Rogue's Passion by Laurie London Page B

addition to healing Monique had taken a lot out of her already. He was good enough. He’d heal the rest of the way on his own.
    “I can’t get my car out of the garage now, anyway,” had been her argument. “So you’re going to drive me home. Besides, we’re living together, right? Shouldn’t we at least make it look like we’re going to the same place in case anyone’s watching?”  
    “Thanks for what you did back there. Not only for the healing, but for telling them we lived together.” He’d been trying to give them the information on his false identification papers, but with the added pressure of needing to keep Olivia’s secret hidden as well, everything kept getting mixed up in his head. It was pathetic, really, given how many times he’d had to produce it before. It should’ve been easy.
    “Under the circumstances, being your fake girlfriend was the least I could do.”  
    They walked along in silence for a few minutes, pausing only to call for Conry. Olivia had a smudge on her cheek, bloodstains on her dress, and her hair was tangled and messy, and yet he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been so completely captivated by a woman.  
    “Why do you hide your ability to heal?” he asked. Could she be afraid to use them? And then it occurred to him. “Or is it them you’re afraid of?”  
    Her breath hitched and she turned to face him. With the light reflecting in her eyes like this, he noticed for the first time that they were mismatched. One a greenish hazel and the other brown. It wasn’t very noticeable, but with the light just right, you could tell they were different colors.  
    “You’re not from around here, are you?” she asked.
    So she’d guessed he was Cascadian. Telling her a lie would make sense right now, but he owed her the truth. Or at least as much of it as he could share. “Not really.”
    “But you didn’t have anything to do with the bomb.”  
    “No,” he said simply, treating her statement as a question.
    “I didn’t think so.”  
    He debated telling her more about himself, like who he was and why he was here. Part of him craved a deeper connection with her. It felt good—really good—to have shared secrets with her already. Back at the explosion site, it had been the two of them against the world and he liked it. They’d made a good team, playing off each other so easily. But another part of him didn’t see a good reason for taking this any further than he already had. He couldn’t afford to build any relationships here. At least, not the romantic kind.  
      The streets in this part of town were deserted. Few cars and hardly any people. It was as if the explosion site were a black hole and all normal city activity had been sucked into it.  
    She kicked a small stone off the curb and watched it roll into a grate. “So you want to know why I hide my ability?”
    “Yes,” he said, surprised that she was willing to tell him now.
    “Let’s just say that if the army finds out what I’m capable of doing, my life will not be my own anymore. And that’s putting it mildly.”  
    “What will they do?”
    “Anything they want.” She pretended to be examining her nails. “They’d rip me away from my life and force me to work for them, just like they did with my brother.”  
    He knew the Army used those with Talents, but he hadn’t realized they were given no choice.  
    On his side of the portal, people looked up to the warriors of the Iron Guild. They were protectors, risking their lives to keep people safe. He considered it an honor—all of them did—to be one of a chosen few. Didn’t she consider their army the same way?  
    He thought about how little time he’d spent on the other side of the portal, but there wasn’t much for him there. His job was over here.
    “Is there no honor in that?” he asked.
    “Honor?” She laughed. “Honor is something you earn through your actions. No, there is no honor in working for the army. Not