Page 247 of Duty and Desire
“I have anger issues,” Raine said smoothly, sounding...amused?
Mariana cleared her throat. “Do you all know each other?”
“No,” Noah and Raine said in unison. Noah nudged Ivar, and they both sat back down, their gazes locked on Raine.
What in the world was going on?
Raine turned his attention to the shrink. “Different branches of the military—all of us former. It’s a natural reaction.”
Mariana’s dark brows arched. “Is it? I don’t think so. Perhaps that’s why you’re all here.” She flipped open the top file. “Noah and Ivar. Two bar fights in the last year, and you put several people in hospitals. We can work on that.”
The two men didn’t twitch. No reaction. That was odd.
Mariana opened the next file. “Raine? Let’s see. A fight with a landlord and a former client that resulted in thousands in property damage.”
“Landlord?” Noah snorted, crossing his arms. Wow. Those were some impressive biceps.
Raine lifted a shoulder. “Let’s just say it was a hellish situation.”
Silence. A heavy, symbolic, thick silence descended. There was more going on here than Abby could fathom, but wasn’t she used to that reality? Her ribs ached, and her right leg twitched. Yeah. She was accustomed to dangerous men who had ulterior motives and hidden agendas.
This was going to be a long month.
CHAPTER 2
Well, this was a cluster of all fucks. Noah angled his body toward Ivar in case the Viking decided to leap across the room and tackle Raine Maxwell. Not that Noah didn’t want to take the vampire down, just for fun. But considering Raine was probably there to kill Ivar, or at the very least investigate him, blood was surely going to flow soon.
And the vampire was sitting, rather smugly, next to the fragile human female. Abby Miller. A placid name, a calm roll of the consonants. But the woman. Noah couldn’t stop studying her.
Brown hair to her shoulders, greenish-brown eyes, small build. She held herself at full alert, even sitting, as if expecting an attack at any moment. There was anger lurking in her pretty eyes, but there was a well of alertness. Of fear, as well.
This was the oddest of all self-help groups, that was for damn sure.
Then a demoness walked in. A real one. Pure bred. Long blonde hair, deeper than black eyes, tiny stature. Power wafted around her as she all but glided to the remaining chair next to the shrink. Noah had never met a real life pure-bred demoness.They were incredibly rare and impressively powerful. What the holy hell?
She looked up, scanned the room, and then chuckled. Throaty and sexy, the sound vibrated through the room. “Well. This is interesting.”
Yeah. That was surprise and curiosity in her eyes. She hadn’t known there would be other immortals in the group. What the hell was a real demoness doing in a human anger-management group? The female looked up toward the door and sighed, her pink lips turning down as a male leaned against the door jamb.
Human male. Interesting. A cop with badge secured to his belt. About six-foot-two, brown hair, matching beard, blue eyes that had seen some shit. He glared at the demoness and then turned, lifted his chin, his gaze softening, at Abby Miller.
A growl rolled up from Noah’s chest, shocking the heck out of him.
Abby blinked and returned a tentative smile.
The shrink cleared her voice. “Can I help you?”
“No,” the human said. “I’m Detective O’Connell and I just wanted to make sure Abby and Tabitha made it here safely.”
Ah. So cop ordered. But a demoness would just disappear if needed, so why was she going through this farce? And how did the cop know sweet Abby?
“Tabi,” the demoness muttered. “Call me Tabi.”
Abby and Tabi? Shit. This was like a bad sitcom. Noah started as something close to a smile lifted Ivar’s lips. Oh, it was there and gone faster than a blink, but it had been there nonetheless. Maybe this crazy idea was a good thing. Who knew?
“All right. Let’s get started.” The shrink put some authority into her smooth voice. “I’m Dr. Lopez, and you can all call me Mariana. I’m taking over for Dr. Johnson for the next two weeks, since he’s out of town. We should be in the nicer room upstairs, and I apologize for the inconvenience.”
Noah frowned. “You’re an expert in PTSD?” If the woman couldn’t help Ivar, he was out of there.
