I stepped forward, wanting to finish it, wanting to punish him for everything he was putting me through, but somehow I got the urge under control and stopped several inches away, my fist clenched and body shaking with fury.
"You ever threaten him like that again—"
He rose and the force of his anger hit me like a ton of bricks. It was all I could do not to step back, to remember this man was just a wolf and didn't hold half the threat of some of the other foes I'd faced.
But as I met him glare for glare, he seemed far, far worse.
"I am your soul mate," he said flatly. Coldly. "I will do whatever it takes to possess and control what is mine. And if it means destroying everything you hold dear, then that is precisely what I will do."
"But you don't want me. You don't want this." My voice rose, until I was almost shouting at him. "So what is the fucking point?"
He smiled again. Once again, it was a cold and harsh thing to behold. "The point, as I have already said, is the fight. It's winning out over base emotion. It's being in control."
I stared at him for several seconds, thinking nothing, feeling nothing, my mind seemingly frozen and his words echoing around in the emptiness of my thoughts.
I was never going to win this fight, because the mere act of fighting was what he wanted, what he enjoyed. No matter what I did, I was going to lose.
If he wanted control, then I'd give it to him.
Or at least, give him the illusion of it.
I stepped back, turned around, and picked up my coffee. "Fine," I said. "You win. I'll spend the night with you."
Surprise flickered through his eyes. "Really? You're giving up, just like that? Somehow, I'm not quite believing that, Riley."
"I don't care what you believe." I rubbed my eyes and suddenly felt a hundred years older. "You want me, you can have me. It's as simple as that."
He raised an eyebrow, the disbelief still very evident, then he held out a hand. "Fine. Come with me now."
I hesitated, then placed my fingers in his. His grip was warm, fierce, and—God help me—a tremor of anticipation ran down my spine. He smiled, obviously sensing the hunger I just couldn't control, then led me from the kitchen, back down the hall and into his bedroom.
Where we made love, again and again, until our bodies were spent and our wolves sated and all I wanted to do was cry.
But I managed to place the tracer at the base of his neck, just near the hairline as I'd been told, so at least the night was not a total waste.
When we finally slept, it wasn't wrapped in each others arms, but apart—a physical sign of a distance that would never be bridged, no matter how much fate and our souls might wish it.
When I woke, I was alone.
I lay in the bed with the sheets twisted around my body, listening to the silence, drawing in the air.
Kye wasn't here.
Hadn't been here for several hours, if the fading aroma of him was anything to go by.
Part of me wanted to hope that by giving in, I'd won the war, but I knew that would be a false hope. Kye hadn't believed I'd meant what I'd said, so he'd be back. And probably when I least expected it.
I untangled the sheets from my legs and sat up. Despite the long hours of intense and often rough sex, I felt refreshed. Maybe because when I finally had slept, I hadn't dreamed.
I glanced around the room, noting for the first time it had little in the way of comfort. Beside the bed and a small, somewhat moth eaten armoire, there was little else in the room. No personal knickknacks, no paintings or mirrors, no clothes lying about. I frowned and walked across to the armoire. It was empty.
A walk through the rest of the house gave the same result. Kye hadn't just left the bed, he'd left the premises—lock, stock and decent coffee.
I cursed myself for being an idiot and trusting that he'd actually keep his half of the bargain, and stalked into the bathroom to catch a shower. There was no way I was leaving this house reeking of him.
And there, resting on the top of a clean towel that was sitting next to the basin, were several sheets of paper. A quick glance at them revealed not only a printout of my suspect, but what information Kye had found on him.
I wasn't sure whether to be annoyed or amused.
I had my shower and got dressed, then grabbed the papers and headed for the front door.
Only to run straight into my brother's chest.
Chapter Ten
"Ow," I said, rubbing my nose as I stepped back. "What the hell are you doing here, Rhoan?"
"I was about to ask you the same fucking question." He'd shoved his hands on his hips and was glaring at me fiercely.
I frowned and wondered what the hell was going on. "I'm getting information about the case. Why?"
"Because you car was found abandoned over near Vinny's, your com-link is turned off, and you weren't answering your phone." He thrust his fingers through his hair, and for the first time I noticed the tension in him. "We thought the worst."
I raised my eyebrows. "Why would you think that? You've always known when I'm in serious trouble in the past."
"Serious trouble, yes, but there's been times when you've been hurt and in trouble, and I haven't felt a thing." He hesitated and looked sheepish. "I guess I just panicked."
"Whatever game Kye is playing, it doesn't involve hurting me physically." Not yet, at least. "And my com-link isn't turned off. Not completely, anyway. I could hear Jack. He just can't hear me."
Given what I'd been doing last night, that had been a very sensible option.
"Well, the Directorate is getting nothing from your comlink, just an odd sort of deadness. Hence the panic." His gaze swept me, as if reassuring himself that I really was okay, then rose again. He frowned. "When did you start wearing an earring?"
"I'm not."
He reached out and plucked something off my left ear. It was small and round, with a blue stone at its heart. "Now I can feel you."
I barely even heard what he was saying, thanks to the fact that the minute he removed the earring, Jack's voice began to rebound loudly inside my head.
"Jack, slow down, I can't understand a damn word you're saying," I said, then added quickly, before he had a chance to blast me. "It appears I picked up some sort of electronic device that was blocking the com-link and maybe even telepathy."
"There's no device out there capable of that." His voice was gruff and it wasn't all anger. Concern was there as well, and that warmed me.
"Then maybe we'd better check out the device Rhoan just took off my ear, because I only began hearing you once it was removed."
Had Kye planted it on me? I couldn't remember him actually doing it, but then, he'd played my body like a maestro last night and would have had any number of chances to stick something on my skin without me being aware. After all, I had done exactly that to him. But why would he bother? He surely had to know that me being incommunicado would bring the cavalry running, and that we'd find the bug or whatever it actually was sooner rather than later. Especially given how obvious it was.
Maybe he simply didn't realize the com-link was also a tracker. Or maybe he simply enjoyed the thought of creating a little chaos.
"There's several bits of good news to make up for the bad," I added. "I managed to place the tracer on Kye—"
"Excellent," Jack cut in. "Once research hones in on the signal, we'll be able to monitor the bastard's movements. And we'll know whether he's anywhere near if we have another murder."
True. And I really did hope he wasn't, because that would only create a bigger mess than there already was.