A spicy smell wove through the room and pulled her attention away. Her vision clouded over, and she breathed in deeply. Something smelled good. Very good. She looked around and stopped on Apollo.
His face was red and looked strained. She pulled in another deep breath, and his eyes whipped to hers. This time she could see the fire burning inside, and it made her shiver. It'd been a long time since she'd gotten any, too, and the bastard had to go and be annoyingly handsome.
Whatever was going on, she could feel it. Feel him. She couldn't do this. Whatever it was would come between her and her chances with Sol. She just couldn't have it. She'd need to keep the situation under control.
Val stood and bent over to look under the bed.
"What are you doing?" His words were strained as they came out.
She yanked hard and placed the suitcase on the bed.
When she turned, his eyes were firmly fixed on her ass.
"Packing." She shrugged.
She ignored the arousal she felt from him.
He turned away quickly, and she frowned. It was clear that he wasn't thrilled with her staying at Luna Lodge. She huffed loudly. What did she care? It wasn't her concern if he didn't want her to stay there. She would do what she needed to in order to meet her goal. In this case, everything and everyone was just a means to an end, including Apollo.
She heard the door open and turned from her position at her closet.
"Are you leaving?"
He paused in the door. His back was still to her, and she could see and feel the tension bound up there.
"I'll be in the car," he said gruffly. He glanced over his shoulder. He placed the glasses back over his eyes. "Don't be long."
Before she could even reply, the door was closed, and she was left staring at the white frame.
"Well, this is going to be fun," she grumbled.
Chapter Five
Apollo tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he waited in the car. It had been nearly fifteen minutes since he came outside, and she was still packing. He could hear her moving around in the tiny apartment, grumbling curse words every now and again.
He couldn't really be annoyed with her. After all, they hadn't bothered to all ahead with the job offer, but everyone felt this was a more secure way to go about it. For all they knew, the Group had her phone and computer tapped. They didn't need to hand their enemy any easy openings to use against them.
She cursed again.
She certainly wasn't like the other women he knew. At this point, he couldn't really say if that was a good or bad thing.
His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out. Sol.
He gritted his teeth and hit talk.
"Yeah," he said. The hostility was clear, but he couldn't help himself. This wasn't what he wanted to be doing, and he was still burned they hadn't put him back on rotation.
"Did she take the deal?" Sol asked, either ignoring the hostility or just not hearing it.
"She's packing now," he said and glanced up at the window. "I still think this is a bad idea."
Sol sighed on the other end, and he knew they were tired of this discussion. "She's the best one for the job."
Apollo's mouth formed a hard line, and he tried to keep himself in check. This was what they were waiting for.
"Something's not right with her," he said.
There was a pause on the other end, and he wondered if Sol was just trying to decide if he wanted to deal with him and his perceived paranoia. Sure, Apollo had been wrong about Rachel, but that didn't mean there weren't real threats still out there.
"What's not right?" Sol asked.
Apollo glanced back up at the window. Admitting the truth would signal his interest, but he had to say it. They needed to know the truth.
"She's a Vestal," Apollo said.
The line went quiet again. He scowled when there was a bark of laughter over the phone. "Well, that's a good thing, right?"
"It's not like that," Apollo ground out. "She's not like the others. There's something fishy about her. The smell goes in and out," he said and sighed. "There's just something calculated about her. I don't trust her. It's like she knows the effect she's having on me. I can see it in her eyes. When I look at her … I'm just saying, she's more than just some tech, I think."
"That is serious," Sol said.
Apollo nodded. Finally, someone was listening to reason.
"Did they check your nose?" Sol asked.
"What?"
"Your nose," Sol asked impatiently. "Did Rachel check your nose?"
Anger pumped through him. "This isn't from the goddamn chip," he fumed. "I'm telling you there's something else at play here. You mark my words, she's working with them. She could be another Vanessa sent to manipulate us, just not as crazy."