The restaurant we had arranged to meet at was really only a five minute drive from our hotel, but we took a roundabout route to get there, as one can never be too careful when dealing with spies and magic. By the time we arrived, we were almost half an hour late already, and my palms were sweating like crazy.

“Deep breath, Kitten,” River advised me, placing a comforting hand on my knee as we pulled into the valet in front of the restaurant. He’d hired a swanky black Maserati and was dressed in his usual impeccable suit. He was unbelievably sexy, but I was too far gone inside my head with worry to fully appreciate the view.

Cole had arrived separately on a motorcycle so that we would have two options for a getaway vehicle if we needed it. I could already see him waiting for us near the entrance, decked out in his faded black jeans, motorcycle boots, and dark gray T-shirt with a leather jacket over the top. Seeing him dressed like that broke me from my anxiety briefly. It was such a fuck you to the ritzy restaurant, and it was so Cole.

“You good, love?” River asked, tipping my face gently toward him with a fingertip under my chin. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I’m fine,” I reassured him. “Just... nervous, I guess. Let’s just get in there and rip the Band-Aid off.”

River held my gaze with his steady golden eyes for a moment longer before nodding tightly and getting out of the car. I took the extra moment as he came around to open my door to suck in another deep breath.

You can do this, Kit. You’re tougher than this. Just listen, keep your cool, and don’t blow anything up. You can do this.

My door clicked open, and I swung my legs out, taking River’s warm hand with my own to stand from the low car seat. My dress and stiletto heels didn’t make it an easy task to get out of a Maserati, but I was no novice.

“Vixen,” Cole greeted me when we reached him under the ivy-covered entrance way. “You look fucking unbelievable.”

A laugh cracked through my panic, and I gave him a grin. “Thanks, Cutie. You look hot yourself. You both do.” For a brief moment I ran my gaze over the two of them appreciatively and considered what I might do with them both later as a reward for this shit show with my adoptive dad.

“Shall we?” River prompted, trailing a light hand down my back and making me shiver as I took the lead and stepped inside the restaurant. The dress I was wearing was one of my favorites, and as I’d dressed at the hotel, I’d realized how much I missed getting dressed up for Fox missions.

The soft black fabric with intricate geometric panels of sheer black mesh that made up my cocktail dress felt like armor. It hugged my curves beautifully all the way to the knee, with a tasteful split at the back making it possible to move. The neckline was plunging, and before we’d gotten into River’s borrowed car, he had given me a black velvet choker necklace that matched the whole outfit perfectly.

A gift, he’d told me, for missing my birthday. Evidently Vali’s little trip into the Louboutin store had not gone unnoticed. The choker was exquisite too, encrusted with black diamonds and weighing heavily enough that when I moved it felt like a firm hand around my neck.

“There he is,” I breathed, spotting my adopted father across the room instantly. He was alone at the table, but I easily picked his two agents out as they hovered nearby like vultures waiting to feast on a carcass. They weren’t anyone I recognized from Omega Headquarters, but I knew full well how massive the organization was, so that didn’t shock me.

What did shock me was how awful Jonathan looked.

He’d always been a distinguished gentleman, with salt-and-pepper hair and immaculate grooming, but now he looked old. Like he’d just aged ten years in the past three weeks since River and I had overheard his damning phone call.

“Jonathan,” I greeted him in a cool voice as we reached the table he sat at. He stood politely but made no move to hug me or anything. Not that we’d had that sort of relationship to begin with, but the air between us crackled with tension until I took my seat.

Both Cole and River joined us at the table, and Jonathan gave them a pointed look.

“They’re staying,” I snapped, already pissed the hell off that he expected them to wait with his agents. “What you did concerns them just as much as it does me.”

Jonathan gave me a defeated look and sighed heavily. “Fine.” He waved a hand to the waiter to bring more settings, as the table was only set for two.

“Would you like to order?” he offered, indicating to the menu in front of me, and my stomach lurched. I doubted I could keep food down if I tried.

“We’ll just get drinks for now,” River answered for me, “until we see if this is worth sticking around for.”

My dad’s mouth tightened and his nostrils flared, and I waited for him to put River in his place. But he must have already realized his status as Director Pierre, owner and founder of the Omega Group, meant nothing here. We were not subject to his authority, so to try and assert it would be nothing but a waste of breath.

Or... that’s what I hoped he had realized as he made a clear decision to keep quiet and let my Alpha order us a bottle of wine.

No one spoke while the waiter hurried away and then returned with the bottle River had selected. He opened it, then poured a small drop for River to taste, but my British lover simply waved a hand to say it was fine.

After what felt like the slowest pour of wine I had ever seen in my life, the waiter left the bottle with us and disappeared once more.

“Kit—” Jonathan started, but I cut him off.

“Jonathan, I am about two seconds away from snapping and telling you to go burn in hell,” I told him, my throat tight with tension. “So think really fucking carefully before you lie to me.”

“Kit,” he sighed, his shoulders drooping. “I wouldn’t lie to you.” I snorted, and he corrected, “I mean, I wouldn’t lie to you now. Clearly I have already done so in the past.”

“Clearly,” Cole muttered, and Jonathan speared him with a withering glare.

“Let me start,” Jonathan continued, turning his wrinkled eyes back to me, “by saying that it is not what it must seem like from where you’re standing. I made some mistakes in hiding my agenda from you, Kit, and for that I cannot tell you how sorry I am.”

“You’re sorry you got caught?” I frowned. “This is not a great start, J-dog. I have to be honest. I was hoping for something more along the lines of ‘I’m sorry I tried to have you all killed. Twice.’”

“I didn’t try to have you all killed,” he retorted, his mouth tight with frustration. “I knew you needed a little bit more motivation to figure out your healing powers, and after seeing it work on Dragomir, it was clear what was required to have you choose and change your guardians.”

“Right,” I snapped, taking a sip of my wine with a shaking hand. “So you’re admitting to being behind the car bomb and the crash in Seattle?”

“You already asked this, Kit, and I already admitted it.” Jonathan sighed, giving me that look that parents give their kids when they’re being facetious. That look made me furious.

“And Vali?” I asked. “You deliberately fucked around and didn’t fetch help, just on the hope that I’d work out how to heal someone?” He gave a short, sharp nod, and I needed to put my wine glass down before it broke under my clenching fingers. “What if I hadn’t been able to do it? No other Ban Dia in four hundred years has been able to heal others. What made you so sure I could?”

Jonathan shrugged a bit helplessly. “You’re different.”

My jaw dropped at his watery reasoning. “If you’d been wrong, Vali would have died.”

“I wasn’t wrong.” He met my furious glare without remorse. “Don’t look at me like that, Kit. Like I’m some sort of psychopath. What I am doing is for your own good. For everyone’s good. You need to be a little less selfish, my girl, and think about the bigger picture in all of this.”

If it were even possible, my jaw dropped further.

Selfish? Is he fucking kidding me right now?

Sucking in a breath, I opened my mouth to launch a screaming tirade on him and the sheer audacity he had to sit there and call me selfish. After everything he’d done. But my words were swallowed when Wesley’s voice sounded in my earpiece.

“Kit, get the hell out of there. Now.” His warning was heard by River and Cole too, on their own earpieces, and I shot a panicked look at them both.

“Excuse us,” River said smoothly to Jonathan, standing and taking me by the elbow. “We just need to discuss something in private.”

My dad frowned and started to object, but River and Cole were already hustling me through the crowded restaurant and toward the kitchen.

“You have maybe two minutes,” Wesley warned. “There are five or six cars converging on your location.”

Fury burned hot in my blood, and I wanted nothing more than to stand and fight. Show these fuckers what I was really made of. But the restaurant was full of humans, and we were in the middle of a busy tourist location. We couldn’t take that risk unless there were no other options.

“Why would he do this?” I choked out, jogging in my high heels to keep up with the guys as they tugged me through the busy kitchen, ignoring the outraged yells of chefs, and out the back door into an alleyway where Cole had parked his motorcycle. “Why would Jonathan set me up? We agreed this was an amicable meeting.”

“He’s desperate,” Cole growled back. “But that won’t save him if I get my hands on him now.”

“Doesn’t matter, get on the bike and go,” River ordered. “Don’t let them catch you, love. No matter what it takes.”

Cole threw a leg over his bike and kicked the engine over as River gripped me by the waist and lifted me onto the seat behind Cole. I’d chosen this dress specifically for the split, allowing for a little more freedom of movement, but even so, it rode up high, leaving my legs exposed as they wrapped around Cole’s denim-clad thighs.

“No matter what,” River repeated, kissing me quickly even as Cole gunned the bike and we tore out of the alleyway. River would be getting his car from the valet now and hopefully leading at least a few of our enemies off our trail.

“Shit,” Wesley’s voice sounded in both our earpieces as Cole pulled us out into the traffic of Sunset Boulevard. “There were more that I didn’t catch on my cameras. You’ve got some on your tail already, but River should be able to confuse the ones arriving now.”

“Got it,” I replied, and Cole gave a small nod to show me he’d heard also. I cast a quick glance over my shoulder, and sure enough, two motorcycles carrying black-clad riders had pulled out into the street from the alley opposite the restaurant.

Hands gripping tight to Cole’s waist, I held on as he gunned the engine of his bike, weaving expertly between slow-moving traffic and far exceeding the speed limit. Who the hell cared for speed limits during a car chase, though? Or... bike chase as was the case here.

“I have two SUVs on me,” River advised over our earpieces.

“We have two bikes,” I replied in a tight voice. The sting of betrayal from Jonathan again was sitting in my throat like a stone.

“And an SUV,” Cole added, and I saw what he had just seen. A blacked-out SUV had just pulled out from a side street, and we’d narrowly missed clipping them as we passed. Had we not been already in a high-speed chase, it could have been a coincidence, but the blank licence plates were a dead giveaway. As was the fact that they quickly sped up to match our pace as we got clear of the traffic and onto a highway.

My long hair whipped around me as we flew through the night, and I cursed myself for not thinking to braid it back or something. As I lifted a hand to push it out of my eyes, I caught sight of one of our pursuers pulling closer to us.

It was one of the bikes, and in his hand, he held a sleek black pistol.

“Shit,” I swore, reaching around Cole’s waist a little more and withdrawing his own gun from the holster under his arm.

“Fucking seriously?” he yelled back to me, sounding as shocked as I was feeling.

“It sure as shit doesn’t look like a tranq gun from here,” I shouted back to him, shifting in my seat to try and get a better look at the gun which the black-clad man was trying to level at us while also controlling his speeding bike.

A shot fired, missing us completely, but it confirmed my suspicion. “Tranq darts are usually a whole lot quieter than that.”

“Fuck!” Cole roared, gunning his bike faster.

“They’re shooting at you, Kit?” Wesley’s panicked voice came down the earpiece. “That doesn’t make sense! They need you alive, don’t they?”

“Apparently not,” I snarled, leaning with Cole as we took a corner sharply, the pavement scant inches from the bare skin of my leg before we righted again. Another shot cracked through the night, but missed us again as we wove around some slow-moving cars.

Cole was being smart, taking us out of the city and reducing the risk of bystanders getting caught in the cross fire, but there were still a lot of innocent people out on these roads that I’d really rather not get shot by bullets intended for me.

“Maybe they’re something else?” Wesley was thinking out loud, so I didn’t bother replying as I flicked the safety off Cole’s gun one-handed and turned in my seat to return fire. “Like, a new kind of paralyzing bullet or something? Ones that can be used in a normal hand gun? I can’t fathom Director Pierre trying to actually kill you!”

“Sure seems like that’s happening,” I growled, shutting down all the hurt and pain of my dad setting me up. Using the same technique for locking my emotions from the guys, I locked them from myself too. There was a time and a place for having a breakdown, and on the back of a speeding motorcycle while being shot at wasn’t it.

“Don’t take any chances,” River’s voice advised over the earpiece.

Exactly my thoughts.

There was no way I was taking any chances. Tranq darts or paralyzing bullets would actually be worse than real bullets—family betrayal aside—because they would allow Cole and I to be taken. That could never happen. Not again. My kidnapping days were done.

Another shot rang out, and this time we weren’t quick enough to avoid it.

“Yep,” I coughed, gritting my teeth against the cold shock of pain where the bullet had gouged a deep furrow in my arm. “Definitely bullets.”

Twisting in my seat, I fired back. Both bikes were now close on our heels, and I had a lucky score when one of my bullets found its mark in the chest of one biker. He careened out of control, crashing into the concrete wall running alongside the highway we were on.

When his bike hit, he flew clear over the handlebars and disappeared from view.

“One down,” I gritted, and Cole glanced over his shoulder at me.

“You doing okay, Vixen?” he asked, his voice thick with concern.

Clasping his gun tightly so as not to drop it, I closed my eyes briefly and let my magic heal the wound on my upper arm. I’d need to be careful, though, how much magic I was using now. Just in case I would need more later.

“Yup, peachy,” I replied. “One bike and one car left.” As I said this, another round of shots cracked through the night, and one lodged itself in my side.

Fuck. That hurt like a bitch.

Some things, I was sure, were impossible to get used to. Getting shot was one of those things for me.

Grinding my teeth together so hard I could have sworn they were about to break, I kept myself from making any noise. Telling Cole, or really any of the guys, wasn’t going to help us right now. It’d only distract them, which was unnecessary. I couldn’t be killed by normal bullets, only weakened.

When I tried to twist to return fire again, I found two things. One, I couldn’t twist thanks to the new wound in my side. Two, I was out of ammo.

“Fuck,” I snarled. I knew Cole probably had spare ammo on him, but that was going to require more hands than I currently had available. Reaching around him, I tucked the now useless gun back into his holster and summoned my magic instead.

Whatever it takes. No one is taking me tonight.

Forming a ball of blue ice-flame, the fire specific to Cole’s dragon, I hurled it back at the SUV following us, hoping it would disable the vehicle.

Shit. Missed.

“Vixen,” Cole yelled to me, grabbing my attention, “give me your hand.” He took one hand from his handle bars and snatched my opposite hand from across his body.

“I’m pulling you through,” he warned, then used a combination of dragon strength and some seriously impressive driving to haul me around his body so that I sat straddling the bike in front of him, my legs draped over his thighs.

Better still, now I could see my targets.

“Fuck them up, Vixen,” he rumbled, replacing his hands on the handlebars and keeping his eyes on the road. His job was to keep us alive and get us free of our tails. Mine was to deter, delay, or destroy them. Whatever it took to ensure our freedom.

“My pleasure.” I grinned, gripping him tightly with my legs while forming another ball of flame and lobbing it at the SUV speeding behind us. We were on the road heading up to the Hollywood Hills, and there were thankfully no other cars around to see what happened when that burning ball of ice-flame hit the hood of the black Escalade.

Blue flame spread across the front of the car like wildfire, clinging to it in the way only magical fire ever could. Within seconds it had penetrated the engine, and the whole front of the SUV exploded. Shards of ice-covered machinery rained down, but we were already gone, speeding up the inclining road which would take us into the hills.

A stinging itch alerted me to my body pushing the bullet out of my side, but I could still feel blood flowing freely from the wound. It would heal over in a few more minutes; I wasn’t concerned about that. But I could feel a slight weakening from the combination of healing and magical grenades.

“One left,” I told Cole, watching as the remaining biker followed at a safer distance than what I’d nailed his buddies at.

Waiting, I formed another ball of flame. This one was made of Vali’s dragon fire and burned a blinding orange-red in my palm. Creating and throwing fireballs had been one of the first—and only—dragon skills I had mastered since we’d bonded, and it was seriously coming in handy.

The biker sped up, getting closer and aiming his gun at us, so I threw my fire at him. It missed, but so did he. His shot smacked into a tree by the side of the road, sending a shower of wood chips flying out as we sped past it at breakneck speed. Frustration clenched my jaw tight, but I forced myself to remain calm.

Patience, Kit. Deep breaths. Try again.

Holding my palm out and slightly behind Cole—so as not to blind him—I formed another fireball and bided my time. Waiting. My magic was not limitless, so it wasn’t in my best interest to be lobbing magic off left, right, and center and burning out before dealing with this fuckwit following us.

Rounding a corner, he came close once more, and I threw my fire, missing him again.

This guy had the reflexes of, well, of a dragon.

Deep breath. Try again. My fire reformed, and my side ached.

This time when the biker came close, I waited just a little longer. He was aiming his gun at us, but I wanted him closer to ensure I’d hit him this time.

The man squeezed off a shot right at the same moment that my fireball hit him, engulfing him in flames and incinerating him before his bike skidded to a stop against a tree beside the road.

Unfortunately, he had pretty good aim, and his shot burrowed a deep gash in my outer thigh where it was wrapped around Cole’s waist.

“Shit,” I hissed, feeling the burning pain and tensing up.

“Damn it, Vixen,” Cole growled, glancing down and seeing the bright red of my blood against the pale white of my skin.

“It wasn’t intentional,” I sulked, wrapping my arms around him to hold on, seeing as our pursuers were handled.

“Let me get a little further into the hills before we stop,” Cole told me, pressing a quick kiss to my neck, “just in case there was anyone else following.”

“Got it,” I nodded, clinging to his front like a spider monkey. Sitting on the front of a bike was far from comfortable, but given I was halfway into Cole’s lap, it wasn’t the worst place in the world to be. “It was just a flesh wound, anyway. I’ll be healed by the time we stop.”

“Just a flesh wound,” Cole snorted, not easing off his speed at all as we tore through the dark and winding roads which would carry us further into the hills and away from innocent bystanders.

We continued for a few minutes more before Cole finally slowed and then pulled into a little lookout. There was one other car parked in there, but as we turned off the road, they were just leaving, which meant we had total privacy.

Cole parked the bike overlooking the twinkling city lights and killed the engine before seizing my face between his huge hands and kissing me like I was oxygen and he was drowning.

“That was too close, Vixen,” he rumbled when he eventually freed me, and I leaned my forehead against his. Panting, I licked my lips and tried to make my brain focus on his words.

“Wasn’t close at all, Cutie,” I teased. “I had that totally under control.”

Liar, liar pants on fire, Kit.

My heart rate was thundering a million miles an hour, and I was lightheaded—from the magic used or from the adrenaline of the chase, I wasn’t totally sure. What I did know was that the magic zapping between Cole and I wherever our skin touched was pure ecstasy.

“Vixen,” he warned, as my hands trailed under his leather jacket and pushed it down off his shoulders. “We don’t know for sure how safe it is out here. We should get back to the rendezvous point before—”

“Can’t,” I sighed, teasing my hands under his dark gray T-shirt and pulling it off him without any resistance. “I used too much magic just now. I can’t relocate us until I refuel.”

The plan, worked out with the guys in advance, was that if something like this happened and we ended up separated, then I would use the same Ink Magic spell I’d accidentally performed on our way to the lake house in order to relocate us to a meeting point. Trouble was, as I’d learned in practice with Austin, relocating two people and a motorbike took a whole lot of juice. Juice I just didn’t have enough of left.

“How many times did you get shot?” Cole scowled at me, and I shrugged.

“Three. I think. But the one in my back was pretty deep, so it took a bit out of me.” I blinked up at him with my most innocent expression. “So I just need a tiny bit of a recharge before we can relocate.”

Cole cast a glance around us, checking that we were, indeed, alone, before cursing under his breath. “You, Vixen, are going to be the death of me, you know that?”

I snorted a laugh. “Except you’re immortal now.”

“Still,” he murmured running his broad hands down my sides until he reached the skirt of my dress, bunched up around my waist. “I might die of stress.”

Chuckling at his melodrama, I tugged his lips back to mine. Our mouths slanted together, and he kissed me deeply, his tongue caressing and tangling with mine in such a possessive way that it sent ripples of pleasure shooting through me.

Cole’s hands pushed my dress up further, exposing my black lace thong and trailing his fingers over the thin fabric. It wasn’t worth breaking our kiss to tell him not to tear my panties again; he was going to do it regardless. Instead, I just hitched a gasp as the fabric tore from my body, then moaned as his rough fingers met my heated flesh.

“Shit yes,” I groaned, arching my hips forward to meet his hand as he circled my clit with his thumb and sank two fingers deep inside me.

We were both still straddling the bike, but with my legs wrapped around Cole’s waist, it was no hard task to unbuckle his belt and free his rock-hard erection from his jeans, palming it and stroking firmly.

“Quick recharge, right Vixen?” he murmured in my ear, his smoky voice low enough to set my toes curling. His lips tugged at my earlobe, and I whimpered my agreement.

He pushed me back slightly, then hauled my ass closer so that I was half reclining against the handlebars with my naked, throbbing core pressed flush against his rigid cock.

Not needing any further encouragement from me, Cole grasped his shaft in one hand, guiding it to my opening, then pushing with a savage thrust. My walls were tight, meaning he only made it halfway in before needing to pull back out and go again, this time sheathing himself to the hilt and sending shockwaves of pleasure zapping through me where we were joined.

Moaning and thrashing, my fingernails clawed at Cole’s strong forearms as he gripped me by the ass and held me spread across the front of his motorbike while he fucked me hard and fast. Exactly how I wanted it.

The adrenaline from the chase had already left me lightheaded, my heart racing, and the exquisite feeling of being stretched had my toes curling in my sexy new Louboutin’s, which had somehow managed to stay on my feet throughout that high-speed chase.

“Uh yes. Fuck me, Cutie,” I groaned, and he cracked a genuine grin.

“Really, Vixen? Still with the nickname?” His breathing was elevated as he gripped my ass in his huge hands, pulling and pushing with his own thrusts that were fast sending me into a damn frenzy.

“Shh.” I silenced him by reaching up and clinging to his strong neck, sealing my lips to his in a kiss hard enough to rival the motion of his cock in my cunt.

Our tongues met in a battle for dominance, and my hand slipped down between us to rub at my swollen, sensitive clit.

Within moments, I was coming.

My head tilted back, and I cried out with my climax, feeling Cole’s mouth latch onto my neck as he increased his pace then joined me in orgasm. His teeth bit down on the bend of my neck below River’s black diamond choker, and it seemed to almost prolong my unravelling.

By the time the stars had cleared from my vision and my breathing lowered to a more manageable pant, I’d completely lost track of the time.

Grabbing Cole’s thick wrist, I turned his watch toward me then cursed.

“Shit, it’s really late. The others are going to be worried.” I groaned, sliding off the bike and balancing like a baby deer in stilettos while I tugged my dress back down and regained strength in my legs. There wasn’t much to be done about cleaning up, thanks to Cole destroying yet another pair of panties.

“Uh,” he grunted, tucking himself back into his jeans, then locating his shirt. “I think they know.” He tapped at his earpiece, and I paused.

Crap. I totally forgot we were wearing comms.

“Yep,” Wesley’s voice sounded embarrassed even through the little piece of tech, and I jumped. “See you back here soon, sweetheart. Let me know if you run into any trouble, okay?”

“Will do,” I replied in a strangled sort of tone, pressing my hands to my cheeks and feeling how flushed they were.

“Sorry,” Cole murmured, tugging me close and wrapping his arms around me. “I thought you remembered and just didn’t care.”

I let him hug me for a moment, pressing my face to his warm chest and inhaling his campfire smell before pulling back and wrinkling my nose. “Nope, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s get moving before anyone finds us here and connects us to the debris on the road.”

Cole nodded his agreement, lifting me back onto his bike and then swinging a leg over himself. “Here.” He passed me the folded map from his jacket pocket, along with a gold marker pen. I’d noticed Austin had a fondness for gold ink, but when I’d questioned him on it, he’d just shrugged and said it looked more magical than black or blue.

Strange man.

“Thanks,” I murmured, unfolding the map against Cole’s back and locating our destination. “Ready when you are.”

Cole revved the bike’s engine, turning the bike back to the road as I yanked the pen cap off with my teeth. He pulled out onto the road at a moderate pace, which meant that when I used the gold marker to ink a dot onto our destination and imbue it with the magic of my will, then we were still going a moderate pace when we popped out in the quiet back alley behind our new hotel.

It had been discussed and decided on earlier that if anything went wrong, then we were expected to get the hell out of dodge, thereby making our new hotel the last place anyone would be looking for us.

The Four Seasons Beverley Hills was only mere streets away from the restaurant we’d met Jonathan at. Caleb, Austin, and Vali had moved all our stuff over while the rest of us had been busy meeting my snake-in-the-grass adoptive father and getting shot at.

“Made it,” Cole announced over our earpiece. “Pulling into the parking garage now.”

“Copy that,” Wesley replied.

“River, did you make it okay?” I asked, suddenly realizing I hadn’t heard an update from him since we’d left the restaurant.

“Fine and dandy, love. Come on up to the room, and we can debrief.” River’s velvet-smooth British accent soothed me, and I let out a sigh of relief. Those assholes hadn’t been dicking around, and River was still human.

Cole pulled our bike into a parking spot in the underground garage, then lifted me off with strong hands around my waist.

“You did well tonight, Vixen,” he told me, taking my hand in his as we made our way to the elevators. “I don’t know what the hell Pierre was playing at, but it didn’t work for him. You’re still safe, and that is the only thing that matters.”

His words were fierce as we stepped into the elevator box and he turned to face me, cupping my cheek in his palm.

“It’s not the only thing, Cutie,” I corrected him with a small smile. “But you did good too. Thanks for not crashing us into anything.”

He snorted a small laugh, then kissed me gently. “I love you, Vixen. But people have got to stop trying to kill you, or my dragon will lose his shit soon. He’s a moody bastard, you know?”

A wide grin split my lips. “Uh-huh. Your dragon is.”

Cole growled low in his throat and kissed me again, this time slower, more indulgently, and when the elevator dinged that we’d reached our floor, I was breathless and shaking.

We were silent as we walked hand in hand down the long hallway, and I found myself musing on why Jonathan had tried to have me killed. Something didn’t add up, and I intended to figure out what it was.