Mal breathed out, trying to wake his body. Pippa slept quietly, curled into him like a little kitten with her knees in his ribs and her head on his chest.
A surge of possessiveness grabbed him by the throat. A deep, dangerous, hungry possessiveness that was too feral to tame. They had crossed the line tonight—all sorts of lines. She was his, whether either one of them was ready for that or not.
He gently extricated himself from her and slid from the bed, turning to make sure she was covered.
She murmured and then curled back onto her side. “Malcolm?” Her sleepy voice was sultry and sexy.
“It’s okay. I have to go to work.” Where were his jeans? He looked around at the dark floor but couldn’t see anything. Wait a minute. He’d left all their clothing in the kitchen during round one—along with his gun. “Go back to sleep.”
She rubbed her eyes. “I wanted to talk to you. We need to talk.”
Yeah, they probably did. It was time to level with each other and figure out where to go from there. He leaned over and kissed her. “We’ll talk when I get back. Enough with the secrets, Pippa. We go on together from here.” Then to make sure she got him, he nipped her bottom lip. “For now, get some sleep.”
She kissed him. “If you’re hungry, there are some biscuits left from when Angus visited earlier. Take those.” She snuggled back down with a soft sigh.
“Angus Force was here?” he asked, his entire body going cold and then hot. Way too hot.
She murmured something, already falling back to sleep.
What the holy hell? He found his jeans and shirt in the other room and had just finished buckling his belt when Wolfe’s truck pulled up outside.
Tucking in his gun, he hustled out the door, making sure it was locked behind him. Then he strode toward the truck and yanked open the passenger side door. He jumped in, his hand fisting in Force’s shirt. “What the fuck were you doing here earlier?”
Wolfe looked over from the driver’s seat, his dark gaze observing. But he didn’t make a move.
Raider cleared his throat from the backseat. “How about we talk about this as we drive? We don’t have much time.”
Force didn’t try to dislodge Mal’s hold. “I stopped by and had a nice chat with Pippa. Somebody who isn’t screwing her needed to at least get a small read. A profile, if you will. She makes excellent biscuits and a nice lavender tea.”
Asshole. Mal shoved him and then slammed the door before jumping into the backseat with Raider. His leather jacket was right where he’d left it, and he shrugged into it. “Leave her alone.”
Wolfe backed the truck out and opened the throttle toward town.
Force sighed. “She’s sweet, and I see why you like her. We didn’t get a chance to talk world domination or mass killings, but I can tell you she had a messed-up childhood.”
“No shit,” Mal murmured, his gaze out the window at the darkness. “That’s all you got?”
“No. She’s head over heels for you, and she doesn’t seem to be fighting it any. Makes me think maybe she’s looking for a future, which would mean no suicide bomb. But again, I didn’t have much time with her,” Force said.
“I’ve had plenty. She’s not involved with the cult,” Mal said, his eyes aching with the need to sleep.
“Okay,” Force said quietly. “But for the record, she did have me look at her car. Said it wasn’t working.”
Mal stiffened. “Where was she trying to go?”
“Didn’t say.”
Maybe she’d just wanted to visit her friend. It wasn’t like she’d tried to get away the night before, and they hadn’t had a chance to talk, so there was no reason she would’ve told him about her nonworking car. He should probably fix it. “She’s not trying to run.”
“Agreed,” Force said.
Raider sighed. “Sorry to call you in. I was listening to the bug, and Isaac sent two of his guys to rob a pharmacy in Minuteville. The plan was decent, actually. It sounded like they’ve been working on it for at least a month. I have Brigid running searches all over the country for similar robberies.”
“Drugs and money,” Mal said. “Makes sense. What’s the plan?”
“They’re gonna get caught,” Force said, settling back in his seat. “Loudly.”
Raider grinned. “We have the local PD on stakeout, and I’m fairly certain they’ve already tipped off the media. If they haven’t, I will as soon as we take them down.”
