Ian didn’t throw out the Marker.”
“Riley’s fine,” he told her, watching her closely. “But he wasn’t the one.”
She blinked. “Ian?” she said, her hoarse tone thick with surprise. “Jesus, it was Ian?”
“Yeah, but he’s all right. A little lost at first, but we found him in time to give him the information he needed.”
There was a note of censure in his graveled voice that cut her deeper than she’d have thought possible. After all, it wasn’t that she hadn’t tried to share what she knew with her brothers. Well, maybe not with Ian, but damn it, she’d tried to warn Riley. Not that she’d known then as much as she did now. She’d learned so much since she’d last seen him at their mother’s funeral—things that she’d planned on sharing when she made it back to America, whether he wanted to listen or not.
But time had run out…more swiftly for Ian than it had for her, if what this man claimed was true.
“Of course Ian’s all right,” she said, her voice soft, while her mind churned it over…and over, trying to grasp it. She should have figured it out before. If she hadn’t been so scared, she’d have realized that Riley wouldn’t have had any involvement with the Watchmen, giving Quinn her picture and asking him to come after her, unless something had already happened. And she could just imagine how furious Ian must have been to discover he was the first, considering how he’d always detested any talk about the Merrick. “According to Riley, Ian’s like a cat. He must have nine lives.”
“I imagine he lost a couple during the past few weeks,” Quinn commented dryly. “The thing hunted him down, Saige, targeting some of the women he’d dated. They’re making it personal, striking where it hurts.”
Stunned, she barely managed to scrape out her words. “Are you telling me that it killed human women?”
“Killed is putting it too lightly. It tortured them, and made it a slow, grueling process, just to mess with your brother’s mind.”
“But I thought they would come after us—after the Merrick.” She wrapped her arms around her middle again, somehow trying to hold herself together. “We’re the ones they’re supposed to want. The ones they need.”
“Oh, they’ll come after you,” he rasped, the husky notes of his dark-velvet voice stroking her senses, despite her horror with the situation. “And they’ll do everything they can to screw with your life until they’ve got you.” He shifted closer, making her want to retreat from his intensity…from that piercing gaze and his devastating beauty. “That’s where I come in.”
Her breath caught so hard that her chest ached. “Meaning?”
“Meaning you’re my responsibility now. Wherever you go, I go. I’m not letting you out of my sight, so you might as well get used to it.”
Saige could tell from his tone that he was hardly thrilled by the circumstances. “I didn’t ask for this.”
“Yeah?” he drawled. “Go ahead and ask me how much that matters.”
She was angrier at fate at the moment than with him—but fate wasn’t there to hear her complaints. “Are you always this aggravating?” she demanded, giving him her best glare.
For a split second, a funny expression crossed his chiseled features, and he lifted those mouthwatering shoulders in a wry shrug. “Believe it or not, I’m usually the most easygoing guy around. I guess you just bring out the worst in me.”
“The worst in you, huh?” Lowering her brows, she wondered what she must have done in a past life to have earned such cosmically crappy luck. “Funny how I always seem to have that effect on people.”
“Aggravating or not, I intend to keep you alive, and that thing back there is programmed on to you.” Saige knew what he meant. She’d heard about a Casus’s ability to lock on to a Merrick, as though she were some kind of metaphysical beacon for its hunger. “That’s why we need to get to the safety of Ravenswing, the Watchmen compound in Colorado, as soon as possible.”
Saige shook her head, a new fear quickly taking form, twisting through her like a physical pain as she reached down and grabbed hold of her backpack, hooking it over her right shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere until I’ve checked on Javier.”
Dark brows drew together over darker eyes. “Who?”
“The boy I was with tonight,” she explained, adjusting her hold on the heavy pack. “He lives in Coroza with his brothers, not far from the bar.”
Quinn frowned. “You know he’d be better off if you just stay away from him.”
“But you said yourself that the Casus went after some of the women Ian knew,” she argued. “I need to make sure that Javier made it home okay. Give him enough money to get out of town for a while.”
“Then call him,” he said flatly.
“He and his brothers don’t have a phone,” she explained with a heavy dose of frustration.
He studied her posture, his hard, hypnotic gaze lingering on her face…her eyes, noting her determination. “It isn’t safe for you to go near him, Saige. If they’ve marked him, you’ll be putting yourself in danger again. Just going back into Coroza is a hell of a risk.”
She was going to have to go back into Coroza one way or another, anyway, considering she still had to retrieve the maps from Inez’s safe—but she wasn’t going to explain any of that to Quinn. And at the moment, her only concern was Javier. “You can try to stop me,” she said, “but I’m giving you fair warning. If you do, I’ll stab you in the heart the second you let your guard down, then come back without you.”
She’d expected him to shout at her, but it was quickly becoming apparent that Michael Quinn wasn’t an easy man to predict. Instead of reacting with anger, he actually grinned at her quietly spoken threat, the devilish curve of that hard mouth making her toes curl inside her hiking boots, though she struggled not to show it. “You’re not afraid of me at all, are you?”
She was almost grinning back at him as she said, “Just don’t forget it.”
“I’m not likely to,” he murmured, the heavy look in his eyes making her shiver with awareness. In that moment, she was distinctly aware of their differences. Of his rugged maleness compared to her softer femininity. And yet, she still didn’t feel threatened. Not by Quinn.
No, for some unfathomable reason, she felt safe.
A gentle breeze blew her hair across her face, and she lifted one hand, tucking the wayward strands behind her ear. “I understand the risk, Quinn. But I have to do this. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t.”
He held her in his dark gaze as the seconds stretched out like a body being tortured on the rack. Just when she was ready to start arguing in earnest, he blew out a rough breath, and quietly said, “How’s the leg?”
Her leg? Glancing down, Saige noticed the bloodied scratches the Casus had left on her calf. She knew it was a sign of her nerves that the wound wasn’t bothering her. Looking back at Quinn, she said, “It’ll be fine.”
He
