Her jaw was set. Brown contact in place, dark hair pulled back in a knot that exposed the full line of her throat. My eyes tracked the way it shifted when she swallowed, and a very specific image surfaced unbidden: my fist wrapped in that hair, pulling her head back, my mouth on that pulse point while she gasped my name.
I blinked, shoving the thought down. This was not the time.
When she heard my footsteps, she looked up without a single ounce of guilt.
“I want to know what you know,” she said. “About Hudson and the fires. All of it.”
Every instinct I have screams to close the folder, shield her from this, handle it myself. Centuries of ruling have conditioned me to act, decide, protect. But Mira isn’t asking for my protection. She’s made her opinion on my overprotective tendencies abundantly clear.
“You went through my desk?”
“You left your door unlocked.”
“That’s not an invitation.”
“It’s not a vault either.”
I set my jaw. She set hers right back.
The defiance in her expression should have irritated me. Itdidirritate me. It also made my blood run hot in ways that weren’t anger. She was glaring at me with those disguised eyes and all I could think about was what it would take to make that glare softer, more desperate.
“This investigation is sensitive, Mira.”
“I’m the one he’s hunting.” She slapped the folder flat on the surface. “I have a right to know what the man who tried to kill me is capable of.”
The sound of her palm hitting wood cracked through the room. My cock twitched. I wanted to pin those hands to the desk and see if she’d fight me or melt.
I needed to end this conversation before I did something I couldn’t take back.
“We are handling it.”
“Handling it.” Her arms crossed, the movement pressing her breasts together beneath her sweater, and my gaze dropped for half a second before I caught myself. “You’re‘handling it’whileI play pretend in this cabin. Meanwhile, my psychotic ex is still out there and I don’t even know what I’m up against.”
“Knowing more might hurt you and won’t even guarantee safety. You know enough.”
“I know nothing! And you three made sure of that by keeping me in the dark.” Her voice climbed. “This ismyproblem. Not yours. I am not helpless, and I’m not going to sit here while you run my life for me.”
She stepped closer. I could see the rapid pulse in her throat, the way her chest rose and fell with agitated breathing. My hands curled into fists at my sides to keep from reaching for her.
“You need to trust us.”
“Yes, you three have been kind to me even when I still don’t understand why and I’m grateful for that. I’ve gambled on you but I’ve known you for just a couple of days, Lucian.”
The words landed between us with more force than I expected.
My jaw ached from clenching. She was wrong about the timeline, and right about everything else, and that combination made my chest burn.
She used to look at me without the wall. Before the fire, before everything was stripped away.
I exhaled through my nose before moving to the desk. I opened Solomon’s accelerant report and turned it toward her.
“The compound used on your shop wasn’t commercial grade.” I kept my voice level. “It’s a modified accelerant, not the kindof thing you buy at a hardware store. Solomon traced it to a chemical supplier two states over with restricted access.”
Her eyes scanned the data.
“What does that mean?”
“It means Hudson either has resources beyond what a normal stalker should possess, or he has help.”
