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Now he fucking kisses me?
Two goddamn years of working with his father, then radio silence for the last six months, and now a kiss?
He'd changed alright. Gone were the sweetness and the snark.
Here, he was someone else. Someone intense…someone dangerous.
I shoved that spark of desire away, pushing it all the way down under the need to survive. My steps were soft and quiet, barely making a sound as I came out of the hallway and into the empty foyer. Movement flickered through the glass at the end of the building, high up in the sky. A dark speck was growing larger in the distance and headed this way. I checked the map, finding the lecture halls one building over, and shoved through the doors.
Three more buildings stretched out on this side of the island, the one I needed was just in front. I lifted my hand to the glare of the afternoon sun and hurried as that dark blur grew above me. The faintwhop...whop…whopof rotor blades grew louder as I raced down the hill and headed for the door.
Fingerprints.
Interrogation techniques.
I knew what the Institute was. It was more than a damn training camp. It was a test, one I needed to pass.Make alliances and keep my own identity secret…well, as much as I could. Kat knew who I really was, I don’t know how…but she knew. Could I trust her? I wanted to. God, how I wanted to.
Cameras swiveled toward me as the building loomed. That damn chopper drew my gaze, flying low overhead like a hulking black beast before landing in the distance. Someone important had arrived. More important than the VanHalens and the Salvatores.
Tattooed and expensive
Just another way to say teeth and claws.
In my world at least.
I grabbed the handle, yanked open the door, and stepped into a fucking den…of vipers.
Heads turned my way, their reptilian stares chilling as they strode toward the open lecture hall door. I scanned twenty, thirty at most, and followed.
“Getoutof my way.” The snarl came a second before I was shoved to the side.
I stumbled and slammed into the doorjamb with athud,pain tearing through my side as a gazelle dressed as a runway model strode past. Arctic blue eyes nailed me to the spot as she looked down from her seven-inch stilettos.
She lifted her gaze and kept on moving, her and her damn entourage. Black suits and muscled chests stalked her. I waited for her bodyguards to pass, then straightened my spine and lifted my gaze, meeting Kat’s. She just watched me, not missing a damn thing. A smile was next, careful and full before she lifted her hand and waved me over.
She had guys all around her, one of them even attempting a conversation. But she barely noticed, instead she watched me as I turned sideways and stumbled my way between the rows of seats toward her.
“You’re just an accident waiting to happen, aren’t you?” she muttered, cutting the bitch who'd shoved me a hateful glare.
“I warned you.” I slid into the seat next to her and glanced at the six-foot muscled guy who sat in front of her, attempting to have a conversation. She just smiled at him, fake but still a smile, and leaned forward enough to flash the tops of her breasts as she patted his arm. “Enough now. My friend is here.”
He just stopped mid-sentence, then glanced my way in confusion.
But Kat was already moving on, her gaze following the bitch all the way across the lecture hall. I yanked the desk up and slid my iPad down, that eerie feeling of being watched heavy on the back of my head. I risked a glance over my shoulder. Finley sat three rows up and to the left, his icy attention on me, as was that of his two shadows.
My pulse sped, until flushed cheeks forced me to look away. “This place fucking terrifies me.”
“Of course it does, sweetheart,” Kat murmured, still staring daggers at the bitch. “You still have your baby teeth. But you’ll grow out of them soon enough. Don’t you worry 'bout a damn thing.” She reached over and patted my thigh. “Kat’s got your back.”
My iPad gave a softdingas an older man stepped up to the podium and his deep, gruff voice drifted through the speakers. I scanned the words scrawled on the whiteboard.Crime Scene Analysis 101 - Leaving your mark.
Why did those words conjure something heated inside me? Something I’d never normally think of? Something carnal and dark. A hand around a throat. Thrusting hard…the couple from the darkened classroom filled my mind—until slowly that image turned into a fantasy filled with Finley Salvatore…and me. It was his hand around my throat, his tattooed fingers clenched tight. Those intensely dark eyes boring into mine. His body…God.I shifted in my seat.
Jesus.Heat swept through me.
“Right. Settle down. I’m here to teach not hold your damn hands. Fingerprints. Don’t leave your mark on anything you’re not going to own.”
Own…
