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“Calm down,” West whispers in my ear while holding me tightly against him.
“Calm down?” A hollow, wounded laugh slips from my lips. I hate how hurt I sound. Hate that he knows he has the power to hurt me. “You pretty much just told me the person who doped me up is in your house, which means it was either you or one of those two guys that work with you. Neither option is calm down worthy.”
“There’s a fourth person in the house,” he explains. “And the fourth person is the one that doped you up.”
I don’t know whether to cry, scream, or be relieved. “Why the hell is he in your house?”
“Because he’s locked up in the cage room while we interrogate him.”
I blink. What? “Come again?”
He hugs me tighter and rests his head against the back of mine, breathing in deeply. “I know it sounds crazy, but this will all make more sense after I explain everything.” He traces a finger back and forth along the hem of my shirt and it takes all of my willpower not to shiver. “But in order to explain everything, I need you to calm down and listen to me. And I need you to promise you won’t run out of the house. It’s too dangerous for you to go anywhere. Not until we get some answers and find out more about what’s going on.”
I tense. “Wait? I’m in danger?”
“Relax.” His lips brush along my earlobe. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you, baby.”
Baby? What the hell.
I’m about to ask him when we started giving each other sweet, little, vomit inducing worthy nicknames for each other when he kisses my earlobe again. His fingers drift back and forth along the bottom of my shirt. He’s not even really touching me, yet my skin tingles everywhere. What the heck is wrong with me? One minute I think Blaine is the love of my life and then suddenly West’s touch nearly makes me have an orgasm. No, scratch that. Not nearly since he already gave me an orgasm while we were in his car. Twice.
I mentally shake my head at myself. That doesn’t even matter right now. The truth does.
“Okay, I won’t try to leave again.” Unless I find out you’re bad, I mentally add.
“Good.” He kisses my earlobe again, which blows my mind.
It’s the third time he’s done that in the last minute. I know we messed around in the car, but considering West and I have never gotten along…
I’m so lost.
With his kisses and his touching.
His calling me baby?
Lost. Lost. Lost.
So lost.
About everything.
He lets his lips briefly linger against my ear before he steps away and lets his arms fall to his sides.
I turn around to face him, the heat in my body intensifying to a simmering hot temperature. I wonder if I’m nervous or if the drugs in my system are fucking with my body temperature.
“So, do you work as an undercover cop or something?” I ask. “Because that’s what it sounds like.”
“No, but we do help the police sometimes. And I kind of do work undercover.” When he notes the confusion on my face, he sighs. “All right, I’m going to give you a brief summarization and then let you ask questions because I’m sure you’re going to have a lot of them.” He laces his fingers through mine and sinks down on the sofa, pulling me down with him. “Me, Steel, and Ellis—those two guys you just met—work for a secret undercover program. We’re each assigned groups to work with and Steel and Ellis are my group. We usually work on jobs together, although we have done some jobs solo.”
“What sort of jobs?” I’m completely confounded. Undercover programs? Those things actually exist? And West—West—is part of one.
WTF.
“There’s a lot of different kinds of jobs.” He twists to face me, still holding onto my hand. “But very recently we were assigned a job to watch over a girl who needs protection.”
Wait. What?
“You mean, me?” I ask and he nods. My head spins even more with dizziness. “But why do I need protection?”
He summons a deep breath. “You remember how your car was stolen and then you found that card?” He waits for me to nod before continuing. “Well, the person who stole your car and left you the card works for an organization called Hacker Hearts Anonymous, one of the most infamous hacker groups in the country.” He traces the folds of my fingers with his fingertip. “He’s also the same person who jumped us in the car and tranquilized you, which more than likely means Hacker Hearts Anonymous gave him an order to go after you. Although, we can’t be sure until we can get the guy to talk.”
My heart pounds like a lunatic and my skin begins to dampen from the heat scorching through my veins. This can’t be real. It just can’t be.
But then why does it feel so real?
“But why would a bunch of hackers go after me?” I ask. “And aren’t hackers supposed to go after people through computers, not tranquilize them in the middle of the burbs?”
“Usually, yes. But we don’t think they went after you to hack you.”
“Then why did they go after me?”
“We don’t know yet, but we’ll find out no matter what it takes.” He stares down at my hand as he sketches the folds between my fingers with his fingertip. “I don’t want to scare you, but I don’t want to lie to you either, so I’m going to tell you the truth. Just try not to freak out.” He releases an exhale. “They weren’t going after you. They are going after you. At least according to the guy in there.” He nods his head in the direction of the doorway. “The whole tranquilizing thing is just the start to something bigger. But we don’t know what yet.” He lifts his gaze to mine and the intensity pouring from his eyes freaks the crap out of me. “But I’m going to find out what they’re planning. And nothing is going to happen to you. I can fucking promise you that.” He lightly brushes his fingers over the bruise on my arm. “I fucked up when I let this happen. I should’ve noticed the watermark on the card you got, but I was too dis
tracted by… other stuff. That won’t happen again. You’re safe with me, Steel, and Ellis.”
My heart thrashes in my chest. “Wait… Are you trying to say I can’t go home?”
“You can’t,” he says with a hint of remorse. “I’m sorry, but until we know more about what’s going on, you need to stay here.”
I shake my head. “No. There’s no way I’m going to just sit around in an apartment all day and wait for something to happen. I’ll go crazy.”
“Alexis, if you leave, you’ll either end up getting tranquilized again or something worse,” he says in a firm tone. “I’m not going to let that happen.”
My lip twitches in annoyance. “Since when did you become so alpha male? Because FYI, it’s kind of a turn off.”
His lips quirk. “Just kind of, huh?”
I glare at him. “Nope, completely.”
“So you’re saying I turn you off. Because what happened in my car—” he smirks, “Twice—suggests otherwise.”
My cheeks warm, but I refuse to back down. “That was just because of you biting me. Anyone could’ve done it and I probably would’ve reacted the same way.”
“No, you wouldn’t have.” The smug look on his face makes me want to slap him. “And you want to know why?”
I grind my teeth. “Nope, not really.”
He ignores my answer. “Because you’re attracted to me.”
I want to say that I’m not, but West is hot and he knows it—everyone knows it.
I give a nonchalant shrug. “Yeah, so. Almost everyone we know is attracted to you, both guys and girls.”
His smirk grows. “Which includes you.”
My fingers curl into fists. “Why does it even matter? So I’m attracted to you. So what? I was also attracted to Blaine and look where that got me. Attraction doesn’t mean anything.” And anything more means getting hurt.
My chest simmers with anger and hurt as I remember everything Masie told me. How she betrayed me. How Blaine and her have been together for a while. How she told Blaine I liked him.
“Hey.” West cups my cheek, forcing me to look at him. “I’m sorry.”
