Read Protected (Divided Loyalties) for Free Online Page A

force on.
    “Right, well it wasn't intentional, sorry sir,” he said after a few minutes of silence. “Right, we appreciate it sir, and we do apologize. Yes sir, I understand sir. Again, we apologize, sir.” By the time he hung up the phone he was red in the face. He looked over at Alexa with a heavy sigh.
    “We've got ourselves a problem,” he rolled his eyes , as if to say as usual.
    “What is it?” Alexa asked , as he pulled into her apartment complex.
    “Nick was an inside man,” he said with a frown. “He's been undercover with the Death Adders for almost a year, and he was close to taking down the entire gang. He blew his cover by getting you out of there, and now they've lost all that work. Plus, Nick has a bounty on his head, and so do you.”
    Alexa stared at him. Nick was an undercover cop? That explained a few things to her, like why she had trusted him in the first place, why his behavior seemed to contradict what she felt from him. Why he had felt compelled to protect her.
    “Oh,” she said quietly.
    “Oh?” Matthew yelled. “You just caused a disaster all because you wanted to have a little fun , Alexa?”
    “How is this my fault?” she demanded. “I didn't know that Nick was one of them! I swear!”
    “You didn't know he was one of them, because you didn't bother to get to know him at all, Alexa. You're reckless, and if Nick wasn't there to protect you, you would be dead.”
    Alexa was silent. She had no way to defend herself. His words were true. As she left the car and headed for her apartment she felt her entire body crawling with repulsion. She could still feel Paulie and Lou's hands on her, Randy's tongue on her breasts, it was enough to make her want to vomit . She hurried into her apartment and started the shower. She shed her clothes and tossed all but Nick's t-shirt into the hamper. She held onto his t-shirt. She wasn't sure why, but she wasn't ready to not have it next to her.
    As she stepped into the shower and felt the hot water rushing over her naked body, she tried to wash away the entire experience. But every time she closed her eyes, she saw his green gaze staring back at her. She had been so cruel to him , and the entire time they had been working on the same side. He had sacrificed everything to save her, and she had walked away from him like he was nothing more than a common criminal.
    When she stepped out of the shower she tugged on his t-shirt. It felt good to have his scent around her. She remembered the warmth of his skin. She walked into her bedroom, and heard a knock at her front door. She reached for her extra gun which she always kept in the house. She crept toward the front door, worried it could be a Death Adder. When she opened it, she found Nick staring at her.
    He looked from the gun she brandished, to the thin white material of his t-shirt clinging to her damp skin.
    She lowered the gun and set it on the table beside the door. He waited for a split second to be sure she would not close the door in his face, then reached out and grasped her cheeks gently. He kissed her slow and soft, from her bottom lip, to the top, before parting her lips with the slide of his tongue. She drank him in eagerly and they walked backwards so that she could close the door behind him. He pinned her back against the wall in the hallway, much as he had in the alley, and his fingertips roamed along her naked thighs.
    “Are you okay?” he murmured when he finally broke the kiss. His eyes were hungry as they searched hers, but he knew that she had just been through a lot, and she might not want someone to be touching her.
    However, she didn't seem to mind, as she pulled his lips back to hers and continued the kiss. She needed to feel something good, she needed to enjoy the sensation that was filling her from the tips of her toes to the ridges of her brows. She didn't want to think about the Death Adders or anything that had happened there. She just wanted to feel safe in his arms.
    He