Page 25 of Lethal Salvation

Gideon looked determined, his jaw hardening with it, his gaze singularly focused on her.

“I’m going to put a call into my team. I think the time is right for me to bring them in on this and break it open.”

“You’re going to drop the undercover part?”

Either it was her overactive imagination or Gideon looked disappointed about that possibility. She didn’t have any intention of trying to unpack the emotions that thought caused. “No, I don’t think so, but I need to talk to my team and see how we move forward with things now that everything’s gotten more complicated.”

Gideon nodded, his brows slashed low on his forehead, and she gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

She laid a hand on his arm and felt the muscle bunch beneath her fingertips. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. My team are the best there is at this kind of thing.”

“I need to make a few calls.” Damon stood abruptly and left the penthouse, his strides angry. She knew he was in pain from the revelations that had been necessary today. Gideon’s eyes came to hers and she saw the shuttered emotion fighting to break out and it caused her heart to beat wildly in her chest.

“This is a dangerous job, isn’t it? What you do?”

It was as if he was just figuring out that she wasn’t the personal assistant he’d tortured for months, and he didn’t like the thought.

Duchess didn’t want to confirm his obvious fears and open the door to her own self-doubts. “We’re good at what we do.”

“Do people ever get hurt?”

Rolling her lips over her teeth, she thought about Snow getting shot and the close call with the bomb Reaper and Hurricane had to defuse, and then Charlie almost dying, and hated it. Gideon was watching her, waiting for her reply as if he didn’t already know the answer, and she didn’t know what he wanted from her. Of course it was dangerous, and people got hurt and worse but that was who she was.

“Just promise me you’ll be careful, okay? I know you’re some kind of badass warrior but you’re...” He stopped and Duchess felt like her breath froze in her chest. His eyes tracked her from head to foot as if he was seeing her for the first time and she could read the look in them. “Just be careful.”

His hand dropped and she let out a whoosh of pent-up air from her lungs. “Always am.”

She stepped away and wondered what had just happened between them. He’d wanted to say more, and she had the sudden itch to show him who she was without the walls she kept up for her own protection. His eyes were on her as she left the room, needing the space to get herself under control, so she didn’t blurt out something she shouldn’t. Pulling her phone from her bag, she hit dial on the number of the person she knew would pull her head back into this deadly game.

“Bás.”

“I need a secure line.”

She heard him switch and move on the other end and let out a breath. This was where she felt confident, felt sure. Even fighting with Gideon, she was in control. Him showing her the softer side of his personality, now and when she was sick, made her wary. She knew that opening up like that came with the real possibility of getting hurt in a way she found more dangerous than any bullet.

Chapter 8

Gideon paced the length of his living room, his hand rubbing at the back of his neck as he waited for some of Nadia’s team to arrive so they could formulate a plan. How could he have been so blind, so naive to what was really happening around him? His half-brother exacting such atrocious things on innocent women was a hard pill to swallow. He himself may have been cool, even cold with the women he’d spent time with, but none could say he’d forced or coerced them in any way. That they had the same father was shameful to him and he’d been struggling with that, among other things, since Nadia had laid it all out for him and Damon.

Today had been one of revelations, discovering his brother was a murdering sexual predator was a difficult thing to wrap his head around. He’d known Carter was a bad apple but what he’d learned today caused a pit to swim in his stomach. That he’d tried to implicate him in some way made hot and thick fury curl in his belly until he was almost choking on it.

After the call to her team, Nadia convinced him and Damon to go back to their offices and act as normal as possible to anyone watching. He’d been against it; not sure he’d be able to keep the lid on his chaotic emotions and the anger surging through him like a wild animal on the prowl.

He’d done as she’d said though because, deep down, he knew it was the right move, and because, for the first time, he was seeing her for who she really was. Not a woman he was attracted to so badly that he became a raging asshole to try and deflect it. Not as his PA who he worked to the bone in an effort to punish her for making him want her so badly. No, he finally saw her for who she was, a warrior fighting a battle unseen to the masses. A woman willing to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves, even if it meant putting herself on the line. It made him want her more, but worse, it made a crack open in his chest as if suddenly the organ was too big for the space it assumed. In the space of ten hours, he’d felt his entire demeanour shift in regard to Nadia.

She’d calmed him when he’d been ready to go and find Carter and rip him apart for what he’d done. She’d kept him busy with meetings all afternoon so he couldn’t focus on the shit going on in his life and she’d delivered the news with clear concise compassion and honesty when he knew she could have lied.

He wished this new version of Nadia he was seeing, who he’d already been desperate for, would make him want her less. But wasn’t it his shitty luck that he only wanted her more now? He wanted to unwrap each of her delicious layers and expose her secrets one at a time.

“You need to calm down.”

His eyes moved to where she was looking out into the night sky, her arms crossed over her chest. She’d changed into dark skin-tight jeans and a black, long-sleeve tee which clung to her curves, teasing him until he was half mad.

She was magnificent as she waited silently, her eyes on the skyline, an air of calm he certainly didn’t feel winding around her. Need, sharp and savage, laced up his spine and he had the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch her.

Moving closer, he shoved his hands in his pockets to help him resist the urge so potent in his veins. “How do you do it?”

She didn’t pretend to misunderstand what he was asking, and it was one more thing he liked about her. Women in the past had been entertaining, but they’d all wanted a piece of him and used manipulation to try and get their claws into him. It was the reason he’d never let any of them close or stopped to really see past the cunning they thought to hide. Not until this woman had cut down his defences like they were made of the finest silk.