never talked about it. Everything he’d done, he’d done for a good cause. He’d never asked questions, but then, he’d never wanted to know. He’d trusted Michael. He’d removed scum like Jecis Lukas from the streets.
But he’d grown colder over the years, hadn’t he? He was not the man his mother had raised.
“Thank you,” he said again, this time with more heart. “For what you did for Vika, and what you did for me.”
“You’re welcome,” X said with a happy grin.
“Ugh. Mushy stuff,” Dr. E said, never far behind. He was hunched over, as if his shoulders were too heavy to hold up. “We aren’t women. Let’s man this party up and kill something.”
Movement at his left. Solo homed in just in time to watch Vika crawl from behind one of the trailer’s huge tires. She brushed the dirt from her hands and knees as she checked the area for eavesdroppers.
“She was listening the only way she could,” X said. “Through vibrations.”
Her plum-colored gaze locked on Solo, and every muscle in his body tightened, clamping down on bone. The steady chatter of his companions faded as he drank her in. She wore a top and pants the same dark shade as the tire, and looked as though she’d stepped from Biker Chick Weekly—Role Play Edition. Her long, pale hair was sexily rumpled, her cheeks pink.
She stepped backward, away from him, finally disappearing around the corner.
He nearly shouted a denial. Calm. Steady. She would be back. He would tell her about her father’s threat and gauge her reaction. He wouldn’t ask her about the wedding. She would—
Return a few minutes later with food, causing the tension to drain from him. She had changed into white and now looked as if she’d stepped from a cloud. She’d brushed her hair, the strands glistening like molten gold. She had brushed her teeth, too. He could smell the mint of her toothpaste. She tossed a burlap sack through the bars and onto his lap, the scent of buttered toast and freshly cooked syn-sausage wafting to his nose.
She reached into a pant pocket to withdraw a rag. He waited. When she stretched out her arm to toss it through the bars, he leapt into action, scooting from the far end of the cage to the front, his own arm extending.
Contact. His fingers locked around her wrist.
She gasped. Her eyelids flipped up, and her gaze landed on him.
“Let me go,” she demanded.
When the softness of her skin delighted him? When the heat she emitted blended with his own? “Or what?”
Heart-shaped lips pursed in the most adorable pout. “Or you’ll lose your man parts.”
Something cold pressed against his thigh, and he glanced down. She had positioned a blade at the hem of his loincloth.
X clapped at her daring.
Dr. E growled.
“Nice move,” Solo said, oddly proud of her.
She sighed, a little dejected, and said, “I doubt I could actually go through with my threat. I really just carry the weapon to scare people away.”
Oh, honey. That’s not something you ever admit to your opponent.
As innocent as she appeared, though, her opponents could probably guess her lack of malicious intent.
He released her. “I just wanted your attention.”
“Well, you’ve got it.” She looked left, right, and sheathed the weapon. “But it’s too dangerous for us to talk.”
“I’ll know if anyone heads this way. You’ll have plenty of time to hide.”
Silence as she pondered his claim.
“I promise,” he said.
Another moment passed before she nodded.
“Vow it. Vow that you’ll stay.” He couldn’t bear the thought of watching her walk away again. Not yet. “Just for a little while. As long as it’s safe.”
Her nose scrunched up as she said, “But I just did.”
“I want the words. Please.”
“Please. Wow. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that word from another person’s lips. Not without a request for freedom, that is. But okay, all right,” she said. “I vow it.”
He waited for any type of reaction from her, but again . . . she never gave one. Not so much as a single twitch. Were the words truly not bonding to her?
“Are you getting married?” He hadn’t meant to ask—actually hated himself for asking—but there it was. He couldn’t take it back. And didn’t want to.
“Not if I can help it,” she replied, chin lifting.
“Tell me why—”
“I’ll talk about anything but that,” she said.
Fury now radiated from her. Fury and more of that fear he’d noticed before, mixed with a healthy amount of desperation and resignation.
Very well. “Are you eating?” he asked. He’d felt the