Shadow of Temptation (Asylums for Magical Threats 2.50)

Of course, he’d get suspicious if she made it too easy for him. She folded her arms over her chest. “I’ll spill some details if you promise me that you won’t maliciously use them against me.” He opened his mouth, but she cut him off. “I know, I turned you in, but my reasons were to do what was best for you, not to cause you harm.”

He stared at her, and she stared back. Finally, he said, “As long as you hold up a promise to keep my shadow-shifting abilities secret and not tell anyone you’ve seen me, then I’ll consider it.”

“Just like that, you’re going to believe me?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t say I was going to believe you, but the sooner I get this damn mission done, the sooner I can leave and never have to deal with you again. I’ll agree to most anything to make that happen.”

His words shouldn’t hurt—after all, she had wanted him to forget about her—but they did. Seeing Jorge had given her a small glimpse of her past, and had reminded her that she was not just an undercover agent, but also a person with her own likes and dislikes. More than anything, she wanted to have friends again.

She barely prevented herself from starting at that dangerous line of thinking. Sabrina ‘the person’ didn’t matter during an undercover mission. Only success mattered.

Still, she hoped that something of the old Jorge was still around and he wouldn’t betray her at the first opportunity. Torture made people unpredictable, and while Jorge had only mentioned being restrained and drugged, she had a feeling there was more to it.

Her best bet was to keep her concerns and hurt to herself, so she said, “Then we both agree finishing this ASAP is all that matters.” He nodded and she added, “Then I’ll start being clearer. At the time I turned you in, I knew how you felt about me, Jorge. It was a distraction to both you and me, so I need to find a way to get rid of you. Getting you kicked out had seemed like the best thing at the time, but I am truly sorry for the events that happened afterward. I had never intended for you, let alone your sister, to go through such hell because of one five minute meeting with our old superior. If I’d known he would sell you out to the crazy Collector lady, I never would’ve betrayed you.”

She’d expected some kind of anger or demand of explanation, but he surprised her when he asked, “Why can’t you leave the Fed League?”

This was going to be dangerously close to admitting the truth, but fuck it. Nothing else would work. “Because I only joined the Fed League in order to find a way to take it down.”

Chapter Five

Jorge had expected Sabrina to say something along the lines of, “They’d threatened to hurt so-and-so if I didn’t stay.” The Fed League had something in common with the Collector—they both tended to use people against you to get what they wanted.

Instead, she’d blindsided him and he couldn’t help but blink. “What?”

Sabrina raised her chin. “I know it sounds crazy, but you worked with me long enough to know that I’m good at collecting information.”

“Gathering information is one thing, but single-handedly taking down a semi-crazy organization is another. What were you going to do, charm your way to the top and assassinate someone? Fucking hell, Sabrina. That’s just naive and stupid.”

Her eyes flashed. “Gee, and you wonder why I never told you?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Hold on a second. We talked all the time before. And old Jorge was a whole fucking lot nicer than I am. I’m starting to wonder if we were friends at all.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Jorge wanted to take them back. He was supposed to hate Sabrina Ono, so why did he care if any of it had been real.

Because, asshole, deep down you’re starting to believe she didn’t turn you in to the Collector on purpose.

No. Screw that. He had a mission to finish before the Collector’s people found him. The longer he argued with Sabrina, the more time he gave them to track him down.

Then Sabrina did something he should’ve expected, but had overlooked, and she bolted toward her cell phone.

“Shit.” He went after her, but she had the phone before he could tackle her to the ground. They rolled, but Jorge managed to pin her through a combination of securing her legs to the ground with his weight and holding her wrists up above her head.

She wriggled and tried to throw him off, but it wasn’t working and he was too angry to let his dick take control of the situation. Instead, he focused on his irritation with both Sabrina and himself. “I know your escape tricks, princess. I tried to be nice and gave you time to explain things, but now we’re going to do it my way.”

She moved again, but it was still useless. Her angry eyes bored into his. “What? Are you going to yell at me some more?”

“No. I have something a hell of a lot more fun in mind."

Harry Watkins scanned Sabrina Ono’s report and then put down his phone. How he would respond depended on what information he could get out of the woman currently strapped to the metal table in front of him.

He had had one of his people follow Sabrina to the restaurant. Normally, he wouldn’t think twice about Ono, but the elementary school plan needed to go off without a hitch or his rival—Luis Gomez—would never stop poaching the Feiru with latent abilities in the area. Watkins was this close to claiming the whole Yucatan peninsula as his territory.

He took the woman’s wet chin and forced her to look up at him. “Are you ready to tell me why Sabrina Ono was seen with that man at your restaurant, or do you need some more convincing?”

The woman named Yolanda looked from him to the man standing above her with a wet cloth and back again. “I-I don’t know anything. She’s just a regular customer. I know her name is Sabrina Ono and that she really likes Chaya juice, but that’s it, I swear.”

He released her chin, signaled to the blonde woman standing on the far side of the room, and she came over. He took the paper from her hands and lowered it to the waitress’s face. “The back of this receipt is written in code. I have my people working on it. I suggest that you cooperate now, or you’re not going to like what happens when I find out the truth later.”