Chapter 1
***MALCOLM***
Malcolm raced over to the idling car, threw open the door, shoved his backpack into the backseat, then jumped in and slammed the door. “Go, go, go,” he shouted, heart pounding, adrenaline racing through his system as they peeled out of the parking lot.
They were only a block away when they heard the explosion, and they both turned around in their seat to look, wincing when they saw the huge plume of smoke. “Was that supposed to happen?” he asked, turning back around. “No one said anything about a bunch of smoke. I think something went wrong.”
“Where the hell were you?” Walker demanded, shooting him a dirty look. “One second you were behind me, then I was getting into the car by myself. We should have been out of there five minutes ago.”
“We’re fine, we didn’t get caught, so just relax,” he said. “I was lugging that backpack with all those tools in it and then…well…I ran into someone.”
“You ran into someone?” Walker asked, looking over at him again. “What the hell does that mean?”
He didn’t answer right away; he was suddenly swept back to the moment, and the rush of desire shooting through his body made it impossible to speak.
He’d been following right behind Walker, keeping up with no problem, then the tools in the backpack shifted, and he was forced to stop and rearrange them.
When he looked up, Walker was gone, and he was sure he heard footsteps behind him.
Fighting off a wave of panic, he’d started running while still looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him.
Just as he came out of the trees onto the sidewalk that ran around the parking lot, he crashed into something soft and warm that let out a little cry of surprise as they went down in a tangle of limbs.
It took him a second to absorb what had happened, then he became acutely aware that it was a woman under him.
She smelled like sugar cookies and something even more appealing he couldn’t describe.
Her breasts were pressed up against his chest, and her breath was tickling his ear.
Desire roared to life with no warning, sending waves of need coursing through his body and waking the creature inside him, who was instantly curious about all the commotion.
The woman began to squirm under him, her grunts of distress finally breaking through the turmoil going on inside him, and he tried to roll off her, but the backpack had him pinned firmly in place.
He finally managed to shift it and tumbled into the snow next to her, doing his best to ignore the creature’s unhappiness at the loss of contact.
When he looked over at her, a pair of very shocked hazel eyes stared back at him, and another wave of desire washed over him.
He was frozen in place for several seconds.
The melting snow soaking into his back finally broke the spell, and he scrambled to his feet, the backpack almost taking him down again.
He managed to stay on his feet and held out his hand to the woman, unable to walk away and leave her on the ground.
When she put her hand in his it was like putting his finger into a light socket.
Energy traveled up his arm, making his entire body begin to tingle, and by the shocked gasp the woman let out, he was sure she felt it too.
Her hazel eyes got even bigger, then she quickly pulled her hand out of his and backed up a couple of steps, shaking her head.
Over her shoulder, he could see Walker already at the car. “I’m sorry, I hope you’re okay,” he said. “Just pretend you didn’t see me.”
He turned and headed for the parking lot, fighting the urge to turn and look back at the woman who’d affected him more than anyone ever had without even speaking a word to him.
Now sitting there next to Walker, the whole experience had begun to take on a dreamlike feeling, and he wasn’t even completely sure it had even happened.
“Hey, earth to Malcolm,” Walker said. “What the hell happened?”
“Nothing, I just slipped and fell, and I hit my head on a tree,” he said, feeling a little bad for lying. “Those stupid tools kept sliding around and knocking me off balance; you should have carried some of them.”
“Hey, I didn’t pack the bags, blame Cooper,” Walker said, relaxing behind the wheel. “Do you think it worked?”
“I sure hope so, I don’t want to do that again,” he said, then shrugged. “It was Gabe’s plan. He knows what he’s doing. I’m sure nothing went wrong.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Walker said. “I don’t think we were spotted, but we need to make sure we have our stories straight.”
“We were at the library all night,” he said, with an annoyed sigh. “We’ve been over this a hundred times, Walker. I know for a fact that Jackson and Abby checked books out for us to create a paper trail. I already got an email notification, so quit worrying.”
“I can’t help it, I can’t afford to get in any more trouble,” his friend said. “The only reason I agreed to do this is because that crypt is important, and it needed to be saved. Are you sure no one saw you?”
He hesitated a second, hating to have to lie again. “Not that I noticed,” he said, feeling terrible but unwilling to share his experience with anyone, still too unnerved by the entire thing. “You’re worrying for nothing.”
Walker shot him a look but didn’t say anything.
They pulled into the driveway a few minutes later, and he quickly made his escape, promising to come back downstairs once he’d changed.
In his room, he stared at himself in the mirror, replaying his encounter with the woman in his mind, alarmed when just the memory woke the dragon inside him and sent waves of desire racing through him.
The last thing he wanted now or in the future was a woman.
He’d seen enough of marriage and kids from his parents to know that it wasn’t for him.
Shaking his head, he told himself it didn’t matter.
He’d never see her again, and there was nothing to worry about.
Fate wasn’t playing games with him like it had with his friends.
The woman had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
She’d forget about him in a few days, just like he’d forget about her.
***Rose***
After dropping her sopping coat on the floor inside the front door of her little apartment, Rose headed straight for the shower, telling herself that her wobbly legs were just from the cold that seemed to have saturated her body.
She hadn’t meant to stay out so long, had only meant to take a quick tour of the campus, but her midnight wanderings led her farther than she’d anticipated, and she’d suddenly realized how dangerous it was to be out alone that late.
Her intuition had been right; it had been dangerous out there, but not for the reasons she’d thought.
Getting in the shower, she replayed the whole encounter in her mind as the hot water poured over her head and shoulders, surprised to find the tingles of desire she’d felt earlier come to life again.
Shaking her head, she wondered if she was crazy.
The man had mowed her down, then held her pinned to the ground, and she was thinking about kissing him? It made zero sense.
Even when it had been happening, she’d never been scared, something deep inside her had told her that he was safe, that he wouldn’t hurt her, but the attraction was something else entirely.
It had been instant and all-consuming until she realized that she couldn’t breathe, then she’d been lost again when their eyes met, unable to look away as desire began to build inside her.
When he’d finally scrambled to his feet, she’d been too shocked to move, even when the slushy snow began to soak through her coat.
Only his offer of help to stand had broken her paralysis.
Taking his hand had been a mistake. The contact had only intensified the feelings, and it was all she could do to get to her feet as warmth spread through her, followed by the insane urge to throw herself into his arms. Cheeks flaming with embarrassment at the thought of what she might have done if he hadn’t run away, she quickly finished her shower and got ready for bed, forcing herself not to think about the handsome stranger.
It was a chance meeting in the middle of the night, he probably wouldn’t even remember her in the morning, but as she slept that night, her dreams were full of the man who’d woken something inside her.
The phone ringing woke Rose the next morning, and she groped blindly for it, knocking it off the nightstand and under the bed, forcing her to get out of bed to retrieve it.
Cursing the obnoxious sound the phone was making, feeling like it must still be the middle of the night even though the sun was shining brightly, she crawled under the bed, grabbed the phone, and connected on the call to silence it.
“Good morning, sleepy head,” her mom said, her voice so chipper it made Rose’s head hurt.
“Your sister and I just wanted to call and tell you good luck on your first day tomorrow. I bet you’re really excited, you’re so lucky your dad was able to get you a job and an apartment. I don’t know what we’d do without him.”
“He’s not my dad,” she said, still half asleep. “I wish you wouldn’t call him that.”
“Well, he’s your stepfather, that’s close enough.
I don’t know why you keep fighting this.
Chloe calls him Dad,” her mom said. “It’s been six years, nothing is going to change.
Chet took us out of the gutter, young lady; he gave us a home, a family, stability, and it’s time you were grateful for everything he’s done for us. ”
She took a deep breath, ready to tell her mother the truth about her sainted husband, but she heard Chloe in the background begging to talk to her and let out a long sigh instead.
It wouldn’t do any good; her mother would only get upset, and Chet might find out she was bad-mouthing him again.
She couldn’t afford for that to happen, not now.
Instead, she counted silently to ten in her head, then put a smile on her face even though her mother couldn’t see it, and asked if she could speak to her sister.
She was pouring herself a cup of coffee when Chloe finally ran out of steam and they said their goodbyes, but before she could hang up, her stepfather got on the phone.
“Are you completely sure you understand what you’re supposed to do?
” he demanded. “I can’t afford to have you screw this up like everything else you’ve ever done. ”
Ignoring the temptation to hang up the phone, she took a deep breath, summoning all her patience for another conversation with the man who had been her tormentor for six years.
“Contrary to what you believe, I’m not an idiot,” she said, unable to hide the anger in her voice.
“I know what I’m supposed to do: get in good with the Sigmas through Malcolm and find out what happened to Diego and Sebastian, report back to you and no one else. ”
“Don’t get snotty with me, missy. Let me remind you what’s on the line here,” Chet snarled at her.
“Do this and do it right, or you and your sister will find yourselves out on the street. I might even kick your mom out, too, after all, she gave me what I wanted, and Ben is old enough now that he doesn’t need her.
Don’t you miss those days, living in a car, eating out of trashcans, such great memories… ”
Her heart froze. He’d threatened her mom and Chloe before, but he’d never gone that far. “Leave them out of it, this is between you and me,” she said, relieved her voice wasn’t shaking. “I said I’d do this and I will.”
“You’d better, I need to know what happened, it’s the only way I’ll become…president of the company,” he said, then paused. “And by the way, those weren’t threats, they were promises.”
The line went dead before she could respond.
She let out a long sigh as she turned it off, then slumped down at the little table in her tiny kitchen and put her head in her hands.
Tomorrow, she started a job she didn’t want, so she could spy on people she didn’t even know, for reasons that weren’t completely clear, and if she screwed up, the people she loved would be hurt.
It was an impossible situation, one she wasn’t prepared to navigate, but there wasn’t any choice; she’d have to figure it out as she went or face her stepfather’s wrath.