you’re pretending to be.”
“I don’t think you are, either.”
His handsome face remained impassive, but he didn’t deny her accusation. And his grasp on her arm went a bit tighter. She tested his hold, confident she could break free if she really wanted to, but not without proving his point.
His eyes searched her face before moving lower. “What are you hiding under your long-sleeved turtlenecks and barbed-wire attitude?”
Devony’s pulse raced. She braced herself for fury or violence, but instead his deep voice was gentling, almost soothing. So was the dark-lashed gaze that lifted back up to her face.
“I know you’re not human, no matter how much you want to pretend you are. I’ll bet anything that underneath all these concealing clothes, your soft skin is covered in Breed dermaglyphs. Am I right?”
A strangled sound escaped her throat. “You’re crazy.”
If he had snarled at her or treated her with even a trace of brutality, she would have fought him with everything she had. Instead, his low, quiet tone and penetrating eyes called to something deep inside her.