Darkness Bound Read Online Free PDF Page A

throat in a solid lump. “Try not to break your arm patting yourself on the back about that, Ace. Wasn’t the first time I’ve dodged a few bullets. Won’t be the last.”
    She felt him looking her over, felt his gaze on her face, her hair, her hands, a gaze so heavy it was almost touch . A rush of adrenaline made her heart pound. She marveled that she’d been in mortal danger in countless war zones all over the world, yet just sitting there in a booth with this man, not even speaking or looking at him, she felt a thrill unlike anything she’d ever known.
    She closed her eyes, unable to resist savoring the sweet sting of exhilaration. She knew she was an adrenaline junkie, and at moments like this, with fear and electricity and anticipation winging through her like a million tiny starbursts, she felt as if she was conducting fire through her veins.
    This was her drug. This was what she lived for. Because she was dead inside in so many ways, this was the only thing that made her feel alive.
    She breathed into it, a satisfied little smile curling the corners of her lips.
    Hawk said, “First time I’ve seen you smile.”
    Her eyes snapped open. He was staring at her with the strangest look on his face, a combination of intense concentration and slight confusion, as if he was taken aback by something that didn’t fit.
    Jack was vaguely aware of her heartbeat, of the pulse of the music, the sway of people on the dance floor, but she was acutely aware of him , as if there were an invisible Tesla coil connecting their bodies.
    Channeling an ache and a fever of static electricity, the space between them felt charged.
    Truly curious, her intuition screaming that she was on the verge of something big, hazardous, and possibly life altering, Jack whispered, “Who are you?”
    Something in her voice or her face made him falter. He swallowed, that façade of perfect, arrogant self-confidence cracked. His voice barely audible above the music, he said, “Lucas Eduardo Tavares Castelo Luna. But my friends call me Hawk.”
    His eyes burned. The tension between them was palpable, thick as molasses. Jack was at a loss as to why.
    “Why do I feel like I know you?” she pressed. “Or I’m supposed to know you? Or I’m missing something here?”
    This trio of questions was met with a brief, telling flicker of what looked like surprise in his eyes—maybe alarm—which was quickly smothered.
    In a flash of comprehension that was like a floodlight flipped on, Jack understood.
    Her laugh was loud and relieved. “Oh, you’re good !” she managed between the laughter that wouldn’t seem to stop coming. “Damn! She has amazing taste, I’ll give her that, but I am going to kill her!”
    Hawk stared at her in silence as she groaned and passed a hand over her eyes, embarrassed at herself that she thought there was anything else going on between her and this impossibly big, beautiful man with the ridiculous nickname.
    Jack had girlfriends, most of them childless career girls like her, but only one best friend with whom she shared everything. They’d met in college, and though total opposites in almost every way, had formed an unbreakable bond of friendship when they’d discovered they had something terrible in common, a horror they’d survived in childhood that had left them scarred in exactly the same ways.
    Inola Hart was a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, raised on a reservation, striking and statuesque and whip smart, with a devilish sense of humor that often took the form of practical jokes. She now worked as an attorney at the UN, and the last time they’d seen each other, when Jack had gone to DC for a reception hosted by the President in celebration of getting his anti-Shifter agenda pushed through Congress several months back, Nola had threatened Jack with a surprise for her thirtieth birthday. A birthday that was, in fact, this very day.
    The surprise was supposed to be a male escort, so Jack, for the first time in years,