Was it something to do with Ava?
I kept my expression carefully neutral, but inside, adrenaline was flooding my system in preparation for a battle. The question of who Ava was before I’d stumbled across her rose once more. I’d known I was getting into a bullshit situation when I saw the lack of mark.
I’d gone there anyway. If anyone tried to separate us, the fallout would not be pretty. My palms turned clammy—enhancements could be counterproductive. The need to return home and check that she was safe and well felt like ants crawling under my skin.
The chair creaked under Hurst. He seemed caught up in his desire to watch me get my bad news. But he was also a man with a healthy sense of self-preservation, which had kept him as Taylor’s right-hand man where so many others had failed.
Rising gracefully, he placed an empty glass on the table. “No problem. I still think you should consider getting a muzzle for your dog when you bring him inside.”
I huffed out a laugh. “Better hope Taylor never cuts one of us loose, Hurst, because thirty seconds later, you’re dead.” I enjoyed watching him take a wide step around me as he exited the room.
As the door clicked shut, I returned my attention to Taylor. His contemplative expression said the news would be bad enough for me to forget all about breaking Hurst’s jaw.
“I had an interesting visitor,” he said. “A woman who has recently joined us from Sanctuary has issued a challenge for Ava.”
I felt my brows pinch together. “What the fuck? A woman? Her sister, maybe?”
“Indeed, a woman, and no, not a blood relative. She looked—” he paused to shrug, “—like she could handle herself. Mitch said she’s enhanced. He’s recommended her for the forces once she passes the probation period.”
My eyebrows crawled into my hairline. “You’re shitting me? She wants to challenge me?” The adrenaline was still ripping through my system, and the lack of action was making me a little woozy. Maybe if I’d taken the time to talk to Ava instead of fucking her, I’d know what this was about. “Does she even know who I am or anything about me?”
Taylor smiled. “I did try to dissuade her, but she shrugged as if to say ‘who cares’, and on reflection, it would be such an interesting encounter. Besides, didn’t I hear that you were looking to offload her?”
He said this so matter-of-fact that I had to fight the urge to punch the son-of-a-bitch.
“I may do,” I said. I’d played down my first foray into ownership, having learned a long time ago to keep my cards close to my chest with Taylor. If he suspected my level of obsession with Ava, he’d find a way to use it to his advantage. “When I’m ready. Are you going to let the challenge stand?”
“I am,” Taylor replied. “I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t handle. I’ve no grounds to refuse… unless Ava can persuade her ‘friend’ to retract. Sure, it’s a little unusual for a woman to be an owner, but what makes an owner? You just need to make a claim and hold it.”
An epiphany hit me that was both unwelcome and disconcerting. “You think they’re in a relationship?” I asked, already half convinced of the answer. A friend would ask to see Ava, not challenge the appointed head of Taylor’s forces. Something had been off right from the start with Ava. She said she hadn’t been with someone for years, and I’d wondered how the fuck that was possible. She couldn’t look after herself, not even close, so someone else was.
“You mean, did they fuck?” Taylor’s blunt statement hit a raw nerve. “I would say so. The woman who marched in here had the look of more than a concerned friend. Rabid is the word that comes to mind.”
Well, fuck that.
A possessive rage I didn’t know I harbored rose up and demanded my attention.
After that first time when I’d fucked Ava, she’d sobbed like her heart was breaking. I scrubbed a hand in my hair. “When?”
“It should be now,” Taylor replied. “But I’ll give you a few hours.”
My grunt was derisive. I’d gone three straight days with no more than snatches of sleep. I felt sick with fatigue, and my body was teetering on the point of shutting down. Three hours wasn’t enough, not for a credible challenge.
I could see it in Taylor’s face, this was going to be a credible challenge.
“I need to talk to Ava,” I said.
He inclined his head, magnanimous… anticipating the showdown. “The cage, o-six-hundred hours. Unless you can dissuade her.”
The cage was public—the place where the higher ranks dealt with challenges. I’d been in the cage before, but never over a woman.
Did I really want to challenge someone that Ava cared about?
Was I even capable of meeting that challenge in my current physical state?
Could I let her go?
A primal instinct gripped me at the thought of losing her.
One thing was sure, I wasn’t giving her up without a fight. I just didn’t know what kind of fight that might be.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ava
HE’D BEEN GONE for three days, and I was ready to climb the walls.
If not for the sweet housekeeper who had come around to clean up and stock the fridge, I might have done something stupid… like try to leave the apartment.
At least I had some clothes now, so that was something. The leggings and tops were functional, but they were also clean and fit me.
I don’t know who’d been more surprised when the sweet young woman entered, her or me. It didn’t help matters that her heavy Eastern European accent and broken English made communication a challenge. She could understand me better than she could speak, but I got enough of it to realize that she was here to clean his home.
Which was ridiculous given I was literally here all the time and had absolutely nothing to do but stare out the window.
I’d hacked into his computer yesterday after his second call to check on me, which had yielded nothing.
He didn’t say much during the call. Asked me how I was. Promised to take me out once he was back.
That was a lie.
We both knew the minute he entered the door, I’d be underneath him, all too willing and eager for the only thing that felt right in this crazy world.
Then yesterday, I’d started my period, and I knew I was in trouble when the first feeling was one of disappointment, not relief.
Oh, how I’d fallen. I swear Blaine only needed to look at me, and my pussy drooled in anticipation.
So it came as quite a surprise when he returned, and sex wasn’t the first thing on his mind.
The man who entered the apartment was the same man I’d met on the rooftop. It was like I’d forgotten what he was over the last few weeks… had it only been a few weeks? This time, he hadn’t gotten changed or cleaned up. This time he was in full combat kit, weapons and all. The coppery tang of blood, smoke, and gasoline surrounded him. The man was a walking advertisement for death, and his face was stone cold.
A prickling awareness skittered under my skin. My smile dropped. I stood on one side of the couch and Blaine on the other. Normally, he’d have tossed his duster over the couch and would be offloading weapons into his storage drawer by now.