She narrowed her eyes at him, brow furrowing before she huffed two deep breaths as her expression relaxed, realization settling.“Oh.”
“Yeah, baby.Oh.”He stepped close and held her face in his hands.“Youare an amazing woman, you fight for those weaker than you, you risk yourself for those you have no use for, including working with me and Robert, all the while putting your own mental health and well-being on hold to do what’s right.Nowhere in that, and I mean fuckingnowherein this world does a person who is shit at being human do those things.”He wedged a thigh between hers and turned her so the counter was at her back.“You’re a good person, Jasmine Hoyer.Fucking incredible.Say it.”
She shook her head and he stepped closer.
“Tell me that you’re a good person.”
A frustrated huff.“I’m a good person.”She rolled her eyes but held his gaze.
Completely serious, he nodded.“Yes, you are.And I’m going to remind you of this until you start to believe it yourself.”
Chapter Thirteen
Everyone deserves a chance to clean up their mistakes.
Lance watched as Robert strolled into Lian’s Red House of Lion Noodles.Anger surged as he thought about everything that had gone down with the attack on where he was supposed to be recovering.Just like Jasmine had said would happen.She’d warned him the man couldn’t be trusted and something would go sideways.
The man had not a single care in the world and while he longed to rush in and confront him, Jasmine had also informed him the man usually had a man following him.Just in case.
So he’d waited.It wasn’t like he needed her to tell him how to do his job.He’d joined the military the moment he turned eighteen, served four years and became a cop.He’d been a cop for most of his life.He was a detective now and did undercover work.But he’d just been betrayed by a man he should have been able to trust.
As far as he was concerned, his cover had been blown wide open.Which means I’m burned.
“What the hell is that woman doing?”Lance scrubbed a hand over his face as he blinked a few times, trying to convince himself he was imagining seeing her there.
Jasmine sauntered into view, tight jeans, hot-pink wedge sandals and a crisscrossed tank top in the same color as her footwear.His cock kicked as he watched her move.Fluid.Sexy.And dangerous as hell.
To more than just my heart.
He’d heard rumors of Smoke when he’d first gone undercover.Honestly, he’d thought it all a bunch of BS that the guys were telling one another.But having known her, seen her in action, he had come to believe it.
Which begged the question, why had she been burned?Why did they turn on her?Someone so dangerous.And why hadn’t she gone after them in retaliation?
He shook his head and frowned.Right now, he needed to focus.And part of that focus had to be on his safety, not on the woman who’d just twitched her ass right in the door of the building he wanted her far away from.
Crossing the street, he smiled at the couple at the door before he held it open for them.Soft music greeted him along with mouth-watering, tantalizing scents.The tiny woman at the front picked up a menu and smiled.
He gave her a small nod and pointed.“I see my party.”
“Okay.”The menu went back to the counter and she put her attention on something else.
Lance walked through the establishment, noticing how most people didn’t pay him a lick of attention.Especially the one who he’d come to see.But he also didn’t see his delicious woman wrapped in hot pink.Strange, because he didn’t think she would be blending in with that color.
Without preamble, he slid into an empty seat across the table from Robert.The man glanced up, his eyes widened and he looked feverishly around.
“Shit, I heard you’d been—” His skin remained pale.“Are you okay?I mean, with what I heard?That you were dead?Been killed.”
“I imagine so.The men you sent to do the job didn’t want to report failure.”
He paled further, shaking his head.“You have to believe me, I didn’t set you up.”He swallowed.“It had to be Jasmine.”
Lance leaned back in his chair, reached for the tiny porcelain cup on the table and spun it in his fingers.“What reason would Jasmine have to kill me?”He lifted a shoulder as if he hadn’t a care in the world when, in truth, he had to dig deep to keep himself on the opposite side of the table from Robert.“Had she wanted that accomplished, she simply could have told Dusan I was undercover, blowing my cover instead of helping me out.”
Robert’s nostrils flared and he clenched his jaw.“I know her.She’s dangerous.There is a reason she was blacklisted.”
Lance stilled his fingers on the cup.Took a deep breath.A single slow blink.When he opened his eyes, Robert was watching him like he was a caged animal.
Maybe the man wasn’t so stupid.But he’d tried to have him killed so…he was.
