“I didn’t give them much of a choice,” Hope admitted. “I needed to talk to you, and frankly, we all need answers. I’m an adult, and I’m good at what I do.” She was, and he was proud of her. She probably had the best strategic mind of anybody he’d ever met. “Why don’t you trust me, Paxton?” she asked softly.
He blinked and then shoved his mask back into place. “Ido trust you.”
“No, you don’t, or you would’ve told me what you were up to.” She leaned toward him, reaching with her good arm for his. He could sense someone’s finger tighten on a trigger nearby, but he didn’t care. He didn’t make her remove her hand. “Come on, Paxton. It’s me. I don’t believe you would want to hurt my uncle or that you would be working with the Kurjans against us.”
“I’m not working with the Kurjans, and I’d never harm Dage,” he said. “You haveto know that.”
She nodded, her eyes luminous now. Were theretears in them?
His heart took the pain as if somebody had stabbed him. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you, Hope. I hope you believe me.” He didn’t elaborate, but things were about to get a lot worse, probably for all of them, because he was certainly failing at what he needed to do.
She tightened her grip, her nails digging through his thin shirt. “Paxton,” she whispered. “Please tell me what’s going on. Does this have to do with your uncle andthe Defenders?”
He barely kept from reacting. Instead, he forced an indulgent smile to his lips, one that would irritate the hell out of her. “The Defenders? Who in the world arethe Defenders?”
“Don’t play stupid with me, and don’t treat me like I’m dumb. Do you think our computer experts are not tearing apart your entire history right now? They know you’re part of the Defenders. They know your uncle is a member of the Defenders. Come clean now, Paxton, or I swear they’ll decide you’re a traitor and sliceoff your head.”
Spirit and heat filled her face, and for a moment all he could do was stare at her. She’d been adorable as a kid. As a woman, she was downright fucking gorgeous, even while she was pissed off and wounded and sitting on hisfavorite truck.
“Is this about the Seven?” she asked.
Heck, she was smart. She was so freaking smart, he didn’t know what to do withher sometimes.
“I know only what you do about the Seven,” he said. Which frankly wasn’t nearly enough. He did know that the Seven Warriors had broken the laws of physics to create three prison worlds to house a dangerous Cyst, one of the spiritual leaders of the Kurjan nation. When those prison realms had been destroyed, all the worlds had gone out of whack, including Earth, which was why demons were no longer able to teleport. The Seven had a final ritual in mind to kill Ulric, but unfortunately, it involved using Hope.
He’d vowed with his own blood to prevent that from happening. He’d been more foolish than courageous, and that was how he’d ended up in this clusterfuck.
“I think you do know more,” she said. “I think this is all about the Seven, but it doesn’t make any sense. Why did you hack into Dage’s schedule?”
Because he hadn’t had a choice, but he couldn’t tell her that. She wouldn’t understand, and he didn’t blame her. “You did a good job with the questioning, sweetheart,” he said, “but it’s time for you to go home.” He looked toward the tree line. “Where’s your escort?”
“Escort? I’m not going anywhere,” she said, smackinghim on the arm.
The impact was ineffectual. Yet irritation still ticked within him, not so much at her but at the people who had sent her to talk to him. They knew he was dangerous, and they knew he’d been working against them, and yet they’d sent her in like a sacrificial lamb? Sure, the snipers were good, but he was quicker than anybody knew. He looked slowly around to identify each position and then tuned in his senses to the soldiers in the forest. There were even three behind the house and two inside the home. If he made a wrong move, there’d be a lot of shots fired, but he still had a chance to take her. They never should have allowed her anywhere near him.
“Don’t put yourself in danger like this again, even if the people around you are stupid enough to think you can handle it,” he said curtly. “Do youunderstand me?”
Her temper was rare, but when it flared, it was glorious. She kicked him hard, right where she’d shot him in the leg earlier.
Residual pain echoed through his muscles, and he growled. “All right, fine.” He yanked his hands free of his pockets and grabbed her good shoulder, pulling her in. She started to protest. “You think you know me. You don’t. Stop treating me like the scared kid who used to hidein your room.”
That sweet little chin firmed. “Or what?”
* * * *
Oh, she knew it was a colossal mistake to challenge Paxton, especially with so many snipers focused on him, but she just couldn’t help it. She needed to let go of the image of the boy he’d been and face the warrior he’d become while she’d thought he had been studying insectswith his uncle.
“You don’t want to fuck with me right now, Hope,” he said, his voice deadly soft with warning.
She shivered at the low tone as awareness cut through her. That was new. She wasn’t sure how to deal with this new Paxton, so she faced him squarely. Her nipples peaked as flames licked through her, even though it was freezing and there were guns trained on them. “You don’t scare me,” she said, not meaning a word of it. At the moment, he was surprisingly terrifying. It was as if she didn’t know him at all. “If you don’t knock it off, I’ll kick your ass in front of everybody watching.” It didn’t hurt to remind him that he would get shot if he madethe wrong move.
She hadn’t even realized he was dangerous until she’d seen him fight in Nuremberg. Pax was faster than any other soldier his age, and he had seemed perfectly in control and more than prepared to take down the Kurjan squads. “I don’t want us to be enemies,” she said honestly, her heart turning over. “But if you do, have the balls to sayso right now.”
“Or what?” He threw her words back at her quietly. His eyes blazed a glittering green in the harsh glare of the streetlights—which was his tertiary color. Those colors emerged during times of stress or deep emotion.
She gulped.
He looked down at her, creating a huge shadow in the light behind him. When had he gotten so big and so broad? His body looked harder than rock, dense and impenetrable. “It’s time for you to go home,” he said, turningaway from her.
