“All for you,” he finally agreed. “Once we realized a team had been sent to capture you, your team was ordered to bring you in. Unfortunately, they had already been identified by the men sent for you. They took your team out before the Coyote tried to grab you. Cougar and I were here on another assignment when the distress signal went out and we came to help.”
They had been there to meet with someone Jonas had been searching high and low for. Years of investigative work had gone into locating this particular scientist. The moment Navarro had caught the call on the comm link that Mica’s team had been hit, he’d left the assignment immediately.
He could still hear Jonas screaming through the link and Lawe and Rule’s amused laughter as he and Cougar sped away to the heart of the city.
“I had a team?” She sounded faintly surprised.
“Of course you had a team,” he informed her as the elevator slid to a smooth, soundless stop. “You’ve always had one, Mica. Since the day Cassie declared you were her best friend and informed her father that her ‘fairy’ said she needed you, you’ve had a team covering you.”
He felt her stiffen, as though that information had somehow surprised her, or upset her. The faintest scent of anger, a heat more like a volcano preparing to erupt than the embers of pain, drifted to him.
“That long?” Her voice was faint, disappointed.
Without waiting for the doors to fully open, she stepped into the penthouse, obviously ignoring every rule of entry she had ever been taught.
Shaking his head, Navarro stepped in front of her with a sharp growl, his gaze slicing back at her in warning and, thankfully, bringing her to a stop as he moved ahead of her.
“Anger is no excuse for ignoring the rules,” he snapped.
The thing about Mica? A man had to take control immediately. Begin as he intended to go on. She could push right over anyone who thought she should be spoiled or treated gently.
“Being male is no excuse for arrogance, but I’ve noticed Breed males have it in abundance,” she retorted without an ounce of the sweetness displayed in her voice.
She would make any man a hell of a woman, mate or wife. She wasn’t weak, but neither was she a shrew. She could be gentle, she could soft, or she could be an explosive, as unstable as hell in the wrong hands.
She would be a handful, Navarro had always known that, but there was a part of him that looked forward to the challenge. A part of him that was glad she wasn’t his mate, while another part mourned it.
Thankfully, so far, as he seemed to be safe of the dangers of mating; he refused to marry, and he wouldn’t allow himself the convenience of a mistress or a steady lover.
He was created for deception, created to deceive and to lie, and trusting a man, or a Breed, created and trained for such things, wouldn’t be easy for any woman. But even more, he was one of only a few such creations, and his gifts, or his curse, was needed for the survival of the Breeds at large. Mating would change that. It would change him. And Navarro wasn’t certain if he was ready for that.
He knew well what he couldn’t have, no matter the desires that haunted him in the darkest hours of the night. And this woman, sharp and so very prickly on the outside, heated and warm on the inside, was the very thing he couldn’t allow himself.
He ignored the arrogance comment and opted instead to draw the sub-shot burst from beneath his jacket before checking the suite carefully.
Cougar would be back soon with the equipment to ensure there were no electronic or video bugs, while Navarro knew Jonas was currently working on a plan to get Mica out of the city as secretly as possible.
The team they had bypassed earlier wasn’t the only one sent for her, scouring the city to locate her even now.
Hell no.
At last count, there were twelve teams searching high and low for Mica. Twenty-four men determined to take her. There were surface-to-air, handheld missiles in the city, and plans to waylay anyone who tried to drive her out or any heli-jet that dared to fly her out. If they could catch sight of it.
Find a hole and stay put, Jonas had warned them, until he found a way to get her back to Sanctuary or to Haven. Keep her under wraps. Keep her safe. And do it all while trying like hell to stay out of her pants had been Navarro’s warning to himself.
Unfortunately, the last part was the very order he was truly afraid would never be obeyed.
Getting in Mica’s pants was one of the first things on his list of things to do while Jonas and Stygian searched for an escape route out of the city. He didn’t have to change to f**k her.
He almost winced. No, he could never f**k her. A woman like Mica, a man, no matter his species, could only make love to such a woman, whether he allowed himself to love her or not.
And this would be his only chance to have her; it might well be his last chance to know exactly what he was leaving behind. It was time for him to go before nature caught up with him and gave him a mate. It was time to return to the life of lies and illusion he’d been a part of before taking the mission to search for Jonas’s scientist.
Besides, Mica was a weakness that could get them both killed.
CHAPTER 2
Standing beneath the steaming hot spray of the penthouse shower and allowing it to wash away the bone-deep chill that had seeped inside her, Mica finally felt she might live rather than die from the cold.