Twice as Hot (34 page)

Finally
his gaze landed on me. His pupils were dilated. With anger? Arousal? He studied
me, taking my measure. What did he see? What thoughts were drifting through his
head? That I could help, see something he didn’t? That being near me would only
make him want me more? Or was all that wishful thinking on my part? And where
was the new and improved me? I wasn’t supposed to be pining after a man when
there was a rescue operation to plan.

He
gave a curt nod. “All right. Let’s do this.”

The
buzzing of my cell
woke me. I glanced around sleepily, but saw no sign of Rome. Damn it. I rubbed
at my face, hoping to kick-start my brain into action. I hadn’t meant to fall
asleep, had actually stayed up and helped him review most of the video he’d
shot.

After
some heavy-duty fast-forwarding, I’d watched Cody and Desert Gal—a woman
younger and prettier and blonder than I’d assumed—enter the hotel and ride up
the elevator. The pair had remained silent, not acknowledging each other in any
way. Clearly they had an objective, knew exactly where they needed to go, and
nothing would deter them from it.

Again
I wondered how they had known where to find us. Had we been watched from the
moment we’d stepped off the plane? Or, as I’d suspected the day before, did we
have a leak at PSI?

The
phone’s buzzing stopped, the sudden quiet jarring me. Squinting against the
light seeping in through the curtains, I patted the nightstand until I found my
purse. A quick dig inside, and I had my cell. Unfortunately, the ID showed
“Unavailable” rather than a name or a number.

My
stomach tightened, and I fell back against the mattress. What if that had been
Rome? Sherridan or Lexis? Cody? Tanner’s doctor?

When
a red light began flashing in the right-hand corner, I actually smiled. A message!
But my smile faded as I pressed the series of buttons and the message played
for me. “Belle, I need you. Please call me back.” Reese the vampire. Again.
What the hell was wrong with him?

I
was just about to jab my finger into the call-back button when my phone began
another round of buzzing. I pressed
Talk,
moving faster than I’d ever
moved before. “This is Belle.” My voice shook, still scratchy from sleep.

“Hello,
Belle. How are you?”

I
jolted upright. “Memory Man?”

“The
one and only. And actually, the name’s Jean-Luc. I know, cheesy name. But both
of the guys who raised me wanted me to carry a piece of them. Wait, that sounds
bad. I didn’t mean anything dirty, you understand. I just…Damn it! I’m
babbling. Sorry. I’m just nervous. I didn’t make the greatest first impression,
so I’m determined to make a better second, third and so on. Is it working?”

“I
don’t know.” Actually, the babbling was kind of cute, and it dimmed some of the
anger I still harbored toward him. If I harbored any at all, that is. I just
didn’t know what I felt anymore. How could this charming man have meant Rome
harm? “So you had two dads, huh?”

“Yeah.”

I
had never met anyone who’d been raised by two people of the same sex and was
intrigued by the prospect. “Well, they seem to have raised you right. For the
most part. You did save me the other day, after all. And I want to tell you
thanks for that. You didn’t have to, but you did. So thanks.”

“Believe
me, it was my pleasure.”

“I
really owe you. But I want you to know I’m really,
really
determined to
get you to—”

“How
about dinner?” he interjected before I could state my demand.

“Maybe
one day.” With Rome joining us, his memories our only topic of discussion. “I’m
kinda in the middle of something right now. But listen. You should not have
taken—”

“I
know, baby. I know. That doesn’t mean I’m sorry.”

Baby.
Rome used to call me that—and had a few times since—and the reminder had me
clenching the phone so tightly the plastic creaked. “You will be. Sorry, that
is.” Okay, yes. I still harbored anger.

He
chuckled. “There you go, being all stubborn and adorable again. So where are
you? I want to see you again.”

I
scoured a hand down my face. Where was I? Hell, I thought, glancing around the
room. All was as it had been. Cheap floral wall hangings, two twin beds with
squeaky springs, each covered with floral-printed comforters. The carpet was
dark brown and probably hid a multitude of stains.

“I’m
surprised you didn’t follow me,” I said.

“After
you left, I did a little cleanup. Made sure you wouldn’t be bothered by the
local police.”

“Thank
you.” Sweet, stubborn man.

“You’re
welcome.”

“Damn
it. How can you be so nice? I mean, you worked for Pretty Boy—Vincent. Right?
Right?
”

“Not
by choice,” was the tight reply.

We’d
suspected that. “How did he force you? Give me that much, at least.”

“My
dads. He abducted them, hid them and played a video of them begging for their
freedom. A video of them being tortured. All he had to do was threaten to
torture them again, and I would agree to his demands. I would have tried to
find them, but he made sure there was no one around me who knew where they
were. I would have killed him myself, but he stayed hidden until I returned and
willingly put myself back in one of his cages. It wasn’t until Rome freed me
that I found out my dads had been dead for over a year.”

How
that must have hurt. How that must have torn him up.

“You
were the only thing that kept me going,” he said softly. “So…please. Tell me
where you are.”

Just
then I wanted to. Anything to relieve some of his inner torment. “I…I can’t.”

“Like
I said, stubborn.”

Once
again, he sounded amused.

Better.

Rome’s
bag rested on the room’s only chair, a ripped pleather recliner. Had he gone on
a mission, he would have taken his stuff. Maybe he’d gone out for food. Mmm,
food. My stomach rumbled.

“Belle?”
Jean-Luc’s voice cut through my musings.

“What?
Sorry! My mind wandered.”

“You
do that a lot,” he said with another warm chuckle. “I like that about you.”

“How
do you know I…” My voice tapered to a quiet, my lips stretching into a thin
line. He knew because of Rome. Which I still hadn’t yelled at him about, damn
it.

I
think he realized the direction of my thoughts, because he said, “You know how.
Now where are you?”

“I’m
not telling.” Seriously, where was Rome? He’d want to be here, talk to
M-Squared himself.

Jean-Luc
gave yet another of those chuckles. “If you’d give me a chance, I bet I could
convince you to tell me.”

Once
again I found myself wishing for a tracker on my phone. I’d just have to keep
him talking, I guessed, until Rome got here. “Yeah? And just what would you
do?”

“I’d
tell you, but last time you told me not to talk about your passionate nature,”
he said huskily.

Okay.
I’d walked right into that one. Was doing that a lot lately. “You’re right.
Don’t tell me. Look, Jean-Luc, with everything you know about me, you have to
realize that I value honesty and could never be with a man I couldn’t trust.
Right now, I don’t trust you. You saved my life, yes, but you also ruined it.”

There
was a long pause before he vowed earnestly, “Somehow, someway, I’ll earn your
trust.”

“There’s
only one way to do that, and we both know what that is.”

“I’ve
told you. I’ll do anything for you—anything but that.” His tone had dropped,
becoming just-roused-frombed sexy. “Those memories are the only bright spot in
my life. When you ran to your dad after escaping Pretty Boy, throwing yourself
in the line of fire to save him…I nearly cried. The love you feel for him is a
beautiful thing. Pure. Do you know how rare that is?”

I
glanced up at the ceiling—ew, what was that brown stain?—praying for divine
guidance, softening even more when I should have stayed strong, hard. “Will you
at least
think
about giving them back? Please?”

A
sigh crackled over the line. “Maybe. Eventually. After you’ve dated me a while.
That’s all I’m asking. A few dates. You and me. After that, you may not want me
to give them back.”

I
shook my head. “I can’t date you. I’m engaged to Rome.” My eyes locked on the
room’s only door; the handle remained unmoving. Damn it, where was he?

“Does
he still want to marry you?”

My
teeth gnashed together so forcefully my jaw ached. There was no denying Rome
still wanted me sexually. But did he want something more from me? No. And you
know, that was a little disconcerting. If we were meant to be together,
shouldn’t he have already fallen in love with me again?

More
and more doubts about us were piling inside me, and I hated that. “Look, that’s
not important,” I said. A lie. “He would want me if he remembered me.”

“I’ll
treat you better than he could even dream of doing. I’ll treasure you. In fact,
I’ve already shown you more romance than Rome ever did.”

My
stinging pride—pride Rome’s disregard had trampled—smoothed at the edges
against the force of such heartfelt dedication. “But what kind of woman would I
be if I switched my affections so easily? Not the kind you could love, that’s
for sure.”

He
sighed. “Look, I didn’t call to argue with you. I called to get you to tell me
where you were, even though I already knew, well, for the most part, so you
wouldn’t freak out when I arrived. I’m on my way to Denver, should be there
within the hour.”

I
lost my smile. “How’d you learn my location?” Had he gotten his information the
same place Desert Gal had?

“When
you failed to return home, I walked through a few agents’ heads until I located
you.”

Well,
that answered that. “You can’t just go around invading people’s heads, stealing
their memories.”

“You’ll
be glad I did. I’ve got some information for you.”

My
own agent’s mind perked up. “I’m listening.”

“There’s
a vampire at PSI. Reese.”

“Yes.
We’re well acquainted. So?”

“He’s
feeding Desert Gal information.”

I
shook my head in disbelief. “He wouldn’t. He couldn’t. He—”

“Craves
your blood all the time now. I spent some quality time inside his head. He’s
the reason you’ve had so many blood tests lately. He told John you need them,
that your blood chemistry is changing. It isn’t. The formula makes yours
sweeter than anyone else’s, gives him a high, and he’s addicted to that high.
It’s an addiction he’s fought since the beginning. And at first he succeeded.
But like any addict who’s lost the war, he needs more. Desert Gal has eyes and
ears everywhere and got wind of his little problem. She promised to give you to
him when she finished with you. All he had to do was help her capture you.”

“But
he wants to date Sherridan,” I said stupidly.

“No.
Another lie. He was going to use her to stay close to you because he knew you’d
never accept him, knew that your heart belonged to…Rome.” The last was said on
a hate-filled snarl.

I—I—couldn’t
believe it. Oh, I knew Jean-Luc was telling the truth. He’d fought to save me.
He wanted to date me. What he was saying made sense. It was just, I’d trusted
Reese. I’d willingly given him my arm, my blood. Yet he’d merely been using me
for food. A drug. Was planning to turn me over to PSI’s greatest enemy to get
what he wanted. I shuddered.

Did
Cody know? Either way, I’d have to call John. Would have to admit I’d played a
role in turning his once-faithful lab tech into a spy. “Thank you,” I croaked
out. “I needed to know. And now I have to let you go. There are a few things I
have to do.”

“Wait,”
Jean-Luc rushed out. “Don’t go. I’ve got a few more pieces of information for
you.”

God,
would any of them be as devastating as what I’d just been told? Or worse?

“Don’t
worry,” he said as if reading my mind. “This is good news. I know you had to
hate leaving your friend Tanner behind. So I did some checking for you and
thought you’d want to know. He woke up. He’s doing very well. He’s expected to
make a full recovery.”

I
pushed out a relieved breath, collapsing back onto the mattress. Thank God. I
don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost Tanner. He was a part of me. One
of the best parts, really. “Thank you. Thank you so much. Is there anything
else I need to know?”

“I…know
some things about Desert Gal. Spent some time with her.”

“Go
on.”

“Her
civilian name is Candace Bright. She worked for Vincent and was my warden after
he died. I’m ashamed to say I took several of her memories to give to Vincent
in exchange for food. He liked to keep tabs on his employees and he liked using
me because they never knew he’d checked on them. Anyway, what I’m trying to say
is that I spent a little time in her head.” He stopped, silence slithering
between us.