Wicked Burn (Realm Enforcers #3)(28)
No wonder Simone had turned to work and power to survive.
Few people fully understood the sweet girl who lived behind Simone’s stunning looks and sarcastic wit. That girl had been wounded by such evil being directed at her. Nick saw the kind woman inside her and always had. “Whoever has done this will pay.”
She nodded, her eyelashes thick and dark against her pale skin. “I just want to know why.”
“My guess is that you’re the easiest target.”
She straightened. “What do you mean?”
He’d been giving the matter a lot of thought, and if anything, he truly understood strategy. “As a member of the Nine, you live abroad and have many of your own investments and interests, including alliances with other species.”
She bit her lip.
“Your business interests are more diverse than those of the other Nine members, and you have accounts to hack.” He ate his eggs, his mind working through the issue. “Though I’m curious about motive. The prosecutor said it would be revealed at trial, and there’s no legal way to make him give it up now, if there is a possible motive.”
“If ?”
Nick nodded. “Perhaps they haven’t yet figured out a motive and are hoping to find something by trial.” Yet something in the way the prosecutor had dangled the carrot was troubling Nick. “Though I think they have something.” What, he didn’t know.
“I think they have something, too . . . but for the world of me, I can’t figure it out.” She licked her lips and kept her gaze on the plate. The fact that she was part shifter would hurt her politically, but it certainly wasn’t a motive for murder, even if the prosecutor had that information. Perhaps nobody knew about her genetics, anyway.
He stilled, tuning in to her emotions. Ah. “Do we need to talk?”
Her lashes fluttered, and she focused on him. “We are talking.”
“About the fact that I f*cked you silly in an alley an hour ago.” He lifted an eyebrow.
She neither flinched nor turned away, facing him head-on, like the woman she was. “Thanks for the orgasms?”
He barked out a laugh, amusement warming his chest. “I’m sorry if I was too rough.” If? Hell, he’d been way too rough, and a woman like Simone deserved a bed, not a brick wall. But she went straight to his head, always had, and that would probably never change.
“I’m fine, Nicholai. Let it go.”
“No.” The woman wasn’t quite understanding him. So he lifted his right hand, palm out.
She swallowed, and her head jerked back. Horror, the real kind, glimmered in her eyes. “The marking. Yours.”
“Yes.” Man, she didn’t have to look so horrified, did she? He flipped his hand over to study the intricate crest with a clear V in the middle, crisscrossed by jagged lines. V for Veis, his family name. The marking itself was buried in their genetics, and it only appeared when a mate was near. Not one ounce of him was surprised it had appeared with Simone again. Last time it had taken nearly five years for the damn thing to disappear after they’d ended their relationship. Something told him this time it wasn’t ever going away. The marking wanted to be used. Transferred to her flesh.
She reached for his hand and turned it over, running her finger over the lines as if staring at a bloody train wreck. “Your marking is beautiful. I’d forgotten.”
He hadn’t. Sometimes just thinking of her made his palm hurt. “How about I use it this time around?” While he didn’t want to, he held his breath as he waited for her answer.
Regret twisted her full upper lip. “You’re crazy.”
“Yes.” He slid his hand back. “I let you go once, and you know why. The war is over, Zane is in power, and now I’m free to live my own life. That includes you.”
“If I’m convicted?” she whispered, the first hint of fear visible in her dark eyes.
“You won’t be.”
She reached for her orange juice. “You don’t know that. If I’m convicted, I face death. You sure you want to be mated for eternity to a dead woman?” Her throat moved, sexy and strong, as she swallowed. “While a new virus being worked on by the vampire queen might negate a mating bond, it seems silly to put you through that. Plus, the so-called mating cure has never been tested in a male, as you know.”
There wouldn’t ever be another woman for him. “If you’re convicted, I’m getting you out of here.”
“A demon can’t get involved, no matter what I decide. The second in command to the demon leader really can’t get involved. Publicly, anyway.” She shook her head. “These are my people and my laws. I’m fighting until the end.” She sighed and sat back. “How about we deal with the current trial and crisis and forget the emotional crap? I need to concentrate, Nick.”
That hadn’t been a yes, but it wasn’t a no, either. He could’ve easily mated her in the alley, but he wanted more. He wanted her to come to him with her eyes wide open and prepared. Being the mate of a demon strategic leader, the strategic leader of the entire nation, wouldn’t be easy. War came too quickly, and he could be one cold bastard when the time called for it. If the witch nation and the demon nation ever went to war again, her allegiance had to be with him. Period. “I agree to concentrate on your trial, but I’m not giving up on us.”