Gena Showalter - Playing With Fire (tales of an extra ordinary girl)

“Roberts deleted the files,” the man answered, “destroyed the paperwork and fled. There’s no way we can duplicate the formula. Not without the written recipe. Or Belle. The hope is that the molecules in her blood will spell out exactly what she was given.”

“Truth.”

Rome straightened. He stood there for a moment, saying nothing, doing nothing, his expression raw, harsh.

“I cooperated.” Tears streamed down the man’s cheeks. “You’re going to let me go, right? You’re not going to hurt me? I won’t tell Vincent what we talked about. I swear I won’t.”

Tanner didn’t say anything, but he gave Rome a pointed stare. What was going on between them? Moving faster than the blink of an eye, Rome slammed his fist into the crybaby’s face. Instantly his wailing stopped, and he sank into unconsciousness.

“What’d you do that for?” I asked, standing. “He was right. He cooperated.”

“He would have killed you if he had the chance,” Rome said. His voice was low and raspy, and dripped with quiet rage. “He’s lucky I don’t cut him up.”

“Truth.”

Rome shook his head. “Enough, Tanner.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You better not do that truth-lie thing to me. Ever. Or I’ll hurt you.”

He grinned. “Truth,” he said, and I showed him my fist.

“Let’s go.” Rome picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “We’ve got some planning to do.”

“Wait.” My eyes narrowed on the man. Rome was right. The guy would have hurt us if he’d been able. Might still one day hurt us if he had the chance. No one threatened my men and left unscathed.

I drew on my darker, colder emotions, let fear swamp me until my fingers went numb, until a mixture of dirt and ice formed. Just as I had that day in Lexis’s apartment, I threw the ball. The moment it hit him, a frozen dirt box encased him. It would melt (I think), but not for a long while (I hoped).

I rubbed my hands together. “Now we can go.”

THE ENTIRE DRIVE BACK to the cabin, Tanner expounded on and on about how wonderful he’d been, how cool he was, how the girls would be all over him now. I loved that he was so proud of himself. He had done a good job (except for shooting blind, the dumb-ass). But I couldn’t stop thinking about the note we’d found-and that I might not want to find the formula.

I sighed. What was wrong with me?

“-so, like, awesome,” Tanner said, again cutting into my thoughts. “The only thing that would have been cooler was if it had been recorded. Think about it. I could break out the DVD on every date, and I guarantee any lady would become desperate to ride the Tanner Express.”

Rome reached out and jacked up the volume on the radio. While Gwen Stefani rocked from the speakers, he linked our hands. His warmth and strength and calluses soothed me.

I glanced over at him. He kept his eyes on the road, so I was able to study his profile. He was as savage from the side as he was from the front, with a sharp nose, harsh cheekbones and a hard chin. Cut from glass, chiseled from steel, that was Rome.

He looked as likely to kill people as to speak to them, yet right now he was gently tracing his thumb over the peaks and valleys of my palm. So contradictory, so mysterious. I wanted to crawl inside his brain and learn everything about him. I wanted to know his thoughts, his feelings.

I sounded like a freaking girl, didn’t I? But I couldn’t help it. He fascinated me.

He was destined to love someone with his whole heart, Lexis had said. More than ever, I wanted that someone to be me. Imagine all that fierce maleness directed totally at you. Oh, just the thought made me shiver. He would be a demanding lover, exacting. He would expect utter faithfulness and wouldn’t tolerate anything less.

And he would give the same in return.

Heady knowledge indeed. And yet, if I gave him my heart, gave him everything I had to give, and I wasn’t the woman for him, I would be destroyed. Like Lexis, would I have the strength to give him up rather than keep him bound to me, knowing he lusted for another?

My fingers tightened around his hand as I tried to hold him closer, lest he float away from me. I had probably caused Rome more physical pain, not to mention worldly disasters, than anyone he’d ever met. Why be with a girl like me when he could have someone like Lexis? Someone gorgeous, intelligent, wealthy. Someone who could hold a job for more than a few months. Okay, days.

I felt my already raw emotions attempting to create some type of physical reaction-rain, snow, a little of everything. Yet I’d been pushed to the brink today, and nothing happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. I didn’t want Rome to know how I was feeling. Not when I didn’t know how I was feeling.

Rome used his free hand to turn down the music. Blessed silence; Tanner had stopped talking. I peeked over my shoulder, only to see the kid asleep in the backseat. His head lolled to the side. Rays of moonlight streamed over him, and those long eyelashes cast shadows on his cheeks.

“You okay?” Rome asked me.

To ask or not to ask the dreaded where-are-we? question men hated so much… I mean, we hadn’t even slept together yet. “I-we-I’m just nervous about my dad,” I finished lamely. I didn’t want Rome running away from me in terror. I didn’t want him afraid to take our relationship to the next level because I expected more from him than he could give.

He squeezed my hand. “Give Lexis a call, then. She has a cell, and it’s a secure line.” He released me, picked up his cell phone, dialed, then handed it to me.

Lexis answered the moment I placed the phone to my ear. My dad was doing well and was sleeping, she assured me. No one had tried to hurt him. Nothing serious had happened, and she didn’t foresee anything bad happening, either. Also, my dad wouldn’t stop flirting with her, the rogue. I released a pent-up breath, relief washing through me.

“How’s Rome?” she asked me, her voice quiet, hesitant.

I forced my gaze to remain straight ahead. “Good.”

She paused. “Take good care of him.”

“I will.”

We hung up, and I placed the phone on the dash.

“Your dad is doing well, I take it,” Rome said.

I nodded, my lips pressed together. “Flirting, as always.”

He flicked me a proud glance. “You did good today.”

“Aside from knocking you on your ass?” I said drily.

He gave a tiny but genuine grin. “Yeah. Aside from that. You got us over the gate twice. You created the storm that got us inside the house undetected. And you didn’t burn anything down.”

“Sweet progress,” I replied with an answering grin. “So we’re going to break into the laboratory tomorrow?”

He nodded. “It will be more difficult than tonight. Way more difficult, actually. There will be security everywhere. Lexis once told me the building has heat sensors, weight-sensitive flooring, motion detectors and eye scanners.”

“Getting in sounds impossible. Not to mention dangerous.”

“Nah,” he said. “It sounds fun.”

I rolled my eyes, but I was chuckling inside. What a macho-guy thing to say. What a Rome thing to say. “I bet there will be guards. Armed to kill.”

“You’d win that bet.”

My heart stopped at the ease with which he spoke of facing trigger-happy killers. “How are we going to get in? Tanner and I are-and I shouldn’t have to remind you of this-amateurs. We’re more likely to get you caught than give any real aid.”

“You know that’s not true. Did I or did I not just thank you for how wonderful you were tonight? You kicked major ass.”

“You could have done it without me,” I grumbled.

“Truth,” he said, mimicking Tanner.