Dragonfury 02 - Fury of Ice

suffer: pure, simple, no negotiation required. “Bullshit. I don’t care how rare a female she is…or how high her energy. When I find her, I’ll fuck her hard while I drain her dry.”
    “Jesus Christ, man.” Ivar popped the wraparounds off the bridge of his nose. As he rubbed the corners of his eyes, he shook his head and sighed. “Okay, look…I’ve got no problem with you laying her out, but if you want her dead, you pay the price.”
    “Name it.”
    “Seven,” he said. “I want seven females instead of six in the next two months so they can be prepped and ready to go before the Meridian realigns.”
    Diabolical. And difficult. Lothair didn’t care. Killing the she-cop was more important. If he needed to bust his ass, serve up five females in eight weeks, so be it. He loved a good challenge. “Done.”
    Ivar huffed. “Just like that?”
    “I’m working on something,” he said, holding his friend’s gaze, mind churning over the facts. High-energy females might be elusive, but he’d noticed something while hunting them over the last month. HEs often stuck together…find one, find more. “A new hypothesis.”
    “Feel like sharing?”
    “Not yet,” he said. “When I know, you’ll know.”
    Wasn’t that always the way? Ivar planned. Lothair put the plan in motion and made it happen. The how, where, and why held little consequence. So…
    No problem. Seven high-energy females, coming up.

Chapter Fifteen
     
    Stream rose like a curtain, fogging up the glass as Angela planted her hands against the shower wall. Cool marble pressed along each palm as she leaned in, bowed her head, warm water streaming down her spine. The contrast was classic. Hot versus cold. Fight versus flight. The will to resist battling the urge to give in. And there she had it…her relationship with Rikar in a nutshell.
    Angela snorted. Relationship . Wow. Now there was stretch. Not a very comfortable one, either. Especially since she’d woken up the second time around tonight A-L-O-N-E.
    Why that upset her, she didn’t know.
    Happy to be alone had always been her MO. Not today, though. All by her lonesome meant peace and quiet, the last thing she needed. The silence gave her too much time to think. To feel. To relive all the bad stuff and none of the good.
    God, how could Rikar leave her like this? Skip out on her without leaving a note…without so much as a Hey, angel, don’t worry, I’ll be back at X o’clock on a scrap piece of paper. Was that too much to ask?
    Goddamn it, no. It wasn’t.
    He could’ve shaken her awake after his trip through the shower. Could’ve rubbed her back, rustled her hair, murmured to her as—
    Angela touched her forehead to the shower wall. Good God. Rub her back . How stupid was that? Very. Beyond idiotic.
    She barely knew the guy. Shouldn’t trust him. Need him. Want him. But the truth was a bitter pill to swallow. Especially since she craved those things from him.
    Leaning into the spray, she fought the sudden tightness in her chest, tried to breathe through it, around it, refusing to shut down. Or show any fear. Rikar. No Rikar. It didn’t matter. She couldn’t afford to freak out. The moment she broke down, he would cut her out of the investigation: say it was too dangerous, try to shove her somewhere called the Safest-Place-on-Earth . The certainty of the assertion gave her perspective. Made her want to prove him wrong even as she soaked up the concern she saw in his eyes.
    And, okay. There she went again, driving straight into Crazytown.
    She couldn’t be weak and strong at the same time. Not with Rikar. He was too demanding, too watchful…too afraid for her. Which meant keeping it together long enough to earn the right to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with him. Easier said than done. At least she understood the parameters and inherent challenges. Had climbed over all kinds of gender bias when she’d been transferred to Homicide from Vice. All the old-timers had balked, hating the idea of a woman detective on their squad. She’d shown them, given the boys’ club the finger, and then left them in the dust.
    And she could do it again.
    But first? She needed to man up and hold the encroaching panic at bay. And find Mac. Which meant locating Rikar. She wouldn’t get far in a lair full of man-dragons without him.
    With a shove, Angela pushed away from the wall. Water rolled over her shoulders, then headed south, cascading between her breasts as Rikar’s voice whispered