Dangerous by Jacquelyn Frank

growl of frustration. “I’m going to kill her.”
    â€œThen it’s a fight to the finish. Are you going to tell me what you did to piss off our usually mild-mannered partner?” Liam fished hopefully.
    â€œAre you going to tell me where my Jag is?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œThen no.”
    Micah hung up with a loud click.
    Liam hung up his end with a low chuckle. The phone buzzed before he could take his hand away and he rolled his eyes, already knowing who it was.
    â€œYeah, Roni?” he greeted.
    â€œWas that the no-good twerp you call your partner?” she demanded.
    â€œYou call him your partner too,” he reminded her gently.
    â€œHa! He’ll be lucky if I call him anything with more than four letters in it ever again!”
    â€œVeronica Klein, are you ever going to tell me what this is about? I don’t exactly feel comfortable with dissention in the ranks.” Actually, he knew his partners well enough to know it would blow over, but it wouldn’t blow over until Roni got the problem off her chest. Since he was going to be deeply involved in the Candler assignment soon, her venting resources would be limited. Micah could end up banished to Milan until Leo or Kadian came off assignment.
    â€œI was thinking of inventing a chemical that will melt his current paint job, imbedding itself into the steel of the body so it would then perpetually do the same to every subsequent paint job he attempts to get afterward. Clever, huh?”
    â€œExtremely clever. However, it’s not appropriate to do it with company funds or equipment, babe.”
    â€œWell! Since when are you the numbers geek around here?” she demanded huffily. “The geek is off hiding from me, so who cares who does what with company funds? It would serve him right if we go bankrupt while he’s hiding like the chicken-shit wiener that he is!”
    â€œNow, Roni . . .”
    â€œDon’t you ‘now Roni’ me like I’m some hysterical twit PMSing and in need of a pat on the head and some Ben and Jerry’s to get her through the crisis! It’s just like you men to stick together!”
    She hung up with an angry growl into the phone.
    Liam sighed. The world was in a sorry state, he thought, the day it depended on him to be the diplomatic voice of reason.

Chapter Four
    Devon was tapping her nails against the desk in a slow, rhythmic pattern. She watched the camera monitors as the small fleet of trucks and Hummers wound their way up her driveway. She wasn’t at all upset by the intrusion this installation promised to be. Nor was she nervous about having humans around the house constantly. After all, she had been fully human once upon a time. And, unlike some of her brethren, she found humans to be useful, wonderful people. Like Liam Nash, for instance. He was an extraordinary individual. He was clearly a hardnosed soldier from teeth to toes. Yet she was already aware, after such a brief amount of time in his company, that he was so much more than that. While she wasn’t going to claim to be an expert on him after so limited an exposure, she had noted one very important thing. He had a gentle side. It had been in the delicacy of his touch, the abundance of his concern, as he had put aside his righteously earned indignation at her uninvited touch in order to tend to her well-being. The contrast between those two facets had kept her thinking about him frequently over the past couple of days.
    Even though the images on the screens were distorted by the camera angles, Devon knew him the moment she saw him jump out of the back of a truck. There were men and women running around all over the place now, all dressed in what she assumed was identical black, but still she recognized him. How could anyone mistake a build like his? His height alone was astounding, even to a woman of her 5’9” stature. Add to it pounds of muscle in beautifully strategic places, a rugged