THE COUGAR'S BABY - 11

C H A P T E R E L E V E N - - - - D A N I E L L A

"They would want to see me dead, or at the very least, tortured to death. I've already informed you and The Firm about all I know about them. So why me?" To prevent her arms from noticeably quivering, Dani posed the question while crossing them over her chest.

Once more, she experienced that stomach-freezing smile from him. She had suffered from insomnia brought on by the fact that she still didn't know what Soyo was up to, which had disrupted her otherwise contented and laid-back new life. Her jaguar hissed and roared in a desire to complete what they had begun when he mentioned Soyo.

But Dani couldn’t think of just herself and what she wanted anymore. Now with Roman in the mix, his wants, needs, and desires came first and Dani’s firmly second. She couldn’t forget that.

“Because you had an intuition about them, and I think there was something to it. I don’t think this is a drug game anymore and you figured it out before anyone else did. It’s your job,” he said, sounding almost pacifying, like he was giving her something that could pass as a compliment.

Still, she felt very clearly that he wasn’t telling her everything he knew. Not something that surprised her when it came to Ace, not at all.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I won’t risk my kid like that. I’ll take him and disappear and you can deal with your crazies on your own. I’m deactivated, I’m out. I’m not your puppet anymore.”

Ace gave her a look and for a second, Dani expected the ground to open up and swallow her whole. But it didn’t. Instead, he burst into action, walking past her with long, commanding steps. He was in the kitchen before she could stop him and when she caught up with him, Ace had Roman in his arms. Her heart stopped.

He looked almost human like that. The baby boy in his arms was giving him a slightly questioning look, but he was still playing with the lapels of his black jacket. He smiled a toothy smile, cooing at the baby, before looking up at Dani.

“He’s the spitting image of his daddy. Did you know that, Ro?” he asked, using her nickname for him. “I bet you didn’t. You know who else doesn’t know? Your daddy,” he said, his eyes on Dani now.

She made a strangled sound, something roughly akin to a mewl. She was paralyzed.

“You wouldn’t,” she choked, fear brimming in her eyes.

“I would. I will. You know how shifters are about their firstborns. And Shaun isn’t just any shifter. He’s one of the best snipers the SEALs ever trained. He’s deadly from miles away. And what do you want to bet that he wouldn’t be too fucking happy with a bitch who hid his heir from him, huh? I’m thinking that the moment I tell him about how you’ve been hiding his bouncing baby boy from him this whole time, he would lose his cool. Go from that calm, centered soldier you knew him as, to the fucking untamable beast he was when we found him.”

His voice was cold, dead. Deadpan. Dani reeled, a few feet from Ro and Ace, unable to fucking move. She shook her head, feeling tears trying to crawl their way up her throat.

“No! He’s not like that. He’s a good man, he’d understand. You’re fucking with my head, you goddamn psycho!”

But there was no fight in her voice. Truth was, she didn’t know Shaun, no more than she knew Ace, anyway. Hell, she knew the demon in front of her better than she knew the jaguar. And The Firm was made up of psychos, men too fucking broken to work for the armed services, but just twisted enough to do anything they were told for money. Morals were a fleeting notion in The Firm and as much as Shaun and his squad had left her feeling like they were actual people, with feelings and emotions, she couldn’t know.

“Maybe. But do you want to know why he got kicked out of the SEALs? Do you want to know what he did to the last person that betrayed him?”

Dani couldn’t make herself speak, couldn’t utter the words. No, she didn’t want to know. And at the same time, she desperately needed to hear whatever he had to say.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Ace said, bouncing Ro up and down and making him giggle. “He had a girlfriend. Pretty little thing. Sort of looked like you, actually. Those green cat eyes and attitude that could burn you if you were careless. He thought she was the one, but she didn’t necessarily agree. So when he caught her cheating with another guy in his unit, do you know what happened?”

He paused for effect and Dani wasn’t sure if she was breathing anymore or if that was one of those things she couldn’t do when conversation veered to the topic of her babydaddy.

“Well, one day, this guy—let’s call him Blake—was walking from her place back to the barracks. He was about halfway there when he felt one leg going out from under him. He didn’t know what hit him before his other knee crumpled in on itself and he was left on the ground, screaming like a stuck pig, .50-caliber shots having shattered his knees and the bones in his shins.

“The fucker never walked again and they had to take one of those legs off mid-thigh because of the extent of the damage. Shaun was supposed to be in training for a week, nowhere around. And he was, but he went missing for a day. They never pinned it on him, didn’t have the proof, but I bet Blake knew who got him. And that girl of his never fucked around on him again, not that Shaun would touch her again. So tell me, Daniella, is that the kind of man you want knowing about the fact that you stole his child from him?”

Ace deposited Roman into Dani’s arms, snapping her back into reality. Her gut was twisting and her mind had gone blank, though it was vividly recreating the picture that Ace painted. She could see it so clearly. Shaun’s strong, powerful body hunched over that heavy rifle of his, anger and betrayal shining in his eyes as he took aim and ruined a life. Her heart couldn’t believe that he would be capable of such a thing, but her brain sure as hell did. She’d seen too many men like it, heard too many stories.

Ace booped Ro on the nose, smiling in a way that could almost be described as warm before looking back up at Dani.

“He looks just like his daddy. I bet you’re so proud. I’m sending you instructions tonight and I expect you there tomorrow morning,” he said, completely at ease in his role as the devil incarnate.

With that, he peeled off, pushing past Dani. She heard him unlock the door and slip out, letting the door fall shut behind him with the softest of thuds. He left her horrified, shaking, and when she heaved a breath finally, she thought she was going to suffocate on it.

That fucking bastard knew exactly how to get her to do whatever he wanted. And she hated him for it. But nothing mattered as much as Ro did, and for him Dani was going to have to do whatever Ace told her to.