Alpha One (Shadow Agents 1)

But Jasper just blinked slowly and kept his smile. “Maybe I should be talking to her, comforting her.”

“You stay away from her.”

“Like that, huh?” Before he could answer, Jasper gave him a long, considering look and said, “At twenty-two, I can still see you being a dumb kid who could manage to give her up. But now, after everything you’ve been through, after all we’ve done, I’m betting that sweet slice of paradise is pretty tempting, isn’t it?”

She’d tempted him from day one and was still tempting him. When he’d had her beneath him at that cabin. When he’d been touching her skin, feeling her soft flesh beneath his...

“You really think you can let her go again?”

Logan didn’t speak.

Jasper nodded. “Thought so.” Whistling, he stalked away.

This time, Logan didn’t look at his reflection. He didn’t want to see the man who stared back at him. The man who just might be desperate enough to try to force Juliana to stay with him.

Even when he knew she deserved more.

* * *

JULIANA SAT ON THE small bed in the lab room, her head down, staring at the tiled floor. Logan stood in the doorway for a moment, watching her.

But then her head tilted back, and her gaze found his.

Silence, the kind that said too much.

He hesitated, then said, “I’ve got clothes for you. Shoes.” Logan strode forward and put the bag down beside her. Then, because he couldn’t help himself, his hands rose toward her.

She tensed.

“Easy,” he whispered. “I just want to check...” He brushed back her hair, knowing exactly where Liz would have placed the implant. His finger slid up her neck, then slipped around beneath the heavy weight of her hair. The bandage was small, barely an inch long, and flat.

“I’m fine,” Juliana said. He stood close to her, intimately close. And Logan didn’t remove his hands.

He didn’t want to. “Are you sure? Any pain, any—”

She shook her head.

Step back. He pulled in a breath and dropped his hands. “Once you’ve change

d, we’ll head out.”

Her hand grabbed his arm. He was the one who tensed then. “Where are we going this time? Another cabin in the woods? Another safe house?”

“No.”

Confusion filled the darkness of her gaze.

“No more hiding.” The order had come from above. From the man who’d formed the EOD. Syd had picked up rumors online that Guerrero was on American soil. Rumors they suspected were fact. He was close...they just had to make him come in even closer.

And Logan’s boss wanted them on the offensive.

“We need to make Guerrero afraid. We want him to worry that he’s been compromised.” Mercer’s words. He’d talked to Logan on the phone less than five minutes ago. “When the woman is hiding, he knows he has the power. Get her out. Put her in public. Make Guerrero think we’ve got the evidence on him. He needs to be the one running.”

Easy for Mercer to say. He didn’t know Juliana. She was just a witness to him. An important one, no doubt, but the idea of putting her in danger wouldn’t rip his guts out.

“Where are we going?” Juliana asked again, then her eyes widened. “Unless...maybe there’s no ‘we’ now, maybe the EOD—”

“We’re staying with you.” As if anyone could pry him away when she was in danger.