Page 18 of Elite Metal: Warriors

“What were you thinking?” He sat next to her; there was no need to notify anyone they were here. They already knew.

She shrugged and readjusted her sweater. “Secret villain lair. Wall of computer screens. A thousand analysts scurrying around.”

“Sharks with fricking laser beams attached to their heads?” He liked that he could make her smile. Even at a moment like this.

“A bald cat at the very least.”

“We keep all that at our secret base in the volcano.”

“Good to know.”

Her grin faded and silence settled between them. It wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, but at least he didn’t have to suffer it for long. The door pushed open and Chrome and Steele filed in. Their expressions were grim.

They sat across from Sterling, and Steele tossed a file folder on the table. “So. What do we have?” he said.

Sterling pulled her phone from his pocket and slid it across the table along with her wallet and press pass. “National Snoop.”

Chrome drummed his fingers on the table. “The alien-baby folks?”

“We do much more than that.” When Steele pinned her with his indomitable stare, she added, “Starlets. Political scandals. Deadly diets… The whole gamut.”

“And this?” Chrome’s tone was clipped. But then it would be. To him, she wasn’t a soft, warm woman with a delicious and spankable ass. She was a threat to everything he cared about, his world. Still, it nearly made Sterling wince.

“This?” she quipped, tipping her head to the side.

Chrome held up the phone, open as it was to the incriminating evidence. “This story. What heading does it fall under?”

To her credit, she didn’t wilt beneath his scorching glare. Sterling knew the look, the expression, the vibe. Chrome was ruthless when it came to protecting his own, and this was definitely his ruthless face.

“Black-Ops: Danger in the Desert?” He hated the thread of mockery in her tone, because he knew it would just egg Chrome on, and it did. His eyes narrowed in a way that would make a hardened soldier piss his pants. But Roni merely met it with a smirk. “Backwater Blackwater? All Your Secret Base Are Belong to Us?”

It took everything in Sterling to hold back a bark of laughter. This wasn’t funny.

But it kinda was. He loved her sense of humor, especially in the face of insurmountable odds.

Neither Chrome nor Steele shared his amusement. They certainly didn’t appreciate her Zero Wing reference. But then, only a select portion of the population would even get the jibe, obscure as it was. He wasn’t sure what it said about him that he did get it…and thought it was funny. Maybe that he’d played way too many video games as a kid.

Regardless…both his bosses shot him tandem glowers and he attempted to wipe the grin from his face. Trying for a businesslike tone, he said, “She got the assignment from Marcus Morrow, publisher of the Snoop, via text message. It’s the first one there. Scroll up.”

His bosses read the message and Steele grunted. “Is that it?” He shot a look at Roni. “That’s all the info you had?”

She nodded.

“How did you piece it together? How did you find us?”

Her lips turned downward. “I don’t reveal my sources.”

“So you had sources?” Chrome clipped.

“Of course I had sources.” She batted her lashes. “Mostly men. They’re happy to share information with the right…incentive.”

Fuck. Sterling didn’t like the way that sounded. Not in the least. How many guys had she fucked in pursuit of this story? Clearly, he was just the last in a long line of hard dicks panting after her. He glared at her. She ignored him, keeping her attention on Chrome.

Yeah, she had no idea who was most dangerous in this room at the moment.

“You might as well tell us,” Steele said silkily. “Because we’re going to find out.”

“What are you going to do? Torture it out of me?”