Savage Hunger: Savage, Book 1 (21 page)

It was real. Memory wiping was real. Not that she’d ever doubted it after that initial conversation with Warrick, but to see it happen. To watch a man forget that he’d found his suspect.

And to know that it was possible the same damn thing might happen to her at some point.

The realization sent nausea rushing through her and she ran to the toilet and stood over it, certain she was going to be sick. Hot and cold rushed through her and she shook her head. She had to become invaluable to them. To the agents. She had to make sure they had a reason
not
to wipe her.

The door to the bedroom opened and then shut, signaling someone’s arrival, and she moved away from the toilet. Before she reached the doorway, Warrick filled the frame.

“I told you to stay in the room.”

Chapter Thirteen

“As if I could,” Sienna said vehemently, not even trying to deny what she’d seen. “I heard you guys. Heard him yelling. My God. I thought you were actually killing him.”

Warrick’s frown deepened. “Of course we wouldn’t kill him. We’d be stupid to do that. Then we’d really have people asking questions.”

That was their biggest worry? More questions? Disgust swept through her. “No, you didn’t kill him. You just wiped away his memory.”

“Only the last fifteen minutes.”

Fifteen minutes. Five minutes. Did it really matter? It meant the potential was there to wipe out so much more. That realization had her stomach cramping.

“How much can it erase?”

Warrick leaned against the doorframe and folded his arms across his chest. “What do you mean?”

“How much of someone’s memory can that crime-against-nature, little machine erase?” she bit out.

He stared at her for a moment, as if weighing whether to be honest or not. “Everything. We just plug in the date or time we want the memory wiped back to. If the process is done wrong, someone could technically be left in the state of a newborn.”

“You guys make me sick.” She closed her eyes as a tremble racked her body. “It’s not right. How does the P.I.A. get off playing God like that?”

“Out of necessity. The alternative is to kill them.”

Her eyes snapped open again and she turned off the sink with shaking fingers. “You can’t be serious. Both are absolutely unacceptable. Why don’t you just stop hiding what you are?”

Warrick’s derisive, harsh laugh made her flush with realization.

“Right. Tell the entire human population that the boogeyman is real. That’ll go over well.” His mock amusement faded. “Before you could blink we’d be locked up and experimented on like the freaking rats your employer uses, Sienna. You know it as well as I do.”

He was right. It had already happened with the shifters that she’d discovered at Feloray Laboratories. Which was the sharp reminder that someone out there did know about the shifters. Had done awful things to them. And now would kill, it seemed, to keep it a secret.

“You’re right,” she agreed reluctantly, the fight draining out of her. “But I still don’t have to like that awful little machine. It goes against nature. That poor man—”

“Is better for not knowing. And so are you, Sienna. Had we let him keep his memories, you would’ve been taken into custody. Do you realize that?” He straightened from the doorframe and crossed the small bathroom to where she stood by the sink. “We wouldn’t have been able to protect you.”

His sudden proximity, and familiar smell, encompassed her and dulled her ability to think. She found herself leaning toward him, wanting nothing more than to be wrapped in his arms. For him to promise the horror that she’d just witnessed would never happen to her.

So much had happened in the past few hours. After all these years she’d slept with Warrick—given him her virginity. And clearly, he hadn’t wanted it. Not that she’d held on to it to wait for him like he’d accused her of. The reminder of his harsh words made her swallow the sudden lump in her throat and blink back tears.

But she hadn’t even had time to think about what had happened, or to reflect on how amazing the lovemaking had been. Maybe it was a blessing this way. The way things kept happening at the speed of light. Because the last thing she wanted was the time to think about whether she should regret what had happened between them.

She shoved back the memory of their lovemaking by the river, and focused instead on the problem at hand.

“Someone doesn’t want me protected. Have you thought about that, Warrick? How did a local sheriff’s deputy know I was out here?”

He gave a small, but stoic nod. “Yes. I have thought about that. And the answer is I don’t know.”

“That answer isn’t good enough. Not for me. Not with everything going on.” She went to brush past him, but Warrick caught her hand.

“I’ll look into it.” He stepped closer. “But first, you never did tell me how the questioning went with Quinton.”

Sienna gave a humorless laugh and dropped her gaze. “You didn’t exactly give me the chance to.”

No. Instead, they’d gone at it like bunnies. He must’ve been thinking something similar, because his gaze darkened with heat.

“So tell me now.” He brushed his thumb over the inside of her palm and a tremble of pleasure swept through her.

Running her tongue over her bottom lip, she shrugged. “It didn’t go as well as he’d have liked, I’m sure.”

“Did you tell him anything that you haven’t told me?”

“Not much more. He guessed some things.”

“Some things? Such as?”

Sienna hesitated. She’d already told Quinton, so it was a given the other agents would know soon. If they didn’t already.

“Such as the fact that Leo was the one who told me about the shifters.”

Warrick’s mouth thinned and his fingers tightened around hers. “This
Leo
guy. Just what was he to you anyway?”

Her brows drew together.
“I don’t understand your question. What was he to me?”

“Did you date him? Did he want to be your lover?”

Sienna choked on a noise of disbelief. “What? No. Leo was a friend. A coworker. He was probably old enough to be my father.”

Warrick grunted, but didn’t seem convinced.

“I’d ask where this is coming from, but it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is the fact that I don’t trust you guys. Any of you P.I.A. agents.”

He arched a brow. “Including me?”

“God, I don’t even know anymore…” Sienna pulled free of him, her stomach churning as she walked back into the bedroom.

“How the hell can you say such a thing? Can you doubt
me
, Sienna?”

She heard the barely restrained fury in his voice as he followed after her and knew she’d answered wrongly.

“We grew up together. I’ve saved your neck on more than one occasion. How the hell are you going to tell me that you don’t trust the man you gave your virginity to this afternoon?”

Spinning around she jammed her finger into his chest. And nearly bent it with how damn solid he was.

Wincing, she muttered, “I’ll say it before you do this time. Sleeping with you was probably a mistake.”

A warning tic started in his jaw, sending a frisson of alarm through her.

“A mistake?”

“Yes. You totally freaked out at my lack of experience, destroying the possibility of its being a casual, one-time thing. Well, forgive me and my vagina for not being a revolving door to the male population!”

Warrick growled low in his throat, and backed her up until the back of Sienna’s knees bumped into the bed.

“You’re saying all you ever wanted was casual sex with me?”

No.
Everything inside her wanted to scream the word aloud. But there was too much at stake. This went so far beyond her and Warrick. And she knew the sooner they put behind them what had happened at the river, the better.

“We both know that’s all it can ever be,” she finally answered softly. “There’s no point in pretending otherwise.”

“Doesn’t matter what the hell we both know. I still want you.”

Her heart slammed into her rib cage at his admission and her mouth went dry.
Stay focused. Think of what just happened to that poor officer out there.

Before she could hold her ground, his expression twisted and he gave a self-deprecating laugh. He turned away from her and strode to the window to look outside.

“But you’re right. It probably was a mistake.”

Good thing I said it first.
White-hot pain sliced through her at his abrupt, emotional backpedaling. She sat down on the edge of the bed and bit her lip to keep tears from filling her eyes. It’s what she’d wanted, though, right?

“You need to tell me why you can’t trust me,” Warrick said flatly, and stared out the window at the trees and land beyond, as he tried to get ahold of his emotions. Tried not to think about what he’d had with Sienna this afternoon, and what he should probably never have again.

“Because I know you,” she answered eventually. “And so I know that you’ll put your career first. Whatever I tell you, Warrick, will immediately get relayed to the other agents.”

Dismay robbed him of an immediate response. But finally he replied, “Of course it will. These men are my brothers, Sienna. This is my job, we share intel.”

“Even after you just admitted something’s not right? That maybe one of them is working for the wrong side? We both know it couldn’t have been a coincidence that an officer would show up today because of a reported sighting of me.”

“Hell, maybe someone did see us,” he said tersely, but didn’t really believe it for a second.

“You know they didn’t, Warrick.”

Her footsteps fell softly as she approached from behind. Her hand closed over his forearm, and she stood so close that he could not only smell the generic safe house shampoo she’d used, but the scent of Sienna. Fresh. Feminine. Like pheromones that were designed specifically to drive him mad.

“I need you to do something for me,” she pleaded, her voice catching. “I need you to take me to my dad.”

Her words had him forgetting about the delicate fingers that grazed his bicep. The images they evoked. “Your dad?”

“My dad might be able to help the shifters.”

Was she out of her ever-loving mind? He didn’t try to keep the disbelief off his expression as he turned to face her. “Your dad is in Boston.”

“I know very well where he lives, Warrick.” She lifted her chin. “Let’s say hypothetically that I had a way to help these shifters. Then I would need my dad’s help.”

Hypothetically, my ass
. She didn’t have a clue at how close he was to shooting her stubborn butt up with some sodium pentothal and getting the truth out of her that way. As it was, that wasn’t completely off the table if she didn’t start talking.

“Boston is across the country, Sienna. We can’t travel with the shifters in the state they’re in. Hell, we barely made it from Portland to here.”

“Then bring my dad to the safe house,” she urged. “Please, Warrick. Trust me on this. I know he can help. He’s probably the only one who can help.”

Warrick glanced away and shook his head. Damn her. Damn her for not having enough trust in him to tell him whatever she was hiding. But what if she was on to something here? Maybe bringing her father across the country would help the shifters. It wasn’t guilt over taking her virginity that was making him agree, he told himself. Because he had absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.

Yeah fucking right.

He turned back to her and said gruffly, “I’ll request the P.I.A. call him. See if they can arrange for his flight out here.” And quite possibly Kevin Peters could be in Oregon by morning.

Relief flashed across her face, and she threw herself against him, her arms slipping around his waist and squeezing. A wave of protectiveness swept through him. And relief at being able to hold her again, if even just for a minute.

“Thank you. You know he’s the one capable of helping them. You’re doing the right thing.”

He was acting like a damn fool. If he weren’t thinking with his heart and with his dick, he’d have interrogated the hell out of her by now. Have whatever secrets she was hiding laid out on the table like a Thanksgiving feast.

But where Sienna was concerned he was soft and too emotional. If he were smart he’d pull himself from the operation right now. Especially now that they’d slept together. It was too risky being as emotionally involved as he was. But he couldn’t do it. Couldn’t leave her alone with a group of operatives, especially when she was convinced one of them was out to get her.

He pulled back and brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. His gut clenched at the gratitude and hope he saw in her eyes.

“In the meantime Quinton will take blood samples from the shifters and have them sent out to the P.I.A. lab,” he said. “Which, might I add, they ultimately would’ve ended up with your father anyway.”

She shook her head. “It won’t be enough.”

“How can you possibly know that?”

“I…” Her eyes squeezed shut. “I have no idea, actually. But I just feel it in my gut.”

Feel it in her gut? Really? And that was supposed to be good enough for him?