Page 192 of The ARC Unit: Breach

After a few seconds I said, “I know.”

“You watched him die.”

“I know.”

“You had his blood on your hands when you walked toward Kade.”

“I know.”

“And somehow you decided you knew Kade would not shoot you.”

“I made a judgment call.”

“Based on what?”

“The pool party.”

“So a pretty boy talks to you for a few minutes and you trust him with your life?”

“I didn’t trust him.”

“You walked within range of him while he was armed.”

I looked away with no answer. Wolf’s hand came up and caught my chin just hard enough to turn my face back.

“How many fucking times do I have to tell you? Eyes on me.”

My breath caught against his fingers. He held me there until he knew I had heard him, then released my jaw. I should have been more offended by that than I was.

“You ever do that again, I pull you from the field.”

My temper came back immediately. “You don’t get to make that call alone.”

“I do when you’re on my operation.”

“Vale classified me as field capable.”

“Vale wasn’t standing in that lot watching you walk toward a fucking MAC-10.”

“I’m not your property.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You keep talking like you own where I stand.”

“On an operation? I do.”

Wolf stepped closer again.

“You want to argue about the rest of your life, go ahead. You want to tell me what you eat, who you fuck, where you sleep or whether you ever speak to me outside this building again, that’s yours.”

His voice roughened.

“But when you’re in my comms and my people are carrying rifles around you, you stand where I fucking tell you to stand until the order changes.”

A hot pulse moved through me at the anger in his voice and the complete lack of apology for the command. I hated that he could be right and still make me want him.

Because I did.