Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

January 30 th

2:32 P.M.

Did he notice that her hands were shaking?

Cassie was so on edge that she was surprised her entire body wasn't one big trembling mess. Nausea churned in her stomach, and she kept swinging from hot to cold. Only this wasn't the kind of pleasant heat that flushed through her earlier this morning when she pictured Luis' large hands brushing across her skin.

This hot was awful.

So was the cold.

It was a mixture of too much happening all at once. There had been no time for her to process it all, no time for her to work through her feelings and emotions. With Luis there in her home, she hadn't had the space she needed to distance herself a little and find her equilibrium again.

Worse was knowing that he absolutely hated her.

For some reason, he seemed to be under the impression that she thought she was better than everyone else just because she was smart.

Which was so far from the truth she didn't even know how or why he'd come up with that assessment of her.

Of course, she knew her mind was a blessing. How many times had that been drilled into her for as far back as she could remember? It was important she used it wisely. That's why she was so mortified that Luis knew she wasted her brain by spending time that she should be studying something new, or learning a skill she didn't already possess, writing and reading things that were frivolous and served no purpose.

But blessing or not, it sucked big time being so smart.

People didn't get it. They didn't understand how it could be a blessing and a curse.

Didn't know what it was like to never have been given a normal life. To miss out on a childhood. To never know the simple pleasures of riding a bike or going down a slide. Even the vacations they'd taken when she was a kid were work related, some conference or other her parents wanted to drag her to. She hadn't gone to school, had no friends, wasn't allowed to do anything fun. Then went to college at nine, thrust into a world that wasn't made for someone of her psychological and emotional level.

But Luis didn't care to understand, to see things from her point of view. He just judged her. He decided that she felt like she was superior, decided that she shouldn't spend her time doing something that she actually enjoyed because she should be working, should be using her brain, should be doing something with the gift she'd been given.

She was tired.

Just so tired of having to be smart all the time.

She just wanted to be normal.

It was all she'd ever wanted.

But you didn't always get what you wanted. That was another of her parents' favorite sayings. Like she should just always be happy and obedient, doing what she was told, living the life they planned out for her, and ready and willing to push aside her own wants and needs for the greater good.

For once she just wanted to be her.

Just a normal woman.

Not the genius who people loved to ask weird questions so she could prove to them that she was, in fact, a genius.

Since there didn't seem any point in defending herself, Luis had made up his mind about her from the moment he met her, and nothing she could say or do would make a difference, Cassie had just withdrawn inside herself. An old habit, one that was hard to break, and one that she'd employed anytime she was forced to hang around with adults who might be fascinated with her and what she could do, but didn't actually like her.

Because what adult wanted to be shown up by a child?

Especially in academic circles.

When he parked the car, she unbuckled her seatbelt and waited quietly until he got out of the car, rounded it, and opened her door. She might not like it, and absolutely loathed having her independence stripped away again, but Luis was right when he said he was the expert and she wasn't. He might not like her, but he'd keep her alive, that she was certain of.

So, she followed, it just sucked having to.

"Hey, we'll find the bomb," he said when she climbed out of the car and started for the small pier.

It was basically the first thing he'd said to her since reluctantly agreeing to help her go and track down piers so they could find and hopefully disarm the bomb.

After that spectacular argument, one she was surprised she had won, she changed into jeans and a sweater, and they headed out. They'd driven to three piers already and she was beginning to think that maybe Luis had been wrong, and this wasn't a clue at all.

What he'd interpreted as her believing he wasn't smart enough to figure out where the mole had hidden the bombs was actually relief that he'd had an idea when she couldn't seem to come up with any. She wasn't about glory or ego. It didn't matter who figured it out as long as they could disarm as many of the bombs as possible before they went off and people got hurt.

Giving him a nod, she brushed past, heading for the pier. It wasn't that she was trying to be rude, it was just that this man confused her. Her reaction to him confused her. She didn't get why he turned her on when no one else ever had, and it was unfair that he didn't feel the same way about her. Luis could barely stand to be around her, he certainly wasn't lusting after her. Maybe if he was, they could have …

Had sex?

Had a relationship?

At the very least maybe he could have taught her about sex, so she finally got what all the fuss was about.

Feeling his frustration, but unsure if it was directed at her, the situation, or both, she did her best to brush it off. It was too much trying to figure out what she felt for him without trying to figure out what he felt—or didn't feel—for her.

Besides, her lust or attraction or whatever the heck it was wasn't relevant right now. What was important was finding the bombs, disarming them so no one got hurt, and finding out the identity of the mole so this ended once and for all.

Nothing else.

And certainly not her own lustful thoughts.

Scanning the area, her gaze immediately landed on a couple of tall lampposts at the end of the pier. This place was smaller, not a pier used by ferries, marinas, or anything like the ones they'd checked out earlier. But it was used, and if there was a bomb here and it went off then people would be hurt, maybe even killed depending on the strength of the explosion.

You peer up at me .

That's what the mole had said.

It was the second sentence after the one that led her to believe that there was a bomb in the lab. That made her think this was going to be the next bomb to go off.

Luis' idea of peer being pier made sense, and now those tall lampposts made her think that perhaps the bomb could be up there. They didn't know who the mole was, but so far, they did know that the person had good computer skills. There was every chance that they'd set up cameras to watch and would remotely detonate the device when someone was underneath it.

After all, this was supposed to be motivation for her and her team to hand over the formula, and the more people they could hurt the tighter the screws would turn.

Taking off at a run, Cassie was aware of Luis right behind her, but she ignored him, her mind focused on her task. When she reached the lampposts, she took the right because most people were right-handed, and it was just where instinct had her going.

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?" Luis demanded when she began to shimmy up it.

Thankfully, her muscles were strong enough to climb the pole, even if she knew Luis would have done a better job. "Checking to see if the bomb's up here."

"You trying to get yourself killed on my watch, princess?" Luis asked.

"No. Not trying to get myself killed at all. Check the left post," she ordered.

Both posts were about twelve feet tall, and even though she started first, they both reached the top at about the same time.

"Nothing here," Luis said.

"Because it's over here," she said, awed that they'd managed to figure out what the mole was saying and find a bomb. Cassie didn't think the mole had intended to let on the locations, but they had an ego, and they couldn't help but try to be clever and, in doing so, had given too much away.

"Get down, Cass. Now!" Luis ordered, jumping down from his post and landing with a thud beside hers.

"I will in a second. Just let me see how it's wired and if I can disarm it." Disarming bombs wasn't her forte, but she could likely figure it out.

"No, Cass. Let the bomb squad do it."

"One minute," she insisted.

"No. Now. I'm in charge. That's the deal."

"When it comes to safety issues," she reminded him, looking down to find him glaring up at her.

But before he could argue or come up and physically drag her down, a deafening boom sounded, and the next thing she knew, she was plummeting toward the ground, blown up for the second time in as many days.

January 30 th

2:54 P.M.

This woman was going to be the death of him.

As the bomb went off and Cassie lost her grip on the lamppost, he lunged closer to catch her before she could hit the ground.

With an almost graceful drifting, she fell the short distance and landed in his arms. Her slight weight didn't even make him stumble, but unsure if the bomb was going to go off again or if the pole would fall, he quickly carried her back to the car.

"What were you thinking?" he growled, his heart hammering in his chest like he'd just run a hundred miles.

As he shoved her into the passenger seat, noting little dots of red bubbling up on the exposed skin of her face and neck, instead of the tears or panic he was expecting, excitement danced in the doe eyes looking up at him.

"I was thinking that there was a bomb, and I could probably disarm it," Cassie replied.

Bracing his hands on the sides of the door, Luis leaned in until there were mere inches between them. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe you couldn't disarm the bomb?" he snarled.

That was the problem with people as smart as Cassie, they thought there was nothing they couldn't do.

The problem was their egos couldn't handle the fact that they weren't infallible.

Still, the genius princess said the last thing he expected her to.

"It occurred to me. I mean, I thought the odds were likely in my favor, but I knew there was a chance that I couldn't do it," Cassie answered.

"Then why the hell did you want to try?" he roared, making her flinch at the volume of his voice, but he was about a second away from a heart attack, and there she was, flippantly admitting that she'd known she could have gotten herself killed.

"Because it's important. I didn't want anyone else to die or get hurt because I decided to try to make a drug that could save lives," Cassie said, that same streak of determination in her eyes he'd seen earlier back at her apartment when she started searching for clues.

Resting his forehead against hers, he sighed, attempting to let out all the agitation and fear swirling inside him. "What am I going to do with you, princess?"

There was a beat of silence.

He felt her confusion like a tangible thing. Felt his own as well.

Had zero idea what the answer to that question was.

Luis was far too close to doing something stupid like kissing her when Cassie pulled back.

"You're not going to do anything with me. You don't even like me," she said.

Before he could even process what she'd said, refute it, even if he wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't the complete truth, her hands were on his shoulders, gently pushing him back so she could slip out of the car.

"The bomb has to be able to be activated remotely." Cassie started talking like she hadn't just pushed him away. "It's the only way to explain how it went off right when I got there. And they must have put up cameras. Sensors, too, maybe. I hadn't touched it yet, so I know I didn't set it off. That means the mole is watching the bomb sites. I bet they wanted to set them off right when they could do the most damage. It's pretty risky to be monitoring the cameras round the clock since somebody could see them, so there must be some sort of sensor."

When she took off back toward where the small bomb had gone off, knocking her down and sending the glass from the light at the top of the lamppost raining down upon her, he darted around to block her path.

"We need to stay away from it, call in the experts. We don't know what it's going to do or how stable it might be. We're not going back toward it," he said firmly, and he was prepared to lock her in the car and forcibly remove her from the area to make it happen. Thankfully, it was winter, and no one else had been there, but the explosion, small though it had been, could have alerted someone close by. They needed to call Prey and the local police.

A frown marred her features, and he was sure she was going to argue, but then it smoothed out and she gave a single nod. "I guess you're right. The bomb squad should come in and make sure it's safe. Then whatever's left can be taken to the lab. I can't wait to get it under a microscope and see if I can find more clues."

From the grin on her face and the thread of excitement in her voice, she really couldn't wait to get it under a microscope. To her, this was one giant puzzle that she wanted to solve, but he had to give her credit, it wasn't just a game to her. Cassie understood the gravity of the situation, and while she wanted to figure the riddle out, more than that she wanted to do it because she didn't want anyone to get hurt.

It was clear he'd judged her unfairly from the beginning. She didn't look down on people, she didn't use her intellect for selfish purposes, and she cared about people. She had strong bonds with her Prey family, and she'd held it together well after her ordeal the day before. She was determined and hard-working, and she had a hidden kinky side when it came to sex he never would have predicted because she had the whole sweet, innocent act down to a T.

"You can take a look at it at the lab after you get checked out by a doctor," he told her since he knew there was no way other than forcibly restraining her, that was going to stop her from examining the bomb.

Brows scrunching up, she shot him a confused look. "I don't need a doctor. You caught me, I didn't even hit the ground. I don't have any injuries."

Stepping closer, he touched the tip of a finger to one of the little cuts on her chin then held it up for her to see her blood staining his skin. "You have at least two dozen little cuts like this all over your face and neck. None of them look serious, and I doubt any are deep enough to need stitches, but you need to be checked out to make sure there are no bits of glass left inside."

"Oh. I didn't even feel them," she said, allowing him to take her elbow and guide her back to the passenger side of his car where he grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the seat.

A small gasp tumbled from her lips at the contact, so he didn't remove his hands right away, letting them linger, his thumbs brushing lightly across her stomach. Oddly enough, he liked touching her, liked being around her, too, even if she did manage to push his buttons like nobody else ever could.

While bringing out the worst of his old insecurities, she also left him off-kilter, not sure what exactly it was that he wanted. All he knew was he couldn't get her out of his head, and as frustrating as that was, there was a … settled kind of feeling inside him when he was with her. He wouldn't call it peace exactly, but it wasn't a bad feeling.

If all he felt toward Cassie was plain old attraction, he would have already had her in his bed. The second he found those pictures she'd drawn, he would have been knocking on her bedroom door offering to help her forget everything she'd been through.

But it was more than crazy attraction, only what it was he wasn't ready to examine yet.

"You saved me again," Cassie said softly. "You caught me before I hit the ground."

"Of course I did. That's my job."

As soon as he said the words, Luis realized they were the wrong thing to say.

Her eyes shuttered and he felt her withdraw even though he was still holding her hips. He hadn't meant them the way Cassie obviously took them, but it was too late to snatch the words back.

"Job. Right. Got it. I'm going to call Prey and tell them what we found." Once again, Cassie brushed him away from her, then very pointedly turned her back on him, closed the door, and pulled out her phone.

He stood there wondering how he'd managed to push her away without even trying. Keeping distance between himself and others was second nature for him. The scars from his past were a constant reminder that he wasn't good enough and that he hurt the people he loved by being selfish and considering only his own needs.

Letting anyone who wasn't family or part of his team get close was not something he ever planned on doing. Yet knowing he'd hurt Cassie left him feeling even more unsettled.

Because he cared.

What she thought of him mattered, even though it shouldn't.