“Let’s just say you have a way of attracting trouble. I grew concerned.”
A small frown twisted his lips, all the emotion he permitted himself. His gaze flickered to the boy in the back seat, and he dropped the subject despite the obvious desire to take her to task. He didn’t have to say a word. Endangering other lives to pick out a lover didn’t seem so bright now.
A look out the back window showed the truck keeping pace.
“We won’t be able to outdistance him. If we can find a working power grid, I should be able to lose him in traffic.” Dominic took the next corner with a chirp of the tires.
Her ass slid across the seat, plastering her against the boy. Despite her graceless sprawl across his lap, he braced them both. Though not built with bulging muscles like the Ogre, he was no weakling, supporting her without effort, the steady strength very solid under her touch. Instead of worrying, he focused solely on protecting her, seemingly pleased at the attention.
And practically naked.
Uncomfortable with the picture, she untangled herself and scooted to the other side of the car. The temperature in the cab seemed to have risen. The scent of woods, his scent, followed her, wrapped around her and wouldn’t let her mind shuffle him away. He had to be eight to ten years younger than herself. The Ogre said she was supposed to be his protector. In spite of her mental protests, delicious heat at the touch of his skin continued to lick over her body, inviting so much more.
Dominic met her gaze in the mirror. “We can take care of the threat back at the house.”
A public confrontation would only draw attention. Attention she needed to avoid if she wanted to remain hidden. Trapped, Raven gave a subtle nod, hating the feeling of being cornered. They’d take them both home.
God help them all.
* * *
The large house they pulled up to was technically not hers, not even in name, but the great white monstrosity welcomed her with a little hum of energy it stored within its walls ever since she moved into the place. Proof that nothing was safe in her life without her power trying to hijack whatever it touched. With the house, she didn’t mind too much. It felt like home.
When she and a group of misfits escaped the labs, they also took whatever they could with them. Computer data, information on the experiments, background on the organization, money accounts, deeds to houses, stocks, whatever they could grab.
They were trained to be fast, efficient, and deadly. In one day, they had almost everything of value transferred over to a holding company, then sold and filtered through a half a dozen other companies. This house was one of the properties. She claimed it as her own. Her refuge. It wasn’t stealing, not really, since the property had been taken from its paranormal owner when they were inducted into the program.
It seemed fitting somehow.
Angry voices from the house drifted to them when Dominic cut the engine.
The gang.
Dominic exited the car, and she followed suit, the boy not far behind.
After escaping the program, they’d agreed the best survival method would be to stick around and work together to protect others of their kind. They met once a month and worked through potential threats that endangered the tenuous peace between paranomals and humans. It worked in theory. Not so much in actual practice. She usually stayed for the debriefing and then did her best to disappear until they left.
Dominic’s face hardened, his shoulders drew back then fell as he sighed. Bristles lined his jaw, giving him a haggard appearance. “Are you going to be all right with them?” He jerked his head in the direction of the two men standing next to the truck. The Ogre was talking, gesturing, the boy shook his head, pulling a bag and a case from the back of the truck.
“I’ll be fine.” She tried to smile, but the tightness in her face made it impossible.
“I’ll expect a report when I return.” He hesitated and studied the guys through narrowed eyes. Without another word, Dominic turned and disappeared inside the house. She didn’t envy him his job of leader.
As the men continued to argue, Raven kept her back turned in a false sense of privacy. She didn’t care what they said. She had more pressing concerns like what the hell she was going to do with the both of them.
While she had time alone, rare in the last week and she had a feeling even more so now, she allowed a little of the current overload stored at her center to dissipate harmlessly into the ground. Her muscles had the consistency of rubber and instantly missed the loss of spark. The ache in her body eased as every ounce of heat left.
When she’d settled into the house, the first order of business had been to remove any dead remains from the property within a mile radius. The last thing she needed was to accidentally re-animate a corpse when excess energy infiltrated the ground.