THE COUGAR'S BABY - 13

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

Daniella was in a difficult to describe state of flux. She had already made a mistake by letting Ace bully her into taking the opportunity, but now that Shaun was involved, the situation was even worse. The moment Shaun entered the room, all of her excitement vanished in a puff of smoke. She had just begun to feel somewhat at ease with the job itself, getting back into the swing of things and enjoying the shot of adrenaline whenever she learned something she was sure Soyo didn't want anyone to know.

So there she was now, waiting for him to show up the day after his abrupt entrance, her heart trying to rip itself apart in a loud and incessant argument with her brain. She’d treated him like he was some kind of an animal the day before, mental images of the man in Ace’s story dancing in her head. But he’d been so hurt by her reaction, so raw and vulnerable that her heart maintained that Ace had to be full of shit. Or even if he wasn’t, a man had the right to be upset when his girl cheated on him, right?

Not upset enough to blow out someone’s kneecaps, she reminded herself dully for about the twentieth time that day.

His scent still lingered in her thoughts, and the way his muscled, bulging bicep had felt when she’d touched his arm sent jitters of excitement through her. It was damn hard keeping her wits about her and it got harder still the more she thought about him. But he had monopolized her thoughts for the day and there seemed to be no way around it.

Dani had hoped that a call to Ace’s office would clear the whole thing up. They’d admit that there had been a mistake, even though she recognized Carter’s name from the file dealing with the agents that had worked on the case so far, and Shaun would be out of her hair. Not that she thought that to be a likely outcome, now that her brain was thudding to the beat of his existence again.

When he barged through the door again, it being close to eight in the evening and her research space devoid of any of the other agents working the op just like the night before, she let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Seeing him, it was like a metal vise was spun loose around her lungs and she could finally heave in air again. Despite her head screaming at her to be afraid, to be very fucking afraid, she smiled.

“What do you have for me, Dani?” he asked, omitting greetings as he pulled a chair and slouched down on it, leaning his elbows on the backrest.

Her throat went dry with his striking eyes on her. Spirits above, he was even more gorgeous than she’d remembered him. All hard, cut, brooding, and dangerous, he was everything she wasn’t supposed to want and everything she needed just as badly. Dani had been with plenty of bad boys in her life but she’d always known that the fun couldn’t be permanent, that it was something to pass the time with because guys like Shaun couldn’t be tamed, and she definitely wasn’t the woman who wanted to tame anyone.

But for Shaun, she could make an exception.

No, bad Dani! He’s a crazed psycho, even if he is Ro’s dad. Get your hormones in check.

Dani nodded, pulling up a file on the computer. Ace had given her the go-ahead to tell Shaun whatever he needed to know, and the irony wasn’t lost on her when he told her that Squad Six had been assigned to Soyo’s detail. They were available to strike when enough data came through to pin Soyo to a solid location and they’d be the muscle extracting him.

Even with everything she knew about Ace, Dani hadn’t thought that he’d be evil enough to stick her on the same team with the man he was using to extort her to work for him to begin with. Sitting back, she should have understood that it was exactly like something Ace would do. If not for the outcome then at least for the kicks and the giggles. Asshole.

“Carter Taylor. He’s a Firm operative,” she started, and Shaun cut in as soon as she’d gotten the first few words out.

“The hell he is,” he growled, his deep voice making her skin pimple in goose bumps, remembering all the dirty things he’d told her during their nights together.

“Yeah, he is. I haven’t met him myself and he’s sort of young for The Firm. No service time either, but they’ve been training him since he was sixteen. He’s an undercover operative, doing the same shit that I did. Supposed to infiltrate and get the dirt on the marks before either getting out of there or finishing the job.”

Shaun took the mouse from her hand and scrolled through the file, utter astonishment written on his face. His eyes went wide and a vein throbbed on his neck, making her want to put a hand on his to calm him. But that was not her place and she was supposed to be keeping him as far away as she could, not falling right back into the trap of his arresting sex-appeal and sexy vulnerability.

“Shit. Carter, the fuck have you been up to,” he muttered, letting go of the mouse and falling back in his seat.

His eyes were sad and he looked at a loss for words. Dani bit her lip, her heart breaking for him and she wasn’t even sure why. It seemed like she could sense his disappointment, his hurt, now even more than last night. It was confusing and maddening and scary as hell.

“How do you know him?” Dani asked, trying to keep the conversation on track.

“He’s the kid of a guy I knew back in the service. Carter’s dad saved me. Me and a bunch of other sorry bums. We didn’t deserve it to be honest, but he did it anyway, and I promised I’d keep his boy safe. Looks like I failed him real fast,” Shaun said, his expression blank.

“I don’t think it’s that bad,” Dani said, frowning slightly. “I mean, he’s a highly trained individual, especially for his age. A real natural, it seems. His trainers have all gushed about him and that’s probably why he got sent in so young, too. Because he’s special.”

“Special enough to die for The Firm’s causes, yeah,” Shaun snorted. “I wouldn’t let him enlist, you know. I told him he was too fucking young to do it, been telling him for years. That he needs to grow up before he does it, he needs to know how the world works before he decides to destroy it. Guess he listened to me and decided to blow it apart regardless.”

Shaun tipped his head back, his whole body tight with angst. Dani felt her stomach twist and toss, feeling so damn bad for him despite all her reservations.

“He’s been off the grid for a few weeks now. We haven’t heard from him,” she added softly, pulling up another file, one not referenced in his main documents. “It’s not unusual,” she rushed to add. “I mean, I was out of touch for two months and I was fine. Sometimes circumstances don’t give us the chance to report back as often as we’d like.”

Shaun was sitting straight again, his expression betraying all the lack of confidence in her certainty that she was feeling. Damn that man, he could read her like a book. That much was obvious.

“Yeah, and we’re stuck in the middle of a fucking jungle here, where Carter simply can’t find the way to text an update, right, Dani? No, he’s been fucked over somehow. He’s good and he’s fast, sure, but he’s a kid, nothing more. I don’t care what the training says, but he wasn’t ready for that shit and no one should have sent him in. You were there in the jungle, do you think a nineteen-year-old has any business rolling with those people?” he asked, his eyes ablaze.She wanted to say yes, wanted to tell him what she knew he needed to hear, but she couldn’t lie to him. Well, she could, obviously, or she would have blurted out the truth about Roman already last night. But she found herself disarmed by his presence, not wanting to hurt him any more than she had to, but not being able to tell him any more fibs either.

“No, he didn’t,” she said with a small voice. “But that doesn’t mean that he can’t be all right, Shaun. He could be fine. We don’t know anything to suggest otherwise. And this is Ilocos, it’s not like the people here are in the business of keeping their villainous deeds under wraps.”

“I guess,” he agreed reluctantly, but she could see the way his knuckles were getting white, gripping the back of the chair too hard.

His face looked haunted, sunken, and there was a feral light behind his eyes, one that spoke of determination. It didn’t take someone trained in reading people to understand that Shaun was taking this very, very personally and he was going to go to any length to make sure that Carter was okay. A man like that couldn’t be all bad, right?

Without thinking, she reached her hand out and put it on his, her fingers incredibly dainty on his big paws.

“We’ll find him, Shaun. He’s one of our own and I won’t let The Firm do to him what they did to me. If he’s mixed up with Soyo and he’s still alive, I’ll get him out. I promise.”

He looked up at her and the world stood still again like that time in the bunker, when she’d thought she’d really seen him for the first time. Not for the warrior, not for the beast that could stalk through the jungle unfound, but for the man. Warmth flooded her and it felt incredibly good. So good that it took some real hard self-control to keep from leaning forward and kissing him on the mouth like she wanted to.

“Why? Why do you care?” he asked, the spite and teeth out of his voice as he spoke.

“Because I owe you that much,” she said, speaking from the heart.

There was a second there where she thought he’d stand up, scoop her up in his arms and kiss her like she knew she wanted him to. But it passed, slowly but surely, and he smiled crookedly, shaking his head a little.

“Guess I got lucky by not capping you one in the head,” he said, letting her relax and laugh out loud.

“I’d say that we were both lucky that things played out that way.”

He grinned and it stabbed at her, seeing his face in a different light, when it wasn’t twisted and contorted with rage and hurt.

Could I have been seeing that smile this whole time if I had told him right away and not hidden from him?

The realization hit her like a mallet to the chest. While she’d been so adamant about not hiding whenever she thought about it, it was now that she saw Shaun that she knew that she was doing it. Dani couldn’t trust him or anyone else, least of all herself, and that was a lot to admit.

“Hey, it’s late. I mean, I know it’s late. I waited until everyone else was out of here. Do you want to grab some dinner? In a perfectly platonic, I’m-glad-you’re-helping-me-potentially-avenge-my-friend kind of way?”

“How did you know I was here alone?” Dani asked, looking at Shaun in surprise.

He gave her a devilish grin, his gray and blue eyes twinkling with something secret and funny to perhaps only him. It made her think that he was hiding a whole lot from her and hell if it didn’t make her damn curious to find out exactly what those things were.

“I’m a SEAL sniper, baby. You can trust that I have my ways. You in or out?” he asked, standing up.

Dani scrambled to her feet, tossing one questioning look at the sole window in the room and then back at Shaun, but his amused expression didn’t betray whether or not she was right. It should have filled her with dread, knowing the kind of power that was hidden in him, but the only thing it did was make her feel giddy with excitement. Damn that man and all his inexplicable hotness, making her gush because he was always the deadliest man in the room, even when he was surrounded by a squad of other ruthless commandos.

“Yeah, I’m coming,” she yelped, moving fast to catch up with him before he disappeared out the door.

This is such a bad idea, she told herself, but for some reason she couldn’t stop smiling like a fool.