Page 116 of Eternal Surrender

I exited the car and joined her, gazing up at the ornate brickwork, searching for the right words until I found them. “I’m sorry if I offended you.”

“In my line of work, there can be no distractions,” she said.

“That explains James.”

She folded her arms. “Blake and I were locked out of our investigation.”

“Well, that’s interesting.”

“Suspicious, that’s what it is.” She glared at me. “How high does your kind’s authority go?”

“Truly, I’m flattered.” I raised my hand.

She stepped into the arched entranceway of a building, shielding herself from the cold. “I conducted my own inquiry.”

I followed her, taking the one step under the archway. A shot of fear ran up my spine as soon as I saw it. Engraved into the stonework above the enormous double doorway was a skeleton key with a snake wrapped from its handle down and around to the blade.

Sovereign.

Jacob’s words resonated. “They’re ferocious.”

“That folder you asked about,” she teased, “it contains some pretty interesting stuff.”

I wanted to tell her she’d gone mad, but as she considered me with that wide-eyed intensity, I knew she had no idea of the danger she was putting herself in.

The danger she put me in.

“Your face just told me everything I needed to know.” She reached for the brass door handle.

I pulled her back, terrified that Stone Lords might pour out of there any minute and drag us both inside.

“This is Vanderbilt’s.” She waved the file. “In here, he mentions this place.” She looked triumphant.

“Your boss in Salisbury?” I recalled his leadership style being brusque.

I grabbed her arm and the folder dropped from her grasp. I spun her around, forcing her hands above her head, pinning her against the brick with my body.

“Interesting reaction.” She tried to twist her wrists out from my grip. “I’m going to find out just what it is they get up to in there.”

My body pressed into hers, and for a brief, treacherous instant she yielded, stilling, chin lifting, composed and defiant, certain of herself. She wanted to kiss as much as I did, and part of me wondered if it was the danger she found intoxicating rather than me.

“I’m going in.”

I tried to extract her words before she spoke them. “You’re delusional,” I whispered. “Go in there and you’re in serious trouble. If I go in there, I’m dead.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. It’s secret handshakes and golf tournaments.”

Reluctantly, I let go of her wrists, stepping back. The loss of being close to her an agony too complex to ignore.

“That sugar’s gone to your brain.” I pointed above the doorway. “Do you know what that symbol represents?”

“Interesting that you do.”

The urge to lean in and catch her lower lip between my teeth, a sharp reprimand fired hot and sudden. Instead, she bit her own lip, slow and deliberate, as if she knew exactly what she was doing to me. Our gazes dropped to each other’s mouths, then rose again, searching, reading what was unspoken, the tension between us swelling and impossible to deny.

“Why are we here?” I gritted out.

“They’re men of law, scholars and scientists.” She glanced at the handle. “I’ve done my research.”