Jenna Black - Replica

Eventually, he sat up straight and glanced over to Dante.

“Explain this,” he said. “Why is it that yesterday, Bishop was trying so hard to keep me away that he had me beaten, and today he wants to see me?”

It was a good question, and Nadia’s suspicious mind immediately suggested it was a trap of some kind.

Dante shook his head. “He’ll explain when and if you see him.”

“No, you’ll explain,” Nate insisted, “and right now.”

“Or what?” Dante asked, raising an eyebrow. “You need me to take you to the meeting.”

“How do I know anything you’re saying is true?” Nate countered. “You could be trying to set me up for … something.”

“You’re just going to have to take it on faith, I suppose. Nadia was under the impression you wanted to see him, but if you’re not interested…” He shrugged his broad shoulders, and there was a hint of smugness in his tone.

Even in the lamp-lit darkness, Nadia could see the flush of anger creeping up Nate’s neck. He wouldn’t have missed Dante’s overly familiar use of Nadia’s first name, and Nadia didn’t think that had been a slip of the tongue. Dante might not have come up swinging after Nate hit him, but it seemed like he was being deliberately provoking. Maybe he hoped Nate would throw another punch so he could show off his own manly prowess. But though Nate didn’t make a habit of controlling his quick temper, tonight he kept it in check.

“Fine,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’ll go. But if you’re lying to me, it’ll turn out very, very bad for you.” Dante rolled his eyes at the threat. “So when and where is this meeting?”

“The where is a secret,” Dante said. “I’ll take you there. Take your phones with you to bed tonight. Sometime after midnight, you’ll get a call from me. Nadia first, then you.”

“Remember when I told you you could call me Mr. Hayes?” Nate said. “Well, you can call her Miss Lake.”

Ordinarily, Nate wasn’t nearly this uptight about protocol, and he’d be perfectly happy to allow the informal address. But it was obvious he and Dante rubbed each other the wrong way, and Nadia thought once again her services as peacekeeper might be needed.

“In there,” Dante said, jerking his thumb at the apartment behind him, “I’m a servant and I’ll address you both as such. Here and now, I’m your co-conspirator, and we’ll talk as equals or we won’t talk at all.”

“Fine,” Nate said, dissatisfied. “But even as a supposed ‘equal,’ you don’t know me well enough to call me Nate.”

“Fine,” Dante said in a similar tone. “Nathaniel. I’ll ring you and Nadia after midnight. You’ll sneak down to the service entrance, and I’ll be waiting for you there in a white panel van. Nathaniel, you should wear your Basement disguise. And Nadia, I’ll have a disguise for you in the van.”

Nate was shaking his head violently. “You are not taking Nadia into the Basement. I’m willing to take whatever risks are necessary myself, but she’s been through enough already.”

Nadia’s emotions were a confusing swirl. Fear at the thought of venturing into the Basement at night. Gratitude that Nate still cared about her enough to object. And determination to make her own decisions about what she would and would not risk.

“Bishop’s instructions were very clear,” Dante said. “Either you both go, or neither of you goes.”

“We can both go somewhere other than the Basement.”

“You’re under the mistaken impression that this is a negotiation. It isn’t. It’s a take-it-or-leave-it deal.”

Nate opened his mouth to protest, but Nadia put her hand on his arm to stop him.

“I’ll go, Nate,” she said quietly, ignoring the flutter of fear in her belly. “If that’s the only way Bishop will see you, then I’ll do it. There has to be a reason he’s changed his mind about seeing you, and I suspect it’s something we need to know. I’m already in this up to my eyeballs anyway.”

Nate put on his stubborn face, which she knew all too well. “I am not taking you into the Basement.”

“Yes, you are,” Nadia said more firmly, then turned her attention to Dante. “I presume you won’t be parading me through the streets for everyone to see.” The predators couldn’t hurt her if they didn’t know she was there.

Dante gave her an approving smile. “No. We’ll be discreet. The disguise is just a precaution. If all goes well, it’ll be only the good guys who see you.”

“If all goes well,” Nate muttered darkly. “Nothing has gone well since the moment I came back to life. Why should I expect that to change?”

“We’re doing this,” Nadia said. “We have to.” She tried not to think about what she would tell Mosely the next time he talked to her, which, with Nate’s visit to her apartment tonight, would no doubt be tomorrow. If she’d managed to convince him of her ignorance today, she wasn’t sure how she’d do it tomorrow. But that was getting way ahead of herself.

Thinking of Mosely reminded Nadia about the new tracker she was supposed to plant on Nate, and she reached into her pocket to draw it out.

“By the way,” she said, “I’m supposed to plant this on you. Will you take it with you when you leave here tonight so it looks like I’ve done what I’m supposed to?”

Nate took the envelope from her hand and nodded. “Sure.” He tucked the envelope into his jacket pocket, then reached out and took both her hands, drawing her closer to him. She looked up and met his eyes. “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, squeezing her hands tightly. “I’ve put you in so much danger already…”

Nadia squeezed his hands back and gave him a smile. Then she freed one of her hands and reached up to smooth the worry line that had appeared between his brows. However angry he was about her deception, there was no denying that he still cared about her, and she was beginning to hope that she hadn’t lost him as a friend after all.

“I’m sure.”

Nate pulled her into a hug that she suspected was painful, thanks to the battering his body had taken.

Natedidn’t even try to sleep. He wasn’t sure he could manage it under the circumstances, and he had a sneaking suspicion that if he did manage it, he wouldn’t wake up when Dante called. How pathetic would it be if he made all this effort to find Kurt and then slept through his chance when it finally came?

Assuming, of course, that Dante was telling the truth. The guy had set Nate’s teeth on edge the moment he’d laid eyes on him, and nothing that had transpired since had changed his opinion. He didn’t like the easy, casual way Dante talked to Nadia, as if they were equals, and he hated that Dante was putting Nadia in more danger, even if the request/order had come from Kurt. Not that Nate was a snob and thought Employees should bow and scrape when in the presence of Executives, of course. He hated all that bowing and scraping stuff. Maybe it would have been different if Dante hadn’t been so good-looking—or if Nate didn’t think Nadia noticed he was so good-looking.

Nate laughed at himself. Was he actually jealous ? He hadn’t been able to put a name to his feelings on the rooftop earlier, but now that he tried the word on for size, he found that it fit.

The laugh died quickly. What did he expect Nadia to do? Stay a virgin her entire life to protect his delicate sensibilities? He didn’t plan to “cleave only unto her” when they were married, but somehow he’d never allowed himself to think about what she might do. Didn’t she have as much right to look for love as he did? She had never once shown any sign that she was jealous of his relationship with Kurt. He had no right to be jealous if she’d been hanging all over Dante, which she hadn’t. Just because she would be his wife someday didn’t mean she was his .