I woke up half-naked in a stranger's bed.
The thought hit me before my eyes fully opened, panic flooding my system as I took inventory. Black lace bra. Matching underwear. Nothing else. The room around me was all dark wood and leather—masculine, unfamiliar, definitely not mine.
Memory crashed back in waves. The courthouse exploding into chaos. Kane moving like liquid violence through armed men. Marcus Blackthorn's cold fingers on my wrist. The motorcycle ride with Kane's solid warmth against my chest before exhaustion pulled me under.
Kane had undressed me.
Heat and fury warred in my chest as the implications sank in. While I was unconscious, he'd stripped away every layer of my professional armor, leaving me exposed and vulnerable in his space.
But he'd also saved my life.
The conflicting emotions made my head spin worse than any hangover.
I sat up carefully, testing for injuries. A neat bandage covered a scrape on my shoulder I didn't remember getting. Kane's hands had been gentle, careful. The knowledge sent unwanted warmth spiraling through my core.
The bedroom door opened without a knock, and Kane filled the doorway like he owned every molecule of air in the room. His orange jumpsuit was gone, replaced by dark jeans and a black t-shirt that clung to muscles I'd only glimpsed before. In his own territory, he looked larger somehow. More dangerous.
More real.
"You're awake." His voice was rough like he'd been smoking whiskey, and those hazel eyes swept over my nearly naked form with heat that made my skin flush. "How do you feel?"
"Like I've been kidnapped by my own client." I yanked the sheet higher, hyperaware of how his gaze lingered on the curve of my breasts above the lace. "Where are my clothes?"
"Being cleaned. You had blood on them." Kane leaned against the doorframe with deceptive casualness, but tension radiated from him in waves. "There's fresh clothes in the dresser."
My pulse hammered against my throat. "You undressed me."
Kane's jaw tightened. "You were unconscious. Bleeding. I took care of you."
"By stripping me down?"
"By making sure you were safe." Kane pushed off the doorframe, and the weight of his presence pressed against me like gravity itself. "Would you rather I left you in ruined clothes while you ran a fever?"
The genuine concern in his voice deflated my anger like a punctured tire. Kane wasn't some predator who'd taken advantage—he'd been protecting me, even from myself.
But the intimacy of it, his hands removing each piece of my professional identity while I was helpless, left me feeling more naked than the missing clothes ever could.
"I need to go home."
Kane's expression went flat. "You can't."
"Watch me." I started to stand, sheet wrapped around me like battle armor, but Kane's next words froze me in place.
"Marcus will have you before you reach the lobby."
Ice replaced the blood in my veins. "Then I'll go to the police—"
Kane's laugh was sharp enough to cut. "Right. The police."
Before I could ask what he meant, footsteps echoed in the hallway. Jake appeared in the doorway, his face carrying news that made my stomach clench preemptively.
"We've got problems," Jake said, like he was discussing the weather.
Kane's entire body went rigid. "How bad?"
"Bad." Jake's gaze flicked to me, taking in my state of undress without apparent interest more like sympathy. "Calla's been named in the investigation. Person of interest in the courthouse attack."
The words hit me like individual bullets. Person of interest. They thought I was involved. That I'd helped coordinate the assault that had left three people hospitalized and a federal building in chaos.
"That's impossible," I whispered.
Jake's expression was gentle but implacable. "You were the only civilian who made it out unharmed. Your client broke free at the exact moment you were in danger. To prosecutors, it looks like textbook coordination."
My carefully constructed world crumbled into dust. "My career—"
"Is over," Kane said bluntly. "At least the legal part of it."
Fury exploded through my chest, hot and clean and devastating. I stood, sheet clutched around me, and Kane's eyes immediately dropped to where the fabric gaped at my cleavage.
"Get out," I told Jake.
To his credit, Jake disappeared without argument, leaving me alone with the man who'd just watched my life implode with clinical detachment.
"So those are my choices?" My voice climbed toward hysteria. "Belong to Marcus, to the cops, or to you?"
Kane moved then—fast, predatory—backing me against the wall before I could blink. His hands slammed against the wood on either side of my head, caging me in with arms that trembled with barely leashed power.
"This isn't about belonging," he growled. "This is about survival."
The weight of his body pressed against me, not quite touching but close enough that I could feel his heat through the thin sheet. My pulse hammered so hard I was sure he could hear it.
"I didn't ask for this!" Tears finally broke free, hot and bitter and unstoppable. "I didn't ask to be dragged into your world, to have everything I worked for destroyed!"
Kane's expression cracked, revealing something raw underneath. "You think I wanted this? You think I wanted to watch your life burn down because of me?"
"Then let me go!"
"I can't." Kane's voice broke like he was confessing to murder. "You walk out that door, and you're dead within the hour. Is that what you want?"
I was sobbing now, furious and terrified and so aroused I could barely think straight. The sheet had slipped during my outburst, and I was acutely aware of how Kane's gaze kept dropping to the swell of my breasts above the black lace.
"I want my life back!"
"Your life is with me now." Kane's hands moved from the wall to frame my face, thumbs brushing away tears with surprising gentleness. "Like it or not, Calla, you're mine to protect."
The possessiveness in his voice should have infuriated me. Instead, it sent liquid fire straight to my core.
"I'm not your possession."
"No," Kane agreed, his voice dropping to something almost like a purr. "You're something much more dangerous than that."
Before I could ask what he meant, his mouth was on mine.
This kiss was different from the desperate clash in the other room. This was claiming, possession, Kane's lips moving against mine with the confidence of a man who knew exactly what he wanted. When I gasped, he deepened the kiss, his tongue sliding against mine in a way that made my knees buckle.
I melted against him, sheet forgotten as my hands fisted in his shirt. Kane tasted like sin and promises, like everything I'd been denying myself wrapped in dangerous packaging.
His hands slid from my face to my waist, thumbs brushing the underside of my breasts through thin lace. The contact sent electricity shooting through my core, and I arched against him with a moan that sounded foreign to my own ears.
"Kane—"
The roar of motorcycle engines shattered the moment. Headlights flooded the bedroom windows as sirens wailed in the distance, getting closer with every second.
Kane jerked away from me like I'd electrocuted him, his chest heaving. "Fuck."
Jake burst through the door without knocking, his face grim. "Boss, we've been compromised. Someone inside gave up the location."
Kane's transformation was immediate and terrifying. One second he was a man struggling with desire, the next he was pure alpha calculating threats and escape routes.
"How long?" Kane's voice was clipped, professional.
"Five minutes, maybe less."
Kane nodded, already moving. He grabbed a leather jacket from the closet and tossed it to me. "Put this on. We're leaving."
Kane's transformation was immediate and terrifying. One second he was a man struggling with desire, the next he was pure alpha calculating threats and escape routes.
His hand closed around mine—warm, callused, unbreakable.
"Stay behind me," Kane commanded, his voice carrying authority that made my body respond despite everything. "No matter what happens."
As we rushed through the clubhouse toward whatever escape Kane had planned, one thought echoed through my shattered mind: I was about to follow a man I barely understood into a world I couldn't begin to comprehend.