Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(79)

I didn't want to risk carrying the revolver. One, I didn't know where to store it. Two, I wasn't that great a shot. Most of my training had hinged on my powers. Powers, it turned out, I didn't really know how to wield on my own.

I'd worked with Tanner and I'd worked with Rome, but never really worked with myself, alone. What would happen if I had to go into battle without either man? It was time I learned to take care of myself.

Until then...I looked at the gun, chewed on my bottom lip. Carefully I placed it in my purse. Just in case.

Then I waited. Paced. And waited. Paced. Rome never showed up, never called. I phoned him three times. Left messages twice.

Jean-Luc didn't show up within the hour as promised, either.

Finally, I decided not to wait any longer for either of them. I was an agent, I could damn well make a few decisions and kick some ass on my own. So just before heading out, I phoned John a second time, and this time he answered.

"Got your message," he said, deadly calm. "I'll take care of it." Reese would be in lockup within the hour, I suspected. "That's not why I'm calling this time. When was the last time you heard from Rome?"

"Last night. He told me about Lexis and Sherridan."

"He didn't call this morning?"

"No. Why? Did something happen?"

I was beginning to think that it had. This wasn't like Rome. Whatever he thought of me, he would not have wanted me, a fellow agent, to worry. He would not have wanted to risk my going out on my own.

He would not have wanted to risk someone getting to me while he was away. "I - " A hard knock sounded at the door. Rome? "I've got to go," I told John and hung up, stuffing the cell in my pocket. I rushed to the door and looked through the peephole.

A man with sandy hair and dark eyes that were somehow familiar looked back at me. Because you saw them, kind of, two days ago. Wow. Just two days? Seemed like forever had already passed.

Jean-Luc was here. My hand shook as I opened the door. Is this smart? What are you doing?

But nothing bad happened when the door was completely open, only air between me and the man who had stolen my lover's memories. Jean-Luc was a little over six feet tall and smelled of pine. He wore all black and held a bag. Probably filled with weapons. That was so...Rome.

My chest constricted.

"Belle." His expression was grim, his cheeks cut and bruised, but his eyes were burning, filled with longing and passion and even dread. "You look as beautiful as always." As always. Eerie words from him, a man I'd seen only once before, and that for the barest of seconds.

"Thank you."

"May I?" he asked politely, motioning inside the room with a tilt of his chin.

I stepped out of the way. He was a stranger to me, but he knew what it was like to make love to me. I knew nothing about him. Well, not true. I now knew he used the same soap as Rome. Wild and primal and enough to make me close my eyes and savor the familiar scent.

He sailed past me. "Sorry it took me so long. I invaded a few heads, trying to find out what was going on with The Multiplier."

"And?" I shut the door, sealing us inside. Alone, together. My trembling hadn't stopped but had only increased. A glaze of ice formed over my chest, my arms.

"I can't believe the bastard betrayed me. And I never saw it coming. We've been friends for years, stayed in touch whenever possible...we'd shared stories about our pasts...Damn it! I trusted him." I tensed, the ice spreading to my legs. I drew my arms around my middle.

Concern darkened Jean-Luc's handsome face, and he stepped toward me, arms reaching. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean for my anger to scare you."

I stepped back. "Don't come near me," I said. "I don't want to ice you. You'll be immobilized for hours. And it wasn't your anger that did me in. I'm afraid of what you're going to tell me next." He stopped, dropping his hands to his sides. "Rome can temper your emotions, can't he? But I can't." Sadness fell like a curtain over his handsome features. "Should I wait to tell you what I found out, then?" I shook my head, hair slapping at my cheeks. "I have to know, so I can calm myself." I'd wanted to practice doing so, and now it looked like I'd have my chance.

He gave a stiff nod. "All right, then. The Multiplier has Rome and wants you, and when he gets you, he plans to sell you both to Desert Gal."

A few of the brotherswill be around the hotel, on the lookout.

A few of the brothers will be inside, watching, waiting.

Rome will not be in the room with you. They will have hidden him somewhere else.

Over and over Jean-Luc's warnings drifted through my mind as I strode through the Holland Hotel lobby. At reception, I asked for Matthew Brooks's room number - 618.

The wristwatch Jean-Luc had given me showed it was 8:53. I was riding the elevator up to the sixth floor and though I was alone, it felt like a thousand pairs of eyes were watching my every move, a thousand arms ready to reach out and grab me.

Jean-Luc knew what was going down because he'd found one of the brothers, peeked into his mind and then stolen the memory of their meeting. At first, The Multiplier had simply planned to bag me when I reached the room, a room he'd rented just for me, then use me to lure Rome into a trap. But Rome, with his ear always to the ground, learned of their intent first and tried to stop them. Alone. He hadn't trusted anyone else in the area, I guess, and hadn't wanted to wait for those he did trust to get here.