Chapter Thirty-Seven
The sun was just setting when they reached the Monsters safe house. Jake put the car in park, turned it off, and stayed in his seat. He thought one last time about what he was going to do. After a minute, he turned to face Angel and pinned her with an uncompromising gaze. “Alright,” he said, “I’ll let you in on the Apex job. But only on two conditions.”
Angel released the breath he knew she’d been holding and closed her eyes in relief. She hadn’t brought it up since she’d first mentioned it earlier that morning in his garage. But he knew it was on her mind. It was why she’d come to him in the first place.
She turned to face him in the passenger seat. “What are the conditions?” she asked.
“One, at absolutely no time during the job – none whatsoever – will you work alone. You will work with me. Every single thing you do, you do with me. If you ever attempt to go about any part of the case on your own, I’ll officially pull you from the job. Understand? And to keep you from working on it, I’ll tie you to a chair in the Monsters safe house interrogation room.”
Angel’s eyes widened. He heard her heart rate speed up significantly, and he knew she was well aware he wasn’t joking. He would do it. He absolutely did not want her facing the Apex alone. He felt kind of nuts for letting her face it at all.
But she was right. This was her prerogative. It was all about her. If it had been a man in her position, no one would bat an eye before agreeing he should have the right to deal with it. Jake wasn’t going to let her being a woman taint his trust in her warden abilities. She was exceedingly capable. She was smart, strong, fast, and she was magic.
Angel contemplated the condition for a moment in silence, then nodded. “Alright,” she said. “Agreed. What’s the second condition?”
Now he looked from her eyes to her lips to the bit of bare shoulder that peeked above her shirt, and back at her eyes again. “Once this is over, you agree to be mine.”
Angel was visibly surprised. “What?”
“You heard me. If we manage to get this shit figured out, I don’t want you disappearing behind Vega lines again. If I agree to let you work this case with me, I want something in return. I want you.”
Angel blushed furiously and looked down at the hands she held in her lap. “Jake,” she said softly, “you just… had me.”
“I haven’t even started, Angel,” he told her.
She looked up at him wide-eyed. Her already accelerated heart rate went into overdrive. So he reached over and gently took her hand. “When this is all over, I want to get to know you. All of you. And I want you to get to know me. That’s all I ask, Angel. Do we have a deal?”
Angel’s pupils dilated as she peered at him. He watched her eyes slip to his mouth, and he heard her thoughts recalling the sharpness of his teeth. Her heartbeat remained fast, and he caught the slightest scent of fresh desire.
Jake’s body went very still in his seat, a predatory response. He waited for her answer, but not without some measure of mounting impatience. “Angel,” he said more firmly, “do we have a deal?”
Angel licked her lips and finally nodded. “Yes,” she breathed. “It’s a deal.”
He wanted to howl at the moon in triumph, but instead he simply opened his car door and got out, moving to the passenger side to open hers. He stayed there while she climbed out. She stood before him small but powerful, precious and perfect. Jake gazed down at her, and for all the world he didn’t want to let her go. Especially not now. Especially not so she could go see him. Gabriel Santiago.
“Angel, about Santiago –”
She held up her hand, cutting him off. Then she placed that hand gently to his chest. The contact made his insides light up as if he hadn’t spent the last several hours taking liberties with her on top of his car. “I know what you’re going to say, Jake. But I really do need to do this. I have to see Gabriel face to face and settle things between us.”
I could settle them for you, he thought darkly. But that was the monster in him rising up, and now was not the time.
Now’s the perfect time, it insisted.
With practiced skill, Jake shoved the beast into compliance and sighed, pulling his silver pendant over his neck and holding it up before him. “Take this,” he told her. “Wear it for me.”
Angel looked from him to the pendant, and her heart skipped a beat. He could read in her thoughts and hear in her pulse that she was deeply touched. But she remained demure as she nodded shyly, took it from his fingers, and slipped it over her head. “Thank you.”
It was much longer on her than on him, but it looked good. He couldn’t help but imagine how the silver chain would shine, stark and bright against her silky skin as it dipped down between her perfect breasts. He wanted to strip her down then and there just to see.
Shit. He swore internally and forced himself to step back out of the way so she could pass. Then he closed the car door behind her and followed her to her Jeep.
He carefully looked the vehicle over, checking the tires, then dropping to a push-up to check underneath for unwanted gadgets. He jumped back to his feet and peered through the window to make certain the back seat was clear. It wasn’t until he realized Angel was watching him that he stopped and faced her.
She was grinning and shaking her head.
He blinked. “What?”
“Nothing,” she told him, her bright eyes sparkling under the tall lot lights. “But you do realize that we’re in the Monsters safe house parking lot, right?”
Jake stared at her a minute. Then he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and shrugged, smiling. “Old habits,” he said. And if anything ever happened to you, I would cease to exist.
As if she’d heard his thoughts for a change, Angel left the side of the Jeep and closed the distance between them. “I’ll be fine, Jake.”
Jake’s jaw clenched. “We’ll start on the case tomorrow morning.” If nothing else, it was a way to get Angel right back into his arms. “I’ll need you back here at that time.”
Angel raised her chin a little. She visibly bristled beneath the domination. “That’s too soon.”
“It’s non-negotiable, Angel. You’d better call Santiago right now and let him know you need to see him.” That way, he could listen in on the conversation and make sure Gabriel didn’t give her a hard time.
But Angel’s gaze narrowed. She wasn’t stupid. She could tell he was jealous and throwing his weight around because of it. For half a beat, he was sure she was going to put her foot down. But at the moment, she was so grateful to have a “legal” way to go after the monster killing people to get to her, she didn’t want to mess it up.
So eventually she sighed. “Okay,” she agreed, pulling out her phone. He watched her bring up Gabriel’s contact number. But her finger hovered uncertainly over the call button. She was scared.
Jake took the phone from her and pressed the button himself. Angel’s jaw dropped open, but Jake turned his back on her. Gabriel picked up on the first ring. “Angel!”
“She’s with me, Gabriel.” He meant it in more ways than one, and he knew the Vega leader understood as much when he fell silent on the other end. But all around Gabriel were other noises, sounds Jake readily recognized as those of a fight.
“I’m on a job, Crow. What the fuck do you want? Put Angel on the phone.”
Just then, Angel violently ripped the phone from Jake’s hand and put it to her ear. Her fire-filled glare brooked no compromise. He had to admit he was impressed. Especially when she said, “Gabe, ignore the asshole. I’m fine and I’m coming back to my apartment tonight. We need to talk right away.”
Gabriel told her he would meet her at her apartment as soon as the job he was on for the Demon King was complete. Jake listened as Gabriel very clearly finished someone off and returned to the phone out of breath. “I’ll send someone to the border to escort you.” He hung up.
Angel glared at the phone now too. Her mind was spouting all sorts of things about men and the brain between their legs at that moment.
Jake tried not to smile. Instead, he placed a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention. “He cares about you,” he told her honestly. “And so do I. Forgive us for that.”
Angel relaxed beneath his touch, and finally she smiled. “Fine.” She put away her phone and said, “I’ll be right back, Jake.” Then, unexpectedly, she raised her hand to gently cup his cheek. She was so warm, so soft… Jake suppressed a groan and drew her into his arms.
You’d better, he thought.
She hugged him back, sliding her hands under his jacket. He shoved his hand through her hair, pressing his lips to her head in a tender kiss. She smelled so good.
There was a primal hunger in him that had yet to be sated. It was stronger now than ever, and though Jake was happier in that moment than he’d been in his entire cursed life, he was simultaneously in agony. The man in him was satiated, his need for the moment filled by the woman he loved. But the vampire in him burned for her.
He could smell her skin, her hair, her sex – hell, he could even smell himself on her. In her.
And he could almost fucking taste her. He knew she would be sweet. He knew that if he sank his teeth in and swallowed, she would burn down his throat like priceless wine, scorching his insides rapturously as he slowly drank her down. Every inch of the monster in him right now was quietly fuming, silently raging, suffering in silent torment as he refused to meet its demands.
He reined it in. Angel’s submission to him was enough. The sound of her gasping beneath him, moaning in ecstasy, screaming in bliss – the feel of her squeezing him fucking tight as he’d driven into her… right now, it was all that kept him going. Her trust in him was giving him the strength it took to let her slip out of his grasp and get into her Jeep.
He watched her slide behind the wheel, start it up, and shoot him a winsome smile before she firmly shut the door. Then he watched her pull out of the lot to the exit gate. The Monsters member on duty buzzed the gate open for her drive through. Within seconds, her tail lights disappeared into the night.
But Jake stayed where he was. What he would give in that moment for Gabriel Santiago to meet an untimely end.
“You know, if you kill the leader of the Vega clan, I’ll be stuck with a year’s worth of paperwork, and what’s worse, I’ll have to let Killian claim second-in-command. You know he’d irritate the crap out of me as second.”
Jake turned to see glowing blue eyes come out of the shadows as Cain stepped from the darkness to join Jake beneath the lamplight.
Jake smirked. “Killian’s on duty right now, isn’t he?” That would be the most logical reason for Cain’s teasing. Cain would know Killian could hear him through the mic on the building’s intercom, whether it was on or off.
The intercom crackled to life. “And I’d make a damn sight better second than you, Crow,” said Kill over the speaker.
Jake grinned. Cain smiled, but his blue eyes were too keen. They pierced through Jake’s barriers. Cain could tell something was wrong. There was no hiding anything from him.
The tall and powerful blond, blue-eyed clan leader shoved his hands down the front pockets of his jeans and said, “We’re going on a poker run, Jake. I have a feeling I’ve just been paired with you, since Kill would probably rather run me over right now than run with me.”
Laughter from the intercom.
Jake ran a hand through his dark hair. “Yeah,” he said. He could use the distraction.
The intercom buzzed to life again. Killian spoke. “Dave says we should give you two a head start since all that screwing you did today probably scrambled your brains a little, Crow.”
Jake dropped his head and rubbed his eyes. Of course they knew.
“So get going,” said David, who had obviously taken the mic from Killian. “Everything’s set up. You’ve got a three minute lead.”