It had been bad enough outside. She’d almost made it to the front door. Quiet, alert, a huntress in new territory. Then the door opened, and Julian was there. A few steps above her, just like now.
She’d seen photos of his dragon form. Who hadn’t? Footage of the attack on Gerald Harper’s island had blazed through shifter high society like wildfire, terrifying some, exciting others.
Before, nobody had known dragon shifters existed. Now everyone knew they did, and that they could tear solid stone buildings apart with their bare claws.
She had assumed his human form would be less impressive.
She was wrong.
His eyes had locked on to hers, and everything else in the world vanished.
So this is him. Julian Rouse. Dragon shifter, prisoner, and…
His eyes were a deep jade green. Something flickered in their depths, like the reflection of firelight on polished stone.
The sound of her heartbeat grew to fill her whole body.
Like before, something inside her that had never before been alive unfurled like a blossom feeling the first dawning light of the sun.
And, like before, she shoved it back down. No. Goddammit, no! This wasn’t part of the plan.
Julian Rouse was meant to be her ticket to redemption.
Not her fated mate.
This was a complication she hadn’t accounted for. A problem. A—a…
A blessing I don’t deserve.Her eyes slid away from the dragon shifter’s, watering as though she’d tried to stare at the sun.
Francine shook her head. She had a job to do, and self-pity wasn’t a part of it.
“My name is Francine,” she told him icily.
“Francine. Could you explain to me again, Francine, why it is we must leave before they know we’re gone?” Julian’s tone was dry. “If, as you say, you are Mr. MacInnis’s friend—”
The hell with it. “Myfullname is Francine Delacourt. I’m Mathis’s sister.” She didn’t wait to see how he reacted. Whatever memories he had of being captive on the same island where her twin had been forced to fight for his life couldn’t be good. But she could use the connection to keep him off balance. To earn trust she didn’t deserve. “The agency’s been compromised. There’s a mole on Lance’s team. I don’t know who it is yet, but we can’t risk them knowing that—”
She paused. She’d been running her hand along the wall, and the surface under her fingers had changed from cool, smooth concrete to something softer. She felt further along,squinting in the half-dark. The pale brick-like lumps arranged along the passageway walls hadn’t been on the plans.
“What is it?” Julian asked.
Francine carefully prodded one of the ‘bricks’. It felt soft, like modeling clay.
Shit.
“Go back,” she burst out, already pushing Julian back along the corridor. “It’s a bomb, go back—”
She should have known it was already too late. Less than a minute had passed since the lockdown had been reversed; just enough time for the guards to start venturing back inside, so the explosives beneath the house would take out the prisoner and witnesses at the same time.
3
Julian
A bomb.Julian didn’t need to question whether Francine was telling the truth this time; fear rolled off her, setting off a protective instinct inside him.
He grabbed her and turned, thrusting her in front of him. She stumbled, caught herself on the wall, and ran.
He counted the steps in heartbeats. Back down the corridor. The staircase—Francine stumbled again, and Julian’s dragon hissed a warning.
