Page 138 of Carnal Urges

He’s trying to get me to slow down, shoving and pushing me back with every ounce of his considerable strength, but I’ve got the demon of fury in my veins, thirsting for blood. Nothing on this earth is going to stop me from getting it.

I shove Grayson aside and punch Thomas in the face.

He topples backward in his chair with a cry, feet flying. He hits the conference room floor with a thud, rolls to one side, and startsflailing, trying to clamber to his hands and knees to crawl away. The fucking cockroach.

Before I can kick him in the gut, three men tackle me.

They take me down to the floor. I’m up within seconds, headed back to kick the life out of their boss.

I stop short when the remaining men at the table—now all on their feet—pull pistols from the holsters under their suit jackets and point them at me.

“Everybody calm down!” commands Grayson, holding his hands out. “He’s a friendly! Put your weapons away! That’s an order!”

Reluctantly, the men obey him. They glower and grumble, but obey.

Always the fucking peacemaker, this guy.

Breathing hard from rage, I point at him. “I’m holding you responsible for this. If there’s even a tiny fucking scratch on her, if there’s one minuscule bruise, I’ll kill youandyour piece-of-shite boss.”

The man in question is still struggling to get to his feet. He’s gripping the edge of the conference table like it’s a life preserver and staring at me with all the whites of his eyes showing, holding his bleeding nose.

“I’ll put you in prison, you maniac!” he screeches. “You can’t come in here and assault members of the federal government!”

“I can and I did, and if you don’t shut your piehole, I’ll do even worse. Where is she?”

“She’s in a holding cell,” says Grayson in a tone meant to be soothing. It’s fingernails down a chalkboard instead.

“A holding cell?” I thunder, infuriated.“You put my woman in a bloody holding cell?”

“She’s fine. In fact, right now, she’s sleeping. Okay? Take it easy, brother. Take it easy.”

“Don’t give me that bloody ‘brother’ shite, you traitorous fuck.What the hell were you thinking by picking her up? I’ve been going out of my bloody head!”

“I know, and I’m sorry. But this was the only way we could vet her. We couldn’t tell you about it in advance. You know the ropes.”

Vet her? Oh, Jesus fucking Christ. “I said I potentially wanted to make her an asset!Potentially!I never gave you the green light!”

He shrugs, looking sheepish. “I told you I had to run it up the flagpole. This is what the top brass wanted. And now we know.”

Sucking hard breaths into my lungs, I curl my hands into fists and try to contain the homicidal urges making me want to stab him repeatedly in the face until he’s as unrecognizable as a pound of hamburger meat. “What do you know? What are you talking about?”

“He’s talking about your little girlfriend!” shrieks Thomas, still kneeling on the floor. “She’s as crazy as you are!”

I point at him, blood pulsing in my vision. “Say that again. Go ahead. Call her crazy one more time.”

“What he means,” says Grayson soothingly, putting a hand on my outstretched arm, “is that she passed with flying colors.”

I lower my arm. When I only stare at him, he nods. “She refused to admit she knew you at all, even when we showed her the pictures.”

“Thepictures?”

“Don’t get your hackles up. You know how this works. Would you like me to tell you more, or would you prefer to continue the rampaging-gorilla routine?”

“You can tell me on the way to where you’re holding her. And so help me, God—”

“I know,” he says drily. “If she’s got even a minuscule bruise, you’ll kill me. Copy that.”

He heads to the door, knowing I’ll follow him. On the way out of the room, I notice one of the men who pulled a gun on me hastwo black eyes and a white strip of medical tape across the swollen bridge of his nose.