Twice as Hot (8 page)

I
shrugged. “Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.”

“What
does that mean?” He glanced again at the mud-caked wall behind him. “That
sometimes they control you?”

A
nod. “You call me Four Elements Girl. Or Homicidal Tendencies Wench.” What I
would have given to hear either of those stupid monikers again. Spoken with
affection, that is. He’d made “Weather Wench” sound like “Heartless Bitch.”
“Sometimes you even call me Wonder Girl because, well, I’m wonderful. And in
return I call you Cat Man, and you like it.”

His
teeth ground together. In irritation? “I would never allow a woman to call me
Cat Man and I would damn well never like it. You’re lying.”

Oh,
yes. He was irritated. Why? “Why would I lie about something like that? What
would I have to gain? What would
anyone
have to gain?”

“My
secrets.”

I
rolled my eyes. “I already know your secrets.” He cried during romantic
comedies when the couple had their black moment (if only he’d cry during this
one! I only prayed it wasn’t a tragedy). He was a cheap drunk. And he’d once
told me that he couldn’t sleep when I wasn’t in the bed with him. “Besides,
we’re on the same team.”

“Are
we? The others, yes. I know them, know they wouldn’t hurt me. You? Not so much.
You’re a blank canvas in my mind. You could have all of them fooled. You could
be a mind manipulator and have tricked them all.”

“Do
you seriously think
anyone
could do that to so many people at once?
Especially when the people in question are trained government agents?”

A
pause. He ran his tongue over his teeth. “No.”

“Okay,
then. It’s safe to say I’m not a mind manipulator.”

In
the blink of an eye, his arm snapped out and he latched onto my wrist. I gasped
in shock. In delight. His skin was warm and callused and abraded mine
deliciously. He turned my palm over, inspecting every inch of dirt that smudged
the crevices. My engagement band gleamed in the light.

He
was quick to look away from it, I noticed.

“What
are you doing?” Did I sound as breathless to him as I did to myself?

“If
we were lovers, I would know this hand. I would recall having it on my body.”

The
words had been growled, as if he wanted desperately to remember and hated that
he couldn’t. I chewed on my bottom lip, not knowing what to say or what to do
to turn this situation around.
Recall
something.
Please.

“But
there’s nothing.” Disgusted, he dropped my hand. “Not even a glimmer.”

Slowly
I drew my arm back and placed it in my lap. My normally olive skin appeared
washed out, completely devoid of color as it rested against the blue of my
jeans. “We were more than lovers,” I said softly. “We were engaged, as you were
already told. I’ve been planning our wedding.”

He
laughed, but it was an ugly sound and made me cringe. “You can just un-plan
it,” he said. “Maybe even sell the ring, ’cause I don’t want it back. Like I
said, I’ll soon be marrying someone else.”

“Bitch
! Traitor !
 Liar!”
I slammed my fist into Lexis’s cheekbone. Usually my first instinct was not to
fight but to say something bitchy and run. However, these past few days my anger
levels had been so spiked it was almost a relief to let go like this. At least
physically. I felt I’d been waiting for this moment forever.

Her
head snapped to the side and she stumbled backward a few steps, righted herself
and glared over at me. Her gaze never falling from me, she used the back of her
hand to wipe at the soot my blazing skin had left and the blood trickling from
the cut my engagement ring had caused. Rome might not remember me, but Lexis
wouldn’t be forgetting who I was to him anytime soon. I wasn’t taking the ring
off, and I damn sure wasn’t selling it. Hell, no.

“Nothing
to say?” I was panting, barely able to contain the flames working through me.
Any moment they might burst free, charring everything and everyone around me.

Good,
I thought. Let them.

“Get
out of my face, Belle. I’m better at this game than you are. Trust me, you
don’t want to mess with me.”

“Oh,
but I do. And I don’t care if you grind me into powder, I’m not letting you get
away with this.”

Lexis
and I were standing inches apart inside the workout room John kept for his
agents. After leaving Rome, I’d searched the entire building and had found her
in here, running on the treadmill. She’d taken one look at me and had jumped
down, clearly prepared to deal with nothing more than a heated conversation.

That’s
when I’d punched her.

She
might be a powerful psychic, but she’d never been able to predict the things
that would happen to her. As I now planned to do with all my enemies, I had
used her weaknesses against her and I wasn’t sorry.

“And
anyway, why are you here? Why aren’t you interviewing one of the prisoners like
you were told?” I already knew the answer. She’d been waiting for me. Or
rather, for a chance to pounce on Rome, to see if he’d remembered me.

Sweat
dripped from her chest, past her vivid red sports bra and down the planes of
her flat belly. “Had no luck with him, I take it?” she asked in that smug tone
I so hated.

Bingo.
I’d been right. “No thanks to you.”

Guilt
flashed, quickly gone. “You’re not right for him. It’s time you both realized
it.”

“Is
that so?” Before his last mission, Rome had been teaching me to fight. And
fight dirty. Without warning, I kicked out my leg and nailed her in the
stomach. Breath whooshed from her mouth as she skidded backward, instinctively
hunching over. Other agents were in the room, and I heard them muttering:

“Hundred
on Lexis. Girl has skill!”

“Dude,
you haven’t seen The Mighty Water Hose in a temper. You’re on.”

“Is
anyone else as turned-on by this as I am?”

“You
don’t want to do this,” Lexis repeated, straightening. Even sweaty and winded,
she was a beautiful sight. The shiny length of her black hair was pulled back
in a ponytail, her green eyes flashed brightly and pink flushed the exotic
slope of her cheeks.

“What
you’ve done to me, Rome and Tanner is underhanded and wrong, and you know it.
Someone needs to punish you, and I happily volunteer.”

“I
don’t care if it’s wrong. I don’t care if it hurts you. I can’t!” Righteous
fervor poured from her, a deluge that only strengthened my anger. “I love him.”

I
sputtered for a moment, dumbfounded by her logic. “And that makes your behavior
okay? If you truly loved him, you would have warned him about the danger he
faced. Had the situation been reversed, had I known I would lose him, I still
would have warned him to save him.
That’s
real love. But guess what?
None of that matters. You had your chance with him. You blew it, cut him loose
and he moved on. He wants me now.”

Her
chin lifted, and hell, she’d never appeared more superior. “
Wanted
you.
He wanted you. As of two days ago, he wants me. He wants to be a family for
Sunny, the kind of family we were before.”

I
ran my tongue over my teeth, fire inside my mouth, burning, blistering. Surely
there was something I could say to make her understand the depths of her
betrayal. Surely there was something I could do. Surely…
please
. “Once
you said you knew he wasn’t the man for you, that he would love another. What’s
changed?”

“Everything,”
she shouted, tossing up her arms. “The world offered me a second chance and I
took it. I won’t make the same mistake twice. He and I can—will—make things
work this time.”

Oh,
that burned. In more ways than one. “Let’s forget about Rome for a minute. How
could you do this to Tanner? He treated you like a queen. Worshipped you, would
have done anything for you.”

Again
guilt curtained her expression, but as before, she quickly masked it. “He’s
young, and I’m not the girl for him.”

Damn
her! “Again, that doesn’t excuse your cruelty. He’s a good guy, and you broke
his heart as if he meant nothing to you. As if
he
was nothing.”

“Trust
me, he’ll get over it. Sooner than you think, too.”

What
did that mean? That Tanner was about to meet the love of his life? I’d wondered
that very thing a few days ago and had even felt sorry for Lexis. Not an ounce
of my pity remained. “Knowing that doesn’t make what you’ve done okay, either.
You’re ruining people’s lives.”

“No,”
she insisted. “I’m making things right. Finally.”

Clearly,
I’d made her understand nothing. I braced my feet apart, my hands at my sides,
preparing for the battle soon to come. “Just so you know, Miss Know-It-All,
you’re not the girl for Rome, either.”

“I
will be. Just watch and see.”

I
swung my arm and, though I’d been aiming for her nose, I nailed her in the
cheek again. She gasped, straightened, another trickle of blood joining the
first. “That’s for what you’ve done to Rome.” My other arm whipped out,
connecting with her other cheek. “That’s for Tanner.” Now, for me. I clasped
both hands together, ready to slam my joined knuckles into her nose.

She
sucker punched me in the face before I could move an inch. In fact, her arm
flew up so quickly, I had no idea she was moving until my brain slammed into my
skull.

Several
seconds passed during which I saw nothing but stars. But when I realized what
had happened, my anger ratcheted yet another degree, a flame sparking from my
eye and catching on my eyelash.
Control. No fire.
If I burned her to a
crisp, I’d be incarcerated, considered a scrim even though
she
was the
criminal here.

“I
warned you,” she said. “Rome taught me to play dirty, too.”

I
blew out the flame, though my attention never left her. “That’s all right. I’ve
learned a few tricks on my own.”

She
waved her hand at me. “Bring it.”

So
I did. Silent as a cat—
my
cat—I launched at her. Amid the chorus of
male laughter and insincere pleas to stop, we slammed together and tumbled
backward. Lexis hit the floor, and my weight smacked into her. Any air she’d
managed to suck in previously was expelled in a gust.

While
she struggled to breathe, I straddled her, my knees pinning her shoulders.
There would be no hair-pulling and scratching in this fight. We’d settle this
like men. Superstrong, paranormally-enhanced men, but whatever. With my left
fist—oops, a flame—I popped her in the nose. She yelped. With my right—what do
you know, another flame—I nailed her in the jaw. Snarling, she wiggled for
freedom. Blood dribbled down her lip and chin, and black soot smudged her
too-perfect face.

The
laughter faded, the muttered “Stops” becoming real, concerned. No one dared
approach us, though, fearing for
their
lives.

As
I reached back to introduce her eye socket to my knuckles, one of her legs
worked between us and kicked. Next thing I knew, I was flying backward. I landed
on my ass but swiftly jumped up. She was already on her feet. Both of us were
panting, glaring.

“What’s
the matter? Can’t stand a little competition?” she taunted.

“Can’t
win a man without cheating?” My fingers caught fire completely. Several of the
men decided to brave our ire and approached. I threw a fireball, causing a wall
of flames to form in front of them, keeping them away. While they scrambled for
an extinguisher, I said, “You knew this would happen to him, and yet you did
nothing. He’s suffering because of you. His life is a mess because of you.”

She
shook her head viciously, as though she could block my words with the
back-and-forth flap of her ponytail. “I’m making things right. But you know
what? If he really loves you, he’ll pick you this go-round, too.” Her legs
widened and her hands fisted in a classic ready-for-war pose. The same one I’d
adopted twice already. “Now, enough talking. Let’s finish this.”

Hardly
willing to obey her, I held my ground. Smoke billowed toward the ceiling,
curling, stretching fingers out to me. I coughed until the sudden tickle in my
throat eased. “If you touch him, I’ll forget killing a fellow PSI agent is a
no-no.” Truth and determination dripped from my every word. “And then, when
Rome’s memory returns, he’ll hate you for what you’ve done and ask me to kill
you all over again.”

Her
cheeks leached of color, and a tremor worked through her. “Maybe his memory is
forever lost. Besides, hating me is not the future I see for him,” she said,
voice softening.

Everything
inside me stilled. My lungs. My heart. My blood. Cold washed over me, ice
crystallizing on my fingers and causing every flame to sizzle, die. “What do
you see?”

Her
mouth opened and closed, but no sound emerged.

I
inhaled sharply, and another round of coughing ensued. “What the hell do you
see, Lexis?”