Trust Me (Paris Nights #3)(7)

“Anyway, I haven’t actually figured out where to buy a burkini yet,” her mother said. “I think I’m going to have to buy one online.”

Lina’s face slowly split into a grin. She really loved her mother.

“The only one I saw in a store made me look fat,” her mother said, and Lina laughed. A political activist did have to draw the line somewhere.

Oh, damn, it felt good to laugh. She unfolded herself from the floor behind her bed, hesitated, peeked inside the closet quickly one last time, and then climbed onto her bed, stretching out her legs. She’d be fine here in this bed. There were police officers outside.

Hell, her mother had survived being born in a shantytown, and her grandparents had survived living and working and trying to raise a child in those conditions. Lina was going to do just fine.

“Thanks for calling, Maman.” Lina turned off her light. Hesitated. Then got up and turned on her bathroom light and cracked the door ajar. There, that worked. She pulled the covers over her, but didn't cover her head. Monsters loved it when people hid their heads in the sand. “Tell Papa and Djadeti I love them.”

Her mother’s voice was warm and strong. “We love you, too, ma puce.”

So Lina was smiling and feeling as strong as she could when she disconnected. But she still had to stare her way through a long, long, long dark night. Thank you, she thought to the police officers. To people like Jake and Chase. For being out there, keeping me safe.

***

A couple of rooftops over, a man in black ran along the peak of the roof. Jake watched as Elias jumped and swung up to the roof three meters above him, ran along that, dropped and rolled, and then slowed, walking panther light up to Jake and dropping beside him.

“Did you go into RAID just for the patch or what?” Jake said. RAID was one of France’s elite counterterrorist units, and its patch was a black panther. Tall, black-haired, bronze-skinned, Elias was Jake’s team’s liaison with RAID. Capturing Al-Mofti had been a politically delicate joint operation, with Jake’s team here unofficially as far as the general public was concerned. Both countries had agreed on the goal of eliminating Al-Mofti, so it had been better for all concerned to coordinate their efforts rather than for the U.S. to keep going it alone, in secret, in an allied country where there would be outrage at discovering U.S. black ops were active.

“What, you think the patch suits?”

“Man, you could practically graft a black tail onto your body.”

Elias laughed and settled down onto the roof beside him. “Want to explain what the f*ck you’re doing here?”

“Not really,” Jake said. Enjoying the lights. Reassuring himself that a certain dragon-slayer was safe.

Made for kind of a good evening.

Elias looped an arm around an upraised knee. “Just to clarify my understanding of American dating practices, was taking her to a boxing gym your idea of flirting?”

Jake sighed. This was the freaking problem with knowing a Frenchman.

Elias pressed his lips together to try to contain himself, but it was clear from the smirking that kept escaping at the corners that he was boiling with hilarity. “Did, ah, she respond well to that approach?”

“Well, she did hit me,” Jake said.

Elias laughed.

“Several times in fact.”

Elias just grinned and shook his head.

“But she didn’t beat me up and throw me in the river, so I think I’m doing better than Chase.”

Elias gave a shout of laughter that echoed over the upside down stars of the city and clapped his hand to his forehead. “Bordel, ces Américains.”

“Also, I didn’t hurt her, and since she’s had men in her life who were willing to do that, I figure it’s just as well to demonstrate early on I’m not one of them.”

Elias cocked an eyebrow. “So rather than hitting her over the head and hauling her off to a cave, you demonstrated your worthiness by grunting and posturing in front of her but not actually doing anything?”

“Oh, f*ck you,” Jake said. Frenchmen. Well, he only knew one that well, but Elias was annoying enough to stigmatize his whole nation.

Elias grinned and shook his head. “When they told me I had to babysit a bunch of Americans and make sure you behave—”

“Babysit?”

“I never guessed it would be this much fun.”





Chapter 3


Lina thought she was used to pretty much all ways males of the species could be annoying, but the human mountain lion prowling constantly around her kitchens for the second day in a row was making the nape of her neck prickle.

If he could just…go somewhere. Or sit still. Or stop prowling in a way that made her want to reach out and sink her fingers into his ass to feel how those muscles flexed in that long, smooth, silent stride of his. She liked the flame deep in him, burning and secret and guarded, as if no sudden wind could put it out.

I know what you’re doing, she told herself sternly. Trying to hide in thoughts of him rather than deal with real life. Well…real death.

Sexy guy prowling around her kitchens. Not the blood she and Adrien had only yesterday washed off that counter he was just walking by.

Not the bullets flying out of nowhere into her beautiful world, shattering everything. She’d thought she’d made her life so strong and glorious and hers. And all that time, it had just been blown sugar that anyone could break.