Page 37 of Twisted Desire

I press my lips together. “Okay, so we break in, take control, and then what?”

Nik steals a glance at me before training his eyes on the road. “Get information?” he offers. “I’d rather not kill anyone, though.”

I groan but opt not to mention that killing everyone would be much faster. “Fine. We’ll incapacitate them, get the info we need, then wipe their memories about the fae.”

He taps his fingers against the steering wheel. “Good plan.”

We drive for almost half an hour before Nik pulls off the highway and drives down a bunch of side roads into the country. He glances in the rearview then slows to a stop off to the side near a long dirt drive. The building is hidden from view, but Nikolai seems sure we’re in the right place. The air around him turns colder, darker. He flipped a switch, becoming a serious, driven fae leader in a matter of seconds right before me.

“Damn,” I mutter under my breath.

He reaches for my hand, lacing his fingers through mine without looking at me.

“Nikolai?”

He’s still staring out the windshield.

My voice softens. “Nik?”

Finally, he turns his face toward me.

“Kiss me,” I murmur.

He relaxes some, leaning across the center console to capture my lips with his. I close my eyes and kiss him deeply, pouring all of the concern, excitement, and love at war inside me into the kiss. He gasps against my mouth and pulls back, his eyes flicking between mine, and then he smirks. “Irrevocably and obsessively,” he says with a wink.

I roll my eyes, but paired with the ridiculous grin on my slightly swollen lips, I don’t see it being very effective.

He lifts my hand to his lips and kisses my knuckles. “Don’t worry, Skylar. I won’t make you say it.” He kisses my hand again. “You ready to do this?”

“Yeah,” I say, turning my attention forward as he does the same before we pull into the gravel drive. Trees surround each side of it, which is good for us—it’ll make good cover until we get close enough to the building to make sure there isn’t anyone on guard outside.

Nikolai stops far enough away from the building to go undetected. He pulls the car off to the side, parking it on the overgrown grass, and we get out. After a quick weapons check—stun guns, knives, legit guns—we start toward the building, keeping to the forested area to stay hidden.

When the building comes into view through the branches, we exchange a serious glance, and Nikolai nods. We step through a break in the trees and sprint through the long, damp grass until we reach the back of the building. It’s a small, simple rectangle. The windows in the front and back are blacked out, and the outside is clear. Nik quickly destroys the security camera above the door before it can detect us. Once that’s done, we don’t have a lot of time before someone realizes the feed has gone dark. We need to act fast and—

A crackle of static perks my ears and makes me swing around just as a guard lifts his gun. I act fast, kicking my leg up and knocking the gun from his grip.

“Feel free to keep standing there,” I mutter toward Nik as I advance on the guard.

“You seem to have it covered,” he says with a smirk.

I curl my hand into a fist, ready to mess up this guy’s face. He manages to move around me before I can swing. He grabs my jacket and pulls hard, dragging me toward the exterior of the building. My back slams into the hard brick, and I curse.Damn. I wasn’t expecting him to have that muscle.

“Nik,” I growl. We don’t have time to fuck around.

“All right, all right.” He sighs, grabbing the guard’s collar, and pulls him away.

The second his hands are off of me, my fist flies toward his face, connecting hard with his jaw.

He grunts loudly, and I hit him again, blood spraying from his nose and staining the brick beside him.

“Hurry it up,” Nik comments.

I flip him off and hit the guard one last time before I pull out my stun gun and zap the guy, effectively knocking him unconscious.

Nikolai hisses at the residual shock and let’s go of the guard, and he crumbles to the ground, out cold.

I step over his body and head toward the door. From the outside, I hear machines beeping softly, the sound of fingers on a keyboard, and muffled voices. “We need to get inside if we’re going to be able to hear anything.”

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