Caressed by Ice

CHAPTER 25

“It’s not a secret that you saw something. You screamed, ‘I saw this!’ when the body was found.”

“Oh, my God.” She slumped back in her seat. “The killer thinks I’m a witness and that I’ll figure out who he is.”

“Which means we have to track him down before he makes another attempt.” Judd had promised Brenna safety and he would ensure it. Failure was not an option.

Brenna’s expression shifted. “What will you do to him?”

“The same thing any other man would do.” He dared her to stop him.

“I don’t want you to go further into the darkness because of me.”

“There’s a difference between acting to protect someone and—” He cut himself off, suddenly realizing where he was headed.

“And what, Judd?”

He shook his head. “It’s not relevant to the present situation.”

“You’re lying.” A flat, angry accusation. “I can’t believe you’d sit there and lie to my face after—” Jaw clenched, she turned away and pulled up the steering wheel, going manual again. “Fine. You keep your secrets.”

It was almost a compulsion to push her, to demand she return her attention to him. And that was why he fought it. Because she didn’t understand what she was asking for, what it would cost her. That thought stayed his hand as nothing else. But there was one thing he did need to know the answer to. He waited until they were almost to the den before bringing it up. “How did you know where I was last night?”

She threw him a glancing look. It was obvious she was still furious. “Driving that Psy brain crazy, isn’t it?” Her smugness couldn’t have been clearer.

“There was no tracker on the vehicle.”

“Not when you checked.” She maneuvered the car over the rough terrain with angry female confidence, having disengaged the hover-drive and shifted to tires. “I followed you out of the den and slapped a tracker under the chassis after you got in.”

He remembered that shadow he’d seen. “I did a telepathic scan.”

She shrugged. “Don’t know how that works, but I didn’t move out from under until you’d driven off. That reminds me—we’ll have to send someone to pick up my car.”

Judd knew why the scan hadn’t located her. He’d made an elementary mistake and scanned the perimeter alone, rather than pushing outward in ever-increasing circles. To add insult to injury, he’d been so distracted last night that he’d allowed not one, but two pursuits. The wolf had to have followed him to the church, then lain in wait for his return.

Either he was getting careless or the more subtle effects of the dissonance—and of the battle between Silence and emotion in his brain—were already beginning to show. But that wasn’t what concerned him the most. “I could’ve crushed you with the car.”

“Not really.” She sounded unworried. “You could only drive it in one direction.”

“Brenna.”

“You’re just pissed because I managed to trail you out of the den.” She gave him a piercing look. “I knew something was up as soon as you got that call during dinner.”

“How?” He didn’t tell her to change direction when she headed for the underground garage. This vehicle had been seen by too many people in relation to him. He’d have to get a new one for his covert activities.

She brought the all-wheel drive to a halt inside the garage. “Not from your Ice Man expression. Somehow I…” Biting her lower lip, she shrugged. “I can’t explain it. I just knew.” Opening the car door, she came around as if to open his, but he’d already gotten out. She began to walk across the otherwise empty garage with him at her back. “If you rip open those stitches, don’t come crying to me for sympathy.”

“Noted.” His eyes kept going to the sway of her hips, his control shot to hell. “You shouldn’t have followed me.”

“Why not?” She threw him an uncomplimentary look over her shoulder. “It’s not like you’re Mr. Communication.”

“There are some things you don’t need to know.”

“Like what in the hell you were doing in a deserted park in the middle of the night?” She spun around to face him, arms folded. “You keep telling me you’re an assassin and then you sneak out. Pretty easy equation, don’t you think?”

He refused to listen to the voice that wanted to correct her. “Yes.”

“Bull. Shit.” With that very precise statement, she spun on her heel and toward the ramp leading up to the main den area. “If you’d been in a killing frame of mind,” she threw back as she opened the door, “you’d have executed that wolf on sight.”

He stood in the garage for several minutes after she’d gone, trying to think of an answer that would satisfy her. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, draw her into the gray world of the rebellion he had to fight. Stopping Protocol I was his attempt at finding redemption, if such a thing even existed for a man like him, but she had no need to pay for his crimes. He was her shield. Against the evil…and against his own nightmares.

Finally ready, he walked up and made his way to her rooms. She’d left the door open and he closed it behind himself. “Brenna.”

She looked up from making coffee. “Don’t lie to me, Judd. Keep your secrets, but don’t lie to me.” Quiet words but so passionate they felt like blows.

So he gave her no false answers. “I’d like some coffee, too.”

She held his gaze for a long time, as if waiting for him to say something else. When he didn’t, her spine went stiff and she turned her back to him. He had the violent urge to force her to face him, but fought it. Finally—and just in time—she was keeping her distance. Any longer and he knew he wouldn’t have allowed her her freedom…even if she’d pleaded with him to let her go.

Even if she’d screamed.