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“That’s not—” I started, outraged. He hadn’t had his face in my neck and his hands had been on my back, nowhere else.
And why the fuck had Mattias been watching me?
A hand latched onto my arm, stopping me in my tracks.
“Duca de la Roca?” Antony asked, his voice intense.
Wait.
The moment Antony said his name, the pieces started falling into place.
Antony had thought we were here for someone named Rossi, or someone connected to that family. He hadn’t been sure—or he just hadn’t told me any more than that. He’d said that he would worry about the man and that I was to stay out of the way.
He didn’t know I’d come with more information than him. My superiors had pulled me aside before I left for New York, given me a name and an objective that they hadn’t given anyone else. They’d been concerned that the mission might be compromised somehow, though they hadn’t been able to give me any more detail than that.
They’d given me the name Duca de la Roca, and told me not to share it until I had the man in question.
I’d been sent here for Duca, but no one else knew the name. My agency had worried that they might lose him if the others knew his name. But if the man with the gray eyes was in fact my target… I’d already had him up close and personal, my fingertips on his lapel, my skin buzzing with the feel of him.
He’d been right there, and Mattias had pulled me away before I could get his name.
I looked up, thoughts and suspicions racing through my brain, and met Antony’s eyes. He didn’t know that Duca was our target. He couldn’t, unless my superiors had lied to me about everything. They’d said they were entrusting me with the information because they needed my loyalty, and that I wasn’t to tell anyone else.
So why had Antony sounded so triumphant when he said Duca’s name? How did he even know that name?
When I caught him looking back at me, I had to stifle the gasp that ran up my throat. I’d known Antony for most of my life, had sat at his knee to learn some of our basic tenets. He’d taught me how to use my weapons and had been there on the first day I stretched my wings. I knew his eyes like the backs of my hands.
The eyes I was staring into now were not his eyes.
They weren’t the blue I’d come to know and love. Didn’t have the timeless wisdom or barely concealed humor. They were still blue, but it was rimmed with red fire that no angel would have worn.
Demon fire.
That wasn’t Antony.
I tore my eyes away before my expression could reflect my discovery and glanced at Mattias, then Valentine. I didn’t see anything unusual about those two—surely I would have noticed?—but I didn’t have time to stand around wondering about that. Another look into Antony’s eyes confirmed that they were still ringed with fire.
Those weren’t the eyes of an angel. Those were demon eyes. And that meant our mission had been infiltrated by at least one enemy. My superiors had been right to worry.
And the enemy would know exactly who they were here for.
I needed to find Duca de la Roca and get him out of here before they got their hands on him. Or the mission would be a failure, the balance tipped in favor of the demons.
Gods help me.
“I can handle myself, Antony,” I said austerely, praying to every Angel I knew that I sounded more confident than I felt. “I won’t be handled by the likes of Mattias. I’ve been tasked with finding our target, and I’ll thank all of you to stay out of my way.”
I turned and walked quickly from the room, my mind reaching ahead of me to try to locate the warm light I’d attached to Duca as we were dancing. I needed to find the man before the beings behind me did. I needed to get him out of here—by hook or by crook.
By foot or through the glow.
Chapter 7
duca
I stared at the spotlight-slash-glow-thing, holding my breath and trying to figure out whether I was insane or not.
Someone had just stepped out of that glow. A gorgeous someone, carrying that unreal feeling of being more-than-human, just like the Angelis boys I’d run into. She’d been in some sort of costume; dressed up like she was in a play. That had to be what it was. Because the costume might explain the shadow of the wings on the wall.
