Burning Up

either side of his thighs. “We are not making out in my parents’ car.”
    “Yes, we are. That’s the rule. You think those kids own those cars?” He nodded out the window. “Exactly.”
    Ria’s smile softened, grew serious. “I was so scared for you, Emmett.”
    “Hey.” He pressed his lips to hers. “I can’t promise you I’ll never be hurt, but I can promise that I’ll do everything in my power to come back to you every day.”
    Her lips trembled. “If you don’t, I’ll come after you.”
    “I know.” After seeing her at the hospital, he finally understood what she’d been trying to tell him all this time—Ria might be small and vulnerably human, but she was also strong enough to take anything the world threw at her, a warrior in her own way. It was time he started treating her like one. “You want to hear how it went down?”
    A jerky nod.
    “Okay, we have the truck surrounded, and we’ve blocked off the streets he could use to drive out, so he’s a rat in a cage. We wait till nightfall.” He unbuttoned the first three buttons on her shirt.
    “Emmett!”
    “It’s to make the bad memories go away.”
    Giving a burst of stifled laughter, she thrust her fingers through his hair as he pressed a kiss to the delicate skin between her breasts. “God, you’re pretty, mink. I’m gonna kiss you all over next time.”
    “I like that song.”
    “Me, too.” Another kiss before he straightened. “So, everything’s going to plan. Problem is, Vincent’s smart. He’s got the immediate area around his truck set up with sensors. No way to get to the truck without alerting him.”
    “But you were sure he was in there?”
    “We saw him come out earlier in the day—”
    “How did you know what he looked like?”
    Smart question. Nothing less than he expected from his mate. “No need. It was obvious he was the alpha dog.”
    “Go on.”
    He ran his finger down her bared skin, undoing a few more buttons along the way. His leopard rose to the forefront, possessive and oh-so-hungry.

TEN
    B reathing past the desire to simply take, he continued. “It was clear we wouldn’t be able to get into the truck even if we somehow got past the alarms—thing was armored like a tank. No windows, no visible vents. So we threw something at the back doors.”
    Ria blinked. “High-tech.”
    “All we needed was one of the goons to open the doors. Soon as he did, we shot in so many canisters of tear gas, they couldn’t throw them all back.” He’d finished unbuttoning her shirt, but she was too involved in the story to notice. The cat grinned. “Bastards had to come pouring out eventually. But the morons came out shooting, even though they couldn’t see a target.”
    “You got shot by accident ?” she asked, as if it was his fault.
    “I got shot by morons .” He bent to press kisses along the creamy upper curves of her breasts. “Aside from two lucky shots, they were useless. We had them down on their knees in seconds.”
    “What did you do to them?”
    Looking up, he met her gaze. “I’m a leopard, Ria. I protect what’s mine.”
    “I know.” Absolute acceptance in her eyes, her face.
    “I was the one to take Vincent down—and maybe he got a little banged up in the process, but we turned the whole lot of them over to Enforcement.”
    “Really?”
    “Scout’s honor.” He smiled, letting the leopard out to play. “Turns out the Crew killed two cops in cold blood only a few hours before our takedown. Enforcement was real happy to take them in.”
    “Two birds, one stone,” she murmured. “Vincent never again sees the light of day, and you make friends in Enforcement.”
    “And,” he said, knowing she needed to know everything, “by taking down the Crew so completely, we gave notice to the Psy Council that we’re here to stay.”
    Ria’s eyes darkened. “They’ll make trouble for you if they think you’re a threat.”
    “Yeah.”
    “Good thing you cats are so tough.” A soft whisper that told him she’d stand by him, no matter what.
    Proud of her courage, he said, “We did let one goon go.”
    “Why?”
    “So he could take a message to the famiglia up north. Anyone else comes down, we’ll be sending them back in little tiny pieces. And then we’ll come up and do the same to those who gave the orders.”
    “Would you really?”
    “What do you think?”
    “I think family comes first.” She smiled. “You did something else. I can tell.”
    He began to slip her shirt