Allegiance(49)

Melissa felt like the tall, fat, and gawky wallflower at the prom. She propped her hands on her hips and waited for Cage’s answer.

He looked from one to the other, and then to Nik, as if his new best buddy could provide an answer. Nik shrugged and bit into his apple.

Cage ran a soot-covered hand through his hair. Melissa didn’t think she’d ever seen him wear it down, but it was a good look for him. Better than the one he wore on his face, which she would describe as deer-in-headlights. “I, ah . . .”

Melissa had never seen her calm British lieutenant this rattled, so she put an extra swivel in her hips as she crossed the room, sat next to him, and slid a hand from his knee to the top of his thigh, where an interesting bulge rested. And stirred. “Cage and I are very good friends,” she told Robin, adding a sugary smile to emphasize just how good.

Nik bit into the apple again, its crisp crunch filling the awkward silence of the room. Melissa stared at Robin with a “you can flaunt your tits all night but he’s leaving with me” look.

Robin just grinned. “Fang-girl’s getting territorial, Cage. And back in the car, you practically promised to introduce me to shifter-vampire sex.”

Nik choked on his apple and collapsed in a fit of coughing.

“I’ll get you some water, mate.” Cage practically leapt off the sofa and propelled himself into the kitchen. When he returned, he handed the glass to Nik but remained standing.

Robin laughed. “You okay, Niko?”

“Go to bed, Robin.” Nik wiped tears from his eyes, and Melissa wasn’t sure if it was from choking or laughing or the aftereffects of the fire.

“You coming with me? I had my heart set on not sleeping alone tonight.”

Nik closed his eyes and seemed to be counting to ten. “Go to bed, Robin.”

Okay, this girl was way over the top. Melissa began to understand Mirren’s amusement by her—except she was a loon, not an eagle. And Cage was acting like a bashful tween boy seeing breasts for the first time since infancy.

“I, uh, think I’ll go and take a shower.” He looked at Melissa, at Robin, at the floor. His voice sounded strained and oh-so-British. “Right, then. Off I go.”

“You’ll need to come with me afterward, to daysleep,” Melissa called after him. “Aidan wants us in the lieutenants’ space from now on.” She looked at Robin. “Both of us.”

Was that a look of irritation flashing across Robin’s face for a split-second? If so, it was replaced soon enough with a smile. “I don’t want him when he’s sleeping. I want him wide awake. So sweet dreams, my fangy friends.”

With that, she finished off the last bite of her chicken leg, tossed it into the kitchen trash, and ran her fingers across Cage’s ass on her way past him down the hallway, where he remained frozen halfway between the common room and the bathroom.

The door to one of the back bedrooms closed with a firm click, which seemed to bring Cage out of his stupor. “Right,” he mumbled, turning to walk down the hallway. “Shower.”

Melissa turned to Nik, who watched her with narrowed eyes such a dark, liquid brown they looked almost as black as his hair.

“What?” she asked him. “You have something to say?”

He studied her a few seconds. “Only that this could get really messy and I don’t want to see Robin get hurt.”

Like that was possible. “I think Robin can take care of herself.” Melissa studied him in return. Were he and that naked little jaybird involved? “You seem possessive of Robin, protective even. But not quite jealous. I can’t quite figure you guys out.”

He wrapped his apple core in a napkin and threw it in the trash. “I could say the same about you and Cage Reynolds.”





CHAPTER 14

Matthias slammed the cheap hotel phone receiver back onto its base. Another accident in Penton, but only a partial success. The real target, Cage Reynolds, had survived.

“It was not a total failure, mein Freund,” Frank had told him in that oily politician’s voice that got on Matthias’s last nerve. By God, when all this was over, he’d add Frank Greisser to his elimination list. It was a long list.

Not a total failure, no. The little girl Aidan Murphy kept with him like a mascot had been injured, as well as at least one other scathe member. Frank had yet to get more than a cursory report from whomever he had on the inside.

That person wasn’t doing a very good job, if Frank’s only requests of Matthias this time were to explain the relationship between Melissa Calvert and Cage Reynolds and provide background on Mark Calvert.

Why did anybody care who fucked whose wife?