The sound of metal striking wood cuts through the apartment as the blade buries itself in the doorframe, whipping right past his ear and landing just a fraction behind his head. He doesn’t flinch. The fucker doesn’t even look back. Just keeps coming, locked in on me like I’m one of his targets.
We collide in the middle of my living room, his red-hot furycrashing into mine.
The impact knocks the air from my lungs, but I don’t give him the satisfaction. My fists swing, every ounce of my extensive training coming into practice, but so does his. He fights like he anticipated this, but I fight like I’m begging for it.
Pivoting around him, I slam my elbow back, landing a blow directly to his ribs. Then, without hesitation, I sweep his foot out from under him and knock him off-balance. But he’s too quick and takes me with him as our momentum leaves us spiraling sideways into the couch.
He’s stronger, but I’m faster.
We hit the cushions hard, and in one fluid movement, he pins my wrists above my head, both our chests heaving as he stares down at me.
“That was mine,” he growls, referring to the hit. “I had it.”
I bark a laugh as the fury continues raging through my body. “You didn’t have anything. From where I stood, it was anybody’s hit, and you were too slow. I don’t lose, Raiden. I took my shot.”
“You interfered,” he growls, his jaw tightening as I attempt to free my wrists from his lethal hold. “I had it handled.”
“Handled or not, you didn’t strike when you had your chance. I did.” My knee slams up between us, but he anticipates the move and blocks the hit before impact, and as our chests continue heaving against one another, the rage weaved through my soul begins to shift into something else . . . something different entirely. Something I didn’t expect. Hurt. “You lined me up in your scope.”
His smirk falters, but he’s not ready to back down. “You invitedme to take my shot, Firecracker,” he challenges. “Who am I to deny a beautiful woman?”
Yep. There’s the anger again.
“You used me as target practice,” I cut in, trying to force space between us, but he doesn’t relent and continues holding me down against the couch. “You adjusted for wind off my shoulder.”
Those gold-speckled eyes flash, and I start to recognize just how dangerous this man truly is, because it’s the same wild recklessness that I see reflected in my own eyes every damn day. Raiden and I, we’re one and the same. “You stepped into my line.”
I clench my jaw, glaring at him and refusing to respond. He knows exactly why I stepped into his line. Had I not, he would have taken his shot, and I would have lost. And I do not lose. Period. But judging by Raiden’s reaction, he isn’t accustomed to losing either, which is going to be more than a problem.
He leans in, his lips barely a breath from mine, and suddenly, my heart is racing for a whole new reason. “You don’t get to take contracts out from under me,” he says, his voice low and menacing, the clear warning thick in his tone.
I smile, the smugness of the win consuming me, even more knowing just how annoyed he is by it. “You don’t get to measure a bullet drop off my spine.”
His grip tightens just slightly, and something shifts in his stare, but I don’t know what it is or what it means. “You think I would’ve hit you?”
I hold his stare. His shot was perfect. One of the best I have ever seen. If he wanted to hit me, he would have landed a direct shot between my eyes, but that’s beside the point. “You think I’m stupid enough to wait around and find out?”
A breath passes between us, the silence growing heavy when his tone rumbles through my apartment. “You compromised the op.”
I scoff. “You’ve compromised me just by being here.”
Raiden sighs, watching me through that calculated stare, when some kind of realization dawns in his dark eyes. He almost seems surprised by whatever he thinks he’s figured out. “Well, shit, Firecracker. You actually think you’re better than me.”
Another barking laugh comes tearing from the back of my throat as he releases his hold on my wrists. Is he for real? “I don’t think,” I tell him. “I know. Two for two, Raiden. I am better than you. The only shot you’ve been able to get off is at me. And for the record, I wasn’t that impressed. I could have made that shot ten times over.”
He just smiles, and something warns me that I haven’t even scratched the surface of what this man is capable of. “Arrogance will get you killed, Firecracker.”
Holding his stare, I challenge his loyalties, not that he owes me any. “By you?”
His brows rise in surprise, and he pulls back just a fraction as that same tension I felt in the elevator in Barcelona begins burning between us.
He doesn’t respond, and I watch him for a second before shovinghim off me and scrambling out from under him. His silence tells me exactly what I need to know.
I get to my feet and position myself across from him, the coffee table between us as I watch him get up from the couch. “You’d kill me?”
He stands opposite me, stoic and serious, an emptiness spreading through his stare. “Yes. If I had to.”
I narrow my stare, my hands trembling at my sides as I gently shake my head, calling him out. “You’re lying,” I whisper, my heart racing as I step toward him.
