Which meant he wanted me to hear him.
“Lose something?” Pietr asked.
“Just—”
“Don’t lie to me, Jess.” In two quick strides he closed the distance between us. “What have you done?”
So close his breath warmed me al the way down, he dropped to al fours, the grace of the wild animal within ever-present.
He stood again, a lithe move that set my heart pounding far more than my fear at being found out.
Encircling my wrist with his fingers, he towed me onto the front porch.
Encircling my wrist with his fingers, he towed me onto the front porch.
“Why…” He released me to rake a hand through his hair. “Why would you bug us?” He arched toward me, his height accentuated as he threw me in shadow. His searching eyes clouded with anguish, and I felt a pang in my stomach. “Why betray us?”
“No, Pietr—no betrayal—” I rested a hand on the wal , throat burning as my heart and lungs battled in my chest. “A safety precaution,” I gasped. “Please. Puzhalsta. Believe me.” I reached up to touch his face.
He flinched, closing his eyes.
“I would never betray you.” My hands walked down his arms. His skin was chil ed by my touch; goose bumps rose wherever my fingers traveled. “Believe me, Pietr. Take the bug, crush it.”
“How did Wanda convince you to do this?”
“Things are so volatile right now, and if you get into a bad situation, the CIA may be useful.”
He opened his eyes to marvel at my hands. Clinging to his arms.
“Pietr. What if the Mafia comes back? Don’t you want some firepower on your side?” I stepped deeper into the shadow he cast, resting my head on his chest.
He stiffened, frozen like a rabbit who’d just spotted a hound. “You smel like him,” he murmured, the words tinged with disgust. But his heart sped at my nearness, racing even faster than normal. “Stop,” he begged, nudging me back.
“I can’t stand the idea of you being hurt. I’l do anything to protect you,” I swore.
He sighed, a ragged, beaten sound. “We’l discuss important things in another room.”
“What?”
Sunlight sneaked across me as he stepped back. “It stays. I don’t trust Wanda, but in this, she could be useful. Are there any other bugs?”
“Not that I know of. I mean, the phone’s stil tapped.…”
“Da. We make few cal s that interest the CIA.”
“Yeah. Thursday’s weekly pizza order probably doesn’t top their list of concerns.”
He chuckled.
“I miss that,” I said, examining the wood floor of the expansive porch.
“What?” he asked, voice going gruff.
“Your laugh.” I raised my eyes to his, hoping he read the emotion in them.
He looked away, intrigued by the dining room window.
“I miss a lot of things,” I said, advancing. My hand reached up and rested on his chest, the heat of him scalding my palm. “I miss holding you. And you holding me. I don’t want Derek.”
He winced at his name.
“I want you.” I took another half step forward, pinning my hand between us as I stared up into his glittering blue eyes. “Pocelujte menyah,” I begged, lips reaching up to soften the hard line of his mouth.
He roared, knocking me back with the sound. Hunched, nostrils wide, lips curled to expose his teeth, he glared at me with wildly glowing eyes. “You do not underrrstand,” he seethed.
“What the—?” Wanda came crashing out the front door.
Pietr dodged around her, his feet pounding al the way up the stairs. A door slammed.
Wanda looked at me. “You okay?”
I nodded.
“Great.” Her eyes scoured my face and body, like she searched for physical wounds. “Time to go. The hunting issue’s resolved. They won’t starve now.”
“Good.”
She put a hand on my back and slowly guided me down the stairs and to the car. She opened my door, and I fel onto the seat. Wanda reached over, dragging my seat belt across my body. Watching me the whole time, she clicked it together before fixing her own.
She started the car and pul ed it away from the curb. “Um. I—” Staring straight ahead at the road, she suggested, “Maybe you should step back from this. It’s a lot to handle. We’l deal with the werewolves.”
“They have names,” I insisted.
“So? They’re werewolves.”
“But it’s … it’s like you’re…” I blew out a breath. “Like you’re dehumanizing them.”
Wanda glared at the road.
“Maybe it makes it al easier. Hunting them and throwing them in for testing. If you don’t use their names, don’t think of them as human … it’s gotta’ make it easier.”
“You’re too close to this,” Wanda accused me. She pounded the steering wheel and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “Maybe I am, too.” Her fingers curled around the wheel. “Take a break, Jessie. Let me handle this. I’l make sure they get a fair shake.”
“They don’t trust you, Wanda.”
“Yeah. But I think you need to be better protected.”
I turned. Looked at her.
“They’re monsters.”
“That’s what Edward thought.”
“Oh, yeah? He a friend of yours?” Wanda asked.
“No, Miss Librarian. Just a main character in a wildly popular vampire series.”
“Huh. And what did that series teach you?”
“A bunch. Partly that sometimes good people don’t get the chance they deserve to prove they’re good people.”
She sighed, reminding me suddenly of Dad. She was too rough to compare to Mom. “Your dad wants to protect you. That psychiatrist you were seeing wants to protect you. I think maybe I should consider protecting you, too.”
“Don’t do me any favors. There’s nothing to protect me from. Other than rampaging CIA agents. And the Russian Mafia.”
“Protecting your body’s one thing. Protecting your heart—you’re overlooking that. It’s easy to do first time out.”
I looked at her. Really looked at her. It was the first time I’d wondered about Wanda. What was her story, anyhow? No one just popped into existence as a CIA agent wading through old files the USSR