Page 18 of Wild Card

A shiver runs down my spine as his dark eyes narrow.

Thorne is the kind of hot that can melt my brain matter and better judgment. His brown hair is longer on top, falling over his forehead as he stares down at me with an expectant look on his face.

“Did you escape from a kidnapping? Were you a hostage? What the fuck happened to you?” Thorne’s voice is lined with concern, and it only manages to make me angrier.

“I’m fine,” I hiss, glancing around to locate my shoes. Once I spot them, I bend to pick them up. “You lost the right to ask me anything about myself when you broke my heart.”

I frown, staring at the sidewalk.

Dammit.

He doesn’t deserve to know how much I’ve ached and pined for him.

“Go to hell, Thorne,” I snap, preparing to cross the road to get away from him.

On the plus side, my fury has helped take the edge off my concerns that I might freeze to death.

“Lennox, please,” he begs, following me as I walk. “Let me explain.”

Anger vibrates through my body.

I spin around, barely holding myself back from giving him a solid beating with my heels.

“Brooklyn told me all about how you were undercover. I get it. You used me to get information. Not that I had much.” I laugh derisively. “Once your mission was complete, you sure did drop me like week-old trash.”

“Stop,” he hisses, grabbing my arm as I spin away from him again. “Yes, I was undercover, but in no way did I ever fake my feelings for you. It’s a long story, but I was in deep shit with my superiors. They’d already tried to call me in multiple times, and I was trying to protect you the only way I knew how.”

I let him pull me until his face is only inches from mine.

It’s still a little hard to believe he’s an undercover agent for the DEA. He fit in just fine with the mob family he was infiltrating. The dark tattoos go all the way up both sides of his neck, and he exudes a dangerous energy that’s probably why I was so drawn to him in the first place.

Young and stupid, that’s what I was.

“Okay,” I say, raising my eyebrows. “But if that was an apology, it was a shitty one.”

“I know I hurt you, but I never lied about anything between us. I couldn’t tell you who I was because it would have put both of us in danger.” He sighs. “I came as soon as I could.”

I’m not expecting the cold laugh that spills from my own lips.

“I fell for your crap once. Don’t think I’m going to listen to your lies ever again.” My head shakes as tears sting my eyes, but I take off for the bed-and-breakfast without a backward glance.

Chapter Six

Thorne

Lennox bolts across the empty street. It’s not even eight a.m., and she’s running around in socks and some random person’s coat.

She’s always been a bundle of trouble, wrapped up in an angelic package.

Ever since the first time I laid eyes on her, I knew I was fucked, and I did everything I could to keep distance between Lennox and the persona I was forced to portray.

Being deep undercover changes a person.

It’s not easy when you’re surrounded by the equivalent of human filth.

I was put in place a little over two years ago to watch the Barrett family. Back then, they were on the edge of power. They didn’t quite run New York, but they had their own pieces of the illegal pie and aspirations for more.

Once I was already well undercover, Avan Barrett made a play to take out the ruling family. It was successful, and my supervisors at the DEA couldn’t have been more pleased with where they positioned me. They were even happier when they realized I could take undercover lead of their joint task force with ATF.

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