Page 50 of Lust
Her uncertainty caused a bloom of frustration to take hold of her nerves, and that made her even more annoyed.This wasn’t her.The Liza Lazarus the public knew dominated, but when it came to matters of the heart, she was weak, a fucking rookie.
A splash jolted her out of her thoughts. Before her mind registered the blurry image fizzing before her, sturdy hands scooped under her arms and propelled her to the surface. She broke with a spluttering gasp.
“Joe?”
Wet, dripping, and still in his shirt and tie, Joe scowled at her.
“Are you okay?” he asked, voice deep. “Do you need to get out?”
She wiped hair from her face. “What?”
“I thought…” He frowned at her, fury flashing in his eyes. “You were down there for so long, I thought you were drowning!”
Oh. She stopped treading water and sank until her feet touched the bottom and the surface hit her chin. “I was hiding,” she confessed.
“Hiding. Why?”
Panic tripped her heart into overdrive, and the very thing she’d been thinking about from the safe underworld cocoon blared in her face.Here’s Joe. Your mate.The one man you can screw and not feel sick. And he’s soaking wet, looking at you. Waiting.
Short dark hair stuck to his forehead. His lashes spiked with moisture. But it was the concern in his eyes that caused the biggest reaction within Liza. Her stomach flipped with anticipation. Her blood sang for her to join him. Shewanted, and she’d never felt that way before.
Like a coward, she turned and started swimming. One hand over the other, stroke after stroke, until she hit the end of the pool, somersaulted, and propelled herself back in the direction she’d come. She didn’t want to talk. She got halfway across the pool when Joe took hold of her hand and dragged her to the surface. The fury hadn’t left him. It tightened his jaw, stretched his shoulders, and left him a hardened rock.
“I thought I could wait,” he snarled. “But I can’t. I jumped into the pool because I had no idea what you’re capable of, or what you’re built for. You need to start talking before I lose it.”
“The poison…”
“Is fine. The water will take care of the rest. Talk.”
This was it. She had to change, to open up, or she’d lose him.
“I’m a genetically modified weapon,” she blurted. “My family was born in a lab. Mary and Flint rescued us, but the people who created us are still trying to create weapons of mass destruction. They want to destroy the world and create something free from sin. It’s impossible. Innocent people are going to die because of their antics.”
Joe jerked as though hit. “What organization?”
“The Syndicate.”
“Were they the masked terrorists you fought?”
“You mean the ones in the white robes? The Faithful?”
He nodded solemnly. “I’ve seen pictures of them, but nothing else.”
“Figures.” She snorted and started paddling circles around him.
“What doesthatmean?”
“They’re Syndicate fanatics, and since the Syndicate has their hand up the ass-puppet of law enforcement, it’s no wonder you’ve heard nothing about them.”
A coldness entered Joe’s gaze, darker than the encroaching clouds. “Are you accusing me of something?”
“No!” she splashed him. He dodged. “I’m not talking about you. I know you’d never willingly work for them.”
Joe was a saint. Loyal and moral to the core. But after her words had come out, there was no taking them back. A chain reaction of doubt started to swirl in her head, and suddenly, she wasn’t swimming in a heated rooftop pool, she was in shark-infested waters.
Why was Joe back in town? Because it certainly wasn’t to bone her. The Special Agent was high profile enough to be put on the plant-monster case, something that seemed incredible but wasn’t. Liza didn’t remember anything in the news about a plant that came to life and ate people. So did that mean Joe was in on a cover-up? Or had they come to a different conclusion? Maybe they’d reasoned that attack away as something more plausible.
But now he was in town chasing a serial killer, something so sadly human and depraved that it wasn’t on the same level as a Syndicate crime. He wouldn’t skip from one sort of case with higher clearance and then be demoted to something with less.
