Invincible

She was disconcerted. “What’s going on?”

“Just a tip we got,” he replied. “Nothing to worry about.”

Her green eyes narrowed. “My father can pull that stunt. You can’t. Give it to me straight.”

His eyebrows arched.

“If it concerns me, I have the right to know. My father is overprotective. I love him, but it’s not fair that I have to be kept in the dark. I’m not a mushroom.”

“No. You’re Alliance.” He seemed really amused.

“Proudly Alliance,” she muttered. “Darn the Horde!”

He smiled. “Better rune that two-hander before you fight me again,” he advised, referring to a special weapons buff used only by death knights.

“It’s brand-new. I haven’t had time,” she said defensively. “Don’t change the subject.”

“There may be an attempt. That’s all we could find out.”

“Why? The guy I recognized is dead!”

“We’re pretty sure that he paid the contract out before he died,” he replied. “And we don’t know who has it. We tried backtracking known associates of the man who made the first attempt, the one who was poisoned awaiting trial. No luck whatsoever. But an informant needed a favor, so he gave up some information. Not much. There’s more at stake than just your memory of a counterfeit DEA agent. Much more.”

“And that’s all I’m getting, right?”

He nodded.

She glared.

“So much frustration,” he mused, studying her. “Why don’t you go win a few battles for the Alliance? It might help.”

“Not unless you’re in one of them.” Her eyes twinkled. “Better watch your back next time. I’m getting the hang of it.”

He shrugged. “I don’t want to live forever.” He glanced around the room. It was Spartan. No lace anywhere. He eyed the title of a book on the desk next to her computer and frowned. “Hannibal?”

“Learn from the best, I always think.”

He looked at her. He didn’t look away.

Her eyes met his and she felt her body melting, tingling. There was a sudden ache in the middle of her body, a jolt of pure electricity. She couldn’t even manage to look away.

“Wolves bite,” he said in a soft, gruff whisper.

She flushed and dragged her eyes back to the computer. Somebody sold her out. She wondered if it was the chief. She’d only called Carson a wolf to two people and her father would never have betrayed her.

He chuckled softly. “Be careful what you say when you think people aren’t listening,” he added. He turned and left her staring after him.

* * *

LATER, SHE ASKED her father if he’d ratted her out.

He chuckled. “No. But the house is bugged like a messy kitchen,” he confessed. “Be careful what you say.”

“Gee, thanks for telling me after I said all sorts of things about Carson,” she murmured.

He laughed. “He’s got a thick skin. It won’t bother him.”

She studied him quietly. “Why are they after me?”

He drew in a long breath. “There are some political maneuvers going on. You have a photographic memory. Maybe you saw someone other than the murder victim, and the man behind the plot is afraid you’ll remember who it is.”

“Shades of Dalton Kirk,” she said, recalling that the Wyoming rancher had been warned by the woman who became his wife about a vision of him being attacked for something he didn’t even remember he’d seen.

“Exactly.”

She poured them second cups of coffee. “So I guess it’s back to checking under the truck every time I drive it.”

“Oh, that never stopped,” her father said with a chuckle. “I’ve just been doing it for you.”

She smiled at him. “That’s my dad, looking out for me,” she said with real affection.

His pale blue eyes were sad. “There was a long period of time when I didn’t look out for anybody except myself,” he said quietly. “Your mother wouldn’t even let anybody tell me how sick she was until it was too late.” He lowered his gaze to the coffee. “I made a lot of mistakes out of selfishness. I hope that someday I’ll be able to make up for a little of it.”

She sipped coffee. “You never talk about your life before you went to the seminary,” she pointed out.

He smiled sadly. “I’m ashamed to.”

“You were overseas a lot.”

He nodded. “In a number of dangerous foreign places, where life is dirt cheap.”

She pursed her lips and stared at him. “You know, Michelle’s guardian, Gabriel Brandon, spent a lot of time overseas also.”

He lifted an eyebrow and smiled placidly. “Are you fishing?”

She shrugged. But she didn’t look away.

He finished his coffee. “Let’s just say that I had connections that aren’t obvious ones, and I made my living in a shadow world.”

She frowned. “You aren’t wanted in some country whose name I can’t pronounce?”

He laughed. “Nothing like that.”

“Okay.”

He stood up. “But I do have enemies who know where I live. In a general sense. So it’s smart to take precautions.” He smiled gently. “I wasn’t always a minister, pumpkin.”

She was remembering Carson’s sarcastic comment when she’d mentioned that her father was a minister. She hadn’t known that he was aware of things about her parent that she wasn’t.