"How could it?" he snapped. "Because you keep running, Harmony. Maybe if you stopped running, just for a little while, you would find something worth fighting for. It takes more guts to stand and fight than it does to hide and kill. Try it out once, baby, you might find it worth your time." His gaze raked over her again. "Or maybe that's your problem. You don't have to fear what you don't have to face. Do you?"
"That's not true." She shook her head wildly.
He wasn't right. He couldn't be right. She wasn't scared of anything, anyone. She was Death.
"It is true, Harmony. Have fun killing yourself with sit-ups while you try to deny it. Personally, I had a much more pleasurable cure in mind. But you just do it your way. For now."
"What do you mean by that?" Her eyes narrowed on him suspiciously as she fought the feeling that Lance's patience was quickly running out.
"Exactly what I said. Try doing push-ups. They seem to help more." His smile was tight as he walked out of the room. The threat lingered behind him though. As did the clawing, heated need.
Dropping to the floor, she started the push-ups.
CHAPTER 12
Lance replaced the decrepit Raider with his own the next evening. Unfortunately, he came with it. To add insult to injury, he changed the schedule as well.
"If I'm going to stay up all damned night long, then I might as well be working," he had snapped that morning when he informed her of the change.
As the call came in on a disturbance and fight at one of the more popular bars, she almost rubbed her hands in glee. She sat forward, straining against the seat belt as Lance raced toward the establishment.
She hadn't had a good fight in months. Unfortunately, as the adrenaline began to race through her veins, the heat building in her body increased. The arousal was almost a narcotic in her blood as her skin sensitized and her nerve endings began to throb. She was throwing off the seat belt and jerking the door open before the Raider had come to a complete stop. Ignoring Lance as he called out her name, she headed for the bar and the fight inside.
"Oh, no you don't." He caught her arm, pulling her to a surprised stop as she stared up at him in shock.
"What?"
"Take their statements!" He pointed imperiously toward the small crowd outside. "Now."
"But the fight…" Oh God, she really needed to expend energy. She could feel the need cramping her stomach, building in her veins.
"Statements," he snarled, the look in his eyes causing her to hesitate. "Now." She snarled furiously, flashing her canines as the sound rumbled from her throat. Gripping her hand, he slapped his notebook into it.
"Now." That tone was primal, such a completely alpha sound that she was taken aback for a moment. "Right now."
She took the statements, fuming at the injustice of it as he and the other deputies began clearing the bar.
"That was so not fair," she snapped as he strode from the bar an hour later, a bruise forming at his temple as he dragged a raw-boned cowboy by his shirt collar to a waiting patrol car. "I could have helped."
He grunted rudely.
"You wouldn't have a black eye if you had let me help," she retorted, her fist clenched around his mangled notebook. "I can't believe you did this." She couldn't believe she had blindly obeyed him like some submissive wimp that didn't know how to fight back. She had never ever obeyed a man in her life. Why the hell was she starting now?
"Your attitude is starting to severely suck, Sheriff," she informed him, trying not to look too deeply into the fact that she had figuratively tucked her tail and obeyed.
"Did you get those statements?"
"Every last one," she responded with false sweetness, glaring back at him as he met her gaze without the first sign of apology. "You should have let me in there."
"Why?" he barked as he turned and led the way to the Raider. "So you could expend some of that energy raging through your body? I don't think so. Get in the Raider." He jerked her door open as she stalked past him.
"That is just the most idiotic thing I've heard come out of your mouth," she snapped after he had slammed her door closed and was striding around to his own side. "I'm not a pet you can place in the corner and tell to sit."
"That's a dog." He twisted the key in the ignition before pushing the Raider into gear.
"Everyone knows cats don't train worth shit."
Indignation snapped inside her.