Return of the Assassin (All the King's Men) (13 page)

For a second, Micah was shocked to see Gina standing in the doorway of his office. No call, no e-mail, no nothing, but there she was, and it felt like God was smiling down on him. In that instant, hope sprang eternal. Malek was saved.

And then all hell broke loose.

"Kota, no!" He and Sev practically tackled Lakota, each struggling to pull him back.

Damn, but that fucker was strong. Or maybe just supremely pissed off, which had a tendency to make weak men perform unspeakable acts of strength. In Kota's case, it was probably a bit of both.

"Fucking bitch! I'll kill you!" Lakota lurched forward again.

Whoever the guy was with Gina stiff-armed Kota and knocked him backward while Micah shoved Gina out the door. Micah didn't know who the new guy was, but right now it didn't matter. He was helping.

"Eva!" Micah pointed at the shy admin. "Shut the door. Keep her in the hall."

The startled female looked frightened as hell, but she ducked, grabbed the doorknob, and slammed the door closed.

Kota was beside himself. He clawed, growled, and pushed against Gina's friend as Sev joined the fray and helped contain him.

Micah wrapped his arm around Kota's neck from behind and cut off his air supply with a flex of his biceps. Kota grunted and grappled, wild and frenzied with aggression.

"Are you going to play nice, or do I have to knock your ass out?" Micah flexed his arm again for emphasis, which pulled another pained grunt from Kota's throat. "You are not to touch her. Do you hear me?"

Kota resisted, clenching his jaw and trying to push Micah off.

"Is that clear?" Micah shouted. "If you so much as scratch her, I will break your fucking arms."

The fight slowly left Kota, and he finally gave a curt nod. But by no means was he cooled off.

Micah released him and shoved him at the new guy. "Hold him. Don't let go of him."

Kota glared back at him, but Micah didn't care.

"Why is she here?" Kota rubbed his neck and panted for breath.

"Because I invited her back. That's why."

"You what?"

"You got a problem with that?" Micah shoved his hair off his face and turned a lethal glare on Kota.

Severin looked lost as he slowly backed up to the couch. His eyes were wide, and his brow creased with confusion. "I don't understand. It was my decision to let her go. I didn't want to press charges and still don't."

Micah pushed his hair back again out of habit. "This isn't about you, Sev." He took a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the dark-haired guy with the quick reflexes and the stiff arm that would make any running back envious. "What's your name, and what are you doing here with Gina?"

"I'm Trevor. And it's a long story."

"Well, I'm dying to hear it, but not now." Micah brushed past him and nodded toward Kota, who was still locked in the guy's grasp. "Keep him on a leash."

"Fuck you, Micah." Kota growled out the words.

"Funny how everyone keeps telling me that. And funny how it's so not gonna happen." He opened the door to his office.

Gina and Eva stood across the hall. Both looked half-terrified. He could understand that from Eva, but from Gina? Fear wasn't something he associated with that female.

"Eva, please go get Malek and tell him he's late for our team meeting. And tell him not to test me, because if I have to go and drag his ass back here he'll have to carry his entrails with him."

Eva's face turned white, but she nodded and hurried off.

"Gina, please join us." He stood aside and waved her forward as he cast a sharp glance at Kota. "I swear to God, Kota, you'd better keep your head this time, or you'll have to pick it up off the floor after I kick it off your neck."

Shit, but he felt like a damn babysitter. He had newfound respect for Tristan if this was what being a team leader was like on a daily basis.

Gina set her jaw and, with only a slight hesitation as her gaze connected with Kota's, she slipped into the room. Sev ushered her to him and stepped in front of her as if prepared to be a roadblock should Kota hit the gas again.

"What's this about, Micah?" Sev asked, holding his arm in front of Gina protectively.

With a shake of his head, Micah took up residence between the two camps. Kota and Trevor on one side, Sev and Gina on the other. "In due time, Sev." He didn't want to go into all the shit about Malek right now. Besides, when Malek got there—
if
he got there—everything would become more or less clear, especially since Gina was rocking the scent of Trevor's venom, and he smelled of her blood. He had fed from her earlier, and wouldn't Malek just love
that
shit?

If not for the crowd in his office, he would have smiled, because little did Gina and Trevor know, they had just played perfectly into the situation. Malek's mated side wouldn't be able to tolerate the scent of another male on her. Hard telling what he would do when he got a whiff of that blasphemous act.

Shit could go critical again in the next few minutes, and Micah would have to be ready. He needed to hold the others back as soon as Malek entered the room and staked his claim over his mate.

* * *

"Tell Micah I'll be there when I'm ready." After the incident in the training center earlier, Malek wasn't in a rush to be anywhere near Micah.

At least his rampant thoughts had quieted after taking a short nap and eating a cup of cottage cheese that almost hadn't stayed down except by force of will.

The shy female that he vaguely recalled worked in administration as of a few weeks ago ducked her head. "I'm sorry, but he said that if you didn't come right now—"

"Fine, fine. I'm coming." He finished tying his boots and stood with a flip of his hair. His chest still ached and his balls did likewise, but after he hit up his favorite feeding ground later and took home another whore, maybe he would begin to feel better. Maybe tonight would be the night things would turn around and he could get past his Gina fixation, as Micah called it.

An apologetic smile graced the shy female's face, and her mouth twisted as she nibbled the inside of her lip. She didn't seem comfortable around males, or maybe that was just her personality.

"What's your name?" He opened the door of his dorm and waved her out into the hall.

"Eva." She let him pass but kept her arms tucked in front of her. Her steps were light as she fell in step behind him.

"You work in admin, right?" It wasn't that he wanted to make small talk with her, but in a way, he felt bad for having been so short with her. It wasn't her fault Micah was a dick.

She walked just behind him and to his left. "Yes. Part-time. I also help in Dispatch."

Malek only half listened as they rode down the elevator. The ache in his chest thrummed back to life now that he was fully awake. By the time he was within ten feet of Micah's office, his whole body ached again, distracting him so severely that he didn't even notice that Eva wasn't beside him anymore. He turned, looked behind him, and realized they had passed Dispatch. He vaguely remembered her telling him good-bye.

Whatever. Good-bye, hello, get lost. Right now, he didn't care. He was in misery's grip again.

So much for thinking he was getting better.

Without knocking, he twisted the doorknob to Tristan's—ugh, Micah's—office.

"Okay, you can get the meeting started, asshole. I'm here now, no thanks to—" He cut off as his gaze lifted.

The scent of tension throttled him, as well as the smell of some new guy he had never seen before standing beside Lakota. Huh? What was Lakota doing here? Oh yeah, he was on the team now. How lovely. But who was the new guy with the short, dark hair? And—

His balls locked up as his gaze swept to the left and landed on Gina. She stood behind Severin, partially blocked by his large body and wide shoulders. As if in a tunnel, he honed in on her. His senses catapulted into the stratosphere, and his breath hitched so violently that he had to take a step back to keep his balance.

Micah backed up and took Lakota and the new guy with him as if he was clearing a path. Severin even seemed to feel the coming storm, because he stepped away and left Gina exposed. Her gaze met his, and she took a heavy, shaky breath. In an instant, he flew up on her with the speed of a bullet, so fast he hadn't even felt the floor beneath his feet. One moment, he was across the room, and the next his body was pressed against hers. He pulled to her as if she were the center of the universe and had a gravitational pull more powerful than the sun's.

Her breath caught as he pushed her back against the wall and dragged his nose up the side of her throat to her ear and inhaled. Pure Gina. Perfect and provocatively fragrant. She smelled faintly of vanilla and cloves. He pinned her between his arms and planted his palms against the wall on either side of her shoulders.

She trembled, and her shaky hands rose and pressed against his chest as she took several rapid breaths, as if she was terrified of him.

"Ssshh." He circled her ear with his nose and wrapped one arm loosely around her back. "Sssshhh."

She calmed and relaxed against him.

Everyone fell away but the two of them. Her palms on his chest felt like the touch of an angel, and the warmth of her body enveloped him like a cloud.

Gina, Gina, Gina.
God, her beauty captivated him, and the sound of her breathy sigh was a siren's song.

"You're here. God, you're really here," he whispered against her ear. His lips played over her smooth, scintillating skin as he spoke.

He was drugged, intoxicated by her, hungry to feel her beneath him, holding him. She was his, now and forever. She had returned to make him whole. He couldn't get enough of her scent and dragged his nose across the front of her neck to the other side as he inhaled deeply so he could capture her aroma and hold it. Perfect…she was so perfect…her scent was unbelievable and—

Wait!

Malek's eyes burst open as his back straightened. What was that smell? Another male? Another male's venom tainted Gina's blood. When had another male fed from her? Who—? Malek growled low in his chest, and his hold on Gina tightened.

His dark, narrowed eyes turned on the unknown male who stood next to Micah and Lakota.

It was
his
scent inside Gina.
His
venom.
He
had taken blood from his female.

With another low growl, he pressed more firmly against Gina as if shielding her. Then he bared his fangs and hissed at that fucker as he pulled her farther back along the wall, into the corner of the room. He wanted distance between her and that
incubus
who had sampled her. He hissed again, making it clear whom Gina belonged to. How dare that asshole partake of what belonged to him.

"Malek…" Gina's voice brought his gaze back around, and he instantly softened, under her command. Whatever she had been about to say caught in her throat, and her brown eyes locked to his, full of surprise.

Still, the simple passing of his name through her lips soothed him, and he gazed drunkenly at her delicate mouth before leaning in and rubbing the side of his face against hers with a sigh.

"Gina…"

She was here. She was his. And whoever that other male was, he held no claim on her. Malek's gaze steered back around, and he bared his fangs again in a silent snarl as he hid Gina from the other male's view. How dare he defile what belonged to him. Gina was his to feed from…his to hold…his to savor against his tongue and body. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist—the wrist that still bore the faint mark of a bite—and this time when he bared his fangs, it was to issue a lethal, low snarl of warning. No one was permitted to take from his mate, or they would answer to him. To make that point clear to her other suitor, he lifted her wrist to his mouth, and, while fixing the male in his gaze once more, sank his fangs in where the other had obviously bitten her. The message was clear: This one is mine.

Warm, vibrant blood flowed down his throat, and Gina's body trembled and fell instantly limp in his arms as she moaned and dropped her head back. Euphoria flooded her from his venom.

She tasted so good, so damn good. Not since Carmen had he sampled such exquisite blood. Not since the loss of—

He froze. What? Who?

Fuck!

How had this happened?

With a gasp, he released Gina's wrist and flung himself away as if she were the devil trying to claim his soul. Talk about an incubus. She was a succubus, here to steal him from Carmen. Well, damn her. He wouldn't let that happen.

"What is she doing here?" He stumbled backward until he fell against the far wall. His heart hammered against his ribcage.

The smug smile on Micah's face appeared surreal among the gaping, gawking stares of the others in the room, including Gina, whose mouth hung open as wordless gasps of surprise escaped her throat. She struggled to stay upright.

I told you she was your mate.

Shut up.
He wasn't in the mood for The Voice's snarky I-told-you-so right now.