He sounded confident. He looked confident. And while she felt uncertain about much about Blake and his brothers, after tonight, she was crystal clear on his mindset. “Since you want Alvarez’s blood too much to risk the feds or the ATF slowing things down, I’ll trust you on this one.” She started to turn away but Blake had other ideas. Before Kara knew his intent, he’d maneuvered her into a small alcove between buildings, out of the wind. Suddenly, she had a concrete wall at her back and his hard body pressed to her front. Heat rushed over her at his nearness, desire burning in her belly.

Frustrated that she wanted a man who’d betrayed her, Kara shoved his chest. “Stop manhandling me, Blake, because I swear to you, I have nothing to hide anymore. I’m going to start fighting back.”

“Do you fucking look like your sister, Kara?” he demanded, a beam of moonlight stroking the angry lines of his face.

“No,” she hissed, and—no longer forced by an audience to fight the hurt and anger he’d created in her—she let it fly. “My sister’s taller, prettier, and missing. Obviously you didn’t remember that fact when you tried to kill the man who can give her back to me.” Her lips tightened. “Or maybe you just didn’t care.”

He ignored her accusations and focused on his own. “Alvarez sure as hell thought you looked familiar.”

“Alvarez was just playing a power game. Getting inside his close circle is my way to my sister, and you knew that. You knew and still you were going to kill him.”

“To keep him from finding out who you are and killing you.”

She jabbed her finger in his chest. “Don’t use me as an excuse to carry out your grand plan. I know the risks and it’s my decision to take them.”

“My ‘grand plan’, as you call it, is to keep you alive. I didn’t forget your sister. You have to be alive to welcome her home, Kara.” He leaned in, his hands on the wall beside her head, a familiar pose she’d come to expect from him. His way of caging her, controlling her. “You ask me to stay alive for you, and then you tempt fate with your own life. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”

He hit a raw nerve. She wanted to be more to him than a temporary escape until he killed Alvarez. She wanted him to feel what she did, but now she knew he didn’t. Not after tonight. “I asked you to stay alive for me and what did you reply? I have to let you spank me.”

“That was my way of saying I was with you in that moment.”