Sizzle and Burn

survived.
    Raine set the pot down on the tray and looked at him with a shadowed expression. “What did Fallon have to say?”
    He forced himself to concentrate and managed to give her a quick summary of Fallon’s comments.
    The cats, having concluded that the pacing game was over, wandered over to the sofa and hopped up onto the cushions on either side of Raine.
    Zack shoved his fingers through his hair, trying to concentrate. “One good thing. Fallon doesn’t think we need to be worried about another double-talent hanging around the vicinity of Oriana.”
    Raine used both hands to raise the tiny cup to her lips. “What about the person who just murdered the one we did have?”
    “Him, we probably should worry about.” He realized he was staring at her mouth. Focus, Jones . He started moving again, prowling the room. “But maybe not for a while.”
    She paused before taking a sip of the herbal concoction. “Why do you say that?”
    “Fallon may be right. Maybe Nightshade did remove their double-talent because he failed to get rid of me. But there’s another possibility. Maybe the real reason for the termination was that Ski Mask slipped out of control and became a problem.”
    She pondered that briefly.
    “You mean you don’t think he was ordered to make another attempt to kill you tonight? You believe he was acting on his own?”
    “He was running very, very hot. It’s hard to explain but I sensed that he wanted to kill me for his own, personal reasons. He just didn’t have the kind of detachment that a pro is supposed to have. Fallon thinks they were giving him some variation of the formula. It may have affected his sanity.”
    She shuddered. “From what you’ve said, the founder’s formula has a long history of driving users crazy.”
    “Yes.”
    “It’s hard to believe that my father was secretly working on something so dangerous.”
    “Raine—”
    She put the little cup down very carefully. “No wonder the Council expelled my family from the Society and sent J&J to burn down the lab.”
    He crossed the room and halted in front of her on the opposite side of the coffee table.
    “I thought I made it clear, the Council kicked your father out of the Society,” he said quietly. “It didn’t expel you or your aunt. Remember that.”
    She shrugged. “Not like either of us had much choice after that night when J&J destroyed everything.”
    “You didn’t have a choice because you were too young. But your aunt did. She’s the one who made the decision to raise you outside the Society and to deny you your heritage.”
    “In her place, I would have done the same thing. She didn’t have a lot of reason to trust the Society or J&J.”
    He moved around the end of the coffee table, reached down and wrapped his hands around her wrists. He pulled her up off the sofa.
    “What about you?” he said.
    “I have no reason to trust the Society or J&J, either. They’ve got their own agendas.”
    “And you have yours.”
    “Yes.”
    “You don’t trust the Society and you don’t trust J&J,” he said. “What about me?”
    She searched his face. “Does it matter?”
    “Yes,” he said. He could hear the rough, gritty edges in his own voice but there was nothing he could do to soften them. “It matters.”
    “I trust you,” she said. She looked as if the statement surprised her but she didn’t back away from it. “You have been honest with me since the start of this thing.”
    He felt something deep inside him ease.
    “Okay,” he said. He made himself release her wrists. “Okay, thanks.”
    “Do you trust me?”
    “Yes.” He answered without even thinking about it.
    “Even though you know I’ve got my own reasons for helping you find out what Nightshade is after?”
    “I know where you’re coming from. Not like you’ve kept it a secret. You’ve been honest from the beginning.”
    “So have you.” She sank back down onto the sofa. “I’ll pour you some of my special tea. We’ll play some cards.”
    He did not want to sit down. He wanted to keep moving. Tea and solitaire weren’t going to cut it tonight. The images of Lawrence Quinn’s last seconds on earth were still too vivid, too intense. The attack by Ski Mask had compounded the usual problems of the aftermath.
    It was going to be a bad night and he couldn’t risk dampening his senses with a couple of shots of scotch. Probably better not to even try to sleep.
    Raine poured the brew into the small cup and handed it to