‘Two days from now, local Rhesian time, at zero-hundred hours,’ Mirage replied.
Sheba leaned in, her eyes gleaming.
‘I’m going with you,’ she stated. ‘I’m between jobs, I’ve got nothing but time, and I’m not sitting this out. I won’t step on your toes, I promise.’
‘It might be a dangerous gig, Sheba. You sure?’ Molan murmured, his timbre edged with caution.
By now, Idan’s spine was a stiff pillar, his jaw locking into a hard ridge. ‘Forget it.Nada. You’re not coming.’
Sheba blinked, then swallowed a clapback.
She wasn’t about to cause a scene in Molan’s home, but her silence was deafening.
Idan matched it, retreating into a dark, brooding stillness.
Mirage sliced her eyes from him to his woman and raised a brow.
‘Well, start packing those of you joining me. We’ll take your Corvette, Molan. I’m off to make final arrangements.’
She glimmered away, escaping the tension.
Later, as Sheba and Idan prepared to leave, Rina tugged Sheba into a quick hug.
‘Go easy on him,’ she whispered. ‘He’s just being protective.’
Sheba pulled back, eyes flashing. ‘I can take care of myself, Rina, and I’m getting real tired of his possessive Alpha-Sacran attitude.’
‘Give him time to acclimatize, and also, he may ease off once Sulfiqar is dealt with.’
‘Will he, though?’ Sheba groused. ‘Sante,anyway, I appreciate the dinner and your listening ear.’
With a final wave, she joined Idan in the waiting fly cab.
The flight back to her apartment was thick with her strained, unspoken annoyance.
The second the front door clicked shut, the dam broke.
‘Idan, I’ve survived wars, attacks, my parents’ deaths, and countless assaults from patients, all before I met you. I don’t need you to police me,’ Sheba muttered, rounding on him in the small hallway.
‘And you’ve felt alone and distraught for it. I won’t allow you to suffer needlessly anymore,’ Idan growled, pushing past her and into the living room.
‘Fine, but I’m vested too in Sulfiqar’s takedown,’ Sheba insisted, following him. ‘He manipulated Ty to mastermind the death of my friends. He threatened to kill me to get you on board his evil plan, Idan. I’ve got skin in this game. I want to be with you when that bastard burns.’
Idan stood by the divan, arms crossed, his eyes molten and glowing with a frightening intensity, a pillar of unyielding granite.
‘I saidnada, Sheba,’ he growled, the sound vibrating the air between them. ‘This isn’t a debate. You stay here where it’s safe. I won’t let his shadow come near you again.’
‘Why are you trying so hard to control me?’ Sheba muttered, her voice trembling with frustration. ‘I’m my own woman.’
Idan chose silence.
He turned his back on her, a final, suffocating shutdown, arms crossed over his massive chest, staring out the window.
‘Fine, be like that,’ she mumbled. ‘I just won’t hang around while you’re being a jackass.’
Sheba grabbed her keys and headed back out of her front door.
Salkia,his hoarse growl echoed in her node as she stalked out of the elevator onto the roof car park.Where are you going?
