Page 53 of Sublime Target

“All the way back here? That seems like a lot of trouble. You don’t have to—”

He held up a hand, cutting her off. “I want to. Urgent business must be dealt with, but I want us to continue this later. I hope you do, too.”

Hesitantly, she nodded. “I’ll… um, yes, I’d like to… see where this goes. But you’re right. We need to go back now.” If there was a disturbance, then she had to be there. “What exactly is going on?”

Jerik stood. He took her drink in his right hand and offered her his left. “Hostage situation, apparently.” His tone was way too nonchalant, as if this sort of thing was an everyday walk in the park for him.

Hostage? Oh, this was bad. She needed to be back at the tower right now. Garner would be flipping out.

Seriously, what was up with today? She stepped away from the place for less than thirty minutes, and everything went crazy?

I hope Garner hasn’t gone and done anything extreme.

And then there was this whole mate thing to wrap her head around now. Suddenly, it seemed like the least of her problems. “Who’s the hostage?”

“One of mine.”

Oh. “Please don’t kill anyone.”

His fangs flashed wickedly. “I can’t promise that, Clarissa. But since it’s you doing the asking, I’ll try my very best not to.”

TWENTY

The flight back began in silence. Clarissa looked at him a few times but didn’t say anything.

She sat in her chair, her demeanor brittle and tense.

He got the feeling she wasn’t entirely happy with him.

Well, that was to be expected. He’d dropped some unexpected news.

Silently, Jerik cursed the morons that had decided to take Mavrel hostage. He knew some humans were deluded, but he didn’t think people could be this fucking stupid.

To take one of his very own team hostage?

If he wasn’t so irritated, he almost might have found it amusing. Mavrel certainly seemed to—when he’d comm’ed Jerik, he’d spoken in a dry, bored tone. “Er, boss, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but apparently, I’m supposed to tell you there’s a human pointing a gun to my head, and if you and the human female don’t get your ass back over here now, he’ll blow my brains out or something.”

Jerik had told him to sit tight and only fight back if he thought it was safe to do so.

Then, he’d been forced to cut a very important conversation short.

He was livid.

He was certain he would have pulled it off—convinced her of his good intentions—if not for this infernal interruption.

How dare they?

When he found out who was responsible for this, he would sever their fucking…

No. You promised her you wouldn’t.

At the very least, she hadn’t reacted too badly. Some humans might have become afraid or hysterical. She could have rejected him on the spot.

But she hadn’t.

He was just fortunate she had a calm temperament. Clarissa was adept at concealing her thoughts and emotions. She weighed things carefully and took her duty seriously.

That much he understood about her.