He did the single-brow thing again, which in turn did things to her acidic stomach, not all of them unpleasant. “But she’s seventeen.”
“And, as last time proved, not quite able to keep her family’s movements to herself,” she said, shaking her head over Abacus, and a trashed hotel room, and Cassandra’s tearful denials.
Toly nodded, glancing momentarily toward brother and sister on the chaise. He’d been there, Raven knew, at the gallery. The day Cassandra might have been taken, and Reese actually had been. Later, once things had died down, Fox had said he’d pressed a teenage boy up against a wall and put a knife to his throat.Would have killed him without blinking, I expect, he'd said, and shrugged to say he would have done the same.
That attitude – her family’s attitude – had shaped Raven’s. Had made her mercenary. Had Toly killed that boy, she wouldn’t have spared so much as a backward thought for him. Was only glad that he’d been there that day, and that Cass was here now, whole and safe.
Why, then, was she so bloody frightened all the time these days?
As if reading the shift in her thoughts, Toly turned back to her. Stared. Penetrating. Inscrutable. Silent. He looked at her with a question she couldn’t decipher, but which he wouldn’t voice.
She sighed, too tired and stretched-thin to bother with giving him the brush-off he deserved. In her weakest moments, when she let propriety slip, and didn’t bother with her professional veneer – didn’t remind herself that she’d spent years building up a tolerance for Lean Dogs and all their bullshit, no matter how physically attractive or charming they proved – she could admit to herself that hefascinatedher.
She’d never known a Dog who could keep his mouth shut. Presumably, the quiet ones existed, but the ones she’d met wore confidence as easily as their cuts. There were the flirtatious ones, and the ones who treated her like a sister, since she was sister to so many of their club brothers. The old-timers who liked to tell stories, and the young ones who couldn’t shut up. Some were shy…but that wasn’t Toly. He was confident. He was precise – not a single movement wasted. He didn’t fidget, didn’t chew his nails, didn’t sigh, or roll his eyes. He was like a ghost, unnoticed until he fell into her sightline. But he lacked, say, Reese’s eerie, inhuman blankness. Reese would cock his head like a bird, or like an extraterrestrial struggling to understand human customs. Toly, on the other hand, possessed the countenance of a man who’d seen much, and knew more, and held all the answers – but who felt not the slightest need to share or contribute. That was a wholly different kind of confidence.
In her world of flattery and word games, it was a confidence she found distractingly attractive.
The whole cheekbones, pouty mouth situation didn’t hurt, either.
“What?” she finally asked, when his silence persisted. “Just…what?”
His frown was a slight thing; it drew light across his lower lip to the hole where his ring sat. She hadn’t seen it in a while, not since he’d started “working” for her; it was black, if she remembered correctly. “You should call Bennet.” His accent was still a surprise – but a lovely one. “Tell him to call early.”
Her turn to frown. “Why would I do that?” Bennet was the Dog assigned to her off-the-clock. Sixty, battle-hardened, a three-time divorcee and father of five, he was gruff, friendly, and she had the distinct sense that Maverick trusted him not to say or do anything inappropriate in her home. She was rather fond of him, admittedly, and Cass loved him.
But the sound of his voice didn’t elicit a pleasant shiver, and he didn’t stare at her in a way that left her flushed, angry…flattered.
“Are you that desperate to be rid of me for the day?” she asked with a mocking smile…though her voice held traces of bitterness she hadn’t been able to quell. She didn’t want him to leave early, she realized; wasn’t ready to swap his dark energy for Bennet’s paternal bonhomie.
His frown deepened.Cute. “You need some rest,” he said, “and you won’t get that here.”
She didn’t like being told what she needed, not by anyone, not even family. It was the fastest way to sour her mood.
She folded her arms. “If I remember correctly, Maverick gave you instructions to watch for threats, not to advise on my sleeping habits.”
He didn’t back down, tone unargumentative, but firm. “My instructions are to keep you safe, and it’s hard to be safe when you can barely stay awake.”
She leaned forward and flicked her coffee cup. “I’m plenty awake. As you can see – as you’ve assisted me with, in fact.” Then, to her great horror and shame, she yawned.
She spun her chair away, and covered her mouth to try to hide it, but it was too late.
He snorted. “Right.”
“I have a business to run, thank you very much,” she hissed, when she’d finishedyawninglike an absolute tit. “An international one. It operates in two time zones and I can’t merely step away from it. Telling me to rest is trite and unhelpful.”
He studied her a moment. The sour curl of his mouth revealed a dimple normally hidden by his persistent lack of expression. “Earlier. When I said I scared you–”
“Youdidn’t.” Fear had become her constant companion, a shadow that she couldn’t shake, not in the shower, most definitely not in sleep. But it was a secret companion. No one had detected it. No one but Toly. “I’m notscared.”
His head tilted. Come on.
His voice was low, just for the two of them, not meant to be overhead by Miles and Cass over on the chaise. It feltintimate; too-knowing and too-familiar. “You’ve run this agency for a long time. You built it. And you didn’t do that drinking six cups of coffee a day on an empty stomach.”
She glared at him – because he was right.
And he didn’t react – because he was an unflappable Russian robot.
The sound of the door opening again drew her attention, and breaking eye contact was both a relief and a dropped-stone of disappointment.It’s only because I enjoy a challenge, she reasoned. She certainly didn’t enjoyhim.
