Free Entangled With the Thief by Kate Rudolph Page B

look weak. Even though she had brought him here, this was his battle. And he’d promised not to take his revenge. She would trust him. It was the only thing she could do.
    “I was tougher than I looked,” Luke said with utter calm. “And it was years ago.”
    The tension didn’t disperse. It couldn’t. But conversation turned away from a leadership challenge that took place decades ago to certain political matters in the region. Only then did Mel slowly move her hand under the table and give Luke’s thigh the tiniest squeeze. He was doing well.
    And it was just about show time.
    Dinner broke up and it was time to put their plan into action. Mel looked at her watch. At exactly 9:32 she would leave the room. They had six minutes, at which point she’d either have the powder or she wouldn’t, and they’d have to figure out something else.
    Mel waited until the appointed time and ducked out of the room, trusting that Luke would do his part. She used the information that he’d given her about the guards to extrapolate their rotation and didn’t meet a single one on the way to Marco’s office.
    The office was closed with a simple lock. Her lock picks took care of it in an instant and she was inside. Under normal circumstances, she would have disabled the security cameras or tried to avoid them. But she hadn’t had time. So she hoped she could work fast enough that she would be done by the time the guards came to stop her.
    The powder was stored in a fingerprint coded safe behind Marco’s desk in a locked cabinet. Mel assumed that, like most people, Marco didn’t remember to wipe away his old fingerprint when he accessed the safe. She covered her finger in latex and pressed down on the finger scanner. The light turned green.
    Success.
    Inside the safe was a clay container with the anti-hex powder inside. Trusting Bob’s assessment, Mel scooped out just a little bit of powder and put it into a plastic bag. She stuffed the bag into her bra and closed the safe and the cabinet. All in all, the theft had taken less than three minutes.
    She turned the stone on her ring to green and ran out of the house, continuing to avoid the guards. She got to the car first and drove away, not waiting for Luke to get to the car. He was expecting it, they couldn’t risk getting locked on the property if Marco realized that she’d robbed him.
    Mel drove to the rendezvous point and waited. After fifteen minutes she had nearly given up hope. Either Luke had been captured, or he had abandoned her. Or worse. Her ring wasn’t lit up, so he didn’t want her help. And she had no other way of knowing if he needed it.
    Another five minutes passed before the passenger side door opened and he slid in the car. The alpha panted, but he’d moved with such stealth that she hadn’t heard him approach.
    “Did you get it?” he asked.
    Mel put the car in gear and took off. “I did. Anyone following?”
    He shook his head. When he moved to put on his seat belt he winced, sucking in a pained breath. But he fastened the belt as quickly as possible.
    “Are you hurt?” It came out more harshly than Mel intended.
    “I’m okay, just a bruised rib. Had a bit of an altercation back there.”
    Mel couldn’t stop the car to see if his injuries were even worse than he said. She put her foot on the gas, accelerating so that she could speed all the way back to the safe house.
     

Chapter Nine
    Luke might have underestimated the extent of the damage to his side. But Nunca’s goons had fists like brick walls, and even avoiding most of the hits had left him aching. Shapeshifter healing was a boon, however, and by the time they were back to the safe house he could move without wanting to wince with every step.
    Mel wasn’t prepared to let him tend to his own wounds. She made him sit on one of her chairs and ordered him to remove his top if he didn’t want her to cut it off. He thought she was serious and moved as quickly as he could, baring himself from the