save Luna’s life,” he shot back. “Which apparently was only in danger because of some fucked-up family drama. And hey, I’m sorry for your boss—”
“Do not,” she cut in, her voice utterly devoid of inflection, “talk about Nina. She’s a better person than either of us.”
“No argument there.” Rafe sighed and leaned one shoulder against the wall. “This thing in my head is a ticking bomb, Dani. We thought Luna could fix us, but all she can do is keep buying us more time. So I have to stay here and try to find a solution. I can’t accept my fate and go count down my days on a peanut farm somewhere. I don’t want to be a farmer.”
Her fingers curled around the edge of the desk so hard that her knuckles turned white. “Your odds aren’t any better here. The Protectorate is already after you. That’s what I came to tell you.”
Not exactly news, and not remotely surprising. The fact that she’d worried enough to warn him was, though. “We’ll be careful. I promise. And we won’t do anything to lead them back to you guys.”
“The thought never crossed my mind.”
“Because you were too busy being worried about me.”
“It’s not funny.” She leaned back a little, almost reclining on his desk. “I might not be around to save your ass when your old buddies finally catch up with you.”
Rafe was sure she had very good points. He might have been able to focus on them, too, if her break-in clothes hadn’t been so … formfitting. And if she hadn’t been deliberately angling herself to display her very, very well-formed … form.
Professionally, from one player to another, he had to respect her game.
He’d be suicidal to let himself get distracted by it, of course. And to forget that she’d been wearing that same deadly shade of red lipstick the night she’d pumped poor, dumb Boyd full of abrin.
Relaxing his muscles, Rafe let his gaze drift down her body in a lazy perusal, then worked his way back up to her face. “Just tell me one thing, Dani.”
“What’s that, cupcake?”
His lips curved in his most seductive smile, the one that melted knees. “Where do you keep the poison?”
“Don’t be lazy, Morales.” She held both arms out wide. “You want it? You have to find it.”
Yes, please.
He’d only taken one step toward her when his door rattled. Only one person knocked that damn hard—Conall. “Hey, Rafe, you awake?”
Grinding his teeth, he held up a finger to Dani and spun toward the door. If he didn’t open it fast enough, Conall was fully capable of sticking his head in. Instead, Rafe cracked it open a few inches, angling his body to block the view inside. “Hey. You need something?”
Conall held up a tablet. “I have a new list of supplies. Can you hit up your contacts?”
“Everyone’s asleep. Like you should be.”
Conall huffed out a laugh. “Man, I feel too good to sleep. Besides, I thought all your criminal friends did business at night. Just give me five—”
Rafe could feel Dani’s presence behind him like a blazing heat at his back. “Tomorrow, Con.”
“Fine, fine!” Conall threw up his hands. “God, you’re grumpy. Go get your damn beauty sleep.”
“I plan on it.” Rafe closed the door. Then, for good measure, he locked it. “Sorry,” he murmured as he started to turn. “He’s just really excited to not be falling apart…”
He was talking to an empty room.
For a few seconds, he wondered if it had all been a dream. He’d certainly had more outlandish fantasies about beautiful women. Hell, he’d had more outlandish fantasies about Dani. Though maybe nothing as revealing as her showing up, worried about him in spite of all of the bad blood between them.
But when he approached his desk, the light, floral scent of her perfume lingered. And next to the book she’d been toying with, he found a battered and creased cardboard coaster bearing the logo and address of a dive bar popular with scavengers. The ink was faded and imperfect, the way it looked coming off a cheap chemical printer instead of one of the smooth print shops up on the Hill. Alcohol stained the cardboard, and it smelled like cheap moonshine.
There were several potential messages to be inferred from the gift. The most obvious was that she’d heard what happened when he’d tried to buy a drink from Clem. Getting his ass pumped full of buckshot had been a humbling moment, and he didn’t necessarily love having Dani know