Taming the Fire (27 page)

“I don't think so.” Dev stood, forcing Gabriel to do the same. He put his hands on the younger man's shoulders, slipping under the collar so he could put his palms on the warm skin.

Gabriel tried to take a step back and throw Dev off, but Dev wouldn't be deterred. “You were violated.”

“I—”

“I wasn't asking,” Dev barked, put his hands back on Gabriel's shoulders. The young man sat still for a few minutes in silence, but he couldn't hold the pose for long. God, there was so much in there—pain, fear and hope, all mixed together and piercing through Dev's fingertips. “It started when you were young… your mother's boyfriend. You didn't know what he was doing exactly, but you knew it was wrong.”

Gabe's breath came in a harsh, stuttered rush, like he was trying his best to keep it all together and not succeeding at all. Gabriel's life played out before Dev as though projected on a screen. It was black and white, grainy, like an old movie that was slightly out of focus because Gabriel was trying desperately to block Dev.

It wouldn't work. “You ran away—lived on your own. Let your body be used for money, but you never let anyone hurt you. You were able to stop things if they got too rough. Until…”

God, there were four or five men—they'd used drugs and chains. The flashes showed Gabriel on his hands and knees. Even worse, Dev heard his cries. “Dear God…”

Gabriel had had enough, jerked himself away from Dev with more strength than he needed. He stood a few feet away, breathing hard. He opened his mouth and then closed it and finally, “I didn't want you to know that. Any of it. You had no right.”

“And I didn't want you to know about Oz. So now you know what it's like to have your life spilled out to a stranger,” Dev said, more anger in his voice than he'd meant to let leak through. Because reading Gabriel wasn't about tit for tat, or at least it hadn't started out that way, but now his temper had built unreasonably.

Dev wasn't the only one with an uncontrollable temper now, though.

“I didn't want to know about Oz either—or you or this fucking place—I didn't bring myself here, you and Oz brought me here!” Gabriel yelled.

Dev knew what the younger man would do, but that didn't mean he'd have time to stop it. In seconds, Gabriel was on him, pushing him hard to the ground, angry as hell that his life had been revealed to Dev so easily. He pinned Dev to the ground, his knees on Dev's shoulders.

And that's when Dev saw it—or rather, when Gabriel simply disappeared. He'd been staring at Gabriel when the man just… flickered. Became invisible for a split second, and then he was back, in solid form—and still very pissed.

Gabriel had the power to make himself invisible. By the look on his face, Gabriel knew he'd done it, and looked ashamed, as if it was something he didn't have any control over. Obviously, the anger had brought it out.

It's about the anger… make him angrier…

Dev bucked as if trying to get away, bared his teeth, which made Gabriel tighten his grip. This time, the flicker was longer—wasn't over in the blink of an eye. One instant, he saw Gabriel on him, and the next, he only felt the strength of an invisible force holding him down.

Seconds later, Gabriel flickered back, must've realized what had happened because he scrambled off Dev and looked ready to bolt until Dev stopped him.

“Has that happened before?” Dev demanded.

“The invisible thing? Maybe a couple of times. It's not a big deal—I can control it,” he lied, then shrugged as if it really were no big deal, but Dev saw the fear in his eyes.

He laid a hand gently on Gabriel's shoulders, keeping it there even though Gabe flinched. “It's all right if you can't control it. That's why you're here. But the more we know…”

“The more ammunition you'll have to put me back out on the street.” Gabriel's eyes blazed with fear and a thousand betrayals, beginning with his mother. “Then again, that's probably what you want anyway, so maybe I'll make it easier on both of us and go before I'm asked to leave.”

“No one's asking you to go.”

“No one's giving me a reason to stay either,” Gabriel shot back.

“You haven't given ACRO a chance.”

“I don't have any chances left to give.”

G
ABE FOUND HIMSELF
at the same goddamned bar—the only fucking one within reasonable walking distance from ACRO. He wondered why no one gave a shit that he'd left the grounds—as a trainee, he was supposed to stay within the compound, but maybe Devlin had given other orders.

Devlin. Fuck
.

He'd only been there long enough for two shots when Marlena walked in. The woman turned heads, for sure, and if he wasn't completely solid as to which way he swung, he'd definitely be hitting on her.

Or he would have if he'd met her before Dev.

Devlin. Just fuck
.

“You're muttering to yourself,” Marlena pointed out. She took the third shot from his hand and downed it, then dropped the glass to the bar and slid it back to the bartender. “Dev told you about Oz.”

“You already told me what I needed to know. I just kind of… I don't know, fucked things up. Again.”

She sighed. “I'm sure Devlin didn't help matters.”

“I'm leaving ACRO.” He motioned to the bartender for another. “You want?”

“No. What do you mean, leaving?”

“I told you—I really screwed things up. Dev pissed me off and I kind of… jumped him. And not in the good way.”

Marlena shook her head. “I haven't gotten any orders to kick you off the property. Just the opposite, in fact.”

“He sent you to babysit me again?”

She smiled, pushed the shot away from him and threw a fifty-dollar bill on the bartop. And then she took him by the hand and led him outside. “You have training tomorrow with Annika. She's back.”

“Fuck me,” he said roughly, taking a long, deep drag on the cigarette that tasted so much fucking better when he was half in the bag.

“If you're going to stay at ACRO, you can't go out and party every night.”

“If I'm going to stay at ACRO, the only way I can get through this bullshit is to party every night,” he countered. “And I'm not making any promises.”

“Fucking forget it.” Trance punctuated his feelings by kicking the door before attempting to walk out of Kira's office.

“Don't you dare leave.” Something in Kira's voice told him she wasn't fooling around, that as angry as he was, she would be more so.

Still, he didn't turn around when he spoke again. “I'm not the one to help you. Rik hates me—doesn't trust me, and for good reason. My part of the job is done—I brought her in. I can't be responsible for her.”

“Whatever happened already bonded the two of you. It's too late to try to slink away from what you've done.”

“I did my job.”

“Maybe a little too well.”

He finally swung around to see Kira, arms crossed in front of her, eyes blazing. Ender would fucking kill him for making his wife this angry, but Trance was beyond caring.

“She's safe here, isn't she? She's out of Itor's clutches. We've got the fucking remote.”

“We need the woman, not the animal. We gave it all night, but the beast won't give Ulrika back.”

“Why is this my problem? I thought you could reason with the beast.”

Kira shoved him. “Get out. You're an insensitive bastard—not at all who I thought you were.”

“Yeah, I'm not who Rik thought I was either,” he muttered, not counting on Kira having animal-like hearing, because suddenly she was grabbing at the back of his shirt as he walked down the hall and away from her.

“You fell for her.”

He refused to turn around. “Kira, I'm not talking about this with you.”

“I know what you're going through. Tom would know too—”

“I'm sure as hell not speaking to your husband about this shit.” He stared down the empty corridor, saw himself making a quick escape. But to where? Dev would haul his ass back here in no time—his boss had made it clear earlier that this was where Trance needed to be. That the job wasn't over yet.

He'd come to the animal facility straight from Dev's office late this morning after Devlin made his feelings clear.

“So things went well.” Dev had his feet propped up on the round table in the corner of his office, files on his lap. He looked distracted but somehow still locked Trance with his gaze
.

“Yes, great.” Trance didn't sit down and Dev didn't offer him a seat. “Rik's a wolf and refuses to change back.”

“But she's here and not with Itor.” Dev's feet slammed to the ground. And he stood
.

“I'm not in the mood for a fucking pep talk, Dev.”

“I wasn't about to give you one.”

Fuck.
“Sorry, Devlin.”

“Kira needs your help.”

He forced himself not to think anymore. “I heard.”

“You heard hours ago.”

“I've been busy.”

“Bullshit.” Dev stared him down. “I don't give a shit if you like
Ulrika or not, if you fucked her or spanked her or let her into places you never knew existed. You are not done with your job. Not until I say you are.”

His reverie broke when he heard soft footsteps and watched Kira walk down the hall, away from him, without looking back once.

He stood outside the door that led to Rik for a long time—until he didn't hear any movement from inside, no clanking metal. Nothing. He cracked the door as quietly as possible, but the sound didn't escape Rik's notice. No, the wolf lunged for the door of the cage, rattling it hard enough that the entire room seemed to shake.

Yeah, she was still pissed.

Drawing on what he once knew best, he marched over to the cage with a purposefulness that made the wolf stop growling for the moment. “Ulrika, come out and see me now.”

The wolf bared her teeth and growled.

“Do you remember what I told you, Rik? That I was your master—that you needed to obey me? That there's great pleasure that comes from obeying me?”

It wasn't working. He sighed and dropped his head and for a second, the wolf stopped. Subtle, since it still held the cage with its claws, but his instincts told him to do what he most dreaded.

He walked up to the cage and bared his throat, raising his head up and placing his Adam's apple close to the bars, much in the same way he'd done when he'd submitted to her at her house.

It was a gesture of faith—or stupidity. He grabbed the bars tightly so Rik wouldn't see his hands shaking and he closed his eyes as he heard the low, throaty growl at his ear. The heat of the wolf's body radiated toward him even as his own body grew cold.

“You've got to give this place a chance, Rik,” he told her, his voice nearly breaking. He'd been up against bigger and badder, but somehow this was different. “Come on, I know you want to get out of the cage. Kira can help you—she's good. She's been there. We all have.”

Nothing was happening—at least in the way of his throat being ripped out. Tentatively, he opened his eyes and saw the wolf staring at him, with one paw resting on the collar.

Shit. “Okay, yes, we've got to figure that out. But Itor needs to be within a certain distance to work it, and we don't allow them to get that close. If they get close, we know about it. What other choice do you have? You can't run for the rest of your life.”

A low, mournful howl tumbled out of the wolf's mouth—head pointed toward the ceiling, down now on all fours, she howled over and over, until he wanted to cover his ears and scream with her. Instead, he closed his eyes again and he waited for what seemed like an interminable amount of time.

This wasn't going to work—Kira would have to find another way.

He opened his eyes and moved away from the cage momentarily—long enough to scan the room, and see the keys to the cage hanging on a hook in the far corner of the room. He grabbed them and the wolf stilled as the cool, heavy metal weighed his hand down. Drawing a deep, resigned breath, he went back to the cage, and without pausing put the key in the lock, turned it and stepped into the cage.

The wolf stilled. She'd moved to the far corner of the cage, unsure of what exactly he was doing.