Spider Game (GhostWalkers, #12)(67)

“Stop being angry. You know once we’re home we can have this out. Not here. This isn’t the time and it isn’t the place. I want you alive and I want every member of my team alive.”


“I said I’m ready to go.” She went to move past him.


His arm blocked her. “There is an assassination squad in town. They have a sniper on the roof.”


“No doubt Ezekiel has already lined him up in his sights.”


“He might miss.”


“Ezekiel doesn’t miss,” she said. “If he did, you wouldn’t have him up on the roof. He’s always the backup. Always. He’s your go-to man.” Even as she let him know she knew what was going on, she still waited for him to step through the door first.


He didn’t. Not right away. Instead, he caught her chin in his fingers and forced her head up. “We’ll go home and sort this out. You aren’t taking off. You gave me your word. Did you forget that?”


She had forgotten, which was shocking to her. She wasn’t used to interacting with others and she had committed herself to him. She’d made that her choice. She didn’t know the first thing about relationships or men. She only knew what she did and didn’t like. She loved the way he treated her when they were alone and detested the cold, remote way he treated her in front of his team. She didn’t understand it. When she didn’t understand something, she was wary of it.


“I had forgotten,” she admitted honestly. “I don’t like this, Trap. Not at all.”


He was silent, his eyes, still glacier-cold, on her face. Chilling her to the bone. Right through the bone to the marrow. She actually shivered. He was so removed she wasn’t certain he was the same man.


“I don’t like who you are right now.” She had no idea how to soft-soap it. Maybe she didn’t even want to. She didn’t believe she was striking out at him, although she was hurt, but those were her honest feelings. She didn’t like who he was.


Something flickered in his eyes. Deep. Beneath the blue glacier. Something she couldn’t quite catch but she wished she had. “That’s too bad, baby, because this is me. This is how I keep it together when my woman is in danger and I’ve allowed her to become a target to draw the f*ckers out. This is who I am when I’m in public. You can’t take that, Cayenne, I guess we need to know that now.”


There it was, her out.


He shook his head and caught her chin, forcing up her face, so her eyes met his. “That’s not an out. That’s we’ll fix this when we get home.”


Cayenne sighed and held herself silent, instead of telling him to go to hell like she should. She caught a glimpse of something behind the ice in his eyes. More, and she hated to admit it to herself, the pull between them was so strong, even when he was a jerk beyond all comprehension, the fact that he confessed to her in his not-so-nice way that she was his woman and he had to “keep it together” while she was in danger. That she could understand. When a person had enhanced physical components that made them lethal, they had to be especially careful when something upset that. More than anyone else, she understood that.


Cayenne nodded her head. “We’ll talk about it at the factory,” she conceded, not giving him anything else. She couldn’t. The hurt ran deep, and she hadn’t expected that.


“At home.” He bit the word out between his immaculate, straight white teeth.


She couldn’t look away from the ice in his eyes, afraid if she couldn’t pull her gaze away, she’d be frozen from the inside out. Very slowly she nodded her head. “I don’t know what a home is, Trap, but yes, there, where we sleep.”


The moment she uttered those words, she knew she’d made a mistake. His expression didn’t change, but beneath the ice, the same flicker of emotion came and went, but for her, deep inside the very core of her, she remembered the feel of his mouth on her most intimate parts. The feel of his most intimate part deep in her mouth. Her feminine sheath pulsed. Spasmed. Warm liquid heated the junction of her legs. She forced her body to remain absolutely still so the squirm wouldn’t give her away.


Trap’s eyes moved over her face and again, there was a hint of possession, but something else was there, stroking at her skin. At the hurt. Like a soothing caress. Abruptly he leaned down and scooped up the dress, bunching it in his hands. “Let’s go. I have to pay for these.”


She opened her mouth to protest, but he shook his head and stepped out of the fitting room, looking around. The store was empty other than his teammates. “You’re clear right now. Stay away from the windows.”


She stood at the back of the store while he went up front and paid. She watched him the entire time. Not once did his expression change with Mrs. March as she gamely tried to engage him in conversation. He simply didn’t answer a single comment, so in the end, the clerk fell silent as well.


Gino faced the front of the store and Draden stayed close to Trap, close enough to protect him if there was trouble. She might be the one a team was sent to terminate, but Trap’s team members were determined to keep him alive. That made her feel a little better. She didn’t want any of them getting hurt on her behalf.