“Hey. It was. You sure weren’t going over there alone. And the more I think about it, the more I hate the idea we even had her over last night. The last thing we need is for someone else to get dragged into our nightmare by association. The best thing is for Nik to stay with her. Just to be safe.”
“I agree,” Leo said.
“Besides,” Mikhail smirked, “she said she wanted me to hook her up with one of my friends.”
Haley shoved his hand off her shoulder. “I’m fairly certain she didn’t intend to meet one of them in the bathroom over the toilet.”
“Eh. She didn’t specify.” Mikhail jumped out of the way as Haley turned to shove him. As if she had the strength to make an impact.
Sergei and Ivan went to inspect the pizzas on the counter.
Katie had a strange look on her face, her brow still furrowed in concern.
“What are you thinking?” Alena asked.
“I’m thinking I want a blood sample from Belinda. And one from both of you too.” She pointed at Mikhail and Haley.
“We aren’t sick. Not a single symptom,” Mikhail reminded her.
“Yeah. That’s what worries me. How long after you ate did she get sick?”
“Probably within a few hours,” Haley said. She didn’t like the direction this conversation was going. Wasn’t it simply a coincidence?
“And she seems to be done vomiting?”
“Yes. At least that’s the update I got from Nik,” Mikhail said.
Katie chewed on her bottom lip for a second. “Probably don’t even need to see her. You mind if I play vampire again?” She glanced at both of them.
“Sure.” Where was Katie going with this? Haley felt fine. If any one of them was going to get sick, it should have been her. After all, her immune system was probably the weakest since she was still recovering from whatever happened to her in Yenin’s lab.
Leo kissed Katie on the cheek. “I’ll let you play vampire while I organize plates and drinks and pizza.”
“Sounds good.” Katie nodded toward the back. Haley followed, Mikhail close behind her.
“Are there different types of food poisoning?” Haley asked as she followed Katie down the hall to an exam room.
“Yes. That one sounds like staph. It’s the most likely to come on fast and leave just as quickly. I’ll send your samples to the lab, and we’ll see what they find.”
“And you’re testing our blood why?” Mikhail asked as he sat in the chair and flipped his arm over to expose the crook of his elbow.
Haley slumped in the room’s other chair. She was super clear on this issue. “Because we have food poisoning too.” She wiped a hand across her forehead, suddenly nervous.
“Uh, clearly we don’t. I’m not sick.” Mikhail fisted his hand when Katie handed him a small rubber ball.
“Have you ever been sick?” Haley asked.
“Well, no.”
“And yet…”
Katie smiled. “Exactly.”
Mikhail groaned. “Seriously. You think we can’t get sick because of something we were injected with?”
“That’s exactly what I think.” Katie filled one vial and then reached for a second. “You didn’t have smallpox or diphtheria either, but your body says you did.”
“But those are immunizations. You think this extends to anything we’re exposed to currently?”
“I hadn’t considered it before now, but yes.” Katie put a piece of gauze over the puncture and held it down. “Besides, like I said a few weeks ago, some of the antibodies in your bloodstream couldn’t have come from immunizations. They didn’t exist.”
“So it’s a mystery still.”
“Yes.” Katie frowned.
Mikhail stood and switched places with Haley.
Haley took a deep breath, a little on edge about having a needle stuck in her for any reason. She’d never had a problem with doctors before, but now…
“You okay?” Katie asked before she poked the needle in.
“Yeah. I’ll live.”
“Do you have a history of fainting during a blood draw or anything?”
“No. But I have a recent history of way too many blood draws. Puts me on edge now.”
Katie nodded. “Understandable.”
When Haley looked up, Mikhail was typing on his phone. He lifted his head. “Taylor’s sending someone to get those.”
“Good.” Katie said. “I was just going to call her.”
“Is the FBI at our beck and call every day?” Haley asked. “Geez. It’s a Sunday afternoon.”
“When they have a case like this, yes.” Mikhail stood and reached for Haley’s hand. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” She was shaking a little. This entire thing was stressful. Reinforcing the danger they were in by adding mysterious food poisoning didn’t ease her nerves. The only times she’d managed to keep herself from worrying to death lately were the times Mikhail dominated her. And those were often. Nearly always.
Was she submitting to him so much in order to avoid facing reality?
Mikhail was convinced it was in her nature.
She wasn’t so sure.
Mikhail hauled her against his chest as Katie left the room. He threaded a hand in her hair and pressed her head against him, holding her tight.
It grounded her. She concentrated on slowing her breathing.
His lips landed on top of her head. “I’ve got you.”
That simple statement meant the world to her. It had multiple meanings, and he meant every one of them.
He eased his hand down to her neck and tipped her head back to meet her gaze. “You’re going to be okay. Promise. We’ll get through this. Together.”
Would they? She wasn’t so sure. Maybe they would get through this, but would they still be together afterward? It seemed unlikely. The situation was intense. It was causing her to do things she never would have considered a month ago. Right?
Hiding in fear? Sleeping with a man she met three weeks ago? Living with him? Submitting to him like someone who practiced a deep level of BDSM?
It was crazy. She’d never once thought of herself as being submissive. And she had to think the insanity of being kidnapped and drugged and rescued in a shootout was tipping her world on its axis. Confusing her. Driving her to make irrational choices that didn’t suit her personality.
Right?
Or had she been hiding, lying, and alone before the incident instead?
“You okay?” Mikhail’s eyes were narrowed.
She swallowed her fears and forced a smile. “Yes.” She wiggled out of his embrace, needing to put some space between them so she could think straight. Every time he touched her, she fell under some sort of hypnotic spell. It was as if his presence alone caused her to be submissive.
It didn’t extend to anyone else. Just him. He had a power over her that defied logic. When he stepped into a room, she calmed and found herself lowering her gaze. When he touched her, her heart rate slowed, and she felt the strength through his hands. When he held her… God, when he held her, she lost her mind with the need to please him.
She fought the urge to shudder and quickly left the room, knowing there was no escape from him but needing the reprieve even one inch would give her.
As she entered the front room where everyone else was gathered, she looked up to see a young guy at the door.
Leo took three strides to get across the room and let him in.
Mikhail didn’t reach for Haley, but a glance at his face showed his confusion over her weird behavior.
She looked back as the man with tussled, brown hair wearing jeans and a T-shirt stepped inside.
Katie came from behind the counter and held out a brown paper bag. “Two vials. One’s Haley’s. The other’s Mikhail’s. I kept spares in my lab.”
The guy reached for the bag. “What are we looking for?”
“Staph. Or some other bacteria that might cause food poisoning,” Katie told him.
The guy looked
surprised. “Is someone sick?”
Katie blew out a long breath. “Nope. And therein lies the next level of weirdness.”
“I see.” Clearly he didn’t, but instead of voicing his thoughts, he simply frowned. “I’ll get this to the lab and have Dorsen call you as soon as he has results.”
He turned and headed back to the front door. “Bill and Patrick have eyes on you this afternoon, by the way. They haven’t spotted anyone else out there. You should all be fine. When you disperse to go home, send Taylor a text and let her know who’s going where.”
“Will do,” Mikhail said as he opened the door.
Haley crossed her arms under her chest, shivering as if there were a chill in the room. She was suddenly extremely uneasy for no reason she could put her finger on.
Chapter Eighteen
Mikhail leaned against the kitchen counter and glanced around the room while the coffee brewed. The sweet scent was already filling the kitchen, and he needed the caffeine before he could make good choices.
The shower was still running, which meant Haley was standing naked under the warm flow of water.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly.
She had him in knots.
She was distant all day yesterday. Acting strange. Forcing a fake smile. Hugging herself as if she were cold. Not joining into many conversations with the others while they were at the clinic.
She hadn’t complained or asked to leave. But she also wouldn’t face him or explain why she was out of sorts.
He kept telling himself he’d give her space, let her figure things out. After all, he’d only known her a few weeks, and they’d only been together as a couple for two days. Two very intense days that felt like months.
But maybe she didn’t see it the same way he did. And maybe she needed to take a step back.
Had he been too hard on her? Pushed her too far too fast? Could he be misjudging her horribly and she wasn’t even submissive? He didn’t buy that.
He set his head in his hands. If he hurt her, he would never forgive himself. That was why he’d given her this space and backed off.
He’d run through every moment of the last two days in his head over and over. There was no way she wasn’t inherently submissive. Maybe she hadn’t realized it before he came along, but she had to see it now.
That didn’t mean it didn’t scare her. That was understandable. It was a lot to take in all at once. But he was freaking out now. He gave her space all afternoon yesterday and then crawled into her bed last night to hold her exhausted, stiff body against his chest while she fell asleep.
When her alarm went off, she slapped it and eased out of the bed as if she thought she might escape without him noticing.
What really bothered him was her intentions for the day. He knew she intended to go to work. But then what? If she thought she was going to walk the streets after work handing out food in the dark, she was crazy.
He might be able to hold his breath for a few hours and let her think he was being agreeable, but he would have to put his foot down at the idea of putting her life in danger.
The sound of her voice made him jump upright and spin around. She wandered into the kitchen with a towel around her body and her cell phone to her ear. She didn’t make eye contact with him as she grabbed a mug and then held it under the unfinished stream of coffee as it continued. She’d shoved the pot to one side, sliding it back with ease when her mug was full.
Whoever was on the phone must have been rambling because she also didn’t speak again to them either, though he could hear a female voice.
Finally she made eye contact with him and mouthed, “Thank you.” And then she turned and padded from the room again, holding the towel with one hand and sipping the coffee with the other. “But you’re sure you feel up to this?” she asked as she entered the hall.
Belinda. Had to be.
Mikhail followed Haley to her bedroom, no longer in the mood to give her “space.” He sat on the bed and watched as she grabbed several items from her closet and then lingerie from her drawers.
“Are you going to work first?” she asked.
He fought to keep from interrupting. What he wanted to do was yank the phone out of her hand and tell Belinda in no uncertain terms what he thought of her plans for the day. Apparently she was feeling better. And he would bet his last dollar she planned to hit the ground running, including interviewing homeless people that evening.
That was bad enough, but the thought that Haley intended to join her made him fist his hands in the sheets. He had to do something with them to keep from jerking her over his knee and spanking some sense into her.
Hadn’t they already covered this territory?
Neither of those women needed to be combing the streets with a giant target on their chests, but especially not a reporter. First chance he got, Mikhail would alert Taylor so either she or someone else from the FBI could head over to Belinda’s office and talk some sense into her.
“Okay. I’ll see you then.” Haley tossed the phone on the bed and dropped the clothes she held next to it.
Finally, she gave him her full attention. “I need to get dressed.”
“Yep. If you intend to leave the apartment, I’d advise you do so.” Did she seriously think he would leave the room?
She blew out a breath, her shoulders slumping. “Look, Mikhail, I have a lot on my mind. Can we not argue?”
“Who’s arguing?” If she thought they had been arguing at any point, she was in for a rude awakening when they finally did have a fight. “I haven’t said a word.”
“You don’t have to. It’s written on your face.”
“What is?” He wanted to reach out and haul her in between his legs. Oh, who was he kidding? He itched to swat her ass. Hard.
She cocked a hip out. “You don’t want me to go to work. You don’t think it’s safe. And you think you can bully me into staying home. But it’s not going to work. You can’t control my every move. Just because we fucked a few times doesn’t mean you’re in charge of my life. I’m a grown adult. I have a job. Responsibilities.”
“Fucked a few times?” His voice rose as he stiffened, curling his fingers around the edge of the mattress.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Played. Had sex. I know this is my fault, and you probably think I’m a cock tease for pushing you away. Maybe I am.” She shrugged. “But I need my life back. I need normal. Kneeling at your feet and pretending to be your slave is not normal. It was a fun game. It’s over.
“I have to go back to my regularly scheduled life.” She reached for her panties, glanced at him, shrugged, and then dropped the towel.
Her exquisite body made him lick his lips. He would never have described her as a tease before. The thought hadn’t entered his mind. But now… Now she was a tease.
He grabbed the panties out of her hand before she could bend down to put them on, and he tossed them across the room.
Her mouth fell open as she faced him.
Before she could utter a single syllable, he held up a hand to stop her. “Don’t say another word.”
She started to speak again and then thought better of it and pursed her lips.
He struggled to contain his anger. The last thing he wanted to do was add fuel to her fire by getting pissed. After a few deep breaths, he spoke. “First of all, please do not diminish what we have by calling it fucking and shrugging your shoulders at me as if I had enacted a scene at a club with a stranger I never intended to see again.
“Second of all, I never said you couldn’t or shouldn’t go to work today. Not once. So don’t put words in my mouth.
“Thirdly, what we have together isn’t anyone’s fault. It just is. We met. We have chemistry. We got together. It’s human nature. Please do not try to belittle it as if it doesn’t exist all the sudden because you’re scared.”
She flinched, dipping her head toward the floor and then drawing a circle on the carpet with one toe.
&
nbsp; And it didn’t escape his notice she was naked and her nipples stood erect a foot from his face.
He would give her kudos for not trying to cover herself.
“I know we jumped into the deep end of the pool fast and then stayed under water playing for probably too long. I’ll take the blame for that. But you can’t deny we fit. We mesh. So don’t even try.”
She sniffled once but didn’t move otherwise.
He lowered his voice, softening his tone. “We’re amazing together. Even though you hadn’t visualized yourself in a BDSM relationship before we met, it happened. Would it have happened if we’d met under different circumstances? I don’t know.
“But instead of looking at it as something wrong you need to escape, why not view it as the stars aligning at just the right moment in time.” What was up with his sappy metaphor? “It takes courage and strength to submit to someone, and you have both.
“I get that you’re scared. I’d be worried if you weren’t. That’s why I sat back yesterday and let you think. But if you want to throw what we have away because you’d rather not face your submissive side, I won’t let you.”
She gasped.
“That’s right. You think I was bossy before? Wait until you see me trying to get you to see reason. You think I’ll just leave? Walk away because you’re too scared to face this? I won’t. I’ll fight for it.”
She sniffled again and then reached up and wiped the back of her hand under her eyes.
Tears? Shit. He’d never made a woman cry before. Was she scared? Or was he being too hard on her? He didn’t think so. He was just showing his cards.
And maybe calling her bluff?
He stared at her for a moment and decided to take that angle. “I won’t leave. I’m not going anywhere. If you need time, you can have it. If you want to test me, go for it. You want to sass me and put on a full brat routine, I’ll still be here.
“Nothing you do is going to make me give up.” He lowered his voice again, almost to a whisper. “You mean that much to me. I don’t care how quickly this happened. When I know something’s right, I just do. And you do too.
Guard (The Underground Book 3) Page 21
