His consuming gaze found me, drifting down my body with a mixture of warmth and agitation.Ī tremor started beneath my skin, buzzing stronger like an approaching bee that would surely sting. When I went downstairs twenty minutes later, with wet hair and dressed in only one of Ace’s white t-shirts, Allister was still there, leaning against the counter and talking on the phone. I headed up the stairs, dropping my blood-stained dress at the top, and took a shower. In fact, it felt like I was hanging by a thread high in the sky, though I was too indifferent to care if it snapped. I was too numb to be annoyed by his lord-and-master tone. “No.” The word was hard, and the glint in his eye conveyed that he did not feel sorry in any way. “Why are you here?” I asked, draping his jacket over an island chair. He looked around the place, his shoulders tense. I knew the code to Ace’s alarm system-not because he trusted me with it, but because I’d secretly watched him type it in once.Īllister stepped inside behind me and shut the door. He drove me to Nico’s home in the Bronx in silence and then followed me to the back door. Maybe I was losing my mind, but I studied his form the entire walk to the car as I trailed behind him, barefoot.

I’d never noticed just how built the man was until now. His white long-sleeve shirt molded his broad shoulders and arms. I realized it was the first time I’d ever seen him without a suit jacket. He’d taken those bullets for me, and I was going to nurse him back to health, whether he liked it or not.Īllister ran his tongue across his teeth as though agitated, but he moved to speak with one of the dozens of agents nearby. He’d been losing a lot of blood from the two bullet wounds he’d received, one in the side and one in the arm. “Ace won’t be there for a while.”Īn ambulance had taken him to the hospital despite his protests. The Largest Ant Colony in the World Spans Four NationsĪ muscle in his jaw tightened, and something bitter passed through his eyes.

The maddest obsession 2