He cut her a quick glance before looking over his shoulder. “A Banoth.”
“I’ve never heard of them.”
“They don’t make an appearance very often.” He sounded winded, but not from the running. It was more of a desperate, worried tone, probably from having to deal with the Banoth. And her.
He truly didn’t want to see her hurt. The thought made her want to throw up again. She should yank her hand from his and take off in another direction. Put distance between them and make her own escape. But she couldn’t. She’d found her next assignment, and like it or not, her investigation had started. The fact that he wasn’t like the marks she’d been assigned in the past complicated things, though. From the first second she’d met those Veilers, she’d known they were bad seeds. Hugh seemed like a genuinely good guy.
Which begged the question: why him? In all her years with P.I.E., not once had her investigation proved the mark innocent of any wrongdoing.
If she were smart, she’d figure out a way to let the Banoth have his way with Hugh. Let the beast do the job for her. The job that she’d been warned would be her last if she didn’t succeed.
Hot breath hit the back of her neck along with a little moisture. Eww. The lousy monster was breathing down her neck and spitting? He royally pissed her off.
“Faster,” she yelled, willing her feet to move quicker. Regardless of what she’d do about Hugh, at the moment she thought it wise to stay by his side. Two against one Banoth were pretty good odds, considering who they were.
“In here,” he called, making an abrupt left through an open warehouse door. He slammed it shut behind them and threw down the metal reinforcement bar.
A loud bang and some pretty serious bumps in the door followed, but it remained closed.
“I guess they can’t crash through steel.” She put her hands on her knees and bent over to catch her breath.
“No, but they’re very resourceful so it’s only a matter of time before it figures out another way in.”
Hugh looked around the expansive room filled with crates and machinery. Just enough light from the skylights overhead allowed Tess to see they’d snuck into some sort of manufacturing plant. After surveying the place in hopes of finding a blinking red exit sign, she turned and found Hugh staring at her.
More emotion—pain? Confusion? Trust?—crossed his face than she was comfortable seeing. Falling into those amazing eyes of his, she decided she needed to find out more before she, or anything else, took him out. She needed to play it cool and keep in contact. Do her investigating with her work face firmly in place. The face she’d perfected over the years. The face that allowed her to get close to her targets so they trusted her. Right before she eliminated them. This time was no different. It couldn’t be.
Could it?
“You’re not scared,” he said, running a hand through his hair.
“I don’t scare easily.” Why oh why did he have to stir something warm and hopeful inside her?
He took a few steps closer before reaching out and wiping a drop of perspiration from her forehead with the pad of his thumb. “Glad to hear it.”
She batted his hand away, terrified that she didn’t hate wolfen as much as she used to. “Keep your hands to your—”
He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her snug against his body. The contact sent tingles she should not be feeling straight to between her legs. Before she could protest—not that she really wanted to—he dropped them both to the floor.
Something smelling worse than a skunk-spray-cow-dung cocktail flew past their heads and landed with a splat on the wall behind them. Hugh’s arms cushioned their fall so her backside landed gently on the concrete floor. His rock hard body remained over hers and she tried not to think about her breasts pressed against his chest.
“These hands come in handy sometimes. You might want to remember that.”
He jumped to his feet and extended one of those very fine hands to help her up.
She took it with secret gratitude. The instant she was vertical again, another stink bomb whizzed past them, sparing her from saying thank you. “What is that?”
“Poison to you, a pain in the ass to me. Let’s go.” He released her and ran in between the heavy-duty shelving units lining the warehouse.
She followed right on his heels. “I guess the Banoth found a way in.”
“Yeah, and it won’t stop until it sticks its fangs into one of us.”
“Us? I think it’s after you, big guy. I’m hardly the type to interest a big hairy beast like that. You must have ticked off its mother or something.” She felt a grin flank her face. Her juices were flowing, her body was pumped. Hands down, this was one of the best romps she’d had in a long time.
A piercing cry—like fingers scraping on chalkboard magnified times ten—echoed through the warehouse. The noise sent a chill over her lips and down the back of her legs, eliminating some of the excitement pumping through her veins.
“That doesn’t sound good,” she said as they turned down another aisle, this one darker and narrower.
Hugh slowed and then stopped, allowing a few seconds to pass before he spoke. “It means there’s more than one of them.”
“Don’t tell me they travel in pairs.”
“Okay. I won’t tell you.”
He stood only inches away, his nearness good and bad. She could see the wheels turning in his head, and noticed he seemed to be assessing the situation like he was clairvoyant. Which he kind of was.
“So with these killer senses of yours, you can smell and hear him even though we can’t see him?” She relaxed against the shelf, glad for the chance to catch her breath, and really happy to be on an adventure.
Her mind spun when he hesitated to answer. She could tell from the look on his handsome face that he was more concerned for her than himself. The regard caused something to shift inside her, like a vine twisting its way through her veins, awakening nerve endings she’d shut off. But feelings were something she couldn’t afford. She had a job to do. And if she discovered information about Hugh that justified his elimination, she’d follow through. Her life depended on it.
“Pretty much.” Something flashed in his blue eyes and he quickly looked away.
“Can you control your shifting?” She told herself to guard the things going on inside her head more carefully.
“Yes.”
“Are you thinking about shifting right now?”
“Yes.”
“Wanna jump off a bridge?”
“Ye—” His gaze jumped back to hers.
She smiled. “Just checking to see if you were listening. How about we grab a burger and fries when this over?”
He tiptoed closer. Her senses not too shabby either, she could feel the heat radiating off him, smell his masculine scent magnified by the intensity of the situation. She saw beyond the whites of his eyes to something that made her feel like she’d swallowed the tiny white, twinkling lights found in trees during the holidays. For a split second, she thought he might lean in and kiss her. She wanted him to lean in and kiss her.
Instead, his warm breath tickled her ear and he whispered, “Let’s focus on getting out of here alive.”
Blinking away the pleasant sensations circulating through her body, she silently cursed her trembling knees back into kickboxing mentality.
“No problem,” she said, her tone serious and tough.
What an idiot she was. He had no interest in her whatsoever. He’d flirted with her some, yes, but that was because he thought she might know something about Trey. Now that he knew she didn’t, as soon as he could ditch her at her car, she’d never see him again.