Dangerous Lovers (84 page)

She took a step closer, the hand holding the gun twitching at her side. “You know what,” she said. “Tell me how you’re doing it.”

He didn’t think about his next move, he just did it. Overthinking these things sometimes complicated it, so instead he acted on impulse. One second they were glaring at each other, and the next he had her pinned to the ground beneath him, her gun skidding across the floor. His hand instantly moved to cover her mouth as he used his bodyweight to restrain her. There was no way someone as small as she was could over power him.

“You’re not so big and bad when you don’t have your little ability, are you?” he said in her ear. He pulled back, her eyes burning into him with rage. “How easily the infamous Weapon X is taken down, and there’s no one here to save
her
.” He reached down with his other hand, quickly robbing her of the rest of her weapons. “No more blowing off people’s heads today.”

She struggled under him, but he just pushed her harder into the tile floor. He slid the guns to the far wall, well out of reach. “That’s better,” he said. He looked down at her furious, blue eyes and chuckled. Lifting his chest up a bit, he looked her over until he saw what he wanted. With one fast move, he ripped her hood off. She sucked in air, but his hand was covering her mouth again before she could get out a scream.

Bloody hell. She was beautiful.

He’d seen a lot of pretty girls in his life. Bridgette was often called beautiful by all the boys, and even Danielle was attractive. But this girl…she was quite possibly the most gorgeous girl he’d ever seen. Long, black hair fanned out around her head. Her skin was smooth, pale porcelain. Dark lashes framed those eyes set beneath perfectly arched brows. Pete realized he was staring at her like an idiot, mouth open and everything, as she seethed beneath him.

“I’m going to let my hand up so we can have a chat, and
you
are not going to scream. Deal?”

Her eyes narrowed to slits. For some reason that made him chuckle which seemed to only make her more angry.

“It’s the only way you’re going to get me to talk, so you don’t have much choice. I could kill you right now if I wanted to.” Not that he would, damn him. Part of him rationalized that it was because he’d be dead himself before he even made it out of this room. The other part knew it was for a lot more selfish reasons. Killing her would be like destroying a fine piece of art. He just couldn’t bring himself to do it. “Are you going to be a good girl?” He could have sworn she growled. He chuckled again, he couldn’t help it. This girl was all sorts of entertaining to him. Slowly he removed his hand and almost wanted to groan when he got his first look of her soft, plump lips. God must hate him, he decided.

“We both know you wouldn’t make it out of here alive if you killed me,” she said.

“Who says I care if I don’t?” he countered. Her lips pressed together angrily. “Now, tell me how you knew about the meeting tonight.”

“Tell me how you’re blocking me,” she shot back.

He shook his head. “I’m not going to do that, we both know that.”

“Everyone out there has a wall up. How?”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re wasting your time…” he tilted his head. “What’s your name?”

She opened her mouth then closed it again, as if rethinking her response. “Dinah,” she answered.

“Dinah,” he repeated. She cocked one eyebrow as if to say ‘what of it?’. He smiled at her feistiness. “Okay,
Dinah
, I want to know how you knew about the meeting.”

She looked away for a second, deciding. When she looked back his heart actually jumped. Not good, he thought. He could not have those sorts of reactions to her. Other parts of him were jumping to life as well just from lying on top of her, and that was
really
not good.

“Some old man was brought in,” she said. “I don’t know his name. He had the same sort of wall as the rest of you, but I was able to break it down enough to get that information.”

“What did he look like?”

She shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t remember.”

“Did you kill him?” For some reason he really wanted her to say no.

“No.”

He actually let out a sigh of relief. Why did it even matter?

“I don’t normally kill unless I have to,” she said. He stared at her, surprised by her honesty. “I don’t know why I told you that,” she admitted.

“Cause you don’t want me to think you’re a monster?” he suggested.

“I don’t give a shit
what
you think of me.” He fought the urge to smile again. His little spitting kitten. Whoa, whoa whoa. Not
his.
Why the hell did he just think that? It was time to wrap this up.

“I need you to get you and your men out of here, without anyone else dying. Think you can manage that?”

“What am I supposed to tell Roman?”

“I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to you. But make sure it’s good enough to convince him it’s time to leave.”

She bit her lip, drawing his attention there. Unwanted desire built in his stomach that he quickly pushed away. “Fine. What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Are you going to tell anyone about me? Not only do you know I’m a girl, but you’ve seen my face. That’s very dangerous information.”

“For now, I’ll keep it to myself. Can’t make any long term promises.”

“Fine. Neither can I.”

He looked into her eyes, knowing that she could bring a shit storm down on all of them if she wanted. “Fine.”

Something very weird had just happened to her, and it wasn’t that she had been taken off guard. To be honest, even though she was trained, she was still a lot smaller than most opponents. Without being able to hear the other person’s moves, she was pretty much SOL. The fact that he got the best of her wasn’t really all that surprising. She was more shocked she hadn’t considered that possibility before she asked Roman to leave.

No, what was weird was that when he’d asked for her name her initial reaction was to respond with Charlotte. Not once in five years had she gone to give someone her old name. What was it about him that had brought that out of her? It disturbed her, almost as much as the memory of his body on hers. And why had it thrilled her so much that he got to actually see her? This was so messed up.

They both stood as she refused his hand to help. She pulled her hood back over, making sure the end was tucked in and her face covered. Then she put her weapons back in their places. She could just turn around now and kill him, but that idea didn’t sit well with her. She could feel him watching her closely as she fixed herself, even though she refused to meet his eyes. Without a word, she opened the door to the bathroom and walked out. He followed behind her.

Roman stood outside by the front door. Dinah had known him long enough to see the tension in every line of his face and body. He did not like leaving her alone like that. His eyes flew to her as soon as she came into view. She sensed the guy behind her stop where his friends were as she continued through the room to where Roman stood.

“I have a migraine,” she said in a low voice. “I’ll explain in the car, but right now I think we should leave. There’s nothing going on here.”

“Can you prove any of them are rebels?” he asked.

She shook her head once.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

“In the car,” she repeated.

He looked down at her for a moment before slowly nodding. It killed her that he trusted her and she wasn’t being one hundred percent honest with him. He called out orders to the men and they began filing out. Dinah walked through the front door, not bothering to look back.

Pete watched her leave without a backward glance. He didn’t know why that bothered him, but it did. Everyone breathed a little easier as soon as the last solider was gone.

“What the hell happened in there?” Trent asked, spinning around to glare at him.

“Nothing,” Pete said.

“Nothing,” he echoed disbelievingly.

“That’s what I said.” Pete stepped closer to his brother. Trent might be the older one, but Pete was the General’s second. He worked his ass off to get there too, and he didn’t need anyone questioning him. Trent ground his teeth together but kept silent.

“So what now?” Seamus asked, eyeing the two.

“Now, boys,” Pete said, taking a step away from his brother to turn toward the front. “We go to church.”

Chapter Six

Michelle dropped down into the chair beside her. Bridgette looked over in surprise, noting the bags under her eyes.

“You’re late,” she said.

Michelle sighed. “I know, sorry. It’s been…a long day.”

Bridgette cocked an eyebrow. “Why? Where did you – ” she stopped, looking at her. “You didn’t…” Michelle’s face scrunched up.

“Don’t ask,” she said, shaking her head. “Trust me, you do
not
want to know. Let’s just say, I’m happy I came out of that place alive. I literally thought he was going to wear me out – permanently.”

“Ew,” Bridgette flinched. “Please, don’t say another word. I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.”

Michelle giggled, standing up to walk over to her station. Bridgette followed, noting the time. They were both expected to be on in ten minutes. “I got to see Roman Adamson again this morning,” Michelle was saying as she sat down to put her make-up on. Bridgette stood behind her, feeling suddenly uncomfortable at the mention of him.

“Oh?” she said in her most uninterested voice.

Michelle looked at her in the mirror, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Don’t think I didn’t notice how the two of you watched each other last night. I’m mildly nearsighted, Bridge, not blind.”

Bridgette pursed her lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Uh huh, sure you don’t. We can play this game if you want, so long as
you
know that
I
know that
you
have the hots for Roman Adamson.”

“You’re also mildly delusional apparently,” she said dryly.

Michelle laughed, dabbing on her lip gloss. “I also saw Weapon X,” she said with a shudder. “He was standing with Roman. I seriously thought I was going to pee myself, I was so scared.” She dropped her hand, her eyes wide in the mirror. “Oh God, you don’t think he could hear me thinking that, do you?”

Bridgette snorted. “I doubt he was bothering to listen to your thoughts, considering where you were just coming from.” Michelle stuck her tongue out before going back to what she was doing. Everyone was scared of Ludwig’s Weapon X because it was rumoured that he could read minds. Bridgette could understand why this would frighten most people, but it didn’t scare her a bit. Her sister Charlotte had been able to do the same thing. No one understood why, but one day she started complaining about hearing voices. At first her mother thought Charlotte was schizophrenic. Their father had been adamant there was nothing wrong with her, but she continued to insist she could hear voices.

It wasn’t until the next day that they finally put two and two together. She wasn’t hearing
voices,
she was hearing
their
thoughts. It had been strange at first, and a little annoying not to have privacy, but after a while their father had figured out a way to block her out. He would make Bridgette and Charlotte practice every night with each other until finally, one night, Charlotte clapped happily that she couldn’t hear any of her thoughts. Bridgette suspected if she ever did meet this Weapon X, she’d have no problem blocking him out the same way.

“You girls are up in five,” Sebastian called out.

Bridgette snapped out of her memories, waving at him so he knew she heard.

“What are your plans after work?” Michelle asked. “You’re getting off earlier, no?”

“Yeah,” Bridgette replied. “Donna said I can leave at one. I’m meeting up with McKay.”

Michelle sighed dreamily. “Have I told you lately how hot your best friend is?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure you say it every time his name comes up.”

“That man is something else.” She hummed. “Definitely knows how to show a girl a good time, if you know what I mean,” she added with a wink.

“Ew, no I don’t know what you mean,” Bridgette wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Michelle shook her head, giving Bridgette her patent ‘Bridgette’s nuts when it comes to Pete McKay’ face. “You are best friends with the juiciest piece of meat in the city, and you two are completely platonic. It’s insane, you do realize that right? Any other girl would be
all
over that like white on rice.”

“Every girl pretty much has,” Bridgette pointed out.

Michelle snickered. “Not every girl, Bridge. He’s not nearly as bad as you think. He’s just no angel, which me likey – a lot.”