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Tossing the magical mirror at him, she stripped his jacket off and shoved it his way. Pouring venom into her voice, she built an emotional shield around her brick by fricking brick. “You can keep your white knight routine for the next girl you rescue. I’m good to fight on my own.”
Kyle pulled the SUV through massive steel doors opened by armed guards carrying assault rifles.
Yanking on the handle, she hurried out, not letting herself shiver against the cold of the air coming off the water or stumble when her heels caught in the cement floor. The building stretched high above her, landings with old ornate railings circling each level. She checked her phone. No signal. How was there no cell reception in a city the size of Los Angeles? Holding up the cursed thing, she headed for the parking lot on the other side of the doors.
“Don’t,” Alexei said to her. He gestured toward the guards. “Close the warehouse. No one comes in or out except my immediate family.”
“I need to call Josh,” she told him. “I’m going with him. You can’t keep me here.”
“Can’t I?” His demon prince or crime boss voice. She didn’t know which counted as more infuriating.
“No, you can’t. Now let me outside whatever tech or wards you use to keep your employees off their cell phones which, by the way, seems paranoid no matter how illegal your operation is.” She’d watched enough television the last few weeks to recognize a crime syndicate setup when she saw one.
“Give me enough time to question our possible traitor in case I need your expertise.” He motioned for a guard to grab Kyle.
She rushed forward, demanding that reason prevail over whatever temper the sense of betrayal might’ve incited. “He didn’tdoanything. The Order kidnapped his mother, threatened to hurt her, and still, he’s loyal to your family. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”
“It means this shouldn’t take long,” Alexei answered. “Get comfortable. You’re here until I finish with him. Then, I’ll take you wherever you want to go with a driver who hasn’t been compromised by the Order.” He walked away as if dismissing her.
The metal doors slammed closed with a clang that echoed off the concrete and steel. Her heart pounded in her chest, and her vision narrowed to the levers swinging into place that locked her inside. Anxiety pushed aside the sweet buzz that touching Alexei had provided earlier and sent fear crawling down her spine. She’d exchanged one jail for another. Her mind screamed to push past those armed guards and escape.
“You said no more locked doors.” Her words came too fast, her pitch too high. One of the men with rifles crowded her as if sensing a threat, and she recoiled. “You promised, and you swore you kept your promises.”
“Leave us.” Alexei waved the guards away and walked to tower over her, blocking her view of everyone else with his big body. His set jaw, the tension in his muscles, and the intensity of his gaze screamed “mad at the world” as though he might unleash those wings and turn whatever powers he’d used to save her before to keep her in line now.
She faked bravado she didn’t feel. “It’ll take a lot more than size and stern stares to scare me.”
“Good to know.” His soft voice menaced as much as his overwhelming presence and the locked doors. “So what would it take to get you to go upstairs and stay in the safety of security wards long enough for me to get the full story out of Kyle?”
“He told you everything he knows, and you terrify him.”
“Iterrifyeveryone.”
“Not me.” She inched her chin up to underscore the point.
“As far as I can tell, you aren’t afraid of anyone. You’re also incredibly intelligent which is why I have to wonder why you insist on running outside one of the three safest places in the city or why you won’t wear my jacket when you’re shivering.”
Ignoring his blatant refusal to recognize how he’d hurt her with his rejection, she focused on the less dangerous part of his comment. “Name the other two safe places in LA.” She figured Josh’s penthouse would be far more secure than this ancient place that looked like a mixture between a warehouse as he’d called it and an aboveground military bunker.
“The bookshop where Alys’s mate works.”
“Nita,” she corrected, needing him to call the woman who had proven herself devoted to his family by her name. “And the other?”
“My home.” He crowded her, and she resisted the instinct to back away. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “I can take you there instead.” His voice went warm, tempting.
He had some nerve to dictate she could be locked here or at his house after making it sound as though he wanted nothing to do with her earlier. She unleashed a fraction of her hurt and anger. “I’d rather stand outside in the dark and take my chances with the Order.”There. Let him react to some “serious shade” as they called it in the shows she’d binge-watched during the last couple months while being locked in luxury.
“I can hear your teeth chattering. Stop being stubborn long enough to get warm.” He reached to wrap his jacket around her shoulders, and she pulled away, then thought better of it and took it from him to sling around herself.
Her pride would have to come behind comfort because the cold seeped through a crack beneath the door to wind around her bare legs. Why should she freeze simply because he’d refused to see her as more than some girl he rescued? Ignoring the way his scent on the collar teased her, she clutched it around her like a blanket. “This has nothing to do with my persistence.” Sure, she’d been called every word for pigheaded, but the quality—not flaw—had been the key to her survival.
“Then tell me why you’re upset. I’m the one who should demand an apology.”
“Anapology?” She managed not to yell. No one rattled her as he did. For years, she’d clung to the ability to control every emotion, yet he incited her to feel everything from hurt to rage in a matter of minutes. Hell, the light beneath her skin glimmered as if he’d snapped her restraint on the magic that usually lay dormant except when she healed herself or someone else. “You’re the one who should be saying he’s sorry.”
“I didn’t intervene in questioning one of your subjects. So again, what is it you think I did?”
Disappointment dimmed her magic. Dismissing her as a potential candidate for his mate hadn’t even registered in his memories. She didn’t rate high enough on his priorities to merit more than irritation at interfering in his shooting an innocent man. Hurt lanced through her, weighing her down worse than the exhaustion of watching the world pass outside pretty windows without being able to walk among strangers like anyone else. “It doesn’t matter.” She tried to keep the sadness out of her voice and failed.
