Even now, his fingertips vibrated with the indelible sensory memory of how she felt beneath his hands.
Inside, he smoldered with the need to touch her again.
To do much more than that.
“Hey, Brinks.” Fish jogged over holding a shot of whisky. He held it out for her. “You can’t leave without a little toast.”
“Sure.” She took the glass and wanly clinked it against his before taking a small sip.
Fish glanced at Rafe. “What about you, my man? Care to partake?”
“I never touch that shit.”
The human chuckled. “No worries, I got you covered. We’re heading out to one of the strip joints up the street. I’m sure you’ll find something to wet your whistle over there.”
With a cackle, he swaggered back to the rest of the gang.
Devony set her glass down without taking another sip. “Enjoy the show. I’m out of here.”
She walked out to the parking lot without a backward glance. A moment later, the low rumble of her motorcycle sounded as she sped away.
Shit.
Rafe knew he ought to just let her go.
His interests would be better served spending time with the gang, making sure they all got good and drunk so he could prod them for details about Judah LaSalle or anyone else who might be orchestrating their activities. Hell, this might be his first real opportunity to get close enough to trance each one of the humans and extract the information he needed directly from their minds.
But not while Devony was out there in the city alone.
She might be a daywalking Breed female, but that didn’t mean Rafe wanted to imagine her being confronted by his old friend Nathan’s wrath.
If something happened to her now he would never forgive himself.
That feeling had nothing to do with gratitude for what she did for him in the museum, either. It went deeper than that, which disturbed him all the way to his marrow.
Devony wasn’t his to worry about or protect. Caring about her wasn’t part of his mission, and there was no place for compassion when his quest to destroy Opus Nostrum demanded only cold, lethal focus.
One misstep, one careless miscalculation, could cost him everything.
Like letting his concern for her ignite a reckless rage inside him tonight with Cruz.
The ferocity of his anger shocked him. It had shocked Devony too. He saw that in her stricken expression when he’d leapt on Cruz. When her voice had been the only thing that reeled him back from the edge.
Fuck.
It was obvious to him what he needed to do, before he let things get more complicated than he already had.
He could not risk his mission by bringing her into the equation. Not in any form.
Which meant he had to remove her, the sooner the better.
While he considered the unpleasant task ahead of him, Cruz walked over with the rest of the gang. “We’re getting ready to roll out in a few. You coming along, or what?”
“Another time.”
He didn’t offer any further excuse before heading out to his bike. The rain had finally stopped, and the storm had thinned the nighttime traffic. He didn’t know where Devony lived, but he knew the distinctive purr of her Triumph. His Breed hearing was acute enough to zero in on that sound amid the rest of the vehicles moving through the streets.
He followed his ears until he spotted her taillight heading north toward the affluent neighborhood of Back Bay.
