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“Why did you leave?

“Because my taste was more . . . nuanced. Phoenix understood eventually and set me up with a friend of his.”

Cade’s hand slips from my waist. I hear a soft rustle behind me, then his palm appears in front of me. Sunlight glints off gold, and my breath catches. A badge.

I gasp, my fingers curling around the warm metal as if it might vanish. Spinning to face him, my brain scrambles to connect the badge in my hand to the man standing in front of me. “You’re . . . an FBI agent? But how? You’re . . . you’re . . .”

I can’t finish. Don’t need to.

A killer. A psychopath.The words hang between us, unspoken but understood.

Cade’s smirk returns, but there’s no humor in it. “FBI Organized Crime. I work in human trafficking rings as an undercover agent under the alias Rocky Savage. But, I don’t make arrests.”

“What do you mean?”

“My job is on the field. I investigate targets, and when the time is right, make them disappear.”

I gasp. “You kill for the government. I didn’t know that was even possible.”

“Oh, it is. Off the books. Saves messy, expensive trials and keeps the prisons less crowded and monsters off the streets.”

I can’t help laughing at the irony. “Holy fucking shit, you’re undercover alright.”

I shake my head, trying to process it again. Cade Quinn is an undocumented undercover FBI agent, but that’s just a cover for who he really is—a vengeful killer. Phoenix must be a genius for hooking his adopted son up with the dark side of the Bureau.

When the silence stretches between us, Cade hooks a finger into my waistband and drags me closer. “You were about to say something earlier. Call me something.”

My heart lurches as it hits me. Cade wants me to see him exactly as he is. Not the badge, not the job. Just him.

I reach out, tracing his brow, then down the side of his face to the hard angle of his jaw. “You’re a psychopath, Special Agent Quinn,” I murmur.

“You already knew that.” His voice drops to a whisper. “The question is, why haven’t you run?”

And here comes the hard part. I must be twisted too, if I’m still standing here, wrapped around him, fully aware of what he’s capable of.

I shrug, offering a wry smile. “I figure the world is full of monsters and psychos and scary things. If I had to pick one . . . I’d pick you.”

Cade cocks an eyebrow. “Careful, now. You’re making me blush.”

His hands slide down my back, then lower until he’s cupping my ass, then he pulls me flush against him. His hard length presses into my lower belly, setting off a chain reaction of flutters.

“Oh wow,” I breathe. “That’s you blushing?”

He grins. “That’s me blushing, baby.”

I giggle, but my laughter dies as his lips brush just below my earlobe. “And what if I told you, that in a world full of aggravatingly fearless, jay-walking prey . . . I’d fucking choose you?”

I’m trembling now, but not from fear. Some magnetic force pulls me closer as I trace the scar along his jawline—where someone tried and failed to slit his throat. My fingers drift to the purplish bruise my teeth left last night.

The sight of my mark on him triggers something primal inside me. Suddenly hungry for him, I rise on tiptoe at the same time Cade’s mouth descends onto mine in a hard kiss. His hand tangles in my hair, gripping me firmly as he spins us around then presses me against the truck.

I moan as he slants his lips over mine, his tongue sliding deep, tasting, claiming. My fingers curl into his hair, matching his desperation for more.

Cade breaks away to trail hot kisses down my neck, teeth grazing skin, and my body arches into him.

“Are you with me, Luciana?”

He’s asking for me, all of me.