She barely blinks. “The whole ‘men will be men’ thing does not screw with my father’s finances. This does. This could destroy him.”
“He’s your father’s golden boy, sweetheart. You don’t know where that leads.” I cup her face and tilt her mouth to mine, lowering my voice. “Let’s go to the bedroom and talk.”
“We won’t talk in the bedroom,” she objects weakly, sounding breathless. I like her breathless.
“We need a break.”
“We need this to be over.”
“But not us, Pri,” I say. “Not us.”
Her fingers curl on my T-shirt. “What happened to the imminent ending where I hate you?”
“I’m going to take every moment you give me,” I say and so I do. I take. My mouth closes down over hers, and I kiss her, drinking her in, tasting her, letting her taste the truth on my tongue. I’m not letting her go. Our lips part and I say those exact words. “I’m falling in love with you, Pri. I’m not letting you go. Not unless you make me.”
“You’re—you’re—”
“Yes. I am.”
The door behind us opens and I turn to find Adam standing in the doorway. “Blake needs to see you, Adrian. Now.”
His tone is clipped, pure steel. The kind of tone he speaks during high-stress combat situations. Pri catches on, too. “What happened?” she asks urgently, twisting out of my arms. “What’s going on?”
He glances at her and then me. “Just come inside.”
I draw in a breath and Pri is already storming toward the house. I follow quickly, dread twisting in my gut. Whatever this is isn’t good, which is exactly why I catch Pri’s hand and give a small tug, halting her, ready to prepare her for the worst.
She turns to face me, steps into me and pushes to her toes. “Whatever it is, we’ll get through it. And just to be clear. I’m already, most likely, probably, in love with you, but I won’t admit it this soon.”
Pri thinks she’s in love with me.
There is a fire in the pit of my stomach and thunder in my ears.
She’s giveth, and somehow, I know that gift is about to be taken away.
I cup her head and kiss her hard and fast when what I really want is to throw her over my shoulder and carry her to the bedroom. She trails her fingers over my goatee and then she’s twisting away from me, already entering the kitchen. Adrenaline pumps through me, but I calmly follow her and soon we’ve reclaimed our seats at the island. The mood is decidedly somber. Savage, Adam, and Lucifer are all in stony, unreadable soldier mode which in and of itself promises this is about to get nasty.
Fuck.
What the hell is happening?
Did Pri’s family get hit? Surely not. They’d warn me. Did Ed get hit? Maybe. Fuck.
My eyes meet Blake’s, and I say, “What the hell, Blake?”
And then he drops the bomb. “There’s a warrant out for your arrest.”
“What?” Pri gasps. “No. That would go through me. That’s not possible.”
“And yet it is,” Blake says. “It’s out of Chicago. The DA wants him brought in immediately.”
“Chicago?” Pri demands. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She looks at me. “Have you ever been to Chicago?”
“Never,” I say, my tone flat, while my mind rages with the regret of letting Waters and Deleon live.
“Well,” she says, “that’s where Logan is from. That bastard. What do they want to question him on?”
“A charge of murder,” Blake states.
“Murder?” she gasps. “No,” she says, recovering instantly. “No. He was an FBI agent. He has natural immunity. Damn it.” She turns to me. “I’ll fix this.” She’s already reaching for her phone.
I catch her arm. “Who are you calling?”
“Ed to start. Logan and my father are next.”
“Wait just a minute, sweetheart,” I say softly, blood rushing in my ears, while her eagerness to defend and help me is both expected and unexpected. The unexpected part being of my own making. “Blake,” I say, holding her hand and eyeing him. “What else? Who did I kill?”
His jaw clenches. “Your brother while you were both undercover inside the Devils.”
And there it is. Pri now knows my brother was an agent. She now knows he was undercover with me. I release her without looking at her and press my hands to my legs, but in my head, I’m screaming, Fuck, fuck, fuck. “What else?” I ask tightly, calmly even, despite the rage of emotions punching at me.
Instead of offering more details, he asks a question. “Was your brother ever in the state of Illinois?”
“No,” I say, “at least not that I know of. This is Waters trying to discredit me as a witness. Obviously, we now know Logan’s involved. Had I just jumped off this case, this wouldn’t have happened.”
“I’ll handle this,” Pri says again. “Let me do my job and protect my star witness.”