Dark Taste of Rapture (Alien Huntress 6)

Noelle gave her glass to a slack-jawed Anthony and dragged Hector to the other side of the doorway. His gloves were still in place, so she didn’t worry about being burned.

Concern for Hector’s feelings nearly overwhelmed her as she whirled to face him. “I’m so sorry.” Their differing social status had always bothered him. To be reminded so brutally, and in front of witlessness… “She’s a snob and I meant what I said. You are my favorite man.”

His expression remained blank. “Don’t worry about it. She didn’t tell you anything that wasn’t true. Didn’t say anything other people aren’t saying.”

“Hector—”

Every muscle in his body stiffened, stopping her. “Game face on,” he said. Determination radiated from him. “Mr. Phillips just walked in.”

Noelle paled. “Wait. Before we approach him, I have to tell you what happened when I left you.”

The story she next told him made Hector’s blood run cold. Noelle was a capable agent, and he hadn’t been apprehensive about her safety. Much. Fine, he’d been apprehensive. But as her words played through his head, he realized she could have been shot, stabbed, abducted, and he wouldn’t have known until too late.

That was a quandary for another night, though.

“What do you want to do?” she asked.

Hector took one look at Xavier Phillips and knew Dare—tell Mia that Dare is back, he’d said. Dare, Mia’s missing younger brother?—had told the God’s honest truth. Nothing Hector said would get Phillips to talk. Nothing would trip him up. Too much confidence radiated from him. He was too at ease. Too… perfect.

Phillips was tall and lean with coiffed blond hair and flawlessly tanned skin. Two Arcadians flanked his sides, guarding him as they would a national treasure. He stopped to shake hands with people, conversed, laughed, but never stuck around, and the guards never allowed anyone to get too close. He made the rounds, socializing. Acting friendly, charming females, and it was clear almost everyone liked him.

Only a few men revealed their fear around him. Their laughter was forced, their expressions frozen. Clients, definitely, who knew a ruthless side to the man that the others did not. A man who had abducted and sold countless women, as if they were no more important that sweaters. Strange, though, that Phillips had shared his identity with them rather than use a middleman. Made Hector wonder if Phillips had had to threaten them a time or two.

Things had worked out for Margarete Marks, but Hector doubted many others had come to enjoy their circumstances. Fury rose inside him, sparking the heat and the itch in his arms.

“Noelle,” he said, purposely not glancing at her. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

So eager to please, he thought. She assumed her family had hurt him when, in fact, the opposite was true. She’d rushed to his defense. Had called him the best man she knew. Her favorite. For a moment, he’d felt like king of the world. He couldn’t let her know, not while they were here. She’d stop being so eager to please. “Stay by my side and stay quiet.”

Dare wanted him to walk away, but he couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t do that.

“Uh, okay. Why?”

“That’s not staying quiet.”

A pause. A clink of her teeth as she gnashed her jaw. “Come on.” He kicked into motion, and as promised, Noelle stayed by his side. Shockingly, she stayed quiet, too.

When they reached Phillips’s crowd, Hector shoved his way to the front, earning a few grunts, groans, and several protests—at least until his determination and savagery were realized, then everyone quickly backed away.

The Arcadians stepped in front of Phillips to shield him, but the confident businessman waved them back and frowned at Hector. “I hope you have a reason for such a rude display.”

“I do. My name is Hector Dean, and I’m with AIR. I know what you’ve done, what you’re doing, and I’m coming after you with everything I’ve got.”

Smiling, Hector stalked away, a gaping Noelle still at his side and still silent.

“You made yourself a target,” Noelle seethed the second they were in the car and speeding along the highway. She hadn’t known what to expect as she’d followed him through the ballroom, but that short and sweet conversation wouldn’t have entered the realm of possibilities. “After that Dare guy told us to stay away from him.” Not that she’d planned to do so, but still!

“Yes, I did. And Dare is the name of Mia’s missing brother. I don’t know if the guy you talked to is legit or not, but her brother was once under the influence of a very powerful Arcadian female. A very evil Arcadian female, and he can’t be trusted. So I did what I thought was right.”

Putting himself in danger, and Noelle out of it. Placing focus on him and him alone. Such a Hector thing to do and something she should have anticipated. Well, now he would just have to deal with the consequences.

“Does your home have shields to protect against teleportation?” she asked.

“No.”

“Then you’re staying with me.”

“No,” he repeated. “I want the Arcadians to come for me.”

Of course he did. “So you can, what? Be hauled to Phillips’s lair and burn everyone to ash?”

“Yes,” he replied, his tone dripping with relish.

Damn you, Hector Dean. “What if they shoot you in the head rather than take you to Phillips?”

A heartbeat of silence, then a shake of his head. “That’s not his MO. Phillips likes to make the kill himself. He likes to prove his power.”

“That happened once, you idiot! Twice if Maybe Dare Maybe Not Dare can be believed. And twice does not a pattern make. Therefore, you’re going to stay with me. But go ahead. Argue with me. See what it gets you.”

“Noelle—”

“Hector.”

That golden gaze flipped to her, tortured. “I’m too volatile right now.”

Her voice dipped huskily when she said, “And I know exactly how to calm you down.”

His nostrils flared with his sharp inhalation of breath. “No. I can’t risk you. I won’t.”

Think again. “Phillips saw me with you, and I’m very well known. He might try to get to you through me.” She wasn’t above a little manipulation of her own.

F-bomb after f-bomb filled the car. “All right,” he finally growled. “Okay. I’ll stay.”