Damon took April’s hand as they walked away from the Pure apartment building and headed east for her place. The once busy LA street was almost dead quiet as darkness had fallen, and only the rhythmic clop of patrolling soldiers’ feet could be heard.

A lion roared somewhere in the distance.

“At least that steak wasn’t Marvin,” April noted. The moon caught the highlights in her auburn hair.

Damon shook his head. He couldn’t believe Jax Mercury had named a lion and then set out raw meat for it outside the territory. Too bad the beast hadn’t eaten any of the Twenty gang members. “That steak was delicious. I wonder how they got the beef. The old leader of the Pure was seen on video, a while ago, talking to enemies behind their little fence there.” The Mercs should set up a soldier right on the other side of the perimeter from the Pure building. Yep.

“I don’t know.” April’s hand felt fragile in his. “But I thought it was interesting the women asked me back tomorrow to get to know me.” She looked up at him, her blue eyes shining in the moonlight. “Were you invited back?”

He nodded, his body heating at her nearness. She was a sweetheart, that was for sure, and he didn’t like that the Pure group was separating them. “They want my take on the weapons they admittedly stole from Vanguard.”

She shook her head, and some of her hair slipped out of its knot. In the heated night, bathed in moonlight, she was a goddess. It had been brave for her to attend the dinner that night, and she’d done a good job of asking questions. The wine had mellowed her out a little, and she didn’t seem so jumpy next to him for once.

“Did I mention you look pretty tonight?” he asked, knowing he should back off but needing to say the words anyway.

“You did,” she murmured, her face turned up to the moon. “That was kind of you.”

He pivoted and put her back against the brick side of her building. Her small gasp only spurred him on. “I wasn’t being kind, April. Know that right now. I’m a decent guy, and I do the right thing, but kind isn’t on the menu.” It was only fair to warn her.

Her delicate snort stopped him short.

He leaned back to study her. “Did you just scoff at me?”

“Yes.” She smiled, and the expression transformed her face from pretty to absolutely fucking beautiful. “I’ve seen you with your friends, I’ve noticed you talking to the kids, and I’ve spent a little time with you. You’re definitely a kind man.”

A kind man who’d put a bullet through an enemy just hours before and then turned another guy over to Mercury to torture. Man, did she have him wrong.

Worse yet, she sounded pleased that she thought he was kind. Had he come on too strong? “You know I’m not looking for happily ever after. Right?”

Her snort wasn’t as delicate this time. “There’s no such thing, Damon. Don’t worry. I’m not seeing hearts in my eyes or rose petals or even old age. Even with the surrounding circumstances, I had a good time tonight. Which should make me feel guilty, but for some reason, doesn’t. Maybe because we were mixing work with pleasure.”

He’d like to mix a whole lot more pleasure with her, but that was definitely a bad idea. Jax Mercury had been right. Damn it.

Damon gently pulled her away from the wall and tugged her into resuming their walk. “I don’t like you going in there alone.” He couldn’t help but take her hand again.

“Yeah. Like they’re a dangerous group. My biggest threat is ruining this mission.”

Not true. “The last leader of the Pure kidnapped Lynne Harmony and nearly killed her.” Damon’s blood chilled at the thought. “You don’t even know how to fight.”

“The last guy is dead, and the new pastor doesn’t seem that crazy.” She didn’t respond to the other part of his comment.

They had almost reached the outside entrance to her tiny apartment when a Vanguard soldier walked their way, his gaze alert, his body tense, and his gun held by his thigh. “April. I was just checking on you.” The guy was blond and stood to about Damon’s height of six-four, and spoke in a southern accent. “It’s late.”

She didn’t look surprised by the guy. “Hi, Quincy. Damon and I were out. Have you guys met yet?”

“No.” Quincy’s jaw hardened.

“Nice to meet you,” Damon said, hiding his amusement. Apparently, April had a friend. Just how good of a friend? The guy obviously didn’t know about the op with the Pure church.

“Where were you?” Quincy asked, his frown making him look a little too menacing for Damon’s taste.

April paused. “We went to dinner at Pastor King’s place. Why do you ask?”

Good. She didn’t think the guy had the right to know where she’d been. Damon’s shoulders relaxed. A tiny bit. But he kept a good grip on her hand.

“Pastor King?” Quincy snapped. “Are you kidding? Those people are nuts.” He turned on Damon. “What were you thinking taking her there?”

April tilted her head as if surprised by the outburst.

Jesus, the woman was clueless. This guy was so into her it was sad. “I thought it was a nice place for a first date, considering they had steak and there was no worry of infecting anybody,” Damon said easily. “The second date will probably be a picnic, and the third maybe another stroll around the territory. No good movies playing, you know. That good with you, buddy?”

Finally, April caught the undercurrents because she stiffened next to Damon. He’d figure out how he was so in tune with her another time.

Quincy’s glare promised a discussion later.

Fine with Damon. After being turned on all night by the sexy brunette next to him, and deciding that he shouldn’t do anything about it, beating the shit out of a moron would relieve some tension. “Bye, Quincy,” he said, pulling April around the soldier and toward her door.

“Night,” April added, keeping up because Damon hadn’t really given her a choice.

Damon opened the door for her and didn’t wait to be asked inside. He followed her in, for the sole reason that Quincy was still watching. If they were going to pull this off, everyone needed to think they were dating. Yeah. That was the only reason. He shook his head at himself and shut the door at his back. He was staking a claim he shouldn’t.

She turned, her movements jerky, and her ocean-blue eyes wide. “Um.”

He held up a hand. “Just letting everyone know we’re dating. Take a breath.”

Her teeth played with her bottom lip, making her look both adorable and sexy. Her uncertainty was beyond cute, but in that dress, her body was all siren.

“You are a contradiction,” he muttered, his jeans becoming way too tight.

“So are you,” she countered. “All right, then.” She moved toward him, bringing the scent of sweet roses with her. “Thank you for a very nice date.” Levering up on her tiptoes, she brushed her mouth across his.

His body electrified. From one simple touch.

She moved to step back, but he stopped her by the arm. An expression crossed her face that was all dare. Sexy, aware, desirable challenge.

All right, then. His gaze dropped to her lips, and he started to move in out of pure instinct.

Shouting started outside, and he froze.

* * *

April jerked. A fight?

“Stay here.” Damon set her to the side and opened the door, shutting it instantly behind him.

She ran to the window to peer out.

Four men, including Quincy, faced off in the middle of the deserted street. They were shouting obscenities and threats. One guy wore the standard black T-shirt Merc uniform, while the other three appeared to be Vanguard. She kind of recognized them, but they were all fairly new.

She scrambled to open her window. Should she do something? It wasn’t as if she had a cell phone. She hadn’t wanted to keep a firearm around because of the kids, but maybe that had been foolish.

One of the Vanguard guys had a gun out.

She couldn’t breathe. Damon continued toward the group. Toward the weapon.

It was three against two, if she were reading the situation correctly. Definitely not good. She looked frantically around and then ran outside to help somehow. One of the kids had left a smaller baseball bat near her door, and she grabbed it. The scrub grass scratched her bare legs.

Damon’s voice easily carried through the night. “Whatever is going on needs to stop. Now.”

The guy with the gun pivoted toward Damon.

April gasped and stopped short. He wouldn’t shoot, would he? Her knees trembled. She looked around, but so far, the raised voices hadn’t brought any soldiers running. She edged closer, holding the bat so tightly her knuckles protested.

“Either shoot me or put that thing away,” Damon said, his back to her, and his voice way too calm.

A shiver wracked April’s back. She reached the edge of the burned lawn and stopped. Nobody seemed to pay her any mind.

The guy with the gun smiled. “You Mercs need to leave Vanguard territory. In body bags if necessary. So shooting it is.”

Damon moved so quickly, April could only stare. He punched the guy’s wrist, and the gun spun through the air to clatter across the pothole-riddled concrete.

Then everyone moved at once.

Quincy and the other Merc started throwing punches, while the other two guys came at Damon. He ducked and threw one man over his shoulder to land hard on the ground and then pivoted, catching sight of her. “Get the fuck back,” he snapped, taking a punch to the face. Fury filled his eyes.

She took several steps back before she could even form a thought.

He struck the still-standing soldier in the neck and torso, and then swept his legs out from under him. Damon followed the guy down and hit him rapidly three times in the face until the guy passed out cold.

“Damon!” April yelled just as the other soldier stood and rushed forward with a knife in his hand. He sliced Damon across the shoulder.

Damon swung hard and stood at the same time, knocking the guy back.

April tried to breathe. Blood flowed down Damon’s arm. How badly was he cut?

Damon partially turned to check the fight still happening down the road and then pulled a knife from his boot. He circled the other guy. “I’m giving you one chance to put the knife away and go. Think carefully, because if you stay, I’m cutting you.”

The statement was made all the more chilling by the calmness of Damon’s voice. She truly didn’t know him at all. Not the real man. April took another step toward the safety of her apartment.

The Vanguard guy settled into a fighting stance, his knife up. “I’m here, looking for you or Grey. You both need to go.”

These guys had been waiting for Damon when they ran into the other Merc?

Damon had apparently reached the same conclusion because his eyes hardened even more. For the first time, April could see the deadly soldier he’d become with the Mercenaries. No mercy and not an ounce of the kindness she’d found in him were present.

Was that benevolence even real? Had she imagined it?

Damon gracefully circled away from the man he’d left on the pavement, his chin down, his blade loose in his hand.

The guy with the knife charged.

Barely moving, Damon sliced across the guy’s chest. The Vanguard soldier gasped, the sound filled with pain. Then he roared, his knife up as he ran at Damon.

Damon pivoted at the last second and cut neatly up the left side of the guy’s face.

The guy yelped and jumped back, his free hand going to his wound. Blood instantly coated his fingers and dripped down his neck to his shirt.

Damon cocked his head to the side. “I’m about done.” His voice was guttural.

The guy shook it off, spraying blood, and crouched again, watching.

Damon waited.

The guy advanced, more gracefully this time, slicing at Damon. Damon jumped back and then moved in, plunging his knife into the guy’s thigh.

The Vanguard man yelled in pain and dropped to the ground, clutching his bleeding leg. Damon easily—almost casually—kicked him in the face, knocking him out. Then he turned to see the other two fighting guys separate from each other, both stumbling in opposite directions.

April leaned back against her door.

Damon turned, his focus solely on her. Moonlight shone down, highlighting the fierce angles of his bleeding face. Violence surrounded him, more than at home.

She couldn’t breathe.

He moved toward her then, his brown eyes nearly animalistic. All instinct.

She couldn’t move.

He reached her, and his unique scent of ginger, the woods, and man washed over her. Filled her. “You okay?”

She couldn’t speak.

So she gulped and nodded. Her entire body felt as if it were on electrical fire. What was happening?

He leaned in, grasped her chin, and kissed her. Not sweet. Not kind. He kissed her hard and deep, sweeping his tongue in and taking what he wanted.

Her knees went weak. Her eyelids closed of their own accord. She swayed toward him, the feeling of him almost too much.

Abruptly, he released her. In one smooth motion, he reached behind her hip and opened the door, setting her inside the apartment. “I’ll have somebody clean up the mess on the street.” He shut the door and then…he was gone.