Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(16)

That's when I'd punched her.

She might be a powerful psychic, but she'd never been able to predict the things that would happen to her. As I now planned to do with all my enemies, I had used her weaknesses against her and I wasn't sorry.

"And anyway, why are you here? Why aren't you interviewing one of the prisoners like you were told?" I already knew the answer. She'd been waiting for me. Or rather, for a chance to pounce on Rome, to see if he'd remembered me.

Sweat dripped from her chest, past her vivid red sports bra and down the planes of her flat belly. "Had no luck with him, I take it?" she asked in that smug tone I so hated.

Bingo. I'd been right. "No thanks to you."

Guilt flashed, quickly gone. "You're not right for him. It's time you both realized it."

"Is that so?" Before his last mission, Rome had been teaching me to fight. And fight dirty. Without warning, I kicked out my leg and nailed her in the stomach. Breath whooshed from her mouth as she skidded backward, instinctively hunching over. Other agents were in the room, and I heard them muttering:

"Hundred on Lexis. Girl has skill!"

"Dude, you haven't seen The Mighty Water Hose in a temper. You're on."

"Is anyone else as turned-on by this as I am?"

"You don't want to do this," Lexis repeated, straightening. Even sweaty and winded, she was a beautiful sight. The shiny length of her black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, her green eyes flashed brightly and pink flushed the exotic slope of her cheeks.

"What you've done to me, Rome and Tanner is underhanded and wrong, and you know it. Someone needs to punish you, and I happily volunteer."

"I don't care if it's wrong. I don't care if it hurts you. I can't!" Righteous fervor poured from her, a deluge that only strengthened my anger. "I love him."

I sputtered for a moment, dumbfounded by her logic. "And that makes your behavior okay? If you truly loved him, you would have warned him about the danger he faced. Had the situation been reversed, had I known I would lose him, I still would have warned him to save him. That's real love. But guess what?

None of that matters. You had your chance with him. You blew it, cut him loose and he moved on. He wants me now."

Her chin lifted, and hell, she'd never appeared more superior. "Wanted you. He wanted you. As of two days ago, he wants me. He wants to be a family for Sunny, the kind of family we were before." I ran my tongue over my teeth, fire inside my mouth, burning, blistering. Surely there was something I could say to make her understand the depths of her betrayal. Surely there was something I could do.

Surely... please . "Once you said you knew he wasn't the man for you, that he would love another.

What's changed?"

"Everything," she shouted, tossing up her arms. "The world offered me a second chance and I took it. I won't make the same mistake twice. He and I can - will - make things work this time." Oh, that burned. In more ways than one. "Let's forget about Rome for a minute. How could you do this to Tanner? He treated you like a queen. Worshipped you, would have done anything for you." Again guilt curtained her expression, but as before, she quickly masked it. "He's young, and I'm not the girl for him."

Damn her! "Again, that doesn't excuse your cruelty. He's a good guy, and you broke his heart as if he meant nothing to you. As if he was nothing."

"Trust me, he'll get over it. Sooner than you think, too."

What did that mean? That Tanner was about to meet the love of his life? I'd wondered that very thing a few days ago and had even felt sorry for Lexis. Not an ounce of my pity remained. "Knowing that doesn't make what you've done okay, either. You're ruining people's lives."

"No," she insisted. "I'm making things right. Finally."

Clearly, I'd made her understand nothing. I braced my feet apart, my hands at my sides, preparing for the battle soon to come. "Just so you know, Miss Know-It-All, you're not the girl for Rome, either."

"I will be. Just watch and see."

I swung my arm and, though I'd been aiming for her nose, I nailed her in the cheek again. She gasped, straightened, another trickle of blood joining the first. "That's for what you've done to Rome." My other arm whipped out, connecting with her other cheek. "That's for Tanner." Now, for me. I clasped both hands together, ready to slam my joined knuckles into her nose.

She sucker punched me in the face before I could move an inch. In fact, her arm flew up so quickly, I had no idea she was moving until my brain slammed into my skull.

Several seconds passed during which I saw nothing but stars. But when I realized what had happened, my anger ratcheted yet another degree, a flame sparking from my eye and catching on my eyelash.

Control. No fire. If I burned her to a crisp, I'd be incarcerated, considered a scrim even though she was the criminal here.

"I warned you," she said. "Rome taught me to play dirty, too." I blew out the flame, though my attention never left her. "That's all right. I've learned a few tricks on my own."

She waved her hand at me. "Bring it."

So I did. Silent as a cat -  my cat - I launched at her. Amid the chorus of male laughter and insincere pleas to stop, we slammed together and tumbled backward. Lexis hit the floor, and my weight smacked into her. Any air she'd managed to suck in previously was expelled in a gust.