Lance pushed harder.“You both know I’m right here, right?I can hear you.Stop talking about me like I don’t know what mess of shit I’m in.”
That’s the problem, Lance.I don’t think you do know what you’re in.Not fully.Not completely.And definitely not honestly.His subconscious was right, he didn’t know how deep the shit creek he was in ran.Not if he was going to be truthful with himself.
She tore her gaze from Mark’s and met the blue-green gaze of her detective.Jasmine missed the icy green of his natural eye color.“I told you about the setup.How they went to the address they thought you were at and would have killed you had you been there.The decision is yours.You want to pursue this and make them pay for trying to have you killed, I’m here to help however you want.”She angled toward him a bit more, knee sliding against his thigh.“You want to leave and walk away, I’ll help you do that.”
“Do you know Robert is in on it?”A shift in his seat.“Like for certain?”
She recognized it in his voice.A thin thread of need to believe that his years of being undercover hadn’t been a waste.That this clusterfuck hadn’t been but his imagination misinforming him that he had been out on his own, that those he should have expected to protect him were actually a danger.
Jasmine fisted a hand to keep from reaching out to him.“One hundred percent?No.Because his device could have been bugged, I don’t know.But he was the last one I talked to and then the men went to kill you.”
“You think he is selling me out.”A single shoulder shrug.“Or already has sold me out.”
“I think people don’t change as much as we hope they will.”She rotated back toward the table and Mark.“We also know I don’t trust Robert.But it’s your life, not mine.”
He licked his lips and her core clenched in response.In her periphery she watched Mark’s mouth quirk.A slow glide of her tongue along her lower lip was her retaliation to Lance before she slumped back in the seat.
“What do you think?”Lance pointed the question to Mark.
Funny, it seemed as if his focus remained on her, however.
“Man, I don’t give a flying fuck what you do.I’m here purely because I owe this woman my life.”He too, leaned back, one strong arm draping over the frame of the chair.“All that to say, if she says it’s wrong and the man is shit, I’d listen to her.I never worked with Robert, but men he worked with, yes.And they were the ones who burned me, nearly cost me my life and that of my boy.”
“And your twin?”
Jasmine smiled.She’d wondered how long it would be before Lance brought up thinking he’d seen two of the same man.
Mark shot her a wink and she wasn’t positive but damn near that a growl emerged from the man beside her.And he inched closer to her.Jasmine gave Lance about thirty good seconds before his arm was along the back of her chair.
“Don’t have one.”
“Bullshit,” Lance spat.
Oh.She’d been wrong.It wasn’t the back of her chair he settled his hand possessively against but the nape of her neck.Strong fingers curving about, his grip familiar and calming.
Damn it!She wasn’t supposed to feel anything but lust for him.This comforting and protected feeling she got wasn’t part of the plan.
A reminder that had become somewhat of a mantra when it came to this man here.It irritated her to no end that she had to continue remembering that.She scowled.Anger slithered up her spine and she ground her jaw, counting slowly and trying to regain her control.
He leisurely stroked her neck and her insides responded to the familiar touch.It wasn’t only the inside either, her skin pebbled and her nipples tightened.A huff of air burst from her lips and she shifted away from him, rising from the chair.
The men glanced up at her but she ignored both of them, walking to the fridge.
“You have water right here, Jasmine.”
“Not getting more water, Mark, thanks.”She didn’t have to turn around to know the bastard had a smirk on his face.
“Babe?”
She scowled at the fridge’s interior before swiping a beer she didn’t need.Fingers curled around the longneck, she turned back to the table, nudging the door closed with the sole of her foot.
Lance was moving toward her and she sucked a sharp breath.Even recovering, there was no denying his presence.It was simplythere.His gaze locked on her like a heat-seeking missile and her thighs clenched involuntarily.
Predatory.Hungry.Determined.Possessive.
All words that described the way he watched her.Touched her.
As if he hadn’t a care in the world, he backed her into the fridge, arms bracketing her in as his palms slapped the white material of the appliance.
