“Everything can’t be blamed on the Rogues, Nick,” Rome replied brusquely.
Kalina thought the connection was with Raul Cortez and now the papers she’d seen on Rome’s computer, but she wasn’t about to tell him that. Not yet.
He wanted her to trust him, and to an extent she did. But there was something else going on here, something she wasn’t even sure Rome and his cohorts knew about. So until then she would keep it under wraps.
“Who are the Rogues?” she asked, hoping to gain more info and steer them away from the part of the conversation that involved her staying in this house.
“Bad-ass shifters who think they’re taking over,” Nick said then cleared his throat. “They were born Shadow Shifters, but somewhere along the line thought they could do better on their own.”
X intervened. “We’re thinking they might be starting to make their move here in the States.”
“The three that approached you at that party were Rogues. They knew who you were and followed you home. When I was at your place yesterday, I picked up their scent. They’d been there.”
Putting a hand to her throat, Kalina refused to show the fear coursing through her body. “In my house? Why?” Then she remembered the pictures she’d found the night of Kensington’s banquet. The pictures that were in her house and she’d wondered how they got there.
“That’s what we’d like to know,” X stated.
They all looked at her now, but she had to admit that they weren’t looking at her like she was the enemy. More like she was the point of interest and they had to keep an eye on her if they wanted to get to the bottom of whatever was going on.
“I told Rome I didn’t know those guys.”
“Have you ever seen them before?”
She shook her head. Then paused, remembering the guy who’d delivered the pictures to her apartment. No, she would know that guy anywhere. At the memory a sliver of heat eased down her spine. “No. Never,” she said, clearing her throat.
“Get everyone together,” Rome told X. “Tell Eli I want him to stay here with Kalina.”
“Where are you going?” Nick asked Rome before Kalina could get the question out herself.
“I have something I want to check on myself.”
Something, Kalina thought, that she was thinking of checking on herself. She didn’t say anything, but her plan was simple. Wait until Rome left then follow him.
Chapter 25
Three hours later Kalina found out that plan was a lot easier thought than done.
The man named Eli—or should she say the guard from Hell—kept so close an eye on her, all she could do was go to the bathroom alone. He sat right outside Rome’s bedroom door, but every time she moved he knocked and came in, like he was expecting to see her hanging over the balcony trying to escape. Which she’d thought of doing a couple times.
Ferrell was calling her cell phone like there was no other number in his phone’s memory, but she refused to answer. Whatever he wanted with her Kalina was going to feel a lot better if he went through Agent Wilson and the DEA to get. She didn’t want to deal with Ferrell on her own ever again.
But the next call that came in was one that startled and cheered her.
“Hey Mel,” she answered.
“Hi, Kalina! It’s so great to hear your voice. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for days.”
Kalina sighed, guilt relaxing on her shoulders. “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to call you about the other night.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I just figured you’d had enough of Stephen. Anyway, it’s been a while since we’ve chatted. Want to have lunch?”
Kalina looked around the room. She didn’t actually want to have lunch with Mel, but she did want to get the hell out of here. She’d felt caged, trapped for the better part of the day.
“Ah, sure, that sounds like a good idea.”
“Great. I’m off today so I can pick you up in about an hour. I have one quick errand to run. Then we can get a bite to eat, do some shopping. You know, have a girls’ day.”
Mel sounded so excited, a little too excited for Kalina’s taste, but it was the excuse she was looking for to go against Rome’s wishes.
“Good plan,” she said then rattled off the address and disconnected the call.
It took Kalina about ten minutes after the call to realize she probably shouldn’t have told Mel to pick her up from Rome’s house. That would certainly generate more questions about her relationship with Rome, questions she definitely did not want to answer. But it seemed like her only way out and right now, getting out to learn what was going on with Rome was much more important than trying to figure out how to handle Mel’s inevitable questions about her love life.
Rome had asked her to trust him. She did. But he also needed to trust her. She still had a job to do, even if it had shifted focus in the last couple of days. Besides, did he really expect to keep her locked up in his bedroom until he returned? Well, if he did then he didn’t know her well at all.
Kalina went into the bathroom and switched on the water in the jet pump tub. Eli wouldn’t dare come into the bathroom to check on her. At least she hoped he wouldn’t. Sitting on the side of the tub, Kalina thought about all that had happened to her in the past few weeks: the job promotion, seeing Rome again, falling in love. With a heavy sigh she tried not to think about the last too deeply. Rome hadn’t said he loved her, just that he wanted her, needed her. That should be enough since Kalina had never heard that from anyone before. But somehow it wasn’t.
She hadn’t told him she loved him, either. No matter how strong a woman she considered herself to be, that sort of rejection wasn’t high on her to-do list. Besides, how did one go about loving a shape shifter? That was a world she knew nothing about, but she admitted it intrigued her.
When about ten minutes had passed and the tub threatened to overflow she turned off the water and went back out into the bedroom, making a big show out of going to take a bath. Then she returned to the bathroom, pulling the door closed loudly. She waited a beat and when she didn’t hear Eli attempting to come in, she moved to the double glass doors. Quietly she undid the lock and slid the glass door open just enough so that her body could slip through the opening. On the balcony she eased over the railing and prayed she didn’t break a bone on the one-story drop down. An army of soft blue hydrangea bushes broke her fall as she landed steadily on her feet.
She had no idea if Rome had cameras that scanned his property or not, but figured with the secret he was guarding he probably did. So crouching low, she moved beside the line of trees that ran along the back of the house. When they abruptly stopped, giving way to the front lawn, the winding driveway, and a small fountain, she tried to figure the best way to get to the gate without being spotted.
It was a hot sticky day, the sun beaming down with a vengeance. A light sheen of perspiration had already begun to line her back when she finally decided it was do or die. Kalina broke out into a run, her legs moving swiftly, smoothly beneath her as she covered the length of the front yard with extreme ease. Larger, fuller trees lined the iron gate that circled the perimeter of Rome’s house. She slipped through a section of them to a narrow space between gate and trees then waited. She was close enough to the front entrance that she could make herself visible as soon as Mel pulled up but still guarded enough by the trees that she was positive any cameras in the house couldn’t see her.
The trees also provided some shade as she stood waiting for Mel to arrive. All the while thoughts of Rome and how upset he would be when he found her gone filtered through her mind. Her heart ached a little because she didn’t want to hurt him in any way. He’d asked her never to leave him, but she hadn’t promised that she wouldn’t.