“I don’t know how you can be so incredibly strong and so whiny at the same time!” she huffed.
His head snapped up at her tone and his brows drew together. Good. Let him get pissed. Let them have a good rip-roaring fight because that was better than this quiet agony. But he wasn’t a man to break easily. He didn’t speak, so she poked at him again.
“You’ve got everything Simon. You’re smart, powerful, and you just got control of a clan of bear-shifters. And yet you sit there miserable because you can’t decide what you want. Boo-hoo, it’s a dangerous life. Boo-hoo, I’m a dangerous man.”
“I’m trying to protect you,” he growled.
She was getting to him. Good. She pushed harder.
“I don’t need your protection! I make my own choices. And here it is: I’m not committing to a man who’s too afraid to say he loves me.”
His eyes widened and his jaw worked. It took him two tries before words came out. And when they did, they were so hot, they burned her with hunger, with fear, and with flat out lust.
“I want you, Alyssa. Because you fight me and you don’t run. Because you’re sexy and smart. But you’re so fucking stubborn, too! You run your own business, you run your own brother, and you’re not going to surrender to me easily. You’re going to tease me and drive me fucking crazy while I pant after you. But I’m dangerous, Alyssa. And I’m alpha to a dangerous clan. And if you push me any harder, I’m going to take you and never let you go. Is that what you want? Is it?”
Yes. A thousand times, yes. But damn it, he hadn’t said he loved her. She knew it was stupid of her, but she wanted love. She’d had men after her before. Rich ones, smart ones, slick ones. She’d refused them all because they’d loved themselves way more than they loved her. She needed Simon to love her because she already knew she was head over heels for him. She had been for years.
But there wasn’t any softness in him now. No tenderness that gave her hope that he had such an emotion in him. He was all logic and brutal animal necessity. It wasn’t like she was asking for candy and roses. The words would be enough, but only if he said them.
So she took a deep breath. She smelled his scent, felt his heat, and let the strength of her desire make her bold.
“Do you love me, Simon?”
His eyes widened in surprise and maybe yearning. He stared at her while her heart thrummed in her throat. “Alyssa—” he began, but her name was drowned out.
A boom reverberated through the building. An explosion that made her furniture jump and her body reel. It tore through her body and his, but he was the one who reacted. His head jerked up even as his hands kept her steady. And then he abandoned her to rush to the door.
“Simon?”
“Get your gun.”
CHAPTER 20
Shifting gears had never been easy for Simon. If he was in the middle of an intense relationship discussion with Alyssa, it would take something significant to jolt him into a fighting place. Something like a bomb going off in the laundromat. Still, his mind lurched as it tried to realign into tactical thinking. What he really wanted to do was grab Alyssa and run to the nearest bolt hole where they could finish what they were doing.
But as the acrid scent of gunpowder and smoke hit his nostrils, he knew that wasn’t possible. So he rushed to the door and ordered Alyssa to get her gun.
She switched mental gears faster than he did. He saw her blanch and then nod. And while he was quietly slipping open her front door to see what was out there, she returned to his side with her gun and a grim expression.
“What—” she began, but he cut her off with the answers she needed.
“I think that was a bomb,” he said softly. “How many other people in the building?”
“Um, a couple dozen, give or take.” Then she held up her phone. “I’ll call 911 and?—”
He shook his head. “Call Detective Kennedy. Then get those people down here to go out your bedroom window.” It was opposite the fire, but more important, it was nearest the dumpster and other cover. “Tell them there are snipers at the doors. They have to go out here.”
“Snipers!” she gasped.
“Maybe.”
He watched her put it together in the time it took her to blink twice. Sure, it was possible that something had gone wrong in the laundromat. Or that this was random bad luck. But it was way more likely that Joey was making his move. With the quarantine, the cops were stretched thin. Perfect time to stage an attack on a cash business and be pretend sad when Simon was killed in the crossfire. Damn it, the man had even tipped his intention when he left, saying that he hoped Simon wasn’t inside when everything went boom. Why hadn’t he guessed that the bastard would act quickly and without care for the innocents in the building?
He had to get Alyssa far away from him. That was the safest place for her. He eased the apartment door open again. The smoke was thick, but no more than before. And he could hear a couple people hitting something hard in the laundromat. Probably trying to break into the vending machines to gather whatever money they could find. That meant if there was a fire, it was contained. But he still couldn’t take that risk.
He was about to dash forward when he saw a dark figure coming down the hallway. That was the last thing he needed to lock him into fighter mode. Someone was coming for Alyssa.
The grizzly in him stirred and pressed forward with murderous intent. It knew how to protect a mate. But Simon kept it locked down. He needed to think, not be a huge furry target. So he suppressed the claws that tried to burst through his fingers and though his mouth was pulled back to show his teeth, he didn’t grow a snout. He’d wait. The figure was slipping closer.
