Destiny's Shift (13 page)

different reasons.”

Liberty shut her eyes. The warmth in her stomach blossomed at Jovan’s touch,

and she sighed when he pulled his hands away.

“What happened?” she asked as he moved to the bed.

“We have a visitor. An FBI agent. He’s locked up in the gym downstairs.”

“An FBI agent? Jovan, those are the letters on the coats of those who took our

people!”

“I know, Liberty.” Jovan slid into bed and threw his arm over his eyes. “I’ve got

to go down and watch him in a few hours, so I need to get some sleep.”

Liberty turned off the light and got into bed as well. “Jovan, won’t he hurt us?”

Jovan turned to look at her. “No. We’ll kill him before he can hurt anyone.”

Liberty shivered at the coldness in his voice and his words. Yet, the FBI was one

of the enemies of their people now.

“Nothing’s going to happen to you, Liberty. I give you my word.”

She nodded up at the ceiling and felt the hot sting of tears in her eyes again. She

wiped at them before they could fall.

“Liberty, talk to me. What’s going on in that head of yours?”

Liberty didn’t know where to begin. The ache in her stomach was becoming

worse, she was terrified of being taken by the FBI, she was on a new planet with so many

rules and customs she didn’t understand . . .

“I do believe I’m feeling sorry for myself,” she said. “I feel . . . I feel very

overwhelmed with my circumstances, Jovan.”

“Aw, fuck. Come here, Liberty.”

She moved toward him, and he maneuvered her so that her head lay in the crook

of his arm, and he held her. She gently placed her hand on his chest, and he ran his hand

up and down her arm. The softness of his shirt and his warm, masculine scent gave her

solace.

“Everything’s going to be okay, Liberty. I promise.”

They lay in silence for a moment, and she was comforted by how right it felt to be

held by Jovan. She felt her fear and uncertainty dissipate a bit. There was something on

her mind that she had been meaning to ask him.

“Jovan,” she said in a quiet voice. “I do have one question.”

“Sure. Anything, Liberty. What’s up?”

“Well, now that I think about it, I have two.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you get that picture on your skin on your back?”

“It’s called a tattoo. You go to a tattoo parlor, tell them what picture you want and

where you want it, and they take a machine with a needle on it and put the ink in your

skin. Most people get something that has meaning.”

It sounded painful, but Liberty did like the idea of having a picture of something

significant on her skin.

“What does the skull with the knife through its eye socket represent?”

Jovan was quiet for a moment. “It symbolizes what I used to feel, before I met

you. My gift was driving me crazy.”

Liberty let that sink in and found that she really didn’t have a response. She just

couldn’t image the pain he had been in that a skull with a knife through its eye

represented how he felt. She moved on to the second question.

“Jovan, what is this
fucking
I hear all you males talking about?”

There was a long slice of silence, and Liberty shut her eyes thinking that she had

broken boundaries again.

“Excuse me?”

“My apologies. Never mind.”

“Liberty, there’s nothing to apologize for. I just didn’t understand the question.”

“This . . .
fucking
. I heard it when I worked in the club where the females disrobed

their clothes. I hear it here. I hear it used to describe things or as an object. I don’t

understand what it is. For instance, you just used it a little while ago.”

Jovan moved under the covers, but kept her close.

After another moment of silence, he said, “I think you need to talk to a female

about that.”

Chapter 26

Holy hell. What was fucking? It was what his body was raring to do right at this

very second. He hadn’t been thinking when he pulled Liberty closer; he had just wanted

to make her feel better. What he should have been thinking was how to control the

erection he had been trying to sleep with for the past few nights, and her closeness was

making it worse.

And now she wanted to talk about fucking and what it meant, and all he could

think about was how badly he wanted to show her exactly
what
it was.

She’s Noah’s sister.

You will be beaten within an inch of your life if you touch her sexually.

Right. Good things to remember.

He closed his eyes.

“Do you think Doctor Beverly is a good person to talk to about that? I’m thinking

of seeing her for something else.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure, but I thought I should talk to the doctor about it since Cohen is

unwell.”

Jovan nodded. He wanted to press further to find out what was wrong with her,

but decided this convo was already uncomfortable enough for him, and he really, really

needed to get some sleep.

And in order to do that, he needed to think about something else besides the

warm, little female next to him who smelled sweet, like chocolate, or fresh-baked

cookies, or . . .

Visions of Liberty sprawled out on the bed covered in chocolate danced in his

mind.

He loved chocolate.

Okay, this wasn’t helping.

He turned his thoughts to the son of a Colonist who was being held in their gym

being watched by Hudson. Wow. How messed up was that? They had a son of a Colonist

in their silo, for God sakes.

It was baffling. First, the Colonists were their enemies. Not only did Jovan hate

them for being such awful criminals, but he hated them because they had outsmarted the

Saviors by taking on human forms, and he despised being bested on anything.

The tricky thing about the Colonists’ offspring was that the bad genes might or

might not be passed down. Sometimes it skipped many generations. Sometimes it hit

every generation, and the evil needed to be stopped. So having that guy down in the gym

went against the grain of everything the Six Saviors had tried to eradicate for over two

hundred years.

Frankly, he was having a hard time wrapping his brain around the situation.

After they had dragged Mr. FBI in and threw him on some mats in the gym,

Hudson said he would watch him for a few hours as he was too jacked up to go back to

sleep.

Jovan hoped he didn’t put a bullet in the Feebie’s brain. And he so wasn’t

volunteering for the cleanup crew on that one if Hudson got trigger-happy.

One thing Jovan was certain of was that the guy had been truthful to his possibly

rotten core, if he had read his emotions right, which he thought he had. The guy had no

idea what his daddy was, and he did know where the others from their species were being

held.

Jovan also found it interesting that he hadn’t detected any fear in the guy. None.

The guy was one tough S.O.B., and Jovan had an idea that Mr. FBI wasn’t going to reveal

the whereabouts of his kind until he got his answers.

Which was fine, but where did that leave all of them? Did Mr. FBI head back to

his job? How would that work with him knowing their whereabouts, and when he came

to, he would be an intelligence-gathering machine. How was this big rescue going to

work? He hated to think it, but maybe those in the government clutches should just be

chalked up to collateral damage. Although, he was pretty certain that Noah wouldn’t let it

go down that way; he would insist that they go in after them. But what then? And what if

they were rescuing some of The Platoon who wanted to kill Noah for his father’s doings?

Not to mention the rest of the Saviors simply because they aligned their allegiance to

Noah?

That meant that he had a target on his back simply for trying to do the original job

he was sent to do.

He sighed, listening to Liberty’s soft breathing. Somewhere in this mess of people

wanting to kill him, he had to find time to work with Liberty on strengthening his shield,

because he really, really needed space from her.

Chapter 27

“May I speak with you privately for a moment, Beverly?” Liberty was so nervous

about this discussion, but the ache in her stomach had only gotten worse when Jovan held

her last night. She was now certain it was him who was making her sick.

“Of course,” Beverly said. She placed Killian in a bouncy chair and went over to

Hudson who was chopping vegetables at the kitchen counter. “I’ll be back in a few

minutes, okay?”

He smiled and kissed the tip of her nose. “Sure, honey. I’ll keep an eye on

Killian.”

“Should we go talk in my quarters, Liberty?”

“Yes.”

They rode the elevator down in silence, Liberty’s nerves jangling harder by the

moment.

“Come in and sit,” Beverly led her over to a blue loveseat that faced a large TV. In

the corner was Killian’s crib. “What can I help you with?”

Liberty sighed. “I think I am ill.”

“Why do you think that, Liberty? Are you feeling sick or is something hurting?”

Liberty looked at her hands. “I believe that Jovan is making me sick.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Why would you think that?”

She met the very green eyes of Doctor Beverly, and they reminded her of Jovan’s

at night, except they weren’t bright or as dark a green.

“When I’m in proximity to him, I get an ache in my stomach, right here,” she

pointed to her lower belly. “I also feel moisture between my legs.”

“Oh.”

There was more silence while Liberty studied her hands. Finally, she met

Beverly’s gaze.

“Do you like Jovan, Liberty? Do you like spending time with him?”

“Oh, very much so. He is a wonderful male.”

Beverly nodded and sat back in the couch. “I don’t think Jovan’s making you

sick.”

Liberty disagreed and told the doctor how bad the ache in her belly had been last

night when Jovan was comforting her.

Beverly smiled. “Honey, he’s not making you sick. I believe what you’re feeling

is a strong sexual attraction to him. Did you ever join with anyone on SR44?”

Liberty shook her head. Sexual attraction? To Jovan?

“Being near him . . . how can I say this . . . turns you on.”

“Turns me on?”

Beverly exhaled and smiled. “Yes.”

Liberty looked around the room. Done in blues and browns, it was a pleasant

place to tarry.

“I don’t believe I understand, Beverly.”

Beverly nodded. “Would you be okay if I called in Abby and Faith? Maybe they

can help me explain it better.”

“That would be fine.”

Beverly walked over to the phone on the nightstand and spoke in low tones. She

came back over and sat down.

“Jovan also told me to ask you what this
fucking
was. I hear it, but I’m confused

by the word. I have heard it used to describe something, and also as an object.”

Beverly smiled and patted Liberty’s hand. “We’ll cover that as well.”

Chapter 28

Jovan punched the boxing bag wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and a set of

Nikes, sweat rolling down his torso and scattering around him from the tips of his hair.

He’d relieved Hudson from watching Mr. FBI about an hour ago, and had been surprised

to see the guy still lying on the mats where they had dropped him.

“Hey, man.” Jovan offered a fist and Hudson bumped. “Is he alive?”

Hudson shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“Did you think to check?”

“Nope. But I’ll bet your left nut he’s fine. I didn’t hit him hard enough to kill

him.”

“Hands off my nuts, Hudson.”

“I don’t want to palm them, just bet them.”

Jovan went over to the FBI guy and saw he was still breathing, which he took as a

good sign.

“I’m outta here,” Hudson called from the doorway.

“Later, man.”

Jovan stared at Mr. FBI a few more minutes, then decided he’d get in a workout.

As he hit the bag, his thoughts turned to Liberty.

He one hundred and ten percent needed her out of his quarters and tucked away

into her own. He was absolutely attracted to her, and the drive to have sex with her was

tearing through him like a semi through toilet paper. The urge was just on the verge of

being overwhelming, and that wouldn’t be a good thing for her, or for him.

Jovan swung around and gave the bag a solid roundhouse kick.

Things were definitely going to be different now that he pretty much had control

of his gift. Liberty had told him that the control would grow and become second nature to

him as time went on. Then he could use it at will, turning it off and on like a TV.

That rocked.

As he pounded the bag, he wondered what Beverly was going to say to Liberty

about the “fucking” question. Man, that had just about sent him over the edge when she

laid that one on him. Again, he reminded himself that she was Noah’s sister, and she

didn’t need to be mixed up with anyone like him. Noah had been right when he said

Jovan had a bit of a wild streak. That was before his gift became so strong. He had loved

to party, and he was all about adrenaline rushes and pushing boundaries. Nothing excited

him more than the hunt for a Colonist, riding his Harley, or the quest for a female.

He spun again, slamming the bag with his size thirteens. Maybe that was what he