Dangerous (25 page)

He might as well not have bothered trying. He could tell they all knew what was happening even though they never let on. However, he knew his people. He'd never be seen being anything other than professional with clients. But in Devon's case, Liam's people had suddenly become entirely too social. Devon was on a first-name basis with the day crews; even the K-9 leaders and the dogs were fawning over her. He'd never seen the shepherds fawn over anyone other than the NHK family before. They were even wary of their fellow workers from time to time, but with Devon? Puppies. Somehow, with Devon, they immediately got over their natural suspicion of Morphates, sensing something in her nature that let them know she was friend, not foe. They rolled and frolicked around her whenever she stepped onto the lawn. He supposed those were good terms to describe the human soldiers' behavior too. Frolicking and rolling, fawning happily, making friends. In a nutshell, getting entirely too comfortable.

Yet, how could he correct the problem when he was the most comfortable of them all? He hadn't slept in his own bed almost since the night he'd arrived there. Even the realization made him smile when he shouldn't be at all happy about his own deportment. On the plus side, Devon hadn't left the estate for any more ‘business meetings,' so he hadn't had to deal with that danger.

Liam watched her office window.

The sun was setting earlier every day, but like clockwork, at the point where the last true moments of full daylight still lingered, she pulled open the drapes. Still, he smiled when he saw her appear as usual. He ought to discourage anything that smacked of routine, but he'd come to enjoy seeing her like this every day just as he was winding up with one shift and about to debrief another. Autumn was digging in. The trees around them would grow bare and make it ever harder for a would-be assassin to sneak up on the property. A normal assassin, in any event. Devon's description of her attacker had been notification of a game changer. He'd been brooding for days on how to see an assailant that could blend into its background. Were there more like her? Devon didn't think it was likely. She explained a little more about the Morphate generations, spinning a wild card into this whole mess that he frankly could have done without.

He could see she was wearing a rather conservative outfit of a business skirt and matching cream-colored blouse. Conservative by her standards, at least. It was a mid-thigh miniskirt, showing off her incredible legs, and with the sunlight hitting her just right, the silk blouse showed the shadows of her skin color and the fact that she never wore a bra. He had a running fantasy involving that window, a whole lot fewer men and animals around, and a striptease under glass, so to speak. She was already a tease, always looking so damned desirable without trying, and then each night when she saw him at last, he would see a change ripple through her. Then she
would
be trying, and it would show. Everything about her body would tune toward him, tempting him until he checked his damned watch to find out how long before he could secure the shift change and get up to her.

And tonight was no different. Her hands slid over her hips as she zeroed in on him. His body was becoming too readily trained to respond to her, he thought with a wince as it began to do just that. Pulse and breath, heat and rushing blood, all of which were out of his control. He had never known such lust in his entire life. It was almost what he would describe as all-consuming. He found nothing tiring, mundane, or routine about sex with Devon. Quite the opposite. She knew tricks he'd never heard of to stimulate a man. Others he'd heard of, but had never found anyone uninhibited enough to actually use them. Devon had no shame and no inhibitions. If there was one thing he could call predictable about her, it was that she would never complain about his being too rough, too big, or too anything. The more he was exposed to the bestial Morphate inside of her, the more he was discovering his wild side. He hadn't realized it before, but when the partner was as willing and enthusiastic as Devon was, all sorts of things began to come to mind.

Not that her mind wasn't working overtime as well, because he knew it was. Last night he'd had a fast, hard and primal lesson in just how little control he had over his own body, should she decide to take command. Liam smiled wolfishly when he recalled giving the lesson back to her rather handily.

Now, he watched her lay her palm against the glass, as though she wished she could reach out to him. He'd noticed that she was looking tired. Between work, playing most of the night, and the incessant thinking and fretting she was doing, he shouldn't be surprised. He didn't need as much sleep as most people, but it was beginning to wear on him too. He was a human trying to keep up with a Morphate's stamina and wildness. Of course it was going to wear on him. But he'd be damned if he was going to roll over and cry ‘uncle.'

And though she glowed with her usual energy, Liam could tell something was not right with Devon. What he ought to do was leave her alone for a night. He could sleep in his own room for a change, give her peace and rest.

“You're weak, Nash,” he muttered aloud when he realized that he wasn't likely to follow his own advice. How could he? He looked forward to seeing her all day long, to touching her and hearing her voice.

“Talking to yourself again, bro?” Colin asked, giving him a smirk before following his gaze up to the window. “Ah, the lovely walking distraction. You know, everyone else might be afraid to point out the obvious to you, but there's a reason why we don't get attached to our principals, Liam. I seem to recall you beating those reasons into me at every opportunity.”

“I am not going to discuss this,” Liam said shortly, turning his attention away from Devon and shocked to find just how difficult it was. He didn't need Colin to tell him he was in trouble. He knew it every moment of every day.

“I kind of think you have to,” Colin pressed. “You're going to get killed, Liam, if you don't get your whole head back in this game you're plotting.”

“And just what do you think I'm plotting?” he asked his brother sharply. “I'm doing what I was hired to do. No more, no less.”

“Now that's a big fat pile of bullshit if I ever heard one,” Colin snapped off. “I've been working under you for enough years to know you don't call up our reserves for a single job. You're arming us with these fancy new weapons of hers slowly but surely. You haven't hired any of us for our stupidity. Although the lot of them are a bunch of cowards for making me be the one to come and confront you like this. Guess they figure you are less likely to fire your own flesh and blood. I know differently, but I figure I better risk it or risk losing my brother altogether. Feel like clearing the air for some of us?”

Liam looked up over Colin's shoulder and saw all the members of both shifts lingering a short distance away instead of moving into their positions as they ought to be. He supposed this was their idea of an intervention. He couldn't be mad about it. They were only watching out for him. They understood the dangers in what he was doing, even if he couldn't force himself to listen to them.

“What would you have me do, Colin? Leave her out here exposed? Let her get killed by the next assassin to come through?” Not that they'd been much help on this last attempt. He had gone back through the video and searched for the point of entry the intruder had taken. Only watching extremely closely had he been able to see her; her progress was nothing more than a ripple along the walls as she seamlessly blended with her environment. It had prompted him to add more sensitive heat vision to the cameras. She'd been cool-blooded, whoever she was. She'd barely shown up on their previous equipment. But Roni had created something much more sensitive and though it hadn't been through full test trials yet, he'd seen no other option than to test it live in the field. He wouldn't let another one of those reptilian-based Morphates get past him again.

That would be unacceptable.

Liam looked back up to the window, seeing her there, standing with such beautiful perfection like an impeccably dressed mannequin. Only she could never be so cold and lifeless. Not even if she tried. And he understood there were very few things she tried and failed at. The way she was standing, her legs braced but curving up out of the heels she wore, the straight strength of her shoulders but the way her back curved at the lower spine so her backside was so distinctly rounded. So temptingly exaggerated. So begging for his hands on that flawless ass. . .

Perhaps an intervention wasn't such a far-fetched idea, Liam thought with a grim little smile. He was afraid he was quite addicted to her. But did it follow that the addiction was something harmful and dangerous for him to be indulging in? Well, it certainly wasn't safe, he admitted gravely to himself.

“I don't want you to leave her unprotected. However, I think you need to hand over your command.” Liam's attention snapped back to his brother ferociously, his anger at the thought quick and hot. Leave her safety to someone else? Absolutely not. But Colin was anticipating that reaction from him and so had a calming hand raised between them. “Jackson White Feather. He's wrapped up his present job, or close enough to it that he could make himself free for this. You trust him, don't you?”

Of course he did. Otherwise Liam wouldn't have entrusted him to manage his own security details. But . . .

“I'm not leaving. Get used to the idea.” He snapped it out like the badass drill instructor he had once been for the Secret Service and the Federated Special Forces. It was a part of himself he only tapped into when he wanted to frighten others into submission.

“I didn't say leave. I said have Jackson take over the teams. Do I look stupid to you? I know you're too much of a control freak to put her safety entirely into the hands of someone else. Plus, I kinda think you're sweet on her,” Colin dared to tease him. He held up a hand again to stay the threatening growl that bubbled up out of his brother. “I'm saying you can focus on being one-on-one with her while Jackson takes over the big picture. You know he'll take any and all input you want to add to the detail work. But you said yourself you were pissed off that you were downstairs closing windows when she needed you to be by her side. She needs a one on one. That much is very clear. Make yourself a one on one. Let's keep you right on top of her . . . officially as well as . . . well, far be it from me to assume what you two like to do position-wise.”

Liam reached out and cuffed his brother for the smirk on his lips. Colin let him make contact. He'd do whatever it took to rearrange things to a safer, better detail. Including let his big brother get a hit in.

The thing was, Liam knew his baby brother was right. He'd known it from the moment he'd first pulled Devon into his arms. And he'd felt it most keenly when he'd walked in on Devon fighting for her life. He'd been armed with the best in anti-Morphate weaponry and what good had it done her? She'd been forced to fight barehanded. Alone. Wounded.

Liam exhaled long and slow.

“I'll put a call into Jackson later tonight. But don't think you won any points over me,” he said sternly to his brother, lest the kid get a swelled sense of importance. “I was planning to call him in in a few days anyway. Him and his whole team, now that they're free. I have a feeling we're going to need them.”

The information made Colin frown. Liam was definitely girding up for a war. Colin was okay with going to war for his brother. He'd follow him into any fight. Hell, that was his job. But he was worried that Liam hadn't thought through the ramifications of this particular war. Colin and the rest of the team had their suspicions on where this was going. They weren't stupid. Nor were they afraid to follow Liam into whatever hell he chose for them. He just hoped his brother was thinking with his head and not his dick. He gave his head a mental shake. He'd never thought he'd have to question Liam on a matter like this. But everything about this job had been sideways from the start. Not the least of which being the way their commander had fallen flat for their principal.

Colin wanted to confront her. He'd do whatever it took to get her to back off so his brother would go back to being the sharp, flawless soldier they were all used to. But while he was willing to press his brother, he knew it would be incredibly out of line to interfere with her. Liam would instantly shut down and block him out. He'd probably punch him in the head while he was at it. It was hard to say for sure because he'd never seen Liam act like this, never seen him break all of his own rules before. Honestly, it was like dealing with a stranger. A stranger ten times more human and flawed than the unshakable, untouchable Liam.

“Hey, Liam,” Colin said absently as these thoughts rolled through his head.

“Mmm?”

“I'm glad to see you happy.”

And in the end, that's what it came down to. Liam was happy. Happy in a way they'd never seen before. In a way that was delightful to witness.

Colin wasn't going to be the one to fuck that up. Happiness was so fragile in this environment that it was very likely to fall apart all on its own.

And that was going to be a damn shame, he thought, as he turned away before Liam could respond to his remark.

 

Devon had given Liam all the outward appearance of things going back to normal these past few days. No mean trick, that. Liam was a very shrewd man. But things were far from being normal. If Ambrose thought she was simply going to sit here while he took pot shots at her, he was sorely delusional. She was the female Beta of Dark Manhattan. As Liam had pointed out, she was the second most powerful female Morphate on the planet. She had bided her time long enough, played victim long enough.