Buried and Shadowed (Branded Packs #3)(38)

She scowled. How could he believe for a minute that she was a backstabber? She’d risked her job, even her life, to help him and his people.

Didn’t he know her at all?

“I haven’t betrayed you,” she rasped, unable to hide her pain at his accusation.

He grimaced as if already regretting his hasty words.

“Then why are you working with the enemy?” he asked, his tone deliberately softened.

She continued to glare at him. Okay. He was gorgeous. And sexy. And he had that whole animal magnetism thing going on. But that didn’t give him the right to act like an ass.

“Because it’s the only way to have full access to their private network,” she grudgingly explained.

“For what?”

She hunched her shoulder. “To look for Dr. Lowman.”

He nodded toward the computer on the desk. “That’s what you’re doing?”

“Yes.”

His gaze darted back to her face, his jaw tight. “Why was there blood in your living room?”

Mira was caught off guard by the abrupt question. He’d been in her home?

“When I came home after we met, they forced their way through the front door.”

A rich musk threaded through the air, Sinclair’s lips pulling back to reveal his elongated fangs.

“They hit you.”

She gave a slow nod, surprised by his intense response. She didn’t know much about shifters, but Sinclair had always possessed a rigid command over his animal. He had to, while he was ‘passing’ as a human.

It was startling to see him lose control.

“Yes.”

Sucking in a deep breath, her companion visibly forced back his wolf.

“Tell me what happened.”

A shiver raced through Mira. It wasn’t fear. She wished it was. That would be far less dangerous than the feminine fascination that she was trying to deny.

“As I said, they forced their way into the house,” she said.

“Did they say why?”

She wrinkled her nose. “They tracked the computers I purchased from Novo-Auction.”

“Dammit,” he snarled. “I knew you were taking too many risks.”

Mira rolled her eyes. Did all men have a compulsion to point out when they were right?

“How else were we supposed to discover the truth?” she asked.

He waved aside her perfectly logical question.

“What happened next?”

“They forced me into a van and took me to the SAU building in Denver.”

“Shit.” A strange expression rippled over his stark features. “That was your scent.”

“What?”

“In Markham’s office,” he explained.

“Yes. We went there first, and then they brought me here,” she continued. “They intended to torture me into confessing what I knew about Dr. Lowman and his connection to the virus, but I convinced them that I had been paid by my boss to make sure there was no documentation to prove that the CDC had been warned that the formula they were working on at the Verona Clinic was a danger to the public.”

His fury blazed hot as the sun before it was tempered by an expression of pride.

“Clever.”

Warmth spread through her, even as she lowered her lashes to hide her look of vulnerable pleasure at his seeming appreciation.

“And, thankfully, my boss is in DC so they haven’t been able to speak with him,” she forced herself to continue.

“So what happened after they brought you here?”

“They grilled me on what information I’d managed to find.” She shrugged. “I told them about the fragment I found on the computer that I’d traced to Dr. Lowman. That’s when they decided to keep me here to continue the search.”

He released his breath on a long hiss. “You were lucky they wanted information more than they wanted to kill you.”

Mira uttered a curse. In the blink of an eye, she went from preening beneath his approval to being annoyed with his assumption it was luck that had saved her.

She glanced up, meeting his accusing gaze. “It wasn’t just luck,” she denied. “I happen to have a few skills.”

His lips flattened as if he wanted to continue his chastisement. Then, watching her eyes narrow with silent warning, he conceded defeat.

“I’ve never doubted your skills, sweetheart,” he assured her. “But now it’s time to go.”

She swallowed a resigned sigh as she realized they’d just talked in a circle.

“I’m not leaving,” she repeated. “I’m too close to finding the doctor.”

“Dammit, Mira,” he said. “Your luck isn’t going to last forever.”

“All I need is a few more hours…”

Her words trailed away as Sinclair moved with quicksilver speed to peer out the window.

“Someone’s coming,” he warned, clearly possessing far more acute senses than Mira. “Time’s up, sweetheart.”

“Crap.” Tugging out the memory stick that she’d placed in the computer when she started her search, she quickly released the virus she’d pre-loaded for this precise moment. She’d managed to catch sight of data being scrambled before strong hands were grabbing her around her waist and she was being hauled out of her chair and tossed over Sinclair’s shoulder.