Page 28 of The Hunted
He waggled a finger at me. “You have some female balls, you know that? I’m beginning to see why my son likes you.”
My dad had always praised me for being tough. Despite Steven’s compliment, I didn’t know whether to laugh, roll my eyes, or snort. I chose to go with none of those, and instead slipped my hands into my coat pockets and ignored his comments. “Does that mean you’ll help my sister?”
He and I were roughly ten feet apart. The door was behind him. If I wanted to run, I had to go around him, and that was a tall order. He was fast, strong, and deadly. I had to find common ground—a win-win for both of us. My dad had taught me that.
“Mr. Mason, I’m not working with Roman.” I was being threatened, and that was much different than doing a job.
“Layla, one thing you’ll learn about me and my children is our ability to get to the truth. Therefore, all I have to do is touch you to read your mind. If I find you’re lying to me, I can guarantee you will not walk off this naval base.”
Well, there went my human existence unless I could remember what Dad had told me about how to block Steven from reading my mind. “I know you can read minds.”
He startled. “Your father told you?”
“We know vampire history. We know which of you are more powerful than others.” That was partly a lie. I didn’t know the magnitude of what Sam was capable of. I was slowly finding out, though.
“Mm. So you know what my children are capable of too?”
“My dad didn’t talk about your children, but I saw how Sam made the nightclub shake and what he’s done to Rianne.” Steven’s grin told me he was pleased with his son.
I wondered for a moment if Sam could read minds.Holy shit!If he could, then he knew my innermost thoughts about him.Sam doesn’t need to read your thoughts, girl. He can smell your lust.
I held out my hand. “Then read my mind.” Holy hell. I had a way of shielding myself from being compelled, but when it came to reading my mind, I had nothing.
Steven didn’t hesitate.
Once my small hand was in his large one, I felt a warm feeling travel up my arm. Then on a blink, his eyes were liquid silver. As we stood bound to one another, thoughts of Sam skipped through my head. Sexy thoughts too. Not just the one where I was driving a dagger through his heart, but the one where I envisioned us naked and sweaty.
My cheeks burned with embarrassment, but it was either that or… I didn’t want to finish that thought.
Steven dropped my hand. “Mmm.”
“I’m sorry. What does that mean?” Maybe he felt awkward when he found I had been imagining Sam and me naked.
He smoothed a hand over his hair. “What do you want with my son?”
I pushed out my shoulders. “I’m confused. You just read my mind, didn’t you?”
“Somehow, I don’t think you were at the club to drive a dagger through Sam’s heart. You were blocking me. I’m not surprised. But, Layla, my patience is wearing thin.” His voice dropped several octaves. “Answer my question.”
I blew out a breath. It was best to come clean. Again, one less thing I had to deal with if I enlisted Steven’s help to get Rianne out of her comatose state. “Fine. My sisters and I took a job to capture Sam. Some guy named Dowell paid us a lot of money. He didn’t say why, and I did ask.” The tension whooshed out of me as though a ten-ton brick had been lifted off my shoulders.
He studied me with a calculating glare. “How do you know this man? And is he a vampire?”
“I don’t know him. He contacted us. He didn’t share much except his name. He knew Sam would be at the club, and that Roman would be too. And our clients are all human.”
He scraped a hand along his angular jaw. “Are you sure he’s human?”
I nodded. “He told us he was.”
“Are your uncles helping you on this job?”
I felt as though I had whiplash with him firing one question after another. “You know them too?”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I tried to recruit your father. I never met your uncles, but I know of them.”
My mouth fell open. “Come again?” Dad had never shared that with me or my sisters. “Do my uncles know that?” If they did, they hadn’t told us.
“Not sure. I never approached your uncles. I wanted your father to work for the vampire government.”
