She’d been wearing the things after all and if whoever they belonged to was pushing Kluge so hard he’d tracked her to Colorado, they couldn’t be far behind.
“Jyost.” He actually shuddered when he said the name.
Clea shook her head, trying to recall where she’d heard it before. It sounded Dutch, maybe German.
“You said they weren’t ’Ndrangheta.”
“He’s not.” Kluge shook his head, lowering his voice even more. “He’s worse. You don’t know how fucked I am if you don’t return those earrings.”
“Now that’s intriguing.” She shot a glance at Asher, who’d seemed to calm down a bit. He sat on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his thighs, observing the conversation with a clenched jaw. “You’re telling me your life is in escrow right now because of these?” She gestured to her ears. “How inconvenient.”
“Damnit, Aëtos.” He rushed her, grabbing Clea’s shoulders and shaking her. “Quit fucking around!”
The low growl had both of them looking at Asher, who’d closed the distance from the bed, crowding them both.
“Let go. Now.”
A shiver of fear flittered through Clea’s body, immediately replaced by heat. There was something utterly primal in Asher’s stance. His powerful body poised for a fight, his emerald eyes locked on Kluge, daring him to move. And that low growl in his voice… Damn, he was sexy as hell right now.
Kluge complied immediately, tripping over himself to get to the wall as Asher cupped Clea’s cheek.
“You okay?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak. His eyes were… glowing? Clea held her breath, not daring to move as those luminous greens raked over her body. Her brain told her it was a trick of the light, but she knew it wasn’t.
Those eyes were illuminated from within.
Before she found her voice again, Asher refocused on Kluge.
“You’re going to stay the fuck away from her.”
Kluge cowered against the wall, the look of abject terror letting her know she hadn’t imagined it. Asher’s eyes were definitely glowing.
Holy shit. What was he?
13
“Don’ttouchheragain.”Asher stared down at Kluge, waiting for confirmation that he understood.
“I just want the earrings, I swear.”
Kluge’s cowering shouldn’t have pleased him so much, but it did. That asshole had touched his woman. Asher should be tearing him limb from limb. While he didn’t give a shit about Kluge’s fear, the scent of Duchess’s kept him in check. Damnit, the last thing he’d wanted to do was scare her, but he was doing a helluva good job of it, wasn’t he?
He cast a glance at her. Duchess’s gaze was locked on him, her hands gripping the back of that chair so hard her knuckles were white.
“It’s okay, precious,” he said softly. “I won’t hurt you.”
The fear in those beautiful eyes cut right through him.
She inhaled audibly, opening her mouth to speak and then just nodding her head.
“Please, Aëtos,” Kluge whined from the floor, “For the love of God, just give me the earrings. I swear I’ll leave you be. You have no idea what Jyost is capable of. He was ways of tracking—”
“Wait a minute.” She frowned, loosening her grip on the chair. “Jyost. Braden Jyost? The guy whose tech you were trying to rip off?”
“I bought his company. That was a fair exchange.”
“You buried his company.” She scowled. “There’s a difference. And isn’t he in prison right now?”
