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She fucking winks at me.
Oh, baby girl, your ass is going to be raw as soon as I get my hands on you.The warmth coursing through me bursts into a feverish flame, and I feel the soft tendrils of her grasp squeeze at my chest.
I step towards her with my own cruel grin, and her smile drops. I’m moving before I can think, navigating through the crowd, elbowing and pushing people out of the way. I’m a monster on a mission. But as I hit the center of the room, I recognize where I am and stop immediately. I’m below the vault. I’m right below the Keystone, and I feel nothing.
No, not nothing. I feel Julianna, her touch, her heat, but no Pull to the Keystone.
I haven’t felt it at all. Not when I arrived, or in the elevator up, or the moment I entered the loft. How did I not notice? The power of it should’ve dragged me to this very spot under the vault the moment I was close enough to sense it, just as it did at the wrap party. Even now I should feel its desperation eroding away my will to do anything except get to the Keystone, but all I feel is her.
“What is it?” Dredd asks in my ear.
“The Keystone,” I answer. “Do you feel it?”
“Of course. It’s exactly as last time. I’m across the street, and it is as if the Pull could rip out of my chest.”
“So it has not moved?”
“No. Is your Pull telling you it was moved?”
“No… no. This is just too important to take chances,” I answer firmly, not wanting to alarm my brother. Concern quickens my pulse, but I know this has to be a momentary lapse in the Pull.
It has to be momentary, I decide. Anything else is too bizarre to consider.
It is this new sensation, the one that feels like her delicate skin and her warm breath against mine, that is drowning out the call of the Keystone. It is Julianna doing this to me.
I root myself in my place as I watch Freddy fawn over her. The blond man who’d touched her before follows her movements around the room like a wolf sniffing at blood.
Freddy steps away from Julianna to talk to a professionally dressed woman with a clipboard. The woman immediately turns to several more workers dressed in all black, and they seem to rush to all corners of the room. It is difficult to focus through the crowd of voices, but I get enough to know that the event will start soon.
Good. Let’s get this over with. Once the Keystone is in my hand, the Pull will return, and all will be right.
“Rook, are you in place?” I ask covertly into my earpiece.
“Yes, boss,” Rook confirms.
“Knox?”
“Ready and made to distract,” he confirms.
My human body relaxes as I watch Freddy finally leave Julianna’s side. I have no claim on her, but my traitorous body doesn’t yet comprehend it, and I still feel her touch on my chest. She grabs a glass of champagne from a passing server, but before she can take a sip, her blond admirer swoops in from the shadows. He was waiting for his moment. His large frame blocks her from me as he says something to her, but again, it’s lost to the crowd.
The flame in my chest burns hotter, and what feels like her clenched fists pound against me, begging me to take action, as I inhale the scent of Julianna’s fear. I hear her heels shuffle on the stone floor. He doesn’t touch her, but I see his hands raise like he’s about to.
She was the one who was determined to be on her own tonight. She can handle it.
The sensation gives me a choice as it did at the wrap party to go after her, but I do not take it. Still, my fists tighten, and I miss the feel of my claws digging into my skin.
She sidesteps the man’s reach and quickly heads to the opposite side of the room, and relief floods my chest. She races to Freddy’s side just as he’s about to ascend to the podium.
For help,I realize.She went to Freddy, not me, for help.
I told her I’d protect her. She should’ve come to me.
Anger flares, and the weight builds in me, expanding past my chest to encompass the entirety of my body.
Freddy wraps his arm over her shoulder and guides her through the crowd. I frown, watching him guide her towards the second-story stairs. I look back to the crowd, searching out the blond man, but don’t find him.
“What’s going on?” Dredd asks.
