She’s a treasure. My treasure.
Yes, he betrayed Michael.
Yes, he felt guilt. But he would make his boss understand.
What about tomorrow? The postgame party? Tiffany?
Evie understood. She trusted him, no questions asked, and the knowledge floored him. He didn’t think he’d ever been this happy.
He wouldn’t blow it. For once, Blue had drawn a line and he wouldn’t cross it.
“Evangeline,” he said, grinning as he stepped into the room.
She wasn’t in the bed.
He set the tray on the dresser and strode into the bathroom. But she wasn’t there, either. Frowning, he checked the entire suite. There was no sign of her, and her clothes had been picked up from the floor.
“Evie,” he called.
There was no reply.
He raced through the entire house, checking every corner, every shadow, but she wasn’t hiding anywhere.
Scowling, he stomped into her office and watched the security feeds, using the codes she’d given him. Within minutes he was seething. The little witch climbed out of her own bedroom window and scaled down the side of the house. As if he were a booty call she regretted.
Fury rained, a storm of ice and fire. His motions were jerky as he strapped weapons all over his body and dressed. She had a ten-minute head start. He’d have her back in bed in five. Whether he would spank her, lecture her, or seduce her, he wasn’t sure. Maybe he’d do all three.
Why do this to him?
She wasn’t the type to run away from her problems.
Or, hell, what did he know? Maybe she was. She still hadn’t told him about Claire.
Outside, the moon was high and full, the sky a stretch of diamond-studded ebony, the air cool. The roads were deserted, the entire neighborhood at rest. Evie had gone north, so he took off in that direction, following the lingering trace of her sweet perfume.
She’d left prints in the ground, and they were deeper than a normal step. She’d been sprinting, her shoes pounding into the dirt. She was that eager to escape him?
Infuriated all over again, he rounded a corner just in time to watch Evie disappear inside an all-night grocery—and catch a Bree Lian dodging her steps, moving faster and faster, drawing closer to her heels. Blue lurched into super-speed, several yards away one minute, right behind the guy the next.
He slapped a hand over furry lips—and stabbed, stabbed. Spleen. Kidney. The Bree Lian’s startled, pained howl was muffled as he fell to his knees. Blue dragged him into the darkened alley beside the building and slammed his knee into the guy’s face, propelling him backward. Before he could figure out what was going on, Blue had a pyre-gun unsheathed and aimed.
“Why are you after the girl?” he demanded. “Who do you work for?”
Clutching his bleeding side, the otherworlder pressed his lips together in a tight, mulish line.
Blue picked him up with a single stream of power and kept him suspended in the air. With another stream, he spread the Bree Lian’s arms and legs, hopefully making him feel as if the appendages were going to be ripped away any second. Because they were.
“I’m not going to ask again.”
The Bree Lian peered down at Blue with resignation. He had just realized he was going to die. It was only a question of how painfully. “Tyson Star.”
Tyson? Not Gregory, the father? “Why?”
“I don’t know. I’m never told why, only what to do.”
“And what were you to do?”
“Pick up Miss Black and escort her to Mr. Star.”
Where she would be beaten? Killed?
Fury stampeded him. “One last question. Have you seen a Rakan with the Stars, or heard of one’s skin being sold?”
“No. The Stars are the most secretive family I’ve ever met. They’ll assign different aspects of hired hits to different men, so no one knows the whole of what’s going on.”
Secretive, and smart.
“You’ve earned your death. I’ll make it fast.” He sheathed his gun, intending to take the guy out with his bare hands, when a noise caused his ears to twitch. He spun, a stream of bright azure light shooting out and nailing him in the chest. Every muscle in his body turned into stone, though his mind remained utterly aware. He heard the Bree Lian slam into the ground, no longer held by Blue’s power.
His fury found a new target: himself. Should have suspected the Stars would send more than one.
A second otherworlder stepped from the shadows. A Cortaz Blue he saw guarding Star’s country estate. The male was a few inches shorter than Blue, with dark hair, green eyes, and skin that looked as if it had been dipped in a honey pot. “I’m not sure how you pegged my partner, Mr. Blue, and I don’t really care.”
Blue let the worst of his emotions shine in his eyes.
The man wasn’t impressed. “I only gave you a partial stun, so you’ll be as good as new in a few hours. In the meantime, I’m going into the store and finding your girl. And she is yours, isn’t she? A very surprising development, I have to say. You’ll get to watch me have a little fun with her before I take her to see Mr. Star.”
“Hmm. I don’t think that’s how this night is actually gonna go down.” Evie’s voice echoed through the alley as a stream of azure light erupted and slammed into the Cortaz.
Like Blue, he froze in place.
Then she shot the Bree Lain, freezing him, too, just in case he decided to fight.
Blue had never been so relieved to see a woman he wanted to strangle.
Evie, his beautiful, irreverent Evie, flipped the Cortaz off as she passed him, then stopped in front of Blue. “You are so lucky I’m on your side.” She dug in her purse—that glorious, magical purse—and withdrew a ring with a big oval in the center. “This will counter the effects of stun.”
Before she could stick him, her arms were grabbed, twisted, and pinned behind her back. The ring fell to the dirty ground.
“Good thing I came as an insurance policy,” a gleeful voice said from behind her.
Still unable to move, Blue glared at the tall, muscular Arcadian spinning Evie and slamming her against the brickwork. It was like watching a horror movie in slow-mo. Every detail was in Technicolor. From the surprise on her face to the dust that sprayed from the building.
An indignant gasp left her.
Absolute, utter rage detonated inside of Blue. He drew all of his power into his core, letting it concentrate there, building layer upon layer.
“I’m giving you one chance to let me go,” she gritted. “And then things are going to get nasty.”