“No. Not fair is seeing you nearly run down by that car.” Rage filled his voice as his body pressed her harder into the door. “Not fair is feeling those bullets pelt around you, knowing you could die.” His fingers jerked inside her, as though he couldn’t resist thrusting, just a little, almost enough.
Enough to have her crying out, arching to her tiptoes, then falling back, fighting desperately to find that final sensation needed to pitch her over the edge.
“You almost died in front of my eyes, damn you,” he snarled before his teeth raked over her neck, his fingers flexing inside her. “For God’s sake, Morganna, why?”
She opened her mouth to speak, to spill every secret she had been trusted with. The information couldn’t be bought, but, oh God, it could be had. As she was drawing in the breath to confide every morsel of information, a hard knock vibrated against her cheek with enough force to shock her.
Clint stilled behind her as the knock came again, harder this time.
“If that’s your leather-clad Lothario, I’m going to kill him.”
She whimpered as Clint’s fingers slid from the aching depths of her pussy and he pulled her back as he stepped aside. He didn’t give her time to recover, didn’t give her the option to leave the room. He looked through the peephole as he released Morganna, pushing her slowly behind him as she stumbled, fighting to regain her balance, cursed, then swung the door open to face the four plainclothes DEA agents she worked with.
Joe Merino was no one’s fool. She saw the knowledge of what had been going on behind the door narrow his eyes as Craig’s muttered curse echoed behind him.
Joe flipped open the small wallet that carried his badge and identification. The DEA seal was clear, as were the others who stood around him.
“Clint, we need to talk.” Joe’s gaze flickered to Morganna before a tight smile curved his rough face. “If you don’t mind.”
“Well, well, well,” Clint drawled, glancing at her over his shoulder. “It looks like your cavalry is here. Do you think they’ll have my answers?”
Clint was more furious than he could remember ever being in his life. And there were times he had been damned mad. It wasn’t bad enough that he had learned the innocence that shone so bright in her eyes was false. No woman who embraced the submissive lifestyle could claim the degree of sexual innocence he had fooled himself into believing he saw within Morganna.
But added to that was the knowledge that she had managed to get herself tangled into a web so dangerous, it made his guts cramp in fear. Son of a bitch, he was going to kill Merino. If it was the last thing he managed to do in his life, the man was dead.
After the four men moved into the room, Clint gripped the side of the door and slammed it closed with a force that had Morganna flinching in surprise. His gaze sliced to her wide gray eyes, his jaw bunching with the effort not to put his arms around her, to hold her to him. To know she was safe.
“Buy insurance, Merino,” he growled as he turned from Morganna. “Good insurance. You don’t want your family to be out too much when they have to bury you.”
Joe Merino’s mobile lips kicked up in a cool grin as his brown eyes gleamed with wary amusement. “Come on, Clint; chill out, man. I had no idea she belonged to you.” He flashed Morganna a chastising look.
“Oh God, does this sound like a trashy novel or what?” Morganna piped up, her voice filled with disgust.
“I want to hear the explanations. I’m going to assume you’re working on the date rape case, and pray I’m wrong, because if I’m not, there’s going to be hell to pay once Reno finds out,” Clint ordered tersely
“Tattletale,” she grumbled.
He ignored her, merely staring back at Merino with narrowed eyes.
Joe shook his head mockingly as he stared back at Morganna. “Does your family even know what you do?” he finally asked her.
She pressed her lips tightly together.
Hell no, they didn’t.
Joe sighed. “She’s a DEA agent, Clint. One of the best rookies we have. I don’t know where that attack came from tonight, or who’s behind it, but this is Morganna’s first case and she hasn’t had time to draw that kind of notice yet.”
“It was probably a hit against him,” Morganna said. “I keep telling him he’s going to piss off the wrong person.”
“You set her up as bait,” Clint said, continuing to ignore her. Right now, it was his safest bet.
He couldn’t believe it. Morganna working with the DEA? That wasn’t possible. She couldn’t pull something like that off without Reno’s knowledge. And sure to God, Reno would have told him.
She couldn’t be doing this. She was too soft, too fragile. A man protected women like her; he didn’t allow them to be drawn into the middle of a nightmare.
“We’re investigating the hit,” Merino sighed as he pushed his hands into his slacks pockets and stared back at Clint consideringly. “I’m here out of consideration to you. Because I respect you. But Morganna is an agent with this force, Clint. I can’t have you jerking her out of the arena every chance you get.”
Joe Merino was one tough son of a bitch, despite the designer clothes he wore. He had resigned his commission with the SEALs five years before, after his wife’s death, and gone to work with the DEA instead. He was snake-mean when dealing with criminals and not much nicer when dealing with friendlies.
But he was a damned good agent, and Clint had once believed his judgment to be sound. Pulling Morganna in on this was not sound judgment. Because he should have known that even if Reno didn’t kill him, Clint would. Agent or no agent, this was no place for Morganna.
He turned to Morganna, barely restraining the agonizing fear for her as she stared back at him. It tightened every muscle in his body and left him struggling to pull enough oxygen into his lungs to breathe.
She was deliberately risking her life. She was risking his sanity, his very survival, with this madness.
“You didn’t tell me? Did Raven know?” He was surprised at the hurt that clenched his chest at the thought.
“Raven only knew that I was back in school until my actual graduation. Reno still doesn’t know any differently,” she finally revealed. “Come on, Clint, I didn’t want to be jerked out before I even had a chance to graduate from the Law Enforcement Academy.”