“He-he wants to test her. See what she can do, then use her in the field.”

“Truth.”

“Does he have an antidote for her?” Rome asked.

“No.”

“Truth.” Tanner glanced at me. “Sorry, Belle.”

Was I sorry? Part of me was, I think. Part of me… wasn’t.

Rome pushed out a frustrated breath. “Let’s try this from a different angle. Does Vincent have any leads on the doctor’s whereabouts?”

The man shook his head, his dark hair slapping his forehead. “Dr. Roberts tried to break into Vincent’s lab yesterday, but he was spotted before he got inside. He was chased, but managed to escape again.”

“Truth.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Rome planted his hands on the chair arms and leaned down. “Why did Dr. Roberts want back inside the lab?”

I suspected the answer was that he’d been leaving me that “present” he mentioned in his note.

Inching backward, the man babbled, “I don’t know. No one knew.”

“Lie,” Tanner said triumphantly.

“Do I really need to torture you?” Rome asked quietly, leaving no doubt he would do whatever was necessary. “The animal inside me-allow me to introduce you to him.” For a split second, Rome ’s mouth and chin stretched forward, his teeth gleaming long, sharp and menacing. “The animal inside me is hungry. Very, very hungry.”

The guy squealed. “We think he left a written copy of the formula in his office,” he babbled. “But we haven’t been able to find it.”

“Truth.”

The formula-that’s what he was giving me! What better present, in his mind, than the one thing that could possibly make me, well, me again?

Rome ran his tongue over his teeth. “How many men does Vincent have chasing Belle?”

“I don’t know the exact number, I swear, I just know he wants her. Bad. Every day he sends more men searching. If he studies her blood, he can make more like her and his agents can begin killing off everyone who opposes him. He’ll run the most powerful para-agency in the world. He’ll decide which countries win wars. He’ll decide who to help, who to destroy. Please, just let me go. I want to go home.”

“Truth,” Tanner taunted. “He just wants to run home to Mommy.”

The man risked a glare in Tanner’s direction, but cringed again when Rome snarled. “He’ll never stop searching,” the man added pitifully. “Like you, he’ll do whatever it takes.”

Great. What a fan-freaking-tastic thing to hear. My shoulders slumped. “Has Vincent given the formula to anyone else?” I asked. “Who survived,” I added, remembering Rome had once told me others had died.

The man shook his head. “You’re the only one,” he said. “That makes you all the more valuable to him.”

“Truth.”

I rested my head against the wall and stared out the window, groaning inwardly. Thanks to the doctor’s note, I now knew I’d survived ingesting the formula because he had finally perfected it, not because I was some sort of mutant freak with unusual blood. Would Vincent believe that, though? Probably not. That man was all about experiments. “I wouldn’t work for him even if he captured me.”

“If he caught you, you’d work for him,” Rome said, his tone bleak. “He’d make sure of it, even if he had to destroy everything you love.”

My dad, I thought, panicking.

Lexis is with him, I reminded myself, and calmed. He’s protected.

“What about the formula’s ingredients?” Rome asked. “Do you know them?”

“Roberts deleted the files,” the man answered, “destroyed the paperwork and fled. There’s no way we can duplicate the formula. Not without the written recipe. Or Belle. The hope is that the molecules in her blood will spell out exactly what she was given.”

“Truth.”

Rome straightened. He stood there for a moment, saying nothing, doing nothing, his expression raw, harsh.

“I cooperated.” Tears streamed down the man’s cheeks. “You’re going to let me go, right? You’re not going to hurt me? I won’t tell Vincent what we talked about. I swear I won’t.”

Tanner didn’t say anything, but he gave Rome a pointed stare. What was going on between them? Moving faster than the blink of an eye, Rome slammed his fist into the crybaby’s face. Instantly his wailing stopped, and he sank into unconsciousness.

“What’d you do that for?” I asked, standing. “He was right. He cooperated.”

“He would have killed you if he had the chance,” Rome said. His voice was low and raspy, and dripped with quiet rage. “He’s lucky I don’t cut him up.”

“Truth.”

Rome shook his head. “Enough, Tanner.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You better not do that truth-lie thing to me. Ever. Or I’ll hurt you.”

He grinned. “Truth,” he said, and I showed him my fist.

“Let’s go.” Rome picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “We’ve got some planning to do.”

“Wait.” My eyes narrowed on the man. Rome was right. The guy would have hurt us if he’d been able. Might still one day hurt us if he had the chance. No one threatened my men and left unscathed.

I drew on my darker, colder emotions, let fear swamp me until my fingers went numb, until a mixture of dirt and ice formed. Just as I had that day in Lexis’s apartment, I threw the ball. The moment it hit him, a frozen dirt box encased him. It would melt (I think), but not for a long while (I hoped).

I rubbed my hands together. “Now we can go.”

THE ENTIRE DRIVE BACK to the cabin, Tanner expounded on and on about how wonderful he’d been, how cool he was, how the girls would be all over him now. I loved that he was so proud of himself. He had done a good job (except for shooting blind, the dumb-ass). But I couldn’t stop thinking about the note we’d found-and that I might not want to find the formula.

I sighed. What was wrong with me?

“-so, like, awesome,” Tanner said, again cutting into my thoughts. “The only thing that would have been cooler was if it had been recorded. Think about it. I could break out the DVD on every date, and I guarantee any lady would become desperate to ride the Tanner Express.”

Rome reached out and jacked up the volume on the radio. While Gwen Stefani rocked from the speakers, he linked our hands. His warmth and strength and calluses soothed me.

I glanced over at him. He kept his eyes on the road, so I was able to study his profile. He was as savage from the side as he was from the front, with a sharp nose, harsh cheekbones and a hard chin. Cut from glass, chiseled from steel, that was Rome.

He looked as likely to kill people as to speak to them, yet right now he was gently tracing his thumb over the peaks and valleys of my palm. So contradictory, so mysterious. I wanted to crawl inside his brain and learn everything about him. I wanted to know his thoughts, his feelings.

I sounded like a freaking girl, didn’t I? But I couldn’t help it. He fascinated me.

He was destined to love someone with his whole heart, Lexis had said. More than ever, I wanted that someone to be me. Imagine all that fierce maleness directed totally at you. Oh, just the thought made me shiver. He would be a demanding lover, exacting. He would expect utter faithfulness and wouldn’t tolerate anything less.

And he would give the same in return.

Heady knowledge indeed. And yet, if I gave him my heart, gave him everything I had to give, and I wasn’t the woman for him, I would be destroyed. Like Lexis, would I have the strength to give him up rather than keep him bound to me, knowing he lusted for another?

My fingers tightened around his hand as I tried to hold him closer, lest he float away from me. I had probably caused Rome more physical pain, not to mention worldly disasters, than anyone he’d ever met. Why be with a girl like me when he could have someone like Lexis? Someone gorgeous, intelligent, wealthy. Someone who could hold a job for more than a few months. Okay, days.